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Articles and reports on financial issues within football – soccer – from The Political Economy of Football.
The prospect of a takeover at West Bromwich Albion has grown nearer after interested parties from the Far East and the United States entered due diligence. Given that the club showed a good profit in its last financial year, there shouldn’t be any skeletons in the cupboard to hold things up.
No one can underestimate what Bournemouth have achieved in winning promotion to the Premier League. They can only be denied by a 19-0 defeat at Charlton on Saturday and in truth that is going to be a promotion party for their fans with the Addicks making the Upper West stand available to them in addition to the away end.
The following statement has been issued by North Ferriby United: ‘The last two years have seen an injection of over a quarter of a million pounds into North Ferriby United. This has undoubtedly led to the recent success that all involved in the club have enjoyed and experienced.’
Soccer economics guru Stefan Szymanski has controversially suggested that America’s Major League Soccer has the appearance of a pyramid scheme. MLS is losing over $100m a year, yet new franchises are often sold for over a $100m.
Manchester United overtook Manchester City as the biggest payers in the Barclays Premier League in the 2013-14 season. Their wages bill came to £215.8m compared with City’s £205m. The wage bill of Burnley was just £21.5m, one tenth that of United.
Chelsea were third with a wage bill of £192.7 with Arsenal some way behind with £154.5m. Liverpool were just behind with £144m and then there was a big gap to Tottenham Hotspur with £100.4m. Newcastle United were next, but one might question whether they got value for money.
West Ham have become the first club to reduce season ticket prices on the back of the new Premiership television deal. From 2016-17 their cheapest season ticket will be £289.
The Hammers have been in the middle in the price range for London clubs, cheaper than Arsenal and Chelsea, but more expensive than Crystal Palace.
Sceptics have questioned what they are going to do about price categories, ordinary admissions and away ticket prices which have been the focus of recent campaigns.
The gap between the super elite of European clubs and the next tier is getting wider. Clubs like Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Southampton have enjoyed success through good management and smart player acquisitions, but sustaining that success is difficult.
The auditing of the accounts of Leeds United are to be scrutinised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales over a potential conflict of interest.
The accounts were audited by a firm where one of the partners is a brother of Leeds United Andrew Umbers, although they were signed off by another partner.
Newcastle United’s full accounts have now been filed at Companies House and they show that £38.6m has been transferred into the club’s bank accounts as a cash flow sum, £4.5m of which was used to pay off an overdraft.
This news will reinforce criticisms that the club puts profit before ambition, having failed to sign a player in the January transfer window. Fans are planning a boycott of Sunday’s home game against Tottenham Hotspur.
Almost one in three Premier and Football League clubs are now owned overseas and this detailed report argues that it creates potential opportunities for tax avoidance, particularly when clubs are sold. Football clubs, it is argued, are treated as speculative business opportunities.