Football's Magic Money Tree

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Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Feb 16, 2020 1:49 am

More from @SportingIntel on roots of FFP

https://twitter.com/sportingintel/statu ... 6125809664

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... squad.html

you learn something almost everyday
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Feb 16, 2020 2:02 am

Think I realised this though - FFP is not there to make clubs more equal

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 7740992517

though that does seem to be the basis of much of it's criticism

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Feb 16, 2020 2:09 am

@UglyGame understands this but wants the rules to go much further

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1228607339135225856

love the metaphor of Khaldoon Al Murbarak/Mel Morris as Veruca Salt

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Feb 16, 2020 2:29 am

suggestions that the Premier League being obliged to reinvestigate City under it's own FFP rules as a result of the Uefa decision could have far reaching implications

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... HREAT.html

if they do give restrospective points losses (depending on size that could mean that Everton should have had a Champs League place - that is big money they would have lost say the sports lawyers

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Feb 16, 2020 2:36 am

The Mail with what it calls a special report on Man City - asking is this the end

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... oject.html

it does include some solid detail on precedent in this particular area and how in the main City's expensively assembled legal position appears flawed

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Feb 16, 2020 2:06 pm

Sam Wallace in the Telegraph with nothing good to say about anyone in this whole FFP/City saga

Inept and reckless Manchester City walked straight into Uefa’s trap
Sam Wallace - Chief Football Writer 16 February 2020 • 8:00am

from Manchester City executives apparently discussing their Uefa financial fair play sorcery that read like a plot-explainer on a daytime detective show for the benefit of those who had not followed the clues.

There was Ferran Soriano, the chief executive of the City Football Group, counselling that the club’s approach should not identify them as “the global enemies of football”. There was Simon Pearce, one of Abu Dhabi’s closest advisors, declaring “we can do what we want”.

Unforgettably there was CFG lawyer Simon Cliff insisting that the whole operation - relating to image rights and commercial deals - be called “Project Longbow”, in tribute “to the weapon the English used to beat the French at Crecy and Agincourt”.

These sounded like the fantasies of a man who packs a replica chain-mail suit and a box of sandwiches in his car to spend Sundays with other like-minded individuals recreating the 13th century in a rented farmer’s field in Derbyshire. They were certainly not the careful strategy of executives given a unique opportunity to redress the balance in English and European football and propel a recently mediocre club into the elite by challenging the rules designed to stop them.

City have always insisted that the leaks were selective and out of context, “an organised and clear” attempt to damage their reputation as they have preached relentlessly since the first revelations in late 2018. But now they find themselves isolated by the elite they sought to join, outmanoeuvred and, for the first time in a long time, vulnerable.

It is a rotten system, and yet they have delivered their own strategy with all the competence of a company of Sealed Knot archers firing into a Storm Ciara headwind.

At the heart of City’s two-year Champions League ban and €30 million fine is the dismal reality that there is no side to cheer on in all this. Not the City execs, delighted with themselves at the not-at-all blatant inflation of commercial contracts or pumped-up image right funds. Not the opaque Abu Dhabi fortune driving them onwards, from an absentee owner in a non-democratic nation presented as the benevolent saviour of east Manchester. And certainly not the old European elite determined to stitch-up entry to the Champions League and preserve their status forever, a collection of dinosaur fossils guaranteed the prime spot in the museum foyer.

from Manchester City executives apparently discussing their Uefa financial fair play sorcery that read like a plot-explainer on a daytime detective show for the benefit of those who had not followed the clues.

There was Ferran Soriano, the chief executive of the City Football Group, counselling that the club’s approach should not identify them as “the global enemies of football”. There was Simon Pearce, one of Abu Dhabi’s closest advisors, declaring “we can do what we want”.

Unforgettably there was CFG lawyer Simon Cliff insisting that the whole operation - relating to image rights and commercial deals - be called “Project Longbow”, in tribute “to the weapon the English used to beat the French at Crecy and Agincourt”.

These sounded like the fantasies of a man who packs a replica chain-mail suit and a box of sandwiches in his car to spend Sundays with other like-minded individuals recreating the 13th century in a rented farmer’s field in Derbyshire. They were certainly not the careful strategy of executives given a unique opportunity to redress the balance in English and European football and propel a recently mediocre club into the elite by challenging the rules designed to stop them.

City have always insisted that the leaks were selective and out of context, “an organised and clear” attempt to damage their reputation as they have preached relentlessly since the first revelations in late 2018. But now they find themselves isolated by the elite they sought to join, outmanoeuvred and, for the first time in a long time, vulnerable.

It is a rotten system, and yet they have delivered their own strategy with all the competence of a company of Sealed Knot archers firing into a Storm Ciara headwind.

At the heart of City’s two-year Champions League ban and €30 million fine is the dismal reality that there is no side to cheer on in all this. Not the City execs, delighted with themselves at the not-at-all blatant inflation of commercial contracts or pumped-up image right funds. Not the opaque Abu Dhabi fortune driving them onwards, from an absentee owner in a non-democratic nation presented as the benevolent saviour of east Manchester. And certainly not the old European elite determined to stitch-up entry to the Champions League and preserve their status forever, a collection of dinosaur fossils guaranteed the prime spot in the museum foyer.

After that there comes the problem of an aging squad that will require an extensive rebuild over the next two years without the Uefa income, £77.5 million last year alone. It is as yet unclear what shortfall the £389 million investment in ten per cent of CFG from the US private equity group Silver Lake in November may cover. Beyond, the growing network of eight CFG clubs offers a legitimate way of generating FFP-clean revenue.

It remains an astonishing truth about football that one of the richest clubs outside the elite now see the only way to join it, and perhaps win a Champions League, is by building the kind of towering global infrastructure that CFG now have. That executives head-hunted and well-rewarded can see no way round the problem other than secretive commercial arrangements back-funded by their own paymasters.

Brian Clough once won a European Cup with a team he had built to get promoted from Division Two. Soriano has tried to win it by building a multi-national corporation. City’s FFP legacy could be that everyone can see the con now, the giant super-club stitch-up endorsed by Uefa to keep out the new money and the desperate measures one newcomer went to circumvent them.

Project Longbow is over, the flask of tea is empty, the quivers and chain-mail are back in the car boot and it is time for everyone to go home. Yet the battle served some purpose. It showed no-one has found a way to thrive against these odds.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Feb 16, 2020 2:19 pm

Barney Ronay in the Guardian on the implications for City if they lose their appeal - break-up of the team would be inevitable

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -butterfly

The gallows humour for some would call it Cityitus

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Feb 16, 2020 4:18 pm

Back to posts not about that Man City ban

@SwissRamble does his wondrous analysis on Watford's 2018/19 financial results - he is really quite positive about them

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 1039618048

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Feb 16, 2020 4:20 pm

Tom Reed on Football365.com - Premxit: Why a breakaway from the Premier League by the Football League and non-league could be good for English football’s soul. Is it time time to leave football’s greed clubs out on their own?

https://www.football365.com/news/premxi ... id-opinion

I don't think this is fully thought out

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Feb 16, 2020 10:53 pm

Everton are to cut the 5 year shirt sponsorship deal with SportPesa at the end of the season

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... sportpesa/

It looks like they want a none gambling sponsor (following much protest from their own fans) and that they think that they can get more money - there is always Farhad Moshri's mate Alisher Usmanov - who has thrown several sponsorship deals their way including one for the training ground that is bigger than the current shirt deal

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:40 am

A very informative thread on the origins of UEFA's FFP

https://twitter.com/lovefutebol/status/ ... 8963009538

- note how far back that work goes - pre Abramovich at Chelsea, never mind the City and PSG revolutions

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 12:43 am

@SportingIntel has more "good news" for the MAn City directors

https://twitter.com/sportingintel/statu ... 7883110401

though I am sure that they were aware of that already - it really is a self destruct mission

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:03 pm

Price of Football Podcast - Monday is questions day - as ever we learn something new - not sure why I didn't realise that clubs pay VAT on transfers

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t ... 526c55826e

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 4:33 pm

It seems that the media focus of the Man City ban has now turned on the potential threat to Uefa and FFP

Football365 with a large tranche of input we are familiar with from Simon Chadwick

https://www.football365.com/news/ffp-sc ... eal-expert

Dan Roan at the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51528427

and Jonathon Wilson in the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... t-for-uefa

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 5:45 pm

David Conn effectively verifies the independent's clam that UEFA investigators had other sources than football leaks for their proof of wrong doing by City in overstating sponsorship

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... not-etihad

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 7:48 pm

A good article explaining the core functions of an elite Academy by one of the architects of the EPPP, Ged Roddy - from Training Ground Guru

https://trainingground.guru/articles/ge ... te-academy

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:22 pm

It appears that Everton have not been quite so truthful in explaining why they have cut short the deal with SportPesa - they have defaulted on the agreement

https://twitter.com/jonrest/status/1229426738393997312

something of a growing trend - I have posted about a few other such cases in recent months - though not the primary shirt sponsor as far as I am aware

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:41 pm

The Asian Football Confederation is claiming a 21% reduction in match fixing since 2013

https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/afc- ... g-in-asia/

Whilst the trend is welcome is this something to brag about - you know that after 7 years of concentrated activity we still have 79% of the match fixing we had before this effort to stop it

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:48 pm

Posted many times on here (often using the work of Simon Chadwick) about the inherent risks of accepting sponsorship from overseas and then reacting to events in those countries through a western perspective. The NBA have admitted that a single tweet about the demonstrations in Hong Kong from a manager in one of their franchises has cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue

https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/hong ... -millions/

The NBA defended the individual's right - Arsenal and the Premier League did little to connect with Mesut Ozil and his tweet

EDIT a reminder - this is the kind of things OZIL was protesting about

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-51520622

many more of us probably should to
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 10:48 pm

Jonathan Liew in the Guardian with a comment column on the Abu Dhabi regime and how their approach is mirrored at Man City - absolutely no punches pulled here

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... lying-down

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Feb 17, 2020 10:59 pm

meanwhile in the Telegraph Tom Morgan and Jason Burt say that City will focus on the crumbs of comfort they got from CAS

Manchester City will focus on 'worrisome' Uefa leaks to try and get Champions League ban overturned
City have until the end of this week to formally state their wish to appeal again to the Court of Arbitration for Sport
By Tom Morgan, Sports News Correspondent and Jason Burt, Chief Football Correspondent 17 February 2020 • 3:22pm

Manchester City's lawyers believe they can overturn their two year Champions League ban by seizing upon prior Court of Arbitration for Sport findings that alleged confidential leaks by Uefa were "worrisome".

Dressing room sources say Pep Guardiola and their players have received strong assurances from the club that their legal teams are confident of success by the end of May.

City are now expected to wage war on the investigative process behind the sanctions brought by Uefa in their fresh appeal to be launched at the Swiss court within days.

The club have been collecting alleged "leaks of confidential information" by Uefa since the governing body launched the probe more than a year ago in the wake of German magazine Der Spiegel alleging almost £60 million was paid directly into the club by their billionaire Arab owners, but declared as sponsorship. In a hint of how the club might fight any subsequent ban, a hacked email from club lawyer Simon Cliff read: “Khaldoon (Al Mubarak, the City chairman) said he would rather spend £30million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue them for the next ten years.”

City subsequently hired three legal teams last year to get the case thrown out. The pre-emptive bid failed, but the panel gave the club hope by stating their case is "not...entirely without merit". "The alleged leaking of information by members of the investigatory chamber or the Uefa administration about the proceedings against MCFC is worrisome," the previous Cas verdict added. While the two year ban imposed on Friday came as a shock, the Daily Telegraph understands the club were quick to tell players they would be successful on appeal.

The "worrisome" line, meanwhile, in the previous Cas verdict is said to be a particular source of optimism for the club's lawyers. City sources state that they are approaching the situation with a “clear, calm head”.

Initially, when news of a Uefa investigation became public, City refused to acknowledge the evidence against them on the basis that it was allegedly obtained illegally by Rui Pinto, who is said to have amassed 70 million documents from personal email accounts from clubs across Europe. He is still awaiting trial from a Lisbon jail cell.

However City statements have since become increasingly critical of Uefa, presumably because legal experts are doubtful that Cas would rule the evidence as inadmissible merely on the basis that it was hacked. There is little chance too of City arguing outright against FFP regulations, given they have raised no previous cases since the rules were introduced in 2010-11.

City have until the end of this week to formally state their wish to appeal again to Cas and the club is certain to restate many of the arguments it sent last year which claimed Uefa's Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) had conducted “unlawful activities” prior to launching sanctions.

Should they fail to get the result they want from Cas, they could pursue the case at the Swiss Supreme Court. Uefa, which is desperate for the matter to be concluded prior to next season's Champions League first round draw, has stated it will be guided by Cas only. City are legally entitled to appeal again, however, and could cite the 14-month cocaine ban issued to Paolo Guerrero, which was temporarily lifted to allow the Peru captain to compete in the 2018 World Cup. In that case, Fifa accepted the Swiss Federal Tribunal's case to lift the anti-doping case while it pursued that matter following a disputed Cas verdict.

Uefa said last Friday that the two year punishment against City was based on "serious breaches of the Uefa Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations by overstating its sponsorship revenue in its accounts and in the break-even information submitted to Uefa between 2012 and 2016".
The punishment was issued by Uefa's Adjudicatory Chamber of the CFCB, which the governing body insists has an "independent" mandate. A one-year ban was doubled, it has been suggested, over the club's failure to cooperate in the investigation.

The fresh appeal could be heard in a matter of weeks if Cas are able to clear a backlog of cases linked to the Olympics. A three-person panel will be set up, with City and Uefa allowed to select one panellist each from a wider panel of arbitrators. The parties will decide between them whether the hearing can be held in public.

City will assemble a huge legal team, and are likely to retain Monckton Chambers, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London and Kellerhals Carrard in Lugano, Switzerland. Eight of their lawyers were present for the previous Cas verdict which ultimately ruled out their first appeal because “internal remedies” had not been exhausted.

In November, the panel said they were "mindful not to trespass into the authority" of Uefa's Adjudicatory Chamber, which passed down its two year ban last week.

"However, it must be noted that MCFC’s complaints as to the leaks do not, on a prima facie basis, appear to be entirely without merit, particularly concerning the First and Second Leak, […], and the Fifth Leak, which refers to an 'insider' at Uefa as the source," court papers state.

The Telegraph was among four newspapers to first report that City were at risk of a Champions League ban in December 2018. However, City took particular issue with subsequent statements confirming a ban was possible from chief financial investigator, Yves Leterme.

The club was enraged by the New York Times reporting in May last year that the investigatory committee was pushing for a one-year ban. Several days later Uefa announced the case would go to the CFCB’s separate adjudicatory chamber for a final decision.

As a result, City told Cas that Uefa should be ordered to undertake a “full investigation into the sources of the leaks in order to identify and take disciplinary measures against the identified sources”.

Uefa, the club said, should then pay “damages to be assessed for losses incurred as a result of the respondent’s conduct”. Unless the issue is resolved by May, the Premier League season will finish with the team in fifth unsure whether they will be playing in the Champions League next season.
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If City do win on these grounds of a lack of impartiality of the UEFA FFP panel then that would suggest every decision by almost every ethics body in sport could be challenged the same way. FIFA and the IOC et etc fund their ethics panels. - that would be a revolution to eclipse all that went before it, and leave sport in turmoil for decades

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:08 am

@MiguelDelaney with the 3rd part of is report on the modern game which started with "Broken beyond repair" - this piece unfortunately behind a paywall (as more and more is) you can register for a premium article per week - like me - looks like it has had a substantial rewrite since Friday afternoon

How capitalist self-interest took football’s soul
Football is now primarily driven by greed, coming right down from the top. As Miguel Delaney outlines that is the one thing that has trickled down the pyramid, even if the money hasn’t

Amid the ructions of the last few days, one particular narrative has emerged, that deserves significant scrutiny. Sources close to Manchester City have attempted to spin the idea that they have effectively been punished by a process that has been conditioned by a cabal of old-money clubs.

It’s a curious perspective when City have themselves been only too willing to be part of the cabal in other ways. Football Leaks showed they have been involved in discussions for a European super league, a threat has used by the big clubs to leverage almost every discussion in the game towards them. Club officials – particularly CEO Ferran Soriano – have meanwhile led the charge as regards motions to increase resource distribution towards the biggest and wealthiest clubs.

All of this does prove one thing, that is central to the City Financial Fair Play story and its wider context.

Football – that most universal and collective of cultural pursuits – is now primarily driven by capitalist self-interest, coming right down from the top. That is one thing that has trickled down, even if money hasn’t.

It is an issue that has left renowned football historian David Goldblatt aghast.

“I think it’s a really dismal prospect,” he tells The Independent. “Football clubs were really special in that regard, because you couldn’t centralise them. That’s important in this country in particular, where local institutions and governance are so weak. We’re going to lose that – or it’s going to be greatly diminished.

“It’s a consequence of super-unequal, super-centralised global capitalism. The big picture with globalisation is that it always produces winners and losers, but produces a lot more losers than winners, and creates these self-perpetuating spirals in a political and ideological context in which for 40 years people say ‘you can’t intervene, you can’t intervene’. And this is the consequence.”

Intervention with the FFP case an City may well split the game, because of the will of the club’s petrostate owners to take this to the end in what is set to be a legal war. It is just another case of cash dictating the game, but to a greater degree than ever before.

“The football market has got bigger and bigger and bigger but, it’s not quite winner takes all, it’s a small number of oligarchs. Football is generating all of this gigantic income through sponsorship or television rights but most of it has been grabbed by the very biggest.

“I think the other thing that’s worth thinking about in this context, in the same way as in the global economy, the rich are able to accumulate and accumulate and accumulate. In the absence of redistributive systems, in the form of taxation on benefits or whatever, the poor are getting poorer, even in the richest countries.

“In terms of inequalities inside European football, the EU and Uefa have enough power between them to regulate football. And i have to say myself, I look at the Liverpools and Barcelonas and their endless desire for money and I just think what’s the f***ing point? It’s not like you’re making a profit here. No one’s doing this to make a profit, so what are you doing it for? You know, in a kind of death spiral of ever-smaller number of clubs fighting it out… well what’s the point? I don’t see the point. I really do think that these people running the clubs are locked into a way of thinking that is sort of self-destructive and they justify themselves by saying we must have more money so we can have better teams so we can put on a better product and it’s like… really? Who wants to watch the European super league anyway? Inter-Chelsea four times a season?

“It’s the mad dynamic of capital accumulation, but without profit, and that seems to me very odd that mindset from a very small number of people should be driving what is a collective experience for millions of people.

“The language that everybody uses is ‘the game’, ‘what’s the meaning of this for the game’, but so many people seem to be looking at this from their own very, very narrow short-term perspective. And that’s a product of our society. Everybody thinks about themselves. Nobody thinks about collective projects in the same way. I think that’s part of the problem. All sorts of change I think it would happen if people took their heads out of their own club’s arse, and looked up around and saw what’s the common good.

“It has crept up. Social media illustrates it. It’s like everybody in this thing is always thinking just about themselves and their own club. Football is obviously a collective, cultural experience, that we all collectively own. What’s the point of being Liverpool if there are no other football clubs? What’s the point of having every single great player in the world in your team if you have no one to play.

“No football club is going to take over. In any other economic sector, people try and take their competitors over, right, but obviously that doesn’t happen in football. People think the unit of analysis is the club, but actually the game as a whole should be the unit of economic analysis and people don’t see this.”

This in itself is most clearly seen with this oncoming battle.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:16 am

The recent events re Man City has seen the re-surfacing of this blog piece from September 2018 on Jeep Calm talk Law on FFP - it can dift into Legalese but is worth the persistence

http://www.keepcalmtalklaw.co.uk/financ ... nthusiasm/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:42 am


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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:51 am

which provoked @AndyhHolt amongst others

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/12 ... 8989712386

here is @UglyGame https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1229491332017774597

Though Vysyble have proposed something they believe would be a better approach to regulation

https://vysyble.com/blog-13th-march-2019 - (I posted this last year but no harm re-linking)
This user liked this post: Heathclaret

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:21 pm

Wolves have posted their 2018/19 financial results - @KieranMAguire looks at how they did financially in their first season back in the Premier League

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 8455798785

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:41 pm

It seems UEFA now have the bit between their teeth re Man City - they are now reportedly investigating the clubs sponsorship deals since 2016 - cue calls of victimisation - David Conn with the details in the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... s-football

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:31 pm

Miguel Delaney's recent features have been met with a lot of angst primarily about our pyramid - this article sits well alongside those articles - it looks at life in leagues outside the big 5 in Europe - European club competition is as has previously be described is killing these leagues

https://www.thescore.com/uefa/news/1907 ... gue-facade

Interestingly the ECA have been make a similar kind of argument - but it is only interested in it's members taking part in the European grand prize draw not the leagues from which they emanate and often dominate

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:44 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:21 pm
Wolves have posted their 2018/19 financial results - @KieranMAguire looks at how they did financially in their first season back in the Premier League

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 8455798785
Decent enough set of accounts for Wolves, and a massive leap forward from their last season in the Championship.

Interesting graph showing comparable average weekly Wages within the Premier League. Burnley's average of £37,931 is presumably based on our total Wage bill of £81.6 million year to Jun.'18. That total figure included some £23 million in incentive bonuses for finishing 7th, so without such a high final league placing our average would not have been that disimilar to Huddersfield.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:57 pm

Royboyclaret wrote:
Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:44 pm
Interesting graph showing comparable average weekly Wages within the Premier League. Burnley's average of £37,931 is presumably based on our total Wage bill of £81.6 million year to Jun.'18. That total figure included some £23 million in incentive bonuses for finishing 7th, so without such a high final league placing our average would not have been that disimilar to Huddersfield.
Roy, no doubt we will see that played out in a few weeks when our financial results are released

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Tue Feb 18, 2020 8:40 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:57 pm
Roy, no doubt we will see that played out in a few weeks when our financial results are released
Aye, frustratingly, another 6 weeks before we see anything disclosed by our Club. A tricky one to forecast this time particularly with the broadcast merit payments for us being significantly different as a result of finishing 15th as opposed to 7th the previous season.

At £1.9m per place our Turnover will more likely be in the region of £125m (£139m to Jun.'18). No doubt the Wage bill will also be affected for the same reason with incentive bonuses being somewhat less than the year before.

Another key factor will also be a significant reduction in Profit on Player Sales with just Sam Vokes, I think, being the only major sale (So £30.9m profit on Keane and Gray replaced by some £9m for Vokes). Originally I had Tom Heaton included also but his sale to Villa came at the end of Jul.'19 and therefore outside of the financial year end.

So, all in all, a tricky P&L account bottom line to predict. How do you see the figure panning out Chester P ?

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:00 pm

I think we will be closer to £130m turnover, the Europa League qualifiers, additional sponsorship and TV for those couple of games and the measly £0.6m in UEFA prize money give the additional revenue. I would be shocked if the Europa adventure made money or even broke even.

I expect we will announce our usual operating profit of around £10m - £15m which is why we have been so carful in the transfer market, this season, choosing instead to extend contracts of those who continue to perform well for us

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:22 pm

So, perhaps headline P&L figures approximately below, figures in brackets to Jun.'18 :-

Turnover £130m (£139m)
Wages £75m (£82m)
Overheads £15m (£13m)
Player Amortisation £28m (£28m)
Other Depreciation £2m (£2m)
Operating Profit £10m (£14m)
Profit on Player sale £9m (£31m)

Net Profit before tax to Jun.'19 £19m (£45m).

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:36 pm

Royboyclaret wrote:
Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:22 pm
So, perhaps headline P&L figures approximately below, figures in brackets to Jun.'18 :-

Turnover £130m (£139m)
Wages £75m (£82m)
Overheads £15m (£13m)
Player Amortisation £28m (£28m)
Other Depreciation £2m (£2m)
Operating Profit £10m (£14m)
Profit on Player sale £9m (£31m)

Net Profit before tax to Jun.'19 £19m (£45m).
Roy I think player Amortisation will be closer to £35m care of Vydra, Gibson, Hart - another reason for the careful approach in the Transfer market - though this season has been helped a little by extended deals.

We are getting close to having to sell one of our stars if we want to freshen the squad up I suspect

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Tue Feb 18, 2020 10:39 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:36 pm
Roy I think player Amortisation will be closer to £35m care of Vydra, Gibson, Hart - another reason for the careful approach in the Transfer market - though this season has been helped a little by extended deals.

We are getting close to having to sell one of our stars if we want to freshen the squad up I suspect
Take your point re Vydra and Gibson, but note that the Player additions figure to Jun.'16 was £21.9m. Amortisation on those potential three-year contracts will quite probably drop out within the Jun.'19 figure.

Surely there's no requirement now to sell in order to freshen up the squad. Cash at Bank was in excess of £34m to Jun.'18 and that figure can only have increased in the meantime.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Feb 19, 2020 8:54 pm

The German football league has released it's annual Economic report - Revenues are up to record level in both Bundesliga 1 and 2 and around 70% of clubs made a profit - full report is available at the bottom of the press release

https://www.dfl.de/en/news/2020-dfl-eco ... dium=email

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Devils_Advocate » Wed Feb 19, 2020 11:35 pm


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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Feb 20, 2020 8:58 am

The EFL have posted their 2018/19 Accounts - apparently they do not count the expulsion of Bury as a significant event post the accounts - @KieranMaguire has a look

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 7751248896

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:01 am

The Price of Football Podcast Thursday edition - West Ham, Forest Green - environmental sustainability v economic sustainability and that Sheffield Wednesday season Ticket offer

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t ... 1482886394

believe this is the first time I did not learn anything new

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:54 pm

As someone posted on twitter - "I am shocked, well, not that shocked" - Nasser Al-Khelaifi (chairman of BeIN and Paris Saint-Germain president) indicted over the award of FIFA World Cup rights. He is also the ECA's representative on the UEFA Executive Committee - Charge relates to World Cup Media rights

https://twitter.com/RobHarris/status/12 ... 8135318533

should say not the least bit surprised that he had already don a deal with FIFA to get the principal charge dropped (I posted that article from Simon Chadwick about this preferred way of working many months ago) - this is why he is screaming his innocence to anyone who cares to listen

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 4195431424

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Feb 20, 2020 5:55 pm

IT would appear that Amazon's foray into Premier League football has been a fabulous success - hardly a surprise given they essentially got the rights at cost - the real question is will it encourage them to take on more packages in the future and pay more, much more for them

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/ ... ague-debut

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Feb 20, 2020 8:32 pm

David Conn picks up an intriguing nuance in that in-house produced interview with Man City's Ferran Soriano

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -the-power

has something finally clicked with them

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:32 pm

It sounds like an echo of some Championship clubs displeasure with the EFL's TV deal - Lyon are kicking off about the value of the French Leagues overseas TV deal (it does look very small)

https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/aula ... ights-row/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Feb 21, 2020 12:04 am

This New Statesman article argues that football is worth more than money to the North and that government policy makers need to understand - features input from Simon Chadwick and @KieranMaguire

https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/ ... tiful-game

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Feb 21, 2020 12:05 am

The new online edition of FC Business is out

https://cloud.3dissue.com/6374/7271/131 ... .html?r=25

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Feb 21, 2020 5:27 pm

Southend with yet another winding up petition from HMRC at the high court next month

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/3501204

the EFL should have a league table based on appearances at the high court without actually being wound up

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Feb 22, 2020 10:54 am

Preston have released their 2018/19 financial results @KieranMaguire takes a look

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 2531827713

looks like Trevor is making a big push for that promotion he has long dreamed of - at it again this season

I would also add that the revenue figures would be similar to us in that division without parachute payments

Full Accounts here https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/docu ... c74067c71d
Last edited by Chester Perry on Sat Feb 22, 2020 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Feb 22, 2020 11:35 am

the latest edition of Sky Italia's Football Benchmark looks at the new edition of KMPG's Champion's report - as ever subtitles are to be found at the 5th icon in from the bottom right of the screen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kCAfsS ... e=youtu.be

you can read the actual report here

https://www.footballbenchmark.com/docum ... 20_WEB.pdf

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Feb 22, 2020 12:25 pm

An FT podcast looking at the Oil money coming into sport

https://play.acast.com/s/ft-news/b8655b ... c6d4ec489d

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Feb 22, 2020 12:38 pm

@DrRob_Wilson returns to the Marketing Unfiltered Podcast to discuss the Man City ban

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m ... 1495250383

as ever some solid reasoned thinking from Rob Wilson here

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