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Articles and reports on financial issues within football – soccer – from The Political Economy of Football.
A deadline of 3 p.m. BST has been set for the sale of Crystal Palace to be completed, otherwise the club may be starting down the slippery slope towards liquidation. Administrator Brendan Guilfoyle sounded a worried man when he was interviewed on Radio 5 this morning and said that he was ‘genuinely concerned’. That is administrator speak for ‘things look grim’.
Uefa’s financial fair play rules are designed to create more of a level playing field between giant clubs and their competitors. But Sunderland chief executive Steve Walton fears that they may actually make life more difficult for clubs like his. Sunderland are trying to make the step change from being a yo-yo club to qualifying for the Europa League and that involves spending some money. As it spent to
The bid by the Red Knights consortium for Manchester United has been shelved after the Glazers attached a £1.5bn price tag to the club. The consortium was thought to be prepared to offer £850m to £1bn. With Sir Alex Ferguson’s future uncertain, little money spent recently on players and debts increasing the club did not look that attractive.
South London Championship club are reported to be on the brink of folding. There is a consortium of local businessmen, CPFC 2010, ready to take over the club and they have agreed terms with the club’s administrators. However, a deal has not been concluded because there is a dispute about how much is owed to former owner Simon Jordan. He thinks he is owed more cash in any settlement than the administrator calculates he is entitled to.
Manchester City are starting a two-year spending spree to assemble their dream team before Uefa’s new financial fair play rules start to operate in 2012. After then owners will only be able to cover losses of £40m over a three-year transitional period.
Portsmouth are close to agreeing a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) with their creditors which would pay them 20p in the pound. This is more than creditors often receive in such circumstances. When a business collapses, trade creditors often in effect write off what they have lost and getting anything is a bonus. Unfortunately when a football club goes down many small businesses such as builders and printers often take a hit.
Uefa have agreed their financial fair play regulations to come into effect in 2012-13. Clubs will be expected to break even over a three year period. The detailed regulations will not be available until June and, as always, the devil in the detail. Uefa insist that their intention is to protect not to punish clubs, but some think their agenda is driven by envy at the marketing success of the Premier League.
We have been talking a lot recently about the money owed to HM Revenue and Customs by football clubs. It appears there is rather similar problem in Cyprus. Indeed in many respects it appears that the problem is worse. Not only do clubs owe something approaching €6m, but €3m of this appears to date back to before 2007. To put these figures in context, it should be remembered that although football is popular in Cyprus, it is hardly a big bucks
It would be hard to find someone who would defend the stewardship of Geofrge Gillett Jnr and Tom Hicks at Liverpool. A great club has been undermined and its future prospects damaged. Nevertheless, a further blow to the embattled American owners comes in the form of what The Times describes as an ’emotional and wide-ranging letter’ from former owner David Moores. The paper is already regarded as the house journal of the Coalition Government.
As the economic crisis affecting Spain and the eurozone deepens, it is hitting La Liga which was already facing serious financial problems. Only Barcelona, Real Madrid and the little-known CD Numancia are making a profit. As Uefa prepares to ratify its financial fair play rules, there are concerns that La Liga could be affected as much as the English Premier League. The problems of the Spanish competition have led to an interesting analysis publis