"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
Articles and reports on financial issues within football – soccer – from The Political Economy of Football.
The author of the impressive Swiss Ramble blog takes his usual in depth, forensic examination of a club’s finances, in this case Aston Villa coming under the microscope. He concludes that much of the blame for the current plight of the club lies at the door of the owner, Randy Lerner. He has little idea of how to run a football club.
Today’s draw between Newcastle United and Sunderland increases the chances of both clubs being relegated and the north-east, one of the traditional homes of football, being left unrepresented in the Premier League (unless Middlesbrough are promoted).
Television for money for a Championship club next year is expected to be around £9m. Relegated teams will also receive £32.5m in the first tranche of their parachute payment, making a total of £41.5m.
The Premier League is negotiating for entry for 16 of its under 21 teams to the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy next season. League One and League Two clubs would receive contributions towards their youth development programmes in compensation.
The Football League is insisting that the teams should not be called ‘B’ teams. Some Premier League clubs would like to have ‘B’ teams in the lower reaches of the Football League.
This blog essay contrasts the style of ownership at Charlton Athletic and Sheffield Wednesday. At Charlton, the eccentric decision-making of Roland Duchatelet and his unwilligness to engage in a dialogue with fans, or ‘customers’ as his chief executive has called them, has led to a vigorous campaign of fan protests.
Top clubs have been eyeing the Chinese market with its 1.3 billion increasingly consumerist population for some time, but for so far no one has really make a breakthrough. Clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid have just scratched the surface.
Then in November came the news that China Media Investment Holdings, a government-backed investment group, had bought a 13 per cent holding in City Football Group, the owners of Manchester City.
A sale of Notts County is expected to be completed within the next month. The hearing of a winding up petition against the club brought by HMRC has been postponed.
England’s fourth Champions League spot is secure for 2017-18 afterJuventus were defeated by Bayern Munich on Wednesday night. England now has a lead of 3.97 coefficient points over Italy, although the longer term Italian challenge remains a concern.
Champions League revenue and the associated prestige is of vital importance to top clubs.
Torquay United are in advanced takeover talks. The current owners, a consortium of local businessmen, took over last summer, but have found it a financial struggle.
The author of the authoritative Swiss Ramble blog provides an in depth examination of the finances of Liverpool who recently published their accounts for 2014/15. He concludes that they are in good financial shape under the Fenway Sports Group, whilst noting the mixed performance on the pitch and the ticket pricing fiasco,
Aston Villa’s latest financial results do not make for happy reading, given the club’s precarious position in the Premier League. Losses at the parent company went up from £3.9m to £27.3m.
Turnover fell slightly from £116.9m to £115.7m. The wage bill was up from £69m to £83.7m. As a proportion of turnover it went up from an acceptable 59 per cent to a concerning 72 per cent.