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 » Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:01 pm

Indeed Roy, I sometimes get the feeling that for all the panic we see on this board that if we can stay in the Premier League this season (no small ask, but possible), and Covid carries it's closed door games into next season then we will actually be in a much more robust situation than everyone else because we will be living with minimal losses and no debt. Everyone else will likely have debt in the £100m + (some at £200m+, even £300m +) still running up losses and with playing assets much reduced in value.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 02, 2020 9:33 pm

The Premier League has offered to bail out Championship clubs that can demonstrate a need - subject to restrictions from the Telegraph - I think this kind of offer was always going to be made - though I wonder who is going to bail our club out

Premier League agrees to bail out Championship clubs but only those in need
A rescue package for Championship clubs has been a sticking point during negotiations

By -Ben Rumsby - 2 November 2020 • 7:05pm

The Premier League has finally agreed to bail out Championship clubs – but only those who can demonstrate genuine need.

Telegraph Sport has been told that the world’s richest league last week submitted a revised coronavirus rescue package to the English Football League to include second-tier sides, two weeks after their first was rejected.

The precise value of the offer is unclear but Telegraph Sport has been told it is designed to help only those clubs who do not have owners wealthy enough to bail them out without help.

That could mean at least half of the Championship being excluded.

Clubs in receipt of parachute payments – there are currently seven in the division – may also face restrictions over their access to any rescue package.

Any Championship bailout would be on top of the £50 million offered last month to League One and Two clubs, which they rejected out of solidarity with their second-tier counterparts.

The EFL board is expected to discuss the latest offer at a meeting this week and could make a recommendation over whether it is accepted ahead of a vote of clubs next week.

A failure to agree a bailout last month heightened fears several clubs could go bust before a package of financial assistance was agreed.

But the Premier League subsequently issued an open invitation to Championship clubs as well as those from Leagues One and League Two to make direct pleas for help if they were facing financial ruin.

The Government has repeatedly made it clear it expects the world’s richest league to bail out the rest of the professional game and would not be stepping in itself.

But in a stark letter last week to Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, EFL chairman Rick Parry wrote “it is clear that top-flight clubs are also feeling the effects of the pandemic... it may not be in a position to provide the level of support that is required”.

He added: “For some reason, football is being regarded as a peculiarly undeserving case and, as a result, many of our clubs have now reached the conclusion that we are at best being ignored by a Government that doesn’t understand our national sport and at worst being victimised by it.

“Ultimately, the football public will judge the performance of this Conservative government on how many football clubs remain in business once the pandemic finally subsides.

“Certainly, those communities that are inextricably linked to their local team will never forgive it if their beloved football clubs are driven into extinction.”

The Premier League and EFL both declined to comment last night on the latest bailout offer.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 02, 2020 10:04 pm

The first of a 2 part Interview from SportsProMedia with Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani (I am expecting part 2 tomorrow) - If you want to know what a Sports based venture capital fund can do this is a shining example (and it is only just getting going) - still not sure why such an organisation would pick Burnley though yes I do mean ALK (if they didn't believe they could change the team's location, franchise style).

‘I expect them to be the underdog’: Andrea Radrizzani talks rebuilding Leeds United
Premier League club owner, media mogul, technology investor, philanthropist: Andrea Radrizzani spins many plates all at once. The most public-facing of those is running Leeds United, English soccer's fallen giants that are now back on the path to success.

Posted: November 2 2020 By: Michael Long

Andrea Radrizzani is in a hurry. “I didn’t realise it was 5pm until a few minutes ago,” he says apologetically, sliding into the rear seat of a vehicle, mobile phone positioned just below his chin. “I hope it’s not a big problem.”

His likeness on the screen jitters and pixellates as he shuffles into position. The Italian is on his way to Leeds, the Yorkshire city he has come to know well, and by the sound of it he’s running late.

“Ah look,” he exhales as the car pulls away, “I’m very busy but I enjoy it because I’m very passionate about what I do and I have a very good group of executives. Without them what we are doing would be impossible so it’s very important I have good people around to manage the projects.”

The projects of which Radrizzani speaks are numerous. Over the past five years Aser Ventures, the global investment firm he founded and chairs, has been busy amassing interests across sport, media and technology. Aser’s portfolio is headlined by Eleven Sports, the multinational broadcaster Radrizzani formed in 2015, and Leeds United, one of English soccer’s most storied clubs. But its tentacles stretch far and wide, spanning everything from the digital media network Whistle and technology provider Sports Data Labs to the soccer-focused mobile app OneFootball and NEO Studios, a fledgling production company. Its most recent venture is LiveNow, a new streaming service offering pay-per-view (PPV) access to live events across sports, music and entertainment.

Within sports industry circles, Radrizzani himself is perhaps best known as a co-founder of MP & Silva, the international media rights agency he established in 2004. The company built its business buying and selling rights to Italian soccer’s Serie A and other major properties around the world, and at its 2016 peak, when Radrizzani began the process of divesting his interest, it was valued at over US$1 billion.

“When I started Aser Ventures, my vision was to create the first investment platform in Europe dedicated to sports and media,” he explains, speaking to SportsPro in mid-September, shortly before Leeds are due to take on Hull City in the Carabao Cup. “I thought to myself, ‘okay, before I can go into the financial market to approach investors, I need to show that I can deliver good results’. So I needed to do it myself first. If I’m good, then other people will be happy to invest with me.

“That’s basically what I’m doing. In the fifth year, we’re finally seeing some good developments in all the projects we have started, like Eleven, or turned around, like Leeds United. Even the other companies are going pretty well so I’m quite satisfied and I’m happy with what we have achieved.”

Having cultivated an investment network that stretches from San Francisco to Qatar, Radrizzani has become something of a conduit through which venture capital flows into and through sport. Investment partnerships with private equity firm Corrum Capital and 49ers Enterprises, the venture arm of the San Francisco 49ers National Football League (NFL) franchise, have served to accelerate Aser’s acquisitive streak, helping the company to amass, at the time of writing, a portfolio comprising ten companies.

“In the first phase of our investment platform project, I wanted to do a lot with my own capital and my own ideas,” says Radrizzani. “Going forward, when we might disinvest some of these assets, we will look at more profitable businesses, not only turnarounds or startups.”

Radrizzani explains that he always looks to create value and build synergies across his burgeoning network. Many of the businesses within the Aser network provide B2B solutions and services, such as content production and marketing expertise, to the three crown jewels of the portfolio - namely Eleven Sports, Leeds United, and LiveNow.

One example of how this synergy works in practice is NEO Studios’ work for Leeds United, whose 'Take us Home' fly-on-the-wall docuseries is distributed via Amazon Prime Video in the UK and by broadcasters around the world. NEO Studios and Whistle also helped Eleven Sports plug the programming void left when live sport was suspended due to Covid-19.

“Normally when I look into new companies and new services for investment I want to create value in the chain and integrate the other businesses,” Radrizzani continues. “So we might invest in an agency dedicated to social media, like a digital agency, and also CRM, like data analytics companies. This can help the ecosystem that we have created within the group, so they can work for our own companies but at the same time create new services and build businesses in the market.”

For sports teams everywhere, Leeds United have come to serve as both a cautionary tale and a symbol of hope.

After scaling the heady heights of the Uefa Champions League semifinals in 2001, a year in which they also finished fourth in the Premier League, the three-time English champions found themselves relegated from the top division just three years later. Thrust into a tailspin and laden with debt, the club were soon forced to sell Elland Road, their hallowed home turf, and by 2007 they had entered voluntary administration, prompting a mandatory points deduction which confirmed their relegation to the third-tier League One.

Over the course of the ensuing decade, countless managers and players came and went. A period of turbulence on and off the field stoked supporter protests and ownership turmoil until Massimo Cellino, the then-president of Serie A side Cagliari, finally succeeded in acquiring the club in April of 2014. But like those preceding it, the Cellino era was overshadowed by persistent unrest. The Italian’s conviction for financial malfeasance in his homeland led to his disqualification as a Football League club owner, and after years of bitter wrangling with soccer authorities in England he was left with little choice but to sell.

By January 2017, Cellino had found a willing suitor in the shape of Radrizzani, who moved to purchase half of his compatriot’s shares before completing a full buyout in May of that year. Armed with the spoils of his sale of MP & Silva, he quickly set about restoring Leeds’ former lustre. Elland Road was notably repurchased within a month, and a year after buying the team Radrizzani dug deep into his own pockets to hire Marcelo Bielsa, striking a deal that would make the revered Argentinian coach the highest-paid manager in Leeds’ 100-year history. The gamble paid off. This July, within weeks of sport’s post-lockdown resumption, the club ended their longest-ever spell outside England’s top flight, securing their long-awaited return to the Premier League as winners of the Championship.

For Radrizzani, one of the most accessible and hands-on owners in the English game, a public figure who regularly interacts with his 125,000 followers on Twitter, club ownership is undoubtedly a passion project. But there is no denying the self-confessed soccer lover harbours lofty ambitions for a team whose recent resurgence was, in many respects, long overdue.

Days before his call with SportsPro, Radrizzani watched from the Anfield terraces as his club lined up against Premier League champions Liverpool in their first top-flight match for 16 years. It was, he says, a moment of immense personal pride, a chance to properly reflect on the impressive turnaround he himself had inspired.

“It was probably one of the best days of my life because it was the first time in my life that I took time to enjoy the achievement,” he recalls. “In my life I never really enjoyed any achievement, even when I got a degree or when I sold MP & Silva or when I launched Eleven. At the end I was really always focused immediately on the next goal or the next activity, and so I never stopped, like a machine.

“It was the first time ever that I enjoyed a moment to think about my journey. I was thinking about when I was young, as a child, and I was dreaming of becoming a player, and then maybe one day I’d have my own club. This time it was for real; I had my club and it was going to play against the best, in the best league in the world.

“That moment was really a moment of joy. It was the first time that I realised what I’m doing and where I am.”

Prior to the Liverpool game, which Leeds lost 4-3 despite putting in a gutsy performance and equalising on three occasions, Radrizzani says he spoke to his players as a collective, taking the opportunity to set the tone for what promises to be a stern fight for survival in world soccer’s richest, and arguably toughest, competition.

“What I said to the team the day before is what I expect of them is to be the underdog, to be the challenger, to be a team that is always hard to beat,” he says. “That’s exactly what they did in their first appearance in the Premier League, so it made me very proud.”

Financially speaking, Radrizzani acknowledges that securing promotion this year took on added significance, not only due to the sustained investment it took to get there, but also because of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the 2018/19 season, in what proved to be their penultimate campaign in the Championship, Leeds’ losses rose to UK£21.4 million as their wage bill grew to UK£46.2 million, nearly UK15 million more than the previous year, and player salaries accounted for 94 per cent of turnover. This year, Radrizzani estimates that Leeds stand to lose “about UK£35 million to UK£40 million” as a result of not being able to welcome supporters to Elland Road for most of 2020. Their ascent to the Premier League was thus serendipitously timed, bringing with it newfound riches, heightened commercial interest, and the ability to make more reasoned, strategic investments.

A club-record kit supply arrangement with Adidas, signed in the summer, was swiftly followed by a shirt sponsorship deal with betting firm SBOTOP valued at a reported UK£6.5 million a year. A further UK£100 million will land in the club’s coffers this season thanks to its share of the Premier League’s central broadcast contracts. Meanwhile, on-field success has lured prospective investors. 49ers Enterprises, which paid a reported UK£10 million (US$13 million) for a minority stake in the club in 2018, has publicly expressed its intention to increase its share. Radrizzani has also held talks with Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), the state-backed owner of French giants Paris Saint-Germain, which is said to remain interested in acquiring Leeds outright.

“Something that I always want to consider is if the partner is the right partner, [someone] I feel comfortable with, and that supports my vision, my strategy, and gives us the opportunity to continue our growth with more resources,” says Radrizzani, who is reportedly willing to offload minority shares at a valuation of between UK£270 million and UK£300 million.

“At this moment we are not close to anything. We are having discussions with several interested parties. Some of these have been good friends for a long time and want to help me to reach my goal. When it’s the right moment and the right terms, we can progress with these discussions.”

Looking ahead, Radrizzani says the priority for Leeds is to “consolidate” in the Premier League and to “continue the growth of the value of the business”, both by developing “the brand itself” and also through consistent performances on the field. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, he reasserted the scale of his ambition: to turn the club into a business worth up to UK£1 billion, one that can compete once again for English soccer’s top honours.

Achieving that goal won’t be easy. Relegation claws at the heels of every newly promoted club, and the yawning financial chasm between the Premier League’s haves and have-nots remains vast. As Radrizzani notes: “We play in the same league but we don’t play with the same means.” Still, he believes wholeheartedly in the merits of his long-term strategy.

“You need to continue your growth step by step gradually,” he says, “both on the pitch with performances, and the development of the academy, the youth and recruitment, and at the same time to expand your brand to new generations, millennials, around the world, which can be done only if you’re becoming an attractive football team on the pitch as well, with good players, with a certain style of play.

“In my mind it’s very clear what I have to do, I just need a little bit of time and work very hard and structure, step by step, the club to catch up with the opportunities. We need two or three years of staying in the Premier League and then this club can really have the ambition to be close to the top six, or to climb even more.

“My model in football is Leicester; I think they have a good model, they run the club very well. That’s what I aspire to do but also with the acknowledgement that Leeds United, with all respect [to Leicester], is a much bigger brand internationally. It’s a big club.”

Leeds are indeed among the best-supported clubs in England, but Radrizzani’s outsized ambitions far transcend the confines of Yorkshire. In recent months, he says he has been evaluating takeovers of top-tier teams in other countries, including France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, to create a multinational club network that would help develop players that could one day represent Leeds in the Premier League.

Such a model already has its precedents, having been pioneered by the likes of Red Bull, whose club network spans Austria, Germany, Brazil and the US, and City Football Group (CFG), which owns Manchester City and nine other clubs across the globe.

“I do believe that a consolidated group in football, with multiple club ownership, can be a benefit in terms of synergies and creating value in the development of the players, and in some cases also on the commercial side,” says Radrizzani. “It’s something that I’m studying and exploring. I’m already in touch with some potential target clubs to acquire. I haven’t made any decisions yet. I’m still in an evaluation phase and I think that the model I have in mind is definitely different to what I see at the moment. It would be more focused on two or three countries in Europe where we can have close integration on the football side.

“The City [Football Group] and Red Bull models are very different; they have clubs in different continents. I don’t think that’s what I want to do. I want to do something much more integrated on the football side so there’s no big gap between the level of football quality between these clubs.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 02, 2020 10:51 pm

This is not something I care for at all, and actually believe a lot of the proposals provide a let off for irresponsible owners - feels like everything that was wrong with itv digital collapse deja vu - A white paper advocates that struggling clubs enter into CVA's, and give clubs loads of help from the Football Authorities to shaft one another - from SportsBusiness.com

Football finance | How the EFL can build a bridge to post-Covid sustainability and profitability
Kevin Roberts - November 1, 2020

- White paper advocates use of Company Voluntary Arrangements for clubs on the brink of insolvency
- EFL would be encouraged to waive points reductions for clubs that pursue restructuring plans
- Leagues could offer cash incentives to teams that take appropriate measures

English football should look to build ‘a bridge to a sustainable future’ if smaller clubs are to survive and thrive in a post-Covid world, according to legal experts Nic Couchman, head of sport at law firm Charles Russell Speechlys and insolvency specialist colleague Roger Elford.

Covid-19 has ripped the heart out of the English football economy leaving many smaller clubs on the brink of collapse.

While the hit has been felt from the top of the Premier League to the foot of the English Football League (EFL), those at the top of the pyramid have, to an extent, been cushioned by revenue from massive TV rights deals. That money will continue to flow so long as games can be played, fans or no fans.

That’s not the case in the EFL where the majority of clubs are dependent on gate receipts to stay afloat. Even before Covid struck, many small clubs were finding it tougher than ever to keep their noses above water and the fear is that having gate revenues, their major source of income, cut off because of the ban on fans attending games, will send others over the edge.

While Premier League clubs agreed a £50m bail-out for the EFL some weeks ago, the sum was far less that the £250m the league and its chairman Rick Parry were looking for.

But according to Couchman and Elford, any bail-out, while welcome, would very likely bring only temporary relief, applying a sticking plaster to endemic economic problems which have plagued clubs down the years and which have seen a number go to the wall.

As a parallel initiative they have outlined a plan, built around a solid legal and operational framework, designed to create breathing space for clubs, allowing them to survive, restructure, rebuild and restart in a healthier condition for the 2020-21 season.

At its core are new legal protections introduced in the UK earlier this year in response to Covid. The authors say that with support from other stakeholders including the tax authorities and the league itself whose rules are currently set up to punish clubs which go into administration, these would allow clubs to enter Company Voluntary Agreements (CVA) which would buy them time to restructure their businesses to make them more commercially effective and attractive to potential investors and lenders.

A CVA allows businesses to keep trading while repaying an agreed sum to creditors. Assuming the CVA is approved by the required majority of creditors (at least 75 per cent), when the agreed sum is paid, the remainder of a debt is written off.

The plan is contained in a White Paper which acknowledges the value of clubs to their local communities as a key reason for special measures to protect them from insolvency and potential collapse ahead of their relaunch, perhaps into a newly-styled competition structure designed to be financially sustainable. The White Paper does not deal with potential new competition formats.

The Bridge to a Sustainable Future is based on the creation of bespoke Company Voluntary Arrangements and attendant insolvency support to protect clubs from creditors. Key to this is providing some protection for directors who (in the context of managing a club which is insolvent or on the brink of insolvency) can be held responsible for their actions leading up to insolvency. For many this might impact on their directorships of other businesses.

Similarly, current league rules are designed to punish insolvency, creating pressure on directors to look for debt funding to make ends meet. These agreements may provide a short-term fix but can be onerous and damage a club’s economic sustainability in the medium to long term. The plan therefore calls for some relaxation of league regulations to reduce these pressures.

Changes to UK insolvency law in June, spurred by the impact of Covid-19 on businesses in general, brought in measures including the possibility of an extended moratorium to hold off creditors. The White Paper says, “the creative, collective deployment of these legal procedures, coupled with wholesale stakeholder engagement and a re-framing of EFL rules, could provide substantive protection for clubs, their staff, directors and creditors, whilst providing the platform from which to achieve short term funding and, in parallel, build towards a new model and a sustainable future for the clubs in the EFL.”

The use of bespoke Company Voluntary Arrangements by those clubs that are on the brink of insolvency would allow them to restructure their affairs without the need, in most cases, for the club to enter administration.

The authors stress that the financial situation of every club is different, and the paper therefore provides a menu of options rather than a one size fits all solution, but calls on football’s stakeholders to focus on the common issues and throw their weight behind the scheme and provide incentives to clubs and their creditors to restructure.

The key principles of the proposal are:

- Cash incentives (from both the EFL and the Premier League) for those clubs that take appropriate measures to restructure.

-Waivers of point reductions and other penalties for clubs that pursue prudent restructuring plans, with blanket acceptance by the EFL that the restructuring was prompted by Covid-19 and therefore a force majeure event for the purposes of Regulation 12 of the EFL Regulations.

- Possible suspension, variation or disapplication (whether temporary or permanently) of the application of the football creditor rule
should it be necessary for clubs to compromise the claims of football creditors (or any of them) as part of their restructuring. The football creditor rule has always divided key stakeholders, including HMRC and its application in the current climate will have to be considered carefully.

- HMRC’s (tax authority) support for the process to be procured in advance, based on a set of pre-agreed terms as to how a club’s existing liabilities to HMRC will be managed/compromised or restructured, as well as how they will be managed going forward.

- A template CVA or scheme proposal that clubs could consider adopting or tailoring.

- Restructured (and other financially viable) teams to be eligible to participate in the EFL,
under its new rules and regulations.

- Relief and/or waivers for owners and directors who are involved in clubs requiring restructuring due to Covid-19, in order that their involvement in the restructuring is not a “Disqualifying Condition” for the purposes of Appendix 3 of the EFL Regulations.

- Use of Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act moratorium procedures, where appropriate, for example for clubs that require immediate respite from hostile creditor action.

Co-author Nic Couchman explained that the plan has been designed to provide a ‘gateway solution’ to a sustainable future for those clubs which can benefit from the assistance it offers. It is not, he emphasises, intended to be a mandatory requirement for all clubs.

“Every club is in a unique financial situation and there would be no need for clubs which are in fact financially stable to participate in all of the measures. The aim is to help clubs get or stay financially fit to take part in EFL competitions in the future,” he said.

“That means that the clubs will have to use the time and relief from creditors to reorganise their commercial operations to mitigate losses, reduce costs and generate replacement revenue streams by exploiting their individual and collective assets and to innovate in terms of fan engagement.

“If they are properly constructed and implemented, we believe these measures will create a more robust, protected and secure structure to attract both short- and longer-term loans, grants, and potentially private equity funding. It would also provide vital breathing space for future reforms to be properly considered and designed, given the many and complex football, financial and wider social and economic impact issues involved.

“This solution requires a collective effort on the part of the EFL and clubs but also major stakeholders including HMRC, players, landlords and other creditors. It is designed to re-balance the Football League and while it will necessarily result in short term pain for many, we believe it is necessary to create sustainability and future profitability.

“While the plan was conceived to benefit English clubs and is based on the specifics of UK insolvency law, the broad principles could be applied to other sports where smaller clubs operating without their major revenue stream are suffering in the same way,” he said.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 02, 2020 10:54 pm

The full report that was talked about in the previous post - Lower League Football, COVID-19 and Beyond: The Bridge to a Sustainable Future can be found here

Introductory Media release
https://www.charlesrussellspeechlys.com ... le-future/


Full Report
https://www.charlesrussellspeechlys.com ... echlys.pdf

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 03, 2020 12:08 am

Not sure how this can be called a hurrying-up - the government's probe into gambling sponsorship and the prospective ban has been going on for years already- now it is suggested that clubs will know the fate as early as NEXT season - it took Spain 6 months to decide - from the Mail

Government set to speed up review into gambling sponsorship in football as clubs fear lucrative shirt deals with betting companies could be banned
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport are reviewing betting restrictions
Clubs are worried stricter ruled could be put in place on their lucrative deals
The Government are set to issue a hurry-up, hoping for an answer by 2021-22
By SAMI MOKBEL FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 22:40, 2 November 2020 | UPDATED: 23:15, 2 November 2020

Football clubs expect to learn the extent of new restrictions on lucrative gambling sponsorship deals by next season as the Government accelerate their crucial betting review.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport are in the midst of an audit into UK gambling regulations, which will have major ramifications on the historic relationship between football and gambling firms.

The Government are expected to initiate a ‘call for evidence’ from gambling firms and other associated organisations - such as the Premier League and EFL - as early as this week.

Sportsmail understands that process, which will allow betting companies to have their say on the review, is expected to last around three months.

There is optimism among clubs the review will be completed in time for the 2021-22 campaign, meaning they will have a clearer picture of where they stand with regards to sponsorship deals. There is a major concern the shake-up will implement stringent restrictions on the relationship between betting advertising and sport.

Indeed, one idea on the table is a blanket ban on clubs having betting firms as their main shirt sponsors.

Firms will use the call for evidence process as a means to argue why such strict measures are unnecessary, with many companies planning to use discussions with the Government to outline how they plan to self-regulate and establish a safer environment for customers.

Nevertheless, the review appears likely to have significant consequences on the domestic football scene and clubs want clarification so they can plan accordingly.

Eight of the 20 Premier League clubs that have shirt sponsorship contracts with betting companies.

A host of EFL clubs also have relationships with gambling firms. Those deals outside the top-flight - which total around £40million - are particularly important now given the financial difficulties caused by the Covid pandemic.

In an interview with Sportsmail last month, Neil Banbury, managing director of 32Red which sponsors Derby, Preston and Rangers said: ‘As long as the Government review brings in views from across the spectrum that is evidence-based and it’s focused on tackling the real issues the industry has then hopeful we can move to a better position.’

‘Some companies have called for the end of sponsorship. But we are coming from place that we see it as a good opportunity to do some really good and visible work. We have huge duty to improve our side of the industry.’

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:20 am

Part 2 of 2 of that Andrea Radrizzani interview with SportsProMedia - Part 1 was posted last night, a few posts up this page

‘I always over-achieved’: Andrea Radrizzani on creating a legacy with Aser Ventures
Andrea Radrizzani is perhaps best known as a Premier League club owner, but he made his name in TV rights arbitrage with MP & Silva. After divesting his interest in the international agency in 2016, the 46-year-old founded Aser Ventures, through which he is now busy forging a legacy across sport, media and entertainment.

Posted: November 3 2020By: Michael Long

At 46, Andrea Radrizzani can hardly be called a veteran, yet there is little he hasn’t seen throughout his 20 years in sports media. With the calm authority of a young businessman who was already well on the way to earning a handsome fortune by his 35th birthday, he credits himself for having proved more than a few people wrong over the years.

Asked for his personal role models in life and in business, he says: “The number one guy to follow is Jesus, for me. But besides that, on Earth, I would say my idols are Rupert Murdoch and Diego Maradona.” According to Radrizzani, both figures shared the same standout quality: they thrived on being the underdog.

Others have said the same of Radrizzani himself. In Amazon’s ‘Take Us Home’ documentary on Leeds United, a series in which the Italian plays something of a starring role, Ruggero Magnoni, a former Lehman Brothers executive and current Aser board member, describes his associate as someone who specialises in “impossible bets”. It is a label to which Radrizzani ascribes; silencing doubters and taking calculated risks is, he says, how he made his name.

“This image of the underdog is the perfect association to my life,” he says now. “When I was at school, when I was at high school, at university, then in business, in all steps of my life, I was told that I wouldn’t be able to do something, and I always over-delivered and over-achieved. This has continued for many years, from school to business, so at the end I think I am the underdog. I’m happy with that.

“When I started buying TV rights in football, I remember agencies like IMG or Sportfive were saying, ‘who are these guys? In six months they will be finished, they will be out of the business.’ In seven years, we built over a billion dollar company with US$600 million revenue and over 70 partnerships with rights holders.

“When I opened Eleven, it was the same situation. Everybody told me: ‘this is not like being an agency like MP & Silva. In six months you will be out with no money.’ And now we are a five-year-old business and we are still here, alive, and we are profitable. In fact, we are the only sports media businesses of our kind created in recent years that is profitable so I’m very proud of that. With Leeds United, it’s the same: ‘you’re going to lose a lot of money’. Yes, maybe, but I achieved a promotion that we were missing for 16 years.

“So far, I thank God, because I think I am protected by God, I believe in God. I worked hard and I over-achieved and I always react to all the criticism or doubts that I have with actions. So let’s hope to continue that way.”

Of all his career achievements to date, Radrizzani’s role in architecting the growth of now-defunct international media rights agency MP & Silva - and, in hindsight, the timing of his decision to step away from the company - will arguably go down as his greatest accomplishment.

Having comfortably ridden the rising tide of TV rights values for over a decade, MP & Silva was renowned as one of the best-known agencies in sports rights arbitrage. With a slick exterior and an air of self-confident swagger, it had broken into new territories and successfully courted countless major clients, becoming one of the most revered rights distributors on the planet. Such a reputation remained intact when, in 2016, Radrizzani and his business partner, Riccardo Silva, sold 65 per cent of the company to a Chinese consortium in a deal which valued their firm at over US$1 billion.

By late 2018, however, MP & Silva was no more. After a period of management upheaval marked by missed rights payments, the London-based agency was unceremoniously wound up, its contracts abruptly terminated amid mounting litigation.

“I’m very sad when I think about it,” reflects Radrizzani. “Yes, it’s true that we have been very well paid for our shares, but at the same time I saw something that I built with a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of passion, being destroyed so quickly. It’s very sad for me.

“When we sold the company, I was already two years out of the management and the operation but still, most of the people in the business were hired by me. It was like a family and a very good environment, so seeing everything destroyed so quickly was painful.”

MP & Silva’s demise was indeed an unexpected event. But even before its rapid capitulation, Radrizzani had turned his attentions elsewhere, founding Aser Ventures in 2015. Since then, the global investment firm has been busy amassing interests across sport, media and technology. Aser’s portfolio is headlined by Eleven Sports, the multinational broadcaster Radrizzani formed in 2015, and Leeds United, one of English soccer’s most storied clubs. But its tentacles stretch far and wide, spanning everything from the digital media network Whistle and technology provider Sports Data Labs, to the soccer-focused mobile app OneFootball and NEO Studios, a fledgling production company. Its most recent venture is LiveNow, a new streaming service offering pay-per-view (PPV) access to live events across sports, music and entertainment.

In a move that saw him briefly straddle the sell side and the buy side, Radrizzani spearheaded the rapid expansion of Eleven Sports after its launch in 2015 by taking the pay-TV broadcaster-cum-streaming player into several markets across the globe.

Today, Eleven Sports operates in seven territories and holds rights to a multitude of elite sports leagues and properties, including top-flight European soccer, Formula One, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and UFC. According to Radrizzani, the network is already profitable in Belgium, Portugal and Poland, while its Italian business is set to join them in the current financial year.

“I’m happy the business now is profitable but it’s a business that is still medium-small,” he says. “In the industry where we play, we are still small, but we are starting to become more relevant and more important in the countries where we are, particularly Poland, Belgium and Portugal. So I think it’s time, if we have good partnerships and good investment, to escalate the business with our model, which is agnostic.

“We are very close to announcing a deal to acquire a digital platform that also will enable Eleven to become much more digital and more global quickly. This will be a good opportunity to reposition Eleven and continue the growth.”

Despite its global footprint, Eleven Sports has encountered more than a few bumps in the road throughout its brief existence, not least in the UK, where the network launched with an aggressive strategy and amid considerable fanfare in 2018.

With heavy investment, the rights to major European soccer leagues, including La Liga and Serie A, and other popular properties, such as the UFC, had been snaffled from under the noses of the incumbent players, Sky and BT. But after struggling to attract both subscribers and attention, Eleven’s UK operation quickly ran into trouble. Hamstrung by a lack of distribution on linear TV, the business was forced to shut down less than a year after its launch.

That experience was an educational one for Radrizzani. During an online summit in July, he admitted that launching in the UK without a distribution deal with the country’s leading pay-TV operators was “a mistake”. Looking back now, he accepts he was “naive” to believe he could feasibly challenge the Sky-BT duopoly.

“When the market is closed, you can offer anything,” he says. “I think I learned to be less naive because I was convinced that my commercial proposition would have convinced anyone. Unfortunately, the big companies, in some cases, they can control the market.

“I lost a lot of money. I was thinking my proposition was good for the consumer, it was good for the platform, but I couldn’t make it happen. If I could go back, obviously I would never have challenged that.”

For Radrizzani, the situation ultimately came down to circumstance. “It was business,” he says. “In the end, secondary rights like La Liga, international content, they could not justify investment. Even now, La Liga cannot find space on Sky and a good fee. So unfortunately we came into the picture at the wrong time. Sometimes timing makes business challenging.

“I have nothing to blame of Sky or BT or anyone. I think they have [protected] their own interests, as they should do, and we were just a bit unlucky and coming at the wrong time - with good content, but the wrong timing.

“It cost a lot for a small company - that was very difficult - but we are still alive and we are bouncing back, so it makes me even more proud. We managed to stay active and we are still healthy.”

Having marked its fifth anniversary in August with a wholesale rebranding effort and the launch of its ‘2.0 strategy’, Eleven is now planning a return to the UK with an ad-supported, over-the-top (OTT) streaming service similar to its operation in Japan. Its focus will be on three core programming verticals - women’s sports, niche sports, and competitive gaming - all of which are areas where the company believes audiences remain underserved.

With Eleven on a surer footing, Radrizzani has now embarked on his latest media venture, LiveNow. Launched in August, what he calls a “very innovative service” will focus on building out a portfolio of content across fitness, music and lifestyle verticals as well as sport. Content partnerships have already been struck in certain markets with the likes of digital streaming player DAZN and, of course, Eleven Sports, while the service has live streamed a concert fronted by British pop star Ellie Goulding and will host three live shows with virtual band Gorillaz this coming December.

“This is another startup but I think it will be structured differently,” says Radrizzani. “We opened [up] to institutional investors and [are] trying to make the company big and global from the beginning. In a few months, during Covid, we have already opened up offices in Tokyo, Korea, Singapore, New York, Spain, Italy, and we’re going to have two headquarters between Los Angeles and London.

“We’re already active in music and entertainment so it’s something new, but we are approaching it with a lot of enthusiasm and we’re convinced that we can build a big business straight from the beginning.”

According to Radrizzani, LiveNow’s aim is to disrupt the “stagnant” pay-TV industry with a flexible PPV platform that caters to the needs of event organisers, rights holders, consumers, and all types of media platforms. The objective, he says, is to “democratise” access to live events with a micropayment offering unencumbered by traditional models, and in doing so open up new ways of monetising content that are customised to each individual market.

“What I think we should try to innovate is the distribution model,” he explains. “There is not one strategy for 200 markets. There is one strategy for each market, and in terms of length of sales, how to sell, exclusive or non-exclusive, which approach - B2B or B2C or B2B2C, or a hybrid model - there is no one solution in every market.”

Following a whirlwind period of investment activity for Aser, the launch of LiveNow is a sure sign that Radrizzani has no plans to let up just yet. There is, of course, work to be done to position his two Davids - Leeds United and Eleven Sports - among the Goliaths of their respective fields. And with one eye always fixed on advancements in technology and media, he says the next five years could well be those that come to define his legacy.

“I always want to do more and more,” he says, “but in reality I give myself another five years to push and build, and then I want to give more time to myself as a person and family and other priorities, philanthropic activities. I started some already but I want to do more in that space and I think when I’m 50, 51, I’ll start to change the priorities.

“From 30 to 40, I built the capital. Now, from 40 to 50, I’m investing the capital to build more. From 50, I need to enjoy it and give back to the community.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:30 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:39 am
AFC Wimbledon are getting very close to returning to playing matches at Plough Lane

https://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/news/202 ... xecutive2/
It finally happens tonight - AFC Wimbledon will play a match at Plough Lane - the real sorrow is there will be no fans there to see it - from the Telegraph

AFC Wimbledon gear up for bittersweet return to Plough Lane after 29-year absence
JIM WHITE NOVEMBER 03, 2020

When AFC Wimbledon play their first match at their new Plough Lane stadium, against Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday, it will be an evening of mixed emotion for the club's commercial director Ivor Heller.

“It’s amazing, incredible, but horrendous all at the same time,” says Heller, who was one of the founder members of the club when it was formed from the ashes when the old Wimbledon was franchised into MK Dons. “Our whole story is about the fans. We’ve been in wilderness for nearly 30 years and when we finally get to reach the promised land, everyone is locked out. None of our fans, the people who built us, can be there. You could say it is typical Wimbledon. We’ve never done anything the easy way. Nobody ever handed us anything on a platter.”

It is 29 years ago since Wimbledon FC played their last fixture in their home borough, against Crystal Palace at the old Plough Lane ground which has since been modernised into a housing development. At the heart of their story - as the club first squatted at Selhurst Park, then was forcibly relocated 30 miles north to Buckinghamshire before being reborn as a fan-owned phoenix operation in Kingston - has been an insistence on one day returning home.

“Being in Plough Lane was 100 per cent critical to everything we stood for,” says Heller. “To me we wouldn’t properly be Wimbledon unless we got back to the borough of Merton. We never made a secret of that ambition right from the start.” And now they are back, in a £36 million, 9,300 capacity new stadium, built where the old dog track used to be. Funded in part by a bond scheme which raised more than £5million from the club’s supporters, the opening of the place has only been held back six weeks by the pandemic.

“Construction carried on throughout the first lockdown, though it had to slow a bit to follow social distancing rules,” explains Heller. “But actually we were blessed by the sunshine. This spring and summer has been perfect building weather.”

When the ground opens, there will be none of the old school, Crazy Gang Plough Lane in evidence. The pitch is a carpet, there is ample hot water in the visitors' dressing room, everywhere is sleek comfort rather than tumbledown squalor. More to the point, the new construction has several innovations which will enable it to deliver sustainable income. There are conferencing facilities, a 500-seat lounge, a club museum including Vinnie Jones’s 1988 FA Cup winner’s medal. Plus a pub which, once lockdown has abated, will be open seven days a week. That, though, is not the end of the story: there is planning permission to extend the capacity to 20,000.

“I think there is a market for that sort of scale,” Heller reckons. “I think people will come here and really enjoy themselves in a safe and modern environment. I feel now we have this facility, we’ll be on to something. This is not just a massive prospect for us, but for the whole of the borough.”

Though to Heller’s evident dismay, initially there will be no one able to experience at first hand the club’s new spiritual home.

“Telling fans and sponsors that sorry, there’s nothing I can do to get you in has been heart breaking,” he says. “But being involved with this club has taught me to be a glass half full type of guy. I’m hopeful by the end of this season we’ll be getting crowds back in. And the start of next season, it will be back to capacity attendances.”

And for him that is when things will finally have come home.

“The first time we can have a full house here, that will be our party. Until then we’re marking time.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 03, 2020 4:51 pm

Trevor Hemmings owner of Preston North End is to buy Cork City after fans vote in favour of the sale - is this being done as a way of developing talent for the club?

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2020/10 ... e-of-club/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 03, 2020 6:10 pm

Article from SportsBusiness - Reimagining the financial future of lower-league football by Ben Marlow and Omar Chaudhuri - linked rather than transcribed because of all the charts.

https://www.sportbusiness.com/2020/11/r ... -football/

there are a number of very interesting ideas in this, not sure they would be accepted but it is a very good from a discussion perspective

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 03, 2020 6:33 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Oct 14, 2020 5:33 pm
Project Big Picture documentation claimed the media rights for the Premier League were going to grow 10% in the next cycle (even though the PPTV deal collapse has cost the Premier League around 125 of it's total overseas Broadcasting rights revenue in the current cycle). If you still believe they were telling the truth you probably need to read this from SportsProMedia.com

Sports media rights values have reached ‘high-water mark’, says study
3rd Age of Sport manifesto calls on industry to become ‘fully-rounded media business’.

Posted: October 14 2020By: Sam Carr

- 83% of Seven League survey respondents believe a rights correction is due
- Study says sport should diversify revenue streams to incorporate ecommerce, streaming, ticketing, sponsorship, membership, loyalty and wagering

The value of sports media rights have reached a ‘high-water mark’, according to 83 per cent of respondents in a new study.

The 3rd Age of Sport manifesto, produced by sports digital agency Mailman and the Seven League consultancy, is based on consultations with 30 sports executives with direct experience in rights negotiations, the overwhelming majority of whom believe that a rights correction is due.

According to the study, the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the sports industry’s transition into a third age, where digital disruption is affecting every area of the landscape, including content, sponsorship, data, streaming and competition for audience attention.

Describing now as sport’s ‘Napster moment’, the study claims that the industry’s established B2B revenues are under threat, meaning it will need to adapt in the wake of Covid-19 by addressing how it is structured and where it derives its income.

As a result, the manifesto calls on sport to end its over-reliance on broadcast fees, diversify its revenue streams and become a ‘fully-rounded media business’ that incorporates ecommerce, streaming, ticketing, sponsorship, membership, loyalty and wagering.

“While we may have reached Everest with many media and sports properties, international audiences are proving to show sports are increasingly becoming more global and with that presenting new broadcast and digital rights opportunities,” said Mailman Group chief executive Andrew Collins.

“Global platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have accelerated the need for an international ‘multi-platform, multi-product’ strategy - rights holders who are able to adapt quickly should realise gains.”

The manifesto points out that the types of content people consume is evolving, while it also argues that sports rights owners now face stiff competition from new media properties that focus on athlete journeys, back stories and lifestyles.

The study adds that the democratisation of the ability to broadcast means sports are also competing with the voices of young creators who are native to the digital platforms that they use.

Therefore, the manifesto advises that sports look to develop more direct relationships with their fans by developing new business models around ecommerce, subscriptions and membership.

“Digital transformation has given sports the opportunity to go direct to consumer, but the same power has been given to everyone else,” added Seven League chairman Richard Ayers. “Amazon and the other big tech companies are the gatekeepers. Sponsors can be more certain of their ROI by going direct. And those who have the data have the power.

“Meanwhile, people have become fixated on “owning the audience” when the audience does not want to be owned. Trust is the currency of the future. Sports must master the value exchange, and through that build trust.”
That 3rd age of sport manifesto can be found here - https://4709643d-e1a9-43d4-9096-8838e45 ... 5f9d53.pdf

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 03, 2020 8:13 pm

@FootballLaw and Omar Chaudhuri return with a new series of chats on all things football related - first up (and timely for us) a chat on the growing interest in US Investor takeovers of European clubs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql5QWFn4xhY

one or two salient points in there - particularly why squad assets do little to the actual purchase price

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 03, 2020 8:33 pm

I have been saying for a long time that Mediapro's deal with the French Ligue did not add up - now Canal + are saying it is untenable from SportsProMedia (of course they could be looking to pick the rights up at a substantial discount

Mediapro’s Ligue 1 rights deal “untenable”, says Canal+ president
Maxime Saada confirms his network will not be “reinvesting at a loss” if current broadcast deal collapses.

Posted: November 3 2020 By: Tom Bassam

- Mediapro in dispute with French soccer league over €814m a year rights partnership
- Saada says Spanish agency’s failure to pay is ‘damaging the value’ of French club soccer

The economics of Mediapro’s domestic rights deal for French soccer’s Ligue 1 have been described as “untenable” by Maxime Saada, president of the Spanish agency’s rival Canal+.

Speaking to Les Echos, Saada warned the French Professional Football League (LFP), which governs Ligue 1, that his pay-television operator will not ride to its rescue if Mediapro defaults on the broadcast partnership contract.

The LFP and its main domestic broadcaster are currently embroiled in a legal battle, with Mediapro having failed to pay its second €172 million (US$202 million) rights fee instalment due at the start of October.

Mediapro’s agreement is reportedly worth €780 million (US$913 million) per season for the top-flight Ligue 1 rights from 2020/21 to 2023/24, plus €34 million (US$39.8 million) annually for the second-tier Ligue 2 package for the same period.

Teléfoot, Mediapro’s new €25.90 (US$30) a month pay-TV offering, which also airs most live Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 games, as well as Uefa Champions League matches, was launched back in August.

Mediapro is targeting 3.5 million Teléfoot subscribers, and has reiterated its commitment to the four-year contract, but wants to renegotiate the terms. The LFP has taken out a bank loan to cover payment to clubs and has referred the matter to the commercial court in Paris.

Watching from the sidelines after securing a sublicensed, two match per round Ligue 1 rights deal with BeIN Sports, Saada confirmed that in the event of a new tender “there is no question of plunging Canal+ into the red by reinvesting at a loss in football”.

Saada added that Mediapro’s failure to pay risks “damaging the image, the quality and ultimately the value” of French club soccer.

“There is always someone that thinks they will be able to make better use of the rights by paying more than Canal+. TPS, then Orange, then BeIN Sports, then Altice and finally Mediapro,” Saada told Los Echos.

“I have always thought that the economic equation was untenable given the price paid for the rights.”

Saada projected in May 2018 that Mediapro would need to net close to seven million subscribers each paying €15 (US$17.50) per month in order to monetise its Ligue 1 rights investment.

Mediapro’s thus far underwhelming 600,000 subscribers for Teléfoot has not eaten into Canal+’s market share, according to Saada. The Canal+ president in fact claimed that the company had seen growth in its subscriber base “for the first time in a long time”.

Téléfoot has secured distribution deals with French telecommunication firms Orange, Free, Bouygues Telecom and Altice. However, Mediapro failed to reach terms with Canal+ ahead of the 2020/21 season and the Vivendi-owned broadcaster issued a legal complaint against the Barcelona-based agency over the terms being requested.

Late last month, Joye Media, the parent company of Mediapro, saw its credit rating cut by Moody’s. The specialist rating’s firm also lists Joye Media as having a 'negative' outlook, suggesting there could be further downgrades.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 04, 2020 10:48 am

When have seen an enormous amount of to and fro (but little actual action) surrounding a revamp of the structure and funding of the game in recent months, but what about things that have had fans (and clubs ) disgruntled for a long, long period of time?

The policing of games has been a source of friction over a number of issues

- such as funding
Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jul 15, 2019 2:26 pm
As Police Crime Commissioner's seek to change the law on funding for football and other sport's policing (they want to charge for the service and effectively become a privately funded service rather than a publicly funded one) the Football Supporters Association raise a number of concerns - this is likely to become quite politically charged I am afraid

https://twitter.com/FSA_FairCop/status/ ... 7522167808" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
- and derbies such as ours and the one in south wales being subject to bubble status
Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Jan 07, 2020 12:19 pm
The madness continues with regards to "bubble" matches - absolutely no consideration for personal circumstances - the cost of getting to this Game for this fan who is being asked to travel 200 miles when there is no public transport for the first part for a game at a ground he lives a mile away from

https://twitter.com/timlewis01/status/1 ... 3870448643
now it seems that the UK Football Police Unit are still intent on blocking the drinking of Alcohol within sight of the pitch and that has been complicating matters in trying to get fans back into grounds

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 45403.html

though there are a growing number of forces and senior officers that want a change in attitude on this

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 83830.html

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 04, 2020 10:54 am

Norwich City release their 2019/20 accounts - covering a 13 month period like ours will - hoping for a few insights into the Covid impact at the Premier League

@KieranMaguire has a peek

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9665985536

The annual report is here

https://files.canaries.co.uk/canaries/ARG2020.pdf

still waiting for a filing at Companies house - though when they appear they will be here https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history

EDIT - Norwich have effectively confirmed (by saying their rebate share was £7.1m https://www.canaries.co.uk/News/2020/no ... -accounts/) that the numbers in the Premier League Handbook 2020/21 for Central distribution revenues and rebates are what has been distributed - see page 633 https://resources.premierleague.com/pre ... 021020.pdf (PDF page 321)
Last edited by Chester Perry on Wed Nov 04, 2020 11:29 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 04, 2020 11:08 am

An interesting commentary from FC Business about the Governments ongoing stasis regarding football - it is hugely politically biased (seemingly forgetting that for all it's talk (and it did talk a lot with and about football) a Labour government of 13 years did roughly the same with the game through itv digital and the financial crash. Neither governments have come out well in regards of the game.

https://fcbusiness.co.uk/news/comment-f ... ce-saloon/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Wed Nov 04, 2020 11:29 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Nov 04, 2020 10:54 am
Norwich City release their 2019/20 accounts - covering a 13 month period like ours will - hoping for a few insights into the Covid impact at the Premier League

@KieranMaguire has a peek

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9665985536

The annual report is here

https://files.canaries.co.uk/canaries/ARG2020.pdf

still waiting for a filing at Companies house - though when they appear they will be here https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history
Surprisingly Norwich don't appear to have suffered too badly in terms of broadcast rebates. They were estimated to receive some £94.4m with the figure according to Maguire only reducing to £92m.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 04, 2020 11:31 am

Royboyclaret wrote:
Wed Nov 04, 2020 11:29 am
Surprisingly Norwich don't appear to have suffered too badly in terms of broadcast rebates. They were estimated to receive some £94.4m with the figure according to Maguire only reducing to £92m.
just edited my original post to say that the rebate was as described in the Premier League Handbook - so ours will be £13.4m

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Wed Nov 04, 2020 11:41 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Nov 04, 2020 11:31 am
just edited my original post to say that the rebate was as described in the Premier League Handbook - so ours will be £13.4m
In which case if our starting point was £130.5m, then the net broadcast income will be virtually the same as the previous financial year (£115m from memory). The only other figure to change radically is likely to be Wages for the 13 month period which will no doubt confirm our Net Loss on the P&L account for the year.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 04, 2020 1:27 pm

Academic paper on Covid-19 and the return of fans - co writers include @KieranMaguire and Dr Dan Parnell - it argues that in most strata football can only survive with fans in attendance and concludes that "Football is nothing without fans" lots of charts and diagrams so linked rather than transcribed

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 20.1841449
Last edited by Chester Perry on Wed Nov 04, 2020 7:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:37 pm

This may be a world first - Attacking midfielder Santiago Rodríguez (20) has officially signed for the City Football Group, not a club but a group, how does that work

https://twitter.com/UruguayanHeroes/sta ... 1686797313

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 04, 2020 7:35 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 6:30 pm
Confirmation that Aston Villa's owners NSWE have issued another £55m in share capital in the last week via 3 separate transactions - that should see them through until the next window

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1318530600970702850

all the filings are here https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history
Aston Villa owners NSWE chuck another £20m at share Capital - easy come easy go - that is £75m in less than a month

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 2575517701

full filing here - https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 04, 2020 7:41 pm

Sheffield Wednesday have had the points deduction halved to 6 points - from the BBC

Sheffield Wednesday: Points deduction for breaking spending rules reduced from 12 to six
Last updated on4 minutes ago

Sheffield Wednesday's 12-point deduction for breaching spending rules has been reduced to six points.

The club were said to have included the sale of their Hillsborough stadium in their 2017-18 accounts despite the ground being sold a year later.

The decision means that the Owls rise to 23rd in the Championship and now have five points instead of minus one.

The club's argument to remove the penalty entirely was rejected, the English Football League said.

"The independent panel has today rejected the club's appeal related to matters surrounding the stadium sale and on consideration of the sanction; they did not agree with the club's assertion that a points deduction should not have been imposed," an EFL statement stated.

"However, they did opt to reduce the sporting punishment from 12 points to six, which will be effective immediately."

Despite July's punishment, the club were cleared at the time of "breaching its duty of utmost good faith to the EFL by deliberately concealing information".

There had been controversy surrounding the punishment at the time, as news of the 12-point penalty came nine days after the extended 2019-20 regular season finished, and eight months and 17 days after initially being charged with misconduct.

The sanction was applied this season and not during the 2019-20 campaign when a 12-point deduction would have relegated Garry Monk's side by ensuring they finished bottom.

Wednesday have achieved mixed results since the start of the current season and, prior to the points deduction being halved, had yet to reach parity having taken just 11 points from their first 10 league games of the season.

The club sold its Hillsborough home to owner Dejphon Chansiri for £60m and by including it in the accounts for the 2017-18 financial year, they posted a £2.5m pre-tax profit.

Without doing so, they would have reported a pre-tax loss of £35.4m, following on from deficits of £9.8m and £20.8m in the previous two seasons.

Under the English Football League's profitability and sustainability rules - which were previously known as Financial Fair Play - Championship clubs are only allowed to lose £39m over a three-year period.

Wednesday were the first club to be punished for including the sale of their ground in their accounts, but Derby County, Aston Villa and Reading have also been scrutinised for similar transactions in the past.

The Owls' charge, however, related specifically to "how and when" the sale of Hillsborough took place rather than the sale of the stadium itself.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 04, 2020 10:50 pm

Tomorrow EFL clubs will discuss the latest offer of support from the EFL that I posted on Monday night (top of this page) the language prior to the meeting is a lot less defiant and noisy, with more clubs asking what are the government going to do for them - I suspect it will be turned down with a request for more money though - from the Mail

Premier League's new bailout offer will not be enough to save ailing teams, say EFL clubs as chairmen contemplate thousands of job losses in the national game, including groundsmen and physios
- EFL board is due to discuss latest Premier League proposals on Thursday
- Premier League will repeat £50m offer to Leagues One and Two but allow Championship clubs to apply for additional funds if they can demonstrate need
- But clubs fear there simply won't be enough money to go around unless the Premier League offers more or Government steps in to help ailing teams
- Coronavirus pandemic has cut off income streams as no fans can attend games

By CHARLIE WALKER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 18:06, 4 November 2020 | UPDATED: 20:44, 4 November 2020

The EFL board is set to consider a new bailout offer from the Premier League on Thursday, but officials believe it will still not be enough to save many clubs – or thousands of jobs in the national game.

Sources close to the discussions say the latest funding proposal is a ‘short-term fix’ and either the Premier League will have to find more, or the Government must step in.

Football’s top-tier has repeated its previously rejected offer of £20m in grants and £30m in loans, but this time Championship clubs would be allowed to apply for additional funds, removing a key sticking point, according to The Telegraph.

The value of the additional offer is not clear and would only be available to those clubs whose owners cannot afford to bail them out.

The proposal is due to be discussed by the EFL board on Thursday, but clubs from Leagues One and Two remain concerned at the amount of money on offer to them.

‘The actual amount we would get club-by-club is simply not enough,' an insider told Sportsmail.

The EFL has calculated £250m is needed to cover the losses caused by the pandemic in all three divisions, so far. But even some clubs outside the Championship are expecting losses due to the pandemic to reach £10m.

‘The offer is really £20m, so it won’t go far,’ said the insider. ‘The £30m of loans are no good because clubs will never be in a position to repay them. The amount of money currently on offer is so small in comparison to the problem.’

EFL clubs appreciate support from the Premier League, but are concerned that to accept the current offer, with no further commitments, would leave them extremely vulnerable and unable to fill a large funding gap.

‘The moment we accept that offer in the absence of other elements of a package we are in danger of being told that it is all sorted,’ said the insider.

‘Government policy has put us in this situation. We cannot furlough all our staff because we are still expected to play, but we are outlawed from any fans coming in. The solution rests with the Government.’

Fleetwood Town's chief executive Steve Curwood agreed. 'The amount of money is far from anything which will solve the problem,' he told Sportsmail. 'The Premier League are willing to play a part in the rescue package but at present the government are not.'

The clubs are caught in a cruel trap in which they have little income because of a ban on fans in stadiums, as well as widespread restrictions on events, and yet they have major outgoings to pay players and support staff to put matches on.

As Sportsmail reported previously, eight clubs that could not pay their staff in October were temporarily saved by the EFL's own emergency loan scheme in which money must be repaid at the beginning of next season.

A further four clubs are expected to fail to pay staff this month, with another eight likely to be in trouble by the end of the year. They are all expected to apply for emergency loans.

But beyond those clubs that are on the brink are many more facing the prospect of losing large numbers of staff, after the latest furlough scheme expires in December.

Tranmere Rovers have already had to make 20 staff redundant.

Club officials have privately told Sportsmail that they are looking at every aspect of their businesses, including on the playing side to find ways to further reduce expenditure.

And one chairman said: 'Lots of clubs will be looking at pitch and grounds maintenance. The turnover that funds it in terms of gate receipts has gone. And they are asking can we manage with fewer staff like physios.

'It's a discussion clubs will be having with their managers to see if savings can be made.'

League One Burton Albion estimates the pandemic has cost the club £750,000 – more than 10 per cent of its annual turnover – and the it has already had to make two staff redundant as conferences, weddings and events, as well as matchday income, has all but disappeared.

‘From an employers' point of view there has to be a job for them to do in the first place and that is what clubs are looking at,’ said chairman Ben Robinson, who stressed the club would do everything to keep its staff.

'There could be thousands of job losses across the league. People will be losing their jobs because there is no business out there.'

Like many EFL clubs, Burton have pulled out all the stops to support their community. Their facilities have been used as a mass coronavirus-testing centre, a hub to deliver food parcels and as a facility to give flu jabs.

'I wonder whether the government really do get the bigger picture,' said Robinson.

The Government has consistently said it expects the Premier League to fund stricken EFL clubs.

'Redundancy is the reality of the situation. It is very real,’ agreed Port Vale chief executive Colin Garlick

Port Vale has managed to avoid redundancies so far and has directed staff towards a huge charitable effort in the Potteries.

The club, which will lose up to £1m as a result of the pandemic, has provided 160,000 meals to vulnerable people, 8,000 activity packs and thousands of food parcels.

But sooner or later the core business will have to return.

'Money has been brought forward to support clubs, but it is kicking the can down the road,' added Garlick. 'Now, I think, the impact will kick in.'

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 05, 2020 8:35 am

The Telegraph is reporting that the DCMS has called Rick Parry, Greg Clarke and Richard Masters to a meeting next week to try and resolve the matter of a football bail-out - but no one from the treasury, I cannot see why Richard Masters would be anything other than defensive in such a set-up (and I use the word with multiple meanings) - I hope Master's uses the example of our club in the meeting.

Richard Masters, Rick Parry and Greg Clarke called before parliamentary committee
SAM DEAN NOVEMBER 05, 2020

Three of English football’s most senior figures will face a grilling from MPs over the failure to agree a financial rescue package for the English Football League, with the top flight’s latest bailout offer set to face strong opposition from clubs.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters, EFL chairman Rick Parry and Football Association chairman Greg Clarke have all been called before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee next week.

Julian Knight, the chair of the committee, wants to “break the deadlock” between the Premier League and the EFL, saying the football authorities have reached a stalemate when they “should be showing real leadership”.

It comes as the EFL board prepares to discuss the Premier League’s latest bailout offer at a meeting on Thursday. The new rescue package is expected to be the main topic of discussion and the board could make a recommendation over whether it is accepted ahead of a vote of clubs.

Telegraph Sport understands there is likely to be strong opposition to the new proposals, which are designed to help only those clubs who do not have owners wealthy enough to bail them out without help.

Such an offer could exclude at least half of the Championship clubs, with one chairman telling Telegraph Sport that the latest proposals are “pathetic”. The seven Championship clubs in receipt of parachute payments could also face restrictions over their access to the rescue funds.

Last month, EFL clubs rejected the Premier League’s proposed £50 million rescue package for League One and Two clubs as it fell “some way short” of the required amount.

Knight, the Conservative MP for Solihull, said an agreement must be found before it is “too late” for lower-league clubs.

“Many of our football clubs are already facing a precarious future yet they are being put at further risk because the football authorities who should be showing real leadership have reached a place of stalemate,” said Knight.

“The government has made it clear that it won’t step in. A deal must be reached before it’s too late, the loss of any club will leave a gaping hole in its community.

“We’re calling in football chiefs next week to put their case in public in an attempt to break the deadlock between the Premier League and EFL, it cannot go on.”

The Government has consistently urged the Premier League to give financial support to lower-league clubs and had suggested earlier this year that Project Restart, the return to action in the summer, was dependent on the top flight providing a rescue package for the footballing pyramid.

Masters, Parry and Clarke will also be questioned about the Project Big Picture proposals that shook the English game when they were first revealed by Telegraph Sport last month.

Clarke will face questions on his role in the discussions over Project Big Picture. As revealed by this newspaper, Clarke had input on all 18 drafts of the proposals, despite later claiming he had backed away from the plot to reshape the professional game in this country.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:09 am

A fascinating discussion with Watford's Commercial Director in todays Price of Football Podcast - the 100th edition (how time flies)

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cH ... IDRAF&ep=6

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 05, 2020 11:17 am

@KieranMAguire appears to have got hold of a copy of the Project Big Picture document and has had a good look at the small print in this Price of Football blog piece

http://priceoffootball.com/project-big- ... up-a-choo/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Paul Waine » Thu Nov 05, 2020 12:39 pm

Premier League clubs consider ditching pay-per-view fee during lockdown

Martyn Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter, Thursday November 05 2020, 12.01am, The Times

Premier League clubs will today consider suspending the unpopular pay-per-view (PPV) system during lockdown.

Club chiefs have been taken aback by the storm of criticism by fans after last month’s announcement of the £14.95 fee for watching those matches that are not already being shown on Sky Sports or BT Sport, and are poised to make changes.

Several options to change the PPV system will be considered and one plan is to suspend the charges while the new restrictions are in place until December 2.

At the very least the PPV cost per game looks certain to be cut, either to £9.95, putting it in line with the EFL’s iFollow charge to watch games in the Championship, League One and League Two, or even halved to £7.50.

One club source told The Times that most of the 20 chairmen had conceded that the £14.95 charge was far too high and were ready to make changes.

“It’s been a PR disaster — £14.95 was a mistake and now we are going into lockdown again there is a feeling we have to do something to change it,” the source said.

Abandoning PPV will also be considered but many clubs believe that is not an option given that the Premier League’s main broadcast partners Sky and BT Sport do not like having to show every match to subscribers for no extra charge.

The outcry from fans has also rattled the clubs, with some of the biggest fans’ groups in the country organising PPV boycotts. The money raised is going to food banks instead.

Today’s meeting will also provide an update on the Premier League’s latest offer of a bailout to the EFL — the new offer is for £50 million to League One and League Two and a commitment in writing to help any Championship club in distress due to the pandemic.

There is political pressure for an agreement to be reached soon after the digital, culture, media and sport select committee summoned the Premier League’s chief executive Richard Masters and the EFL chairman Rick Parry to an evidence session on Tuesday.

Julian Knight, the committee chairman, said: “Many of our football clubs are already facing a precarious future yet they are being put at further risk because the football authorities who should be showing real leadership have reached a place of stalemate.

The FA chairman Greg Clarke will also appear at the committee when he and Parry will be asked about their involvement in Project Big Picture, the plan put forward by Liverpool and Manchester United to revolutionise English football.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 05, 2020 1:24 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Nov 05, 2020 11:17 am
@KieranMAguire appears to have got hold of a copy of the Project Big Picture document and has had a good look at the small print in this Price of Football blog piece

http://priceoffootball.com/project-big- ... up-a-choo/
Anybody who has read this Price of Football blog of Project Big Picture and my posts at the time will recognise all the pitfalls that @KieranMaguire has pointed out - the question has to be - Why has it taken so long for any media figure to come out and recognise it for what it was - an absolute stich up on every front

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:55 pm

I have huge doubts about this deal for Derby - Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan is the same joker that kicked tyres at both Liverpool and Newcastle and was sent packing for never showing the money - now he is reportedly paying £60m for Derby at the bottom end of the Championship, who don't own their ground and have a mortgage on the training ground to help cover operating losses - and they still haven't published their 2018/19 financial accounts yet.

But here we have the Mail saying that the EFL have approved the bid - still if the takeover does happen, what are the odds on a bid for Sean Dyche


EXCLUSIVE: EFL give green light to Abu Dhabi royal's £60m takeover of Derby County... with change in owner set to end the reign of under-pressure boss Phillip Cocu
Derby's takeover bid from Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan edged closer
The EFL gave it the green light at a board meeting that took place on Thursday
Zayed Al Nehayan is the cousin of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour
He previously failed in a bid to buy Premier League outfit Newcastle United
By MATT HUGHES and TOM COLLOMOSSE FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 15:40, 5 November 2020 | UPDATED: 15:45, 5 November 2020

The EFL have given the green light for Derby's proposed £60million sale to Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan to go ahead despite the prospective buyer's links to Abu Dhabi ruling family.

The subject was discussed in detail at an EFL Board meeting on Thursday with no objections raised to the sale proceeding as planned subject to Zayed Al Nehayan agreeing with finer points of the sale with current owner Mel Morris.

Zayed Al Nehayan is a senior member of the Abu Dhabi royal family and cousin of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour, but despite the potential for conflicts of interest the EFL will not block the sale, as the Premier League did when Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund attempted to buy Newcastle earlier this year.

The 62-year-old Zayed Al Nehayan also failed with a £350m bid for Newcastle and two years ago held preliminary talks about buying Liverpool which did not progress.

The impending takeover at Derby could seal the fate of manager Phillip Cocu, who has kept his job despite a dismal run of form largely because of Morris' fears that a sacking could disrupt the sale process and affect the club's valuation.

Derby's players do not expect the Dutchman to survive the forthcoming international break, although he took charge of training following talks with Morris earlier on Thursday and is expected to take charge of Saturday's Championship game against Barnsley.

Cocu is under huge pressure after the Rams were beaten 1-0 at home by QPR on Wednesday to leave them second-bottom of the Championship, saved only from last place by the points deduction handed to Sheffield Wednesday before the campaign started.

Under Cocu this term, Derby have won only one of their 10 league fixtures and have produced a series of lacklustre performances. Morris has twice denied publicly that Cocu's position was under threat but he is believed to be on borrowed time now.

Cocu signed a four-year deal after replacing Frank Lampard in summer 2019 and guided Derby to 10th in his first season, helped by Wayne Rooney who initially transformed fortunes when he began his player-coach's role last January.

Rooney's deal runs out at the end of the campaign and he has made no secret of his desire to move into management.

Liam Rosenior, who is part of Cocu's coaching staff, holds all the required qualifications – unlike Rooney – and could also step in.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 05, 2020 4:58 pm

Today marked the 100th episode of the Price of Football podcast - it is an area that is growing - today also saw the launch of a new weekly podcast from The Athletic - The Business of sport - first subject up "Who would buy a football club?"

Going forward the subject matter will cover many sports but it is likely that football will dominate

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b ... 0497284686

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 05, 2020 11:18 pm

David Conn with yet more Greg Clarke revelations in the Guardian - how is he still in a job?


FA chairman Greg Clarke 'supported push by big clubs' to control TV deals
Clarke met them on day he publicly criticised Project Big Picture
Premier League chairman told clubs he understood their stance
Exclusive by David Conn

Thu 5 Nov 2020 19.32 GMT Last modified on Thu 5 Nov 2020 22.31 GMT

The Football Association chairman, Greg Clarke, told senior representatives of the Premier League and its big six clubs that he supported the clubs’ efforts to secure greater voting power for TV deals, club sources have told the Guardian.

Clarke is said to have made his supportive remark in the meeting called by the league’s chairman, Gary Hoffman, with Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal on Tuesday 13 October, two days after the leaked “Project Big Picture” plans were published in the Telegraph. The Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Masters, also attended.

According to club sources, Hoffman told the clubs that he understood their argument for the Project Big Picture proposal that voting on “strategic issues”, such as TV deals, should be controlled by nine longer-term club members of the Premier League, with six carrying a majority. That proposed change to “governance”, as the Project Big Picture group termed it, was prompted by big clubs’ frustration at being outvoted on overseas TV deals by the other 14, three of whom are relegated every season so drop out of the league.

One club representative in the meeting is understood to have said that 10 smaller clubs think about their short-term survival in the Premier League and not about long-term issues, so the change in governance was needed to enable a long-range view.

Clarke, who initiated the Project Big Picture process in January by inviting to discussions representatives of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, the EFL and the Premier League – Masters declined to attend – is said to have agreed in the 13 October meeting: “You don’t talk about value creation. Governance is key because people want distributions rather than growth.”

The Guardian put to the FA that Clarke was clearly supporting a change to “governance” – voting rights – so that the Premier League would seek longer-term creation of value in TV rights, rather than having people at smaller clubs look for the most money to be distributed to them immediately. The FA declined to comment.

On the same day that Clarke was expressing his view in the meeting with Hoffman, Masters and the six clubs, the FA published his letter to the FA council. In it he said that he had “participated in early discussions” of Project Big Picture, but had “discontinued” his involvement in late spring “when the principal aim of these discussions became the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few clubs with a breakaway league mooted as a threat”.

In fact, as the Guardian has reported, Clarke initiated the process, attended every meeting as the plans were developed, cited the European or global breakaway threat himself as an opportunity to effect change, and had talks about resurrecting the stalled plans after the Liverpool majority owner, John Henry, contacted him in late September.

Hoffman is said to have told the six clubs at the 13 October meeting that he understood the case that strategic issues are best addressed by longstanding “shareholders”. The Premier League has said, and maintains, that Hoffman told the clubs that the Project Big Picture process was improper and had to stop, but club sources say Hoffman told them their work had been “reasonable and perfectly valid”, and that he and Masters were willing participants.

Hoffman asked the clubs to participate in a Premier League strategic plan, which all 20 clubs then agreed at a full meeting the following day. The club sources say Hoffman told them that their issues, including the case for “governance” voting control change, would be addressed in the strategic review.

Masters is understood to have said he did not agree with the change to nine clubs having voting control but did recognise that some of the overseas TV deals were not satisfactory and that the Premier League needed to have a “more sensitive model” for TV.

Hoffman is said to have told the clubs that the timing of Project Big Picture had been “terrible” because the big clubs were seen as exploiting the coronavirus crisis. The Premier League had been resisting the government’s manifesto commitment to hold a “fan-led review” of the game’s governance, he is understood to have said, but now there were “accelerated talks” for it to happen.

The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, had given that indication the previous day, criticising the leaked plans as a “power grab” and saying recent events had made the fan-led review “look urgent”.

Asked by the Guardian about the 13 October meeting, the Premier League maintained that Hoffman had told the big six clubs the Project Big Picture process had been improper and emphasised that he had not agreed with the “governance” voting change proposals but declined to comment on what else was said.

The FA declined to comment.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 05, 2020 11:24 pm

The mail are reporting that the Premier League are getting the consultants in to help with the post Project Big Picture discussions and ideas - just that they have got a bit hung up on the name - Boston Consulting Group have offices around the world and effectively invented management consulting many many years ago or should that be many many decades ago

Premier League hire Boston firm to help with next stage of Project Big Picture with key elements of controversial proposal, including scrapping League Cup and forming an 18-team top flight, still in play
- The Premier League have hired a Boston firm to help with Project Big Picture
- The controversial plans proposed a smaller top flight and power to the Big Six
- Boston Consulting Group will assist in the review of English football
- Scrapping the League Cup and making an 18-team league is still on the table
By MATT HUGHES FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 22:30, 5 November 2020 | UPDATED: 22:30, 5 November 2020

The Premier League have hired a firm from Boston — home of Liverpool’s American owners — to help with the next stage of Project Big Picture.

The top flight’s board have appointed the Boston Consulting Group to assist with the review of English football triggered by PBP, which was spearheaded by Liverpool and Manchester United, and have promised to deliver their initial recommendations by next month.

In a letter sent to clubs this week, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters warns the review could herald dramatic changes in the key areas of league structure, fixture calendar and broadcasting deals.

Masters writes that ‘the status quo is unlikely to be the right or unifying way forward in a significantly changed world’.

The decision to appoint a US-based consultancy firm has raised eyebrows at several clubs given the review has only come about as a result of secret talks between the American owners of Liverpool and United, John Henry and Joel Glazer, who in PBP proposed to cut the league to 18 clubs and give control over all future commercial and strategic decisions to ‘the Big Six’.

The headquarters of BCG are in Boston, where Henry’s Fenway Sports Group who run Liverpool are also based.

The review’s newly published terms of reference, seen by Sportsmail, make clear that the fundamental elements of PBP remain in play despite the Premier League’s claims last month that it would not be endorsed.

The review will include discussions on what it describes as finding the optimal league structure, optimising value in the domestic calendar, the future of domestic cup competitions and the Premier League’s governance model. Insiders regard the abolition of the League Cup as inevitable, while a slimmed down Premier League will also be given serious consideration.

In his note to clubs, Masters makes clear that significant change to the Premier League is inevitable due to ‘increasing challenges from other football competitions, sports and new forms of entertainment, as well as the impact of Covid-19 and other prevailing economic conditions’.

The Premier League have also pledged that the review will be ‘imaginative, ambitious and challenging, with no pre-determined conclusions’, another indication that major reforms are possible.

If anything the revelation of the PBP talks has accelerated the process of reform — as the league have committed to an ambitious timetable.

Consultation with clubs will begin this month following the formation of a Club Strategic Advisory Group, with initial recommendations on competition structure, calendar and broadcasting to be discussed at a shareholders’ meeting next month.

The talks will move on to the controversial areas of revenue distribution and governance in the new year, with the objective of agreeing firm proposals for reform before the tender process for the 2022-25 TV contracts begins next spring.

The terms of reference indicate that the league are likely to adopt a two-speed approach to the reforms as they are constrained by existing commitments such as broadcasting contracts that run until 2022 and the international calendar which is fixed until 2024. As a result, the review is likely to conclude with recommendations for short and long-term solutions, with the more radical changes to come later on.

Following the ill-feeling caused by Liverpool and United’s secret talks, Masters is keen for all clubs to be consulted every step of the way. There will also be consultation with the FA, EFL and fans’ groups.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 05, 2020 11:59 pm

There were suggestions of this over the summer as the Saudi bid for Newcastle dragged on - Saudi Arabia have launched a State run Sports Media operation that could rival BeinSport - from the Financial Times

Saudi Arabia media group to make play for elite global sports events
ANDREW ENGLAND NOVEMBER 05, 2020

Saudi Arabia has launched a state-controlled sports media company to manage and secure broadcasting rights in a move that will shake up the multibillion-dollar bidding wars for the right to televise elite sporting events in the Middle East.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Faisal, the sports minister, told the Financial Times that the Saudi Sports Company would create a “platform” for content development and managing TV rights. The move comes as Saudi Arabia uses its financial muscle to lure an increasingly diverse array of global sports events to the kingdom.

On Thursday, it was confirmed that Saudi Arabia had secured the rights to host a Formula One motor race for the next 15 years, beginning in 2021. The kingdom is also in discussions to hold a boxing bout next year between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, an all-British contest for the undisputed heavyweight title, Prince Abdulaziz said.

The Formula One grand prix and the launch of the media company underscore Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitions to develop the kingdom as a regional sporting hub.

Riyadh’s decision to establish the Saudi Sports Company, which will be managed by the sports ministry, comes after a bitter two-year dispute between the kingdom and beIN, a Qatar-owned channel that is estimated to have spent more than $15bn securing the rights to broadcast top European football and other sports for the Middle East.

BeIN accused Riyadh of setting up a pirate television network, beoutQ, which screened events that the Qatari channel held the exclusive rights to. Saudi Arabia, which has been at the forefront of a regional embargo against Qatar, is the Gulf’s most populous country and believed to be the region’s biggest market for sports broadcasters.

Riyadh denied beIN’s allegations. But the World Trade Organization ruled in June that the Saudi government had “infringed” international trade agreements due to the country’s involvement with beoutQ.

The controversy was one of the reasons behind the failure of a Saudi-led £300m bid for Newcastle United, the English football club. It could also undermine Saudi attempts to buy broadcasting rights.

Prince Abdulaziz said the Saudi Sports Company would not bid for TV rights for the Middle East, as beIN has done, but instead focus solely on serving the kingdom. He said initially the entity would concentrate on managing the kingdom’s existing broadcasting rights, which include Formula One, the Paris-Dakar rally, a motor race that took place in Saudi Arabia for the first time this year, and the Spanish and Italian football Super Cups, which it also hosts.

The current rights to broadcast the English, German, Spanish and Italian football leagues expire in the coming years.

BeIN last month said it would not renew its rights to broadcast Germany’s Bundesliga, saying “piracy has crippled the market”. BeIN is banned in the kingdom and the only way for Saudis to watch elite European football is through pirated streaming services.

The sports minister said Riyadh had been contacted by a “number of [football] leagues” but had not reached a “concrete agreement”. He said that the German league had approached the kingdom. People close to the Bundesliga have previously disputed this assertion, saying the league was contacted by a representative of the Saudi state.

“We said we are not interested . . . until we have set up the right platform and then we will discuss it,” Prince Abdulaziz said. “The main target is to manage the broadcasting rights we already have. If we come into an agreement with any of the leagues, or find an appetite for that, we will definitely look into it.”

He dismissed concerns that the piracy allegations would hinder Riyadh’s ability to secure broadcasting rights, insisting that the government had tackled piracy. “When we explain this to them [ football leagues], they understand it,” he added.

He acknowledged that unbundling Middle East contracts to enable Saudi Arabia to secure the broadcasting rights just for the kingdom could be an issue. But he said: “We know that Saudi plays a big chunk of the market.”

The development of a sports industry is viewed as an integral part of Prince Mohammed’s plans to provide more entertainment options for the kingdom’s youthful population — the crown prince’s main constituency as he spearheads a “Vision 2030” plan to modernise the conservative nation.

It is also viewed as a tool of soft power and part of efforts to alter perceptions of the kingdom, which has been tarnished by human rights abuses, including the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. Activists have accused Riyadh of attempting to “sports-wash” its reputation by hosting global events.

Saudi Arabia is also bidding to host the Asian football championship in 2027 and the Asian Games athletics meeting in 2030. “There’s a lot of criticism with this, but if we can showcase that we can do something on the continent level that is strong, that will give us a stronger case in the future to maybe bid for either the [football] World Cup or the Olympics,” Prince Abdulaziz said. “Everything is open, a lot of things are being discussed.”

Additional reporting by Murad Ahmed in London

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 06, 2020 10:40 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Sat Feb 08, 2020 1:23 am
An informative article in City AM outling the dividing lines for FIFA and Agents over the proposed regulations to be introduced in 2021

https://www.cityam.com/agents-row-in-ex ... proposals/
They have been a long time coming, FIFA's new regulations for agents are set to come in effect for next season - a new draft of the proposals should reignite the ire of agents but there seems a desire to make sure fans are aware of the cost and hopefully prevent this kind of nonsense
Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:22 pm
Sometimes you see something online and think - nah that cannot be real - but having found nothing to disprove it - I give you the fans of Juventus

https://twitter.com/ESPNFC/status/1151464353905987584" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chanting the name of the man that took almost half of the fee Utd paid for Pogba and who in 2 to 3 years will take De Ligt (the reason they are happy) to Spain or England to make himself more money
Here the Telegraph reports on that latest draft

Fans to see how much agents earn from transfer deals under new Fifa regulations
TELEGRAPH SPORT NOVEMBER 06, 2020

Football fans will be able to see exactly how much agents earn from transfer deals when new regulations come into force next year, Fifa has said.

The world governing body has begun a third round of consultation on the new regulations, after admitting it had been a "mistake" by the old Fifa regime to deregulate agents in 2015.

The regulations will include a licensing system, character tests, commission caps and the publication by Fifa of the money agents receive from their clients - both players and clubs.

It will also prohibit conflicts of interest, such as club or national association officials owning stakes in player agencies. It has been reported that Wolves owners Fosun hold a stake in super-agent Jorge Mendes' firm Gestifute via a subsidiary, which would be in breach of the rules when they come in.

Agents will be consulted between now and the spring of 2021, and they will all receive the draft regulations and be asked for feedback. The regulations will then go forward for Fifa Council approval between March and June next year before coming into force in September.

The rules eliminate triple representation - where an agent represents the player, the buyer and the seller - and also place a ban on dual representation, except where the agent represents the player and the buying club.

Fifa has acted to stop what it sees as "excessive and abusive" practices among agents.

Commission will be capped at three per cent of a player's salary when representing a player, three per cent of a player's salary when representing the buyer and six per cent when the same agent represents both the player and the buyer.

An agent representing a selling club can earn a maximum of 10 per cent of the transfer value.

Ultimately, Fifa intends that these commissions will not be paid directly from a client to an agent, but instead go through a clearing house system.

Fifa found that in 2019, just under half a billion pounds was spent on commission fees worldwide.

There will be no cap on any other services they charge clients for. Representation agreements will be allowed to run for a maximum of two years, and it will be a breach of the regulations for an agent to approach a player under such an agreement before it enters its final two months.

Asked why the only cap was on commission, Fifa's director of football regulatory James Kitching said: "It's a matter of perception.

"If I'm telling somebody, 'I'll take 10 per cent' somebody might think that's a small number and that's fine.

"But if it's 10 per cent of £20million, that changes the perception. We need to change the perception and the activity in the market.

"Many of the practices which we describe as excessive and abusive derive from the types of commission payments that we're describing right now. What we're trying to do is bring in basic service standards.

"I'm not saying large numbers automatically lead to abusive practices, but an agent who acts on your behalf has a fiduciary duty to act in your best interests. Sometimes big numbers may cause an agent to not act in the best interests of the client."

Fifa believes its regulations will stand up to EU antitrust law, amid expected challenges over restraint of trade from agents.

Kitching said while existing representation agreements would be able to run their natural course beyond the date when the new regulations come in, he said there would be no transition period over conflicts of interest.

"There's enough time between when the regulations have passed the Council for anything which is in violation of the regulations to be corrected in our view," he said.

The rules will also bar family members from acting for a player in transfer deals unless the family member is a licensed agent.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:07 am

Derby have issued the following statement re their potential takeover

Fri 06 Nov - Posted in Breaking News

Time to read: 1min

DERBY COUNTY STATEMENT: 6TH NOVEMBER 2020

Derby County Football Club’s Owner and Executive Chairman Mel Morris CBE has been in discussion with Derventio Holdings (UK) Limited since May in relation to taking over the ownership the club.

These talks progressed to the point where a deal has, in principle, been agreed between the two parties.

The club’s submission under the Owners and Director’s test for Derventio was approved by the EFL board on Thursday.

Derventio Holdings (UK) Limited, who’s ultimate controlling entity is Bin Zayed International LLC, owned by Sheikh Khaled Zayed Bin Saquer Zayed Al Nayhan, may now proceed with the transaction, which is a expected to close very soon.

There will be no further comment from either party until the transaction has completed.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:18 am

Another new Podcast series - Football Uncovered - will be starting in the coming days looking at the weird world of football club ownership - first up will be a look at Venky's and our friends down the road who reach their 10th anniversary this month (yes that long) - all episodes features input from @SportingIntel so it should be informative at least - for now here is the trailer

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f ... 1537818595

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:43 am

The ECA has published it's annual report this week - somewhat infuriatingly it is in a series of webpages rather than a PDF - to my mind that leaves it open to subsequent editing

you can find it here https://www.annualreport2020.ecaeurope.com/contents

EDIT - take a note of the chapter headings - which are the ECA's key strategic goals - there will be a lot in there about the work they have been doing and what they are looking to achieve in the coming year as decisions for the post 2024 outlook for football draw near

- Building the Future of Club Football
- Putting ECA at the Heart of Decisions
- Transforming the Commercial Model
- Guiding Policy, Regulatory and Financial Matters
- Driving Growth and Development
- Evolving ECA for the Next Decade
Last edited by Chester Perry on Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:47 am

Meanwhile the ECA have revised upwards the financial impact of Covid19 on Europe's elite clubs - this from Sportspromedia

Covid-19 now set to cost European soccer’s elite clubs €5bn, says ECA
CEO Charlie Marshall admits original €4bn impact estimate was ‘optimistic’.

Posted: November 5 2020By: Steven Impey
Covid-19 now set to cost European soccer’s elite clubs €5bn, says ECA
Getty Images

- 2019/20 annual report projects €6bn hit to clubs’ bottom line profits
- Pandemic also evidence clubs ‘bear lion’s share’ of risk, says Marshall

Europe’s elite soccer clubs are facing combined revenue losses of more than €5 billion (US$5.9 billion) by the end of the 2020/21 season, according to revised projections published by the European Club Association (ECA).

A previous report published by the continental club soccer body back in July predicted that the financial fallout in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic would likely be €4 billion (US$4.5 billion), with matchday revenues and broadcast and sponsorship sales taking a heavy hit.

However, fresh analysis carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) shows that guidance at the time fell well short of the reality, with clubs also standing to lose at least €6 billion (US$7 billion) in bottom line profits.

The latest forecast was published in the ECA’s 2019/20 annual report, in which chief executive Charlie Marshall made a frank assessment of the challenges facing European soccer top-flight clubs, stating that the body’s original projections were ‘optimistic’.

‘The economic impact of Covid-19 is unavoidable with club finances remaining in turmoil following the continued loss of matchday income and other affected income streams,’ Marshall said.

‘Though recent years have been a time of growth for the football industry, what we have experienced this year is how quickly that can be reversed. The way football and its business models are structured is not yet sufficiently geared for the sustainability we need in the future.’

According to the ECA, the impact on clubs was supported by analysis carried out by Fifa to inform on the global governing body’s own Covid-19 Relief Plan, in which 90 per cent of the financial burden is expected to fall at club level.

Marshall added: ‘Covid-19 has been a harsh wake-up call for football, but a wake-up call nonetheless… One could ask for no clearer evidence than this pandemic that clubs will always bear the lion’s share of the risks and the costs of delivering the world’s beautiful game.’

As part of ECA’s futureproofing measures, Marshall also cited plans to digitise the organisation’s services ‘so we can continue to facilitate knowledge sharing through more virtual means’.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 06, 2020 12:04 pm

Mediapro's efforts to renegotiate it's deal with the French Ligue is a substantial cut according to SportsBusines.com

Details emerge of Mediapro’s Ligue 1, Ligue 2 rights demands
Martin Ross - November 6, 2020

The Mediapro agency and production group is thought to have proposed a reduction of close to 25 per cent in its broadcast rights fee for the 2020-21 French league season as its stand-off with France’s Professional Football League (LFP) continues.

Having failed to meet its €172m ($204m) instalment on October 5, the LFP served formal notice on Mediapro to settle its outstanding invoice for the domestic broadcast rights to the country’s top two leagues.

Mediapro, which has taken its case to the Nanterre Commercial Court, has targeted a rebate of between €170m and €200m on its total Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 rights payment due this season, according to the L’Équipe newspaper. The demand is said to have been made through judicial mediator Marc Sénéchal.

Mediapro’s agreement is worth €780m per season for the Ligue 1 rights from 2020-21 to 2023-24, plus €34m for the Ligue 2 rights over the same period.

It is also claimed that Mediapro has proposed the extension of its contract by two seasons – to the end of the 2025-26 campaign – with the same rights fee cost as per its current contract for the top two divisions. Such a demand would require a change in legislation and is not likely to be able to be accommodated swiftly.

The LFP has shown little intention – publicly in any case – to negotiate with Mediapro. It is thought that it does not want to engage in a battle every two months to recover its full rights fees and does not want to leave itself open to rebate demands from its other rights-holding broadcasters, pay-television duo beIN Sports and Canal Plus, along with telco Free. BeIN has sublicensed its inventory for the cycle to Canal Plus as part of a wide-ranging distribution and sublicensing agreement.

A court ruling in Mediapro’s favour could award the company a period of several months in which its payments could be frozen as it looks to renegotiate its agreement with the league.

An “expert close to the issue” quoted by L’Équipe said: “To date, all options are on the table. Lawyers and accountants look at the different scenarios to see if they are realistic. Everyone wants to go fast but nothing suggests that in a month everything will be settled.”

To cover the shortfall, the LFP has taken up a loan of €120m from a ‘foreign’ bank, with the remaining €50m provided by the league itself. The LFP already borrowed €224.5m in May from the French government to deal with the impact of the pandemic.

The LFP is reportedly prepared to seek a second bank loan if Mediapro also does not pay its next instalment of €150m due by a deadline of December 5. Quizzed on the forthcoming December 5 deadline, Mediapro chief executive Jaume Roures said last month: “The question of deadlines does not make much sense.”

He added: “There is a conciliation procedure [at the Nanterre Commercial Court]…everything is on the table to allow everyone to manage it. The discussion will focus on the conditions under which French football can be properly broadcast and rewarded.”

Roures continued: “I’m not saying we don’t have the ability to pay, but we’re in the process of coping with a crisis that affects everyone. In this context, we will face up to our responsibilities.”

Roures also revealed that the Téléfoot service has “around 600,000 subscribers”. Mediapro has set a long-term target of 3.5 million subscribers in order to become profitable.

The Téléfoot channel launched in August and has negotiated distribution deals with French telcos Orange, Free, Bouygues Telecom and Altice but an agreement with Canal Plus has not been struck. The Vivendi-owned pay-television broadcaster has issued a legal complaint against Mediapro over the terms being requested.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 06, 2020 12:22 pm

The Times are reporting that those new agents regulations rules from FIFA will lead to the body investigating the relationship between Wolves and Jorge Mendes when they come into action -

Fifa to target agents’ conflicts of interest
Martyn Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter Friday November 06 2020, 12.01am, The Times

Jorge Mendes is set to face scrutiny from Fifa over his relationship with Wolverhampton Wanderers when the world governing body introduces its new agents’ regulations next year.

The “superagent”, whose Gestifute organisation has the most valuable stable of players in professional football, will have to prove that his arrangements do not fall foul of proposed new rules that will outlaw conflicts of interests between club owners and agents.

Since 2015, a subsidiary of Wolves’ Chinese owners Fosun International, called Foyo, has also had a 15 per cent stake in Start SGPS, Gestifute’s parent company. Although the relationship has been permitted by the FA, it is expected to be closely studied by Fifa.

Fifa’s proposed new regulations, due to come into force next September, state: “Any person or entity that holds an interest, directly or indirectly, in a league or club . . . are forbidden to have any interest in, directly or indirectly, or to hold any position in, the business or affairs of a Football Agent or their private company.”

James Kitching, Fifa’s director of football regulatory, said: “Agents will have an obligation to disclose the source of funding, the shareholding, the structure and the ultimate beneficial ownership of the private company.”

Kitching added that agents and clubs would have to organise their affairs so that they comply with the new rules before next September.

“In terms of conflicts of interest, there will not be any transition period, if there is anything in violation of the regulations there is time for it to be corrected, in our view,” he said.

Fifa has launched a third consultation period with the aim of the rules being agreed by the Fifa council by June and to come into force for September. Representing both a player and the selling club — a practice that has been common for Gestifute and Mendes — is also set to be banned by Fifa.

That would prevent deals such as the signing of the striker Fabio Silva, 18, for Wolves for a club record €40 million (£36.4 million) from Porto. The club paid Gestifute €7 million for the deal involving Silva — who is represented by Gestifute. That agent’s fee was 17.5 per cent of the total Porto received, with another €3 million for other intermediaries.

The new regulations only permit an agent to represent both the player and the registering club. They will also outlaw one agent being paid by all three parties, as happened when Manchester United signed Paul Pogba from Juventus in 2016 from which his agent, Mino Raiola, made a total of £41 million.

Fifa’s new rules would cap agents’ commissions at 10 per cent of the transfer fee, introduce a licensing system, ensure all payments to agents go through Fifa, and oblige agents to disclose a full list of their clients for transparency.

In addition, Fifa’s proposed rules would mean agents being able to receive a maximum of 3 per cent of the remuneration a player receives from a transfer. Premier League clubs paid out more than £263 million to football agents during 2019-20, an increase of almost £3 million on the previous year.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 06, 2020 3:52 pm

The chair of the All Parliamentary Party Group for football supporters had written to the government to demand it begins it;s manifesto pledge for a fan-led review of the game - it is supported by the FSA

https://twitter.com/WeAreTheFSA/status/ ... 5550857217

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 06, 2020 10:49 pm

The Mail is reporting that a group of Championships clubs are pushing the EFL to take on a Private Equity partner - the article also reveals details of the TPG offer made some weeks back

Six Championship clubs push EFL to finalise £400m private equity deal to raise funds for cash-strapped sides... and they're working with investment giants JP Morgan to drive the sale
Six Championship clubs want to see the EFL sold to private equity to raise funds
The alliance is working with American group JP Morgan to drive interest in a sale
TPG Capital put in a £300million offer for the EFL which Rick Parry rejected
That deal would have seen £270million go to the cash-strapped EFL clubs
By MATT HUGHES FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 22:34, 6 November 2020 | UPDATED: 22:34, 6 November 2020

A group of Championship clubs are urging the EFL to sell a stake in their three divisions to private equity in an attempt to safeguard their future.

Sportsmail has learned that an alliance of six clubs are working with American investment bank JP Morgan to drive interest in a sale, with the clubs' valuation of the EFL at around £2billion.

That figure is £500million higher than the only concrete offer the EFL have received to date from TPG Capital, full details of which can be revealed today.

EFL chairman Rick Parry rejected TPG's initial approach last month but their £300m bid for a 20 per cent stake, rather than the £400m the clubs want, remains on the table and they want a deal by the end of the year.

Other clubs are opposed to an equity sale, particularly if it involves diluting their voting rights, and want the EFL to intensify their talks with the Premier League over a rescue package.

TPG's proposal is being taken seriously enough to have been presented to the EFL Board, however, while a number of clubs are also understood to have held individual talks with the American company.

Their offer is based on a £300m investment in the EFL in return for a fifth of its commercial income and 51 per cent voting rights, effectively giving them control of all future commercial and structural decisions.

Talks with the EFL have been conducted by Malte Janzarik, TPG's head of European investments, and Dominic Coles, a former BBC executive and chair of rights company GB Sport Media.

Sportsmail has learned the full details of TPG's proposition, which is to give £270m to the clubs to help cope with financial challenges caused by Covid-19, plus a further £30m set aside to create a new centralised commercial operation to manage all future broadcast, sponsorship and streaming negotiations.

Of the £270m payout, £135m would be paid to the EFL up front, with a further £33.75m due after each of the next four years.

In addition, TPG are willing to donate £3m to the EFL Trust, the organisation's charitable arm which runs educational and fitness projects in the communities served by its 72 clubs.

------------------------------------------
SO, WHO ARE TPG?
A private equity firm based in San Francisco seeking to buy a stake in the EFL, with Sportsmail revealing details of their offer for the first time.

It would be a £300m investment in return for 20 per cent of EFL's commercial sales and 51 per cent voting rights, valuing the three divisions at £1.5bn.

Around £270m would be given to the clubs — 50 per cent up front followed by 12.5 per cent in each of the next four years — with £30m set aside to set up a bespoke media rights and commercial sales company.
-------------------------------------------

TPG's offer document does not specify how their investment should be distributed among the clubs or even between the divisions, which would be a source of considerable tension if it was accepted, but makes clear that their business model is based on increasing the value of the EFL's broadcast and commercial deals.

The proposal states that the current £119m-a-year domestic television contract with Sky Sports in particular is significantly undervalued, with TPG claiming that they could bring in a contract worth £200m a year for the next rights cycle beginning in 2024.

It is made clear that these figures are partially based on the League Cup continuing. However, this is in doubt beyond 2024 due to the planned expansion of the Champions League which would restrict the involvement of top clubs and therefore reduce its value.

Despite this, TPG's projection of the EFL's overall revenues based on domestic and international broadcast rights and sponsorship deals shows a rise from the current figure of £190m to £325m by 2025.

TPG also plan to significantly expand the EFL's streaming service, initially in overseas markets, with over 500 matches to be available from the 2022-23 season.

The group cite the example of the NBA and NFL in selling season-passes to fans all over the world giving them access to every single match in the competition, a model it claims could be used to expand the EFL's global appeal.

TPG also claim there is potential for growth in the sponsorship market, and propose selling a series of new partnership packages focusing on specific industries such as soft drinks, confectionery, technology, clothing, gaming and betting in the manner popularised by leading Premier League clubs.

In return for their investment TPG are demanding a so-called 'special share' in the EFL, giving them an effective veto over structural changes and any amendments to rules and regulations.

They also want all 72 clubs to sign an undertaking that they will stay in the EFL, following numerous recent threats to set up a breakaway league, and to be granted exclusivity in negotiations over potential investment until the end of the year.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Nov 08, 2020 1:48 pm

Momentum is building ahead of Tuesdays DCMS meeting where FA Chairman Greg Clarke, EFL Chairman Rick Parry and Premier LEague Chief Executive Richard Masters are to be grilled about the future of English football and a bail-out amongst other things. this from the Telegraph about the calls for an independent regulator

Growing calls for independent football regulator
JEREMY WILSON NOVEMBER 08, 2020

An alliance is building behind independent regulation and fundamental reform of English football before Tuesday's parliamentary grilling of the three most powerful administrators in the national game.

Greg Clarke, Richard Masters and Rick Parry, the respective leaders of the Football Association, the Premier League and English Football League, will face questions from MPs but there is gathering momentum for the biggest organisational overhaul in a generation.

A group of administrators, politicians and sportspeople, led by David Bernstein, Gary Neville, Andy Burnham and former sports minister Helen Grant, launched their ‘Saving the Beautiful Game’ manifesto last month — and positive talks have now taken place with the Football Supporters’ Association, whose views are closely aligned.

The manifesto group are pushing for the early appointment of a football regulator to break the current stalemate in decision-making and force major change to the finances and governance of English football. A series of meetings are now also scheduled with senior ministers and politicians from across parties in an attempt to inspire a tangible political will for change.

“We believe that the events of recent weeks continue to support our concerns and recommendations,” said Bernstein who added that he had been “enormously encouraged by the reaction, particularly from fans and the FSA” with whom they are now working closely.

FSA vice chairman Tom Greatrex said that there was “not much we disagreed on”, most notably an overriding feeling that football cannot ultimately be governed by self-interested clubs and that an urgent solution is needed.

“All the governing bodies either have vested interests or they have governance problems,” said Bernstein. “Football is facing a major crisis and, although this has been accentuated by Covid-19, it has been building up for years. The situation is now critically urgent. There is a real danger to the football pyramid. Fans have real concerns about these issues and it’s clear they want to see real change.”

As well as a rebalancing of football’s economics with the backing of an independent regulator, Bernstein’s group has advocated governance reforms at the FA, a greater say for fans and a “fair levy” on Premier League income.

The government promised a fan-led review of football as part of their general election manifesto and the FSA are now pushing for this to be implemented urgently. The FSA believes that the review can provide a framework for reform.

Bernstein and Neville’s group have become concerned about delays and are instead lobbying government to quickly enact legislation that would create an independent regulator with the power to break the current stand-off. “We have made a lot of progress in a short time - we need quick and fundamental change,” said Bernstein. “The problems were already there and football has shown itself to be resistant to reform but the world has changed in the last six months. We do not want government to run football but we need parliamentary support to break the log-jam that has bedeviled English football. Covid has shown up all these inherent problems and immediate action is needed.”

A survey of fans found that 79 per cent of supporters would back independent regulation and 86 per cent are concerned about the financial viability of clubs.

The EFL had warned that they could lose clubs imminently if a bailout is not agreed. The government is adamant that professional football has sufficient resources and that it expects the Premier League and EFL to find a financial solution which ensures that no club is forced out of business during the pandemic. The Project Big Picture proposal, which included a 25 per cent redistribution of Premier League income, was largely backed by EFL clubs, but firmly rejected by those in the top-flight. The Premier League’s counter-offer of £20 million in grants for League One and League Two - as well as further funding in loans - has been emphatically rejected by the EFL.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Nov 08, 2020 2:15 pm

This is a step in the right direction, FIFA launch a new initiative of transparency in some financial matters - a new facility to follow the money distribution of Fifa's forward programme going back to 2016. There is still much more that needs to be done on this though the data is still rather basic - hopefully it will go much further as it develops

https://www.fifa.com/what-we-do/fifa-forward/impact-map

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:24 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Nov 04, 2020 10:54 am
Norwich City release their 2019/20 accounts - covering a 13 month period like ours will - hoping for a few insights into the Covid impact at the Premier League

@KieranMaguire has a peek

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9665985536

The annual report is here

https://files.canaries.co.uk/canaries/ARG2020.pdf

still waiting for a filing at Companies house - though when they appear they will be here https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history

EDIT - Norwich have effectively confirmed (by saying their rebate share was £7.1m https://www.canaries.co.uk/News/2020/no ... -accounts/) that the numbers in the Premier League Handbook 2020/21 for Central distribution revenues and rebates are what has been distributed - see page 633 https://resources.premierleague.com/pre ... 021020.pdf (PDF page 321)
@SwissRamble does his thing with those Norwich 2019/20 financial results - the accounts have also been filed at companies hous too

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 1825247233

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:52 am

Barcelona demonstrate that even the world's biggest clubs are having to accept revised (downward) sponsorship deals as the pandemic continues to endure - their extended shirt deal is much reduced and other main sponsors are looking to do the same

https://twitter.com/Lu_Class_/status/13 ... 5584804866

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 09, 2020 1:22 pm

Premier League Chief Exec Richard Masters has been talking to Politico.eu ahead of what is likely to to be a challenging meeting with the DCMS tomorrow (watch from 9.30 a.m. tomorrow here https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Ind ... 1b96446342)

Political football: Premier League braces for scrutiny amid COVID deadlock
A rescue deal between England’s Premier League and lower-tier clubs remains elusive as the top league’s Chief Executive Richard Masters prepares to face MPs.

Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters Media Briefing
BY JACK BLANCHARD November 9, 2020 4:30 am

LONDON — English football and politics have never been happy bedfellows.

From Margaret Thatcher’s pitched battles with the sport over hooliganism in the 1980s, all the way through to David Cameron’s comical inability to remember which team he supports, government interventions in the national game have rarely ended well. Savvy politicians know this, and tend to keep their distance; allowing football’s bosses to keep building the English Premier League into the global behemoth it has become while avoiding the flack for its litany of controversies.

It’s a setup which suits those in charge. “Ultimately we believe football can govern itself — we don’t think it needs too much intervention,” the Premier League’s Chief Executive Richard Masters told POLITICO in an interview.

But coronavirus, as with much else, has changed everything. The closure of football stadiums to fans since mid-March has created a financial crisis in the game, with lower-league clubs in particular at risk of going bust without the regular match day income they rely on. These clubs are cherished local institutions — small town assets and points of civic pride, most with more than a century of history behind them. The U.K. government cannot — dare not — stand by and watch them go to the wall.

However, unlike with other shuttered cultural institutions such as theaters or arts venues, a taxpayer-funded bailout for football has not been forthcoming. Instead, conscious of the vast amounts of money swilling around at the top of the game, ministers have ordered the Premier League itself to intervene. Mega-rich clubs at the top of the so-called “football pyramid” have been told to use their enormous income from TV rights to support those lower down the leagues.

But a bail-out deal between the Premier League and the English Football League (EFL) — representing the three divisions below — is proving elusive, and this week bosses from both leagues will be hauled before MPs to explain why.

The EFL says £250 million is needed to keep its clubs afloat. The Premier League has offered only £50 million in grants and loans, however, along with a pledge that no club will be allowed to go bust. Speaking ahead of what is likely to be fractious appearance before the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee on Tuesday, Masters blamed “scarce resources” among England’s footballing elite for the impasse.

“Our offer goes to the issue of ‘need’ rather than ‘want,’ and where you have scarce resources in the current environment that has to be the right approach,” he said. “It also mirrors the government’s approach — rescuing other areas of sport, and indeed the economy, to save bits from going out of business, rather than to underwrite losses.

“At the moment there isn’t an agreement — but we stand willing to continue to talk, and our offer remains on the table to save clubs if they are in significant COVID-related distress.”

The Premier League says it lost £700 million in revenue due to the pandemic last season, and that its 20 clubs are now missing out on a further £20 million of projected revenue for every round of matches played since the new season kicked off — behind closed doors — on September 12.

Clearly, these are sizable sums. But Masters’ claim of “scarce resources” among England’s footballing elite will raise eyebrows among MPs, given Premier League clubs again lavished more than £1 billion on new players this summer. West London club Chelsea alone spent more than £230 million — almost enough to cover the EFL’s requested bailout by itself. They are part of a “top six” of rich clubs who together spend a further £1.7 billion on players’ wages each season.

Yet Masters insisted Premier League clubs cannot afford to cut spending to support smaller rivals, even during a pandemic.

“The Premier League is the most competitive league in the world, and you can’t stand still,” he said. “You have to continue to compete, you have to continue to invest.” He said £250 million of Premier League clubs’ summer transfer spending went on lower-league players, “which obviously assisted many clubs to reach a financially secure situation.”

‘For the good of the game’
His position is likely to be given short shrift in Westminster, where ministers are fast losing patience. “I am very disappointed by the current situation and the inability of football to reach that agreement,” Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden told the House of Commons last week. DCMS committee Chairman Julian Knight, the Conservative MP who will lead the interrogation on Tuesday, accused the leagues of “squabbling” and urged them to “come to a proper deal for the good of the game.”

Privately, Premier League executives are resentful that ministers are treating football as a special case during the pandemic, and gaze enviously at other British cultural institutions which have received sizable grants and loans from the government. No other industry, they say, has seen richer entities ordered to bail out struggling rivals.

“Generally speaking, I don’t think football should be treated differently to other industries,” Masters told POLITICO diplomatically, while rejecting any suggestion that government should instead be bailing out the EFL.

A small group of the wealthiest Premier League teams led by Liverpool and Manchester United have proposed a radically different approach, suggesting the EFL be paid the full £250 million as part of controversial proposals to overhaul football governance and concentrate power in the hands of elite clubs. The so-called “Project Big Picture” plans were swiftly rejected, but a major review of how the Premier League operates is now underway.

“I can’t pretend it hasn’t created difficulties,” Masters said of the leaked plan. “The most important thing is all 20 clubs are now committed to a strategic review of the Premier League … I don’t think the status quo is probably the right or the unifying way forward. But I don’t want to be presumptive about how it’s going to finish.”

Unimaginable a few years ago, the threat of government intervention now hangs over the league. The ruling Conservative Party promised a “fan-led review” of football governance in its election manifesto last year, and a campaign is growing among fans’ groups to force major changes upon a league widely perceived to put profit ahead of supporters’ interests. The impasse over a coronavirus bail-out has given fresh urgency to the cause.

Masters was predictably lukewarm. “The Premier League has become, over the last nearly 30 years, a world-leading competition,” he said. “It has excellent governance.”

A tin ear?
Plenty of fans would disagree with that assessment, however, and yet another flashpoint emerged last month when the league announced supporters would be charged £14.95 per match — on top of their existing TV sports contracts — to watch matches during lockdown which would not normally be televised. Supporters’ groups were enraged, and thousands chose instead to donate their money to food banks. The Premier League is expected to back down this week — but from a PR perspective, the damage is done.

“We’ve obviously been listening to fans as part of this process,” Masters said. “It’s obviously their choice if they want to (donate to charities) and join in with a popular cause.” He denied the Premier League has a tin ear when it comes to the prices football fans are charged, however. “We spend a lot of time talking to supporters,” he said. “We … talked about this issue with groups prior to the season, where they indicated they were willing to invest. The main thing for them was that they did have access to matches. Clearly there’s been an issue around the price point.”

Masters admitted the pandemic has “been a very challenging time for the whole of the sport,” and that football bosses “have had to find a new way of playing football, basically.” But he insisted the decision to suspend the season on March 13, as coronavirus cases peaked across the U.K., was not taken too late — “that’s not one of the things I look back on and regret at all” — and was full of praise for the way clubs have ensured matches can be played in a safe environment. “I think we created a really secure model which will see us through 2021 as well,” he said.

The next step, in the Premier League’s eyes, is to get fans back into grounds, albeit in limited numbers. On Monday afternoon, MPs will debate a petition signed by 200,000 fans demanding supporters be allowed back once the current lockdown is over. “We believe … we can make our grounds incredibly safe places to come,” Masters said. “I think it’s true to say there have been some frustrations in the system about some of the inconsistencies in government policy with regards to being able to watch football matches in cinemas, for example, but not inside stadiums.”

English football has itself become a far more political animal this year, with Manchester United star Marcus Rashford leading a high-profile campaign to force the government to offer more financial support to families struggling to feed their children during school holidays. He scored yet another success this weekend, pressuring Boris Johnson to stump up a further £170 million. Johnson phoned Rashford himself on Saturday evening to break the news.

Masters is full of praise for the 23-year-old England striker. “You’ve seen a number of players coming forward over the summer, using their profile to push good causes,” he said. “I think Marcus is doing something which football clubs have done for decades … which is to make a difference to the communities they serve. It’s obviously something very personal for Marcus, who grew up in the local area and suffered food poverty during his own childhood … I think it is good, and an emerging trend.”

Masters denied, however, that Rashford’s political campaigning, and the now-familiar sight of players kneeling before each game in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests, are part of a wider politicization of football. “I think this is about values, rather than politics,” he said.

It’s a fine line between the two, however — and one, in the age of a pandemic, which the Westminster government looks increasingly willing to cross.

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 09, 2020 1:29 pm

Meanwhile - and again a piece of positioning in advance of the DCMS hearing - the EFL are temporarily removing sanctions for those clubs that do not keep up to date with their payments to HMRC - from the Mail

EXCLUSIVE: EFL to lift sanctions against clubs that don't pay their tax bills as debts to taxman spiral to £78m amid Covid-19 crisis and League puts pressure on the Government to find a solution to growing financial chaos
Up to 20 clubs are on the brink of financial collapse due to the Covid pandemic
Clubs that default on payments to the taxman are placed under a transfer embargo, but EFL is planning to change rules to give clubs more breathing space
EFL wants government to find 'sustainable' solution to the financial crisis
Premier League offer of £30m in loans and £20m in grants is 'far from' enough
By CHARLIE WALKER FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 08:02, 9 November 2020 | UPDATED: 08:29, 9 November 2020

The EFL is dropping sanctions against teams that don't pay their tax bills as it tries to protect clubs from the growing financial crisis and turns up the heat on the Government to help.

Currently the League assists the taxman in gathering payments by threatening clubs with a transfer embargo if they do not pay up on time and a points reduction if they go into administration.

However, Sportsmail understands the transfer embargo is set to be lifted.

And clubs are pushing for the points reduction to be scrapped, too, if they are forced into administration for unpaid tax debts.

The EFL has become increasingly frustrated with Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden's refusal to consider emergency funding for football in the same way he has done for the arts, which have received £1.5 billion of support due to the financial devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Clubs insist they want a constructive discussion with the Government, not only about emergency funding, but also increasing tax debts.

EFL clubs argue that it is unfair for government policy to ban fans in grounds, crippling them financially, while refusing to offer assistance and at the same time demanding tax payments that teams cannot meet.

'The maths do not add up,' said one club insider. 'We are forbidden from getting revenue because we cannot have fans, but they are demanding we pay. There will be a gap.'

The Government revealed in October that the unpaid tax bill of EFL clubs had reached £77.6million.

'Oliver Dowden is saying "this is not my problem", but what the EFL is doing is a way of saying "actually it is your problem",' added the inside source.

'It's time for Mr Dowden and the Government to have some serious conversations. The current policies are not sustainable.

'This is not about trying to avoid taxes. It's about, can we come to a sensible arrangement with some financial help here, pressure on the Premier League there, and a longer time to pay HMRC debt? So clubs do not go bust.'

The EFL rules have been designed to stop clubs running up huge tax bills, They ensure the League is informed by HMRC about the clubs' tax affairs and if they default on their payments they will 'not be permitted to register any player'.

The EFL board discussed altering these rules on Thursday and clubs will be informed in writing.

But some clubs want to go further and when the League clubs' chairmen meet later this week they are expected to push for the 12-point deduction that is triggered by an 'insolvency event' to be removed, too.

This would create the possibility of a club buying itself out of administration and continuing without being forced into relegation.

EFL clubs are currently faced with what one official called a 'double whammy'.

HMRC agreed with individual clubs to delay tax payments until October, now those bills are due, along with additional demands for November.

The clubs agreed to the October deadline because the government had indicated a phased return of fans, and therefore income, from October 1.

However, while the government allowed people to attend indoor events, football fans remained banned from stadiums. Attendance at all events has now been postponed because the country is in a second national lockdown until December 2.

The increasing tax debt further raises the prospect of clubs going bust, which EFL chairman Rick Parry has been quick to point out would be politically damaging to the Government and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Meanwhile, the issue of a bailout for the EFL remains unresolved.

On Thursday, the EFL board considered the latest Premier League offer of £20m in grants, £30m in loans for Leagues One and Two and additional undisclosed support for Championship teams. The proposals will go to the clubs for consideration next week.

Fleetwood Town's chief executive Steve Curwood has already said the £50m offer is 'far from anything which will solve the problem'.

The sum is well short of the £250m EFL clubs have lost during the Covid-crisis, and sought by Parry. Eight clubs are already receiving life-support loan payments from the EFL and another 12 are expected to need similar help to avoid going bust by the end of the year.

Even so, Mr Dowden has never wavered in his view that the Premier League has adequate resources to support struggling teams in the lower leagues.

The Culture Secretary told MPs on Thursday that he was 'very disappointed in the current situation and the inability of football to come to that agreement'.

And Parry and Premier League chief executive Richard Masters will be hauled before the Department of Culture Media and Sport committee of MPs on Tuesday to explain themselves.

Dowden believes lavish spending in the summer transfer window, in which the net spend of Premier League clubs was £800m, the highest figure in Europe, proves that the cash is there to bail out the EFL.

While EFL club officials spoken to by Sportsmail agree the Premier League should do more than it is currently offering, they see that as only part of the solution and the Government must step in too.

The Premier League points out that while individual owners in the top flight may have extraordinary wealth to lavish on their teams in transfer fees and wages, the Premier League itself is a private company that does not have unlimited resources.

Furthermore, they say, the top-tier is made up of a diverse group of clubs that are not all super-rich and some teams would suffer badly if Premier League resources were diverted from them to the EFL, since they are stretched, too.

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 09, 2020 1:42 pm

Of course there is another football related topic to be discussed in the House of Commons at some point this afternoon - in the "Topical Questions to the Secretary of State for the Home Department" (Which can be watched here https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/0 ... 35154ed254 - session starts at 2:30 but will take some time to get to the bit we are interested in) the Mail relates the background to it

No more double standards: Football pleads for a level playing field when lockdown is lifted so fans can return to stadiums when theatres and art galleries open again, as Parliament debates fans' petition signed by 200,000 today
MPs to debate how fans can return safely to stadiums in Parliament today
200,000 supporters signed petition to force the Government to hold the event
Clubs, fans and MPs demand level playing field for football and entertainment
They suspect lack of interest in football within the cabinet has counted against it
Brighton and Hove Albion have developed plans for safe return others will follow
By CHARLIE WALKER FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 08:20, 9 November 2020 | UPDATED: 09:16, 9 November 2020

Football fans cannot be subject to more double standards when the Government allows events to restart after the national lockdown is lifted, insist MPs, clubs and supporters

The call for fairness is timed to coincide with a Parliamentary debate on allowing football fans to return to matches as soon as it is safe to do so, which takes place at Westminster Hall on Monday.

The debate, which will hear from MPs fearful that their local clubs may fold if fans do not return at the earliest opportunity, has been triggered by a petition, which attracted support from 200,000 fans online.

It comes after ministers allowed audiences to return to indoor theatres, galleries and cinemas, but abandoned plans for fans to access outdoor football stadiums in October as coronavirus infection rates increased.

Now, the football community is desperate for a level playing field once the second national lockdown, which prohibits attendance at any public events in England, is lifted.

'I do not understand the government logic to allow people to attend theatres or even cinemas to watch matches, but not sit in stadiums in the open air,' said MP Ian Mearns, the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Football Supporters.' It defies logic'.

The Football Supporters' Association says the evidence shows football grounds can be opened safely.

'We have done a lot of work with the football authorities developing models for hosting games in which fans can feel secure,' said chief executive Kevin Miles.

'The feedback we have had from all of our members involved in these test events has been that they feel at least as safe, if not safer, at those matches as they have at supermarkets, pubs and restaurants.

'There are a lot of fans scratching their heads at the idea that football matches, with all these security measures, are not permitted while they see other entertainment events apparently operating at a far lower level of Covid security.

'We just want to be judged by the same standards.'

MPs from all parties are expected to join the debate. Among them will be Conservative MP for Blackpool and Cleveleys, Paul Maynard, whose constituency includes Blackpool FC and Fleetwood Town's training facility.

'The clubs are really important institutions,' he said. 'We need a concerted government approach, partly by getting more people back into grounds when it is safe.'

There is concern among clubs and campaigners that Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden and the cabinet are simply not interested in football and their decisions are driven by a lack of understanding of the value the national game brings to communities.

The suspicion is not completely unfounded in that only two of the current 21 MPs who make up the cabinet have noted football as an interest on their MP websites.

They are Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Therese Coffey, who is a Liverpool fan having grown up in the city, and the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who has previously expressed an interest in his hometown club, Southampton.

'It is unfortunate that there are not many members of the cabinet who are true football supporters,' said Steve Curwood, chief executive of Fleetwood Town. 'The cabinet does not understand what football clubs do.'

The Culture Secretary, who is responsible for the opening of venues, recently admitted he is no football fan during a visit to National League side, Boreham Wood FC, which is in his constituency.

'I have to be honest, I'm not the biggest football fan,' he told The Sun on Sunday. 'I support Boreham Wood because it's my home patch. I follow them as the local MP, but I've always enjoyed cricket.'

In October, Dowden explained to MPs that the government planned to allow socially-distanced spectators in grounds from October 1, but it was not possible.

'That is what I desperately wanted to happen,' he told the Department of Culture Media and Sport committee. 'Because of where we are with the disease, it has not been possible to have that further easement.'

No club has done more to blaze the trail for the return of fans than Brighton and Hove Albion, who hosted a highly successful test event against Chelsea at the Amex Stadium.

The results of the experiment, in which 2,500 supporters enjoyed a socially-distanced experience, have been analysed by health experts and scientists at the University of Manchester, who are helping to mastermind the return of fans.

The Brighton model will be the basis on which all fans return to watch the elite game.

Brighton chief executive Paul Barber believes there is an outside chance that fans could attend matches in some way in the New Year, but expects it to be in the spring.

And like all club officials, he stresses it must be safe.

'As much as we are keen to put our business back on a sound footing as soon as we can we cannot be and will not be immune to protecting the NHS,' said Barber. 'That is the priority at this moment in time.

However, once the Government is satisfied that it is safe to allow people to attend events again, Mr Barber sees no reason why football should not be included.

'The message is when this lockdown is over and people are permitted to see live events, football should be allowed to have fans back in. All we are asking is to be treated the same. It is important when lockdown is over there is some consistency.

'We have to trust football fans to do the right thing. Just because they follow clubs up and down the country does not mean they should not be trusted to behave appropriately.

'If people can be trusted to go to the O2 or Royal Albert Hall, they can be trusted to go to football, too.'

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

Brighton Blaze the Trail for Fans
Brighton and Hove Albion have created a template for the return of football fans to stadiums, which other clubs are expected to follow when the turnstiles open again.

Brighton's test event, in which 2,500 supporters attended a preseason friendly against Chelsea on August 29, was hailed as a huge success and witnessed by senior government officials.

The results have been analysed by experts from the University of Manchester and have been incorporated into a set of guidelines for Local Safety Advisory Groups, bodies made up of representatives from the local authority, NHS, police and others in each area, which give the go ahead for clubs to host matches.

The system includes:

- Distancing on the approach to the stadium to avoid crowds, as well as on concourses inside
- Masks to be worn everywhere except when seated, however that is expected to change and masks will probably have to be worn before, during and after a match
- Fans will have to carry photo-identification so the club knows they are the person who bought the ticket and they can be contacted in the event of a coronavirus outbreak
- Supporters will have to sanitize their hands on the way in and out of grounds
- Each fan sits alone, not even in a family bubble, with seats either side vacant and one row left empty between supporters, which allows stewards to manage the game more easily
- Unique branding was produced by Brighton in mint green for Covid-related information. This was used to communicate with fans before the game and at the match, so they knew what to expect and what to do
- Fans asked to give way to supporters climbing the stairs to their seat (because they would be exhaling more heavily) and turn away from others when passing them

In addition, the Government's Sports Technology and Innovation Working Group is looking at other initiatives, such as the possibility of mass testing of supporters so only those who test negative attend the match.

Crucially, analysis by the local health authority demonstrated the match did not result in a spike in COVID-19 infections.

A transport study after the Brighton event found that 60 per cent of supporters used public transport, even though parking was available, with many preferring to stick to their usual matchday routine.

Clubs are also looking at how people will travel to and from the stadium.

Bristol City has developed a system in which limited numbers of fans can be allowed to attend matches from each postcode area, thereby ensuring that public transport is not overcrowded on any individual route.

In addition, Bristol City have said it would work with local pubs to manage the crowds around the stadium.

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