Football's Magic Money Tree

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Jan 21, 2023 7:34 pm

Cirrus_Minor wrote:
Tue Jan 17, 2023 6:30 pm
Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe now poised to buy Manchester United.
Sam Wallace in the Telegraph on the difficulty of finding buyers with the means to buy Manchester United (and indeed Liverpool) given current owner price expectations

Too big, too expensive to buy – Manchester United stuck in a quandary
£5 billion is an outrageous figure for a football club - it is no wonder interest has been slow

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fw ... uandary%2F

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Jan 21, 2023 8:36 pm

Long time followers of this thread will be aware of this, some may have forgotten - Barcelona President Joan Laporta reminds the world that FIFA President Gianni Infantino was supportive of the Super League idea (I suspect he still is and wants it to come under FIFA's umbrella) - Martyn Zeigler in The Times

Gianni Infantino was open to Super League talks, claims Barcelona president
https://archive.is/IKHXk

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jan 22, 2023 12:19 am

It feels like we have been here before with Philippe Auclair and an investigative series in the football journal Josimar a couple of years back during the first Covid Lockdown I think

Warning it features our sponsors BK8 - from the Daily Mail

MPs call for investigation into extraordinary story of 10 Premier League clubs with eight online betting partners targeting Asia, all linked to one company in the Isle of Man - and its mysterious ties to Chinese 'triad' who's just been jailed for 18 years
- Chinese billionaire Alvin Chau was recently sentenced to 18 years in prison
- Chau has ties with a British tech company working with clubs' betting partners
- The Premier League have faced calls from MPs for these links to be investigated

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fw ... tners.html

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jan 22, 2023 12:12 pm

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Fri Jan 20, 2023 10:56 pm
15 point deduction announced tonight
Piece about the Juventus points deduction in The Athletic from James Horncastle that looks at the wider implications for the Italian game and notes that there are still other ongoing investigations going on in relation to the clubs activities

The Juventus scandal is awful for the whole of Serie A. It could be crippling
https://archive.is/DVQ8P

of course one of the key architects of the activities that have led to this situation is Fabio Paratici now Director of Football at Spurs but recently banned from Italian football - things are getting uncomfortable at Tottenham from a number of angles now.

Silent Spurs have questions to answer over Paratici
https://archive.is/Q456q

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jan 23, 2023 10:39 am

RVclaret wrote:
Thu Jan 19, 2023 3:01 pm
https://www.pnefc.net/news/2023/january ... ighlights/

16.8m loss for PNE
Swiss Ramble has a look at those Preston North End 2021/22 financial results

https://swissramble.substack.com/p/pres ... email=true

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jan 23, 2023 2:32 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Sun Jan 22, 2023 12:19 am
It feels like we have been here before with Philippe Auclair and an investigative series in the football journal Josimar a couple of years back during the first Covid Lockdown I think

Warning it features our sponsors BK8 - from the Daily Mail

MPs call for investigation into extraordinary story of 10 Premier League clubs with eight online betting partners targeting Asia, all linked to one company in the Isle of Man - and its mysterious ties to Chinese 'triad' who's just been jailed for 18 years
- Chinese billionaire Alvin Chau was recently sentenced to 18 years in prison
- Chau has ties with a British tech company working with clubs' betting partners
- The Premier League have faced calls from MPs for these links to be investigated

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fw ... tners.html
More strange goings on in the world of gambling and it's relationship with football - this comes courtesy of Josimar. As ever it is a lengthy and extensively researched piece looking at the rather murky world of 1XBet whose sponsorships of Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs were dropped following the illegal invasion of the Ukraine by Russia.

It appears that due diligence on these deals is still absent from the game

Bankrupt and expanding
https://archive.is/y70x5

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:09 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Sat Jan 21, 2023 12:18 am
This is Interesting in terms of the FIFA statute on contract length, but for now that is also the longest period they can amortise over in my understanding - Chelsea cannot just trigger the extensions immediately, they have to wait until contracts and statutes allow - From the Mail

AHEAD OF THE GAME: Chelsea are accused of using long-term deals to cheat FFP rules
Chelsea have been accused of cheating the Premier League's Financial Fair Play

By MATT HUGHES FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 22:30, 20 January 2023 | UPDATED: 22:45, 20 January 2023

Chelsea have been accused of using long-term contracts to cheat the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play rules.

According to FIFA statutes, clubs are only permitted to give players contracts of up to five years, but Chelsea have been routinely handing out far longer deals this season.

Ukraine winger Mykhailo Mudryk signed for eight-and-a-half years and French defender Benoit Badiashile for six-and-a-half years this month, after the arrivals of Wesley Fofana and Marc Cucurella on seven- and six-year deals respectively last summer.

Chelsea have got round FIFA’s restrictions by registering the additional years in each player’s contract as a club-triggered option to extend, but some of their Premier League rivals are convinced this is really a ruse to circumnavigate FFP.

Chelsea have spent a Premier League-record £416million on new players this season, an incredible outlay which has been possible only due to accounting rules that permit transfer fees to be spread across the duration of a player’s contract for FFP purposes.

The £88m Mudryk fee will therefore cost Chelsea just £10m a year when they submit their accounts to the Premier League for FFP monitoring at the end of the season.
With FIFA's 5 year contract ceiling being shown to not be worth the paper it is written on, it appears UEFA are going to try and bolt the behind them - from the Times

Chelsea’s long-term deals prompt Uefa to set five-year limit
https://archive.is/vuClW

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jan 23, 2023 11:20 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Sat Jan 07, 2023 9:48 pm
Martyn Zeigler in the Times reminds us that the Premier Leagues investigation into Manchester City (courtesy of 'Football Leaks') is now into it's 5th year without much in the way of a public statement throughout it's course. Fortunately, unlike UEFA, there is no time limit on such investigations, however many lawyers City employ to delay proceedings

Protracted Manchester City investigation is ‘damaging English game’
https://archive.is/O9J9W
Mike Keegan in the Daily Mail suggesting that the on-going investigation into Manchester City could just fade - Not sure I agree with his reasoning, but city have proven adept with the application of lawyers to stall the process at virtually every step of the way

City probe now a cold case
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... GENDA.html
The Premier League's investigation into Manchester City is in danger of dragging on for so long that the key agitators will no longer be involved in football when it reaches its conclusion.

It has long been known that Manchester United and Liverpool were among the voices calling for action against the champions and were thought to be key to a 2020 bid, revealed by Sportsmail, to get City banned from the Champions League.

However, both are up for sale and, with speculation about further investment from sovereign wealth funds rife, it remains to be seen whether new owners will have the same thirst for blue blood.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jan 24, 2023 3:21 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jan 09, 2023 11:46 pm
This is intriguing, though it is just speculation - would Spurs or PSG going to be the focal point of such a group, Nasser Al Khelaifi is a man with many hats - President of the ECA, EXCO member at UEFA - close ties with FIFA,

from the Telegraph

Qatar in talks with Daniel Levy as they plot post-World Cup investment
Nasser Al-Khelaifi met with Daniel Levy as Qatar set its sights on acquisitions across European sport

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fw ... estment%2F
Adam Crafton in The Athletic looks at what PSG owner QSI intentions are in the Premier League

Qatar and the truth about Tottenham, Manchester United and Liverpool
https://archive.is/ZNLnz

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jan 24, 2023 5:23 pm

More of the annual January football finance nonsense - This time it is Sportico's Premier League club valuations

The story

PREMIER LEAGUE VALUATIONS 2023: MAN UNITED LEADS AT $5.95 BILLION
https://archive.is/KvMpG

the full list of valuations - which for the most part don't look to off what you would expect- notice how far off Leeds are from the agreed price for a sale to 49ers enterprises next January ($530m)and Aston Villa to the capital funding received from their owners that now stands at just shy of £450m (£60m of which has been pumped in since August last year https://find-and-update.company-informa ... ng-history)
https://www.sportico.com/feature/premie ... 234707256/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Tue Jan 24, 2023 5:45 pm

Screenshot_20230124-131248~2.png
Screenshot_20230124-131248~2.png (59.69 KiB) Viewed 2768 times
I'd like to contest the Brighton valuation, because I've been told they're worth billions.....

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jan 24, 2023 6:01 pm

Last week Bournemouth joined the Premier multi-club bandwagon

https://twitter.com/CIESsportsintel/sta ... 4170716161

Image

this means that exactly half are in some way under the model

https://twitter.com/CIESsportsintel/sta ... 1975596034

Image

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jan 24, 2023 9:00 pm

Everton are now officially up for sale

asking price not to far from the valuation Sportico have just given them, but seems high given losses, league position and debts - not least to Moshri himself - who has funded the stadium to the tune of £450m so far - the asking price would see him lose over £350m

Everton put up for sale by Farhad Moshiri with asking price of over £500m
- Owner open to minority or majority sale of struggling club
- Number of potential buyers express interest in Everton

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -than-500m

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jan 25, 2023 11:58 am

A hugely informative interview with the most influential figure in Spanish Football we have never heard of - Jaume Roures founder of Media Pro - he is one of those that has been quietly working in the background for decades - i see no mention of his role in almost collapsing French League Football

From The Athletic
‘Barca pulling ‘levers’? Real did it first’ — Jaume Roures, the man who crosses Spain’s conflicting football worlds
https://archive.is/BwJ3y

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jan 25, 2023 2:10 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Jan 24, 2023 9:00 pm
Everton are now officially up for sale

asking price not to far from the valuation Sportico have just given them, but seems high given losses, league position and debts - not least to Moshri himself - who has funded the stadium to the tune of £450m so far - the asking price would see him lose over £350m

Everton put up for sale by Farhad Moshiri with asking price of over £500m
- Owner open to minority or majority sale of struggling club
- Number of potential buyers express interest in Everton

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -than-500m
the problem with the contrasting reports of Everton up for sale/not up for sale is that the statement of not being up for sale was known and in the public sphere prior to the West Ham Game and the subsequent sacking of Lampar - the line about bringing in investors with expertise is possibly the most sensible thing Moshiri has said since he took over but can he actually be trusted - this is the man who said the Stadium had a fixed £500m price tag for the last two years until it was announced recently it will now be £760m

Everton: Farhad Moshiri says Toffees are not for sale
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64396928

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:23 pm

This should prove interesting @FairGame have produced as sustainability index and here the Athletic report on on it - not very long ago we would have probably topped this as it is our number appears ignorant of the fact around £81.4m left our club to fund the take over in the last calendar year - or that in the two years since the takeover an equivalent of an astonishing 56%+ of operational revenues (pro rata) for the period have left the club to fund the takeover

The Football Sustainability Index: How well run is your club?
https://archive.is/SBv9e

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:35 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:55 am
I said it was that time of year last week

today Deloitte have published their annual money league report - the 26th edition.

Premier League clubs form:

- 3 of the top 5
- 6 of the top 10
- 11 of the top 20 and
- 16 of the top 30

you can access it here

Deloitte Football Money League 2023
Get up, stand up

https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/s ... eague.html
Today Swiss Ramble looks at the Money League in detail - in case you didn't know it is Deloitte that provide him with all his data

Money League 2021/22
Heaven Up Here

https://swissramble.substack.com/p/mone ... email=true

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:53 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:23 pm
This should prove interesting @FairGame have produced as sustainability index and here the Athletic report on on it - not very long ago we would have probably topped this as it is our number appears ignorant of the fact around £81.4m left our club to fund the take over in the last calendar year - or that in the two years since the takeover an equivalent of an astonishing 56%+ of operational revenues (pro rata) for the period have left the club to fund the takeover

The Football Sustainability Index: How well run is your club?
https://archive.is/SBv9e
The detail on Fair Game's sustainability Index can be found here

https://www.fairgameuk.org/sustainability-index

and the specific report on Burnley here

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... ley+v2.pdf

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jan 26, 2023 2:07 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Fri Jan 13, 2023 3:07 pm
an all too familiar story of an English Football club getting a new owner who spends beyond the means of a club because they are 'ambitious' but gets the decision making badly wrong and reaches a point where they have had enough, and the club finds itself in serious peril - this time we are talking about Scunthorpe - from The Athletic

Special report: Scunthorpe United, a club on the brink
https://archive.is/b8jez
suggestions that there is now a new owner at Scunthorpe - this is the guy who paid the wages at the end of last year

https://twitter.com/mjshrimper/status/1 ... 24/photo/1

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jan 26, 2023 2:17 pm

As a compromising owned interest group argue the disparity in revenues between the haves and have nots is justification for a Super League (without actually acknowledging to the clubs that own them are also part of the privileged few

https://twitter.com/A22Sports/status/16 ... 8170447873

The Athletic looks at the current financial issues for

Manchester United
Manchester United, £2m-a-week losses and financial fair play
https://archive.is/utO5E

and Liverpool
Why Liverpool aren’t spending big despite making more money than Manchester United
https://archive.is/BlEj1#selection-305.0-305.82

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jan 26, 2023 2:32 pm

Meanwhile Investigators in Italian football are spreading the range of their scope - RedBird's takeover of AC Milan is now under scrutiny - Remember they own 10% of FSG the owners of Liverpool

RED BIRD’S ACQUISITION OF MILAN UNDER INVESTIGATION
https://archive.is/aHNEK
https://football-italia.net/red-birds-a ... stigation/

I must stay I am struggling to remember a time when there was so much going on concurrently in the world of football finance

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jan 26, 2023 8:18 pm

this article on the BBC website goes a long way to explaining the current predicament that Juventus find themselves in

Juventus: How and why the Italian giants are in another scandal threatening their future
By Mina Rzouki
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64410846

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jan 27, 2023 12:20 pm

Not sure how this works without the earnings gap between the UEFA Qualifiers/Greedy six and the rest increasing significantly and there weakening the Premier League. - While you look closely multiples are almost the same - between the likes of City/United/Liverpool Chelsea and ourselves in the Premier League and the likes of our local rivals and ourselves in the Championship with Parachute Payments - and the top flight will only get worse when FIFA/UEFA get their way and limit it to 18 clubs (though they really want it to be 16). It is worth noting that how few clubs in the Premier League earn what those 4 do in commercial revenues from their total revenues.

So which is the most significant cliff edge - this is the easy one - it is in the Premier League - why because the Premier League needs a semblance of competition to bring all those revenues that are already supporting the game to levels that are not sustainable without its benevolence, effectively it could be said the EFL are behaving like petulant trust fund kids, particularly when you remember they previously turned down the kind of deal with the Premier League that they are currently seeking.

EFL urges Premier League to halve financial gap with Championship
- EFL makes request as part of settlement for English football
- Premier League open to reducing ‘cliff edge’ between tiers

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... ampionship


\\

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jan 27, 2023 12:49 pm

The Athletic Podcast explains FFG and transfer Loopholes

https://podfollow.com/1488521447/episod ... ecee6/view

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:53 pm

It seems like it is finally coming - well the white paper at least is expected in the next two weeks - from the Times

Football warned to ‘act now’ before regulator leads to ‘huge shake-up’
Government says plans for the independent regulator, likely to be up and running by 2025, will be published in two weeks’ time

https://archive.is/HpYV2

so it is a little bit of a surprise that those whose negligence helped create this problem in the first place are finally waking up to a new order - their slumber has lasted around 4 decades

FA ready to compromise over new independent financial regulator
https://archive.is/ToAlf

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jan 27, 2023 3:57 pm

Meanwhile for those who think the pricing of football clubs has gone mad, particular as it all seems to be based on future media revenues, how about this which features the perspective of one of the new Chelsea owning consortium

TV boom tempting Americans to pay top dollar for Premier League clubs
https://archive.is/jw9LR

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:14 am

It is a debate that feels like it has been going on for years now without anyone making any progress as to a concluding outcome

https://mailchi.mp/3d683843395a/the-bac ... 611562933c

‘It’s only live once!’: Football Broadcasting Pay-Walls and Changing Attention Habits

By Daniel Geey and Nii Anteson

Florentino Perez and countless other football administrators believe the game needs to change to cater for changing viewing habits and shortened attention spans. Many believe it’s more nuanced than that. Whilst we certainly have more distractions readily and constantly available to us, with endless social media streams, instant messages and email at our fingertips on mobile phones, tablets and other screens, young people are regularly spending hours on YouTube, Tiktok, Fortnite, Netflix, Roblox and plenty of other platforms.

It’s not that their attention spans are necessarily shortening; it’s that there are so many platforms competing for finite attention. There is much more digital competition for our attention than there ever used to be. That’s why the idea that football needs to protect its 3pm Saturday games by using the blackout period feels somewhat ‘1990s’ right now. Live football isn’t so unique that televised football content remains its only competitor or substitute. Fans are multi-tasking and multi-screening. Fans can watch a game at a stadium whilst streaming YouTube, accessing TikTok or even watching another match. With mobile devices, it’s not an either/or approach anymore.

In one of his seminal articles, Matthew Ball explained that:

“Fortnite was Netflix’s most threatening competitor (which CEO Reed Hastings said in his investor letter a month later). This is most plainly understood as the idea that everyone is competing for finite attention and there are more applications for this attention than ever before. But the real challenge for Hollywood is that for decades, whenever “leisure” won over “work”, TV was the primary beneficiary. In recent years, the leisure decision has changed or “moved up” a level. It used to be “what to watch” and now it’s “whether to watch” – and the answer is increasingly “no, I’m going to play a game”.[1]”

Football and sport and every other content business is competing for attention and that competition is getting even stronger. Football is competing with Fortnite, not (just) other OTT platforms like Amazon Prime, Disney, Discovery etc. Many believe that football, the EPL, the WSL, the Champions Leagues and the EFL are competing in a significantly broader digital attention economy. It’s wider than football, sport, streaming and gaming. It means to many that restricting the televising of 3pm kick-offs in the UK feels rather antiquated.

There must be more innovative ways to engage fans than to block high quality access to the product. It feels like music’s equivalent to the Napster file sharing moment where people were illegally sharing and downloading music because there wasn’t a quality, accessible, affordable alternative, and then Apple music and Spotify et al showed up. For some time, decoder boxes showing foreign TV pictures of EPL games were endemic (especially in pubs); it’s now streaming’s turn. It appears relatively straightforward to find a streaming link to watch a 3pm game. The real jeopardy is being caught illegally streaming (because the rights holder is not receiving compensation), downloading a virus or the poor quality of the stream.

It leads to other more nuanced questions around whether the EFL or the WSL should be allowed to show games at 3pm rather than have to make do with the slots outside the EPL live weekend window (11:30 on a Saturday morning and 6:30 on a Sunday evening)? The UK is the outlier here. Only England, Scotland and Montenegro take advantage of UEFA’s blackout provisions.

Rights Rationale and PremFlix

The EPL collective deal is still alive and well with the rolled-over Sky, BT Sport (soon to be Discovery) and Amazon deal worth £4.8bn over three years. The EPL’s six-year US TV deal with NBC has been valued at more than £2bn. The Athletic recently explained:

“Even with no growth in the domestic market, the Premier League was able to increase the value of its international rights by 30 per cent for the 2022-25 cycle. That takes the league’s central income from £9.2billion to £10.5billion over three years, and it means the Premier League’s share of the global media market for domestic football leagues grew from 40 per cent to 44 per cent.[2]”

Sky historically bought EPL rights as the battering ram to launch and sustain their pay-tv offering. BT Sport bought EPL and UCL rights (in part) to- reduce their broadband customers leaving to take up Sky’s broadband and pay-tv packaged deal. It’s been suggested that Amazon has bought EPL and recently UCL rights to acquire and retain Amazon Prime customers, who reportedly spend four times more with Amazon than non-Prime customers. The Pay-Tv landscape has evolved significantly. The subscription model has evolved although Sky, BT Sport and Amazon continue to cluster around EPL and UCL rights with a variety of different commercialisation models.

But how long:

- will the EPL continue to sell and provide all of its games to broadcasters and
- before the EPL decide to do some experimenting and go direct to customer?

The answer is that it appears to be in the offing.

Richard Masters in a recent interview explained:

“We have sold all of our international rights to third parties. In other words, we’ve licensed them as opposed to going direct to the consumer. However, we do have — and I can’t reveal where in the world — options to do various things. We’ve probably signed more long-term partnerships than usual – six-year agreements instead of three-year agreements – and there are options in some of those agreements to go direct to consumer in the name of the Premier League.”

The EPL isn’t going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs but it may test the waters in particular lower risk jurisdictions working alongside production and distribution partners, potentially by-passing traditional broadcasters to connect directly with customers through a PremFlix style streaming platform. TalkSport and ex-Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan was rather bullish on the value of any such deal but explained the core rationale here.

Interestingly, it was reported in The Athletic recently that the EPL in 2019 was pushing forward with a direct-to-consumer EPL streaming service in Singapore but did not get the required support amongst its club members.

As seen through the Project Big Picture (PBP) proposals, the EPL clubs were looking to experiment with direct to fan EPL offerings by carving-out particular fixtures from the collectively negotiated EPL deal to separately and in parallel monetise. So, for example, the EPL would continue to sell their defined packages of games to the broadcasters. However, additional games that fall outside of the package would be sold directly by the clubs such as Liverpool and Manchester United presumably via their OTT streaming platforms.

Attention x Rights Fees

There are currently no EPL and UCL live games available free to air in the UK (discounting the limited Prime EPL and soon to be UCL offering, to the extent that Prime can be considered free). There have been generations of young people growing up without easy access to live premium football content. In the UK, it’s been eight years since ITV broadcast the last free-to-air UCL live matches and it’s 30+ years since EPL matches were moved behind a pay-wall. Does that matter? To many, it does. As set out above, many believe the EPL and UEFA are not narrowly competing in a broadcasting market with other football leagues or sports for live rights. They are competing for attention with Fortnite, Facebook, League of Legends, FIFA and Dota as well as Disney+ and Netflix. If the content is difficult to access (because its live matches have been historically behind packaged pay-walls) and video streaming and some gaming platforms are more easily accessible, sociable, innovative, addictive and attention retentive, many will see the greater engagement with the latter as consumers voting with their attention habits.

Both authors were (positively) sucked in in the 1980s and 1990s because content was easily accessible primarily on terrestrial tv. Whilst broadcasters will no doubt be aiming to monetise older, middle-aged generations, the question remains whether younger, premium sports subscribers are turning up at scale. Presumably this is one of the dilemmas facing pay-tv operators as they appeal to younger generations with streamlined OTT offerings like Sky’s Now TV. The fundamental issue isn’t really with the broadcasters; it’s the strategy of rights holders to decide where to put their premium rights. Broadcasters will pay the high rights fees so long as the subscribers are drawn in and retained. If there isn’t the subscriber long-tail, then the market is signalling to the broadcasters that the premium content isn’t so premium.

This is perhaps why UEFA put the Women’s UCL onto DAZN’s YouTube channel to give it scope, breadth and relatively frictionless visibility. In the same way, at least a number of WSL games in the UK are shown free to air on the BBC. It was reported that 3.6 million viewers watched the most recent UCL final between Barcelona-Olympic Lyon and that the 61 matches in that year’s tournament brought 64m views. Some believe this blended approach needs to be given real consideration for premium men’s football.

With pay-walls dominating the premium men’s football landscape, some may argue that the generation of 35-45-year olds may be the last ones that remember live top flight English football on terrestrial TV. What if kids aren’t watching live matches but are gaming, YouTubing and accessing open platforms and free content? The football watching routine becomes less sticky, less ‘must watch’ and less of a ‘pay-tv battering ram’. Sky and others will only pay the rights fees if people are subscribing. The EPL may not wish to dilute their exclusive rights by putting some matches free to air but by not doing so, they potentially run the continued risk of not capturing current generational attention.

Conclusion

The easy narrative is that younger generations’ attention is more limited; we’re not so sure. People are spending plenty of concentrated hours on FIFA, Fortnite, Twitch or YouTube. It’s the ease by which their attention can be grabbed, harnessed and maintained.

Whilst this may be medium/long term thinking, the overarching point is that as younger generations may be less attracted to live sport because they perhaps have not been drawn in at a younger age and have a broader set of consumption habits, future content platforms may not value such rights holder content as highly. If future live football is not as ‘must have’ as it was previously, then there will be a recalibration on the value of such rights. It may not be any time soon, but if subscribers reduce for whatever reasons, e.g., the cost-of-living crisis[3] or the content not being as attractive, pay-TV companies may not have the appetite and deep pockets to keep funding such huge rights rounds.

Which as explained above, leaves the next big question around different company’s models to monetisation. Traditional pay-TV was bundled with mobile, broadband and phoneline for quad-play offerings. Amazon Prime sees sports rights as a customer acquisition and retention tool for its Prime physical product delivery service. Who continues to pay sports rights holders mega money if subscribers aren’t there in the same numbers?

Part of the answer is already creeping into focus. Leagues will likely experiment with direct-to-consumer offerings in particular isolated territories to start (Premflix) and so will clubs (see the Project Big Picture structuring where 8 games per season were proposed to be individually sold outside of the EPL collective deal).

[1] https://www.matthewball.vc/all/7reasonsgaming

[2] https://theathletic.com/3470185/2022/08 ... er-league/

[3] We say this at a time of massive energy bill and interest rate hikes (for when mortgage products expire) on the horizon in the UK. Disposable income will be at a premium. The chunky contracts when they expire will likely be the first to go. Netflix is the easy one to cancel but Sky, BT and Virgin will be ones that make a difference to the family bottom-line.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:23 am

And while the above is interesting this recent podcast from Unofficial Partner highlights two of the critical issues

Sport's Napster moment and the lessons of Spotify
https://www.unofficialpartner.com/podca ... of-spotify

Will Page was Chief Economist of Spotify and PRS for Music and is the author of the critically acclaimed book Tarzan Economics.
Some Will Page references to read alongside the pod.

This chart from The Economist on the age of festival headliners
https://archive.is/UdLJF
New Year New Ideas, key chart showing the growth of stadiums and festivals below - think Big Eventer)
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-year ... will-page/
Billboard: Examining Covid's Impact on UK's live and recorded industries
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... stries.pdf
Music Business Worldwide: Live Music Goes From Suffering to Recovering
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/ ... -lockdown/
IQ Magazine: Economist Will Page on Live Music's Resurgence
https://www.iq-mag.net/2022/09/economis ... esurgence/
Financial Times: Roar of the live music crowd drowns out stadium income from sport
https://archive.is/clclv

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by CaptainKirk » Sat Jan 28, 2023 1:50 am

Seriously, it might be time to step away from the keyboard for a while.
😁

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Sat Jan 28, 2023 11:36 am

https://twitter.com/ReshadRahman_/statu ... RaiGA&s=19

Barcelona need to trim the wage bill again it would appear.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jan 29, 2023 2:14 pm

If Martin Samuel wasn't so obviously an attack dog of the Premier League some of what he says might actually resonate. It is also interesting just how much more column space The Times now give compared to what the Mail did

How can a government that blew £15bn on useless PPE help Europe’s best league?
https://archive.is/niLbZ

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jan 29, 2023 2:34 pm

During Covid a number of leagues courted and were courted by Private Equity funds and Finance Houses in fund raising/rights exploitation moves - Serie A was at the forefront of such moves, much like La Liga - unlike La Liga they did not take up an offer - But once again the Vultures are at the door

Exclusive: JPMorgan looking to finance Italy's Serie A for up to 1 billion euros
https://www.reuters.com/business/media- ... 023-01-26/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jan 29, 2023 2:45 pm

Samuel Agini for the Financial Times suggesting that the tide of opinion is turning against the multi-club model - I have always felt it was unpopular, but that the authorities di not want to do anything about it because of a mistaken understanding that because it brought money into the game, then it is good for the game. Closing the barn door on this is going to be nigh on impossible now

Football’s multi-club owners start to feel growing pains
Investors attracted to running a network of teams must win over fans and sporting regulators

https://archive.is/VVeUL

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jan 29, 2023 3:04 pm

Andrea Agnelli and Aleksander Ceferin were once very close friends (so close Ceferin is the Godfather of Agnelli's youngest daughter - while on reflection this relationship looks like old school Italian rich family political manoeuvring (Machiavelli was just kindergarten training is the impression you get). So are we now about to see a classic revenge drama of renaissance proportions too?

Andrea Agnelli could face Uefa legal action over Super League and Juventus scandal
https://archive.is/dWKFL

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jan 29, 2023 3:13 pm

This is interesting on a football club valuation point - we have seen in the MLS franchises are often valued more than all but the big six Premier League clubs - yet with nothing like the TV revenues of those in the Championship. now we are seeing expansion teams in the NWSL reaching values of many Championship teams - this in the month that saw 5 women's IPL expansion franchises in India go for an average of $100m+ each.

So are seeing the benefit of closed leagues or is the European game still undervalued?

NWSL Set to Expand With Record-Setting $50 Million Franchise Fees
The women’s pro soccer league is set to add teams in the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston and Utah—with two of them paying record entry fees

https://archive.is/gxbM0

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jan 29, 2023 3:29 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Dec 07, 2022 3:41 pm
Official Confirmation that the proposed takeover of Birmingham City by Paul Richardson and Maxi Lopez is not going to happen. As appears to be the way of things theses days the announcement was made on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange where the current owners are listed

https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listc ... 700962.pdf
New bidders emerging for Birmingham City - just what did happen to that Laurence 'I own half of Oxford Street' Bassini bid?

Birmingham City hold talks with group led by Jeremy Dale over investment deal
https://archive.is/mcICc

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jan 30, 2023 2:23 pm

The Premier League has finally got into bed with Sorare - and it includes an option for then to have an equity stake

Premier League backs Sorare’s NFT fantasy football game despite crypto crash
League agrees multimillion-pound licensing deal with start-up that offers trading in digital player cards

https://archive.is/eUg17

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jan 31, 2023 12:32 pm

I have been pointing this out for years but few seem to actually listen - but now Brighton have become - The model club (which used to be ourselves, West Brom before us and Charlton before them - so god help Brighton and Brentford). It is also worth noting that Brentford owner Mathew Benham help produce the original models for Bloom before starting out on his own

btw no football club has or could even afford the set-up Bloom has at Starlizard

The 200 maths prodigies who help Brighton conquer the transfer market
Albion's owner Tony Bloom founded a sports analytics company that gives the Premier League's model club the edge in talent identification

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fw ... ransfer%2F

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jan 31, 2023 5:31 pm

Interesting piece from Henry Winter in today's Times about the complications in redeveloping Stamford Bridge - money may come to the rescue - but just how much of it?

Why Henry VIII stands in Todd Boehly’s way
Chelsea’s new owners must overcome numerous complications while building a stadium fit for the future and attempting to keep fans happy

https://archive.is/bgUzN

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:36 pm

https://www.fairgameuk.org/sustainability-index

This sustainability index looks both interesting and odd.

Some clubs seem to score quite highly despite masses of debts etc.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:42 pm

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:36 pm
https://www.fairgameuk.org/sustainability-index

This sustainability index looks both interesting and odd.

Some clubs seem to score quite highly despite masses of debts etc.
Posted about this last week - It is important to look at the criteria - and they acknowledge that it can give a strange picture
Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Jan 26, 2023 1:53 pm
The detail on Fair Game's sustainability Index can be found here

https://www.fairgameuk.org/sustainability-index

and the specific report on Burnley here

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... ley+v2.pdf
This user liked this post: GodIsADeeJay81

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Feb 01, 2023 12:37 am

So while the decision in a Madrid court (helping a Madrid team against UEFA) made headlines today

http://www.uptheclarets.com/messageboar ... =2&t=67182

there was another court decision in Barcelona that helped Barcelona in its disputes/fight with LaLiga

Barcelona Goes to Court to Keep a Star Player on Its Roster
As rivals haggled over prices on the final day of the transfer window, Barcelona found a new way around the Spanish league’s financial rules.

https://archive.is/CLDqw#selection-289.0-293.141

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Quickenthetempo » Wed Feb 01, 2023 11:04 am

Leicester's owners have written £194m of debt off.

Pretty handy for them.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Feb 01, 2023 11:51 am

Quickenthetempo wrote:
Wed Feb 01, 2023 11:04 am
Leicester's owners have written £194m of debt off.

Pretty handy for them.
This is a growing trend at Premier League level, happening at a number of clubs - Villa are still doing it having put £60m in this season, I know it has happened at Brighton, Everton, and Fulham, while both Crystal Palace and West Ham have paid off debt by selling shares to new shareholders. Leeds have also been selling equity to 49ers enterprises to fund their spending.

For Leicester this was a friendly debt and essentially this is an acknowledgement that the only way they were ever going to get the money back was in selling the club. Going forward it is not irrational to expect UEFA and therefore the Premier League to develop rules about the level of debt a club can hold - particularly the soft, interest free debt to owners that allows clubs to live beyond their means. this can be expected as part of the response to the power the Premier League can now wield in the transfer Market - These 20 clubs are almost spending more than the rest of Europe put together.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Feb 01, 2023 1:28 pm

Miguel Delaney in The Independent with a thoughtful piece on Chelsea's spending (which he is being told is likely to continue for another two years and facilitated by the sales of its academy graduates - welcome Ian Maatsen) and taking in a number of broader concerns for the game domestically and internationally, all themes well established on this thread.

Why Chelsea’s obscene January spending is just the start
Chelsea’s eye-watering transfer window is damaging for the game, but the club’s new owners are not done yet after a record-breaking month

https://archive.is/YMnGJ

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:05 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Jan 31, 2023 5:31 pm
Interesting piece from Henry Winter in today's Times about the complications in redeveloping Stamford Bridge - money may come to the rescue - but just how much of it?

Why Henry VIII stands in Todd Boehly’s way
Chelsea’s new owners must overcome numerous complications while building a stadium fit for the future and attempting to keep fans happy

https://archive.is/bgUzN
One of the elements of the above piece was on the growing problem of ticket touts at Chelsea - they currently have 11 individuals with injunctions served and are working on others. Today Brighton have announced that they have cracked a touting ring at the Amex - with season ticket sales and match-day attendance at modern highs here at Burnley how long before we are faced with the same issue on a regular basis. Some might think it is a nice problem for clubs to have but it really isn't. It is however more evidence that Football's Magic Money Tree (In the Premier League at least) is manifestly growing.

Albion crack ticket touting ring
More than 150 tickets in home areas were blocked for Sunday's game at the Amex against Liverpool.

https://www.brightonandhovealbion.com/n ... uting-ring

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:17 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Feb 01, 2023 11:51 am
This is a growing trend at Premier League level, happening at a number of clubs - Villa are still doing it having put £60m in this season, I know it has happened at Brighton, Everton, and Fulham, while both Crystal Palace and West Ham have paid off debt by selling shares to new shareholders. Leeds have also been selling equity to 49ers enterprises to fund their spending.

For Leicester this was a friendly debt and essentially this is an acknowledgement that the only way they were ever going to get the money back was in selling the club. Going forward it is not irrational to expect UEFA and therefore the Premier League to develop rules about the level of debt a club can hold - particularly the soft, interest free debt to owners that allows clubs to live beyond their means. this can be expected as part of the response to the power the Premier League can now wield in the transfer Market - These 20 clubs are almost spending more than the rest of Europe put together.
I'll be interested to see what happens if Uefa/FIFA change the rules in regards to the soft debt.
I assume they'll give clubs time to either pay it off or have it wiped out first and then not to exceed a set limit after that.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:21 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:05 pm
One of the elements of the above piece was on the growing problem of ticket touts at Chelsea - they currently have 11 individuals with injunctions served and are working on others. Today Brighton have announced that they have cracked a touting ring at the Amex - with season ticket sales and match-day attendance at modern highs here at Burnley how long before we are faced with the same issue on a regular basis. Some might think it is a nice problem for clubs to have but it really isn't. It is however more evidence that Football's Magic Money Tree (In the Premier League at least) is manifestly growing.

Albion crack ticket touting ring
More than 150 tickets in home areas were blocked for Sunday's game at the Amex against Liverpool.

https://www.brightonandhovealbion.com/n ... uting-ring
This goes back to an old chat about fan groups buying tickets in bulk for away games etc.
The only real way to stamp out touts is to either let clubs have their own resell system, similar to the Americans have, or to have the club hold photographic ID for anyone with a club fan number, which is then checked on matchday when ticket is scanned.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:27 pm

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:21 pm
This goes back to an old chat about fan groups buying tickets in bulk for away games etc.
The only real way to stamp out touts is to either let clubs have their own resell system, similar to the Americans have, or to have the club hold photographic ID for anyone with a club fan number, which is then checked on matchday when ticket is scanned.
It is also why clubs are looking at blockchain for electronic tickets

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:36 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:33 pm
I posted yesterday an opinion article about personal player data and GDPR - it transpires that his is an area that a growing group of players are looking to fight for as Betting companies in particular are exploiting such data for their own significant gains - a "class-action" type legal case is building fronted by current and former English players - from SportsProMedia.com

Report: Premier League stars suing betting companies over use of personal data
‘More than 400’ UK-based soccer players signed up to Project Red Card.

Posted: July 29 2020 - By: Sam Carp

- EFL, National League and Scottish Premiership players also involved in lawsuit
- Successful claim could be worth ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’
- Project being spearheaded by Russell Slade’s Global Sports Data and Technology Group

Top-flight Premier League stars are among a group of UK-based soccer players seeking ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’ for the use of their personal statistics, according to the Athletic.

The subscription-based digital sports outlet says ‘more than 400’ current and former players plan to take legal action against companies such as computer game manufacturers and betting firms who have used their performance and tracking data without consent or compensation.

The players hope to recover six years’ worth of lost income, the Athletic said, adding that individual settlements could be worth as much as ‘tens of thousands of pounds’ if the claim is successful, although payments will vary depending on what level the player competed at and the amount of exposure they received.

Players from the English Football League (EFL), which oversees the three divisions below the Premier League, the semi-professional National League and the Scottish Premiership have also reportedly signed up to Project Red Card, which is being spearheaded by a company called Global Sports Data and Technology Group.

Co-founded by Russell Slade, who has managed several clubs in the EFL, and technology expert Jason Dunlop, Global Sports Data and Technology Group says it is ‘helping sport to understand and benefit from’ the incomes associated with data.

Speaking to the BBC, Slade said: "Players need to be signing [consent] if their data is going to travel.

“One or two clubs are seeing it now, we want to help them get this right. Obviously data in clubs is there for players to improve but they should be signing their consent for it to be used.

“We have found that the accuracy of data is staggering, most players on board have wrong data stored.”
Things have been quite on the Project Red Card front for some time, but the case has been slowly building now it seems players from other sports are teaming up

Whose data is it anyway? Behind the fight to control cricketers’ statistics
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/ ... e-the-spin

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