Football's Magic Money Tree

[Chester Perry]

A bit of history that is entirely relevant to this thread. Things have changed an awful lot for Leicester in the last 20 years or so - this piece today from twohundredpercent.com looks back to 2002 and when they went into financial collapse that eventually led to administration a move that has left a bad taste in the mouth across football ever since, so much so that new rules (including point deductions) were brought in.

As Bad As Things Got: Leicester City, 21st October 2002
by Ian | Feb 13, 2021

The transformation of Leicester City over the second half of the last decade passes relatively unremarked upon. The Premier League title of 2016, of course, sent tremors around the world, but what has happened since then has, in comparison, passed relatively under the radar.
Their title defence, of course, began catastrophically and ended with the team not far from the relegation places and title-winning manager Claudio Ranieri losing his job. Since then, though, Leicester have consolidated themselves as a top half Premier League club. They finished in fifth place last season, and it says much for the stability that Brendan Rodgers has brought to the club that few are particularly shocked by them being in third place in the table and in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, this time around. It’s the most successful period in the history of the club, and it isn’t showing any signs of slowing, yet.

If you’d told somebody all of this at the start of this century, though, they might not have been that surprised. Leicester’s 1990s had been… variable. They only narrowly avoided relegation to the third tier at the end of the 1991/92 season, but were promoted into the Premier League via the play-offs two years later and settled after promotion again in 1996.

Even prior to 2016, Leicester City had a peculiarly unique place in the English football landscape. They hold, jointly, the record for having been the champions of the second tier – currently the Championship – the most times, on seven, with Manchester City. They also hold the record for having lost the most FA Cup finals without having won it, with four, the last of which came in 1969, when they lost to Manchester City.

But Leicester City started the new millenium with reason to be optimistic. Under Martin O’Neill, by the end of the 1999/2000 season, they’d finished the previous four seasons in the top half of the Premier League and had played in three of the previous four League Cup finals, winning twice. O’Neill left Filbert Street in June 2000 for Celtic, and was replaced by Peter Taylor.

The club had been looking to leave Filbert Street for several years. Converting to being all-seater earlier in the 1990s had reduced the capacity of Filbert Street to 21,500, but this wasn’t too much of a problem for the club as it bounced between the Premier League and the First Division in the mid-1990s. When the club came to settle in the Premier League, however, crowds grew and that capacity started to look a little meagre, while by modern standards it also looked somewhat antiquated.

In early 1998, plans were announced for a 40,000 all-seater stadium to be built at Bede Island South, but these were abandoned two years later. Revised plans for a 32,000 capacity stadium were unveiled in November 2000, with optimism around the club still high. Peter Taylor had started brightly, and Leicester even led the Premier League in the autumn of 2000, not long before the new stadium announcement. The stadium would end up costing £37m, an affordable amount, on the Premier League revenues of the time.

Leicester City were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2001/02 season.

The team’s decline can be traced back to the time of the announcement of the new stadium. Leicester were still in contention for a European place until into the spring, but a run of nine defeats from their last ten matches of the season saw them fall to 13th place in the table, while they were knocked out of the FA Cup at home in the quarter-finals by Wycombe Wanderers.

The dismal form continued over into the next season. Leicester lost their first two matches of the 2001/02 season, 4-0 to Bolton Wanderers and 5-0 to Arsenal. When, after a brief revival, form plummeted again, Taylor was fired, but things didn’t improve under his successor, Dave Bassett. Leiecster City were relegated from the Premier League with room to spare, finishing twelve points adrift of safety, with just five league wins all season.

More than 31,000 people saw Leicester City’s first match at the Walkers Stadium in August 2002. Micky Adams had been appointed manager of the club just as relegation was being certified at the end of the previous season, and he’d already proved himself with a short unbeaten run, and this form continued into the new season. For many observers, however, Leicester’s good start to the First Division season dwarfed by concerns over their financial position.

The club had been hit by a perfect storm of relegation from the Premier League and the construction of a new stadium. And on top of that, on the 27th of March 2002, ITV Digital was put into administration. ITV Digital had paid a vast amount of money for Football League highlights, and clubs were spending that money accordingly. However, sales were far lower than expected and piracy of the ITV Digital platform was widespread. Viewing figures were terrible, and ITV Digital started to fall in on itself.

The company sought to renegotiate its contract with the Football League, offering £50m for the remainder of the contract that they’d held, but the Football League turned it down. On the 1st May 2002, all ITV Digital channels stopped broadcasting except for ITV Digital Sport, which kept going for a further ten days. By the time the dust had settled, over 1,000 jobs had been lost. By the time the company was formally liquidated in October, they owed £1.25bn.

Under the new deal signed with Sky – to which First Division (now Championship) clubs had reacted furiously, many believing it to have been signed in haste – their annual television money fell by two-thirds, from £2m a year to £700,000 a year. Professional football is its own economy and it doesn’t necessarily peak and trough in line with the rest of the world’s economies and the effect of the ITV Digital collapse was to completely stagnate football’s internal economy.

Leicester City’s collapse in form on the pitch couldn’t have come at a worse time. The club was £28m in debt to an American pensions company who’d lent the club the money to help pay for the Walkers Stadium, while relegation from the Premier League had cost them £22 million in revenue, with a £1.5 million tax bill looming. In addition to this, the club had spent heavily on players’ contracts in a bid to continue their status established under Martin O’Neill. By 2002, their weekly wage bill of £346,000, and when the summer of 2002 came around they needed both the liquidity that transfer fees could bring and to reduce their wage bill. Matt Piper, Gary Rowett and Robbie Savage were amongst those hastily sold to try and balance the books.

The club was over £30 million in debt, with a huge wage bill, and an attempt to balance to books led to transfer fee receipts lower the than the clubs had anticipated. By the second week in October, trading in shares in the club was suspended, with the price having fallen to 7p a share from £1.10. The club’s value fell from £42 million to just £2.8 million. The players rejected a 20% pay cut, but agreed to defer part of their pay until promotion back into the Premier League. In order to try to facilitate promotion straight back, the deal was included as part of an agreement that the club’s remaining senior players would not be sold as they pushed for promotion. The players were, reportedly, extremely unhappy at the way they’d been depicted in the press after rejecting the 20% pay cut.

This, however, was too little, too late. On the 18th October came the final nail in the coffin. Midfielder Dennis Wise, who had been sacked by the club after an fight on a pre-season tour that left Callum Davidson with a fractured cheekbone, was taking the club to the High Court to sue for wrongful termination of his contract, claiming £2.36 million. The prospect of the former England international winning the case that prompted some potential investors to abandon their interest in a new share issue that could have staved off the creditors, and when court proceedings were issued the club had little choice but to fall into administration.

There were two bids to try and save the club, one fronted by Gary Lineker, and the other by former director Gilbert Kinch. As the administrators started to wade through the wreckage, the cuts began. There were redundancies, while the players had to accept a deferral of 33% of their wages, agreed through the PFA. The club’s supporters quickly organised themselves into a Supporters Trust, following a meeting attended by more than 700 people. The media, meanwhile, got stuck into the lazy trope of “greedy players”, with radio host Adrian Durham calling for the supporters to boycott the club.

In the new year, the full extent of the club’s predicament became apparent. Leicester were £74 million in debt when they fell into administration. The biggest debt was £28 million for the new stadium, while £4.5 million was owed to the Inland Revenue, £2.7 million in VAT, £75,000 to Chelsea and £500,000 to Tottenham Hotspur. There was also £19 million outstanding for players’ wages, which would still be owed, even if all existing contracts were terminated. There was also a £20 million debt owed to the club’s parent company, Leicester City PLC. Leicester, like many others, had chased the El Dorado promised by stock market flotation in the late 1990s.

And at the end of January, a spanner was almost thrown in the works when Birse Construction claimed to still be owed £7.5 million, and that they had not been paid for their final three months of work on the new stadium. By this time, though, the momentum was with the prospective new owners, who’d assumed the name of New Fox PLC. It was a close thing, to get the £5m that they needed to get the deal over the line, but with the Foxes Trust membership having swollen to more than 3,200 members there was just enough in donations and investment to get the club safe. There was even talk of reverting the club to its pre-1919 name of Leicester Fosse. At half-time during a match against Wimbledon in February, supporters were asked to hold up one of two cards, one with a large ‘F’ for Fosse and one with a large ‘C’ for City. An estimated 90 per cent voted to retain the club’s name.

Leicester City’s administration, however, did cause considerable consternation amongst other clubs. They went on a fifteen match unbeaten run from the end of January, and while this was regarded by the club’s supporters as fighting against insurmountable looking odds, the perception of other clubs was that Leicester were at best gaming the system and at worst cheating by clearing their debts in this way. Leicester were promoted back to the Premier League as runners-up behind Portsmouth, but in October 2003 it was confirmed by the Football League that clubs entering into administration would henceforth be deducted ten points for doing so. Three months later the Premier League agreed to follow suit with a nine point deduction for any club caught in the same predicament.

There would be further ups and downs for Leicester City before the miracle of 2016. Their 2003 promotion into the Premier League only lasted for one season, and in 2008 they were relegated into League One, the first and only time that the club has played in the third tier. Their stay, however, was brief. Promoted back as champions with 102 points at the first attempt, they were promoted back into the Premier League in 2014. On this occasion, it is fair to say that the rest is history.

It is possible to see both sides of the Leicester City administration of 2002/03. On the one hand, it is completely understandable that other clubs – and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Neil Warnock of Sheffield United (who finished third in the table that season and lost in the play-off final to Wolves) led this particular charge – should have been frustrated by a club so heavily in debt charging towards the top of the table. On the other hand, though, Leicester didn’t break any rules as they stood at the time, and some might well argue that the manager of the team who were at the sharp end of The Battle of Bramall Lane probably shouldn’t be lecturing anybody on gaming the system.

Of all the administrations that followed the collapse of ITV Digital, though, Leicester’s would turn out to have the most far-reaching consequences. The introduction of points deductions for clubs entering into administration has been controversial at times, but it turned out to be necessary. There have been 28 such events since Leicester’s, but the game seems to have learned few of the lessons of that troubled period on the game’s history. At least it seems unlikely that Leicester City will be headed in that direction again, for the foreseeable future.

[Chester Perry]

A really fascinating (and very long) piece on Norwich in the Financial Times - be aware that most of the financial numbers appear to be about the 2018/19 season - not the 2019/20, the clash is confusing), particularly like the section on the finite and infinite game, it shows an understanding of strategy and I see a lot of that in how our previous board went about it's business. like Sheffield Utd, Norwich have spent a lot of the last 2 - 3 years telling anyone who would listen that Burnley was the model they were looking to achieve.

Norwich City and the battle of football’s haves and have-nots
MURAD AHMED FEBRUARY 12, 2021

At just 22, Todd Cantwell already has a head full of memories. A star midfielder at Norwich City, the football club he joined as a local lad more than a decade ago, he has emerged in recent years as one of the English game’s brighter talents. Slouched on a chair at the team’s training ground, Cantwell sits up when asked to name some of his standout moments to date. The recollections flow easily.

In September 2019, for example, Norwich City faced Manchester City at their Carrow Road stadium. It should have been a mismatch. A team newly promoted to the Premier League, the world’s richest football competition, against the most expensively assembled side on earth.

In the 28th minute, Cantwell watched his teammates complete a slick sequence of passes around those in City shirts. The ball landed at the feet of striker Teemu Pukki, who charged at goal. Cantwell began to run up the pitch.

“It was a 50-yard sprint,” he tells me, blue eyes sparkling. “I was just energised by the thought of scoring, and in football that adrenaline takes over. I knew that if I got in his eye line, I knew Teemu would see me . . . to see the ball slide across and see the open net, you dream of stuff like that.” Cantwell scored, then danced in front of thousands of jubilant fans dressed in the team’s yellow and green colours. Norwich City went on to complete a famous 3-2 victory.

I ask him to fast-forward to July 2020. Carrow Road had been emptied of supporters because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Few witnessed the team being thrashed 4-0 by West Ham United. It was the latest of many defeats in a gruelling season. Norwich City were relegated to the division below.

Cantwell sat alone on the pitch long after the final whistle, frustrated, hurt. “We may not have been expected to stay up, no one here wanted to go down,” he says, quietly. “Everyone wants to play in the best league in the world.”

These flashbacks help explain what makes elite football such a potent spectacle for millions around the world. Over 90 minutes, Norwich City, a side assembled on a shoestring player transfer budget, can beat Manchester City, bankrolled by an oil-rich Gulf state and, at the time, English champions. But over the course of a 38-match season, small miracles are consumed by cold facts. Academic research has shown the amount spent on player salaries is the best indicator of league position. Last season, Norwich City had the second-lowest wage bill in the top tier.

I have come to Norwich City to speak with players such as Cantwell, as well as the club’s owners, executives and coaches, to better understand how the sport became a tale of haves versus have-nots. And to ask whether there is anything that can be done to close the gap between the game’s one-percenters and the rest.

Never a big club, Norwich City hadn’t even played in the top flight of English football until 50 years ago. But through the 1970s and 1980s they established a seat at the top table, peaking in the early 1990s, when the “Canaries” beat Germany’s most successful club, Bayern Munich, in a famous European upset.

Since the turn of the century, however, Norwich have enjoyed five promotions and suffered five relegations between the divisions. Too lean for the big league, too fat for the lower tiers, they are part of a group dismissively referred to as “yo-yo clubs”.

Manchester City used to be one too, before a 2008 takeover by an Emirati sheikh turned them into regular title winners through spending more than £1bn on players. Takeovers like this have given fans of other clubs hopes of attracting their own sugar daddy, an extravagant billionaire willing to spend whatever it takes to acquire glory. Teams such as Chelsea and Leicester City are among the sides to have been transformed in recent years by the backing of benevolent benefactors.

Yet this has helped to create instability at less wealthy clubs like Norwich City, which have had an unfortunate history of overspending on players, all in a forlorn effort to keep up with opponents’ unmatchable financial resources. Can the club do anything to snap the elastic that led it to bounce between the leagues?

Over many hours of interviews, I am told of a new blueprint to avoid the club’s boom-and-bust cycles. It is a plan designed around unearthing more talents like Cantwell. The club’s ambition is simple yet strikingly sober: to become strong enough to avoid yet another relegation from the Premier League, should they return. That would allow them to play Manchester City every season, though they would be extremely unlikely to challenge them for the sport’s greatest prizes.

Is this enough? Many of today’s leading football clubs began as community institutions — Norwich City was formed in 1902 by two schoolmasters — each one as good as the locals who made up their teams. Over decades, the biggest have morphed into multibillion-pound businesses, international workforces and global fanbases. But the majority, like Norwich City, are still followed mainly in the smaller cities and towns in which they are based. Here, supporting a football club is part of a civic identity. The team’s successes — and failure — are a matter of personal esteem.

“There’s part of me that just wants the club to go hell for leather, spend loads and win things,” says a consultant who has worked for Norwich City but declined to be named. The assumption here is that winning matches is the driving purpose of football clubs, victories the way it pays back fervent support. “How does football stay relevant to these small communities otherwise?” asks the consultant. “[Norwich City] has a great model and lots of good people, but the question I have is, what’s the purpose? What’s the point of a football club anyway?”

Delia Smith is the doyenne of celebrity chefs, a fixture on British television since the 1970s with shows such as One Is Fun! and How to Cheat at Cooking. Despite retiring from the small screen in 2013, Smith, now 79, is still best known to the wider British public as a genial TV personality and cookbook writer, rather than the co-owner of Norwich City alongside her husband, the writer and publisher Michael Wynn-Jones.

In 1995, Smith, who describes herself as a life-long fan, was approached by Norwich City’s directors at a time when the club was at risk of going bust. “‘Can you give us £500,000 for a seat on the board?’ they asked me,” she recalls. “I said, ‘Well, you can have a million pounds if you have [Wynn-Jones] on the board as well.’ That’s how it happened.”

The couple entered the sport just as it was undergoing a revolution. Norwich City were a founder member of the Premier League in 1992, when the country’s top sides launched a breakaway from the rest of English club football, setting up a competition funded by Sky, then a new satellite broadcaster.

“A small group of very canny, greedy chairmen hived themselves off and got the whole lot and left the rest of football struggling at grassroots level,” says Smith. “It was a sad day for football.”

Overall revenues for Premier League clubs rose from £120m in 1992 to £5bn last season, according to the consultancy Deloitte. In that period, Norwich City’s annual revenue has risen from £4.6m to £119m, according to Companies House records. But it remains far behind England’s richest club, Manchester United, which made £627m last term.

Most of the cash sloshing through the game is used to finance huge transfer deals and mega-wages for football’s superstars. “Player salaries basically got out of hand,” says Wynn-Jones, a gentle man who speaks barely above a whisper. “That really triggered [takeovers by] sheikhs and the like, because the clubs needed them.”

Smith and Wynn-Jones are among the longest-serving club owners in English football, part of the old guard of supporters-turned-owners who seek emotional returns on their investment over financial ones. Elsewhere these have been replaced by an international cadre of club owners united by net worths — from Arab royals to Russian oligarchs, American moguls to Chinese entrepreneurs.

Several “odd people” have approached Smith about a potential takeover of Norwich City over the years. One investor offered a nominal £1 to take a previously lossmaking club “off our hands”, she says. Another suitor planned to put it into administration to settle debts and cut costs. None was deemed to have the club’s best interests at heart.

Smith and Wynn-Jones’s refusal to sell splits opinion among the local fan base. Some believe that, without heftier external funding, the club is being sold short.

“You have an awful lot of Norwich fans who absolutely love Delia to death,” says Robin Sainty, chair of the Canaries Trust, a supporters group. “A small minority of people absolutely detest her, who think we should be selling out to an Arab multibillionaire or whatever. Then there are quite a lot in the middle who . . . appreciate what she’s done but think it would be quite nice to be a rich club.”

Smith is aware of the strength of feeling. “One guy came up to me [and said], ‘You have dragged our club into the gutter, and would you mind going?’” However, she adds: “Football is such an important thing for the nation. It’s one of the last vestiges of real community where people really belong together. If you see kids at football matches, letting off steam, they’re not out in the streets . . . It’s really wonderful.”

Smith and Wynn-Jones see their role as maintaining a local institution that has survived, just about, for more than a century. The club has often had “sticky moments” that have required Smith to go “up to Carrow Road with a cheque sometimes, because it’s got so bad”, and money remains a problem. In 2016, they overspent on players, again, in an effort to stay in the Premier League. They were relegated, again. That was the final straw. The owners espoused a new mantra of self-sufficiency, to live within meagre means. But how could Norwich City then fund a return to the Premier League?

On a foggy December morning, I drive to the club’s training ground, hidden off a country road on the outskirts of the city. A year ago, the venue was made up of 49 Portakabins alongside a sloped pitch, which became waterlogged on one side during the winter. Gym equipment was housed in a conservatory with room for just four players at a time. Today, as part of an ongoing renovation, with £8m spent to date, there are swish buildings with wood-and-glass facades that evoke a posh barn renovation, as well as flat, manicured lawns for pitches.

I’m greeted by Stuart Webber, the club’s sporting director. As he takes me on a tour, the 37-year-old Welshman greets staffers planting herb gardens and rose bushes. “Without going sort of spiritual or whatever,” says Webber, a man with intense eyes and a tell-it-as-it-is manner, “people feel good when they have colour and freshness around them.”

Webber was introduced to Norwich City’s owners by his wife, Zoe Ward, the club’s business and project director, who was hired in 2015 to help tackle the club’s financial troubles. He began his career as a youth coach at Wrexham, before moving to bigger clubs including Liverpool (where he met Ward in 2010). Appointed head of football operations at Huddersfield Town in 2015, he helped guide them to the top tier for the first time since 1972.

In 2017 Norwich City’s owners hired Webber. Alongside Ward, he recommended upgrading training facilities rather than spending more on players. This explains why the club is acquiring a futuristic new machine: the SoccerBot360.

Created in Germany, it allows players to control a ball on a small turf pitch, surrounded by a wall of video screens that replicate the sensation of having a blur of teammates and opponents around them. In any match, players are forced to make hundreds of snap decisions about when and where to pass and shoot. The idea is they will make faster and better decisions in a real game if they have already seen it thousands of times within the SoccerBot. Set to be built next year at the training ground at a cost of around £750,000, the facility will be the first of its kind in England.

However, if the goal is to reach the Premier League next season, surely the club needs to spend on players who could advance the team right away, rather than many years in the future?

To answer, Webber refers to a book by British-American organisational guru Simon Sinek, The Infinite Game. Relying on research based on mathematical game theory, the writer suggests that in any competition there are two types of “game”. Some are “finite”, like a football match, where there are “known players, defined rules, and an agreed upon objective”. The team that scores most goals over 90 minutes wins. But there are also “infinite games”, where the players and rules keep changing, and the objective is “merely to stay in the game as long as possible”.

Sinek reckons too many organisations fail to understand which game they are playing. In a 2018 presentation, he said that, in the Vietnam war, “the Americans were trying to ‘beat’ the North Vietnamese, while the North Vietnamese were fighting for their lives, and invariably, a different set of strategic choices was made . . . The United States . . . ran out of the will or the resources to play. They didn’t lose, they dropped out of the game.”

For Webber, the objective of a team, winning matches, is different from that of a club. “Football’s an infinite game,” he says. “So when some people say, ‘Why are you spending £2m on a gym? Spend it on a striker, you have more chance of winning next week,’ well, yeah, you probably have. But this team will be here for ever. [Practice facilities will] train more strikers than £2m can buy you. In 15 years, you will look back and think: we brought 30 players through here.”

This long-term mindset has influenced how the entire club plays the game. Under Webber’s direction, Norwich City’s academy players, starting from age seven up to 21, are instructed to play in the progressive, passing style demanded in the first team. Sainty of the Canaries Trust says this is one reason why most Norwich City fans accept the club’s frugal approach: “From a fan’s point of view, we love watching it.”

The playing style was also devised with an eye on the bottom line. Youth teams are told to play with two forwards rather than one, doubling the chances of developing valuable goalscorers. “[Strikers]are like gold dust,” says Webber. “If we can create our own, over time that will then save us millions and millions of pounds.”

Thrust into the first team, Norwich’s starlets have thrived under the new system, grabbing the attention of wealthier clubs. Since 2017, the club has recouped £79.5m in sales of young players. This includes James Maddison to Leicester City, Ben Godfrey to Everton and Jamal Lewis to Newcastle United. The money has helped balance the books.

That doesn’t mean the entire team is for sale. Last summer, FC Barcelona, the world’s highest-earning football club, approached Norwich about acquiring Max Aarons, a highly rated 21-year-old defender. Teammates jokingly dubbed him “Dani Alves”, after the ex-Barcelona and Brazil great. Norwich refused to sell, believing Aarons was key to the club’s promotion push, which would earn an estimated £170m in Premier League revenue — a more valuable prize that would benefit the club for years to come.

Webber, though, understands players have personal ambitions that may not align with the club’s. So he sat down with Aarons before the start of this season, showing him statistics that ranked the player alongside English right-backs such as Manchester City’s Kyle Walker, Chelsea’s Reece James and Leicester’s James Justin. The numbers showed Aarons had played more minutes than his peers at the same stage of their careers. “I was quite a way ahead of all the other right-backs when they were my age,” says Aarons.

Webber’s argument to Aarons was that, by playing frequently at Norwich City, he was on track to become an even better player before, perhaps inevitably, he moves on to a bigger challenge. Aarons says analysis shows that his ball retention and chance creation have “gone up loads” over the past two seasons. “I’m a lot more composed,” the player says. “I don’t make rash decisions.”

Midfielder Todd Cantwell has emerged as one of the club’s key talents. ‘Everyone wants to play in the best league in the world’ © Daniel Castro Garcia
In a small, sparse office that contains little more than a shelf full of “Manager of the Month” awards, I meet Daniel Farke, the club’s first team coach. We speak in the middle of the day, soon after he has concluded a “light” training session with players before an important match that evening.

“[The players] are up in the morning and have proper breakfast and lunch,” he explains. “You don’t have to do this with the older players, who are a bit more experienced, who have families. But a young person thinks, ‘We’re playing at quarter past eight, so we can sleep till two and have a late night.’”

A relative unknown in England before his arrival in 2017, Farke was sought out by Norwich for his excellent record leading Borussia Dortmund’s under-23 team in his native Germany. Even though the Canaries managed only a measly five Premier League wins last season, the club retained Farke. The other relegated teams, Bournemouth and Watford, both replaced their head coaches in response to the failure.

He says: “Everyone in this business recommended, ‘Listen, with this approach, without spending money, paying for the sins of the past, with such a young side where no one really has Premier League experience — if you don’t add quality, you have no chance.’” But he adds that within the club leadership he felt “unbelievable trust and loyalty” towards him because it was well understood that relegation had been a “realistic outcome”.

Instead, the club’s demand is to instil a progressive playing style and develop young players above all else. That is a noble aim — but surely that will again leave the team as cannon fodder if they return to the top tier?

Tucking his long hair behind his ears, Farke says, “You don’t work in this business just to achieve realistic targets. Otherwise, Real Madrid will win the Champions League title each and every year. Otherwise, I will never win the Premier League title.”

But, he admits, the club’s approach is that the means matter as much as the ends. “It is not so much the goal,” says Farke. “It’s more the way.”

Hours later, I watch Norwich City play Nottingham Forest, two-time European Cup winners who dropped out of the Premier League more than 20 years ago. Before the game at Carrow Road, I’m invited to dine with the club directors. Over succulent grilled fish and a dessert of chocolate cheesecake, Smith amuses guests by revealing that she likes to eat at McDonald’s before away matches. (Her preferred order is a Big Mac.) Wynn-Jones regales the table with memories of Norwich City’s former glories.

The match is a contrast of styles. Norwich hog the ball, passing relentlessly. Forest defend deep, hoof the ball forward while their manager Chris Hughton screams from the sidelines: “Pass! Pass!”

There is no lack of passion on the Norwich City side. In the second half and already a goal ahead, midfielder Emiliano Buendía concedes a free kick. “Why did you foul him?” shouts Farke. “It wasn’t a ******* foul!” retorts Buendía. “**** off!” screams Farke.

Following the free kick, Forest equalise and celebrate wildly, but a few minutes later another smart sequence of passes ends with Buendía scoring the winner. The result left the club top of the Championship table, on course for a swift return to the Premier League. Webber says that with less need to invest in infrastructure, the purse strings will be steadily loosened to acquire players, providing a better shot at staying in the top division for longer.

But the club’s humble culture will come first. “Even when the day comes to spend more money,” says Webber. “It might also not be the right thing for our club to put a £20m player in this dressing room. It would be like putting a Ferrari in a Vauxhall garage. It would look out of place. We’ve got to try and make all our Vauxhalls almost as good as a Ferrari.”

Executives around the sport tell me they have watched the Norwich City model in admiration. But they argue that, ultimately, modern football runs an efficient market. The best players attract the highest price tag and are paid the most. The best teams win the most matches.

That leaves the club with a dilemma. Leaders such as Webber and Farke and emerging stars like Aarons and Cantwell admit to ambitions of moving to the world’s biggest teams in the future. What are clubs like Norwich City to play for, if not the sport’s shiniest silverware?

“It’s about that infinite game,” says Webber, who insists that the process of self-improvement is reward in itself. “Every decision has got to mean that this club is left in a better place than when we arrived.”

[Chester Perry]

Chelsea announced their 2018/19 financial results just before the new year, they have finally lodged the accounts at Companies House

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

@KieranMaguire has been having a look

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9848859649

@SwissRamble with his analysis of Chelsea's 2019/20 financial results

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 1454840832

and his now accustomary summary sheet

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 6839010310

[Chester Perry]

John Nicholson writing for Football365.com asks an important question about the ubiquitous and mostly enjoyed use of stats in football

How do we know all those football statistics are true?
Date published: Monday 15th February 2021 9:52

Are you into statistics? Are you constantly looking up your team’s xG numbers or your striker’s shot location metrics? If you do, here’s a question; do you trust them to be accurate? And if so, why?

It isn’t uncommon to hear an ex-pro pundit guffawing at the latest statistical measurement concept as though it’s all part of the liberal PC conspiracy to emasculate them, along with quinoa, rose wine and the word Twitter, but this is a massive industry.

It is rarely said but many of us like statistics for their own sake and this applies to football as much as any other walk of life. I like knowing that Osasuna have won more aerials (28.2) this season than any other team in the top five European leagues, and yet have the lowest successful pass percentage (68.7) or that Napoli has the most shots per game (17.6) and Elche the least (6.3), every bit as much as I like knowing Ten Years After’s highest charting album on the Billboard 200 is their 1970 release, Cricklewood Green, which peaked at #14. It doesn’t make me enjoy football or music more per se, but that doesn’t matter. The knowledge is, in and of itself, entertaining enough.

Statistics give me a warm fuzzy feeling and I’m not ashamed to say so. Of course, I have absolutely no idea if these numbers (from WhoScored.com who state ‘Data sources – Opta Sports, eNetPulse & Getty Images’) are correct and I have no way of checking. I accept them as I find them, but then I’ve nothing invested in their accuracy. But many do.

The industry sells stats as profound insider intel, in a way which often seems over-inflated in importance. Football is more than data, data is not more than football, but you’d think they had the key to unlocking the greatest mysteries of the universe.

All of them breathlessly promise unrivalled insights.

Stats Perform’s website says: ‘Our award-winning AI team maximises the value of global sports coverage dating back over 40 years by coupling it with machine-learning technology to generate insights for meaningful experiences for fans.’

‘Machine-learning technology’ sounds like they’ve constructed a huge Heath Robinson contraption where you insert a football at one end and out comes a prediction for Colchester United v Mansfield at the other and that it’s not actually just a computer and software.

Okay, it’s all so much Partridge-style corporate BS, but it reflects just how seriously they take what they do and how serious the business of statistics is for football, from gambling to TV, to player recruitment.

People and pundits often try to unearth their own personal massive Koh-i-Noor soccer stat to place in their crown of punditry, to prove the quality of their insight into the game. It seems obligatory these days. And in an era where it has become important to some fans not just to be right, but to be seen to be right in the court of social media, this isn’t so surprising. To some stats = intelligence. But as our Prime Minister shows us every day, education isn’t the same thing as intelligence or understanding.

Remarkable then, given the value and size of the industry that there is no independent organisation to assess and judge the veracity of the statistics sold to us. Opta’s website (its parent company is Stats Perform) says it covers over 1,000 Leagues and competitions and over 200,000 matches. By any stretch of the imagination, that must be a huge operation. It surely isn’t possible that every single statistic across 200,000 games is 100% accurate and yet there is no indication of any margin of error. There is no concession to any possible inaccuracy. We accept all and every stat as gospel truth. I’ve never once questioned any stat, have you? Maybe we should.

We are unable to challenge their veracity, so we have to go on trust. And trust is a word most companies in the field use a lot, as you can imagine they would. It isn’t in anyone’s interest to be wrong but mistakes can easily be made and flaws baked into any system, no matter how rigorously policed. And some organisations will just be better than others.

Data companies all say they have their own internal checking procedures to try and ensure that the numbers they sell are correct. They go back and adapt them after games when other info becomes available. But we know internal policing methods have an innate weakness to them; they’re internal. Thus are potentially subjected to all manner of relationship, employment and commercial business pressures.

So perhaps it is no surprise that there isn’t an independent OfStat agency to oversee accuracy, standards and procedures. There should be penalties for persistent inaccuracy and industry standards to which all sign up to.

Elsewhere in society, it is accepted that in any major industry there should be a body whose purpose it is to define, supervise and maintain standards, to help protect the interests of the customers and workers. This business isn’t just a bit of fun. A lot of money rides on such analysis for those that use the numbers. As everyone from media to clubs to agents wants ever more data in pursuit of success, accuracy and integrity of data is crucial. Just because the company says it’s accurate, doesn’t mean we should trust them at their word, surely we need third party confirmation.

Looking at various websites, I note that the data companies do not vie with each other as to who has the most accurate data, I assume because to do so would be to undermine the credibility of the artform across the whole industry and that’s to no-one’s advantage, even though they’re essentially all selling the same potatoes, so creating a USP for your firm must be hard. You have to invent machine-learning.

Like any currency, the football stat industry relies on us all believing in it for it to continue to exist. The moment we think money is a worthless bit of paper, it has no value at all. The moment we think football stats are not precise, is the moment the industry collapses.

Stat culture does get pulled into the orbit of the anti-PC, anti-intellectual, anti-woke mindset, as another thing that’s wrong with football these days, for some reason, though I suspect this is less to do with the science itself and more a hostility to those who embrace it too tightly as a way to explain everything. There is certainly a mutual snootiness.

For me stats are just part of the fun, if they’re right or wrong makes little real difference. But the industry needs a reliable guarantee that they’re correct and until there is an independent body whose task is to ascertain that they are, how can we ever really trust them, or perhaps more pertinently, why have we unquestioningly trusted them for so long?

[Chester Perry]

Spezia become the 38th club in the top two divisions across Europe's domestic leagues to fall under American ownership - not ALK as earlier suggested but Robert Platek and his family. The Italian club becomes part of a multi-club business. At least the new owners used their own money to buy the club and the many links to MSD Capital have proved unfounded with the ownership stating clearly that MSD were not involved, though Piatek is a partner of that company. This from BeSoccer.com

Spezia latest Serie A club to accept US takeover
BeSoccer by BeSoccer @besoccer_com - 11 Feb 21 0 162

Spezia became the fifth Serie A club to be under American ownership after announcing on Thursday a takeover by businessman Robert Platek and his family.

The Italian outfit, declared bankrupt in 2008, join Roma, Fiorentina, AC Milan and Parma in being owned or part-owned by American firms or individuals.

They were relegated to the fifth tier due to their financial issues before reaching the top flight for the first time this season.

"It has been our long-held ambition to find the right opportunity to partner with a special club in Italy," the Platek family said in a statement.

"We are humbled by this opportunity to become stewards of the club.

"As a family, we are proud to play a small role in helping the team to grow, achieve further success and make the fans proud."

According to Italian media, the Plateks paid around 25 million euros ($30.3 million) for the side, sitting 16th place in the table.

Spezia said it was a personal investment by the Plateks and has no link to MSD capital, a fund started by technology giant Michael Dell, despite Robert's position in the company.

Robert Platek is also majority shareholder of Danish top-tier outfit SonderjyskE.

Spezia is the Platek family's 3 football club investment, this is a quickly developing multi-club operation -

https://twitter.com/CIESsportsintel/sta ... 0494541825

at the moment you would view Spezia as the prime club in the group as Serie is the much stronger league financially. You would not expect the Platek family to invest in English football while MSD have active loans at multiple club, there would likely be concerns of influence stronger than those expressed by some in the EFL already.

[Chester Perry]

I think Celtic become the first club to officially declare the absence of fans as the reason for their poor on pitch performance this season as they announce their first half financial results

https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/gc-m ... e683ed.pdf

[Chester Perry]

As the Premier League bide their time over releasing tenders for the next cycle of rights, they are no doubt watching what is is going on in a very busy marketplace and not just for their own game. In the US is appears that the NFL is readying it's final discussions on it's next cycle (which is likely to be for 8 - 10 years domestically), the NFL are reported to be going in quite aggressively on the price point (wanting to double it's current revenue) but the broadcasters may find that impossible. You might think tha this has nothing to do with football. but when you consider the message this will send to the sports rights marketplace, the transformative changes going on in the American broadcast market, the global consolidation of sports broadcasters and the fact a number of NFL owners also own are are looking to own Premier League and European clubs there is a lot at play. Here is Sportico.com with the latest (my inclination is it will be a staggered year on year increase just not at the levels the NFL are looking for)

NFL FINALLY STARTS TALKING FINANCIAL TERMS WITH NETWORKS FOR MAMMOTH TV RIGHTS DEAL
BY CYNTHIA LITTLETON, BRIAN STEINBERG FEBRUARY 12, 2021 3:41PM

The NFL’s incumbent TV network partners have been put on notice, Sportico sister publication Variety reports. The price tag for a deal spanning at least eight to 10 years is essentially double the fees charged for the various packages in the previous contract negotiations struck in 2011.

The league and top executives at ESPN, CBS, Fox and NBC have been in active talks for months on setting a long term contract extension that is sure to shatter industry records for rights fees.

But while talks have been ongoing, NFL executives only in recent days presented the financial terms of its separate negotiations to renew NFC conference rights with Fox, AFC conference rights with CBS, the Sunday Night Football package with NBC, ESPN’s Monday Night Football as well as Thursday Night Football, now at Fox and the league’s own NFL Network. ESPN’s pact expires after the 2021 football season; the other deals run through the 2022 season.

Sources said that even as the NFL aims to jack up the price, the league is looking to whittle down some of the elements in previous packages although the details on those changes were still sketchy.

Representatives for CBS, NBC, ESPN, Fox and the NFL declined to comment.

There had been some expectation that the NFL wanted to wrap rights talks as early as the fall of 2020 but had to devote much of its attention to managing the 2020-2021 season through the coronavirus pandemic. Now, with a 2021-2022 schedule to devise and a need to address the 2021 salary cap at hand, league officials are turning their gaze back to the rights deals.

Executives from both Fox Corp. and Walt Disney Co. were asked about the rights talks in calls with investors this week, and both suggested there has been some recent focus in their ongoing discussion with the league. “I don’t want to go into the detail of the NFL negotiations that we continue to be in—we’ve been in for a while. We hope to bring those to a conclusion in the near to medium-term,” said Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch during one of the conversations.

A source close to the situation said the sides have been negotiating every other aspect of the proposed contract but the financial details. That has been taken as a strong indication that the league is focused on securing the status quo among its most important business partners. The one change sure to come is the sunset of DirecTV’s carriage of NFL Sunday Ticket, which allowed die-hard football fans the chance to view any game on the schedule regardless of location. The satcaster now owned by AT&T has had only downward momentum and is expected to give up the $1.5 billion Sunday Ticket franchise, which was one of the company’s biggest selling points at launch in 1994. That offering is expected to shift to a streaming option that the NFL Network will market directly to consumers, possibly in connection with a digital partner such as Amazon. DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket deal runs through the 2022 season.

It’s been no secret that the NFL is expecting to command record-shattering increases. Despite the modest turnout for the Super Bowl and the consistent 10%-12% drop in NFL viewership this past season, pro football telecasts still tower over most programs in primetime. NFL telecasts are consistently among the top-rated telecasts and one of the few reliable vehicles for delivering a mass audience of men in coveted demos.

But this round of NFL negotiations comes at a time when the largest media conglomerates are focused on reinventing their businesses and launching direct to consumer platforms. Morever, the majors are dealing with the economic quakes and shakes of the pandemic-battered economy. For a change, maintaining NFL rights may not be the utmost priority even for ESPN parent Disney. Disney CEO Bob Chapek made a specific comment on Thursday during Disney’s quarterly earnings call that cast doubt on Disney’s willingness to shell out for NFL. ESPN has carried Monday Night Football since 2006, when the franchise shifted from ABC.

“We’ve had a long relationship with the NFL. If there’s a deal that will be accretive to shareholder value will certainly entertain that and look at that,” Chapek said during Disney’s quarterly earnings call. “Our first (priority) will be to look and say ‘Does it make sense for shareholder value going forward?’“

Disney has been hoping to increase its NFL presence, seeking a way to get into the NFL’s Super Bowl rotation, which is currently aired on CBS, NBC and Fox in turn. Disney has in recent months showed off “mega-cast” formats, in which It airs NFL games tailored to particular audiences, such as ABC’s more general viewership and Freeform’s younger crowd, along with ESPN’ sports-focused cohort.

Under the previous round of TV pacts set in 2011, ESPN paid about $1.9 billion a year for 17 Monday Night Football games, making it the costliest of the NFL packages. CBS and Fox have paid about $1 billion a year since the 2013 football season while NBC is just under that at about $950 million. The networks were already having trouble turning a profit on NFL games; there’s no doubt that anything close to a doubling of those fees would make that even harder if not impossible.

Fox Corp. executives have been hinting that they are ready to part ways with the Thursday night games. The network set a five-year, $3 billion deal in 2018 for an annual package of 11 games, plus another six that Fox Sports does not telecast but produces for NFL Network.

[Chester Perry]

West Ham fan are resigning themselves to the fact that they may never get new owners as David Sullivan says the rock bottom price for the club is £600m - of course regular Champions League Football would justify that, David Moyes does have some Champions League experience too

https://twitter.com/WHUFC_News/status/1 ... 2850608130

[Chester Perry]

An analysis of the current rights sales situation in European football from Reuters last week - one of the writers is a keen Burnley fan, and occasional contributor on this board I understand

Analysis: European leagues' domestic TV revenue set to drop as competition fades
By Simon Evans, Elvira Pollina

5 MIN READ

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Revenues from football’s domestic broadcast rights deals are expected to fall across Europe’s top leagues this year, due to a lack of competition between broadcasters, in a further blow to COVID-19 hit clubs who have spent almost a year without fans in stadiums.

Italy’s Serie A could announce their deals for the 2021-2024 cycle later this week with revenue unlikely to meet the 1.15 billion euros ($1.39 billion) a year target and could fall slightly short of the 973 million a year current deal.

With the Premier League, the French Ligue 1 and Spain’s Liga also due to negotiate deals for the next cycle this year, there is little optimism that domestic rights, which had grown strongly over the past two decades, will bring a much-needed cash boost.

Germany’s Bundesliga concluded their deal last year, marking a slight fall.

“Everyone agrees that (revenue) will go down,” says European television rights consultant Pierre Maes, author of a book on the sector.

The French league has faced the most dramatic situation following the collapse of a deal with Spanish agency Mediapro which led to much reduced revenue for this season.

Broadcaster Canal+, a subsidiary of Vivendi, was left in a strong position and the league will now receive only about 670 million euros rather than the expected 1.15 billion, according to media reports.

The impact of COVID has not had a significant impact on viewing figures but the flat market is seen as a result of the limited number of players fighting for the rights.

“In the past we had fierce competition for rights and today none of the top five markets has that competition. There was only one factor that led prices to where they are today and that was competition between operators. If you take away competition the risk is there that prices will go down,” says Maes.

“In all the big countries we are now back to a monopoly situation or a duopoly situation in some markets,” he added.

Sky Sports in the UK shares the rights to the Premier League with BT Sport but there is unlikely to be a bidding war between the two when the competition undertakes its auction later this year.

While Sky will not want to risk losing its rights and the long-standing relationship it has with the Premier League means it is unlikely to seek to massively cut its fees, there appears little incentive to make a higher bid.

“If you are in that position as a Sky or Canal+ or whoever else, you don’t need to bid high anymore, you can afford to take a slight gamble and reduce the offer,” says Richard Broughton, research director at Ampere Analysis.

“That is what is driving this. It is not that the Pay TV businesses are in trouble, certainly they are under more pressure than they used to be, but the wider markets economics have just reduced the competitors in the market. Until that shakes itself out, we would expect a very flat market if not declines in rights fees,” he said.

ONLINE STREAMING
The only challenge so far to dominant broadcasters such as Sky and Canal+ is coming from online streaming services such as DAZN which sources say submitted the highest bid in the current auction in Italy.

In most cases so far streaming services have been ‘supporting acts’ to the main broadcaster with Amazon in the UK having the rights to 20 Premier League matches each season.

Despite DAZN’s bid for Serie A domestic rights, which sources told Reuters was around 850 million euros per season to show all league matches, a higher offer than current main broadcaster Sky, few in the market see such battles with OTT (over-the-top) services becoming widespread across Europe or globally.

“I don’t think OTT will substitute the traditional broadcasters at least not in the short to medium term, I would rather think that OTT will supplement the current offering,” said Amikam Kranz, Vice President Media and Sales for media rights agency Infront.

Amazon and DAZN had bids for French league rights turned down before the league signed a deal with Canal+.

If the French situation is a warning sign in the domestic rights market, there are also indications that international sales may also have reached a peak.

Last year, the Premier League had to terminate a $700 million contract with Chinese retail group Suning’s PPLive Sports International streaming service and find a new deal, with Tencent, which media reports said was for a lower amount.

Qatar-based beIn Media Group, one of the biggest broadcasters of football, has not yet included itself in an auction for the rights it currently holds to show Serie A in 24 territories in the Middle East. Its current global deal with Serie A is worth $500 million.

“The decline in domestic rights in the UK (in the last deal) was compensated for by a rise in international rights and definitely that won’t be the case anymore,” says Maes.

[Chester Perry]

It seems that the Champions League reforms are being sold as a "fait accompli" - still waiting for UEFA to tell England, Spain, Italy and France that it's top league can have only 18 teams, it is already effectively telling the EFL that it cannot have it's cup competition, you know the won that provides over two thirds of it's total TV revenue. Actually I so not see an 18 team Premier League losing more TV revenue than a 20 team one, but all Leagues fear losing revenue to the UEFA competitions as this plan maps out, which is what UEFA want it to do in reality. From the Times, (my free article of the week)

Fears that Champions League expansion could impact Premier League TV revenue
Martyn Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter
Tuesday February 16 2021, 5.00pm, The Times

Premier League clubs will be told tomorrow that an expanded Champions League could hit the value of the league’s TV deal but that it may be the best way of fighting off the threat of a breakaway European Super League.

Uefa’s proposed Champions League reforms from 2024 are on the agenda for a meeting of Premier League chairmen, with clubs split over whether to support them.

The plan would be for ten group matches per club instead of six and a total of 225 Champions League games in a season, instead of 125 under the existing format. Karren Brady, the vice-chairman of West Ham United, has said she is “sure Premier League broadcast revenues would be hit”.

Lars-Christer Olsson, the president of the European Leagues organisation which represents domestic leagues across the continent said the impact of an expanded Champions League on TV rights is a concern.

“If there are almost double the number of matches, so there are another 100, what is the effect going to be on the media rights and the commercial negotiations for the domestic leagues?” he told The Times.

Some Premier League clubs outside of the so-called “big six” are also strongly opposed to Uefa’s proposal for a safety net to protect a couple of the top teams who fail to qualify via domestic competition — the two clubs in Europe with the highest Uefa coefficient would still get a place.

It could see a situation where a club with a high Uefa coefficient — such as Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal — finishes sixth or seventh in the Premier League and gets into the Champions League ahead of teams with a lower coefficient such as Everton, Leicester City or Aston Villa, even if they finished in fifth.

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur would have potentially benefited if such a system had been in place this season, but the European Leagues are pushing for the coefficient places to be limited to a maximum of one per country.

The safety net would provide some guarantee to the top clubs that they will not miss out on the financial benefits of the Champions League — which can be up to £100 million for a season. The idea looks to have the backing of the European Club Association and is Uefa’s bid to head off a Super League plan that is being pushed by Real Madrid and Manchester United.

Uefa’s reformed competition would allow four more teams into the Champions League, with 36 instead of 32 participants, and a ‘Swiss model’ system would see all the clubs in a single division and drawn to play matches against ten opponents of different strengths based on seeding, with the knockout places decided by positions in a single table.

The extra dates would almost mean that English clubs in Europe could not participate in the Carabao Cup as well, or only play their under-23 teams.

One club chief executive said: “It’s safe to say quite a few of the clubs see the coefficient qualification idea as rubbish, but actually the far more serious issue for English football is the effect on the football calendar and what impact that would have on the whole pyramid.”

[Chester Perry]

The problems and disputes over the allocation of rights for Serie A in the next cycle continue - it is all quite messy - from SportsBusiness.com

Serie A delays Mena bid deadline again, top clubs demand domestic rights vote
Martin Ross - February 16, 2021

Lega Serie A’s broadcast rights sales process in the Middle East and North Africa has been further delayed after the bid deadline was pushed back for a second time.

Having launched the sales process on January 15, the league went on to delay the original February 1 deadline by two weeks. Ahead of yesterday’s (Monday’s) rescheduled deadline, the league opted to issue a new deadline of 10am (CET) on February 28.

The latest delay comes amid tepid interest from incumbent rights-holder beIN Media Group, with the pay-television broadcaster left frustrated by a sales process that allows country-specific bids.

The league’s difficulties in generating sufficient interest in the Mena rights also come with leading clubs pushing for a vote to be held tomorrow on the domestic rights. Elsewhere, Lega Serie A chief executive Luigi De Siervo has raised the possibility of a weekly free-to-air match to boost exposure.

The domestic and international rights are available for the next three-season cycle, from 2021-22 to 2023-24, and also include the Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana. Rights in the Mena region are being offered in a region-wide package and also individual packages in each country, including Saudi Arabia.

Lega Serie A has already entered into a process of private negotiations with agencies and broadcasters for broadcast rights in the rest of the world in a separate tender process.

Tensions surfaced during the current rights cycle between beIN and the league. This peaked in June as beIN enacted a blackout of coverage amid ongoing tensions over the league’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and the country’s links to pirate channel beoutQ.

A compensation deal with the league and IMG, the agency that holds the international rights, was subsequently struck and coverage resumed. The broadcaster’s original Serie A rights agreement across various territories, including France, Australia and the Middle East and North Africa was worth around $170m (€140m) per season.

During its recent Mena rights sales process, the English Premier League agreed a new three-year deal with beIN worth a total of $500m and covering the whole region.

The beIN-Lega Serie A relationship became particularly strained following the league’s decision to host the Supercoppa in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom had enforced an economic blockade on Qatar, the home nation and state funder of beIN, though that has now been lifted.

The Supercoppa hosting agreement, which is referenced in the tender, allows for Saudi Arabia to host three editions of the flagship match between 2018-19 and 2022-23. With two iterations having already been staged in the kingdom, the ITT document underlines that the broadcast rights in Saudi Arabia have already been awarded exclusively for the remaining match to be played in the country.

It is also stated that if the match is played in another Mena country, then the rights “may also be granted by Lega Serie A to one single other broadcaster for any form of broadcasting in such country” and for the season in question.

IMG acquired the Serie A international rights from 2018-19 to 2020-21 in a deal originally worth just over €380m ($460m) per season. That covers international broadcast rights, club archive rights, betting rights, a marketing spend and fee for access to the broadcast signal. An ambitious financial target for the international rights of somewhere between the fee currently paid by IMG and €500m per season was outlined by the league upon the tender’s launch.

As with the global rights ITT, Lega Serie A has excluded a package of rights in Mena which it previously carved out for Italian nationals living abroad.

Pressure from top clubs over domestic rights
The future of the Italian top tier’s domestic rights could be clarified at a Lega Serie A assembly meeting to be held tomorrow and the country’s top clubs have called for a decision to be made.

The league last week postponed a vote on the award of the rights with bids from incumbent rights-holders DAZN and Sky Italia still under consideration.

OTT subscription broadcaster DAZN is still leading the bidding in the main ‘communications operators’ tender with an offer of €840m per year for rights to seven exclusive matches per matchweek and co-exclusive rights to three matches.

Fiorentina, Inter Milan, Juventus, Lazio and Napoli, along with Atalanta and Verona, have now penned a letter to Paolo Dal Pino, the league president, to ask for a vote to be held tomorrow.

The letter, which has been published by Italian news agency Ansa, states that the clubs feel that recent private negotiations with DAZN and Sky allow the league to “take a conscious, informed and profitable decision” that would represent a “commercial success” in view of the “difficult economic context caused by the [Covid-19] pandemic”.

Existing deals with Sky and DAZN (from 2018-19 to 2020-21) are worth €973m per year.

The letter continues: “The widely expected economic contraction has been found to be less than the dramatic forecasts of some, as evidence of both the good work in the negotiations and the remarkable appeal of Italian top football in comparison with that of the other so-called big 5, namely England, Germany, Spain and France.

“The ample clarifications that DAZN and Sky gave to the members during the last Assembly have, in our opinion, allowed to dispel any doubts among the clubs and that they can therefore freely decide without delay.

“The assignment [of rights] on Wednesday would allow the assignee partner to prepare the commercial offering, formats and distribution channels about four months in advance of the actual start of the activities, with positive repercussions for all the members of the league.”

The seven clubs added that an immediate process could be initiated for the remaining packages that are not awarded.

The DAZN offer involves a partnership with Telecom Italia. The telecoms operator would provide its fibre backbone to DAZN and provide ‘economic support’ of between €300m and €400m per year, according to La Repubblica newspaper.

Sky is thought to have bid €750m for Package 2, one of the ‘mixed’ marketing packages offered by Lega Serie A, comprising rights across all platforms but with only co-exclusivity for internet, IPTV and mobile rights.

Separately, the pay-television broadcaster is also thought to have offered €70m per season for the three non-exclusive matches each week.

Should rights be awarded to DAZN on the terms offered, then revenue over and above the €840m per year would come from the sale of non-exclusive rights to the three matches. The league would also be saving a commission payment of between €50m and €60m per season to the Infront agency, its outgoing media-rights adviser.

The latest delay, which is set against the backdrop of doubts over the sign-off of Serie A’s private equity investment led by CVC Capital Partners, follows the launch of the domestic rights sales auction at the start of January.

A total of 14 votes would be needed to ratify the league’s new domestic broadcast deal.

Free-to-air ‘hypothesis’
The possibility of rights to a free-to-air match being offered within a new package has, meanwhile, been raised by De Siervo.

Speaking to public radio channel Rai Radio 2, the Lega Serie A chief executive revealed: “Among the hypotheses on the table there is also the possibility that a game will be broadcast on a free-to-air basis, a proposal that would be revolutionary.

“It would be included in the new package, probably for a Monday-evening match, but it is a subject that needs to be carefully explored.”

Sky does have free-to-air digital terrestrial channels at its disposal in the shape of TV8 and Cielo.

[Chester Perry]

And so it begins

" “Playing in a 20-club league is no longer sustainable.” so says Marseille boss Jacques-Henri Eyraud at the FT's football Conference

https://twitter.com/mjshrimper/status/1 ... 9005453314

what he really means to say is, if I play less league games I can earn more by playing more Champions League games, it is not that I want to reduce the number of games played just that I want to increase my revenue per game and I do not care who else that affects because they are not my club.

[Chester Perry]

Bundesliga CEO Christian Seifert comes out fighting

says SOME of clubs pushing for Euro Super League are “poorly managed, cash-burning machines” that have lost millions during decade of growth. “If I was an investor, I’d ask if they’re the right partners.”

https://twitter.com/mjshrimper/status/1 ... 9158096906

[Chester Perry]

I have been saying for quite some time that broadcasters are wanting to spend less than they currently are on football - in this article in the Financial Times talk to BT Sport's chief Simon Green

Football TV rights braced for ‘deflation’, warns BT Sport chief
MURAD AHMED FEBRUARY 17, 2021

Europe’s top football leagues should be braced for a period of “deflation” in the value of their television rights, one of the sport’s biggest-spending broadcasters has warned, as the financial disruption from the pandemic deepens.

The spiralling value of media rights has poured money into the game in recent decades, with clubs in England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France, Europe’s five biggest leagues, earning a combined €17bn in revenues last season, primarily through TV contracts.

Simon Green, head of BT Sport, one of the largest broadcast partners for the English Premier League and the Champions League, Europe’s top club tournament, said this trend was set to end.

“There’s certainly going to be a rights correction and it may be seen and interpreted by many as rights deflation,” Green told the Financial Times Business of Football Summit on Wednesday.

“It would be a welcome change to the market . . . Over the last 20 or 30 years with some particular examples of where broadcasters pay an awful lot of money for rights. I don’t think that’s going to happen so much going forward now, so I do see a realignment.”

The comments will come as a blow to the Premier League, as it prepares later this year an auction for the rights to broadcast matches in the UK in the three seasons between 2022 and 2025.

The existing domestic screening contract, shared by Sky, BT Sport and Amazon, is worth £5bn over three years — higher than any rival domestic league and has made English clubs among the sport’s richest.

Advertising losses caused by the pandemic, alongside the “cord-cutting” of younger viewers switching to digital services such as Netflix, has led broadcasters to scale back spending on sports rights.

Last June, domestic TV rights for the Bundesliga, the top league in Germany, were sold for €4.4bn over four years from 2021 — 5 per cent less than the previous deal.

Claire Enders, founder of Enders Analysis, the media research firm, said that since the “peak” of the market in 2018, the value of global sports rights have dropped by about 15 per cent. “Part of the decline is, of course, Covid related . . . but the overall trend has been very well established,” she said.

Andrew Georgiou, president of Eurosport, the sports network owned by US media conglomerate Discovery, said that younger people were showing less interest in sports, particularly football, which could knock future revenue growth in the game.

“The underlying demand of the consumer is something that everyone needs to be worried about, not just the competition between the broadcasters,” he said.

Football is already facing huge disruption from the coronavirus crisis, with leading clubs suffering revenue shortfalls as stadiums remain closed. The Premier League has said that £100m is being lost every month across English football with fans shut out of stadiums.

Facing a cash crunch, European clubs are also struggling to reduce costs because of their contractual obligations with star players, many of whom have pushed back against pay cuts.

Jonathan Barnett, executive chairman of ICM Stellar Sports, the agency that represents stars such as Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale and Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish, said he would resist salary reductions for clients, although he was open to deferrals in some cases.

“I can understand helping the club, but when that club gets back to the level where it was, surely they should pay back the money,” said Barnett. “What I’m for is people running a business properly . . . Nobody held a gun up to clubs and said, ‘You’ve got to pay X amount of money to a player’.”

[Chester Perry]

The Premier League rejects a number of the proposals from UEFA for it's club competitions - here is the Telegraph with the story ot was free to view at the time of transcription

Premier League reject Uefa's proposal to award Champions League places on past performances
Exclusive: Another rejected proposal was a new calendar which would leave no room for the League Cup – a main source of revenue for the EFL

By - Sam Wallace, CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER - 17 February 2021 • 3:14pm

Premier League clubs have rejected many of Uefa’s proposals for the new Champions League after 2024 – including the awarding of places based on historical performance and a scheduling change that would see the Champions League games played in every month of the domestic season.

At a video call for all 20 shareholders, the clubs considered the “Swiss model” proposed by Uefa in greater detail – with fears that it will take broadcast value away from the Premier League and redistribute it to an expanded Champions League dominated by Europe’s so-called elite.

Among the proposals put before clubs was a new calendar which would leave no room for the League Cup, currently one of the key broadcast revenue earners for the Football League (EFL). Getting rid of the 61-year-old competition would mean that the EFL lost a major part of its earnings and would have to be compensated. No decisions were made on that and discussions will begin with the EFL.

In the expanded Champions League, including a 36-team league stage in which all clubs play ten fixtures, there are proposals from Uefa that games are played all season long – in every month. That was rejected by the Premier League clubs who would see it as directly rivalling their own games and diminishing broadcast revenue. The Premier League will ask Uefa that any new expanded competition completes its group stages or first round by Christmas.

In addition, the clubs studied the four places out of the 36 which will be awarded on the basis of past performances over the preceding five years – known as the Uefa coefficient. Of those four places, one is the “Champions path” place which is almost certain to be awarded to the winners of Holland’s Eredivisie. Another is reserved for France’s Ligue 1.

The remaining two coefficient places would potentially benefit all the clubs who qualified for the other two European competitions – the Europa League and the Europa Conference League. Of those clubs, the two with the best Uefa coefficient would be given an “access boost” to the Champions League. The Premier League has asked Uefa to come up with better options.

[Chester Perry]

I thought something was afoot when I posted yesterday about the group of Italian clubs demanding a vote to accept the domestic deal on the table, given that it would not be enough if it was to be shared with new commercial partners as well. turns out that is the point, the deal is good enough without them (though I think it should fall under competition authority scrutiny - which is where the single weekly free to air game suggestion seeks to prevent/anticipate) from SportsProMedia - notice that this is a stand off of the most powerful against the weakest, some things never change

Report: Seven Serie A clubs move to block €1.7bn CVC deal
Surprisingly positive response to domestic TV rights tender cited as reason for rejection.

Posted: February 17 2021 By: Tom Bassam

- 14 of 20 clubs required to approve deal, meaning move effectively blocks investment
- Letter to Serie A president says clubs are open to deal on league’s overseas rights

Serie A’s €1.7 billion (US$2 billion) private equity deal with CVC, Advent and FSI could be about to collapse as seven of Italian soccer’s most powerful top-flight clubs are set to block the investment, according to Reuters.

The global wire service has seen a letter signed by seven clubs – including Juventus, Inter Milan and Lazio – that says they no longer see the deal as ‘viable’. With 14 of the 20 Serie A clubs required to approve the investment, a rejection by seven of those would be enough to halt it.

According to Reuters, the letter addressed to the league’s president Paolo Dal Pino reads: ‘The term sheet submitted to the clubs belonging to the league has not reached a qualified consensus needed for the approval ... as things stand, this development opportunity is not viable anymore’.

The report says the signatory clubs cite a surprisingly positive response to Serie A’s domestic broadcast rights talks as an argument against the stake sale. The letter reportedly describes the tender as a ‘commercial success’, with the decline in annual fees being offered less than expected.

The seven clubs face opposition from eight teams that look favourably upon the private equity deal, according to Reuters.

The clubs also said in the letter they would not rule out talks with financial institutions to increase Serie A’s international market value, opening the door for private equity firms to agree a similar arrangement for the league’s overseas media rights.

SportsPro understands that DAZN, the multi-territory digital subscription sports media company, believes it has put in the strongest bid for Serie A’s domestic rights. A decision is expected on that deal on 18th February.

Sources close to DAZN suggest the company is pleased with the progress of the broadcast rights talks and the positive feedback received from the clubs. DAZN’s bid is worth around €850 million (US$1.02 billion) a year, significantly greater than the reported €750 million (US$908 million) offer from pay-TV rival Sky Sports.

From the perspective of DAZN, it believes it has put together the best bid for a package which would see it gain seven exclusive fixtures per matchday, with three more included on a non-exclusive basis. It is understood that Serie A’s top clubs are in favour of DAZN’s bid based on the weight of the financial terms.

Sky’s bid, which is for a package of multi-platform rights that carve out co-exclusivity for internet, IPTV and mobile services, is still under consideration.

Serie A could raise slightly more than €900 million (US$108 billion) by combining DAZN’s bid with an offer from Sky to stream the non-exclusive matches, according to Reuters.

The end of commission payments to outgoing media rights advisors Infront will save the league between €50 million (US$60.5 million) and €60 million (US$72.6 million) per season.

After entering into exclusive talks with the CVC-led consortium in October, the Serie A clubs approved the private equity deal in November. Serie A president Paolo Dal Pino described the agreement as “a turning point” for the Italian soccer industry at the time, adding that the investment will enable the league to “reaffirm Serie A’s brand worldwide”.

There were rumblings of discontent that emerged about the deal earlier this month as sign-off was further delayed. According to Sky News, the private equity consortium recently wrote to the 20 Serie A clubs warning that it would withdraw its offer unless the agreement is ratified immediately.

[Chester Perry]

Bt's Simon Green had plenty to say this morning at the FT's Football Summit - I have already posted his thoughts on rights values in the current structure - what he had to say about a European Super League was even more deflating to the big clubs - this from the Independent by Burnley fan Simon Evans for Reuteurs

European Super League less valuable to broadcasters than current model, BT Sport chief insists
A group of Europe’s biggest clubs have threatened to break away and form their own competition

Simon Evans - 8 hours ago

The head of BT Sport has warned that a breakaway European Super League would be less valuable as a broadcast product than the current combination of domestic competitions and the Champions League.

Uefa is currently reforming the format and structure of the Champions League for the period from 2024, while a group of Europe’s biggest clubs have threatened to break away and form their own “Super League” outside of Uefa’s control.

“Of course a European Super League would be extremely appealing to broadcasters but it wouldn’t be worth as much as the existing leagues and Champions League are at the moment,” Simon Green, head of BT Sport told the Financial Times’ Business of Football summit.

“It would be undoing the value that already exists and reinventing something that is worth less.

“It wouldn’t be as appealing to consumers. You wouldn’t have the kind of contests you get in the Premier League and the Champions League if you undid the strength of the leagues as they exist now,” he added.

BT Sport currently hold the rights for UK broadcasts of Uefa’s Champions League as well as sharing live Premier League rights with Sky Sports and Amazon.

“As far as the relationship between broadcasters and football is concerned, maintaining what exists now, I believe, is the very best strategy that football should adopt rather than undoing what it has and reinventing something called a Super League which theoretically will do better - it won’t,” Green said.

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The driver of the breakaway plan, according to several sources, has been Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, while clubs including Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester United have all been linked with it in the media.

A document produced for the breakaway group outlines a plan for a 20-team league made up of 15 permanent members and five who would qualify for the competition annually. The teams would play in two groups of 10 and then compete in a playoff system to determine the winner.

The plan, unlike some previous reported attempts, is being taken seriously by football’s authorities.

Last month Fifa, European confederation Uefa and the five other international confederations issued a statement condemning the proposal. The European Leagues organisation, which represents the main domestic competitions, has also condemned the plan on the grounds that it would damage domestic competitions.

Green said he expects rights fees for big leagues to drop in the coming rounds of auctions.

“I do see a realignment and a correction and perhaps a period of rights deflation and you can already see it,” he said.

[Chester Perry]

The perils of financial reporting and being associated to a listed company - even if that listing is in Hong Kong - you have to say the Birmingham City Chief Exec should (and probably does) know better - so the question is why did he give out unpublished financial data in an interview and why does the board not agree with his forecasts for the current season'

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 6785648647

[Chester Perry]

The fourth and final part of SportsProMedia's mini series -"An Experts guide to owning a European soccer club" looks at multi-club ownership

An expert’s guide to owning a European soccer club - part four: Multi-club ownership
In the final instalment of a four-part weekly series, Jordan Gardner, an American sports executive who is currently chairman and co-owner of Danish side FC Helsingør, outlines the strategy behind investing in a group of soccer clubs.

By Jordan Gardner Posted: February 18 2021

Multi-club investment strategies in global soccer are not a new phenomenon.

Starting in the summer of 2008 with the purchase of Manchester City, City Football Group (CFG) started a trend of global club acquisitions and expansion that has extended to this day. While CFG have unique motivations with their ownership group based in the Middle East, investors have become more sophisticated in recent years when crafting multi-club ownership models and strategies.

In part one of this series, I described the motivations of individuals, private equity and institutional investors who look towards European soccer for investment opportunities. In part two, I discussed building the right investment thesis and thoroughly assessing the purchase of a European soccer club. In part three, I focused on the first 90 days after the closing of a club acquisition. This final instalment will outline the strategies and motivations behind multi-club investment portfolios.

Strategic investment
When most people think of multi-club ownership, they envision massive multi-national corporations investing in clubs across the top five leagues in Europe. However, several investment groups are taking a more strategic approach to the multi-club ownership model.

I’ve personally built a multi-club model with targeted investments in several European countries over a period of years. The portfolio has grown slowly and organically over a period of time, starting with minority investments in both Swansea City AFC in the United Kingdom and Dundalk FC in the Republic of Ireland. The goal for these strategic investments has been to use my ownership to learn best practices for club operations both on and off the field. Many American ownership groups have previously invested in European soccer with an arrogance and lack of understanding of the keys to success. My goal as an investor has been to understand first hand how to avoid the mistakes that other groups have made.

Eventually, after gaining experience over several years, the timing was right to purchase a majority interest of a club in Denmark, FC Helsingør. Having a controlling interest of a club allowed me to take best practices learned from my earlier investments and apply them directly to club operations - from hiring the right coach to crafting the best commercial strategy. While my multi-club portfolio looks very different from CFG, my personal portfolio strategy of organic growth over time has worked for me.

Youth development focused
In recent years, the motivation for multi-club ownership has become more focused on the explosion in the player transfer market. Groups like the Pacific Media Group, led by Paul Conway, have focused on buying relatively smaller clubs in countries with strong records of talent development. PMG now owns five clubs, including French side AS Nancy, Belgian outfit KV Oostende, English team Barnsley and Switzerland's FC Thun, and most recently followed our lead into Denmark by acquiring Esbjerg fB.

Moorad Sports Partners, another American group, has the backing of American billionaire David Blitzer and owns clubs in similarly talent-rich markets in southwestern Europe, including Portuguese side GD Estoril Praia and AD Alcorcón in Spain. Many of these markets are attractive in bringing in talent from developing soccer markets like South America and Africa, and have lenient work permit requirements. In general, these groups look to combine domestic talent development and sophisticated international player recruitment to develop and sell players for a profit.

Execution is key
While exciting and sexy in concept, multi-club ownership models are extremely difficult to execute. People such as Joseph DaGrosa at the Kapital Football Group have talked publicly about replicating the CFG model, but in reality it’s an incredibly challenging proposition.

First, the capital requirements to have a multi-club investment portfolio are substantial, especially one on par with CFG. Second, executing a successful multi-club model requires significant internal infrastructure and a strong management team who are able to operate multiple businesses in foreign countries each with their own unique culture, language, and operational differences. Third, scaling up to successful multi-club ownership requires investors to have a deep knowledge of the soccer culture in each market, and a broad and comprehensive understanding of the entire European soccer landscape as a whole. In sum, building a multi-club portfolio is exponentially more difficult than owning and operating a single club, and many groups underestimate the challenges they will face in executing a multi-club strategy.

I expect to see more investors create multi-club portfolios moving forward. While the CFG model is certainly attractive, investors looking for greater value must be more creative and strategic as they build their portfolios in the future.

[Chester Perry]

Richard Masters, Premier League Chief Exec, was quite bullish this morning at the Financial Times Football Summit (cheapest ticket to watch online £299 and no I am not watching) on all Things European Super League, Champions League expansion, reduced sized Premier League, Broadcast rights values and even committed to the 3 year renewal cycle when broadcasters have been arguing for longer to help them with certainty in planning and financial commitments to pricing strategy etc - this from the Financial Times

Premier League boss attacks breakaway ‘Super League’ plan
SAMUEL AGINI FEBRUARY 18, 2021

The chief executive of the English Premier League has attacked a $6bn plan to create a “super league” of Europe’s best-known teams as the sport struggles to cope with the financial fallout from the pandemic.

Richard Masters told the FT Business of Football Summit on Thursday that the breakaway competition pushed by the likes of Spain’s Real Madrid and FC Barcelona would be “destructive to the value of domestic football across Europe”.

It would be damaging partly because the league would not have the normal promotion and relegation process, he said. One reason the Premier League remains highly competitive is the annual battle between sides to qualify for European tournaments. “Any super league proposal that I’ve read about or heard about doesn’t have access via domestic leagues,” Masters said.

Participants would continue to play in their domestic leagues at weekends, with super league matches being played midweek, in effect replacing the Champions League, the annual club competition run by European football’s governing body Uefa, which distributes €2bn between participating clubs.

Top English teams, including Manchester United and Liverpool, are among those that have been briefed on the super league plans, which is being funded by a €6bn debt financing package from investment bank JPMorgan.

According to leaked documents outlining the proposals, 15 founding clubs would receive between €100m and €350m for joining.

Other figures at the top of European football have attacked the plan, as teams have struggled with the huge financial disruption from the pandemic. Spectators have been shut out of stadiums and top clubs have lost a significant chunk of their revenues as a result.

Christian Seifert, chief executive of Bundesliga, Germany’s top league, fiercely criticised the teams involved in the talks.

“The brutal truth is that a few of these so-called super clubs are in fact poorly-managed, cash-burning machines that were not able, in a decade of incredible growth, to come close to a sustainable business model,” he said.

Both Masters and Seifert indicated they would be more willing to support alternative plans from Uefa to reform the Champions League into an expanded tournament with more matches between the top teams.

Masters also warned that English football will not make concessions to create space for many more European fixtures, such as by reducing the number of teams in the Premier League. “The English football calendar is jam packed,” he said. “I think for the foreseeable future, the Premier League is a 20-club competition.”

The Premier League plans to start the auction process for UK broadcasting rights for the three seasons between 2022 and 2025 later this year.

The existing contract, which is shared by Sky, BT and Amazon, is worth £5bn over three years — higher than any other domestic football league and helping make English clubs among the richest.

The pandemic has led broadcasters to cut their spending on sports rights. Last June, domestic TV rights for the Bundesliga were sold for €4.4bn over four years from 2021 — 5 per cent less than the previous deal.

Simon Green, head of BT Sport, said he expects “deflation” in the football media rights market. “[There has been an] overzealous enthusiasm of organisations wanting to associate themselves with big leagues,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen so much now.”

However, Masters pointed out that recent overseas Premier League TV deals, such as with Nent in Scandinavia and beIN Sport in the Middle East, were at similar or higher values than before the pandemic.

“I accept that we’re in a challenging environment,” he said. “I don’t accept that things have plateaued or that we’re looking at a downward curve.”

[Chester Perry]

City Football Group have a 2nd Partner club, Vannes Olympic, this time in a country where they have their own club Troyes - this is a new kind of difficulty for the regulators

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... all-group/

[MrTopTier]

Good stuff Chester lots of interesting reading in there.

Do you think when we get back to watching games live, the £30 away game tickets will stop?

[Chester Perry]

Good stuff Chester lots of interesting reading in there.

Do you think when we get back to watching games live, the £30 away game tickets will stop?

That will stay I am sure, the broadcasters (domestic and foreign) supported it at the time, and we know from rebates that they have a monetary value on fans generating atmosphere, so much so that the Premier League have given them 150 or so games for free to make up for it (following the aborted pay per view experiment

[Chester Perry]

More on that Richard Masters interview this morning at the FT Football Summit - this time for Simon Evens of Reuters (and Burnley) for Yahoo

Premier League in no rush to conduct delayed TV rights tender
Thu, 18 February 2021, 10:25 am·2-min read

MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - The Premier League is in no rush to conduct its auction for domestic broadcast rights, chief executive Richard Masters said on Thursday, insisting he does not expect their value to fall.

The normal schedule for the rights sales would have seen the auction held in February or March but Masters said the league had not yet even decided what package structure would be available in the three-year deal.

Currently the packages for live matches are shared between Sky Sports and BT Sports with Amazon streaming a handful of games.

"We are in no rush to go to market at the moment, we are going to take our time. A great amount of market consultation goes on before we launch a tender process," Masters told the FT's Business of Football summit.

"In a normal three-year cycle we would be having just completed or in the market now, in the middle of our three-year term.

"It will take place at some point this year but it is too early to say whether they will be any material deviation from our historic packaging strategies," he said.

A number of media analysts and broadcasters have said they expect the rights market in Europe to be flat or even drop in value.

BT Sport head Simon Green said this week that he saw a "realignment and a correction and perhaps a period of rights deflation and you can already see it".

But Masters was confident that would not be the case.

"No. I think what is going on in Europe at the moment and I don't want to talk about other people's processes, but I don't really think that they are necessarily relevant to what might happen here in the UK.

"I accept that we are in a challenging environment, of course I do, that much is obvious, but I don't accept that things have plateaued or that we are looking at a downward curve at all," he said.

Masters said that international deals done in the past year had not shown a decline.

"At the moment we are ahead of our current position in the markets where we have been selling. As always we are confident and optimistic of the future not withstanding significant challenges," he added.

(Reporting by Simon Evans)

[Chester Perry]

Sam Wallace in the Telegraph on the differentiation of self interest between Europe's elite and the rest that play with them in the domestic leagues, focussing on the Premier League he also examines how the wild cards based on coefficients for just preserves the current order (remember coefficients are improved by taking part and are higher for Champions League participation over Europa League and over the new Europa Conference). It all comes back to revenue stabilisation for the biggest clubs and their huge financial commitments that are based on the assumption of Champions League qualification, it is no longer football fortune it is a presumed right now for many of the biggest clubs, and UEFA has been complicit in that .

Football's elite continue to drive own agenda with franchise threat a doomsday alternative
SAM WALLACE FEBRUARY 18, 2021

Gerard Pique clinging in vain to a handful of Kylian Mbappe’s shirt on Tuesday at the Nou Camp has become symbolic of a change in the guard among the European elite: an unstoppable force against a fading power. Off the pitch however, the grip of the historic powers is stronger than ever: the proverbial ambitious newcomer is held in an iron fist and the faster he runs, the harder it pulls.

European football’s biggest clubs are fighting for more power and more wealth at the expense of the rest – the latest chapter of which played out on the Premier League shareholders’ call on Wednesday, when new proposals for Uefa European club competitions post-2024 were discussed.

Exclusive: Premier League reject Uefa's proposal to award Champions League places on past performances
There is an uncertain future for the League Cup, and the proposed scheduling of an expanded 36-team Champions League that encroaches on every month of the Premier League’s match-day calendar.

But the reality is that the league is hopelessly divided between its biggest names, led by Liverpool and Manchester United, who back the new European expansion – and the rest who fear its impact on the Premier League’s broadcast rights. There is no groundswell of support among fans for this expanded Champions League, or from broadcasters, as BT Sport for one have made clear. The only individuals who want it are those who own the biggest clubs and their contention is quite clear: if this offends you, look at the alternative.

That was presented in May 2019, by the European Clubs’ Association, led by Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, who wanted a 32-team competition in which 24 of the places were guaranteed. It would effectively have been an NFL of European football, where the jeopardy of non-qualification was removed, the income streams were in perpetuity and club values would, consequently, increase steeply.

That is the justification for this latest compromise, that has been negotiated against the backdrop of the extremists’ view of the future: the unspoken threat that the alternative could have been so much worse.

The proposed “Swiss model” Champions League buys off just about every part of European football’s powerbases, which is expeditious for its big club backers and necessary for the Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin. He wants something he can take back to the smaller federations that elected him, and his contention will be that this is better than the worst-case scenario. The unthinkable is Uefa losing its most lucrative competition to a super league breakaway financed by American investment banks and signalling the end of football’s global consensus.

Of the 36 clubs who will make up the first stage of the new Champions League, four will have got there by virtue of wild cards, based on the Uefa coefficient – calculated on performance over the previous five years. Two of those places will be the infamous “access boost” gifting a Champions League place to the two highest coefficient ranked clubs who have qualified either for the Europa League or the new Europa Conference League.

This is the safety net that should scoop up big clubs who have a bad domestic season. Manchester United’s disastrous seventh place finish in 2013-14 would, under these rules, have seen them boosted back into the Champions League.

By way of example, the lowest of the big six Premier League ranked clubs by coefficient is Tottenham Hotspur, 15th on Uefa’s list with 82 points. The next Premier League club after them is Leicester City in 49th position on 31. It is clear for whom the safety net of “access boost” exists, and it is not Leicester.

European club football is expanding. More competitions, more money, more games. But the resources to pay for the rights to these expanded competitions have to come from somewhere and the deepest fear of the Premier League clubs outside the so-called elite is that it will be sliced from their collective revenue.

That value will be transferred to the new European competition where the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona, swimming in debts of more than €1 billion accumulated by their failed club boards, are looking at new territories to plunder. If they can seize the revenue advantage the Premier League commands, then they have their fresh blood.

The Premier League functions as the world’s most popular sports league because it offers jeopardy through its equitable revenue sharing: a Burnley win at Anfield, a 6-1 crushing for Manchester United at Old Trafford. This is where the value of the league lies. This is what differentiates it from the inevitability of the destiny of the Serie A, Liga or Bundesliga titles most years. If a greater proportion of the wealth is transferred to the elite through an expanded European competition, then the prospect of those exciting results, and the unique flavour of the league, is diminished – and perhaps lost.

All the while, the rich get richer. European clubs with no interest in the competitiveness of their own leagues are saved from their own mistakes by greater Champions League revenue streams. As for notable former English champions like Leicester City, Everton, Aston Villa, Leeds United, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, the odds are loaded against them qualifying for a Champions League which disproportionately rewards its regulars – both financially and in terms of who can count on a wild card qualification in a bad year.

Of course, unlike Spurs, Arsenal or Manchester City, Villa have actually won the European Cup. Villa also have two of the wealthiest owners in the Premier League, but the financial fair play rules at domestic and European level limit how much they can invest in their club’s success. Next year Villa will mark four decades since their great night in Rotterdam. If there is a regret it will be that they won the European Cup at the wrong time.

Had they done so in the last 10 years, they might be making up the rules themselves now.

[Chester Perry]

FIFA has published it's snapshot of the January 2021 transfer window - as you would expect Europe dominates the spending but it is substantially lower than previous years though the 2 Manchester clubs dominate the individual spend charts with Ajax the surprise 3rd sensing opportunity no doubt.

https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/avpal ... 4ks7i1.pdf

[Chester Perry]

The Football Today Podcast looks at Serie A and the battle for Broadcast Rights

https://www.footballtodaypodcast.com/po ... ing-rights

EDIT there is a great titbit at the end where it was revealed a decision on the Private Equity commercial rights partner could not be taken as 9 clubs failed to turn up for the meeting where the discussion was to take place

[Chester Perry]

possibly the best financially run club in France, Olympic Lyonnais, announce a Euro 50m loss for the first half of the season, they missed out on the Champions League this year when the government cancelled the season last year

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... re/1224285

[Chester Perry]

Sheffield United become the only Premier League club to join Burnley in shifting their 2019/20 financial reporting to cover the extended season - they did spend most of last year saying ours was the model they aspired too

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 4355994629

[Chester Perry]

I have been talking about the difficulties that clubs whose financial model is based on player trading are going to face for a while - this looks like a very interesting article - shame it is behind a paywall but it is possible to catch the bad omen gist from what is on public view

https://offthepitch.com/a/analysis-tran ... llise-loss

[Chester Perry]

this is starting to become more than a trend - following failed payments by PPTV in china and Chinese backed Mediapro in France and third Chinese owned broadcaster is facing litigation for failure to pay it's contracted dues for football rights this time in North Africa. - Sportcal.com with the detail - perhaps now more than ever it is just as important to have surety of payment than just a big number deal

StarTimes financial woes surface as BeIN issues winding up order
Business - 18 Feb 2021 - By Jonathan Rest

StarTimes, the Chinese-owned pay-television operator in sub-Saharan Africa, is facing the threat of a winding up order after failing to pay BeIN Media Group for rights to French soccer’s Ligue 1, GlobalData Sport can exclusively reveal.

GlobalData Sport also understands that the broadcaster, part of Hong Kong-based holding company Century Sun, has delayed payments to other rights-holders, albeit these have not escalated to legal proceedings as yet.

StarTimes has been expanding its portfolio of top-tier soccer in recent years - in August last year it landed non-exclusive French language rights to Spanish soccer’s LaLiga for four years, and other competitions it is showing in the 2020-21 season include Spain’s Copa del Rey, England’s FA Cup, Italy’s Coppa Italia and Europe’s Uefa Europa League and delayed 2020 European Championships.

However, it is the deal struck mid-way through 2018 for the English- and local-language rights to Ligue 1 and other French soccer properties in sub-Saharan Africa that has brought to light the financial difficulties facing the broadcaster.

Having failed to make any payments for those rights, StarTimes is currently in debt to BeIN to the tune of close to $11 million, including interest, according to the court petition.

After the matter was taken to the courts in Hong Kong, a new monthly payment plan instigated by StarTimes was agreed upon by the two parties prior to the start of the 2019-20 season, but StarTimes missed the first instalment due on 1 October.

Talks between the two parties’ legal representatives since have failed to reach a conclusion, with BeIN, which holds international Ligue 1 rights from 2018-19 to 2023-24, having now taken the decision to issue a winding up order on StarTimes.

In the 2018-19 season StarTimes cited the tough economic climate in Africa for failing to make payments and said this, coupled with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic across the continent, had exacerbated the financial situation in 2020.

Despite this, the company has carried on acquiring rights over the past year, such as the aforementioned long-term deal with LaLiga, a seven-year, $7.7 million deal with the FKF, the Kenyan Football Federation, and last month’s agreement with the Confederation of African Football for the African Nations Championship.

The sports portfolio also includes the new Extreme E motor racing series (a deal with sister series Formula E ended last year) and just this week it added USA’s Impact Wrestling.

A source with knowledge of the legal proceedings told GlobalData Sport: “It should be of huge concern to the industry that an entity facing winding up proceedings is, in the same breath, parading around the world signing deals with much fanfare. We’ve seen this kind of conduct before and it only ends badly for rights-holders and the industry.”

StarTimes said it will not be making any official comment on the legal case.

While StarTimes has kept up to date with payments to many rights-holders, GlobalData Sport has learned that the BeIN-Ligue 1 situation is not an isolated one, with the broadcaster understood to be in arrears for other top-tier soccer properties, particularly in Europe.

An insider from one of the agency giants told GlobalData Sport there are now “concerns about making future deals with StarTimes given the concern over their financial health.”

Another, from the broadcasting sector in Asia, said the delay in payments was coupled by a “tight budget for new acquisitions.”

The plight of StarTimes will sound further notes of caution about Chinese-ownership in the sports business industry, with PPTV, the streaming platform owned by Suning, having lost English Premier League rights and had its Italian Serie A feed cut in recent months because of missed rights payments.

In addition, Mediapro, the Spanish media rights and production agency owned by Orient Hontai Capital, the Chinese private equity firm, had its domestic Ligue 1 rights contract ripped up for failing to make payments, and there is also the case of MP & Silva, which was wound up by the UK High Court’s Bankruptcy Court in October 2018, less than two years after being taken over by Chinese tech firm Baofeng and investment company Everbright Capital.

[Chester Perry]

City Football Group have a 2nd Partner club, Vannes Olympic, this time in a country where they have their own club Troyes - this is a new kind of difficulty for the regulators

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... all-group/

as ever Simon Chadwick picks up on a tidbit of news and sends it cartwheeling away into a myriad of other stories, the one I have picked up on is that CFG are based in a free trade zone, the likes of which are popping up all over the world and are specifically designed to cut or breakthrough regulation, just what will this mean for future regulations when we already know that the regulators cannot afford the best legal representation.

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 6246921217

[Chester Perry]

Jean Michel Aulas president of Olympic Lyonnais has called on the French government to allow a 10 year domestic broadcast deal for the French Ligue - as I posted earlier broadcasters are pushing for longer cycles to allow greater ROI opportunities, such deals also provide structural certainty for leagues and clubs enabling proper mid to long term strategic thinking particularly coming off the back of such financial devastation. This from SportsBusiness.com

Aulas calls on French government to allow 10-year TV rights deals
Martin Ross - February 17, 2021

A delegation of officials from French football clubs and France’s Professional Football League (LFP) have suggested to the country’s government that legislation should be amended so that the duration of broadcast deals is extended to up to ten years.

Speaking via videoconference to French cabinet ministers in a request for more financial support, Jean-Michel Aulas, the Olympique Lyonnais president, led the calls for longer rights deals.

The LFP requested the emergency meeting as it continues to battle the effects of the cancellation of its rights deal with the Mediapro agency, coupled with the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with matches continuing to be played behind closed doors.

Aulas suggested that the four-year limit on domestic broadcast rights contracts is amended in order to drive more competition for the rights.

Quoted by France Football, he said: “I think it’s very important that we have the opportunity to sell our rights to broadcasters not over four years, but over a much longer period of time.

“This four-year term penalises us enormously, especially when compared to what is done in the United States with the NBA or the NFL. The length of time that their rights are held for [by broadcasters] is much longer.

“It is therefore important that the State can amend the law, allowing us to have a longer rights sales period, for example ten years.

“That will directly allow us to find additional funds. Because the amount will no longer be the same, with new entrants from the GAFA [Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon] players, who are very interested in a much longer duration of rights.”

Following the collapse of the Mediapro deal, the LFP warned that its expected global media rights revenue for the 2020-21 campaign is €759.1m ($914m) – significantly lower than the €1.307bn budgeted for by clubs.

A new deal signed with pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus represents a marked reduction in domestic rights fees for the LFP and its clubs this season, with a total of between €650m and €670m now expected to be paid over the course of the season.

Mediapro had agreed to pay €780m per season and €34m per season for its Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 rights, respectively, for the 2020-24 cycle. Both contracts were terminated in December and the rights returned in a dispute over fee instalments.

As part of its agreement, Canal Plus agreed to pay around €200m immediately to help ease the pressure on French clubs.

Following yesterday’s meeting, a working group was set up to assess the financial situation of French football. Roxana Mărăcineanu, the French sports minister, said that aid would be distributed on a “case-by-case” basis.

The LFP borrowed €224.5m from the French government last May to deal with the impact of the pandemic. A €120m loan from an international bank was also taken up to help offset the impact of Mediapro’s missed payments.

In October, it was reported that the LFP had identified a projected total of €192m in lost ticketing and hospitality revenues between July and December last year as a result of restrictions in crowds caused by Covid-19.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

We appear to have a similar limit on our TV deals.

Whats the reason for that?

[Chester Perry]

We appear to have a similar limit on our TV deals.

Whats the reason for that?

It was done to both fuel revenue growth for the clubs and allow broadcasters to not over commit, which sounds like a contradiction but at the time it was am immature market with corporations (particularly Sky) looking to cement their place in the market. For the first 25 years Sky essentially needed football to survive and so overpaid for the rights, it brought that much in subscription revenue and encouraged subscriber retention. They were challenged at various stages by ITV. Setanta and BT, it was only when BT and Sky realised that the division they had worked for them both so detente ensued and the price began to stabilise and drop. it will continue in that vain until another big player enters the market, and no matter what the Premier League hopes, that is not Amazon.

the market is mature now like it has been in America for the NFL. MLB. NBA and NHL for decades. In such a market place where there is little margin the longer term deals allow for a greater period of return on investment for broadcasters and facilitate longer term stability in leagues. European governments have been reluctant to allow such deals because they essentially create cartels or monopolies and stifle the opportunities for the broadcasters who miss out. In the US the problem is not the same as no matter what the major network deal is (and it tends to be across more than one) the local team is allowed to sell rights to a local broadcaster so fans get to see the games, that could happen in a pan-european League but not in the structure we have in place now.

[huw.Y.WattfromWare]

Sorry if I’ve missed it but NL,N&S, have both announced they are suspending their seasons.
NL will go ahead but talks are ongoing with FA about promotion and relegation.

[Chester Perry]

Sorry if I’ve missed it but NL,N&S, have both announced they are suspending their seasons.
NL will go ahead but talks are ongoing with FA about promotion and relegation.

BBC report on that announcement https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56119952

Given the number of clubs that had already taken that stance they had no option - Brian Barwick's tenure and oversight of those leagues during the pandemic has been pretty shambolic to be honest.

[Chester Perry]

If you are not doing anything tomorrow afternoon you might want to watch this: How football is navigating its way out of Covid | InSport Education FREE Webinar

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/how-football-is/register

[TheFamilyCat]

Oops, wrong thread

[Chester Perry]

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.

I said it when it was first announced that he was about to takeover at Derby - he still hasn't - that Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan was a tyre kicker and nothing else. This report in the Mail suggests that he was at it at two other clubs last year as well, plenty within have tried to warn Mel about him but he is desperate to sell.

EXCLUSIVE: Derby's prospective new owners enquired about buying Premier League sides West Ham and Bournemouth last season... as the £60m takeover of the Championship club continues to stall
- Derby's prospective new owners tried to buy West Ham and Bournemouth
- The sale to Sheik Khaled bin Zayed al Nehayan has been ratified by the EFL
- But there are doubts the takeover will go through following a lack of content
- Current owner Mel Morris insisted the sale of the club had not yet gone through
By SAMI MOKBEL FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 22:34, 18 February 2021 | UPDATED: 23:11, 18 February 2021

Derby County’s prospective new owners enquired about buying Premier League clubs West Ham and Bournemouth last season, Sportsmail can disclose.

There is now significant doubt over the protracted takeover at Pride Park by a branch of the Abu Dhabi royal family following a three-month delay in completing the £60 million transaction, and news that the group have now failed to complete deals for at least three other clubs will heighten those apprehensions.

The EFL ratified the proposed purchase of Derby by Sheik Khaled bin Zayed al Nehayan, the cousin of Manchester City’s billionaire owner Sheik Mansour, in November.

A transfer of the funds and a final exchange of contracts, which have been drawn up, is all that is left to complete — but sources claim there has been a worrying lack of communication from the United Arab Emirates.

Although ensuring proof of funds to the EFL as part of the due diligence process wasn’t an issue given the family’s vast wealth, sources have indicated that the hold-up could be due to difficulties in actually accessing the necessary money required to complete the takeover.

The delay has led to fears the deal is set to fall through and led to scepticism over the potential buyers, and current owner and chairman Mel Morris insisted the takeover was ‘not finished’ last weekend.

The Bin Zayed Group have long been in the market to take control at an English football club.

Their failed attempts to buy Newcastle from Mike Ashley last year have been well-documented.

But they also showed significant interest in West Ham and Bournemouth last season.

It is understood an initial enquiry over the purchase of West Ham was made before the Covid-19 pandemic but the group dropped their interest following early discussions.

Their attempts to buy Bournemouth, who were relegated from the top flight last season, are understood to have reached more of an advanced stage but again nothing came to fruition.

The previous attempts to buy a club in England will merely add to concerns that Derby are being led up the garden path by the Bin Zayed Group.

The issue has overshadowed the opening weeks of Wayne Rooney’s reign as head coach. Last week the Derby boss suggested that the sooner there was clarity over the long-running saga the better for his preparations for next season.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Has there ever been anyone who's tried to buy 4 diff English football clubs and as yet got none?

[Chester Perry]

Has there ever been anyone who's tried to buy 4 diff English football clubs and as yet got none?

It is 5 for Sheik

then there is the strange case of Laurence Bassini, who actually did own Watford for a while before his more recent ill fated attempts at buying a club

also Chris Farnell has been part of a consortia for a fair few

There is also Joseph Dagrosa who I have posted about in the last couple of weeks - he had a short tenure at Bordeaux and has been sniffing around a number of clubs in England and Europe for a while

You can fail with one or two bids, ALK at Sheffield United failed because of a court case they were not involved in for instance, but too many and and too late in the day sends out real warning signals. the Sheilk has had all the agreements in place twice now and not shown the money, he was close to that at Newcastle too before Mike Ashley smelt a rat and put an end to it. Ashley has previously said he sends 2-3 tyre kickers away every year, these days he demands a non-refundable deposit if you want to seriously use his businesses time, for the Saudi's that was £17m

[Chester Perry]

A lengthy feature from Sportcal.com on Fan Engagement, something I am seeing discussed more and more often and definitely a subject close to the heart of our new owners as they seek to increase revenues.

Fan engagement: A game beyond the game
by Tariq Saleh
The concept of fan engagement has taken on a life of its own in the modern sports world and, as Tariq Saleh discovers, it has never been more important or rewarding.
10th December 2020, 17:15

Speaking at a conference in London on the eve of the NBA’s London fixture back in 2016, commissioner Adam Silver was asked about the potential of virtual reality as a fan engagement tool in sport.

“Probably 99.5 per cent of our fans are never going to have the opportunity to go into an NBA arena, and I think the notion that you can become part of that experience is phenomenal,” he replied.

Now during this era of Covid-19 when fans are locked out of venues worldwide, Silver’s words resonate stronger than ever.

The significance of fan engagement has increased tenfold.

In this age, the term ‘engagement’ has developed several meanings. For fans, it is no longer about what they see on the pitch or on the court, it’s also what they see off it, and quite often online.

Fans’ thirst for more access and content of their favourite teams and players has opened up new commercial opportunities for rights-holders and new ways to monetise their assets.

With the coronavirus pandemic forcing sports to be played behind closed doors, matchday revenues have dried up, which has made it crucial to find new revenue streams to leverage large fan bases.

REACH

Sports fans range far and wide across various geographical locations across the world, so failing to put a strategy in place to engage with them and monetise that fandom should be viewed as a metaphorical own goal in this current age.

“The important factor is authenticity,” Alfredo Bermejo, digital strategy director of Spanish soccer’s LaLiga, tells GlobalData Sport. “For us, this comes from opening accounts in local languages on local platforms of choice, adapting our content to the requirements of that platform and building content strategies using local market experts.

“We then work with our business intelligence and analytics department to study the data relating to user engagement in order to refine and improve the strategy over time.”

For major sports teams and leagues, it’s easier to reach fans when they’re in the hundreds of millions, but for those with smaller fan bases, the challenge is to attract new ones.

According to Adam Field, head of global fan engagement at English Premier League club Chelsea, big, tier-one clubs typically reach up to 500 million fans around the world.

Speaking at the Digital Transformation Conference in London in 2019, Field outlined how it is “a major challenge to communicate at scale but still have an impact with individuals” but stressed that it’s something clubs cannot afford to ignore in this digital era.

The meaning of fan engagement has broadened and it has forced sports properties to do the same in their approach.

“Fan engagement has almost become a term that is so well used that I’m not entirely sure what people mean by it,” Charlie Beall, consulting partner at digital sports agency Seven League, tells GlobalData Sport. “What I mean by it, is that you have some kind of two-way relationship with fans.

“Sport has been very good at broadcasting to fans and while there’s still a need to do that and put a product in front of them, what we’re seeing in media more generally, is that audiences are becoming more accustomed to interactive experiences where they play some kind of role in the experience. Whether that’s guiding it, playing it through gaming, or just being part of the discussion around it.”

From a broadcast perspective, fan engagement is now about giving the viewer a similar or better experience to watching it in a stadium.

UK pay-TV operator BT Sport is one broadcaster which has regularly looked to enhance the viewing experience since launching in 2013 with technological advancements aimed at increasing its subscriber base.

Its most recent offering came in collaboration with its mobile network EE in October 2020 to create ‘Match Day Experience’, which includes a function for fans to remotely watch games together.

“Ever since we’ve launched, we’ve always tried to put fans in our output,” Jamie Hindhaugh, its chief operating officer, explains. “For me, fan engagement is personalisation and it’s giving them information that enhances the viewing experience and that’s what true engagement means.

“To be able to watch a game and know the speed a player is running at or who’s passing to who and where different players are, that’s engaging and engages me in the content.

“We’re not just looking to roll-out gizmos and gadgets, because you can put a lot under fan engagement, but what we’re trying to do is develop products as fans ourselves to enrich that engagement.

“It is prevalent at the moment, you can’t go to games with your friends and we’re enabling that. You can’t be inside the stadium, we’re engaging that, so it is true engagement in the way I would define the term.”

In the context of fan engagement, a successful two-way relationship generally means fans getting greater access to the content they want and more interactivity, while for rights-holders it’s about generating additional revenue and increasing their following.

CONTENT IS KING

In this particular period, content is very much king as it represents the most effective way of engaging with fans. Now more than ever, fans are craving as much content as possible as they can’t get up close and personal to their favourite teams and athletes.

Teams, brands and broadcasters alike are all in the same boat and are increasingly looking to engage with fans to increase their reach and revenue. They may be competing for the attention of fans but ultimately need to utilise each other’s assets to do so.

Marcus McDonnell, head of production at digital marketing agency FiftyThreeSix, says: “Any sponsor or marketer is going to be looking for content opportunities as a way of connecting with fans and if they connect with fans in the right way they can possibly do business with those fans or convert those fans into customers for themselves at a later point.

“Covid-19 has accelerated these trends and changes a little bit but you’ll probably see a lot more money being invested into content opportunities as a means of engaging with fans.”

This greater demand for content has seen several sports teams open up their doors to let fans in to see more from behind-the-scenes through trendy sports documentary series, with internet powerhouse Amazon especially bringing it to the forefront.

Amazon’s ‘All or Nothing’ series has proved to be hugely successful and has featured several sports teams such as soccer’s Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and the Brazil national team, the New Zealand rugby union team, Australia cricket team and a handful of NFL franchises.

The online retail giant has also produced a separate docu-series about Leeds United, while Netflix launched one with English third-tier outfit Sunderland, which particularly made waves globally because of the level of access given to fans.

Amazon recently released its All or Nothing series about Tottenham and featured some of the ways the club internally dealt with the 2019-20 season being disrupted by Covid-19, which provided a unique and timely insight. The nine-part series commanded a lot of attention on social media and proved to be hugely engaging to both Tottenham and non-Tottenham fans.

That attention is likely to lead to more clubs letting the cameras into their facilities as it represents an alternative revenue stream with big companies ready to offer up big bucks to create that content.

Tom Fox, FiftyThreeSix’s head of digital, explains: “There’s been an explosion of the behind-the-scenes docu-series stemming from [the NFL’s] Hard Knocks and going into Sunderland, Leeds and Tottenham now and what they’re trying to do is build their global fanbase.

“You feel like you have a connection with that team now and you develop a relationship with the players, key characters and narratives of the whole thing. That’s on the club level and can only increase to drive revenue with companies like Amazon coming with big budgets allowing them to do so.”

For rights-holders, fan engagement presently sits high in terms of the ways they can increase commercial income.

For many, fan engagement has been a key commercial aspect in their business plans and those who have always placed a degree of importance on it and have digital strategies embedded are likely to come through this period even stronger.

The pandemic has forced the sports industry to get creative and look for new ways to somewhat make up for the loss of matchday revenue.

“One of the central pillars of our team is activation,” Jorge de la Vega, LaLiga’s commercial and marketing director, says. “Where partners are willing to activate, rather than just rely on visibility, there is a stronger revenue opportunity. We have an expert international team that understands how to build sophisticated activations and create a marketing funnel, insights that we share with partners daily.

“Another advantage is our global network through which we have over 40 delegates on the ground in important markets. Their local insights and connections are invaluable in helping us create better local activations and increase our audience, which in turn increases our value to partners.

“There has naturally been a need to focus more on the experiential side and we have created new opportunities for our partners here. Our non-matchday content is extensive thanks to the work of our digital team, our apps and games, our OTT platform and more.”

In the Premier League, for example, just 0.5 per cent of fans experience a match inside the stadium but its global viewership is in the billions. Therefore, the digital space has become key for connecting with all fans and bringing those communities together.

“There’s a commercial element and an engagement element,” Fox outlines. “They have to keep on trying to add value to the fan base, just because they can’t buy a ticket right now or attend a game, it doesn’t mean you can’t communicate with them and bring value from their club, the athletes or the players themselves.

“On an engagement level, it’s about keeping on and continuing to bring good content and from a monetisation and commercial point of view, there are a plethora of different assets such as retail, merchandise, direct-to-consumer, OTT, and it’s about putting in the right tools to be able to sell these things and be able to recoup this lost revenue.”

The entire sports ecosystem is undoubtedly undergoing a period of change and the big question, at least for the next 12 months, will be how can they make back the money lost and return to a stable financial position?

It’s a question ringing in the ears of commercial directors throughout the industry and many will be searching for that lightbulb moment and working closely with their marketing teams to ensure they find the most unique and innovative ways to monetise their assets through alternative means.

“If you look at alternative revenue, one of our strongest beliefs is that sport needs to diversify its revenue,” Beall explains. “I think it’s got a bit lazy as a whole and become over-reliant on inflated media rights and if those were to go down, it’s going to have to have much more of a mix of revenues. So it’s going to be a combination of membership, ecommerce, ticketing, sponsorship and media rights and potentially wagering.

“The interesting one of that is going to be the membership piece. Can you get fans to give you micro-payments for certain things, whether it’s benefits, access to exclusive content, and what will they and won’t they pay for?

“Everybody thinks they can sell content to fans, and yes you can, but there’s only certain content that people are prepared to pay for. So it’ll be a question of how sports organisations can create bundles of value and then what the monetisation model for those bundles of value will be. Those are problems that are yet to be worked out and that’s where it’s going.”

DATA AND TECH

Within the sports industry, many are increasingly looking towards technology and data to bridge that gap and tap into a wider audience. Professional sport now enjoys a truly global following, so it’s only natural that organisations will look to utilise new and emerging technologies.

These include OTT, video-on-demand, augmented reality, virtual reality, wearable technology, artificial intelligence and blockchain, which have opened up new and innovative ways to reach a younger and more digitally-savvy fan base.

A huge trend in the soccer market at present is the use of blockchain-based digital collectibles as a fan engagement tool, which many of the top clubs in Europe have latched on to.

In recent years, several players have emerged within this market including Sorare and Socios.com, which between them have partnerships with the likes of Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, AS Roma, West Ham United, Belgium’s Pro League and Japan’s J. League.

Another emerging player in this sector is sports tech company Fantastec, which was founded in 2017 with an aim to “enable ever richer, more rewarding fan experiences” as well as “inventing the future of international sports fan engagement.”

Fantastec already has partnerships with Spanish giants Real Madrid and England’s Arsenal and are developing an interesting proposition for the sports market after spotting a gap in the market.

“I recognised that fans were just jumping on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat but go a little bit deeper in that data and you’ll find out that they want to do a little bit more,” Steve Madincea, Fantastec’s managing director and founder tells GlobalData Sport. “They want more engagement and more interaction because 99 per cent of them are never coming to a match.”

So what value do blockchain-based digital collectibles offer to clubs?

“First and foremost it’s an engagement tool for those 99 per cent of fans that are never going to come to a match,” Madincea explains. “People are getting tired of just liking a social thing or retweeting it or something, they want to actually engage, that’s number one.”

“The second is the monetisation aspect, there is a way to monetise these things and the third thing, that is a huge benefit to the clubs, is they get this data direct now and get to control that environment. You’re really reaching out to those fans at the top of the funnel with digital collectibles.”

Understanding fans and their consumer behaviour is also another key aspect within fan engagement and having this information allows sports properties to target and personalise offerings to maximise the potential of monetising their assets.

Fan data has always been crucial for sports organisations, and it's even more so now that teams cannot engage with fans the way they are used to - in stadiums and arenas. For commercial and marketing teams, it’s now easier and more important to measure if you’re achieving the levels of engagement you set out.

Data-driven decision-making is almost as vital as anything when it comes to understanding your fan base.

“From the activations and content we already offer, we work with our business intelligence team to study the data about how fans engage in order to refine and improve future activations,” de la Vega says. “Many of our partners are very active in these fields and are willing to activate, which means we can all share insights and improve.”

US-based location company Gravy Analytics recently launched fan engagement platform, FanVue, which it describes as a data dashboard that provides a comprehensive view of sports fans’ real-world behaviour and the brands they engage with.

The company claims that FanVue offers sports franchises data-driven insights on where and how to reach fans, making it easier to guarantee brands a return on their sponsorship investments.

“In the television world, they’ve been doing this for a long time,” Jeff White, Gravy’s chief executive, explains. “You watch a sporting event and they know the viewership, they know the exposure and it impacts ad rates so we’ve just taken that same concept to the sports world so sponsors now can understand if the fans’ behaviour changes before and after the event.

“As much transparency and measurability as we can get on behalf of the venue owners and sports teams, the better they can command higher rates and the brands will be more comfortable knowing they haven’t wasted their sponsorship dollars.”

According to White, data and measurability can provide a win for sports teams, sponsors and fans alike.

“Gone are the days when sponsors are going to blindly hope and pray that their sponsorship opportunities are leading to downstream results,” he says. “Before, we had the excuse that it was impossible to measure, but now in an aggregated way we can understand the impacts of those sponsorship opportunities.

“I don’t think we’re ever putting the toothpaste back in the tube from the ability to create transparency and measurability to the sponsorship opportunities and if they do it right, it should create three wins.

“It creates a win for the consumer, where they have a better relationship and more intimate discussions with brands. It should be a win for the venue owners because they should be able to command higher rates by providing transparency and measurability to their sponsorship efforts, and then the brands can now better target and understand the impact of the dollars that they’re spending. So if they do it right, all three parties should win.”

So will commercial teams be at a disadvantage if they don’t make data-driven decisions in their marketing efforts?

“I believe that’s true across the board,” White replies. “Those that don’t recognise this new era of data-driven consumer impact, they’re missing it. For sure they’ll be at a disadvantage.”

FAN ENGAGEMENT TOOL

With clear opportunities to understand and target fans, there has been a rise in fan engagement tools as start-up companies are continuously spotting a gap in the sports market to support these efforts.

One company which has made a huge splash in this space recently is IQONIQ, a dedicated platform which exclusively targets the sports and entertainment industry.

IQONIQ officially launched its brand at the start of 2020 and was due to go live in the autumn armed with an array of partnerships predominantly across soccer, but also in basketball, handball and motorsports. A tie-up with LaLiga is arguably its most high-profile contract.

IQONIQ’s offering has quickly resonated with the sports market as it claims that unlike other digital platforms, it provides a first-of-its-kind unified service with all content features for fans across all sports on one app such as live-streaming, ticketing, gamification, blockchain, club memberships and direct engagement with athletes.

“Looking at it from a rights-holder’s point of view, they have all those fans which they say and claim but there is no monetisation, there’s no understanding of their fans,” IQONIQ’s chief executive Kazim Atilla says.

“Who are their real fans? The ones who are coming to the stadium are typically the season ticket holders. They’re buying tickets and merchandise. They know those are the fans but that’s around the stadium or in their city but if you look at the bigger picture, they don’t know who their fans really are and since the GDPR rules came into effect heavily last year, many of them lost their databases. They were forced to clean them up so that is a big impact on the revenue basis.

“By understanding, learning and knowing their fans, they can better understand what they can give to these fans. We’ve created a platform where they can, through their profile, access many different revenue streams as we have a business which we share with them. Each rights-holder so far likes it.”

Another platform where sports properties are increasingly seeking to target fans is Twitch, which has engagement at its core and is a major USP of the international video-streaming service.

Twitch has largely been utilised by US sports leagues, with the likes of the NBA, the NHL and women's soccer's NWSL being active on the platform, as well as UFC.

The popularity of the Amazon-owned platform has gradually filtered into the European sports market, notably in soccer

As a result, Twitch saw an obvious opportunity to expand from its origins of gaming and launched a traditional sports vertical earlier this year and immediately teamed up with Real Madrid, Arsenal, Juventus and PSG, which broadcast on new Twitch channels.

The four clubs began streaming exclusive, interactive content and experiences to their global fan bases.

Twitch worked with Seven League on the launch of the vertical and the soccer club partnerships.

“Twitch has been a real eye-opener for the sports industry because it’s a platform with interactivity at its heart,” Beall says, who works part-time with the streaming service and is assisting with their sports strategy.

“It has grown massively in scale and usage, particularly in this time but even before that it was growing. Everybody thinks of Twitch as a gaming and esports destination but actually it’s a media platform for live interactive experiences.

“It’s where people go to be with their community. A creator may be streaming in a very similar sense to how a broadcaster might show a game but the experience on Twitch is very much that while they’re doing that, they’re talking to the audience. Sport has got a lot to learn from that type of engagement, so when we talk about fan engagement, that’s where I see it heading.

“There’s an expectation that they are actively doing something while they’re using their entertainment time. Sport can definitely take a leaf out of the gaming and live-streaming gaming market to engage its fans further.”

LaLiga recently became the first European sports competition to have joined the social media platform by launching an official account. Along with its deal with IQONIQ, the Spanish top-flight has been ramping up its fan engagement efforts in recent months and has frequently embraced innovation and technology in an effort to reach more fans and boost its internationalisation strategy in recent years.

Its strategic plan to reach a wider audience has always focused heavily on digital and technological innovations. The league has also developed a business intelligence and data analytics strategy, launching its Mediacoach platform for in-game analysis, audiovisual production techniques and an OTT platform, LaLigaSportsTV.

Without fans in stadiums, LaLiga has rolled out several broadcast innovations for television and digital coverage, including new graphics using AI and AR, aerial shots using drones and aerial cameras, and 360-degree replay technology.

It also recently teamed up with major electronics brand LG to “improve the fan experience.” For LaLiga, the partners it brings on board all serve a strategic purpose.

“These types of partnerships allow us to get closer to fans,” de la Vega says. “For many years we have been diversifying our offer to focus on content and experiences that last all week, across the platforms where people are active. Building that type of connection is part of building a stronger association to our brand. Rights holders cannot rely on match content and match days alone to do this.”

It’s evident that fan engagement is now a key aspect in the sports industry and is embedded in commercial strategies. There are many ways to execute plans around fan interaction but it’s fair to say not all of them work.

So who’s doing it well?

“The NBA tend to be ahead of the game,” Beall says. “As an organisation, they’re always prepared to innovate around new technology with their use of VR and AR in broadcasts and their use of innovative platforms like Twitch.”

The NBA is certainly the standout sports property which has embraced technology the most and adopted a digital strategy very early. The league has reaped the rewards by increasing its fan base and popularity globally through innovation, which included rolling out VR broadcasts through its League Pass OTT service, something which was largely unchartered territory in the sports world.

After deciding to complete the remainder of its coronavirus-disrupted 2019-20 season inside a ‘bubble’ without fans at the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, Florida, the NBA tapped into its digital bag of tricks to find an innovative way to keep fans involved.

The league teamed up with technology powerhouse Microsoft to create virtual ‘courtside’ fans inside the arenas which was received well and proved to be a relative success.

Simply put, if you don’t have a digital strategy to reach your target audience in this climate, you’re selling yourself short.

“In 2020, any competition that is not mature in its digital strategy is losing maybe half of its potential audience, a percentage that will only increase with the arrival of new generations that use digital as their go-to for both personal interactions and entertainment,” Bermejo warns.

“Fan engagement has always been key to our digital strategy. The understanding we are building from digital fan engagement does not just help our own approach, it helps define how other areas of the business operate, be it broadcasting, marketing or international development.

“Digital has to be able to stand on its own feet, rather than simply echoing what happens within matches. It is the ideal platform for building a deeper understanding of player stories and club histories. We dedicate significant resources to producing content that helps create this more intimate understanding of the league.”

With fans unlikely to return to venues in most countries for the foreseeable future, we can expect the sports world to continue to push the boundaries and deliver new meanings for the term fan engagement, as it has very much become a game outside the game and involves millions of players.

[Chester Perry]

The Football Today Podcast looks at Serie A and the battle for Broadcast Rights

https://www.footballtodaypodcast.com/po ... ing-rights

EDIT there is a great titbit at the end where it was revealed a decision on the Private Equity commercial rights partner could not be taken as 9 clubs failed to turn up for the meeting where the discussion was to take place

That Football Today Podcast on the Serie A rights revealed that when sky made their pitch for their deal of lesser value they were deeply questioning of DAZN ability to pay significantly more than Sky themselves though they could for the deal and as if to reinforce that argument and the financial surety that they themselves can provide it transpires that Sky have offered to pay 50% of the whole deal upfront and within 3 days of it being ratified, together with and advance of the whole of next seasons money in the current cycle - that must be quite tempting and something the French can only dream of - from SportsBusiness.com

Sky Italia promises €505m upfront payment for Serie A rights
Alex Taylor
February 17, 2021

Italian pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has written to Serie A club presidents promising an upfront payment of €505m ($610m) if its offer for domestic rights to the Italian top tier is accepted.

The payment would be due within three days of Sky Italia’s offer being accepted, according to the letter cited by Italian news agency Ansa.

The €505m figure (plus VAT) would be comprised of both the final €130m instalment due for the 2019-20 season, as well as a €375m advance payment for the 2021-22 season. This advance payment would represent 50 per cent of the total Sky Italia has offered per season, which stands at €750m.

The letter from Sky “reaffirms the commitment it is willing to make to ensure the League the widest financial guarantees and further contribute to the Serie A Championship should it be awarded Packages A, B and C with regards to the marketing by platform [tender] for the audiovisual rights in question”.

Sky Italia’s bid is not understood to be the highest tabled in bidding for the rights from 2021-22 to 2023-24, however. OTT subscription platform DAZN’s offer of €840m per season for rights to seven exclusive matches per matchweek and co-exclusive rights to the remaining three matches is the largest financial package currently on the table.

Sky and DAZN share rights to the league in the current 2018-19 to 2020-21 cycle worth €973m per season.

Lega Serie A last year took legal action over the non-payment by Sky of its instalment payment with the broadcaster pushing for a reduction given the knock-on effect of the delay to the season caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Civil Court of Milan has now ordered that Sky makes the payment, pending a new hearing in June.

Lega Serie A, the governing body of Italy’s top division, postponed a vote to award the rights last week while it reviewed those two offers.

A group of seven Serie A clubs featuring Atalanta, Fiorentina, Inter Milan, Juventus, Lazio, Napoli and Verona then penned a letter to Lega Serie A president Paolo Dal Pino demanding that the vote be held at the league assembly meeting today (Wednesday).

The seven clubs were bullish about bids for the league, having previously been prepared for a severe economic crunch.

Their letter said: “The widely expected economic contraction has been found to be less than the dramatic forecasts of some, as evidence of both the good work in the negotiations and the remarkable appeal of Italian top football in comparison with that of the other so-called big 5, namely England, Germany, Spain and France.”

DAZN’s offer involves a partnership with Telecom Italia which would see the telco provide a fibre service to DAZN as well as contribute between €300m and €400m to the deal, it is reported.

Should DAZN be awarded the rights, revenue in excess of its €840m offer would come from the sale of non-exclusive rights to the three non-exclusive matches. It is understood that this would save the league up to €60m per season which it currently pays the Infront agency, its outgoing media-rights adviser, in commission for these matches.

Sky’s offer would give it control of one of the ‘mixed’ marketing packages, comprising rights across all platforms but with only co-exclusivity of internet, IPTV and mobile rights. It has also offered a further €70m per season for the three non-exclusive matches per matchweek.

A total of 14 votes are needed for the league’s new domestic broadcaster to be ratified.

[Chester Perry]

We know that the owners of Inter Milan (Suning) have faced some financial distress and have been looking for someone to substantially Invest in or even buy the club from them, but this speech from Zhang Jindong the owner of Suning shows how little the company intend to invest in football - Suning also own PPTV who having failed to pay the Premier League for it's hyper inflated tv rights deal is now going through similar situations on other sports rights.

you have to say that this speech looks very much like a public realignment to Chinese government priorities following a lot of government intervention.

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 2785241090

[Chester Perry]

There has been an enquiry into the council of the loan saga to Northampton Town football club and they have been found wanting - which is no surprise really

https://www.nnjournal.co.uk/p/unlawful- ... ished-into

Calls from Northampton Town's Supporters trust for civil action to be taken against councillors and council officials responsible for the loan debacle following last months report by KPMG - there are fears that the whole incident could be washed under a bridge as the council is about to be dissolved to form a new unitary authority

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news ... al-3140517

[Chester Perry]

an interesting article from globoesporte in Brazil on the subject of multi-club ownership and how it is beginning to dominate global football gives a breakdown of the biggest ones and their structures

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... uperclubes

[Chester Perry]

An interesting webinar on the growing interest of Private Equity in European football, from yesterday, some really quite interesting stuff in there particularly on the difference between investors who are just looking for a return and those who looking to significantly grow the business with their specialist expertise - the latter tending to be involved for longer, at least a decade or more. There is also a section on the ALK turnover of Burnley where the experts (including Keith Harris who has a huge amount of football experience including advising in takeovers) question just how much growth can be made commercially, talk about the leverage being at the absolute limit of feasibility and that the use of the club's own funds to buy equity means that even in the worst case scenario there is an exit strategy that could see a return for the new owners. the key is that the club is used to being financially disciplined

- you have to register and the playback takes a while to get going as there were some farcical technical issues - nearly 5 mins (there is no fast forward) but the discussion is quite good once it starts

https://twitter.com/SportBusiness/statu ... 9173220359

[Chester Perry]

I have posted about this before - from the New York Times - as the article title suggests there really is only going to be one winner

Inter vs. Inter Is the Soccer Rivalry Trademark Lawyers Can Love
FEBRUARY 18, 2021

For more than four and a half years, David Beckham’s Major League Soccer franchise in Miami was nameless.

As plans for it were made and then regularly remade, the team came to be known as Miami Beckham United — a shorthand that seemed to account for the main points of interest: city, owner, soccer. It wasn’t until the fall of 2018 that Beckham’s team was officially baptized: as Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami, or Inter Miami for short.

The decision to trade one common soccer club name, United, for another, Inter, was hardly groundbreaking. North American soccer teams often copy the names of Europe’s legacy clubs in an effort to project credibility in the sport’s culture. In M.L.S., for example — a league that literally has the word “soccer” in its name — there are 14 Football Clubs. There is also a Club de Foot (in Montreal), a Sporting (in Kansas City), a Real (in Salt Lake City) and three Uniteds.

Beckham’s choice of name, though, immediately caught the attention of one entity with a particularly keen interest: the Italian powerhouse Internazionale Milano, or Inter Milan for short. The Italian team had laid claim to “Inter” in a filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2014.

Almost immediately, the fight for the name was on.

Within months, Major League Soccer, which owns and controls Inter Miami as a single entity, filed a notice of opposition to Inter Milan’s trademark registration, which still had not been awarded, with the government’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. The sides are now in a legal battle over who gets to use the stand-alone word “Inter” in the United States.

Late last year, a panel of three judges rejected — for a third and final time — M.L.S.’s claim that an Inter Milan trademark would be confusing to the consumer.

While there is no danger that the dispute will force Inter Miami to change its name, an Inter Milan victory would complicate the Florida club’s branding, marketing and merchandising for years to come. If it ever used the word Inter as a separate moniker, for example, it could be sued for trademark infringement.

Conversely, if M.L.S. prevails, Inter Milan’s ambitions to monetize the North American market — an increasingly appealing set of consumers for a number of top European leagues and clubs — could be frustrated as well.

In a statement, Inter Miami said that “Inter” was a “commonly used term” and that the club was “not in jeopardy of changing its trademark-approved name or marks.”

Inter Milan had hoped to ward off litigation by talking with M.L.S. about finding a solution to the dispute, according to a person familiar with the team’s side of the case. Those talks have continued and may yield a resolution; one option could be a joint commercial venture in the United States, or even a royalty fee. A spokeswoman for Inter Milan declined to comment on the case.

Beyond its particular arguments, the fight over the use of the word “Inter” in the United States presents a complication to the common practice of importing team names. If American teams are not secure in the commercial rights to their own names, it could hamper their business and growth. Soccer’s rapid globalization, which now includes annual barnstorming tours, overseas offices and even attempts by European leagues to take domestic competitions outside their borders, has raised not only the stakes, but also the potential risks for confusion.

“The big picture is this sense that the Inter trademark application in the U.S. is kind of the next step in the evolution of the global brand for soccer clubs and the effective invasion of the U.S.,” said Steven Bank, a professor of sports law at U.C.L.A. “If Inter can claim the term ‘Inter,’ and that’s all they’ve asked for, then Real Madrid could claim ‘Real’ and Manchester United, in theory, could claim ‘United.’”

That means the implications of Inter vs. Inter could be dizzying. Could one of the English Uniteds lay claim to that name on other continents, arguing that it was the first United or, as it were, the most United? Could Sporting Clube de Portugal challenge Sporting Kansas City? Could Real Madrid sue Real Salt Lake?

Would the bigger, older clubs even have a case? In American trademark law, laying claim to a name first carries more weight than the strength of your brand.

This could all have been avoided by coming up with new names, of course. And that was what M.L.S. did when it first took the field in the 1990s under more traditional American-style city-nickname conventions. But as the league evolved, nearly every team opted for a European-style label: Atlanta United, F.C. Cincinnati, Los Angeles F.C. In January, the Montreal Impact rebranded as C.F. Montréal.

“Neither team has a very distinctive mark,” David Placek, president and founder of Lexicon, a company specializing in naming and trademarking new brands, said of Inter Milan and Inter Miami. “They’re using generic terms. It’s just pure imitation. ‘It sounds kind of European, so let’s have that kind of panache.’”

Placek argued teams would be better off, legally and otherwise, by choosing an original name. “Create their own distinctive personality,” he said, “rather than try to imitate another team.”

The outcome of a ruling in Inter vs. Inter, though, could be messy.

As soon as next month, Football Club Internazionale Milano, as the Italian team is officially named, plans to rebrand itself as Inter Milano to pursue new global branding and marketing opportunities. An apparent attempt to modernize the club’s name and look, following the example of its Italian league rival Juventus, it is an expensive undertaking, and one unlikely to be embraced by traditional fans. But it helps explain the club’s insistence on strenuously defending its existing trademark claim.

The Italian team claimed the term “Inter” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2014, two years before its current Chinese owners bought control of it. The application covered a wide range of services and products, from staging soccer games to branded pajamas, dog leashes and yo-yos.

By 2019, however, the mark still had not been awarded because Inter Milan’s application initially had been deemed confusingly close to the word “Enter,” which was trademarked by a different company. That’s when Major League Soccer challenged the claim with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

M.L.S. has argued that the term “Inter” is merely descriptive, and that trademarking it creates a likelihood of confusion. After all, there are dozens of soccer clubs worldwide named Inter, many of them in the professional ranks and at least two others in the United States: a minor league team in Nashville and a youth club in Atlanta. It is likely that most of those Inters were named as a homage to Inter Milan, a three-time European champion, but that, M.L.S. argues, doesn’t necessarily give Inter Milan the rights to the name.

So far, only the likelihood of confusion has been adjudicated. M.L.S., which does not have a prior claim to “Inter” but argues that other U.S.-based entities used the word before Inter Milan attempted to trademark it, has been denied in its claim three times.

A trial, which will hinge solely on whether “Inter” is a descriptive term and therefore beyond trademarking, will not happen until 2022 at the earliest. “I think M.L.S. has a very good basis for asserting that the mark is descriptive, at least in connection with the soccer services,” said Laura Franco, a trademark lawyer.

If Inter Milan’s claim survives the opposition and it is awarded the trademark, however, it would only then be able to sue Inter Miami for specific infringements. But such claims would rest on proving a likelihood of confusion, which is murky territory. Can an M.L.S. team with pink and black colors be confused with an Italian one that plays in black and blue? Especially when they play in different competitions, and on different continents?

[Chester Perry]

Compare and contrast - ALK use a minimum if their own money to buy control of Burnley, the rest is funded with loans and the clubs own cash holding. Meanwhile at Leeds a minor shareholder, but significant expertise partner, buys a further 22% stake off the owner for circa £50m and almost half of it is put into the club to develop it. That deal valued Leeds at 20% more than ALK's has for Burnley. The approach and trajectory is markedly different

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 3480668163

why? because the two major shareholders at Leeds believe they can make the club worth over £1 billion in the next 5 to 7 years (including a huge stadium redevelopment). They probably generating 4 to 5 times the commercial revenue of Burnley this season and are likely to post revenues over £50m greater than ours and yet like us they are only just beginning their journey