"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
After a summer break the author of the superb Swiss Ramble blog is back. This time he takes on the big task of analysing Manchester United’s finances, providing his usual forensic and informative analysis, backed up by lots of charts and tables. Everything you want to know about United’s finances is there and I certainly gained some insights.
Coventry’s local newspaper The Evening Telegraph has called for hedge fund Sisu to sell the club after nine years of ‘disastrous’ ownership.
The club is currently at the foot of League One. Revenue has halved, the future tenure of the Ricoh Arena is uncertain, as is the fate of the Academy. Relationships with fans and a range of relevant stakeholders have broken down. This is in spite of £60m of investment in the club.
AFC Wimbledon have encountered a new obstacle to their plan to move back to a new stadium at their historic home at Plough Lane.
The original planning application was ‘called in’ by London mayor Boris Johnson, but new mayor Sadiq Khan sent it back to Merton Council who have reaffirmed their support for the scheme.
Tottenham Hotspur have opened talks with the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) over a naming rights deal for the redeveloped White Hart Lane. Negotiations have stepped up after Spurs heard that QIA’S association with Barcelona is likely to end next summer. However, Spurs have also approached a large number of other companies.
Coventry City’s ability to play in Coventry in the future is to be discussed in a ‘Westminster Hall’ debate in the House of Commons. Such debates provide an opportunity for MPs to raise constituency concerns.
The coverage of the Manchester derby, the first blockbuster game of the season, by Sky Sports attracted more than 2 million viewers at peak. This was twice the audience BT Sport achieved for Liverpool’s game with Leicester.
BT had made a much stronger start to the season, winning the Saturday ratings head-to-head for three weeks on the trot. Overall, ratings at BT Sport have increased by 8 per cent, while it has been suggested that Sky’s ratings have drifted slightly.
Manchester United have become the first English club to break through the half billion barrier in terms of revenues in a financial year. They earnt £513.3m in their 2016 fiscal year, compared with £395.2m the previous year. They made an operating profit of £68.9m and a net profit of £36.4m.
Income was boosted by winning the FA Cup and 14 new sponsorships. Commercial revenue was up 36.3 per cent to £268.3m. This more than offset the substantial compensation of £8.4m paid to Louis van Gaal and his team.
Luton’s ground at Kenilworth Road recalls a forgotten football past. To access the away end you go down a passage between terraced houses and climb a set of stairs with back gardens on either side. The ‘executive boxes’ are down one side of the ground, set back just a few yards from the touchline and only a few yards higher than the pitch.
The unofficial ‘Worlds Smallest Football League’ takes place during the Winter months on St. Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly (28 miles to the south-west of Cornwall) and is comprised of 18 league matches and 2 Cup tournaments (one of which is a two legged affair).
Arsene Wenger thinks that changes to the Champions League that will stop Arsenal and other Premier League clubs receiving as much money as they have in the past from the competition is a price worth paying to stop a breakaway league.
Real Madrid and Juventus are thought to have been the driving forces behind the changes. As part of China’s project to secure a dominant position in world football, a Chinese conglomerate is trying to set up a rival competition.