Football's Magic Money Tree

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Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Oct 18, 2020 12:19 pm

Steve Parish in today's Times talks about that Premier League meeting on Wednesday and Project Big Picture

Steve Parish: Why we had to say no to Project Big Picture

Sunday October 18 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

On Wednesday the Premier League agreed to a far-reaching review, hot on the heels of Project Big Picture, which laid bare all the proposed changes, including voting rights and financial redistribution.

Of course we should always consider ways to improve the game and this plan has some ideas of merit. But we already have an amazing product and in my view we tinker with it at our peril. Many of Project Big Picture’s proposals strike at the heart of football’s core value — namely that outcomes are decided on merit and success. The founders of the Premier League understood, and devised a constitution that prevented radical, ill-considered change.

While I represent Crystal Palace around the table I’m acutely aware we are also a proxy for the 72 EFL clubs and we have a duty of care to the game in everything we do.

The combination of jeopardy and glory are essential to what we believe to be sport. It is not — and nor should it be — comfortable for anyone competing, least of all in the Premier League where every team faces their own perilous 90-minute drama every week. It’s our culture that makes the league what it is: the full crowds, the passion, the gut-wrenching, stomach-churning amount that it matters. What keeps us going is the dream of building our clubs through the right investment, acumen and sprinkling of luck to rise to a new level.

It has been done. Chelsea and Manchester City have driven themselves to new heights. Financial investment was important, but they spent wisely, appointed great managers, recruited well and built fantastic youth systems. If Project Big Picture had been introduced 20 years ago, neither’s rise would have been possible and neither would have been one of the anointed in the way suggested now.

As a supporter of a smaller club I accept that continued success and glory should bring rewards and advantage. The overall commercial revenue and Champions League income of some dwarf clubs like mine. Perhaps some believe we are deluded to think we can build and one day achieve the same heights. These people seem to think our fate was decided long ago, and we should know our place. But as Leicester City showed, anything is possible — presently.

This for me is the greatest concern. In 1926 when Huddersfield Town won their third straight English title I’m pretty sure they didn’t get together with the other “big” clubs — such as Bolton Wanderers, Bury and Sunderland — and decide they should pull up the drawbridge and be put in charge in perpetuity. Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton Wanderers were once dominant teams; Portsmouth once won back-to-back titles. What luck for them that this is happening now and not 30, 50, 70 years ago!

Of course we must always question the status quo, but where did some of these ideas come from? One person involved said the Big Picture plans weren’t supposed to come out yet — as if there was a better day to hear that a select few teams would henceforth decide who owned Crystal Palace, Aston Villa or West Ham United.

So yes, let’s have a review with everything on the table — parachute payments, salary caps, the lot — but we must start with some guiding principles. Football is a meritocracy, it cannot be a game forever rigged to benefit some teams based on an arbitrary period of success. The contrary view seems to be that media income now powers English football and the “big” teams are those who drive it. Yet if simply being a “big club” was enough, then why don’t the leagues that Barcelona, Juventus or Bayern Munich occupy enjoy the same media income as our giants do? We need the big teams but the big teams also need opposition who can give them a competitive game.

All the research I’ve seen says the broadcasters, particularly those overseas, pay the amount they do for the quality and quantity of content the Premier League provides. It’s the unscripted drama of each game, the fact Aston Villa can beat Liverpool or Palace can beat Manchester United on any given day that drives the interest from which the money follows.

I am a huge believer in the football pyramid. The Premier League is connected to other leagues in myriad ways not least because the 72 clubs outside it feel part of the same ecosystem, that they could get promoted. It is because of this connection that the season-ticket holders of the 72 form a huge number of the subscribers to Sky and BT. Any of those clubs could take Palace’s place if we don’t perform and with the present system of equitable distributions and parachute payments they would be able to give Manchester United a hell of a game. That is what people around the world pay to see. The league’s overseas television deal is worth almost as much as those of Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga, League 1 put together.

The part that mystifies me the most is how the proposals would improve things for the big teams. Surely their advantage lies in having the same Champions League revenue as European competitors but income from their domestic league that is far bigger. The assumption in their plan is that a top flight reduced to 18 teams will not only generate the same income but increase it over time, even though there would be 12 fewer games played by the big teams — the very games they claim drive all the value.

The report says they need fewer league games to play more in Europe. It’s coming, apparently, this European Super League and they will be compelled to play. I can certainly see the benefit to European teams — if they can drag the English big teams’ advantage down by devaluing the Premier League they can create a much more level financial playing field — but I can’t see how it helps ours at all.

Why is the calendar always the problem? As far as I’m concerned Manchester United can play all year round if they want, in world club tournaments, super leagues, whatever they feel like as long as they have enough players to ensure rest and have to qualify on domestic merit.

All of the other European leagues are envious of the Premier League. They want their distribution systems to be more equitable, for their competitions to be more competitive, not less. I never underestimate the propensity of people to ruin a good thing but I hope we can come out of this with something better for everyone.

We all dream, on a bad day, of changes that suit us, which reduce our jeopardy and risk. When things are going badly for Palace, would I love fewer relegation places? On some days, hell yes. Do I think it’s the right thing? Absolutely not. I think that every Football League club from Bournemouth to Barrow should have the chance of replacing us in the best and biggest league in the world.
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Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Oct 19, 2020 9:54 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Fri Oct 09, 2020 11:53 am
Hull City release their 2019/20 accounts - the Allam family may well be guilty of a number of sins at the club, but they don't wait forever to release their accounts - by way of contrast Derby and Sheffield Wednesday have still to release their 2018/19 accounts - which is scandalous. @KieranMaguire has a peek

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9294896128

you can find the full accounts here https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history

the chaps at Vysyble with their own distinct take on the results - https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1314514867735326726
As we await Manchester United's 2019/20 Financial results on Wednesday - hopefully they will reveal much of what the Premier League has so far failed to do to the general public about the financial impact of the Pandemic, both last season and going forward - @SwissRamble limbers up by looking at the 2019/20 financial results of Hull City, a season that saw them fall to League 1 and the Allam family extract some more of the money they had previously loaned the club via player sales.

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 1026746368

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:28 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Oct 19, 2020 9:54 am
As we await Manchester United's 2019/20 Financial results on Wednesday - hopefully they will reveal much of what the Premier League has so far failed to do to the general public about the financial impact of the Pandemic, both last season and going forward - @SwissRamble limbers up by looking at the 2019/20 financial results of Hull City, a season that saw them fall to League 1 and the Allam family extract some more of the money they had previously loaned the club via player sales.

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 1026746368
Hull City's fall from grace over the last four or five seasons has been dramatic, and now that saleable assets after Bowen and Grosicki have dried up financial results are likely to decline even further. That said, there are signs of a decent start in League One this season and to their credit they have addressed costs, particularly the Wage bill, in a realistic manner.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:49 am

The guys at SportsProMedia are at it again with another in depth and lengthy series, this time looking at the world in 2022 - Part one has been out for a while now - I had been wondering why there was such a gap between instalments, but there is an awful lot to take in and each installment takes quite a bit of time to read.

Part 1 The world in 2022 : Future-proofing your business
https://www.sportspromedia.com/from-the ... -drl-zwift

Part 2 The world in 2022 : Why you need a newly fluid business model
https://www.sportspromedia.com/from-the ... p-strategy

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Oct 19, 2020 11:52 am

I have been critical of @DrRob_Wilson at times but even he has started showing a clearer understanding of what is wrong with football at a fundamental level

https://twitter.com/DrRob_Wilson/status ... 3501683717

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:02 pm

More on the theme of fundamentals and clearer understanding with this piece in the Financial Times that acknowledges the fact that small English clubs always find a way of surviving - and there is this little gem too - “The dirty secret of the football labour market is that almost every player is paid above his reservation wage — defined as the minimum amount he would accept to do it.”

Small English football clubs will rise from the ashes
SIMON KUPER OCTOBER 16, 2020

Most English professional football clubs were founded before 1890. Many are relics of the industrial revolution, left behind in shrinking northern towns after the economic tide receded. Clubs have survived world wars, recessions, corrupt chairmen and incompetent managers. Their latest challenge is coronavirus. Big clubs will cope: fuelled by television broadcast revenues, they can keep their players in Ferraris. But smaller clubs rely chiefly on football’s oldest form of financing — ticket sales — and stadiums stand empty during the pandemic.

This is unprecedented. Even during world wars, British clubs welcomed some paying crowds. Now many smaller clubs are preparing to “cease playing . . . and put their business into administration”, as several prominent figures, including two former Football Association chairmen, wrote to the government last month. A plan by Liverpool and Manchester United to bail out small clubs in return for more power for rich ones was binned this week, because other big clubs opposed it.

Small-town English football needs a short-term rescue. Long-term, though, clubs will survive the pandemic, as they have all past crises. True, many will probably go into administration. Some might even be liquidated. But football clubs have folded before, only to revive as if by magic. That’s because a club is just a name. If the business enfolding it goes bust, fans can simply create a new company, give it the club’s name, and restart in lower-league football with a new team playing in the same colours, usually in its old stadium. This process is known as phoenixing: the new club rises like a phoenix from the old one’s ashes.

Tiny clubs such as Aldershot, Maidstone United and Newport County went from liquidation to phoenixing, and now stumble on somewhere in English football’s pyramid. Accrington Stanley’s rebirth was the most drawn-out: it resigned from the Football League in 1962 with debts of £63,000, got liquidated in 1966, was recreated by fans in 1968, and re-entered the league in 2006 — its brand only enhanced by the drama — with a new sign above the turnstiles: “The Club that Wouldn’t Die.” Stanley now play in League One, English football’s third tier. Similarly, Bury, which folded last year, is already back in the tenth tier. Eventually, it will probably return to the Football League.

Macclesfield Town, the first English club to close during the pandemic, has just been bought by a local businessman, who plans a phoenixing. No English professional club has vanished forever since Wigan Borough in 1931. Even then, its successor Wigan Athletic was founded a year later. Note that Wigan, Macclesfield, Bury and Accrington Stanley are among the industrial-era clubs struggling for modern catchment areas in the post-industrial region around Manchester.

Football clubs are so sustainable that they survive even liquidation. Still, they will need a bridge over this crisis. Happily, society can afford it. Clubs are rare sources of community and pride for hard-pressed towns, but they are also tiny businesses that can be bailed out cheaply. The English Football League’s 72 clubs lost a total of £50m last season because of coronavirus and stand to lose another £200m this season, says the EFL’s chairman Rick Parry. Compare those sums with the aviation industry: Virgin Atlantic alone needed a £1.2bn rescue package just to keep going until 2022.

The government should help small clubs. Others will, too. Premier League clubs are offering grants and interest-free loans worth £50m, on top of £27m paid earlier this year. Banks traditionally avoid foreclosing on clubs. During the pandemic, the EFL needs to abandon its practice of expelling the bankrupt. Once stadiums reopen, clubs can slowly repay loans. After all, they have proved their local viability since Victorian times. The league should also compel them to buy insurance against financial misfortune.

Meanwhile, clubs will cut players’ salaries. In a revolutionary move, those in Leagues One and Two have agreed salary caps. The second-tier Championship is considering following suit. Small clubs should switch to employing mostly part-time and amateur players. Stefan Szymanski, an economist at the University of Michigan, and my co-author on Soccernomics, says: “The dirty secret of the football labour market is that almost every player is paid above his reservation wage — defined as the minimum amount he would accept to do it.” Indeed, even in the tenth tier, Bury received 750 applications for the job of manager.

Prof Szymanski says: “Bury could exist in the Premier League or as a pub team. That’s the ultimate scalability of football.” An amateur or part-time team can still be a pillar of a town. Even the biggest German clubs were semi-professional until 1963.

Small football clubs don’t need full-time playing staffs. They don’t need to compete with Liverpool or Manchester United. Bury haven’t won a national prize since the FA Cup of 1903. Fans of small clubs don’t expect trophies. They just need them to survive. And — allowing for temporary collapses — they will.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:13 pm

Some interesting data in this thread by @KieranMaguire relating to the current disparities in income in the English professional football ladder (it is a pyramid below that

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 8813322240

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:23 pm

That previous post makes this from the Telegraph on Saturday more relevant

The Premier League's competitive balance built its reputation - could it cope without it?
TIM WIGMORE OCTOBER 17, 2020

Any Given Sunday is the motto of the richest league in the world – which, despite the Premier League’s stunning advances, remains the NFL.

In 1962, NFL owners met to discuss how to allocate broadcasting revenue. Because of their bigger local market, the New York Giants received five times more than some franchises. Yet the Giants agreed that “the NFL was only as strong as its weakest link,” and that all teams should receive the same. The agreement underpinned the NFL’s ascent, ensuring a fundamental level of uncertainty in every game.

European football is structured very differently to US sports. And yet, among the continent’s big five sports, the distribution of cash in the Premier League has come closest to emulating the principles of US leagues.

The technical detail at the heart of this is the ratio between how much the top and bottom teams earn from the league. In the Premier League, despite the biggest successfully pushing for a greater share of overseas broadcasting revenue from 2019, this ratio is capped at a maximum of 1.7:1. But in Serie A, the ratio is 2.3:1, and it is over 3:1 in La Liga, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga, research by Alex Bond from Leeds Beckett University has found.

These numbers provide the best single explanation for why the Premier League is comparatively unpredictable, with a depth of competition the envy of its rivals. Since 2009, the Premier League has only been successfully defended once; seven different English sides have reached the Champions League quarter-finals, two more than from any other European country. All the while other major leagues have stratified to the point of tedium. In La Liga, only one team has broken the Barcelona-Real Madrid duopoly since 2004. PSG have won six of the last seven Ligue 1 titles, Bayern Munich eight consecutive Bundesligas and Juventus nine consecutive Serie A crowns.

These leagues have served as case studies for how, as the US economist Walter Neale observed, “pure monopoly is disaster”: teams need competition.

For all the angst about the advantages enjoyed by the league’s behemoths, at least the Premier League has a Big Six, not a Big One or Two. “It is certainly a competitive advantage for the Premier League to regularly have several – at least two or three – title contenders each season,” believes Prof Tim Pawlowski from the University of Tubingen in Germany.

Revealingly, continental rivals have actually tinkered the way they divvy up their cash to be more like the Premier League in recent years. Since 2009, Uefa has found, TV revenues have generally become more evenly distributed in leagues across the continent. La Liga’s reforms, president Javier Tebas explained in 2014, were to create a “more equitable distribution” of revenue based upon the “English model”.

This English model now risks being abandoned. Project Big Picture would shatter the relative egalitarianism of the current revenue distribution model, turning the Premier League from one of Europe’s most equitable leagues to one of the least. The proposals would upend the way cash is handed out, allowing the ratio between the league’s top and bottom earners to increase from 1.7:1 to 4:1.

All of this would be particularly deleterious for newly promoted clubs whose incomes would fall by more than half, from in the region of £100 million to £40 million by 2025-26. The upshot would be to put up a roadblock against upstarts emulating the success of Leicester City and Wolves since they left the Championship behind.

How much these changes would impact viewing figures is unclear. Research on competitive balance in sport generally finds that leagues can withstand huge imbalances, with most interest driven by the popularity of individual teams themselves; in any case reducing the Premier League to 18 clubs would also remove the two least competitive teams.

Yet more predictable Premier League matches have proved less captivating to viewers. A study from Adam Cox of Portsmouth Business School found that, for every extra 10 per cent chance that one team has of winning a Premier League match, the domestic TV audience falls 2.4 per cent, or 25,000. The same has been observed abroad, with German viewers for Premier League games rising when games are more uncertain.

Whatever the impact on TV ratings, how the reforms would change the league’s character is altogether clearer. Matches would become more predictable, scorelines of the ilk of the start of this season scarcer. And one of the Premier League’s greatest claims – how it comes closer than any of its European rivals to matching the NFL’s ‘Any Given Sunday’ mantra – would be undermined, perhaps for ever.
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:30 pm

As we wait for the Premier League to decide what it will do with the proceeds of PPV Sky have refused to release figures of sales for those games on PPV - from the Mail

Sky Sports REFUSE to announce sales for pay-per-view matches on debut weekend of £14.95 games... as Newcastle fans raise £19,000 for charity by boycotting PPV defeat to Manchester United
- It was the first weekend of pay-per-view matches across the Premier League
- Newcastle's defeat to Manchester United was one of the games costing £14.95
- Many fans boycotted the game and instead gave their money to help charity
- When pushed for a figure on sales for the weekend, Sky Sports did not reveal
By NATHAN SALT FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 12:12, 19 October 2020 | UPDATED: 12:20, 19 October 2020

Sky Sports refused to release sales figures for the first weekend of pay-per-view matches following a widespread boycott of the £14.95 games.

The introduction of pay-per-view on both Sky and BT Sport - who also did not elect to release sales figures for the PPV matches - was met with condemnation from supporters who felt they were being priced out.

Newcastle's home defeat to Manchester United was one of the games chosen for PPV and many Toon fans opted to give the money to charity, rather than pay for the game, with £19,000 raised.

Sky said that the information regarding the number of sales of PPV matches remains 'commercially sensitive'.

BT Sport have said that they do not typically release viewing figures for their broadcasts.

With fans still unable to return to stadiums to see their teams play, there was a demand to broadcast every match until they could go back.

But after matches were made free-to-air as part of Project Restart last season, the decision was made to sell any matches not taken up for regular television coverage as part of the broadcasting agreement with UK rights holders.

The condemnation of the PPV service, which charges £14.95 for each game individually, saw fans go elsewhere with their money.

Twitter account nufcfoodbank confirmed an estimated £19,000 raised by Newcastle supporters over the weekend for the city's West End foodbank.

More to follow.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:31 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:02 pm
More on the theme of fundamentals and clearer understanding with this piece in the Financial Times that acknowledges the fact that small English clubs always find a way of surviving - and there is this little gem too - “The dirty secret of the football labour market is that almost every player is paid above his reservation wage — defined as the minimum amount he would accept to do it.”

Small English football clubs will rise from the ashes
SIMON KUPER OCTOBER 16, 2020

Most English professional football clubs were founded before 1890. Many are relics of the industrial revolution, left behind in shrinking northern towns after the economic tide receded. Clubs have survived world wars, recessions, corrupt chairmen and incompetent managers. Their latest challenge is coronavirus. Big clubs will cope: fuelled by television broadcast revenues, they can keep their players in Ferraris. But smaller clubs rely chiefly on football’s oldest form of financing — ticket sales — and stadiums stand empty during the pandemic.

This is unprecedented. Even during world wars, British clubs welcomed some paying crowds. Now many smaller clubs are preparing to “cease playing . . . and put their business into administration”, as several prominent figures, including two former Football Association chairmen, wrote to the government last month. A plan by Liverpool and Manchester United to bail out small clubs in return for more power for rich ones was binned this week, because other big clubs opposed it.

Small-town English football needs a short-term rescue. Long-term, though, clubs will survive the pandemic, as they have all past crises. True, many will probably go into administration. Some might even be liquidated. But football clubs have folded before, only to revive as if by magic. That’s because a club is just a name. If the business enfolding it goes bust, fans can simply create a new company, give it the club’s name, and restart in lower-league football with a new team playing in the same colours, usually in its old stadium. This process is known as phoenixing: the new club rises like a phoenix from the old one’s ashes.

Tiny clubs such as Aldershot, Maidstone United and Newport County went from liquidation to phoenixing, and now stumble on somewhere in English football’s pyramid. Accrington Stanley’s rebirth was the most drawn-out: it resigned from the Football League in 1962 with debts of £63,000, got liquidated in 1966, was recreated by fans in 1968, and re-entered the league in 2006 — its brand only enhanced by the drama — with a new sign above the turnstiles: “The Club that Wouldn’t Die.” Stanley now play in League One, English football’s third tier. Similarly, Bury, which folded last year, is already back in the tenth tier. Eventually, it will probably return to the Football League.

Macclesfield Town, the first English club to close during the pandemic, has just been bought by a local businessman, who plans a phoenixing. No English professional club has vanished forever since Wigan Borough in 1931. Even then, its successor Wigan Athletic was founded a year later. Note that Wigan, Macclesfield, Bury and Accrington Stanley are among the industrial-era clubs struggling for modern catchment areas in the post-industrial region around Manchester.

Football clubs are so sustainable that they survive even liquidation. Still, they will need a bridge over this crisis. Happily, society can afford it. Clubs are rare sources of community and pride for hard-pressed towns, but they are also tiny businesses that can be bailed out cheaply. The English Football League’s 72 clubs lost a total of £50m last season because of coronavirus and stand to lose another £200m this season, says the EFL’s chairman Rick Parry. Compare those sums with the aviation industry: Virgin Atlantic alone needed a £1.2bn rescue package just to keep going until 2022.

The government should help small clubs. Others will, too. Premier League clubs are offering grants and interest-free loans worth £50m, on top of £27m paid earlier this year. Banks traditionally avoid foreclosing on clubs. During the pandemic, the EFL needs to abandon its practice of expelling the bankrupt. Once stadiums reopen, clubs can slowly repay loans. After all, they have proved their local viability since Victorian times. The league should also compel them to buy insurance against financial misfortune.

Meanwhile, clubs will cut players’ salaries. In a revolutionary move, those in Leagues One and Two have agreed salary caps. The second-tier Championship is considering following suit. Small clubs should switch to employing mostly part-time and amateur players. Stefan Szymanski, an economist at the University of Michigan, and my co-author on Soccernomics, says: “The dirty secret of the football labour market is that almost every player is paid above his reservation wage — defined as the minimum amount he would accept to do it.” Indeed, even in the tenth tier, Bury received 750 applications for the job of manager.

Prof Szymanski says: “Bury could exist in the Premier League or as a pub team. That’s the ultimate scalability of football.” An amateur or part-time team can still be a pillar of a town. Even the biggest German clubs were semi-professional until 1963.

Small football clubs don’t need full-time playing staffs. They don’t need to compete with Liverpool or Manchester United. Bury haven’t won a national prize since the FA Cup of 1903. Fans of small clubs don’t expect trophies. They just need them to survive. And — allowing for temporary collapses — they will.
Very much doubt any of the great Hamburg team that came to the Turf in January 1961, including Uwe Seeler, Dieter Seeler and Jochen Meinke were semi-professional. One of the best club sides in the world at the time but we sent them home on the back of a 3-1 scoreline.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:21 pm

I have said it before - but I just cannot imagine that the big European clubs will be happy at this suggestion that the last 8 of UEFA's club competitions will be played as single game knockouts in single country mini-tournaments - I don't just question the broadcast income (that is 6 matches less) but also what the clubs themselves will see as lost revenue from home games, allied to lost revenues for the cities and regions that they reside in (we are talking 10's if not 100's of millions (in some cases) here. - story from the Guardian

Champions League 'final eight' mini-tournament may return from 2024
Single-country one-leg format was success, says Uefa
Europa League could have same finale after current TV deal
PA Media

Mon 19 Oct 2020 10.26 BST Last modified on Mon 19 Oct 2020 11.02 BST

Uefa says a “final eight” will be considered as a way to round off the Champions League and Europa League from 2024.

The single-country one-leg format was adopted for practical purposes as an effective way to conclude the competitions last season in a campaign badly disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, and proved to be a big hit as a spectacle.

European football’s governing body is bound by contracts with broadcasters to revert to the regular two-legged system for quarter-finals and semi-finals for the rest of the current cycle, but has not ruled out a change to the format beyond that.

Giorgio Marchetti, Uefa’s deputy general secretary, said: “A good rule is to never exclude something which proves valuable or has potential. We know there are many elements that need to be taken into account, such as calendar and organisational constraints, fans’ involvement, economic implications, but we will for sure study this format and its variations for our upcoming discussions.

“Single knockout matches obviously favour uncertainty and emotions. We received great feedback from clubs, broadcasters and other partners as well as from the fans. The circumstances made this format a must, but the result could not be better as well as the degree of satisfaction.”

The 2019-20 Champions League’s final stages took place in Lisbon, while the German cities of Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Gelsenkirchen hosted the conclusion of the Europa League. The Women’s Champions League finale was staged in the Basque cities of Bilbao and San Sebastián, while the men’s Youth Champions League was completed in Switzerland. Marchetti admitted staging all four competitions had been the result of great cooperation.

“The football community really worked together: without the joint work and unity of intents with national associations, leagues and clubs nothing would have been achieved,” he said. “And as we had only two months to set up simultaneous tournaments in Portugal, Germany and Spain, the local federations and authorities supported us massively.”

Marchetti said Uefa would take the same “strong determination” that helped them pull off the final stages of last season’s competitions into the rest of 2020-21, which is taking place against the backdrop of a second wave of coronavirus infections across the continent. And he also pointed out how much work had already been done for this season’s preliminary stages.

“Everybody watched the final eight tournaments in August. What almost nobody knows is that from the beginning of August almost 500 Uefa matches have already been played. All the qualification rounds to Champions League and Europa League [no one single club was excluded from the access list], two men’s and one women’s international windows, under-21s. There are many restrictions and a strict protocol to apply with an incredible number of tests on all teams, but these difficulties don’t scare us.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Oct 19, 2020 7:45 pm

With UEFA Club competition group stages about get underway it seems that everyone is looking to the post 2024 rejig that is being heavily campaigned for by the ECA - The Telegraph with a report suggesting that there are moves to try and get 36 teams into the Champions League.

Exclusive: Uefa ready to consider expanding Champions League to 36 teams from 2024-25
Radical proposals are seen as a way to placate the demands of Europe's biggest clubs

By Tim Wigmore - 19 October 2020 • 5:46pm

Uefa are ready to consider radical plans to increase the size of the Champions League to 36 clubs from 2024-25.

The proposal would see each side play 10 group matches and it is understood to be gaining support among clubs from across the European game, including some of its biggest leagues.

Expansion plans had been floated earlier this year to an initially lukewarm response but they have gained traction, as they are seen as a way to balance the demands of Europe’s major clubs - including in England - for more marquee fixtures with calls from mid-sized leagues in Europe for extra Champions League berths.

Discussions about the format of European club competitions beyond 2024 are set to resume in the coming weeks. It is hoped that a final decision can be ratified sometime next year.

There are understood to be two models for a 36-team Champions League, each involving 10 group matches per team. Under the first model, sides would be divided into six groups of six and play each other home and away.

Under the second option, the 36 clubs would each play 10 fixtures against 10 different opponents, with fixtures decided by a seeding system designed to ensure equitable fixture lists for each side, similar to the 'Swiss-system' structure used in US sports leagues.

It is believed that there is growing support for the Swiss system, with the perception that the current model used in the Champions League group stages - in which teams play their three group opponents twice - has become stale. The proposed Swiss system would allow more clashes between leading clubs in the group stages and thus prove more attractive to broadcasters. This is a crucial consideration, with clubs across the continent facing a financial hit due to Covid-19 and fears that the looming pan-continental recession will lead to a sharp reduction in the money paid for broadcast rights.

Either model is likely to win support from the leading Premier League clubs, who are keen to free up more space in the calendar for European fixtures. Project Big Picture, the explosive document for reforming English football revealed by Telegraph Sport last week, proposed to reduce the size of the Premier League to 18 clubs and scrap the League Cup and FA Cup replays to create extra European matchdays.

.............................................................................................................................................
The two potential models for enlarging the Champions League
1) Six groups of six

Each team would play the other sides in their group home and away, giving ten games in total

The top two teams in each group, and the four best-placed third-placed teams, would advance to the last 16

2) Swiss-system tournament

Each team would play 10 other sides once apiece, with five matches at home and five away

Seeding system would be designed to give all sides a fair fixture list, allowing all clubs to be ranked against each other in one table

The top 16 teams on the table would then advance to the knockout stages
.............................................................................................................................................

While an increase in the number of teams in the Champions League group stages to 36 would be seen as a further power grab by Europe’s biggest clubs, it could also appease growing discontent among mid-sized European leagues.

Last season was the first time in history that all 16 sides to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League were from the five major European leagues - England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France - and there is growing concern among heads of mid-sized European leagues about the lack of a pathway for their leading clubs.

Since 2018, the big five leagues have been guaranteed 18 berths in the group stages - including four from the Premier League - compared with 13 from 2015-18. There are calls for these changes to be undone.

“More teams from non-top five leagues need to have access to the Champions League and to the Europa League,” said Claus Thomsem, the chief executive of Denmark’s Superliga.

With Premier League clubs - like those from other major leagues - entrenched in wanting to retain four automatic Champions League berths, expanding the group stages could be a compromise.

Smaller European leagues are also pushing for the differences in payments for teams reaching the Champions League and Europa League to be reduced to grow the depth of the European game. There are also calls for an increase in solidarity payments to clubs not in European competitions. Solidarity payments to clubs who do not participate in European competitions are currently four per cent of the overall gross revenues of the competitions.

“The European Leagues have always called for the increase of Uefa solidarity payments to non-participating clubs as a key measure to protect and enhance competitive balance in domestic leagues,” said Jacco Swart, managing director of European Leagues, who represent leagues throughout the continent. “Now, facing and fighting Covid, the football stakeholders have an even greater responsibility to support financially medium and small clubs across Europe.”

Claudius Schaefer, the chief executive of the Swiss Football League, said that, even if an official European Super League did not come to pass, the future of the Champions League might come very close to the vision of a Super League, with fewer opportunities for sides from mid-sized leagues. “If it goes in this direction, it would be a terrible, terrible, terrible landmark for European football,” he said.

Mid-sized leagues are adamant that the Champions League group stages must not encroach upon weekends, while entry to the tournament must be decided by domestic performances the previous season, rather than a system of historical performances which would effectively guarantee qualification to the European club elite.

In another potential change, UEFA have said that they will consider adopting the ‘final eight’ format - the single-country, one-leg format adopted to conclude the 2019/20 Champions League and Europa League - from 2024-25.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Oct 19, 2020 8:04 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Sun Oct 18, 2020 12:03 pm
The Unofficial Partner Podcast asks "WTF's a SPAC" in it's 4th Episode of Money Talks

https://www.unofficialpartner.com/podca ... tfs-a-spac
This is a really good listen and gives some real insight as to the the rules around them from the SEC - such as a SPAC's first acquisition most be for at least 80% of the money raised in the SPAC's IPO, which means that there are likely to only ever be few clubs to be taken over by SPAC's as any others are not big enough to provide dividends and investment returns. This pod estimates that a club needs to be worth £1.5bn for a SPAC to get involved, which effectively rules a SPAC out from taking over our club, but does not stop Private Equity

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Oct 20, 2020 12:23 am

@PhillippeAuclair in Josimarfootball.com with the latest twist in the Gianni Infantino/FIFA v the Trinidad and Tobago FA

FIFA, Guilty As Charged
19/10/2020

“FIFA’s claim that it remains neutral in matters of politics (within the sport) is demonstrated to be patently false”, said Justice Carol Gobin. Her ruling could seriously damage FIFA’s governance model and authority.

By Philippe Auclair

It was widely expected that Trinidad & Tobago’s High Court, the Caribbean country’s supreme legal body, would find in favour of its suspended FA in the case it brought against FIFA, which Josimar has been covering in detail over the past seven months. So it did.

What no-one could suspect was that the 22-page judgment that Justice Carol Gobin delivered on Tuesday 13 October would be as scathing as it proved to be. In tone as in substance, FIFA had never been subjected to such an unequivocally critical (and potentially damaging, as we’ll see) judgment in a court of law.

Justice Gobin did not mince her words. She adjudged FIFA to have made “a mockery of the proceedings”. The normalisation order FIFA’s GenSec Fatma Samoura had issued in March, less than four months after the new TTFA board had been democratically elected, had “an oblique motive”, she said, and was “improper and made in bad faith”. “The timing of removal of the new board after the troubling financial management had been allowed to continue and fester even with FIFA’s annual audits and oversight makes [FIFA’s chief Member Associations Officer] Veron Mosengo-Omba’s claim that FIFA held its hand until after November elections to allow an opportunity for the incoming Board to address the serious issues even less credible”.

Then came the frontal blow. “The conclusion that [the normalisation order] was a contrivance to subvert the outcome of the [TTFA] November 24th elections [our italics] is in my view inescapable”, she wrote. “FIFA’s claim that it remains neutral in matters of politics (within the sport) is demonstrated to be patently false”.

This was a key conclusion for the suspended TTFA board, which had maintained all along that it had been singled out by FIFA for punishment, not because of the irregularities in its financial accounts (of which it was fully aware, and actually had made its first job to address), but because it had gained power at the expense of David John-Williams, a key ally of Gianni Infantino in the region (*), whom the FIFA president had openly supported days before he was defeated in the TTFA presidential elections.

FIFA to escape the consequences
Justice Gobin then took a broader swipe at FIFA’s loftiest claims. “Throughout the proceedings”, she went on, “FIFA has […] demonstrated a disregard for the rule of law”. Its conduct “regrettably [called] into question the sincerity of its vaunted commitment to achieving its objectives to promote integrity, fair play and friendly relations in society for humanitarian objectives, as well as its commitment to respecting internationally recognised human rights and striving to protect them. Disregard for the rule of law is inconsistent with these objectives”.

These comments, harsh as they are, are not what will make FIFA hurt the most. After all, the federation of federations did not see fit to present a defence at the trial, as this would have constituted a de facto recognition of the T&T tribunal’s jurisdiction in a matter for which FIFA maintains that CAS is the only legitimate ultimate arbiter. Justice Gobin conceded that, “while it remained ensconced in its home in Zurich”, FIFA would “probably manage to escape the consequences of its unlawful behaviour” – as her court’s reach did not extend that far.

This, however, does not mean that FIFA can simply go on and ignore the decision of a tribunal whose authority it does not consider fit to adjudicate in this matter. International media, perhaps daunted by the complexity of the dossier, have mostly stayed away from this story, but others – specifically member associations in the region and elsewhere, as well as experts in sports law – have kept a keen eye on how the dispute developed over the past seven months.

First, there had been surprise at the gall of the ousted administration, which dared to confront FIFA, which some deemed reckless, even irresponsible. But, as months went by, this surprise turned to curiosity, then fascination, when it was became clear that “TTFA v. FIFA” was a test case whose implications went well beyond the fate of a specific administration or the right of Trinidad & Tobago’s national football team to take part in FIFA-sanctioned competitions. It had the potential to alter football governance as a whole. And FIFA knew it.

As Justice Gobin said: “in [FIFA’s] view, the decision to go to a local court [as TTFA had done in Trinidad & Tobago] jeopardised the overall global football governance structure”. When Josimar reached out to FIFA for comment after the judgment was delivered, the statement we received was very clear on that point: “The appointment of a normalization committee is not a matter to be decided by the local courts of an individual member association”, it read, “as to do so would fundamentally affect the structure of football governance [our italics] and the application of consistent, fair and transparent principles for all member associations.” (*)

Why? Because the key matter at hand was always going to be the extent to which FIFA could exert its authority on its Member Associations. For the first time, the idea that FIFA’s own statuses superseded local law was challenged in a High Court, and the High Court’s conclusion has been as clear-cut as they come. No, FIFA’s power did not extend that far. Yes, there were clear boundaries which even FIFA had to acknowledge and respect. And no, FIFA’s statuses could not override the primacy of legislation. Yes, Trinidad & Tobago had been a FIFA member since 1964. But the Trinidad & Tobago Football Association was a body corporate established by Act no.17 of 1982 by the Parliament of a sovereign Republic.

This meant that FIFA’s use of ‘normalisation’ and suspension of FAs could be considered illegal – at least in this case. But why not in others? After all, the TTFA is far from being the only FA to have been incorporated by an Act of Parliament. This also meant that the Court of Arbitration For Sport was not the only legitimate recourse for a member of FIFA which was involved in a dispute with the governing body.

To say otherwise would be to accept that FIFA could overrule an Act of Parliament; and to accept that would be to surrender national sovereignty. To punish the TTFA because it had dared to challenge FIFA in court could “only mean that FIFA [did] not recognise the Courts and the judicial systems in any of its 212 member states”, Gobin said. “If it is the case as FIFA continues to insist that it will not accept the jurisdiction of the Court of any member country, and that CAS is the only dispute resolution forum that it will recognise, […] then there is every danger that FIFA will become a law unto itself if it hasn’t already become one”.

Unhappy Prime Minister
What will happen now is still uncertain. TTFA’s victory at the High Court did not please everyone in Trinidad and Tobago, starting with the country’s Prime Minister, Dr Keith Rowley, who posted sarcastic comments on Facebook. “Another such victory and we shall be utterly ruined”, he quipped. “So now united TTFA has “won” and FIFA has lost. The matter is settled in local court. We are now free of the “colonial” FIFA. We, boys and girls, men and women, are free to play by ourselves and against ourselves because nobody will be allowed to play with or against us”. William Wallace, the president of United TTFA, the man who brought the case to the High Court, has been a controversial figurehead himself, and is by no means a hero to everyone. Some members of the TTFA board have tended their resignations, last of them Keith Look-Loy, until then one of the architects of the fight against FIFA, who has decided that, his job done, the time was right for him to say goodbye to football.

A general meeting of TTFA’s membership has been called for Sunday 25 October, at which the delegates will have to choose one path of action among many. TTFA could carry on defying FIFA and move on to have their case heard by CAS, for example. Or Wallace could be asked to put an end to his campaign, now that he’d been vindicated by the country’s High Court. Or Wallace and his supporters could be asked to let others take over the running of TTFA. It could even be that a request is made to the government to amend the 1982 Act which incorporated the TTFA, so that FIFA is no longer in breach of the country’s laws.

There is some appetite to carry on defying FIFA – also among the senior players of the Soca Warriors, as Josimar has learned. Even though fighting on would signify missing out on the 2021 Gold Cup, but it is more likely that a compromise with FIFA of some kind will be sought. No-one in Trinidad & Tobago wishes to see the nation’s men’s and women’s teams excluded from international competitions; and the financial situation of the TTFA is so dire that its only hope is for FIFA to unblock its funding.

Yet, somehow, even if a face-saving agreement is reached, it will not invalidate an unprecedented victory whose impact will be felt way beyond the Caribbean archipelago. As Look-Loy put it in his resignation statement, “Trinidad and Tobago has now set the stage for other countries to challenge FIFA’s arrogant and brutal approach to football governance”.

(*) Josimar was told by a former FIFA high-ranking administrator that John-Williams had played a key role in making a number of Caribbean FAs switch their allegiance from other candidates to Gianni Infantino in the run-up to the 2016 FIFA presidential elections, whom the source says had close to no support in that region prior to John-Williams’s intervention.

(*) FIFA’s full statement reads: “As stated recently, the suspension will only be lifted when the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) fully complies with its obligations as a member of FIFA, including recognising the legitimacy of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as the forum for resolving this dispute and bringing its own statutes into line with the FIFA Statutes.

To be a member of FIFA and participate in international football TTFA, like any other member association, has to respect the rules of membership of FIFA. That includes agreeing that disputes, such as the appointment of a normalization committee, are dealt with only by the CAS, which is the internationally recognized tribunal for the resolution of sports-related disputes. The CAS fairly applies the same uniform legal standards and principles to each dispute that it is asked to determine. The appointment of a normalization committee is not a matter to be decided by the local courts of an individual member association, as to do so would fundamentally affect the structure of football governance and the application of consistent, fair and transparent principles for all member associations.

FIFA has at all times been ready and willing to arbitrate this dispute with the TTFA at CAS, it has made this clear in its submissions, and has always acted in accordance with the rules of the CAS in this matter“.

Josimar also contacted Robert Hadad, the head of the normalisation committee appointed by FIFA, whom Justice Gobin said had “deliberately engaged in conduct that was calculated to subvert the adjudication of [TTFA’s] claim”. Mr Hadad did not respond to our enquiries.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Oct 20, 2020 12:28 am

You have to admire the front, Saudi Arabia whom the WTO said practised state sponsored Piracy of Intellectual Property (remember BeoutQ and BeinSport) is to host the Global Intellectual Property Challenges forum

https://menafn.com/1100982029/Global-In ... es-Program

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Oct 20, 2020 5:54 pm

There is an All Party Parliamentary Group virtual meeting for football supporters due to start at 6pm under the title of l
Mass extinction event? The most important month in the history of club football - which is a pretty dramatic title

Unfortunately it is not available for Football supporters to watch in the same way as a DCMS hearing would be - I just hope that someone presses record on Zoom and it is made available for all to view later

https://thefsa.org.uk/our-work/appg-for ... upporters/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Oct 20, 2020 6:30 pm

Confirmation that Aston Villa's owners NSWE have issued another £55m in share capital in the last week via 3 separate transactions - that should see them through until the next window

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

all the filings are here https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:31 pm

All the talk of a European Premier League today, is of course part of a a long cycle of discussions, and much of that has involved a the G-14 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-14) over it's history,

Of course this kind of thing has been looked at by the games highest authorities too - this Academic research paper from 2005

UEFA, Governance, and the Control of Club Competition
in European Football
A report funded by the FIFA João Havelange Research Scholarship

http://www.sportbusinesscentre.com/wp-c ... /UEFA1.pdf

There is of course little doubt that Project Big Picture and Project European Premier League are directly related or that the American desire for strong profits and little risk with substantial Private Equity funding is driving these discussions lately, especially when you consider that continued participation in UEFA competition means clubs will be getting less than they bargained for as UEFA confirms that it will be deducting last seasons huge rebate from the next 5 seasons of payments to clubs in UEFA competitions according to the Times

Uefa prize money to be cut for next five seasons
Martyn Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter
Monday October 19 2020, 5.00pm, The Times

Prize money in European club competitions will be cut for the next five years due to the losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Uefa has told its 55 member associations that £514 million has been lost from its club competitions, the Champions League and the Europa League, last season due a reduction in TV and sponsorship income caused by delays forced by the virus.

It had been expected that Uefa would spread the cuts over two or three years but its letter to the associations reveals that the decision has been taken to share the burden over five years. For English clubs competing in Europe, it will mean their TV and prize money dropping by around 4 per cent over five seasons.

The 2019-20 loss stated by Uefa is 22 per cent of its total prize money fund for the two competitions, £2.31 billion of which £1.85 billion goes to clubs in the Champions League.

Manchester City, the highest-earning English side in Europe last season, had been in line to get around £88 million from last season’s Champions League, according to the football finance analyst Swiss Ramble, so a 4 per cent cut would see their earnings drop by £3.5 million to £84.5 million.

Chelsea’s earnings would fall from an estimated £72 million to £69.1 million, Liverpool’s from £71 million to £68.2 million and Tottenham Hotspur’s from £61 million to £58.6 million. Among last season’s Europa League clubs, Manchester United’s earnings would fall from £27 million to £26 million, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ from £22 million to £21.1 million and Arsenal’s from £19 million to £18.2 million.

The drop in income follows Uefa reducing the number of matches due to one-legged quarter-finals and semi-finals, with compensation also being paid to broadcasters and sponsors for the delays caused by the virus.

Last month, the chairman of the European Clubs Association, Andrea Agnelli, predicted a similar drop and warned that the crisis would lead to transfer fees dropping by up to 30 per cent.

“This is going to be dramatic for all of us which will turn out to be potentially a cash crisis for most of the clubs,” he added.

“The vast majority of us will bear deep scars from this crisis,” he said. “It is going to be difficult to imagine we are going to see the same values of the sponsors coming in when we renew our current deals with them, whether it be shirt sponsors or secondary sponsors.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by rdp2eps » Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:52 pm

Royboyclaret wrote:
Mon Oct 19, 2020 12:31 pm
Very much doubt any of the great Hamburg team that came to the Turf in January 1961, including Uwe Seeler, Dieter Seeler and Jochen Meinke were semi-professional. One of the best club sides in the world at the time but we sent them home on the back of a 3-1 scoreline.
West German football was semi-professional until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963 .. Mr Seeler did indeed have a day job when he played on the Turf as did the rest of the Hamburg side . They formed the Bundesliga as a national professional league due to growing concern about a talent drain to Italy and Spain. I think Uwe Seeler worked at the port initially then for adidas who offered him a good job to help persuade him not to leave for Milan in the semi-pro days.
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:14 pm

rdp2eps wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:52 pm
West German football was semi-professional until the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963 .. Mr Seeler did indeed have a day job when he played on the Turf as did the rest of the Hamburg side . They formed the Bundesliga as a national professional league due to growing concern about a talent drain to Italy and Spain. I think Uwe Seeler worked at the port initially then for adidas who offered him a good job to help persuade him not to leave for Milan in the semi-pro days.
Fair play, mate. Good shout.

Great story concerning Uwe Seeler on the morning of the match at the Turf. The Hamburg team had stayed at the Keirby Hotel on the night before the game and walked up to the Turf the following morning to inspect the pitch. On their return to the hotel they walked along the backstreet of Yorkshire Street where some young Burnley lads were having a game of football. To their delight Seeler joined in for a while, something the young lads will probably remember to this day.
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by rdp2eps » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:21 pm

Royboyclaret wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:14 pm
Fair play, mate. Good shout.

Great story concerning Uwe Seeler on the morning of the match at the Turf. The Hamburg team had stayed at the Keirby Hotel on the night before the game and walked up to the Turf the following morning to inspect the pitch. On their return to the hotel they walked along the backstreet of Yorkshire Street where some young Burnley lads were having a game of football. To their delight Seeler joined in for a while, something the young lads will probably remember to this day.
To be fair I teach German History 1871-1991 ... amongst other things ;)
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:26 pm

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

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

all the filings are here https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history
Is this them just reducing the debts?

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by elwaclaret » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:32 pm

rdp2eps wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:21 pm
To be fair I teach German History 1871-1991 ... amongst other things ;)
Lot of defeats in that lesson, hope you started from May 11th. Lol

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:38 pm

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:26 pm
Is this them just reducing the debts?
No. working capital/cashflow easing - remember they spent another £70m+ this summer - their wage bill will also be huge as they did not shed many players and like everyone else they are suffering significant revenue losses

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:40 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:38 pm
No. working capital/cashflow easing - remember they spent another £70m+ this summer - their wage bill will also be huge as they did not shed many players and like everyone else they are suffering significant revenue losses
Ah yeah, I haven't really kept track of the transfer window spending this time round yet.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by rdp2eps » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:42 pm

elwaclaret wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:32 pm
Lot of defeats in that lesson, hope you started from May 11th. Lol
😂 I spent some time earlier today studying someone’s attempt to simplify the political shift in Weimar Germany using graphics ... almost gone blind trying to read it 😂

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by elwaclaret » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:47 pm

rdp2eps wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:42 pm
😂 I spent some time earlier today studying someone’s attempt to simplify the political shift in Weimar Germany using graphics ... almost gone blind trying to read it 😂
All swings and roundabouts? Lol
Wow, just wow... how the hell did either of you make any sense of it.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by rdp2eps » Tue Oct 20, 2020 10:01 pm

elwaclaret wrote:
Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:47 pm
All swings and roundabouts? Lol
Wow, just wow... how the hell did either of you make any sense of it.
Well errr hmmm yes ... funny you should ask 😂
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:09 pm

long time readers of this thread will recognise a lot from this column, ostensibly on todays news of a European Premier League, in the Telegraph from Sam Wallace this evening particularly the final sentence.

Top English clubs must beware of an expanding European game - it could come at the Premier League's expense
SAM WALLACE OCTOBER 20, 2020

There is no doubt that the Champions League and its less fortunate Europa League sibling will be changing considerably come the financial year zero of 2024 when the clocks are reset, the broadcast deal expires and all bets are off as to what the future looks like.

The question is just how long the biggest clubs are prepared to wait with the losses of Covid bearing down on them and the elite European competition still under the control of Uefa until then. Project Big Picture was a vision of what the Premier League might look like in order to accommodate this European super league – fewer fixtures for the wealthiest clubs, and more power. A settled home front for the big boys which allows them to maximise gains from the expanding European game.

The Sky News report of a Fifa-run European Premier League suggested this development was much more imminent: a game struggling so much under the weight of Covid that it needed the watershed of 2024 a lot sooner. It proposed an announcement by the end of this month and tearing up the Uefa consensus for a new start in 2022.

In the Champions League’s place would come a dystopian Gianni Infantino-themed future in which Inter Milan battle Benfica for mid-table mediocrity, all thanks to JP Morgan’s debt financing. Where this leaves the Uefa’s anthem or Gazprom and its non-negotiable pledge to light up the football, one can only speculate at this stage.

Certainly change is coming, although all parties involved – including Fifa – stopped short on Tuesday of saying whether that change was the new Fifa initiative reported by Sky News or a Champions League beefed up under Uefa’s aegis, as reported by Telegraph Sport. Formal talks are due to begin soon. There are already live negotiations on the revenue distribution for the 2021-2024 Uefa rights cycle with clubs keen to cut the solidarity payments to domestic leagues – currently around six to seven per cent.

What is the Champions League’s future? Is it, as per Sky News, the Fifa takeover? Or are the reports of a thaw between Fifa president Infantino and his counterpart Aleksander Ceferin accurate? In which case, the theory is that Fifa would grant Ceferin a greater share of the match-calendar post 2024 for an expanded Champions League in return for an expanded biennial Fifa Club World Cup.

Beware the hand of Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president who runs the club as if he owns it. The Spanish champions and their old La Liga duopoly partner Barcelona are facing a dire financial shortfall built up over years of overspending and now exacerbated by Covid. Having taken all that they can from their domestic game they will do what it takes, along with the likes of Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, to extract more value from European competitions.

That is the warning the top English clubs must heed, however bad it gets for them with fans locked out. Whatever broadcast deal an expanded European super league strikes it will ultimately come at a cost to the Premier League. The English top-flight remains the most attractive in the world to broadcasters. It enjoys the biggest domestic and overseas television deals as a result. All attempts to expand the Champions League – either by Uefa or Fifa – are, at heart, an attempt by covetous rivals to narrow the gap on the Premier League.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:28 pm

Interesting piece on how adds fund football piracy from the drum

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2020/10/07 ... counter-it

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:37 pm

With all the different proposals being postulated in the last few weeks - there is actually very little publicly available documentation for fans to get hold of and read. In some cases such as Project big Picture and the European Premier League that may not be too surprising, but in the case of the much trumpeted Saving our Beautiful Game backed by ex FA Chair David Bernstein, Ex FA Exec/North West Tonight Presenter David Davies, some peoples King in the North Andy Burnham and Gary Neville amongst others it was a surprise - for all the online articles there was no link to this manifesto - well after trawling through several pages of a google search I have found the document and a supporting website

website https://www.ourbeautifulgame.co.uk/

the Manifesto - Saving Our Beautiful Game - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... e_2020.pdf

now to find copies of the Project Big Picture - ideally as many of the iterations as i can though v 17 and 18 appear to be what got Rick Parry so excited
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:12 am

I don't agree with everything written here and I think some of the promises are false but these blog pieces from the same day in 2016 are actually a great insight into a lot of what we have heard and read about in the last 9 days and provides some excellent background to those who are only catching up on what has been happening to our game from an American perspective. As it's author said today

Why the European Super League is a great idea for English football
https://theuglygame.wordpress.com/2016/ ... -football/

Why does the Premier League attract all the worst people from the NFL?
https://theuglygame.wordpress.com/2016/ ... m-the-nfl/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:50 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Fri Dec 06, 2019 1:12 am
Now that Florentino Perez has got a position of influence at FIFA (being the President of the newly formed and FIFA sanctioned World Club Football Association) he has wasted little time in usurping the stratagems of Gianni Agnelli - This from the New York Times

Will Real Madrid Abandon La Liga? Its President Maps a Way Out
Real Madrid’s Florentino Pérez is shepherding a proposal that would reshape European soccer for the benefit of the Continent’s biggest clubs. And he may have the backing to pull it off.
By Tariq Panja - Dec. 5, 2019, 7:36 p.m. ET

Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, recently held talks with officials from some of Europe’s leading soccer clubs, as well as the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, to outline his vision for the sport. What he is proposing, according to people familiar with the conversations, is nothing less than a groundbreaking power shift in the club game.

One elite competition comprising the world’s richest clubs, untethered from their domestic leagues for a new full-season competition. Domestic leagues stripped of their biggest and most historic brands. And thousands of top-division games rendered far less valuable to everyone from sponsors to broadcasters to, perhaps most important, fans.

With financing in the works and the clout of Real Madrid backing the venture, and with the game’s officials beginning to sketch the framework of the new global soccer calendar that will take effect after 2024, the outlines of a European super league could be closer than before.

At the heart of Pérez’s plan is his long-held desire for Europe’s biggest teams, like his, to break away from their domestic leagues and form an elite European competition that would be played across an entire season, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The current iteration of the plan would see two 20-team divisions, composed almost exclusively of clubs from Europe’s five biggest leagues: England, Spain, France, Germany and Italy. Some clubs have been told that, according to projections, they could expect to double their revenues by leaving their domestic leagues to join. The concept of promotion and relegation — a fixture of world soccer that rewards success and punishes failure — would be retained, but only between the two divisions.

The proposal most likely would meet fierce resistance. At a stroke any such competition would decimate the value of domestic league matches, but by taking the best teams they also could destroy the value of the Champions League, the world’s richest club championship and the financial engine of European soccer’s governing body, UEFA.

Pérez, who as Real Madrid’s president became a founding member of a new global association for international clubs when it was begun last month at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, declined, through the club, to comment on his proposals. During his visit to Zurich, though, he discussed his ideas with Infantino, who has spent much of the past year pushing his own idea about how to remake club soccer.

Infantino’s vision for club soccer has largely been focused on the creation of a new 24-team Club World Cup that will begin play in 2021, but he also has a broader vision for FIFA, the game’s global governing body, to have a stronger hand in club soccer.

Only last week, for example, he pushed the idea of investing hundreds of millions of dollars in a new pan-African league, as a means to increase quality there and also slow the global talent drain to Europe. The FIFA president has also had talks with national associations in Asia about the possibility of creating regional or subregional leagues there, and conversations with President Trump about the quality of soccer in the top United States league.

“One of the FIFA president’s duties is to listen to stakeholders’ perspectives about relevant topics for football,” FIFA said in a statement in response to questions about Infantino’s discussions with Pérez and others about changes to the club game. “FIFA believes that an open and constructive dialogue between different members of the football community is essential to find the right balance and the best solutions for the future of the game.

“FIFA (including the president) has met with football clubs from around the world in order to discuss how to make the new FIFA Club World Cup an outstanding success, in particular, from a sporting point of view.”

Real Madrid, through a spokesman, said that it never comments on private talks and that any news related to its president would be released only through official club channels.

Without Infantino’s patronage, Pérez’s plans would not get very far. The FIFA leader told reporters in November 2018 — when details of a previous attempt at a breakaway league backed by Pérez leaked — that any players who participated in any breakaway competition that had not been sanctioned by FIFA would be barred from their national teams and unable to play in the World Cup.

While the new talks about Pérez’s proposals remain at an exploratory stage, they are taking place as clubs continue to discuss the future of the Champions League. That competition could be rendered meaningless if Pérez’s venture — which is said to include significant moneymaking incentives for a select group of top clubs — were to come to fruition.

A group representing elite clubs from across Europe met in Milan on Nov. 15 to try to formulate a new format after a furious reaction from top domestic leagues, including England’s Premier League and Spain’s La Liga, to a plan promoted by the Juventus president, Andrea Agnelli, to create a largely closed European competition in which most of the competitors would retain their spot season after season whatever their performance in domestic league play.

Money is the driving force behind all the restructuring plans, with the biggest clubs believing they could generate more viewership and more sponsor interest, and thus much more revenue, through more frequent elite-level games. But the support of Infantino and FIFA, should they grant it, could shift control of club soccer away from its usual power base in continental federations like UEFA.

Under Infantino, who assumed the FIFA presidency in 2016, FIFA has increasingly looked for ways to increase its influence on (and profit from) club soccer. The current annual version of the Club World Cup — featuring one team from soccer’s six regional bodies and one from the host nation — generates little interest in much of the world. The latest edition kicks off next week in Qatar.

Infantino’s reasoning appears to be that by increasing the standard of club soccer in Africa, Asia and elsewhere, FIFA would create conditions for investors — who have long poured their billions of dollars into European soccer — to see value in doing so around the world.

“The statutory mission of FIFA is to develop football at a worldwide level,” FIFA’s statement said. “This involves formulating plans and competition concepts to bring on club football everywhere.”

It added, “We want the European clubs to further grow, because that is good for world football, but at the same time we want to see clubs from outside Europe to grow as well so that one day they can compete with the European clubs.”
Anyone else see a lot of similarities between this from last year and today's stories for a European Premier League which a number of media outlets are now suggesting that Florentino Perez is behind

Of course the whole story blew up because Sky have had nothing to broadcast - with them no longer broadcasting UEFA club competitions - the story first appeared a few hours earlier on this Spanish website which does not appear to be mainstream Spanish football press

https://www.vozpopuli.com/economia-y-fi ... 60728.html

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:25 am

Back on the subject of UEFA Club Competitions - KPMG's Football Benchmark looked forward to the return of the Champions League earlier today with an article looking at how a number of uncertainties surrounding the delivery of the competition are going to impact revenues for participants

https://footballbenchmark.com/library/u ... ble_season

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 10:51 am

Interesting piece from SportsProMedia about the complexities of engaging with Chinese audiences on social media, including the sheer diversity of approaches required, usually tailor made for the different platforms and the audiences that they attract.

https://www.sportspromedia.com/from-the ... drl-panini

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 11:09 am

Linklaters (a major law firm) with their Sporting Links Podcast look at Financial Fair Play in Football including the recent changes in the EFL

https://www.footballlaw.co.uk/articles/ ... linklaters

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 11:31 am

I have posted a few times about how certain footballers have developed their social media for good causes - today Marcus Rashford keeps up with is fantastic campaign for feeding children

https://twitter.com/MarcusRashford/stat ... 8356134914

Nike has become renowned for it's campaigning based advertising but it's own operational ethics have long been challenged and still are

https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-nike/

Rashford himself has followed this up with a series of posts (including another very polite takedown of a Tory MP) focusing on today's parliamentary discussions

https://twitter.com/MarcusRashford

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:07 pm

The Chairman/owner of Plymouth Argyle with a piece on their current financial situation and general chat - this is the kind of openness most fans dream of and is becoming much more a feature at clubs in Leagues 1 and 3 especially - I suspect that the reticence for such an approach in the Premier League is in part down to guidance by the league itself

https://www.pafc.co.uk/news/2020/octobe ... mans-chat/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:08 pm

We should be getting an insight into those Manchester United 2019/20 financial results in the next hour or so as the analyst call is scheduled to start at 1pm

If you are interested in following the updates the Manchester Evening News will be listening in and sharing detail as it is divulged

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk ... e-19140058

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:36 pm

First details coming through on those Manchester United results - this from ESPN

Man United financial results: Debt up 133%, revenue down, losses of £23.2m amid COVID-19
play

12:17 PM Rob Dawson Correspondent

Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has said the clb are having to "carefully manage resources" because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as the club's latest financial results showed net debt has increased by 133% to £474.1 million.

As well as the huge increase in debt, United's fourth quarter and full financial year results also showed a revenue drop of 19% to £509m and a loss of £23.2m compared to a £18.9m profit made last year -- all largely because of effect of COVID-19.

"Our focus remains on protecting the health of our colleagues, fans and community while adapting to the significant economic ramifications of the pandemic," Woodward said. "Within that context, our top priority is to get fans back into the stadium safely and as soon as possible.

"We are also committed to playing a constructive role in helping the wider football pyramid through this period of adversity, while exploring options for making the English game stronger and more sustainable in the long-term.

"This requires strategic vision and leadership from all stakeholders, and we look forward to helping drive forward that process in a timely manner.

"On the pitch, we have strengthened the team over the summer and we remain committed to our objective of winning trophies, playing entertaining, attacking football with a blend of academy graduates and high-quality recruits, while carefully managing our resources to protect the long-term resilience of the club."

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:38 pm

and this in the MAil

Manchester United announce debt has SOARED to £474.1MILLION... but new figures reveal six-month extension with shirt sponsor Chevrolet to secure additional £11m amid backdrop of pandemic
- Manchester United have announced their latest round of financial results
- Results for the year ending June 30, showed revenue go from £627.1m to £509m
- United's debt amid the coronavirus pandemic has also escalated 133 per cent
- The debt increase took the figure to £474.1m in a tough period for the league
- Games behind closed doors and a reduction in broadcast income had an impact
- One boost on Wednesday showed an £11m six-month extension with Chevrolet
By MIKE KEEGAN FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 12:13, 21 October 2020 | UPDATED: 12:32, 21 October 2020


Manchester United have announced that their debt has surpassed £474million after their income was massively reduced by the impact of coronavirus.

United saw a £23.2m loss accumulated for the 2019-20 season, which was due mainly to 41.9 per cent drop in broadcasting income.

But United’s net debt is up to £474.1m from £203.6m 12 months ago, which equates to a staggering 132.9 per cent rise.

The club say the rise is down to Covid-19 and player spending and that the net debt – which relates to the Glazer family’s leveraged takeover – remains the same.

However, the balance sheet will benefit from an £11m six-month extension to the club's deal with shirt sponsor Chevrolet .

Revenue dropped by 19 per cent to £509m and it was another difficult read for United supporters in what has been a tricky year of rising debt and diminishing revenue.

'Our focus remains on the health of our colleagues, fans and community while adapting to the significant economic ramifications of the pandemic,' executive vice chairman Ed Woodward said following the release.

'Within that context our top priority is to get fans back into the stadium safely and as soon as possible.

'We are also committed to playing a constructive role in helping the wider football pyramid through this period of adversity.'

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:43 pm

Businesswire with more detail on those Manchester United financial results

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/ ... 20-Results

there are some interesting end of year financial treatments going on here as a direct consequence of the 30th June year end being retained - something our clubs have said they will not do - consequently a fair piece of broadcast income (and no doubt performance bonuses) have been passed over to the 2020/21 accounts

One for our resident accountants to have a look at

also seems that the club will be paying it's usual dividend despite the losses

https://twitter.com/mjshrimper/status/1 ... 8586542082

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by TVC15 » Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:57 pm

Interesting CP - cash and cash equivalents decreased by more than £250m in last 12 months with only £80m of this a technical reduction from some delayed sponsorship. Rest relates to exchange rate changes, impact of Covid on match day revenues etc
The principal debt to the Glazers has stayed the same though.

Nearly £20m gone out in compensation to previous managers - that won’t change for a while either given it’s likely to be a combination of Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho (3 salary deals which no doubt increased with each manager !!)

But the really interesting thing here will be next years accounts - on this trajectory I think they will be using their £150m revolving credit facility pretty soon - if they are not already. Would be amazed if they don’t post significant losses in the next 12 months - just like every other club in the league i’m guessing.

Hardly any surprise they are stepping up the pressure to change how football revenue is distributed in this country. There’s no way they want to reign in their spend on transfer fees or wages when they still regard themselves as the ‘richest’ club in the world.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:05 pm

TVC15 wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 1:57 pm
Interesting CP - cash and cash equivalents decreased by more than £250m in last 12 months with only £80m of this a technical reduction from some delayed sponsorship. Rest relates to exchange rate changes, impact of Covid on match day revenues etc
The principal debt to the Glazers has stayed the same though.

Nearly £20m gone out in compensation to previous managers - that won’t change for a while either given it’s likely to be a combination of Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho (3 salary deals which no doubt increased with each manager !!)

But the really interesting thing here will be next years accounts - on this trajectory I think they will be using their £150m revolving credit facility pretty soon - if they are not already. Would be amazed if they don’t post significant losses in the next 12 months - just like every other club in the league i’m guessing.

Hardly any surprise they are stepping up the pressure to change how football revenue is distributed in this country. There’s no way they want to reign in their spend on transfer fees or wages when they still regard themselves as the ‘richest’ club in the world.
Now that we have it from the major financial force in UK football - even though i feel a lot of the loss has been heavily disguised (possibly for a regulatory reason I am not aware of) do we think the doubters will believe us now after what a few of us have been saying about our clubs financial position.

From what I have seen so far I think there is still very little information regarding a number of key Premier League issues
- lost China TV revenues
- TV rebates this season
- cost of covid management protocols
- bidding expectations on next TV cycle

probably many more points you can come up with too

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:07 pm

@SportingIntel with some thoughts on yesterdays European Premier League story - the opening salvo pre the final negotiations for a post 2024 UEFA Club competition landscape

https://twitter.com/sportingintel/statu ... 9497894913

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:42 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 12:43 pm
Businesswire with more detail on those Manchester United financial results

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/ ... 20-Results

there are some interesting end of year financial treatments going on here as a direct consequence of the 30th June year end being retained - something our clubs have said they will not do - consequently a fair piece of broadcast income (and no doubt performance bonuses) have been passed over to the 2020/21 accounts

One for our resident accountants to have a look at

also seems that the club will be paying it's usual dividend despite the losses

https://twitter.com/mjshrimper/status/1 ... 8586542082
First reaction from me is the fall in Turnover is even more dramatic than anticipated, particularly in the area of Broadcast Revenue. A staggering reduction of £101m in broadcast income from £241.2m to £140.2m, some 41.9% will have shocked many analysts.

Even allowing for their non-participation in the Champions League that level of reduction is massive. It appears that some £14m was included for broadcast rebates (Burnley figure will be £13.4m, I think). Remarkably the final quarter broadcast figure was a mere £16.6m within the total year of £140m and if that's an indicator of what lies ahead in the new financial year then they really are in trouble.

Time limited for me right now, but will take a more detailed look later in the week.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:49 pm

Royboyclaret wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:42 pm
First reaction from me is the fall in Turnover is even more dramatic than anticipated, particularly in the area of Broadcast Revenue. A staggering reduction of £101m in broadcast income from £241.2m to £140.2m, some 41.9% will have shocked many analysts.

Even allowing for their non-participation in the Champions League that level of reduction is massive. It appears that some £14m was included for broadcast rebates (Burnley figure will be £13.4m, I think). Remarkably the final quarter broadcast figure was a mere £16.6m within the total year of £140m and if that's an indicator of what lies ahead in the new financial year then they really are in trouble.

Time limited for me right now, but will take a more detailed look later in the week.
The key here Roy is that it does not cover the final 10 games of their season (Premier League, Europa League and FA Cup - so it is not an accurate picture of the season - there is quite a bit of income there

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:58 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:49 pm
The key here Roy is that it does not cover the final 10 games of their season (Premier League, Europa League and FA Cup - so it is not an accurate picture of the season - there is quite a bit of income there
But that's reflected in the fall in Matchday Revenue of £89.8m from £110m, which is severe I agree, but pales into insignificance compared to the highlighted drop in Broadcast Revenue.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 3:10 pm

Royboyclaret wrote:
Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:58 pm
But that's reflected in the fall in Matchday Revenue of £89.8m from £110m, which is severe I agree, but pales into insignificance compared to the highlighted drop in Broadcast Revenue.
Roy I took it to mean that they have not included the broadcast revenue from those games either (which makes me question if they have included the merit payments at the end of season too. Plenty of complexities created with the season running over the end of the financial year as we have previously discussed - you can see it in the wages too - I do not see how they could have reduced wages by £48m without the fact that 2019/20 bonuses are being included in the 2020/21 accounts because of the time they were determined as a result of restart.

EDIT it is clearly outlined here that the broadcast revenues from those games have been passed over to the current season

https://twitter.com/Lu_Class_/status/13 ... 9742965761
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Oct 21, 2020 3:18 pm

Vysyble with some observations on those Manchester United 2019/20 financial results

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1318895126643658752

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1318899906803867648

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