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 » Tue Apr 02, 2019 7:40 pm

randomclaret2 wrote:Salford City lost £1.8million in the Conference North in 17/18
Shocking Accy Stanley were Champions of League 2 last season on a £2.6m revenue


http://priceoffootball.com/tag/accrington-stanley/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Apr 02, 2019 7:46 pm

More on that Salford story from @Kieran Maguirre

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 3252383744" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Apr 02, 2019 8:29 pm

Derby have taken an old fashioned rout to avoiding FFP (or at least raising funds that are not classed as loans for clubs that are in financial difficulty) they have "sold" Pride Park to another of the Chairman's companies - and this has led them to posting a £14.6m profit on their latest set of accounts. We know from our own experience that this kind of thing only creates dread in the fanbase.

Pride Park had a book value in the Accounts of £41m and Independent Market Valuation was £80m so Mel paid that giving them £39m profit on the deal

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/ ... it-2711655" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47789258" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sheffield Wednesday (also under the threat of FFP) fans think it's a great idea and are urging their owner to do the same.

We await the accounts with interest - all discussed on Radio Derby here from 8:50 in - includes @KieranMaguirre reminding us they did something clever last season by transferring 100 staff to a different company,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p072zj4z" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Apr 03, 2019 11:10 am

Posted on Tuesday that West Brom had announced their financial results from the relegation season but no real detail could be found anywhere - now we have it - such a fine line within that group of 14 if it goes wrong even though you have invested. Also with a bit of analysis

@KieranMaguirre doing his thing

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 6665878529" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

full accounts

https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/docu ... 97d101d130" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EDIT - This is a good overview of their figures

https://twitter.com/OffThePitch_com/sta ... 6081599489" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Last edited by Chester Perry on Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

aggi
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by aggi » Wed Apr 03, 2019 12:05 pm

I note that Newcastle have still not filed their accounts. It seems they were overdue the past couple of years so this isn't too surprising. It will be interesting to see what their wage bill was last year, I suspect it will be substantial.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Apr 03, 2019 12:18 pm

aggi wrote:I note that Newcastle have still not filed their accounts. It seems they were overdue the past couple of years so this isn't too surprising. It will be interesting to see what their wage bill was last year, I suspect it will be substantial.
posted last week that they changed year end by a day so that they can post results upp to 3 months later - will be interesting to see if wages match ours when Benitez said we paid more

given the massive spend of Sports direct on the British high street in the last 18 months I suspect there has been little room for extra monies to NUFC - even with the purchase of Almiron

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:09 pm

An argument that there is no Big Six in England just a big five with Spurs looking longingly through the looking glass - not sure I accept it though whatever finances say - very few amongst us these days that can remember when Spurs were not classed as a big club by fans


https://ftballdna.com/2019/04/02/totten ... their-own/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

aggi
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by aggi » Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:37 pm

Chester Perry wrote:posted last week that they changed year end by a day so that they can post results upp to 3 months later - will be interesting to see if wages match ours when Benitez said we paid more

given the massive spend of Sports direct on the British high street in the last 18 months I suspect there has been little room for extra monies to NUFC - even with the purchase of Almiron
I'd missed that as it's only the Parent that has changed its year-end date, NEWCASTLE UNITED LIMITED still has the old filing date but I imagine that's being delayed as that is actually group accounts including the holding company.

I suspect their wages will be in the region of £100m at least. We shall see (but not for a few months).

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:52 pm

One thing for sure Aggi is Mike Ashley would not like this to happen given he already has doubts about the age of Rondon in relation to the value of any deal

https://offthepitch.com/a/permanent-ron ... -if-wba-go" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:07 pm

Posted Monday night (post #745} about the European Leagues gathering in Lisbon following the ECA get together in Amsterdam - they are definitely worried and angry - here the head of La Liga gives both Barrels to ECA and UEFA

https://offthepitch.com/a/eca-there-no- ... ed-cooking" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


the piece ends with a nonsensical bit of football politics/diplomacy praising FIFA of all organisations
Last edited by Chester Perry on Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Vegas Claret
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:08 pm

Chester Perry wrote:An argument that there is no Big Six in England just a big five with Spurs looking longingly through the looking glass - not sure I accept it though whatever finances say - very few amongst us these days that can remember when Spurs were not classed as a big club by fans


https://ftballdna.com/2019/04/02/totten ... their-own/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Big 6 is big 7 - you got to include Wolves now given the finances they have at their disposal

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:14 pm

Vegas we have yet to see just how much they are going to exercise their finances - currently less than Everton and Leicester, possibly even West Ham - but a damn sight smarter though

It will be interesting to see how Wolves develop - given UEFA FFP is much tighter than the PL (and they need European games to grow the club), they need to build revenues and fast to make it sustainable. I am aware they have plans to increase capacity to over 50k but the commercial side will be difficult to grow to the big boys level

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:28 am

We have heard this before, the Premier League is considering toughening up the rules on agents and limiting their fees - next week sees the annual list of payments by club - and if the recently highlighted growth in salaries is anything to go by then this too will be a list of ever increasing expense - with a new television deal coming in again next season we begin a new cycle of cost control before clubs weaken and splurge again. Will this affect the chances of some players coming to the Premier League - time will tell

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

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 2:31 am

Price of Football does a deep dive into our Financial Accounts for 2017/18 - he is very positive about us and has been for quite some time - not bad for a life-long Brighton fan

http://priceoffootball.com/burnley-2017 ... were-dead/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I expect @SwissRamble to do the same in the next day or so

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Thu Apr 04, 2019 5:52 am

good thread CP

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:33 am

Spurs announce new World Record Profits the day they officially open the new Stadium - @KieranMaguirre has a gander

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 3520232449" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43628485" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:48 am

As spurs celebrate their new Stadium and world record profits it is noticeable just how much they have targeted their attending fans and immediate community to develop their financial growth - from all but eradicating small local business at a local trading estate - to wanting to redevelop the high street environment around the by build a new shopping centre that is in keeping with their preferred image - to bulldozing local shops to provide a more direct pedestrianised route from the soon to be renamed White Hart Lane Station. For Fans though they are really beginning to feel the pinch as ticket prices appear to be on a continual rise

https://offthepitch.com/a/tottenham-onl ... t-10-years" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Thu Apr 04, 2019 12:03 pm

Chester Perry wrote:Spurs announce new World Record Profits the day they officially open the new Stadium - @KieranMaguirre has a gander

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 3520232449" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43628485" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Wow, that's an exceptional off the pitch performance by Tottenham.

£157m Operating Profit, positively eye-watering.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 12:15 pm

Royboyclaret wrote:Wow, that's an exceptional off the pitch performance by Tottenham.

£157m Operating Profit, positively eye-watering.
not unlike the debt they have accrued in the last 2 years - good job the can pour 10k pints a minute because they are going to have to sell an awful lot to pay that off

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 12:27 pm

Oxford United the latest to face a winding up order - this time over unpaid rent for the use of the Stadium

https://twitter.com/bbcoxfordsport/stat ... 9766313984" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

that splitting of club and ground never seems to go well - what do you think Mel (see post #753)

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Thu Apr 04, 2019 12:36 pm

Chester Perry wrote:Price of Football does a deep dive into our Financial Accounts for 2017/18 - he is very positive about us and has been for quite some time - not bad for a life-long Brighton fan

http://priceoffootball.com/burnley-2017 ... were-dead/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I expect @SwissRamble to do the same in the next day or so
Very fair summary of our accounts.

The issue I continue to have with Keiran Maguire is that on occasions some of the comparison graphs he produces portray a distorted view of reality. For example on the Wages graph for Burnley it appears that we have trebled the figure in two years from £27m to £81m, but he is not comparing like for like.

2017 & 2108 totals include significant consolidated bonuses whereas the 2016 accounts showed bonuses separate to basic wages. That £27.1m figure needs increasing by £12.1m bonuses in order to show a true comparison. The total of over £39m then effectively doubles in the latest accounts, which is stark enough without making the difference appear even greater.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 12:36 pm

Going back to Spurs world record figures - What is noticeable about the last 3 clubs to break the record is that they are all English on the current mega TV deal and progressed deep into the Champions League on that competitions new TV deal - Andrea Agnelli must be deeply frustrated

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Peebs89 » Thu Apr 04, 2019 12:39 pm

"Burnley Football Club paid a total amount of £3,975,928 to agents in the 12-month period of 1 February, 2018 to 31 January, 2019.

These payments are made public pursuant to the requirements of the FA Regulations on Working with Intermediaries.

AFC BOURNEMOUTH: £10,295,433
ARSENAL: £11,181,730
BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION: £6,859,429
BURNLEY: £3,975,928
CARDIFF CITY: £2,802,375
CHELSEA: £26,850,552
CRYSTAL PALACE: £6,976,425
EVERTON: £19,116,370
FULHAM: £8,234,360
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN: £5,023,807
LEICESTER CITY: £12,720,618
LIVERPOOL: £43,795,863
MANCHESTER CITY: £24,122,753
MANCHESTER UNITED: £20,759,350
NEWCASTLE UNITED: £8,868,027
SOUTHAMPTON: £6,151,107
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: £11,141,255
WATFORD: £10,894,179
WEST HAM UNITED: £14,414,845
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS: £6,479,714"

https://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/new ... tA.twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Liverpool's spend on agents' fees looks pretty astonishing — almost £20 million more than City.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 12:55 pm

Thanks Peebs - explains the desire of the PL re tightening things up for agents - (post #763)

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 1:20 pm

Leeds have posted their figures for last season - saved from FFP by Chris Wood to Burnley?


https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 6694239232" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 6:50 pm

Following the recent spate of clubs not paying wages in the EFL - Darragh MacAnthony owner of Peterborough has come up with a novel idea for dealing with the issue - not sure it will take off though

https://twitter.com/DMAC102/status/1113822346396278789" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 7:00 pm

Introduced the concept of Economic Profit last week (far from universally welcomed here or in the financial world) there do seem to be a few clubs that quite like it though - Vysyble (professional Analysts) have come up with the top and worst performers by this measure. Interesting which are the most successful in picking up the trophies though

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1113833911237455872" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:00 pm

I post quite a bit about the ECA and Andrea Agnelli and the ongoing desire of European clubs to find ways of combatting the power of the Premier League to make money - seems like the little get together in Amsterdam has got some of our big clubs flustered - from the Telegraph, likely to fall behind a paywall shortly so copied in full.

Premier League sides to discuss threat of new proposals by European rivals to revamp Champions League - Sam Wallace, Chief Football Writer

The threat of new proposals by European clubs to revamp the Champions League that could mean the top four in the Premier League do not automatically qualify for the competition will be discussed by the 20 top-flight English clubs at their shareholder meeting on Friday.
Major discussions took place last month between some of Europe’s leading clubs over the future format of the Champions League which includes the introduction of a qualification co-efficient that favours historical powers, when the current broadcast deal runs out in 2024,.

The spectre of “access lists”, which confer guaranteed qualification to established clubs, would have a major effect on the dynamic of the Premier League, where the battle for the top four is one of the defining competitive factors. It would also challenge the fundamental principle that European football is not a right and has to be earned every season via the domestic league.

Also being discussed by the Premier League is the proposal by the European Club Association, which represents member clubs across Europe, that the Champions League could switch to a first-round format of four groups of eight teams each. That would increase the number of group-stage games played by each club from six to 14 and have a direct impact on the domestic league, with the added threat of European games being played at the weekend.

Yesterday Aleksander Ceferin, the Uefa president, denied Europe's governing body had held any discussions over staging European club football at weekend. “We haven’t discussed weekends, just to clear that up once and for all,” Ceferin told Press Association Sport.

The decision to place the item on the agenda demonstrates that the Premier League is taking the long-term threat to the league by an expanded Champions League seriously. The Bundesliga, which does not have the same cycle of selling rights as Uefa and the Champions League, has already discussed legal action if its 2024-2025 domestic season is disrupted by more fixtures for clubs in European

The proposals are being driven by European clubs, many of them frustrated at the huge advantage that the Premier League holds over them in terms of the value of its broadcasts. The Premier League is now close to finalising all its overseas broadcast deals for the next three-year cycle of rights from the start of next season and expects the total revenue to be around £4.05 billion. That comes on top of the £5 billion it earns for domestic rights from Sky, BT Sport and Amazon Prime.

One of the key forces calling for change in European club competition is Andrea Agnelli, chairman of Juventus and also the ECA, who has championed the reduction of domestic games, including 18-team top flights and only one domestic cup competition. It is likely that any attempt by Uefa or European clubs to take pre-eminence in the football calendar from domestic leagues would be met with a legal challenge.

The revamping of the Champions League will be discussed again in May when the ECA are scheduled to meet Ceferin and the proposal for a closed competition, in which participation is guaranteed, will be on the agenda once again.

The Premier League will also update the clubs on the appointment of a new chief executive, a position still vacant after the departure of executive chairman Richard Scudamore at the end of next year. There is unlikely to be a new candidate in the post before the start of next season following the decision by the previous appointee, Susanna Dinnage, to decide against taking up the job.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:09 am

Others starting to pick-up on Spurs debt revealed amid the fanfare of operational profits yesterday (see post #769) are they big enough to deal with them, They do not have the residential real estate that Arsenal had at Highbury - which paid for such a huge proportion of the emirates stadium (or the title sponsor) and we know Arsenal struggled to keep up with the biggest spenders (even with what are still the most expensive season tickets in the English game.


https://offthepitch.com/a/spurs-closing ... ebt-levels" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:31 am

seems like there is 2 prong attack on Agents (see post #762) with HMRC now writng to a large number in regard to fraudulent activity - this from the Times

Agents to face tax crackdown after ‘serious allegations of fraud’ - Matt Hughes, Sports News Correspondent

Nearly 2,000 football agents have received letters from HMRC warning them that they may face tax investigations after “serious allegations of fraud”.

The letter, sent last Wednesday by HMRC’s deputy director, Kerry Singleton, is part of a new investigation into transfer activity and specifically the fees that are paid to agents.

HMRC is already investigating payments made by 38 agents, 40 clubs and 173 players, and is considering whether to open more investigations.
The government has recovered an additional £355 million in tax from football since 2015-16 but after receiving anonymous tip-offs believes that a number of agents are continuing to avoid tax through fraudulent means. The number of agents under investigation has increased from 31 to 38 in the third quarter of the 2018-19 financial year, with their alleged offences understood to include irregularities relating to image rights and dual representation. Premier League clubs paid £211 million in agent fees during the 2017-18 season, a £37 million increase on the previous season, with HMRC determined to ensure the correct amount of tax is paid on that income.

In a letter dated March 20 sent to all of the 1,900 intermediaries registered with the FA, which has been seen by The Times, HMRC outlines its concerns, stating that in its analysis of tax returns it is scrutinising those where amounts that are shown as work for clubs or players looks to be unrealistic.

In its audit HMRC says it is reviewing information received to check if the work done by agents is being correctly described and if VAT has been correctly applied to all transactions, and it is looking at who receives the money and for what commercial purpose they have received it if a payment is made.

HMRC is particularly concerned about agent fees being split in transfers involving multiple intermediaries, with some of the recipients avoiding tax, as well as the practice of dual representation, where an agent acts for the player and club in the same transaction.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:48 am

An in depth article that summarises the 6 challenges facing Richard Scudamore's (still unfound) replacement) at the Premier League which underline why it has been so difficult to find someone willing to face up to the challenge - all know and highlighted here to varying levels -though not enough play on the vastly different ambitions of the various member clubs - from the new and so far excellent site Football DNA

https://ftballdna.com/2019/04/05/is-the ... ak-season/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
This user liked this post: Falcon

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by claptrappers_union » Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:56 am

The Premier League should hire Vince McMahon

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Apr 05, 2019 10:58 am

We have known for over a year now that FIFA is keen to build new/remould existing competitions as a result of a proposed £25bn deal (money talks). Throughout that time it has been claimed that Softbank's Vision fund (largely financed from Saudi Arabia) is behind the proposal, but just who/hat is Softbank? This article from Wired Magazine gives us an insight (warning it gets quite deep as per the magazines want)

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/softbank-vision-fund" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:13 pm

claptrappers_union wrote:The Premier League should hire Vince McMahon
I take it you don't think it is enough of a circus already

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:08 pm

Following Derby announcing their financial results earlier in the week - so they could shape the story about them - they have now posted them with Companies House - @KieranMaguirre who has been quite vocal/critical of this approach takes a look at the "Machinations of Mel" (my phrase)

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 2156800000" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:42 pm

I have posted before about the importance for Burnley as a town in having a Premier League team, I have also posted the report Liverpool made into the Economic Impact they have on the local and regional economy, this week I have questioned the gentrification of Hackney by Spurs as part of their desire for revenue growth. There is growing recognition of both the Economic and Social Impact of football clubs and their communities. EY (Ernst & Young Consulting to us older people) have published their annual report on the topic based at Premier League level.

https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAsse ... y-2019.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Given it was commissioned by the Premier League do not expect it to be critical
Last edited by Chester Perry on Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Apr 05, 2019 5:04 pm

going back to post #778 from yesterday - the Premier League have released a statement condemning the plans to reshape the Champs League

https://www.premierleague.com/news/1169225" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This seems to be a key outcome for all the Leagues that met in Lisbon a few days ago


https://offthepitch.com/a/premier-leagu ... per-league" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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

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

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:12 pm

Crystal Palace have released their financial results for last season and they are quite startling - £750K a week loss from trading - ouch and on a revenue of £150m - that is what happens when wages are £117 and amortisation on players is £46m

@KieranMaguire has a gander

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 1593315328" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the full results are here

https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/docu ... 1048d2b04c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:35 pm

It is a discussion I have kept well out of - but this is the best conversation I have heard as to how Brexit will affect the Premier League - shame it has to come from an Australian radio station - @KieranMaguirre answers the questions

https://omny.fm/shows/cameron-reddin/ho ... ue-forever" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

btw - I have always thought that Brexit would make overseas recruitment extremely difficult for us as we cannot afford established stars

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:49 pm

Posted a bit about soft power especially China and the Gulf states recently as part of the general idea of why vast quantities of money flow into the game we love. He is an informative article articulating why Qatar has employed such a strategy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/fash ... ckade.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:56 pm

Football DNA again - this time on Agents following this weeks annual figures for English clubs payments to Football Intermediaries as they are officially known - this has fast become a site recognised for quality output

https://ftballdna.com/2019/04/05/agents-of-misery/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Apr 06, 2019 1:20 pm

In post #737 Andy Holt owner/chaiman at Accy effectively said that the Solidarity payments to the Football league would be reduced (even though combined rights revenues to the Premier League would go up)) today he has confirmed the EFL agreed to it without pitching it to it's members

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 6223842304" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - naturally the EFL have not said a word about it to the public

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Apr 06, 2019 11:13 pm

Price of Football does that deep dive thing on Crystal Palace results - the things a Bighton fan will do when they just lost at Wembley (again)

http://priceoffootball.com/crystal-pala ... ppy-today/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:32 am

You may have missed that Real Madrid re-launched they efforts to refurbish their stadium this week - The Telegraph asks a few questions and pokes around their finances - I have posted a series of articles over the last few months by the Telegraph as it examines whether things really add-up in Madrid - again behind a paywall so transposed

The eight-year saga of Real Madrid's €575m Bernabeu revamp continues to raise more questions than answers - Sam Wallace - Chief Football Writer

Another re-launch this week of Real Madrid’s future vision for their Bernabeu Stadium, although little mention that they have already done this twice before, once in 2011 and again in January 2014, and on neither occasion have the artists’ impressions progressed to be any more than that.

The CGI version undoubtedly caught the eye, with a steel wrap over the 72-year-old concrete structure first commissioned by Santiago Bernabeu, and lots of talk about new technology and fan experiences. Sadly no extra standard seats for the rank and file punters at a club where membership had been capped at around 92,500 for some time and one might legitimately ask what €575 million actually buys you these days in stadium design.

If only there was someone at the club who knew a bit about large building projects, unless of course you count the autocratic president Florentino Perez, who happens also to be the chairman of ACS, the largest construction company in Spain. He was joined on stage this week by the major of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, who strayed off script by expressing, not unjustifiably, her astonishment that it had taken the club so long.

Coming in the week that Tottenham Hotspur opened their new stadium to general acclaim, having demolished one and built another in its place in the space of less than two years, it was unfortunate timing. As their financial results revealed, Spurs borrowed around £460 million to build their new ground, with a loan facility for more, and have around £100 million cash in hand. No-one is under any illusions that the next few years will be a balancing act between paying for the stadium and maintaining a team capable of challenging for the top four.

The three Madrid Champions League titles of the previous three seasons have proved a convenient distraction from the shambles of their own stadium redevelopment. One should say they have encountered more challenging times in that regard: at the end of the Civil War in 1939, their old Chamartin stadium had been stripped even of its wooden benches, such was the need of a starving population for firewood.

The club’s former president Colonel Ortega, the historian David Goldblatt has written, was executed for his republican sympathies. His successor was imprisoned. Only when the club was put in the hands of one of its former players, Bernabeu, who had served in General Franco’s army, did the dictator find someone he liked. Bernabeu proved so persuasive that it is the belief of many that the concrete that built the stadium came from the same consignment earmarked for Franco’s military monument, The Valley of the Fallen.

It was the Real Madrid membership that paid for the new Chamartin stadium that would come to adopt the name of the project’s instigator. Around 45,000 socios invested in bonds and so the stadium was built. The old footage of workmen hacking away at the ground under a boiling Spanish sun was part of the heritage video at this week’s launch. Strangely, the official website page listing the club’s presidents from 1900 to the present day makes no mention of the doomed Colonel Ortega.

Perez is certainly keen on one old tradition from the 1940s: one of Spain’s richest men also wants the membership to pay for the new stadium. This is doubly important given that the delays over the stadium cost Madrid their first backer, IPIC, an Abu Dhabi energy company who were to have the naming rights. There was the inconvenience of a European Competitions’ commission investigation into the original Las Tablas land deal between the club and the city’s then sympathetic council, which ordered Real Madrid to pay back around €20.3 million of illegal state aid.

Last year, Perez asked the club’s general assembly, a nominal council of elected figures from among the membership that he controls, to grant permission for the club to borrow €575 million for the rebuilding of the Bernabeu. There will be a remodelling of the surrounding area, a bigger scoreboard and a retractable roof at a club that has never required cover in the past. The plans look impressive but the capacity is unchanged and the details were vague.

“New revenues” sounded like a plan to rinse the hospitality market in an “increasingly difficult international football setting" which can be roughly translated as frustration at the lag Spanish footballs broadcast revenues suffer in relation to the Premier League.

More pressing for Perez is where the money comes from this time around. There was no firm indication that financing has been obtained for the new Bernabeu, although rumours abound – from American banks to another bond issue. In the most recent financial results from July of last year the club did factor in a €45 million loss relating to the imminent demolition of the Esquinas shopping mall that adjoins the current stadium. For accounting reasons that may have to come down this summer so the losses do not get passed on to next year’s books.

In the meantime, Spurs, less successful, but now in a position to take on the future have completed their stadium project in much less time than the eight years and counting on the Bernabeu clock. The club from north London do not have 13 European Cups in the cabinet, but they do have a wage bill of £147 million. Madrid will have to address a wage bill of €430 million, second only to Barcelona.

In the meantime we await another summer when the drumbeat from Spain will doubtless be that Madrid are in the market for any number of big name players. Where these astronomical sums are to come from remains a mystery at a club where, eight years on, they are still waiting to rebuild a stadium that will not get any bigger.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:35 am

Also in the Telegraph from Sam Wallace - this short piece on the threat of Andrea Agnelli and his European chums to the Premier League and all football leagues

European envy of the Premier League's TV riches continues to grow

Sooner rather than later the battle will come over the future of the Champions League, because the biggest clubs in Europe outside England are not going to wait around to discover how much the next Premier League round of rights for 2022-2024 exceed their own. The European Club Association big powers lead by Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli want a de facto European League that guarantees them a place every year and many more games.

This is the period of the Premier League’s history when its staunch belief in collective bargaining and fair sharing of the revenue will be tested to its maximum. Friday’s statement of solidarity was a start but just the beginning of a battle that will determine whether the old league system of English football can survive the onset of modern game’s priorities.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Apr 08, 2019 12:44 am

Is it possible that the Premier League would appoint the Spanish League executive who managed to get Barca and Real to accept a shared TV with the rest of the League to improve the competition - the role certainly needs someone who can manage the interests of all

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

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Apr 08, 2019 10:51 am

With the latter stages of the European club competitions kicking off this week @SwissRamble looks at the financials (revenue & wages) of those still in the competitions - The gaps illustrate how comparatively even the competition is in the Premier League (Their are clubs in the Championship that spend more on wages than Ajax for example)

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 5746634752" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Apr 08, 2019 11:25 am

When you are a club with ambition but do not have the funds/sugar daddy to buy the fully developed talents to take your club to the level you aspire to your only option is to develop them yourself. Yet, even at this level you can find yourself out bid and out glamourised by the big boys - it is then you have to get really smart - much has been made in this country in regards to Brentford and last week I highlighted the developments going on at West Brom for over a decade. Here is a series of in-depth articles on AZ Alkmaar and their approach - quite long but also quite stimulating for fans of a club such as ours

https://leadersinsport.com/performance/ ... ig-budget/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://leadersinsport.com/performance/ ... -athletes/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://leadersinsport.com/performance/ ... jn-beuker/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Mon Apr 08, 2019 12:05 pm

Chester Perry wrote:With the latter stages of the European club competitions kicking off this week @SwissRamble looks at the financials (revenue & wages) of those still in the competitions - The gaps illustrate how comparatively even the competition is in the Premier League (Their are clubs in the Championship that spend more on wages than Ajax for example)

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 5746634752" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Remarkable that Burnley have reached a point where our Wage bill is higher than two of the eight remaining Champions League teams.

Ajax in particular, where their players appear to be earning around £28k per week, or half that of the Burnley players.

That said, Ajax look to be a particularly well run club with a Wage/Income ratio of less than 60%. Again very similar to Burnley.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:01 pm

An excellent article in the Times about the proposals for the Champions League post 2024 - behind a paywall (I had to wait for more 1 free article a week to view it) so transposed in full - There is one on there about the Bolton situation I would love to read if anyone can transpose it

Champions League: proposals that ignore what sport is - Oliver Kay, Chief Football Correspondent

It gets crowded in the Billy Wright Stand on match nights at Molineux. On the first-floor landing, outside the executive boxes, fans are drawn to the cabinets that show off memorabilia from Wolverhampton Wanderers’ illustrious past. As well as the shirts and medals, there are front pages of the Sporting Star on the evenings of the club’s FA Cup triumphs in 1949 (“It’s ours!”) and 1960 (“Ours again”). On Tuesday night, in the week that Wolves bid to reach their first final since 1960, those exhibits were attracting quite a crowd.

Other fans found themselves drawn to the artefacts from Wolves’ ventures into Europe in the 1950s — the historic friendly match against Ferenc Puskás’s Honved team in December 1954, which Stan Cullis’s team won 3-2 to be declared unofficial “champions of the world”. A rare dissenting voice at Molineux that evening was the French football writer Gabriel Hanot, who, feeling Wolves’s football to be inferior to that of Real Madrid, proposed in L’Équipe that “a European championship be organised between clubs. Then Wolves really could prove they are the best.”

That was the catalyst for the European Cup, which was launched the following season, with invitations extended to a representative of Europe’s 16 leading nations. The English invitation went to Chelsea, who beat Wolves to the league title in 1954-55, but their involvement was blocked by the FA and the Football League, who, depressingly and not untypically, saw no future in a concept dreamt up by Johnny Foreigner. (Manchester United, under Matt Busby, would defy that veto a year later.) The entrants included Real, AC Milan, PSV Eindhoven and Sporting Lisbon but also, reflecting the era, names that resonate less loudly across Europe these days: Aarhus, Djurgardens, Gwardia Warsaw, Voros Lobogo (now MTK Budapest) and, closer to home, Hibernian.

West Germany were represented by Rot-Weiss Essen (though Saarland, then under French occupation, were represented by Saarbrücken). Bayern Munich? They had just been relegated from the Oberliga Sud and would not even be among the 16 clubs selected to join the Bundesliga in 1963. Paris Saint-Germain? They were not even founded until a merger in 1970 and had only won two French league titles until the transformation that came upon being acquired as a soft-power asset for the Qatari state in 2011.

As Nuno Espírito Santo says several times in every press conference, this is football. Empires rise and empires fall. Wolves fell into financial difficulties in the mid-1980s and were relegated from the old First Division to the Fourth Division in consecutive seasons. They briefly found their way back to the top flight under Sir Jack Hayward’s ownership in 2003 and six years later under Steve Morgan, and now, finally, seventh in the Premier League and looking forward to an FA Cup semi-final tomorrow, they seem genuinely resurgent. The manner of this resurgence — built on the calibre of coach and players they have been able to sign with considerable help from the Gestifute agency, which is part-owned by Wolves’s Chinese owners Fosun International — sits uncomfortably with many of us, but then again so does much else about the modern game. This is football, the 21st-century way.

Whatever the rest of the season has in store, Wolves should be setting their long-term ambitions higher and higher. This season, the Premier League. Next season, the Europa League? Beyond that . . . the Champions League?

The obvious riposte is to say that the Champions League is already a closed shop — that it is the same clubs who qualify every season, that the later stages are always dominated by the biggest clubs from England, Spain and, to a lesser extent, Germany, Italy and France, even if Ajax’s resurgence this year carries distant echoes of a more meritocratic age — but, if the ECA has its way, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Do not bet on it. Even if they or Everton or Leicester City or West Ham United or anyone else can break the mighty stranglehold of the Premier League’s “big six”, never mind force their way into the top four, there are plans afoot to tighten the admissions policy for the Champions League. As detailed in The Times yesterday, the European Club Association (ECA) is lobbying for a revamp that would effectively see the Champions League operate as a closed shop from 2024-25 onwards.

The three-tier structure proposed by the ECA would result in an elite competition open to 32 clubs, 24 of whom would be retained for the following season regardless of league performance. There would be the threat of relegation to a second tier, but even then there are plans to retain wild-card places, on the basis of past European performance, for big clubs who may not qualify. Great if you are AC Milan or another of the sleeping giants from the Champions League era. Dreadful if you are Celtic or Red Star Belgrade or another of those great clubs who, through no fault of their own, have been left behind by the inequalities of the modern game, or if you are Wolves or any other club hoping to challenge the Champions League elite in their own country.

It was heartening to see the Premier League clubs, as a collective, condemn these proposals yesterday. In a statement, the 20 clubs expressed “significant concerns” about the ECA’s plans and “unanimously agreed it is inappropriate for European football bodies” to threaten such upheaval. Yet there is certainly a feeling at board level among some of the richest Premier League clubs that a new Champions League format, which will guarantee more matches between the most commercially successful teams, is inevitable in the long term. Some feel it desirable.

The European football landscape has been changed dramatically by the elitism that the Champions League has brought, causing vast inequalities between leagues and within leagues. It seems almost impossibly romantic in 2019 that Ajax, four-times European champions, have reached a Champions League quarter-final for the first time in 16 years. The priority for the ECA’s 230 members should be to try to restore some modicum of competitive balance, but no, of course the agenda is dictated by the biggest clubs, who dominate the organisation’s executive structure. They want the supremacy of their elite to be ringfenced, not challenged.

These clubs want guaranteed Champions League qualification, guaranteed matches against each other, guaranteed broadcast, commercial and matchday revenue of a level far beyond that which comes when they have to play against clubs such as Celtic and PSV Eindhoven, never mind AEK Athens and Red Star Belgrade. In the minds of the self-perpetuating elite, those are second-class or third-class clubs, not worthy of the biggest stage or the biggest revenue streams. They can have their own competition, a sideshow, away from the main event.

It is just as well, for the likes of PSG and indeed Chelsea, Manchester City and Atletico Madrid, that the European football landscape was not redrawn like this a decade or two earlier. In fact, it is just as well for Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern, Juventus and others that it was not a closed shop from the start. Throughout its history, football’s appeal has been increased by the possibility of upward mobility. Access to the biggest competitions and biggest prizes has never been more exclusive than now. To go even further in that direction would be an affront to competition.

Let us not forget what European competition’s appeal is based on: not just excellence but a taste of the exotic. That is what made those floodlit friendlies at Molineux and elsewhere in the 1950s so enthralling, leading to the European Cup as we knew it and then, ultimately, to a Champions League which has brought more games between the biggest clubs, raising the standard of the competition like never before.

But these latest proposals? They stink of entitlement and greed and a total ignorance of what the sport is and what it should be. They are an outrage, particularly to those who know their football history and those, like the fans gathered on that landing at Molineux on Tuesday, who dream of recapturing past glories.

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