Football's Magic Money Tree

[Chester Perry]

Man City Fan Chat looks at football finance with @KieranMaguire and the equally knowledgeable Colin Savage from the King of the Kippax -

Part 1 - an introductions to FFP and financial regulation - this could be an interesting and insightful series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqFq5xChw6c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

Two news reports from last night that tell of the state of game below the top flight

first is local - and is the first part of a series

https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2019-0 ... l-finance/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the 2nd from the BBC 10pm news

https://twitter.com/danroan/status/1157523894858735616" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

that football expert in the clip - John Purcell - is from Vysyble who have been warning about Bolton for some time

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1157557915676549120" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

It is of no surprise to us that big clubs who make statement signings with huge wages to boot find it difficult to move these players on if they do not perform as expected. Football in general, for all it's wealth, has struggled to catch-up, we live with that in a smaller context at our club and I remain thankful for our prudence. Yet even the biggest and wealthiest of clubs are finding it difficult to refresh in these circumstances.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/03/foot ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Must admit I have little sympathy for the clubs concerned, these circumstances were created out of the choices they made and the impact is felt even by clubs like ours

[Chester Perry]

In the case of Neymar - this is what got PSG (and him) in such a mess

https://theconversation.com/qatar-psg-a ... 198m-81859" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

Missed this from a couple of weeks ago - Simon Jordan argues that the Premier League should bring everything in house and become the Netflix of football - the key to this is that they already own the content, they can sell advertising on broadcasts and utilise the data they generate. Downside is every club becomes aware of their worth and the biggest demand their "fair share".

http://www.sportbible.com/football/reac ... l-20190719" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

A reminder from the Telegraph that the Big Six are about to cash in on the growth of overseas TV Rights, coupled with a cautionary note of the falling value of rights in the Far East

Premier League ‘Big Six’ cash in as overseas TV rights rise 35 per cent - by Tim Wigmore - 3 August 2019 • 8:57pm

The value of the Premier League’s overseas broadcasting rights for 2019-22 has risen 35 per cent to £4.35 billion, ensuring that the League’s overall rights have gone up in spite of a fall in the value of the domestic market, figures seen by The Telegraph show.

The increase in foreign rights,revealed in new figures from SportBusiness Media, is slightly more than Premier League insiders had envisaged, and means that 46 per cent of all the League’s broadcasting revenue now comes from overseas. The deals cement the Premier League’s position as earning more money from overseas broadcasting than any other sports league in the world.

The rise in overseas rights explains why the largest Premier League clubs pushed – successfully – for overseas revenue to be divided up on a new merit basis from this cycle, with teams at the top of the table receiving a greater share of the cash. Previously, all 20 clubs received an equal share of the overseas broadcasting revenue. There are concerns that this will damage the Premier League’s competitive balance, as The Telegraph first reported in March.

The change means that the “Big Six” clubs stand to receive up to £80 million more in overseas broadcasting revenue than the League’s bottom sides over a three-year cycle.

The increase in broadcasting cash has been driven by Europe. In the 2019-22 broadcasting rights cycle, which kicks in when the new Premier League season begins on Friday, the European market accounts for 30 per cent of the League’s total international fees, according to research by SportBusiness Media. It finds that four of the five largest percentage increases in this rights cycle were in Europe, as the Premier League’s popularity on the Continent continues to increase.

The Premier League’s broadcasting rights in Denmark and Portugal have doubled from the 2016-19 rights cycle. Those in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (which are sold jointly) and Spain rose by around 65 per cent.

In much of Europe, the Premier League has benefited from the emergence of new over-the-top entrants into the market, who have bid aggressively to increase competition and the cost of rights. DAZN, a subscription video streaming service which launched in 2016, bought the rights to the Premier League in Spain. SportBusiness Media believes that, even in markets when these insurgent companies did not win the rights, the bidding still drove up the prices.

But the sharp decrease in the value of broadcasting rights in Asia will be a considerable concern for the Premier League, the first European league to gain a major foothold on the Continent. Rights in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia (one market) and Hong Kong have fallen between 34 and 61 per cent, according to SportBusiness Media’s figures.

The decrease is somewhat masked by the surge in rights for the Premier League in China, with rights for 2019-22 worth £535 million, a 12-fold increase and the highest of any overseas market. But the current rights for China were sold in late 2016.

Of the total 35 per cent growth from overseas markets, around half can be explained by the pound’s fall against the dollar and the euro, SportBusiness Media said.

The technology giants – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, the “FAANGs” – had little impact on the overseas broadcasting rights. While Amazon won two small packages to show matches in the UK, none of the five companies will show games in overseas markets.

Facebook submitted winning bids in Thailand and Vietnam, but the deals collapsed because Facebook and the Premier League could not resolve some details after initially signing a “standstill agreement”. This meant that the Premier League was forced to return to market in Thailand and Vietnam.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That article contains much of the data I was unable to show in post #1829 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1800" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) as it is hidden behind a paywall

[Chester Perry]

Another cautionary tale of a chancer taking advantage of a community club - this one is further down the pyramid, but still has an important role to play in it's community - From the Telegraph


The inside story on Croydon Athletic, a club back from the brink of a tabloid scandal, two jail sentences and severe financial wrongdoing
by Robert Dineen 3 August 2019 • 2:51pm

The scene around the Mayfield Stadium in south London on a warm summer’s evening depicts grass-roots football at its most encouraging. On a playing field beside the ground, an enthusiastic squad of players are preparing for AFC Croydon Athletic's first ever FA Cup fixture next Saturday, a qualifying tie against Virginia Water. Up in the ground’s modest stand, the chairman Paul Smith is talking hopefully about the non-league club’s future, citing a thriving youth section and recent successes in league and cup.

Not for a moment would you think this could be the site for one of the darkest - and, until now, untold - episodes in English football, involving a club's traumatic battle for survival, a tabloid scandal, two jail sentences, severe financial wrongdoing and one case of human tragedy. That Smith could sit here now and describe what happened for the first time with the club in relatively good health is remarkable.

"It was an incredibly difficult period, almost surreal," he recalls. "You would never expect to experience what we did, not in football, especially not in the non-league game."

Smith was just a fan of Croydon Athletic when the story begins in 2008, with the club having received an ambitious takeover bid from a property developer called Mazhar Majeed.

Born and educated in Croydon, Majeed seemed the perfect candidate to own the club. He had glowing references from borough councillors and held offices in the town. He was prepared to buy 90 per cent of their shares and promised the further investment needed to contend for promotion from Division One South of the Ryman League.

"He seemed genuine,” Smith says. “He had the money and he was respected in the community. I remember the Mayor had turned up to open his offices. There seemed no reason to concern oneself.”

With his offer accepted, Majeed quickly strengthened the staff. Tim O'Shea, the former Gillingham Town defender and a well-regarded non-league coach, was hired as manager. He was given the resources to recruit an assistant and higher-calibre players.

The facilities were upgraded, too. Majeed bought a electronic scoreboard for the club's stadium. He had the clubhouse painted and fitted with new windows. He also demanded that fruit machines were removed from the building, but that seemed reasonable for a supposedly devout Muslim. “He changed the mood around the place,” Smith, a trade union official, says. “Things really started to look up.”

Results quickly improved, with Majeed attending every game, home and away, often bringing along his brother and young children. He seem thrilled when the club won the title less than two years into his reign. The achievement placed Croydon Athletic in the Ryman Premier League - two divisions below the Football League - for the first time in their 22-year existence. "You got the impression he just really enjoyed the buzz of being involved," says Chris Roots, another stalwart supporter at the time.

The hopeful mood did not last. In the July after promotion, fans were disturbed to discover that the club chairman Dean Fisher had been found guilty of defrauding his media-agency employers of more than £500,000, earning him a three-year jail sentence. The son of club founder, Ken Fisher, Dean had helped to bring Majeed to the club and managed their accounts on his behalf.

If his wrongdoing came as a surprise, however, its impact was nothing compared to the shock of reading the News of the World splash a month later. Its sting operation revealed that Majeed had orchestrated spot-fixing at Lord's involving three members of the Pakistan cricket team, who were later convicted. The newspaper filmed Majeed accepting £150,000 from reporters posing as representatives of a gambling syndicate. During their conversation, Majeed correctly predicted when bowlers would overstep the mark against England.

"I remember word began to travel around the club that morning on mobiles," Smith says. "It was just shock. We were way out of our comfort zone. No one had inkling that Majeed was capable of something like this.”

Majeed immediately went to ground, leaving the club's wages unpaid. In response, O'Shea quit after one more game, with his players soon following suit. As the club went into tailspin, the Ryman League gave them 12 days' grace - officially, a suspension - to get their affairs in order.

Here, Roots and Smith stepped up, assisting the recently-appointed chairman David Le Cluse in trying to keep the club alive. They persuaded the non-league coaches Bob Langford and Dave Garland to run the team unpaid. Hastily-organised open trials unearthed enough voluntary players for the club to restart their campaign.

Off the field, however, the situation spiralled. While a criminal investigation was launched into the cricket scandal, the Football Association opened an inquiry into Croydon's financial dealings under Majeed, who had told journalists that he bought the club to wash money through it.

Alarming, fresh details began to emerge on Majeed's background. It turned out that he had been the director of 14 dissolved companies. Several of his businesses had been registered under relatives' names, including Croydon Athletic.

He had piled £307,000 on to the club's debt in the first year of his ownership alone. Majeed and his family did not respond to requests to contribute to this article.

"Clearly, if there was a failing on the part of the club, then it was the due diligence that was done - if there was any at all," Smith says.

Le Cluse's commitment to the club at this point impressed Smith and Roots. Though he was never implicated in the spot-fixing, he was a business associate of Majeed's and had reportedly lost £50,000 in deals that failed because of the damage to Majeed's reputation. He had no reason to stay on at Croydon Athletic other than through a sense of duty.

This, it seems, ran deeper than the others realised. On Saturday, October 2, 2010, Le Cluse was found dead in a lock-up garage two miles from his home in Carshalton, Surrey. He had shot himself with a rifle that he used in his pest-control business, two days before his elder daughter's ninth birthday.

A relative was quoted by the Daily Mail. "It was plain to see that the scandal had really brought him down," he said. “Staff had left and it was through no fault of his own. He took it really personally and saw it as his failure.”

Roots says: “I saw him just a couple of days before it happened. I had no inkling…. What happened was by far the worst thing to come out of all of this. No one thought he was responsible.”

The team managed to fulfil their fixtures that season, but were still relegated. Their hopes of surviving in the lower division were then decimated when the FA’s inquiry found that the club had committed 24 breaches of the rules relating to the payment of players. The details of the wrongdoings were never disclosed. The punishment was a £7,500 fine and 10-point deduction, plunging them to the bottom of the table. Majeed, meanwhile, was imprisoned for 32 months.

With the club's bills going unpaid, the council then evicted them from their stadium. For Smith and Roots, now acting as chairman and vice-chairman, that was the final straw. In the second week of December 2011, they wound the club up. “We had no alternative,” Roots says. “The battle we’d been fighting was lost.”

Roots went on to work with the non-league club Welling United. Smith, though, was unwilling simply to walk away. By the following summer, he had set up AFC Croydon Athletic, who were accepted into the Combined Counties Football League in the 10th tier of the league pyramid.

Officially, AFC Croydon Athletic is distinct from the expired team, with different kit and club badge. They attract the core of the old support and play at the reopened old stadium. The fruit machines have not been returned.

Lessons have been learnt, with fans owning all of the club's shares, but the scars from what happened remain. “There is a sense of betrayal," Smith says. "Non-league football is a tight community. If you’re part of a club, even as a fan, you feel especially close to it.”

Were the club partly to blame? “There was always the question: why was he doing it? But non-league football is a way of getting into the game without being a billionaire. A lot of people said the club should have known better, but it's easy to be an expert after the event."

[Chester Perry]

The final piece in the Indpendent's Sporting Mind series - we have come a long way but there is still a long way to go

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/the ... 45361.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HunterST_BFC]

Can the title not be changed now to the "Chester Perry Thread" ?

He's earned it

[Chester Perry]

Liverpool seem to be in a sweet spot moment for negotiating a new kit deal - sales have been rising as has their prominence in the big competitions, but is a deal with them really worth more than Utd who sell nearly half as much again (note United brought all other merchandising back in house this is not usual in these deals).

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... Citys.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

Part 2 of that Man City Fan Chat on Football Finance - Net spend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... Cl37mTf8JU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Part 1: FFP and financial regulation - in post #1839 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1838" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

@KieranMaguirre posted a net spend comparison between City and Liverpool on Saturday see post #1838 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1837" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

Part 3 of that Man City Fan Chat on Football Finance - Uefa Investigation into Man City and Liverpool's finances

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QdtdF95xAE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

@AndyhHolt makes a pertinent point about the PFA loaning monies to a club in distress and arguing that there needs to be a way for clubs to have their owners removed for putting their club under serious stress without punishing the club

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 2947704832" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

@theuglygame then makes a wonderful addition to that by pointing out the restrictions in the NFL placed on franchise owners and how they can and have been removed for rule breaches without affecting the viability of the franchise

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1157919762481131520" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

With the transfer season about to close the football about to begin TheAthlectic.com has been the biggest story in football writing for years (see post #1687 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1687" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). The sheer numbers it has recruited displays a deadly serious approach to become the home of football writing online, and it is causing a shake-up in the online reporting marketplace though many will bauk at the regular price and it's immediate desire to narrow the content it pushes at you.

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1158276460559380480" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It has formally launched today and it's journalists (recruited as much for heir twitter following as their writing skills have been promoting on their feeds - there is a lot of hope and goodwill that it will succeed and encourage better journalism across the sport

https://twitter.com/danroan/status/1158275836094681088" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is how theathelic.com see it themselves as to what they will deliver

https://theathletic.co.uk/1079638/2019/ ... in-the-uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Why it has a paywall and why they think you should subscribe

https://theathletic.com/1116415/2019/08 ... subscribe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

one writer who has joined them explains why he joined

https://theathletic.co.uk/1088858/2019/ ... -football/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As does the guy who will be writing about Burnley

https://theathletic.co.uk/1093677/2019/ ... s-to-fans/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

inevitably there is a trial offer if you wish

https://theathletic.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and just as inevitably there are competing offers as the established sources begin to respond

https://twitter.com/SamWallaceTel/statu ... 1827175424" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://offthepitch.com/choose-your-plan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All that is guaranteed is that most of the best and insightful writing will be behind a paywall - will this attempt to profit from football's magic money tree succeed? I get paying for top quality writing, but this Netflix approach (no advertising) means at some point they are going to have to monetise the detailed profiles they will inevitably be building up on subscribers just as Netflix will have too.

Meanwhile I continue to resist paying

[Chester Perry]

For anyone interested TheAthletic's writer on Burnley, Andy Jones, has a twitter account https://twitter.com/adjones_journo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

With the Premier League season due to Kick off on Friday night, along with the new cycle of a tv deal where overseas broadcasting rights will signal a change in revenues and distribution. this tweet https://twitter.com/SportBusiness/statu ... 8529902592" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for an article behind a paywall (yes that again) has left me wondering:

- are the rights sold in Sterling or
- hedged by the Premier League to guarantee a stable income or
- are clubs likely to earn more than currently projected

currently struggling to find answers though not short on ideas of what to do with the surplus -none of which gives the PL clubs more money

[Chester Perry]

Anyone not yet convinced that China wants to hold true to it's desire to by a prominent world player in football by 2050 would do well to read this

http://chinaplus.cri.cn/news/sports/13/ ... 9uKR3HQeY0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the numbers are mind boggling and you would expect that talent has to come out of that

[Chester Perry]

For all net spend is rubbished (understandably so if you have seen post #1848 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1847" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) it is something punters like to see, Here @KieranMaguire (who is no great fan of it) publishes charts showing the nets spend of the big 6 in the Premier League years (also plots bought and sold.

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 2675692544" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

what is astonishing is the level of stability at Man Utd and Liverpool before the last few seasons

[Chester Perry]

@SwissRamble looks at Premier League transfer spend over the last decade of published accounts and it's growing impact on debt

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1158 ... 86433.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Some Burnley fans are going to be surprised at just how much we have spent, especially the net figures

[Chester Perry]

Football Benchmark (KPMG) looks at The Broadcasting deals of the Big 5 European Leagues with particular focus on the big 2 - the Premier league and la Liga

https://www.footballbenchmark.com/libra ... ve_leagues" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting that la Liga believe they will be on level income in 10 years

[Chester Perry]

West Ham (for all their battles with their landlords) and issues with pitch distance, have the best ground rent deal in football. If their landlords were in the championship they would breach FFP as they continue to lose £20m a year managing a stadium that has never been fit for purpose for more than 9 weeks of it's existence

https://www.soccerex.com/insight/articl ... 20m-a-year" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

I have been pondering whether or not to post this given the inclusion of "B" teams - and now all the big 6 are represented (see post #1407 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1406" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

The EFL Trophy has a new sponsor - Leasing.com - you really could not make this up given all the financial troubles in the EFL and especially in Leagues 1 and 2 for whom this competition was originally organised and there is absolutely no sense of irony from the efl either

http://fcbusiness.co.uk/news/efl-trophy ... asing-com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

more on that commitment from China to become a football power

https://twitter.com/mikeygow/status/1158678394504122373" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

30m children to be enrolled in specialist football schools by next year!!!!

[Chester Perry]

We know that Derby are perhaps the most creative when it comes to FFP compliance - @uglygame has a theory about new signing Wayne Rooney being a player/coach even though he is not a qualified coach

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1158709119966240768" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


It is not true as the whole salary counts but such are people's thoughts about Derby these days

btw if Rooney is on £80k pw week that would explain him not coming to Burnley

[Chester Perry]

A special report from @MiguelDelaney in the Independent on the English game - The fight for Football's soul

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 41066.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


It follows on from this one about the death of the 72 in May - see post #1182 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1181" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

More on Derby and their creative approaches to salaries following on from that Rooney story - thanks to @KieranMaguire helping @DanielStorey85 understand the SCMP and P&S FFP rules in the EFL

https://twitter.com/danielstorey85/stat ... 5816716288" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am assuming it's Derby as I don't think Blackpool or Huddersfield would have done this

[Chester Perry]

Conversation.which.co.uk asks - Is English football addicted to betting - John Nicholson is the guest writer

https://conversation.which.co.uk/travel ... erm=twnews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

my favourite comment on this

…."As well as TV ads and shirt/league sponsorship, the relationship between Sky Sports News fueling and firing up transfer rumours, and the (apparently unrelated) Sky Bet taking bets on them should be of great concern to the powers that be."

[Chester Perry]

Javier Tebas who runs laLiga is at it again - on Man City while defending the wholesomeness of Spanish teams and saying that neither Barca or Real have ever benefitted from State aid

https://www.football365.com/news/man-ci ... een-before" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

this is the man who is planning to achieve financial parity with the Premier League in 10 years and who has been sounded out as a replacement for Richard Scudamore

[Chester Perry]

This has been rumbling on for quite some time - 2 former presidents of the German FA and a former senior FIFA official charged with Fraud relating to 2006 World Cup

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49253141" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Swiss Attorney General also accuses Franz Beckenbauer though he is yet to be charged due to ill health

https://twitter.com/david_conn/status/1 ... 3083945985" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

An e-petition has been started to as the government to form an independent regulator of football

https://twitter.com/AgainstLeague3/stat ... 4666162176" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

@uglygame gives his reasons why you should sign

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1158791689844211712" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

remain a little unsure how FIFA would react to this given it's rules on government intervention - but something definitely needs to be done

[Chester Perry]

There is speculation that Amazon could take the UK and Ireland rights for la Liga

https://www.soccerex.com/insight/articl ... ights-deal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting that Sky now have a concrete figure as to what the rights are worth to them - this is the way a lot of international rights could go in the future

[Chester Perry]

It's football fandom - just not as we know it - Hashtag Utd the football club in the 9th tier of the English pyramid with more social media followers than some Premier League clubs including us

https://www.fifa.com/news/hashtag-unite ... nique-path" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

Bein Sport accelerates it's publicity around the ongoing broadcast theft from Saudi Arabia's BeoutQ - from the Telegraph - lots of doom mongering for the Premier League


Exclusive: Saudi piracy could burst Premier League bubble, warn BeIN Sports - 'This is one of the largest heists in corporate history'
by Tom Morgan, Sports News Correspondent - 7 August 2019 • 6:32pm

Premier League clubs are being warned their bubble could burst in the next broadcasting deal after one of their biggest funders recorded a £4billion hit from the ongoing theft of TV rights coverage in the Middle East.

England's top-tier as well as Wimbledon and the Champions League are being used as pawns in a worsening diplomatic spat between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Up to £650million of rights packages for UK sports - the majority of which ends up in Premier League clubs' pockets - will eventually be at "significant risk", broadcaster beIN Sports has now warned.

Yousef Al-Obaidly, CEO of beIN, told The Telegraph: “This is – without doubt – one of the largest and most damaging heists in corporate history."
Saudi-based beoutQ - a pay-per-view service which can be picked up around the world - has been stealing and repackaging broadcasts from Qatari-based beIN Sports for two years.

Should the piracy continue, beIN Sports, which has lost revenue across the Middle East and Africa, is almost certain to reduce its offer for three-year rights packages for UK sport. As one of the biggest overseas rights-holders, a renegotiation could have a devastating impact on overall market values.
The Premier League privately admits that Saudi Arabia's current status as a potential safe-haven for piracy is the greatest legal threat it currently faces.

"It represents a territory where we can't get any legal recourse," a league source said. "That sets a trend that is very worrying. It's what it represents. It's a long-term partner that is badly damaged and we really need to protect them."

Any threat to value of overseas rights for the Premier League could have dramatic consequences. Speaking in May, Richard Masters, the interim chief executive of English soccer’s top flight, revealed that a drop in the value of the league’s domestic rights has been offset by overseas broadcasters, who are paying around 30 per cent more for games during the next three seasons.

The league has now set up an anti-piracy unit in Singapore and has won renewed powers from the High Court to immediately delete illegal streams. However, all attempts to stop beoutQ have fallen flat. Legal threats have fallen on deaf ears and Saudi Arabia has even ignored warnings that Fifa could eventually ban the nation from competing at the World Cup.

Footballing bodies believe the Middle East nation has so far turned a blind eye to so-called "widespread and flagrant" breaches because of its rift with Qatar, where beIN Sports hold the commercial rights for the Middle East. The spat has escalated as Qatar prepares to host the 2022 World Cup.

In May, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee heard evidence that beoutQ had pirated content from “100 UK-based” channels including the BBC, but embassy approaches in Riyadh have failed to yield any breakthrough.

The channel is broadcast on Arabsat - a Saudi-based satellite network - and beIN Sports is convinced that the broadcaster is supported by the Saudi government.

BeIN, which confirmed the saga has cost the broadcaster £4billion in legal fees and lost revenue, said diplomatic sanctions are now the only option. The Premier League, Wimbledon, BBC, Sky and beIN are all now in discussions with the UK Government to find a solution.

Al-Obaidly told the Telegraph: "We know who is doing it, where and how they are doing it and also the reasons why. It is brazen commercial theft by Saudi Arabia and a complete disregard of international law and norms.

“However beoutQ’s destructive actions have direct and long-term financial implications for sport in the UK. The natural consequence of Saudi Arabia’s industrial-scale piracy is that major international broadcasters – who have, to date, invested multi-billions of pounds in the UK economy for exclusive media rights – will refuse to pay those enormous fees in the future."

BeIN’s deal to cover Formula One in the Middle East and Africa, worth an estimated £250 million to £35million, expired at the end of the 2018 season, and the broadcaster did not renew it due to beoutQ.

Al-Obaidly added: "We have already been forced to drop certain sports, including Formula 1, from our investment portfolio because of beoutQ, and we are now factoring-in beoutQ’s piracy into all our commercial negotiations.

"The fact we’ve launched a multi-billion dollar arbitration with the international courts shows the kind of money being lost – this is money that would otherwise be re-invested in UK football teams, sports leagues, grassroots initiatives and also the UK creative industries at large.”

Overseas rights to every Premier League game until 2022 are currently worth a combined £4.2 billion, up from £3.1 billion during the previous three-year cycle. The increase made up for the drop in value of the Premier League’s domestic rights, which Masters said are now worth £5 billion compared to £5.4 billion paid by Sky and BT Sport for the 2016 to 2019 term.

For the Premier League, the Saudi Arabia is a source of huge frustration as it believes it is winning its war on piracy elsewhere.

Most of beoutQ's viewers are in Africa and the Middle East, but the league recently swooped on a shop on north-west London's Edgware Road after investigators discovered it was allegedly selling beoutQ streaming services.

"We normally take much bigger cases, but because this is such a big issue, we have decided to bring a private prosecution," a league source said.
"Apart from Saudi Arabia, the UK is in a really good place. We know piracy is going down. What we have here is a super-block which enables us to do it minute by minute."

One of the most popular illegal streaming service - Ronaldo7 - was closed down after the league tracked the business down to a home in Portugal.
"We turned up at the guy's house and his dad answered the door. Our streams came down very quickly after that. He was getting millions and millions of hits."

The Saudi Government has been contacted for comment. The Telegraph has also made attempts to reach beoutQ.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BeoutQ | All you need to know
What is beoutQ, and how does it work?

BeoutQ is a sophisticated Riyadh-based piracy operation which illegally retransmits beIN Sports channels with a seven second delay, allowing technicians to super-impose “beoutQ” branding on the screen.

The pirate media empire broadcasts 10 live channels of sport. The channels are generally available across the Middle East and North Africa via satellite provider Arabsat. Boxes have been picked up in Europe in recent months.

This summer beoutQ has broadcast the UEFA Champions League Final, FA Cup Final, Scottish Cup Final, the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Wimbledon free of charge. beoutQ is even brazenly running a promotional video for the upcoming Premier League season, the third season it will have stolen without paying for a single right.

Why should I care?
As well as global broadcaster beIN, British broadcasters are also losing hundreds of millions of pounds in overseas revenue. In addition to the Premier League, Wimbledon, Formula 1 and the Six Nations, beoutQ viewers can also use the beoutQ boxes to hack thousands of pirated TV entertainment channels, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT Sport and Sky. BBC and Sky have joined beIN Sports in demanding a Government crackdown because the empire is seriously affecting their ability to sell content into foreign markets.

Surely the multi-billion pound football industry crush beoutQ with its financial clout?
All legal attempts have collapsed over the past two years. The case has been laughed out of court in Saudi Arabia. Last week the Premier League signed an unprecedented joint statement with FIFA, Uefa, the Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A acknowledging that retaining legal counsel was now impossible.

The governing bodies admit they are now seeking a solutio “by other means”, most likely via calls for sanctions against the Saudi government and Saudi Arabian football teams.

The All England Club – owners of Wimbledon – also joined the chorus of condemnation, saying Saudi Arabia was "undermining the commercial value of Wimbledon’s intellectual property all around the world".

What is the UK Government doing about this?
It's a diplomatic nightmare for the Government, and there are no obvious solutions. Approaches to Saudi via the British Embassy in Riyadh have made no progress whatsoever.

Former culture secretary Jeremy Wright had suggested the Government was willing to take tough action in May. “If we want to see good quality sport, we have to make sure that people are able to protect those rights so they can carry on delivering it to us.... as I say there is activity underway.” However, little has happened since, and Wright has now been replaced in the reshuffle.

[Chester Perry]

Remember that story about the Football League turning down the Premier Leagues offer to do the collective bargaining for them in the 90's (see post #673 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... &start=672" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) well @AndyhHolt has today revealed what the share was supposed to be, compare it to the solidarity payment now - about 1% of turnover

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 5914716160" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

Interim Premier League Chief Richard Masters in a wide ranging interview with the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49269545" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

this bit did not go down well within the lower reaches of the footbal league

https://twitter.com/danroan/status/1159191880552390656" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

this from @AndyhHolt


https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 5181881346" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

Popular concept for some on this board - the case for a new stadium for football clubs


https://gameofthepeople.com/2019/08/06/ ... ng-a-club/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

We know Gambling sponsorship is rife across football with many clubs that don't have them on the shirt getting at least as much as those that do from "official betting partners" some clubs have made a stand and said no to gambling like Luton now of the Sky Bet Championship, But what can a club do when your league effectively forces gambling sponsorship on your club when they have been at pains to avoid it - Dulwich Hamlet may have the answer - from the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... ponsorship" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

Different club in different circumstances, but on transfer deadline day for us it would be worth more than a few posters on this board taking the core of this thread in rather than go ballistic at what may or may not come to pass

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 3429966858" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

This was touched on in that Richard Masters Interview with the BBC yesterday - the FA (who in conjunction with the Home Office control visa applications for foreign players) are using Brexit as a means to push the homegrown quota numbers up.


https://www.apnews.com/e4d655709df34b4a954fcb9e03750268" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

We have touched on this before - the Evening Standard on how to fund a mega deal

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/footba ... 08061.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

It is looking ever more likely that this will be a record breaking transfer window for the Premier League after a slow start - that news will be slashed across all the back pages tomorrow - what won't is that that spend is likely to dwarf the GDP of at least 20 nations around the globe


https://twitter.com/sportingintel/statu ... 5887810562" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

Interesting article on Image Rights and how complications with ownership of them has scuppered 2 big transfers into the Premier League this windo

https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/br ... orts-stars" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

A tale of Club and fans uniting against overtly aggressive policing in Germany - Dynamo Dresden stand by their fans

https://twitter.com/ftamsut/status/1154764444020412416" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

@TelegraphDucker has an interesting observation about Man City signing Joao Cancelo

"It’s almost got lost in the transfer window mayhem that Joao Cancelo is now the most expensive full back in history at €65m (£60m). He’s being unveiled shortly by City. £194m expenditure from City on full backs now in two years"

[Chester Perry]

Fan protests as only the German's can do - Tennis Borussia Berlin and their "Caravan of Love" and fight to depose the clubs chairman

https://twitter.com/ftamsut/status/1157949468257456128" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

The first of what is likely to be a large number of articles on this summer's window spend - From offthepict.com (their first article in weeks not behind a paywall)

https://offthepitch.com/a/money-still-s ... ague-clubs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


EDIT - I have to say after re-reading that I am not too convinced of the accuracy of some of those numbers

[Chester Perry]

More on Image rights and how they have scuppered Dyabala's Tottenham move

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 47451.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

The second report in a series from Granada Reports on the financial troubles in football in the region

https://twitter.com/GranadaReports/stat ... 5268260865" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

part one can be found in post #1840 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1839" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

The way the Football Authorities manage the game is bonkers

Huddersfield (quite rightly) charged by for it's kit shenanigans https://twitter.com/FAspokesperson/stat ... 3482502144" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Derby appear to be getting away with something potentially much more serious

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49297120" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chester Perry]

This is really getting out of hand - Arsenal leave 2 players at home because they are worried about criminal activity

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... g-premier/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Which has provoked this piece

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... s-stopped/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;