Illegal streamers blocked

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Football fans will find it more difficult to stream matches illegally after a High Court blocking order hailed as a major victory by the Premier League.

The Premiership has obtained an injunction requiring internet service providers to promptly block access to servers that are illegally showing its games this season.   Once notified by the Premier League, the ISPs must act while the match is being played.   Some ISPs will be especially willing to cooperate as they are the victims of piracy themselves.

39th game back on agenda

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Following the success of the Asia Trophy involving Premier League clubs, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has revived the idea of a round of fixtures to be played abroad.

Richard Scudamore first advanced the idea in 2008, but it was dropped after a tidal wave of opposition from fans.   However, he thinks that there is now an increasing recognition from fans that the Premier League and its clubs are a global success story.

Spanish football chief arrested

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The head of Spain’s football federation was arrested yesterday in an investigation into suspected corruption by top officials.

Angel Maria Villar, his son Gorka Villar, and several Spanish federation executives were detained by Spanish police on suspicion of embezzlement, fraud and collusion. Mr Villar Snr, a former player for the Spanish national team, has been president of the federation for almost 30 years and is also a vice-president of Fifa and Uefa.

Football riches spread across Europe

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The 26th Deloitte annual review of football finance reports that driven by continued growth in broadcast rights values in European football’s biggest leagues, and the impact of UEFA Euro 2016, total European football market revenues reached almost €25 billion in 2015/16, a 13% increase on 2014/15.

The ‘big five’ European leagues grew collective revenues by €1.4 billion (12%) in 2015/16, 59% of which was due to increased broadcast revenues, and 31% due to increased sponsorship and other commercial revenues.

Premier League clubs lose £876,000 a day

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Vysyble has released the 2nd edition of its football finance report entitled ‘We’re So Rich It’s Unbelievable! – The Illusion of Wealth Within Football.’ The report covers the economic performance of the participant clubs in the English Premier League from 2008-9 to 2015-16 (the latest accounting period) ie 34 clubs. Over 260 individual club balance sheets were analysed as part of the research process.

Messi is first £1m a week player

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Barcelona are to pay Lionel Messi a basic wage worth more than £1m a week.   Messi’s gross salary under a four year contract has been set at an annual €60m (£54.8m).   If the contract runs for its full term Barca are committed to paying him £220m before performance bonuses.

Barcelona had total revenues of €620.2m (£548.6m at current exchange rates) in 2016, the second highest figure in football after Manchester United.  Last season the club budgeted for €695m of income and, according to its own analysis, Messi contributed 20 per cent of that figure.