"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
Real Madrid claimed to have the highest revenues of any sports institution in the world after they announced that the club’s net profit for the 2009-10 season jumped 11.5 per cent from the year before. Despite spending more than €250m on new players the club reported annual profits of €24m, up from €21.5m a year before.
Although they made a profit of only £100,000, and made an operating loss of £2.3m, Hibernian have recorded their sixth consecutive year of profits. That’s a remarkable achievement in the contemporary world of football finance.
Football in England has come through the recession relatively unscathed. There have been some spectacular collapses, not least at Portsmouth, but these are arguably more the result of poor management than the condition of the game as a whole. There have been some losses of corporate hospitality revenue and season ticket sales have fallen. The transfer market this summer was more subdued, although still quiet resilient. On the whole, football, particularly at the highest level, has been remarkably recession proof.
Prospect magazine has published a very full analysis of the situation at Manchester United placing it within the context of the club’s history and the development of the game more generally. What is evident is that the Red Knights are now willing to play a waiting game with the Glazers. They are confident of their own funding and think that the cost of servicing the club’s debts will put pressure on the Glazers to sell. Against that one could argue that the Gla
Allegations about Wayne Rooney’s personal life place at risk a number of lucrative sponsorship deals. As well as a weekly wage of around £100,000 and £760,000 of image rights earned in twice-yearly payments, Rooney has sponsorship deals with Coca-Cola, Nike and EA sports, He also has a lucrative five-book deal with Harper Collins.
He would have more sponsorship deals, but at a court hearing earlier this year it was revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson restricted his players to five.
Last Saturday was Non-League Day when some non-league clubs let in Premiership supporters for free and at half price. But often a non-league ticket costs more than one in the Premiership. On Saturday you can get a Blackburn v. Fulham ticket for £10 whereas it will cost you £12 to watch a Blue Square North match.
At Wigan a family of four can see Wigan play Sunderland for a total of £25. A season ticket at the DW Stadium costs from £250 which is what you would have to pay at Bradford City in League Two. You can pay quite a bit more in League One.
I don’t normally read the Sun but a copy of the football section was lying around when I flew into Heathrow this morning. I was intrigued to see that they are referring to Southampton as ‘the South Coast club’.
BBC Radio London has produced an interesting in depth analysis of the MyFootballClub experiment at Ebbsfleet United. Although the scheme struggles on with 3,500 members compared with 30,000 at peak, it has essentially been a failure. The club has been relegated to the Blue Square South.
A BBC investigation has raised more doubts about Ashan Ali Syed, the would be buyer of Blackburn Rovers. He appears to have left a trail of debts when he lived in the UK for four years and does not seem to be well known either in Bahrain or what he claims to be his home town in India.
Players and staff at Australian A-League team Newcastle Jets have not been paid for the last two weeks. The Jets have problems of their own, but they are a symptom of more fundamental problems in the A-League.