"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
The July deadline for Liverpool co-owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks to refinance their £350m loan with Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia is looming on the horizon. George Gillett has appointed advisers in the US, Canada and Europe to look at his options. It has been suggested that he urgently needs to reduce his overall debt burden. He could sell his 80 per cent stake in the Montréal Canadinens ice hockey team. There has been speculation that Mr Hicks might consider selling his New York Rangers baseball team.
I thought that the television programme that ran some five years ago about the challenges facing Weymouth was one of the best warts-and-all programmes that has been produced about football in recent years. Both the programme and the associated book Floodlit Dreams did not go down well on the terraces at Weymouth.
If West Ham thought they had finally settled the Carlos Tévez affair with an out-of-court settlement to pay £25m to Sheffield United, they were sadly mistaken. Numerous individuals have jumped on the compensation bandwagon, including one of the most controversial figures in football, Ken Bates. In a statement West Ham said that it was becoming evident that the arbitration panel’s ruling ‘has encouraged a potentially endless legal chain of claims and counter claims which can only be damaging to English football.
The fall in the copper price as a result of the global financial crisis is hitting Zambian football clubs. Four clubs have lost their sponsorship from companies in Zambia’s Copperbelt. In the case of Mufulira Wanderers, one of the country’s most famous clubs, the withdrawal of sponsorship has led to a financial crisis. They have been given a two week break from matches by the country’s football association to give them time to sort out their problems. Without a new sponsor it is going to be difficult for Wanderers to fulfil their fixtures.
Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeness has suggested each household in Germany pay an extra two euros a month to put German league football back on terrestial television. The levy would be added to the €17.98 monthly television licence fee in an effort to close the gap in television revenue with England, Spain and Italy. Hoeness argued that it was not even the price of a small beer, but those Germans who are not interested in football might resent paying it. It would be a general levy to serve a specific purpose.
I was rung by a leading national newspaper today about the financial problems League 1 and League 2 clubs. There are fears that as many as six could go into administration in the next few weeks. That may be an exaggerated forecast, but the credit crunch has hit the local businesses that support clubs at that level. The answer in terms of a strategy is to have a lean and mean financial model that takes account of what is possible. Darlington got themselves into trouble by building a stadium that was far too big for their potential support.
Liverpool FC may be on track for what their fans hope will be another Champions League triumph which would offset their less satisfying Premiership performance. However, in progressing as far as they have, they are punching above their weight financially. When it comes to money as compared with performance on the pitch, Real Madrid are way ahead of them with a financial Deloitte money list table topping annual revenue of £290m compared with £167m at Liverpool. That puts them seventh in the Deloitte European money league, a quarter-finalist’s performance.
Plymouth Argyle made a profit of £1m last year despite funding the highest wage bill in the club’s history. Accounts for the year ending 31 May 2008 show the Pilgrims turned round a loss of more than £700,000 in the previous 12 months to £1.1m profit. The Pilgrims made £3.8m profit on the transfer market last year, enabling them to finance their highest ever wage costs despite their gate income becoming the fourth lowest in the Championship. Chairman Paul Stapleton was frank about the inevitability of transfer fees being used to bail out the club as a trading concern.
League 1 side Stockport County have hit financial problems. Considerable efforts are being made to prevent the club going into administration. Stockport MP Ann Coffey managed to negotiate a stay of execution over its massive bill owing to the Inland Revenue (no suprise to learn that they, and hence the taxpayer, are the main creditors).
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