"If you want some accessible but informative insight into football then I suggest you couldn't do better than the Political Economy of Football website, which is not only intelligible but comes with the added bonus of being written by Addicks fan Wyn Grant." Ben Hayes - Charlton Athletic programme
Norwich City’s year in the Premier League saw them move from the red into the black with a loss of £5.3m turned into a profit after tax of £9.4m. Income in 2015-16 jumped to just over £100m from £53.6m the previous years.
When the original Football League was founded in 1888 its twelve members were drawn from the north-west and the midlands. These areas formed the manufacturing heart of the country when industry was economically dominant. A southern team did not win the title until Arsenal in 1931.
After a process that began in 2015, Motherwell FC have gone into fan ownership. As some of those involved point out, the challenge now is to make it work. It will require additional financial support from fans.
AFC Telford recently abandoned fan ownership, becoming the fifth club to do so. Notts County, York, Chesterfield and Stockport County also revered after failing to make a success of supporter ownership.
The latest crowd trouble at West Ham’s London Stadium is going to make securing a naming deal more difficult. The spectacle of fighting fans is not one a sponsor needs to boost their image.
It was always going to be difficult because what is on offer is really the sponsorship of West Ham. The stadium would have to be debranded for other events such as the World Athletics Championship next summer. Moreover, sponsors prefer to put their name to a new stadium.
The sale of Hull City moved closer after a ‘heads of agreement’ document was filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange. A Far East consortium is prepared to pay £130m for the club.
The buying consortium, GreaterChina, says that it sees ‘unparalleled opportunities’ to promote the club to a Chinese audience.
They would face competition for that audience from the growing number of English owners of Chinese clubs. It is a big market, the biggest available, but it has its limits.
The owners of football clubs sometimes have some unrealistic expectations about the price their club might fetch when they try to sell. However, the conditions apparently being attached to the sale of Nottingham Forest are among the most extraordinary I can recall.
The latest version of the popular game Football Manager has been adjusted to take account of the possible consequences of Brexit. Three main alternative scenarios have been built into the game.
This blog essay from Speri at the University of Sheffield sees 3rd party ownership of players as highlighing the issues that arise from the intertwining of football and capitalism. It says that the transfer system does not redistribute resources between clubs, although that is not really its purpose.
Manchester City have dropped far behind Manchester United in terms of overall wage bill, the club’s annual report shows. City, who once had the largest Premier League salary costs. had a wage bill of £196m, putting them on a par with Arsenal and below United’s figure of £232m for 2015/16 and Chelsea’s £215m for the previous season.
Wages amounted to 50 per cent of turnover, the figure recommended by accountants Deloitte. Three years ago City were penalised by Uefa for breaching financial fair play rules.
The takeover of Birmingham City by Trillion Trophy Asia has at last been completed after a 16 month process. It ends the seven year period of ownership of Carson Yeung who was jailed for money laundering in 2014. The deal values the club at £12.3m.