Football's Magic Money Tree

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 9:23 pm

As Wolves come to terms with balancing European and domestic football a situation they hope will be a constant, the realisation that they need additional Investment has hit. It seems the owners a looking for a partner willing to take a minority stake.

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/fo ... ves-stake/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royboyclaret · Post by **Royboyclaret** » Sun Sep 15, 2019 11:08 pm

Chester Perry wrote:As Wolves come to terms with balancing European and domestic football a situation they hope will be a constant, the realisation that they need additional Investment has hit. It seems the owners a looking for a partner willing to take a minority stake.

https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/fo ... ves-stake/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, a minority 20% stake available for £70million?

Good luck with that one.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 10:05 am

@SwissRamble does his thing with the Hull 2018/19 financial results

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 7039844357" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Allam's doing what Ashley should do at Newcastle - get the loans down to bring the price of the club down - wonder what will happen to the £10m+ from the Harry Maguire sell on

There have been a number of posts on this board in the last couple of years wondering what relegation from the Premier League would look like for us - this isn't too far away from what I would expect, if we failed to make an immediate return (which strangely would likely be harder to do the longer we stay there as players are more likely to try and leave because they see themselves as Premier League and not Championship)

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 11:04 am

Matt Slater proffers the most tempting bait to subscribe to The Athletic - it is essentially what this thread is about (and yes he is a Southend Utd fan) - I am sorely tempted

Matt Slater: From live-tweeting in a Portsmouth toilet to being banned by Ken Bates, money talks in football

Look, I’ll be honest. It’s all about the money.

From the moment Blackburn Olympic sneaked past Old Etonians to become the first working-class team to win the FA Cup in 1883, it’s always been about the money.

Professional team sport is a contest between companies. What happens on the pitch is the product of a long chain of choices and the side that has got more of those right, sometimes going back decades and often through blind luck, usually wins.

I’m not interested in real business, don’t like economics and maths had given up on me long before I bailed out — but I have always wanted to know why some teams keep winning and why others are, well, like Southend United.

For example, how did two rainy cities in north-west England, both of which are at least a century off their peak in terms of global significance, produce teams as good as the current editions of Liverpool and Manchester City? Why is one owned by American sports entrepreneurs and the other by Arab royalty? How did English football get so sassy?

And if it’s so great, how come Bury — 10 miles north of Manchester, 30 miles north-east of Liverpool, and twice winners of the FA Cup — have just gone bust? What does that say about the game’s regulators? How healthy is this industry? What can we all do to make things a bit better, for every club?

These questions, and the thousand more they spark, are what I want to answer. So when The Athletic called to say, “Hello, we’re interested in those things, too. Would you like the time, space and support to have the best crack at this you will ever get?”, they had me at “Hello”.

But it’s all about the money in another sense, as well.

I have worked for magazines funded by a Wolf of Wall Street approach to advertising sales, unlikely joint ventures, a news wire that went bust trying to take on established giants, a national institution supported by a compulsory tax and an agency that constantly has to reinvent itself just to stay afloat while customers spring leaks.

They were all a lot of fun, with wonderful people, and some are still fighting a very good fight. But it is getting harder and harder to make the sums add up, which is leading to more stress, less time, fewer risks.

When we reflect on the past, we all tend to gloss over the humdrum stuff we did most of the time – FIFA president Gianni Infantino speeches, whether footballers should wear poppies or not, VAR – and remember the out-of-the-ordinary bits that reminded us why we choose to do what we do.

For me, they would be live-tweeting from the toilet during a Portsmouth creditors’ meeting, passing a Great Escape-style “are you really a journalist?” test to get into a fans’ summit at Crewe, having the temerity to ask Sir Alex Ferguson an actual question during one of his post-defeat monologues, getting banned by former Chelsea owner Ken Bates, covering every cough, spit and time-wasting charlatan during the cash crunches at Plymouth, Charlton, Sheffield Wednesday and Rangers. It’s a long list. A list I expect I will add to here.

I am here to (respectfully) hold the game’s bosses to account, investigate scandals and hopefully tell you something you didn’t know about that thing you have always wondered about.

Will that be enough to tempt you to follow me behind a paywall? Only time will tell.

But I do know the prospect of putting my best work in this glorious shop window and seeing if anyone wants to buy it is both a little bit terrifying and definitely a coin worth flipping.

Royboyclaret · Post by **Royboyclaret** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 11:11 am

Chester Perry wrote:@SwissRamble does his thing with the Hull 2018/19 financial results

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 7039844357" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Allam's doing what Ashley should do at Newcastle - get the loans down to bring the price of the club down - wonder what will happen to the £10m+ from the Harry Maguire sell on

There have been a number of posts on this board in the last couple of years wondering what relegation from the Premier League would look like for us - this isn't too far away from what I would expect, if we failed to make an immediate return (which strangely would likely be harder to do the longer we stay there as players are more likely to try and leave because they see themselves as Premier League and not Championship)

If and when relegation was to happen one big difference between us and Hull is that we would have three years parachute payments compared to just two years for Hull.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 11:15 am

Royboyclaret wrote:If and when relegation was to happen one big difference between us and Hull is that we would have three years parachute payments compared to just two years for Hull.

that and no debt to bring down - won't make it much easier with the squad or on the field - it is not really in the boards or Dyche's DNA to financially smash it at the first attempt (a la Gibson's boast)

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 11:41 am

John Nicholson with a lament for European Club Cup competitions, the need for jeopardy in the matches and highlights the diminishing returns of more money in the game - It must be Monday

https://www.football365.com/news/europe ... -flatulent" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 4:17 pm

following today's news that Prince Abdullah has won the High Court battle for Sheffield United (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... =2&t=41907" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) @KieramMaguirre posted the following tweet

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9369389056" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am assuming that £5m is for the shares he did not already own, still a bargain for a top flight club. Still a question mark in my understanding if this includes the ground - which was owned separately.

Also those valuations are done via the Markham Multivariate Model, created at the University of Liverpool where Kieran has his day job, I have previously questioned those valuations (which if done properly rely on a continuous 5 year membership of the top flight, which many of these clubs did not have) and more notably so has the marketplace where Newcastle wanted £350m but were struggling to get offers in the region of £300m

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 4:37 pm

Re the last entry - Bramall Lane and other assets now have to be bought by Prince Abdullah as part of the ruling

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-s ... e-49715558" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am guessing McCabe probably spoken to Mel Morris about who valued Pride Park

Judge values the club at £100m without those key assets - interesting - would love to know how he arrived at those numbers

EDIT The Guardian with more detail and an estimate on the value of those assets (Hillsborough sale was for considerably more than that)

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

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 6:30 pm

Spoken about the beIn/BeOutQ (yes that does mean Be Out Qatar) pirating of Football Broadcasts a few times - but this statement is the first full out accusation from the rights holders against the Saudi's - this is very serious stuff in that part of the world (especially with a Saudi now in full ownership of a Premier League Club

https://apnews.com/653465bd5ee248d2bb26591027510b48" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Royboyclaret · Post by **Royboyclaret** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 6:39 pm

Chester Perry wrote:following today's news that Prince Abdullah has won the High Court battle for Sheffield United (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... =2&t=41907" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) @KieramMaguirre posted the following tweet

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9369389056" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am assuming that £5m is for the shares he did not already own, still a bargain for a top flight club. Still a question mark in my understanding if this includes the ground - which was owned separately.

Also those valuations are done via the Markham Multivariate Model, created at the University of Liverpool where Kieran has his day job, I have previously questioned those valuations (which if done properly rely on a continuous 5 year membership of the top flight, which many of these clubs did not have) and more notably so has the marketplace where Newcastle wanted £350m but were struggling to get offers in the region of £300m

Wow, that £398 million valuation of Burnley has certainly caused some controversy and even fury among the fans of the likes of Everton, Leicester & Newcastle who are all valued less than the Clarets. Be interesting to see the actual calculation used by Maguire in arriving at the valuations.

Chester Perry.......I'm certain we've done our own Burnley valuations on this thread in the past and from recollection that valuation was over £300m........Can you pinpoint the posts on this thread where this was debated ?.........Did we use the Markham Mutivariate Model ?

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 7:10 pm

Sorry Roy not got the time at the moment - if you go to the top of the page and put club valuation in the search box likely to get close to what you are looking for as it is a thread limited search

Royboyclaret · Post by **Royboyclaret** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 7:49 pm

Chester Perry wrote:Sorry Roy not got the time at the moment - if you go to the top of the page and put club valuation in the search box likely to get close to what you are looking for as it is a thread limited search

Cheers CP, the main area of debate seems to be in April this year, particularly mid-April (posts 908, 909 & aggi's post 919). At the time we were doubtful of the figure we arrived at for Burnley, but looking at Maguire's current calculations perhaps we weren't too far out after all. Revenue, of course, is the key player and our figure of £139m to Jun'18 will be some £15m more than the figure to Jun'19. On that basis our valuation at Jun'19 could be circa £350million.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 16, 2019 11:57 pm

By the way Roy we have seen those valuations earlier in the year - Annual listing from the University of Liverpool - designed to come out just before the selected 32 in the KPMG football club valuation

I have little confidence in the methodology as I have said before and would be stunned if we were valued at 2 times turnover by a legitimate buyer

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Sep 17, 2019 12:02 am

Well this doesn't present a good picture for UEFA and it's investigations team does it - from the Times

Uefa financial fair play official Petros Mavroidis quits over treatment of Paris Saint Germain - by Martyn Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter
September 16 2019, 12:00pm,

One of Uefa’s financial fair play investigators has resigned over the organisation’s handling of its case against Paris Saint Germain.

Petros Mavroidis, a Greek law professor, is understood to be unhappy that Uefa did not mount a defence in the Court of Arbitration for Sport after PSG’s lawyers claimed that the Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body’s (CFCB) adjudicatory panel had missed a ten-day deadline to review the case.
Mavroidis is also believed to have questioned the handling of the FFP case against AC Milan, despite the Italian side being excluded from European competition this season.

Uefa has since changed the wording of its FFP rules to ensure that other clubs do not use the same loophole in the future. Galatasaray, the Turkish club, had already won a CAS ruling on the ten-day deadline – Uefa did not defend that case on the advice of its lawyers and the CFCB’s investigatory chamber, nor the following case brought by PSG in March this year.

Uefa’s initial investigation was to examine whether PSG had flouted rules aimed at preventing clubs from spending more than they generate through revenues. The French club have previously been sanctioned by Uefa for breaching FFP rules, in 2014 when Manchester City were given the same penalty.

City are also involved in a new FFP case which has yet to be ruled on – proceedings were opened after leaked emails suggested the club had provided misleading financial information. City have gone to CAS to challenge the legitimacy of Uefa’s investigation.

Mavroidis, who is also a professor at Columbia Law School in New York, was due to step down as an investigator at the end of the season anyway as his term was up. It is believed he was unhappy with the approaches to both the Galatasaray and the PSG hearings.

Mavroidis refused to comment to The Times, saying: “I would not like to speak in public about my involvement with a Uefa committee.”

In June 2018, the CFCB’s investigatory panel had recommended that Uefa close an investigation into PSG’s finances in the three years running up to the summer of 2017, before the club signed Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. That recommendation was not unanimous however, with some of the investigators including Mavroidis believing the panel should have recommended opening proceedings.

In September, the CFCB adjudicatory panel reviewed the PSG decision and said it should go back for further investigation – the court ruled however that was outside a ten-day deadline for a review stated in the rules.

Since the outcome of the CAS hearing, Uefa has clarified its rules so that the adjudicatory panel now has 10 days to call in a case and 20 days to review it.

Uefa has since said that it has no existing investigations open against PSG. All clubs in European competition have to show they are breaking even over a rolling three-year period.

In its ruling on PSG in March, CAS said: “The review conducted by the adjudicatory chamber should have taken place within ten days and that since the challenged decision was issued beyond the ten-day time limit, the challenged decision was untimely and must be annulled.”

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Sep 17, 2019 10:30 am

This could make things in Italy interesting - the worlds 2nd richest man apparently wants to buy AC Milan

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

With a resurgent Inter, a strong Roma and Napoli already challenging Juventus on and off the field (including building their own stadiums the level of competition could increase to that which Gianni Agnelli keeps saying he wants (how will he cope with not winning Serie A though.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Sep 17, 2019 2:14 pm

An update on the man behind Football Leaks - Rui Pinto - 6 months in prison, essentially kept in solitary from the beginning, still not been charged or asked to co-operate (he would) - Der Spiegel talks to his lawyer.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/ze ... 87024.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

His situation clearly shows the historical remnants of law from when Portugal was a Dictatorship.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 8:34 am

@AndyhHolt with more insight on the economic politics and crass management at the EFL

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 4330927112" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 8:41 am

Looks like the long drawn out saga of new "Investors" in Sunderland is finally happening

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9468748800" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Investors always make me shudder a little when it comes to ownership of football clubs, unless they are investors in the community

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 8:50 am

ITV/Granada from the north podcast asks, Why are so many football clubs failing? - featuring @AndyhHolt, @KieranMaguirre and Christine Seddon chair of Blackpool supporters trust

YouTube -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVTfWvU ... pp=desktop" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Apple Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f ... ut-1717174" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:06 am

Post regularly this year about Gambling and sponsorship in the game and pointed out that those clubs which don't have betting sponsorship on their shirt have betting partners - but Leicester have taken this to a whole new level

https://twitter.com/Lu_Class_/status/11 ... 3415084037" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

as Simon Chadwick says - The train upon which a gambling sponsorship ban will travel has already set out from the station

https://www.ft.com/content/e46afb14-c36 ... 6ca66511c9" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It is just a question of How long before it gets here?

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:09 am

Simon Chadwick with yet another example of how China seeks to exploit European Football for commercial opportunity

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 3479160834" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:17 am

Simon Chadwick also has this to say re the Champions League, Gianni Infantino being a one trick pony and the law of diminishing returns

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 9596259328" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:29 am

As if to emphasize Simon Chadwick's point re Champions League - KPMG's Football Benchmark released this piece, though it was essentially designed to look at the participants and the great potential the competition offers to clubs in raising their profile, revenues and popularity

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

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:42 am

I first postulated the commercial opportunity of VAR (ad breaks and sponsorship) in post #1013 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1012" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) - It seems that while the Premier League have demurred on this for the time being (see post #1346 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1345" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) MLS have been much more vigorous in their approach

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

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:55 am

Javier Tebas - La Liga President - on the transforming landscape of rights distribution and protecting against predicted falls in global rights distribution fees

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

In the vacuum created by the Premier League's inability to suitably replace Richard Scudamore - Tebas has become the global media's go to on all things concerned with football rights

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:04 am

A highly comprehensive and detailed report on the Bein Sport - BeoutQ piracy - this is a really significant issue for distribution rights, and the fact that this is essentially State sponsored for reasons that have nothing to do with the rights content.

https://media.sportbusiness.com/2019/09 ... f-the-air/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:10 am

Interesting article in the Independent - How to value the modern footballer

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 98831.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:25 am

and as if by magic (following on from the contributor to the previous post) CIES Football Observatory have released their own analysis of the summer transfer window in the Big 5 Leagues as their monthly report for September

https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/mr/mr47/en/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:49 am

More insight from the Independent - @MiguelDelaney on the one man in football who intimidates Real Madrid supremo Florentino Perez

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 08761.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

@Marcotti has a different take on tonight's match-up

https://global.espn.com/football/blog-m ... are-a-mess" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:15 pm

In a move that will probably make Andrea Agnelli smile - the French ligue will suspend the running of it's 2nd cup competition next season because of the failure to find TV bids at a level to make it worthwhile

https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/anot ... onsidered/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 10:54 am

Potential buyers are sniffing around Bradford City, but are put off by the £10m plus asking price - the problems that come when you don't own your stadium or training ground when you are in the lower leagues, all the costs and no assets to help you grow

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

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 1:54 pm

It has been quite a while since the 2nd instalment of Josimar's revelations of the long and continuing investigation into the Confederation of African Football - here Philippe Auclair and Pål Ødegård continue with part 3 of their expose

http://josimarfootball.com/winter-is-coming/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Part 1 - http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1519" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Part 2 - http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1561" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:35 pm

the EFL have appointed Rick Parry as Chairman

https://www.efl.com/news/2019/september ... designate/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It will be interesting to see what a former Chief Exec of the Premier League (when EFL turned down their offer to negotiate on their behalf and guaranteed 20% of PL earnings in distribution) and Liverpool can do in the poor leagues

some are not optimistic about what it will bring

https://twitter.com/AgainstLeague3/stat ... 4809287682" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EDIT has to be ratified by the member clubs next week

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

Royboyclaret · Post by **Royboyclaret** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 8:30 pm

Chester Perry wrote:the EFL have appointed Rick Parry as Chairman

https://www.efl.com/news/2019/september ... designate/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It will be interesting to see what a former Chief Exec of the Premier League (when EFL turned down their offer to negotiate on their behalf and guaranteed 20% of PL earnings in distribution) and Liverpool can do in the poor leagues

some are not optimistic about what it will bring

https://twitter.com/AgainstLeague3/stat ... 4809287682" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EDIT has to be ratified by the member clubs next week

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

Interesting choice. Perhaps best though to reserve judgement for a few months at least.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 8:37 pm

It is - whilst he is connected, it has been quite a while since he was involved in the more commercial aspects - though we all know they need a real thorough overhaul as to their governance and rules as the main priority

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 3:34 pm

In a move that should shock absolutely no-one Tottenham have refinanced the £637m of debt that was due to be paid in full in 2022

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2 ... tion-debt/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 9:09 pm

We have seen elements of this reported in the last month or so - Barcelona make official statement re last seasons financial results and projections for the coming season

https://www.fcbarcelona.com/en/club/new ... -worldwide" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No doubt the Telegraph will be keeping a beady eye on all this

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 9:24 pm

Posted about Wolves owners looking for a minor investor to aid the club's development (for a not very minor price) in post #2135 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=2134" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) Simon Chadwick provides some illumination on why that might be

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 5532428288" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

doesn't bode well when you make major investment in a company whose debts mean it has to sell 300m holidays a year to break even

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 10:03 pm

The Football Leaks revival continues - this time the London based shell company that saw Messi and his dad get done for Tax Evasion in Spain

https://www.spiegel.de/international/ze ... 87613.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 10:14 pm

Meanwhile the man who started it all - Rui Pinto has finally been charged this week, on 147 counts - 6 months in prison before that happened - @TariqPanja in the New York Times

Hacker Who Revealed Soccer Secrets Is Charged With 147 Crimes
Rui Pinto ran a website called Football Leaks and won praise as a whistle-blower. Portugal’s authorities consider him a criminal.
By Tariq Panja - Sept. 20, 2019, 1:20 p.m. ET

A computer hacker whose efforts revealed often troubling practices that shape the multi-billion-dollar global soccer industry was charged with 147 crimes this week by Portugal’s national prosecutor.

For four years between 2015 and his arrest in Hungary in January, the hacker, Rui Pinto, a 30-year-old from Portugal, sowed anxiety in the soccer world by publishing hundreds of internal documents onto an internet platform he set up called Football Leaks. Pinto later collaborated with a European media consortium led by the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel to disseminate even more documents.

The information Football Leaks made public — including player contracts, internal team financial documents and confidential emails — pulled back the curtain on the murky world of soccer finance, led to criminal tax prosecutions of several top players and even helped prompt officials in the United States to reopen a sexual assault investigation involving the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Pinto’s supporters and his legal team have sought to portray him as a whistle-blower, and he has expressed a willingness to cooperate with investigations in a number of countries. Yet even as his actions led to criminal referrals and investigations by soccer officials into some of the game’s most-powerful clubs and agents, the Portuguese authorities continued to pursue him as a criminal. In March, Portuguese prosecutors won a ruling in Hungary that led to Pinto’s extradition.

Most of the crimes Pinto is accused of in a 195-page indictment announced on Thursday are related to the unauthorized accessing of confidential data, but the most significant charge concerns what the authorities have labeled an attempt to extort a powerful sports agency. In that incident, the Portuguese prosecutors said Pinto sought as much as 1 million euros in return for deleting information belonging to the company, Doyen Sports.

Pinto’s legal team released a statement on Friday in which they accused the Portuguese prosecutors of waging a campaign to “silence and destroy” their client and block his efforts to cooperate with investigators elsewhere.
“The team set up by the Public Prosecution to investigate criminality in the football world seems to be more dedicated to pursuing those who denounce it than investigating those who practice the crimes,” said the statement from Pinto’s lawyers, William Bourdon and Francisco Teixeira Da Mota.

Pinto has been in custody since March after Portugal successfully fought to have him extradited from Hungary, where he had been living for several years.

According to the indictment on Thursday, the case against Pinto is limited to his targeting of Portuguese entities, including the top-division soccer team Sporting Clube de Portugal, the national soccer federation, a well-known law firm and even the country’s attorney general’s office.

The indictment, reviewed by The New York Times, said Pinto accessed the email accounts of some of Sporting’s most senior officials, including the club’s president and coach, before extracting dozens of player agreements that he then published.

The indictment also detailed the hack of Doyen and a subsequent incident in which Pinto is accused of assuming the identity Artem Lobuzov as part of an extortion attempt and contacting the firm’s chief executive, Nelio Lucas, in October 2015 to offer him the chance to prevent the release of the firm’s documents in return for a “generous donation" of between 500,000 and 1 million euros.

Anibal Pinto, a lawyer hired by Rui Pinto to negotiate with Doyen officials, also has been charged in the case. The negotiations lasted about a month before breaking down; a cache of Doyen’s documents started emerging on Football Leaks in early November 2015.

Pinto’s actions in releasing information through Football Leaks have been championed by European anticorruption and transparency groups, and his case has been taken up by Bourdon, a French lawyer known for representing other high-profile individuals who leaked sensitive information into the public domain, including the former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

News of the charges against Pinto first leaked in the Portuguese news media early Thursday, hours before the prosecutor’s office released its statement, and a day before indictment was sent to Pinto’s lawyers.

“It really shows the dysfunction and media frenzy that whoever is behind the accusation against Pinto is trying to achieve,” said Ana Gomes, a former Portuguese representative to the European Parliament, and one of Pinto’s backers.

Gomes said she had visited Pinto twice during his imprisonment. She acknowledged that he might have committed crimes, but she said that any illegal behavior attributable to him should be outweighed by the crimes he had helped to expose.

Even with Pinto in prison, the repercussions of his efforts continue to roil the soccer industry. After Football Leaks disclosed Doyen’s contracts, some clubs, like F.C. Twente of the Netherlands, were punished for breaching local licensing regulations related to third-party influence over players. And investigators from UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, have recommended banning the English champion Manchester City from future editions of the Champions League after studying details, revealed by Football Leaks, of an apparent effort by City to circumvent financial rules.

The documents appeared to show that Manchester City had disguised sponsorship payments to evade those rules, and also detailed a system in which the club ran an off-the-books player recruitment fund.

While Pinto has become a hero of sorts for those demanding greater transparency in soccer, his past conduct has raised questions about his motivations. He reached an out-of-court settlement with the Caledonian Bank in 2014, for example, after being accused of hacking into its systems and transferring thousands of dollars from one of its client accounts.

Pinto has denied stealing any of the money, but citing a nondisclosure agreement, he has declined to provide additional details.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 10:25 pm

A consequence of Rick Parry's prospective new job (that I hadn't quite realised) is that UEFA's FFP Panel has lost it's 2nd member in a week and 3rd in the last few months

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 1007704064" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 5:07 pm

So espionage enters the Premier League - Liverpool say to Leeds - I see you and raise you - though naturally will not admit to any wrongdoing - From the Times

Liverpool paid Manchester City £1m ‘spy’ settlement
Martyn Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter| Matt Dickinson, Chief Sports Writer - September 21 2019, 12:01am,

Liverpool paid a £1 million settlement to Manchester City after their Premier League rivals made a complaint that their scouting system had been hacked into.
The confidential settlement took place in September 2013 after it was report

ed that City had employed computer-espionage experts to see if the system had been spied on.

The scandal would appear to be the biggest incident of alleged misbehaviour by one top-flight club to another in the Premier League’s history.

The settlement came a year after three former City scouts moved to Liverpool. Two of them, as well as Michael Edwards who is now Liverpool’s sporting director, were alleged by City to have been involved in accessing their database on the Scout7 system on hundreds of occasions.

The two scouts alleged to have been involved in accessing City’s Scout7 system were Dave Fallows, now Liverpool’s head of recruitment, and Julian Ward, who was Liverpool’s European scouting manager for Spain and Portugal and is now the loan pathways and football partnerships manager.

The £1 million settlement was made without Liverpool or the accused individuals accepting any liability or wrongdoing. The allegations and the information on which they were based were never tested in court.

City declined to comment when contacted by The Times. Liverpool said it was unable to respond in the time available and would not comment on confidential club matters.

It is understood to have followed a legal complaint by City to Liverpool and the three employees in July 2013, which alleged that the system had been unlawfully accessed using the login and password of a City scout over an eight-month period from June 2012 to February 2013. If proven, such behaviour would look to have contravened the Premier League’s rules, which stated both in 2012 and now: “Each club shall behave towards each other club and the League with the utmost good faith.”

A source close to the Premier League said they were unaware of the settlement at the time. After suspicions were raised, City appointed a forensic computer expert able to carry out an investigation, which tracked suspicious logins and IP addresses.

It was reported in several media outlets in June 2013 that City believed that their worldwide scouting database may have been hacked by an employee of an unnamed rival Premier League club and that computer espionage experts had been brought in by the club to examine any possible leads.

Fernandinho, the Brazil midfielder, from Shakhtar Donetsk and Jesús Navas, the Spain winger, from Seville after discovering the possible breach of security in the system.

It is believed that concerns were first raised after City discovered Liverpool had expressed interest in a youth player from Spanish club Zaragoza called Paolo Fernandes, whom they were also tracking. Fernandes, a 21-year-old midfielder, signed for City in 2017 and is on loan at Perugia.

The Times understands that City’s investigations suggested that access to the Scout7 system may have been gained using the login and password of one of their own scouts.

The revelation of the scandal comes with Liverpool and City vying to be the top team in England. The clubs are once more fighting it out to be crowned champions of the Premier League after last season’s neck-and-neck title race, which Pep Guardiola’s team won by a single point, while Jürgen Klopp’s side went on to win the Champions League.

It will be another controversy in the recent history of the two clubs: City’s team bus was pelted with objects by Liverpool fans, leading to a smashed window, as it arrived at Anfield for a Champions League match between the teams in April 2018.

After the reports in June 2013 of the alleged access to City’s scouting system, the Birmingham-based company Scout7 insisted that the integrity of its system remained intact.

A statement from Scout7 in 2013 read: “We understand that the incident is still being investigated but involves use of valid passwords obtained from the club concerned to gain illegal access to a private database. The security or technical integrity of Scout7 systems has not been undermined by this incident.

“Scout7 point out that the security and confidentiality of clients’ databases has always been and remains of the utmost importance and protecting clubs’ private data continues to be an integral feature of our systems.”

About 2,000 employees of different clubs have access to the system, which is regarded as a world leader of its type, with a complex system of passwords for the users.

Ian Ayre was Liverpool’s managing director at the time and is understood to have been involved in handling the complaint by City. There is no suggestion he had any knowledge of any attempts to access City’s scouting database. He stepped down in 2017.

It was reported in March this year that Liverpool were among the clubs that had pushed the Premier League to investigate City for alleged breaches of financial fair play rules after allegations made by the German magazine Der Spiegel. Liverpool’s American owners have previously stated one of the reasons they invested in the club was because of the Premier League’s strong financial regulations.

Der Spiegel cited documents from the Football Leaks cache and alleged City had provided misleading financial information. City have denied any wrongdoing and are challenging an FFP case brought by Uefa in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

What is Scout7 system at centre of the row?
Scout7 was established in 2001 as a technology company to help to make the scouting system more professional.

Lee Jamison, its founder, had worked for an internet insurance company before spotting a gap in the market for football analysis.

Scout7, which became part of OptaPro in 2017, offers performance data on more than 500,000 players across the world and allows professional clubs to watch millions of minutes of video of their performances.

At the time of the takeover by Perform, which owns Opta, it had more than 230 clients.

THE MEN INVOLVED
Paolo Fernandes
Age 21 Club Perugia (on loan from Man City)
Position Midfielder
Born in Zaragoza
Fernandes began his career with his hometown club before joining the Manchester City academy in 2017. He played 25 times on loan at Breda in Holland in 2017-18 and joined Serie B side Perugia in July.

Michael Edwards
Club Liverpool
Position Sporting director
Started out as a player for Peterborough United. Studied at the University of Sheffield after being released. Worked for six years as an analyst at Portsmouth from 2003 to 2009 before joining Tottenham Hotspur. In 2011, Liverpool’s director of football Damien Comolli helped to bring him to Anfield, where he worked as head of performance and analysis at the time of the settlement, before his current role. Has worked on some of club’s biggest transfers including Virgil van Dijk, Naby Keïta and Fabinho.

Julian Ward
Club Liverpool
Position Loan pathways and football partnerships manager
Played for Morecambe while studying for a science and football degree at Liverpool John Moores University and has worked as an analyst for the English and Portuguese Football Associations. Worked for two years at Manchester City as South American scouting strategist before moving to Anfield in 2012. He started as European scouting manager for Spain and Portugal before taking up his current role in 2015.

Dave Fallows
Club Liverpool
Position Head of recruitment
Moved to Anfield in 2012 from Manchester City, where he was first-team scouting and recruitment co-ordinator. Jürgen Klopp hailed Fallows and the scouting department for their part in the signing of Mohamed Salah from Roma in 2017.

Rob Newman
Club Manchester City
Position International scouting and recruitment manager
Made over 800 appearances in a career lasting more than 20 years, including spells with Bristol City and Norwich City. Managed Southend United and Cambridge United before joining Manchester City.

SPORT’S OTHER SPYING ROWS
Leeds United
The Yorkshire club apologised last season after their head coach Marcelo Bielsa admitted he had sent a spy to watch Frank Lampard’s Derby County in training before a Championship game. “I observed all the rivals we played against and watched their training sessions,” Bielsa said. Leeds were fined £200,000 by the EFL after 11 clubs called for an investigation.

Crystal Palace
Cardiff complained that their line-up had been leaked to Crystal Palace before the two clubs met in 2014. Cardiff lost the match 3-0 and the London club were fined by the Premier League.

American Football
Josh McDaniels and his Denver Broncos were fined a combined $100,000 for taping the 49ers’ practice before a London game in 2010.

Formula One
McLaren were fined £50 million after confidential details about the Ferrari car were passed to them by a former Ferrari employee. They were excluded from the 2007 constructors’ championship.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 9:49 pm

That Times article has been followed by this, which unfortunately I cannot read as my limit has been reached for the week - so if anyone would care to transcribe - I would be grateful

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stag ... -mchtsbnkf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 9:51 pm

The whole story was originally broken in the Mirror back in 2013

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... ng-1955505" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 9:58 pm

Of course neither City or Liverpool wanted the story broken to the public - but as Pep acknowledges - it is impossible to keep secrets anymore

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

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 11:39 pm

for anyone still not quite sure what factoring is - TIFO Football (in partnership with the Athletic again) have done this piece on Bournemouth's recent agreements

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

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 11:56 pm

John Nicholson eulogises about the Championship being what the Premier League should be

https://www.football365.com/news/all-ha ... ier-league" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 9:48 am

Quite a strange set of affairs at West Brom in the build-up to the sale in 2016 and more so subsequently

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

the records at companies house

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9783618562" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 6:59 pm

Juventus have released a financial report for last season - not to much detail - but the signing of Ronaldo saw revenues increase by over euro 100m and losses more than double

https://sports.yahoo.com/juventus-reven ... 14342.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the report also highlighted the value of the revised shirt deal

https://sports.yahoo.com/juventus-reven ... 14342.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- it is worth remembering this is a minimum value and adidas paid them an extra euro 15m las season as a result of booming sales (see post #2085 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=2084" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)