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Articles and reports on financial issues within football – soccer – from The Political Economy of Football.
Carlo Ancelotti has suggested that Arsenal and Manchester United are more interested in profits than success. However, this Arsenal fan thinks that his club have turned a corner and are now more focused on success.
The negotiations over José Mourinho’s contract with Manchester United have hit a snag over his trademark. Chelsea will demand a settlement of several million pounds to pass on the trademark for him which the club has owned since 2006.
Chelsea owns three separate Mourinho trademarks which are due to expire between 2023 and 2025. If retained, they would prevent United attaching their manager’s name to a wide range of merchandise including teddy bears, after shave, computer games and football boots.
Arsenal became the first team to collect more than £100m in Premier League prize money in the season just ended. Next year the club that comes 20th is likely to earn that.
Following their £101m came Manchester City with £96.7m, Manchester United with £96.5m and Tottenham Hotspur with £95.2m.
Title winners Leicester City came in fifth, receiving £93.2m. Their matches were selected for broadcast only 15 times, compared with 26 at Manchester United and 25 at Manchester City.
The latest club to receive the forensic financial analysis of the Swiss Ramble blog is Brentford. As usual. there is a wealth of comparative data on other clubs in the Championship. One general point to emerge is the extent to which ever growing parachute payments distort competition in the Championship to the disadvantage of clubs like Brentford.
Bradford City has been bought by a German consortium in an unexpected development, although apparently negotiations have been going on for a year, League One clubs with potential are attracting increasing interest from foreign buyers.
It is believed that the price paid was around £6m which is a relative bargain for a club with Championship potential.
Co-owners Mark Lawn and Julian Rhodes are stepping aside as part of the deal.
What is claimed to be a ‘miscommunication’ led to Aston Villa overstating the number of companies under the control of new owner Tony Xia.
It was claimed that his company had the controlling interest in five publicly listed companies. In fact it only has a 75 per cent stake in Lotus Health, a large producer of the food additive MSG. Four other companies are said to be in the process of acquisition.
New Sunderland chief executive Ellis Short has been given the task of boosting the club’s finances. Their last set of accounts showed that pre-tax losses has gone up by £8m to £25.4m. Turnover fell from £104.1m to £101.1m.
Staying in the Premier League was vital as they will benefit from the new television contracts. Boosting sponsorship and merchandising revenues may not be easy.
Having terminated its kit deal with adidas which was worth £30m a year, Chelsea are expected to conclude a new deal with Nike worth £600m over ten years. This would rank them second after Manchester United in terms of kit deals. Arsenal’s kit deal with Puma is worth just over £30m a year.
Aston Villa has been sold to Chinese businessman Tony Zia for £60m. Xia has a strong track record as a businessman in China. His Recon Group is a holding company which controls five companies.
The new owner says that he is prepared to spend £50m on new players and wants to make Villa the most popular club in China.
Outgoing owner Randy Lerner sank tens of millions of pounds into the club during his period of ownership. He said farewell in a rambling statement on the club website.
The sale of Aston Villa to a Chinese businessman could be completed by the end of the week. It is thought that the asking price will be around £60m.
That would represent a loss on the £62m Randy Lerner paid for the club ten years ago before taking account of inflation, although some sources are quoting a sale price of £75m. Lerner at one time wanted £200m for the club and then cut the price to £100m.