"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.
Lionel Messi and his father, who is his manager, are to face tax fraud charges and Spanish prosecutors are calling for a 22-month jail term. They deny any wrongdoing and blame a former agent of the player. Of course, even if they were found gullty, this would not necessarily be the sentence that was handed down.
The imminent arrival of Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager is undoubtedly something of a coup for the club and their owners, the Fenway Sports Group. Harry Redknapp suggested that if he wanted a real challenge he should have taken the vacant position at Sunderland. However, turning round Liverpool and restoring the club to its former glories will be no easy task.
Newport County Supporters’ Trust have raised the funds they need to secure control of the club. They now become the fourth fan owned club in League Two alongside Exeter City, Portsmouth and Wycombe Wanderers.
Arsenal will miss out on the biggest Champions League prize pot ever if they fail to qualify for the group stage which looks increasingly likely. The pot has been boosted by the deal with BT Sports. They will get £8.84m for reaching the group stage.
The Swiss Ramble blog has scaled the heights of analysis once again with an impressive in depth treatment of Manchester United. As always, there are lots of graphs and data to back up the argument. It must take hours of careful work, but you also need the right skill set to do it properly.
The latest financial results from Maidstone United show a clear success story. Turnover is up to £1.36m and profits are £245,000. Admittedly, a FA Cup run helped these figures.
Nevertheless, the underlying story is a strong one. Wages account for less than 20 per cent of turnover, with funds being put into expanding the capacity of he stadium with its 3G pitch. Attendances and season ticket sales are up.
Wolverhampton Wanderers have been put up for sale by owner Steve Morgan after eight years at the helm. He bought the club from Sir Jack Hayward in 2007 for £10 with promises of £30m of investment. He is not likely to sell for £10. The asking price is unknown, but around £25m has been mentioned.
Two West Midlands Premier League clubs, Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion, have been available for some time. As has been noted in earlier posts, there are not many quality buyers around at the moment.
This might seem an odd question to ask, at least from the viewpoint of the club’s fans. If nothing else they exist to compete with Dundee whose ground is on the same street and overlaps with theirs.
However, the point of this article is that under owner Stephen Thompson everything has been made subservient to a business model at the expense of sporting success. With a managerial change taking place, just what is the job description?
Levels of financial literacy in the UK are often not that high. Very little is taught about the subject in many schools. Most people find money management difficult and some of them fall prey to ‘get rich quick’ schemes. As the old adage goes, if it is too good to be true, it probably is.
It’s been a very slack news period recently which is why I haven’t been posting much. Financial results, of course, are often out by now. However, there has been a dearth of takeover stories.
When you think about it, a lot of potential investors have disappeared. The fall in the oil price hasn’t helped, as a lot of them come from countries where oil and gas contribute a major part of national revenues.