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Articles and reports on financial issues within football – soccer – from The Political Economy of Football.
Clubs like Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur have relegation clauses in players’ contracts, but Chelsea do not. If the club was relegated, the club would be committed to a wage bill of around £200m.
Their bill for the 2013-4 season was £190.5m and that is likely to show an increase for 2014-15. Eden Hazard has been given a new £200,000 a week contract and the salaries of Cesc Fábregas and Diego Costa have been added.
Charlton fanzine editor Rick Everitt reckons that Charlton are in the last chance saloon. There is the chance of a takeover in the January transfer window that could transform the fortunes of the relegation threatened club.
In the latest issue of Voice of the Valley, Everitt revealed an exchange of e mails between former Charlton chief executive Peter Varney and the current incumbent Katrien Miere. Varney was trying to set up a meeting to discuss an investment proposal, but effectively got the brush off.
Bournemouth are to be hit by a hefty fine for breaching financial fair play (FFP) rules and manager Eddie Howe thinks that they stand in the way of smaller clubs wanting to progress.
In their push for promotion Bournemouth exceeded the permitted £6m after taking account of adjusted losses and shareholder investment.
Spending money on players in the January transfer window can make a difference, but it doesn’t offer very good value for money. That is the conclusion of calculations made by Dr Henry Stott, Dr Mark Latham and Dr Dinesh Valvani.
Top football journalist David Conn considers why American investors are interested in the EPL as the Barclays Premier League is known in the States, despite the fact that soccer is not a top sport there.
Seven Premiership clubs have American investors with Everton likely to join them. The main attraction is to make money on the increasing capital value of the clubs, something that has worked well for the Glazers at Manchester United.
Leicester City offer the best value per point in the Premier League when total club wages are divided by points obtained. They come in at £647,507 with Watford in second place at just under £800k and Crystal Palace third at £925,590.
Not surprisingly, Chelsea offer the worst value at the moment at just under £5m per point, while Arsenal offer the best value among the top clubs.
If there is a Premier League club that merits the label of ‘sleeping giant’ it is Everton. Goodison Park badly needs investment or even a replacement. The board has been trying to attract investors for years, but without success.
Now it looks as if American investors may be coming into the club, following the recent example of Crystal Palace. The travails of Randy Lerner at Aston Villa or the challenges faced by Fenway Sports Group at Liverpool don’t seem to have put them off.
This blog post takes a detailed look at how much each Premier League club is worth, backed up by a meticulous methodology. Top of the tree are Manchester United at £1.648m, up 76 per cent from two years ago, while at the bottom Bournemouth are estimated to be worth just £104m.
It has been claimed that some Torquay United players were signed on contracts below the minimum wage. Earlier in the year Gulls players were reportedly earning an average of £375 a week, still below the average for the Conference.
Torquay has been in financial difficulties since it was taken over by a consortium of local businessmen. The club is in danger of being relegated from the National League.
Wigan Athletic made a loss of £3.9m in 2014-15, their first loss in four years. In the previous year they made a profit of £2.6m. Turnover fell from £37m to £28m. One factor was a reduction in Premier League parachute payments. The club’s net debt now stands at £13.3m.