"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
Everton are planning a £9m office and retail development at Goodison Park. The scheme will be self-funding as the costs will be met by partners. The new complex will include a shop, museum and corporate hospitality facilities which have not been up to the standard of other clubs.
It appears that the full resources of the Chinese Government through its China Investment Corporation (CIC) are behind Kenny Huang’s bid for Liverpool. CIC has $332bn to spend abroad. Acquiring the club would be a propaganda coup for China and confirm the country’s status as a leading economic and political world power. Premier League football is now big politics as well as big economics.
An Indian tycoon has targeted Blackburn Rovers for acquisition, demonstrating once again the appeal of the Premier League to foreign buyers. Ahasan Ali Syed was educated in Britain and his Western Gulf Advisory company has £8bn in assets. The club’s £20m debt would be wiped out and up to £300m made available for development with the intention of regaining the Premier League title last won in 1995. However, there would be no Manchester City style splurging of cash.<
Leeds United are back in the npower Championship, but what is perhaps more important for sustainable success is that they are back on an even financial keel after many years of difficulty and disappointment.
13 professional Dutch football clubs are listed as being in the financial danger zone and in need of supervision by the Dutch football authorities. They include Feyenoord while Ajax and PSV are clubs whose finances are said to be need of attention.
Syrian businessman Yahya Kirdi has stated that he has agreed terms with Tom Hicks and George Gillett and is negotiating a final deal with them to buy Liverpool. Certainly, he seems to have been their preferred bidder throughout, although what chairman Martin Broughton and RBS think about it is another matter. Some view his gazumping as an attempt to drive up the price offered by Kenny Huang which at under £300m is under half of what the current owners want.
Portsmouth will learn on Thursday whether the tax authorities have succeeded in their High Court bid to overturn their Company Voluntary Arrangement on the grounds that the amount owed to Revenue and Customs was underestimated and hence their vote on the CVA was affected. In Court learned counsel for the taxman argued that Portsmouth was operating a ‘sham’ arrangement to avoid tax.
Kuwait’s al-Kharafi family are the latest potential bidders for Liverpool to be identified. This means that four out of what are thought to be six bidders have now been named.
Media commentary is focusing on Kenny Huang and it appears that the Hong Kong-based businessman may have Chinese Government money behind him. This led to Radio 5 raising the question of whether human rights issues would arise. That woulld be a substantial extension of the fit and proper persons test. Britain trades with China and is keen to expand that trade.
As many as six potential investors may have submitted bids for Liverpool. Three of them are thought to be Kenny Huang, the Rhone Group and the Syrian-led consortium of Yahya Kirdi. The board will name a preferred bidder by the end of next week.
Meanwhile, RBS have issued a statement to wire services denying that they have held talks with any bidder for the club which would include Kenny Huang who is reported to have claimed that he had started direct discussions with the bank.
Southend United have avoided going into administration. The tax authorities had argued that the League 2 club were so often behind with their tax payments that they must be insolvent. However, they have now reached an agreement with Revenue and Customs to pay off their debts by instalments. They still face a winding up order from Charterhouse Finance on August 11th, but they seem to be confident of dealing with that debt, largely because of their partnership with Sainsbury’s