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 » Fri Jun 25, 2021 3:04 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Fri Jun 18, 2021 12:49 pm
For those of you who want to get their teeth into a bit of deep reading, this has academic study been made freely available during the Euro;s

Football’s emerging market trade network: ego network approach to world systems theory
Alexander John Bond,Paul Widdop ORCID Icon & Simon Chadwick

ABSTRACT: The football transfer market is a billion-pound industry, traditionally dominated by the European market. This has been challenged by the rise of relatively new markets emerging from China, Brazil, Turkey and Russia. Important countries within the market, they also challenge the traditional status order. While classical international trade theorists suggest that capital or resource advantage predicts trade, economic sociologists argue that a world-systems perspective economic relationships are a core component. Therefore, we analyse the football trade network of these emerging markets to understand the structure, specifically in relation to the world-systems perspective. Using social network analysis, we identify the network is structured analogously to a world-systems perspective with a core of European countries, a semi-periphery of developing countries and a periphery containing countries where football is less developed. Furthermore, Turkey and Brazil occupy structural holes acting as brokers between the core, semi-periphery and periphery positions which can be advantageous.

the full article is here https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 18.1481765
Another Academic piece that has been made available for the duration of the Euros

The emergence of the sporting director role in football and the potential of social network theory in future research
Daniel Parnell,Paul Widdop,Ryan Groom &Alex Bond
Pages 242-254 | Published online: 14 Mar 2019

ABSTRACT: The commodified and highly competitive nature of professional football (soccer) has increased the professionalisation of organisational structures and management practices within clubs that enhance their competitive advantages within the labour market. This is a direct result of the financial rewards for success, and the potential cost of failure is significant. The utilisation of the Sporting Director position represents one strategy for organisations to improve both on and off-field performance success through maintaining organisational influence and control. Yet, the role is accompanied by a range of conceptual and operational misunderstandings. This commentary aims to examine the emergence of the Sporting Director and to offer some guidance on potential avenues for future research. Specifically, we consider, how social network theory might provide a theoretical framework to understand the role of the Sporting Director in practice better. To achieve this, this commentary is structured into five sections. First, we outline the role of corporate governance, senior executives and board membership, within organisational studies and the applicability of this for professional football. Second, we offer a contextual analysis of the business of professional football in Europe, and in particular its move towards globalisation and commodification. Third, we provide a current review of the Sporting Director role in professional football. Fourth, we explain the value of thinking relationally, using a social network approach, to better understanding the role of the Sporting Director within the global context. Finally, we offer some concluding thoughts and considerations surrounding the adoption of the Sporting Director role in England, and outline some potential research agendas concerning social network theory, and related concepts such as embeddedness, structural holes and the strength of weak ties.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 18.1577587

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jun 25, 2021 3:07 pm

It seems there are many more of those academic articles available for free during the Euros - I am pretty sure I have featured some before. the full list and links are in this thread

https://twitter.com/MSLJournal/status/1 ... 5317454848

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jun 25, 2021 4:22 pm

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Thu Jun 10, 2021 11:26 am
Norwich City: Premier League club says sorry and cancels controversial sponsor deal - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57424206

Didn't like the suggestive /lewd adverts of its sponsor apparently
Norwich announce a new shirt deal with local company Lotus - from SportsBusiness.com

Norwich City finalises Lotus Cars shirt sponsorship
Matthew Glendinning
June 25, 2021

English Premier League club Norwich City has named Lotus Cars as its new front-of-shirt sponsor for the 2021-22 season.

As reported earlier this week, Lotus was considered a front runner for the role in the wake of the sudden exit of Chinese betting operator BK8 just three days after its announcement as principal partner.

As part of the new agreement, the Lotus logo will feature across City’s first team, academy and women’s kit and training wear, with the brand having previously featured on the club’s away shirt between 2003 and 2006.

The deal expands on the Norfolk-based car company’s sponsorship of the recently-promoted club’s training centre and academy over recent seasons.

City has also finalised details of an additional agreement with Lotus, with catering at the brand’s Hethel headquarters now provided exclusively by ‘Delia’s Canary Catering’ which provides a range of hospitality services within the club and is overseen by TV chef and City’s joint-majority shareholder Delia Smith.

Ben Kensell, the club’s chief operating officer, said: “Through the club’s many dealings with the Lotus team, led by group CEO, Mr Feng Qingfeng and managing director, Matt Windle, our relationship has grown from strength to strength.

“Since 2019 Lotus has proudly sponsored our training centre, and we’ve worked together on some great initiatives for our junior supporters, with the logo featuring on junior kits for the last few seasons.

“Such is Lotus’ commitment to the football club, the company has committed that every employee across the world receives their very own replica Norwich City shirt.

“Norwich City and Lotus are two iconic Norfolk brands, who are very much aligned in their wider visions and values. This is the perfect next step in our relationship.”

Simon Clare, executive director of global marketing for Lotus Cars, added: “The partnership has blossomed over the past couple of years and we share so many values as organisations. We’re investing heavily in the business globally, and particularly in our home county of Norfolk.”

Also this week, the club announced a local sponsorship with Norfolk-based mortgage brokerage Yellow Brick Mortgages for the upcoming season.

As part of the agreement, the company will create an exclusive ‘Keep it Yellow’ promotion, offering free mortgage advice to all Norwich City season-ticket holders, members, and staff.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jun 27, 2021 1:40 pm

This is interesting because it shows the FA trying to get on the front foot and make use of a short window of opportunity with the Government and it populist approach to football at the moment - from the Mail

Premier League's Big Six will be BANNED from signing foreign stars if they agree to their participation in any new European Super League, warns the FA who insist 'we will make sure our rule book is tightened up'
  • Premier League's 'Big Six' came under huge backlash for Super League fiasco
  • Now the FA have warned against the Big Six from attempting to breakaway again
  • They will ban clubs from signing foreign players if they try to set up any new ESL
  • FA now have power over allowing European Union players into Premier League
By ROB DRAPER FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

PUBLISHED: 07:04, 27 June 2021 | UPDATED: 08:42, 27 June 2021

The FA will ban any breakaway clubs from signing foreign players as part of their new rules designed to prevent the Big Six Premier League clubs attempting to set up any new European Super League.

FA chief executive Mark Bullingham says the governing body, which recommends to the Home Office whether work permits should be issued for any foreign player coming to England, insists that no club playing outside official leagues would be able to sign any foreign players.

The FA's powers have already considerably increased post Brexit as they now have power over allowing European Union footballers and coaches into the Premier League. And Bullingham says the FA are prepared to stop the likes of Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba playing for Manchester United or Kevin De Bruyne and Ruben Dias playing for Manchester City if clubs try to break away again.

Asked about how the FA could prevent a repeat of Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal ditching domestic football, Bullingham said: 'We may tweak some aspects of the visa system to make sure that people only get visas for our competitions which we accredit.

'So, you can't pull in talent from abroad to play in competitions that we don't sanction. They couldn't bring in foreign players to play in that [breakaway] competition.

'[We will] make sure our rule book is tightened up. The Premier League are doing the same, the Premier League rules were voted through at the Premier League AGM. We're working on a few tweaks.'

Bullingham says that British government is also likely to change competition law to ensure that football is a special case and exempt from certain anti-competitive practices that the Big Six planned to use to force the Premier League and FA to accede to their demands.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson threatened to put a legislative bomb under the Super League and Bullingham said: 'There's [government] legislation. We were very clear early on that we were opposed to a European Super League and we were going to use our rulebook to stop it.

Liverpool owner John W Henry (left) and Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer (right) were heavily involved in the botched Super League plans

'The clubs were definitely going to take an anti-competitive legal position on that. You can legislate that certain actions are not anti-competitive. That's what we wanted the Government to do, that's what they committed to really quickly. We still want to follow through with some legislation in that way that would give our rulebook more power in that situation.'

And he has revealed that the FA are in talks with the Premier League to redress the balance of power, which many feel currently leaves the FA impotent when dealing with clubs. He indicated that the Premier League might give some authority back to the FA in a bid to head off an independent regulator, which many expect the Government's fan-led review to recommend.

'I think there are some areas where leagues should always be able to do their own thing and I think there are some areas where we should absolutely get sign off on what the rules are,' said Bullingham. 'We are having conversations with them [Premier League] which will feed into the review. There are some areas where I do think that balance needs to be tweaked but I don't think it's massively out of kilter either.

'I think you could absolutely get it [agreement] from the Premier League [without the need for legislation] and we were actually starting to have conversations with the Premier League before the review. There are quite a few areas where we overlap, and let's look at whether we can simplify that.'

But he did concede that a new body is required for financial and ethical tests on fit and proper owners and to ensure fan representation.

'We don't agree with people bandying around an independent regulator, without really specifying what it is. If you're talking about some new body that has some independence in it which looks after financial aspects of football, I think we'd be really keen to explore some areas of that.

'We absolutely think that body could potentially be more involved in the owners and directors test and… the protection of club heritage assets. We think there's also some areas where fans can have more says, absolutely... but if you're asking me if I think there should be a new body to sit above the existing bodies of football, no I don't.'

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 11:55 am

I have mentioned that UEFA are changing the distributions for their Club competitions next season previously - here @SwissRamble has a look at what the distributions are from next season - illustrating just why the big clubs are so reliant on Champions League qualification

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 8487678978

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:26 pm

An interesting piece from the Financial Times about why Western European teams are better than those from Eastern Europe and why it is not about money - of course the Czechs in particular are doing well (they have a lot of players at clubs in Western Europe

Western Europe’s footballing superiority is about more than money
SIMON KUPER JUNE 26, 2021

Watching Euro 2020, you see the phantom Iron Curtain that still runs across the continent. Europe’s east-west divide persists in football, and the west’s system works better.

In the group stages, western European teams won 15 and drew three of their 21 matches against opponents from the former communist bloc plus Turkey.

All 10 countries with more than 1m inhabitants in the western European landmass stretching from Portugal to Denmark made the second round, as did their closest western neighbours, England, Wales and Sweden. From the ex-communist east, only Croatia, the Czech Republic and Ukraine have made it.

It is tempting to dismiss western Europe’s footballing lead as simply the result of greater wealth. In fact, it has more to do with superior knowhow and social democracy.

It cannot be a straightforward story of wealth, because eastern Europe did better at football during the communist era, when it lagged even further behind economically. Hungary and Czechoslovakia reached World Cup finals in 1954 and 1962 respectively, Poland finished third at the World Cups of 1974 and 1982, the Soviets were European champions in 1960 and the Czechoslovaks in 1976.

Talent production stalled when communism collapsed. State-run sports facilities fell into disuse amid an economic crisis. Many big eastern European clubs were bought by oligarchs more interested in buying star players than maintaining youth academies.

Today, northwestern Europeans play significantly more sport than easterners, according to a 2018 European Commission study. Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark have all made the Euro 2020 knockout rounds, in part surely because these small countries have relatively large pools of active footballers. Of the Netherlands’ 17m inhabitants, 1.2m play for a football club.

A striking image of Euro 2020 has been mixed western teams defeating all-white eastern opponents. Large immigrant populations seem to be a boon to national teams. Paul Pogba, the French midfielder, explained that in the mixed suburbs of Paris where he and several teammates grew up: “Everyone will play football. That’s all there is.”

Poor children flee their cramped homes to play outside in state-provided facilities. Underneath Pogba’s childhood apartment block in Roissy-en-Brie, east of Paris, is a small sports court with basketball hoops and football goals. At state-funded clubs in these neighbourhoods, the kids encounter qualified coaches who teach them tactics.

The best then learn cutting-edge football in western Europe’s leading leagues. Zvonimir Boban, the new head of football at Uefa, European football’s governing body, said his 1990s generation of great Croatian players benefited from leaving a collapsing Yugoslavia for the west in their early twenties.

“We had these brilliant experiences in the top European leagues. We knew then how to implement it in our national team,” he said.

That is why, perversely, the eastern European countries with the richest leagues fare worse: their best players do not develop because they stay at home, getting well paid to play slow, backward football. That is how Russia and Ukraine could lose four group matches to small western countries.

There is more hope for central Europeans such as the Czech Republic and Croatia, World Cup finalists in 2018, whose players leave early for western football. And as central Europe gets richer, it should resume funding mass sport.

That is already happening in Poland, which ran a sports field-building project named “Orlik”, or young eagle, after the country’s national symbol. The government justified the effort with classic social-democratic language: “One of the state’s key tasks is to ensure that citizens can practise sports, regardless of their financial and social status.”

More than 2,600 artificial pitches were built nationwide, each supervised by a qualified coach. Orlik alumni should strengthen future Polish teams, but at Euro 2020, Poland did not win a match.

Football’s east-west divide encompasses values, too. Several western sides are “taking the knee” in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement — a gesture disparaged by Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, and the head of Poland’s football association, Zbigniew Boniek.

Now western teams are protesting against Hungary’s new anti-LGBT+ law. Leon Goretzka, Germany’s outspoken midfielder, made the anti-homophobic “One Love” sign after scoring the goal that knocked Hungary out of the tournament on Wednesday. Manuel Neuer, his team captain, wore a rainbow armband, just as Neuer’s Dutch counterpart Georginio Wijnaldum will wear a One Love armband in Sunday’s game against the Czechs in Budapest.

“We support everyone, and everyone belongs,” explained Wijnaldum. “We know the situation in Hungary. It’s a shame that only people who have a podium are listened to. Why not listen to the people who really matter, in this case gay people?”

He was understating the importance of football. With Uefa now investigating Hungarian fans for allegedly chanting homophobic and racist abuse at their matches, Euro 2020 has become a podium where the two Europes enact their conflicts.
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jamesisaburyfan
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by jamesisaburyfan » Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:48 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Jun 23, 2021 12:21 pm
By way of contrast there is this from Bury AFC - who are looking for more people to get involved with their phoenix club - I have to say I got quite emotional watching the attached video - I wish them every good fortune

https://twitter.com/OfficialBuryAFC/sta ... 7477852167
I did the voiceover for that!
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Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:57 pm

jamesisaburyfan wrote:
Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:48 pm
I did the voiceover for that!
well done you

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Paul Waine » Mon Jun 28, 2021 2:04 pm

Report in The Times:

West Bromwich Albion director bid to broker illicit Matheus Pereira transfer

Matt Lawton, Chief Sports Correspondent Monday June 28 2021, 12.01am, The Times

A senior executive at West Bromwich Albion attempted to negotiate a £25 million transfer deal that would have broken Fifa regulations, avoided tax in China and possibly the UK, and enabled the English club’s Chinese majority shareholder and owner to keep some of the proceeds of the sale.

Luke Dowling, who until two weeks ago was West Brom’s technical and sporting director, initiated discussions with an agent with links to a club in China about the possible sale of the Brazilian attacking midfielder Matheus Pereira.

The Chinese authorities have introduced new regulations to limit the spending of Super League clubs, which were paying vast sums of money to secure the services of foreign players and managers.

As well as a salary cap, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) brought in a transfer tax in June 2017 to restrict spending. The CFA announced that any club that pays more than 45 million yuan (about £5 million) for a foreign player, or 20 million yuan for a Chinese player, must give the same amount to a CFA youth development fund.

In what the agent understood to be West Brom’s solution to overcome the issue, and to increase the chances of a deal happening, the man whose website profile said that he oversaw player recruitment at West Brom detailed how Pereira, 25, could still be transferred to China, to the satisfaction of all parties involved.

He suggested that only a fraction of the fee be declared on Fifa’s transfer filing system, with the majority paid in a separate transaction between the owner of the Chinese club and West Brom’s Chinese owner.

Dowling, 42, is an experienced football administrator, having played the game semi-professionally before taking scouting roles at a number of clubs. He then served as a sporting director at Watford and Nottingham Forest before joining West Brom in September 2018.

In his conversations with the agent, Dowling said it was his understanding that the club, then in the Premier League, had completed a similar transaction to secure an international transfer in the past. Dowling said it would suit Lai Guochuan, the billionaire West Brom owner, who would get to decide what amount to keep and what to put into the club.

Dowling claimed that the proposal had been made to him by the present West Brom chief executive, Xu Ke (who is known as Ken). Lai bought the club from the British businessman Jeremy Peace in 2016.

Fifa and the Football Association have strict rules on international transfers, with both the buying and selling clubs required, via their national associations, to register the full details of every deal on Fifa’s Transfer Matching System (TMS). The online platform was introduced in October 2010 to improve transparency, efficiency and governance between clubs.

In international transfers the details submitted by each club have to match and be approved before an international transfer certificate can be issued. Failure to abide by these rules can lead to sanctions from Fifa and the FA. Any profit on the sale of a player from an English club has to be declared to HM Revenue and Customs because it would fall under UK tax law.

A Times investigation can reveal that three conversations between Dowling and the agent took place in January this year, during the transfer window.

Sam Allardyce had just replaced Slaven Bilic as the club’s head coach, and Dowling told the agent that the former England manager was looking to raise funds by selling players. Dowling said that Pereira, signed from Sporting Lisbon the previous summer on a permanent deal believed to be worth in the region of £8 million, was someone Allardyce would be prepared to offload.

During the first conversation, on January 11, Dowling suggested that a move to China could appeal to Pereira, before discussing the potential issues with the Chinese transfer system. He explained to the agent how a proposal had been made in a conversation with his chief executive.

“Ken said the issue is obviously anything over £6 million, they then have to pay double in tax, don’t they, or into the government?” Dowling asked. “That’s correct,” the agent replied.

“So, erm, I said, ‘Well, we can’t sell him for £6 million, Ken.’ If you want, for example, £25 million, that’s £19 million more. There’s not many teams now that will spend an extra £19 million on top just to put that back into the government. So, erm, then Ken mentioned . . . well . . . what they can do, our owner is in Guangdong, he can have an agreement with their owner, if that’s how they want to do it.”

The agent asked, “But how would they do it? What?”

“So, I think [this is] the easy way to explain,” Dowling said. “Say it’s £26 million — use that as an easy number, or £25 million, so £6 million would come to the club as a transfer fee, which is allowed, and the remaining £19 [million] would be an agreement between [the Chinese club’s] owner and our owner.

“You know, so whether they do it through their businesses or whatever it may be, I don’t know. That I don’t know enough of. I’m sure you don’t know. That would be for them to have a discussion about. That was all they previously mentioned. Now obviously the only small little thing is that we’ve got an owner who is Chinese.

“If it was still Jeremy Peace that was the owner of West Brom it wouldn’t be able to happen. It would be very, very . . . extremely difficult. But because our owner is Chinese and he is in China, whether that would make it more realistic, or easier, I suppose.” The agent then asked for more detail about the previous transaction. “There was a deal between the clubs, with the owners, and things like that,” Dowling said. “So I do believe it’s something that, erm . . . the fact that Ken has brought it up tells me he must think that something can be worked.”

A brief discussion about Pereira’s value then followed. Dowling said his club wanted “£25 million”. The agent requested confirmation from the chief executive that such a deal could be done before even considering raising it with the club in China.

Dowling called back the next day, January 12, and after a quick exchange of pleasantries provided that confirmation. “Ken just said as long as both parties are happy with the agreement between them, which would be owner to owner, he said anything can be done,” Dowling said.

The agent then asked Dowling to fully explain the process before raising concern about the TMS system. Dowling replied: “So I think the amount that would have to go on the TMS would be whatever amount our owner decides to put into the club. So, erm, he might say for example, yes, £20 million is fine, I’m going to take £18 million directly from the owner [of the Chinese club], the other £2 million [from the Chinese club] you make as a transfer direct to West Brom. And that would have to go on TMS. It might be £4 million. But one thing it cannot be is more than six.”

The agent corrected him, stating it actually cannot exceed £5 million. “Is it more than five?” Dowling said. “Well it can’t be more than five then. So it won’t be down as more than five, because you are not getting around the issue that currently is there. That would be the amount that would go on TMS. [Then there is] the amount that our owner decides to keep for himself, or what to put in the club. We all know it certainly won’t be more than £5 million. Listening to Ken speak, and what the owner has said to Ken before, it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s less than £5 million, because he gets to keep it.”

The agent then expressed his misgivings about suggesting a “dodgy deal” to his client. “Because that’s what it is, in effect,” he said. “Yeah, yeah,” Dowling responded, with a chuckle.

The agent called back eight days later, on January 20. Again, they quickly exchanged pleasantries before the agent got straight to the point.

“Listen, I just wanted to give you a call,” he said. “I’ve given the matter some thought, what you proposed, of how to structure, erm . . . You’ve known me for quite a bit of time now, I’m totally uncomfortable in proposing [the deal] to [his client]. I’m not even going to pitch it.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Dowling replied.

“But this, the way that either you, Ken or the club have conducted this before and proposed to do this again, I’m just not comfortable,” the agent said.

Dowling again referenced the previous international transfer as evidence that such a deal had been done in the past. He said he had “just been told how a certain transfer can work and did work”, adding that he had simply “passed on a message”.

“If it’s something that’s not right, no problem, it’s not right, erm, you know, and people move on. No problem, no problem,” Dowling said.

The conversation ended soon after that.

It is understood that Lai denies Dowling’s claims, including that he had any involvement in the negotiations involving the transfer of Pereira or the other international transfer referred to by Dowling, and that Lai had no knowledge of the discussions concerning the transfer of Pereira in January.

In a statement, West Brom said: “The club abides by all applicable laws and regulations concerning the transfer of the registrations of players and would not sanction a transfer that was not in accordance with such laws and regulations. Discussions about prospective transfers, that may or may not occur for many reasons, are commonplace and are confidential. Matheus Pereira was an important member of the club throughout last season and he remains registered with the club.”

Dowling said: “This story relates to a transfer that never happened. The conversation was exploratory and, based on the information I had at the time, I believed that the proposal outlined was a legitimate one. As soon as this was called into question, I reported this to the club and had no further dealings. I categorically deny any wrongdoing.”

Q&A: What are the transfer rules in China?
Since 2017, any club that pays more than 45 million yuan (£5 million) for a foreign player must give the same amount to the Chinese Football Association’s youth development fund. The transfer tax was introduced after a spate of high spending by clubs such as Shanghai SIPG, who paid an Asian record of £60 million to sign the Brazilian midfielder Oscar from Chelsea in December 2016.

What is Fifa’s Transfer Matching System?
Since 2010, it has been mandatory for both clubs involved in a transfer to enter details such as the fees into Fifa’s online TMS platform. The information from each club has to be identical for the transfer to be approved. Fifa’s transfer rules state: “TMS is designed to clearly distinguish between the different payments in relation to international player transfers. All such payments must be entered in the system as this is the only way to be transparent about tracking the money being moved around.”

The Times article ends: Comments for this article have been turned off

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 2:14 pm

Thanks Paul. I was just getting ready to look at this story and you have saved me the effort - Interesting that there is a correlation with the presence of Big Sam, no direct link but it just may see the end of him in English football

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Mon Jun 28, 2021 2:19 pm

That's WBA having their transfers investigated then.

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 2:42 pm

I have posted quite a bit about US sports franchise valuations - this is interesting LA Lakers of NBA fame have an operating income quite similar to Burnley FC, yet a 27% minority stake in them is about to be sold valuing the franchise at $5 billion over 20 times what Burnley were sold for in December - here is today's Huddle ?up newsletter with the details

https://huddleup.substack.com/p/the-nba ... mpaign=cta

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:26 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Jun 24, 2021 2:25 pm
La Liga champions Atletico Madrid are about to confirm a huge rights issue to help them through the economic impact of the pandemic - Though the majority interest group are having to take on a huge loan to maintain their shareholding - it looks rather risky to me

https://www.2playbook.com/clubes/atleti ... 1_102.html
That loan to fund the rights issue looks more like a Private Equity group taking a stake in Atletico Madrid via shares in a company that controls a majority shareholding in the club - from SportsBusiness.com

Ares Management acquires Atlético stake through capital increase
SportBusiness Staff
June 28, 2021

US alternative investment manager Ares Management has acquired a 33.96-per-cent stake in a new company created for a €181.9m ($217.2m) capital increase at Spanish LaLiga football club Atlético de Madrid.

The announcement came following a general meeting at the reigning LaLiga champions on Friday. The meeting approved the capital increase, which had been initially proposed last month. Atlético called the extraordinary general meeting of its shareholders in a bid to shore up its financial position through the capital increase.

The announcement came just days after Atlético clinched the 2020-21 LaLiga title in a dramatic end to the season in which it pipped city rival Real Madrid to top spot. At the time, Atlético said the purpose of the capital increase was to “mitigate the adverse economic effects” caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on the club’s income during the 2020-21 season, as well as to reduce the level of indebtedness caused by both investment in the club’s new stadium, Wanda Metropolitano, and player acquisitions.

Following Friday’s meeting, Atlético said its current shareholders will have a pre-emptive subscription right to subscribe to the 972,082 new shares issued through the capital increase. Atlético’s majority shareholder is chief executive Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, who holds 46.7 per cent of the club’s shares, 2.98 per cent directly and 43.7 per cent through the Holding de Inversiones Atléticas company.

Some 32 per cent of the club’s shares are held by Quantum Pacific Group, an investment company of Israeli businessman Idan Ofer. In February 2018, Quantum Pacific more than doubled its stake in Atlético after agreeing a deal to acquire the interest held in the club by Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group. Quantum acquired Wanda’s 17-per-cent stake, increasing its interest from an initial 15 per cent.

Atlético chairman, Enrique Cerezo, is the currently the third-largest shareholder, controlling 2.6 per cent directly and a further 12.6 per cent through his Video Mercury Films company. In his speech at Friday’s meeting, Gil informed the shareholders of the recent creation of the Atlético HoldCo company, to which he and Cerezo have contributed all their shares in Atlético.

This makes Atlético HoldCo the club’s current majority shareholder with a 65.98-per-cent stake in its share capital. Gil told shareholders that Atlético HoldCo will exercise its pre-emptive subscription right in the capital increase, which means Atlético HoldCo will contribute almost €120m to the club.

Gil said that in order to meet this significant outlay, Atlético HoldCo has reached an investment agreement whereby funds managed by the credit group of Ares Management will join as a strategic investor. Ares has taken a 33.96-per-cent stake in Atlético HoldCo’s capital, in which Gil will continue to be the majority shareholder. Under the agreement, Mark Affolter, partner and co-head of US direct lending at Ares Management, will join Atlético HoldCo’s board of directors.

Cerezo read out a statement from Affolter and fellow Ares Management partner Jim Miller, which said: “Ares is pleased to make this strategic investment in Atlético de Madrid given its international brand equity, loyal fan base and resilience through the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As the world begins to reopen and with the support of Ares’ flexible capital, we believe Atlético de Madrid is well-positioned to capitalise on growth in content demand and opportunities for expansion.”

Quantum Pacific’s role in the capital increase is yet to be declared.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:34 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon May 10, 2021 5:51 pm
Anyone fancy buying a club newly promoted to Serie A - likely to be cheap compared to English club prices - last year it was Spezia that were promoted and sold for less than Ipswich - this year you can buy Salernitana, (though you have to do it in the next 30 days) as the owner also owns Lazio and cannot control 2 clubs in the same division under Italian FA rules - from the Mail

Salernitana defeat Pescara to secure promotion to Serie A for the first time in 23 YEARS... but promotion means president Claudio Lotito - who controls Lazio - has 30 DAYS to sell as he can't own two teams in same league
Salernitana secured promotion to Serie A for the first time since 1999 on Monday
Fabrizio Castori's side defeated Pescara on the final day to seal their promotion
It is good and bad news for president Claudio Lotito as he will now have to sell
Lotito also runs Lazio and league rules prevent controlling stakes in two teams
By NATHAN SALT FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 16:08, 10 May 2021 | UPDATED: 16:10, 10 May 2021

Salernitana booked their place in Serie A for the first time in the 21st century with a win over Pescara - but it proved bittersweet for president Claudio Lotito.

The Italian Football Federation's (FIGC) strict rules prevent controlling stakes in more than one team but with Lotito already owning Salernitana before the rule was amended, he was fine to keep a controlling stake while they were in the second tier.

But the success of Fabrizio Castori's mean that Lotito - who also runs Lazio - must now sell up within 30 days.

Currently there are five individuals in Italy who boast controlling stakes - owning more than 40 per cent of a club - in more than one professional club.

Along with Lotito, Napoli owner Aurelio de Laurentiis also has a stake in Serie C side Bari, Giampaolo Pozzo runs both Watford and Udinese and Giuseppe Saputo controls Bologna and Canadian side CF Montreal.

Spezia owner Robert Platek has three professional clubs in his portfolio, including Sønderjysk Elitesport in Denmark and Casa Pia in Portugal.

Speaking prior to Salernitana securing their promotion, FIGC president Gabriele Gravina confirmed Lotito would have to sell up as per league rules.

'We have a clear article, 16 of the Internal organisational rules reinforces a statutory principle seen in article 7 paragraph 8,' Gravina said on Monday morning.

'It is a rule in line with UEFA’s rules that does not allow participation in more than one club at a professional level.

'President Lotito enjoyed an exemption years ago. Everyone knew what was going to happen, I wish Salernitana all the best for this historic goal that they could achieve, but the rules are the rules. The situation of control cannot be continued and would lead to non-inclusion in the league.'

Salernitana finished runners-up in Serie B, amassing 69 points from 38 matches with a league best 19 wins.

It proved a tight first half against Pescara but a penalty from Andre Anderson eased the nerves before Tiago Casasola and Gennaro Tutino added gloss to the performance.

Empoli won the league to return to Serie A since they were relegated on the last day of the 2018-19 season.
Salernitana have not been sold so have taken a step that allows them the possibility of still playing in Serie A next season by effectively extending the period in which they can be sold - Majority Leeds shareholder Andrea Radrizzani has an offer on the table that is scheduled to be withdrawn on Saturday - this from SportsBusiness.com on what Salernitana have done

Salernitana seeks new owner to avoid Serie A conflict of interest
SportBusiness Staff
June 28, 2021

Newly-promoted Serie A club Salernitana is seeking a new owner as it attempts to resolve conflict of interest rules that may prevent it obtaining a licence for the top division of Italian football.

The Salerno-based club last season finished runner-up in Serie B, returning to the top flight for the first time since the 1998-99 season. Salernitana is due to play only its third-ever season in Serie A, but has fallen foul of Italian Football Federation (FIGC) rules that prevent two clubs under the same ownership competing in the same league.

Following financial difficulties that saw the club declared bankrupt in its original guise, Salernitana reformed in 2011-12 under the ownership of Claudio Lotito, president of Serie A club Lazio, and his brother-in-law, Marco Mezzaroma.

Salernitana was set a deadline of Saturday to meet FIGC rules concerning its ownership, with the club on Friday announcing that its shares have been placed into an independent trust, entitled Salernitana 2021, with a view to securing a new owner.

General Ugo Marchetti, former deputy commander of government law enforcement agency Guardia di Finanza, has been appointed as the new sole administrator of the club.

Gianmichele Gentile, lawyer for Lazio, Salernitana and Lotito, told Radio Punto Nuovo that through the formation of the trust any interference by Lotito and Mezzaroma has been avoided. Gentile added: “Money has been paid with the trustees for the management of the club.

“This lasts six months, so starting from yesterday (Friday) Salernitana must be sold. The trustee will have to make an economic evaluation of the club. He must establish how much the shares are worth.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:49 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Jun 02, 2021 12:07 pm
Things have not been going well behind the scenes at Rochdale for some time now - last night however has appeared to have drawn a few things to a head - from RochadelAFCnews.com

https://rochdaleafcnews.com/2021/06/02/ ... lder-meet/

Major decisions made at Rochdale AFC shareholder meet
Jun 02 2021

The Rochdale AFC board of directors has withdrawn the four resolutions proposed for releasing new shares in the club and has agreed to instead explore alternative ways of generating new investment.

The decision was made at tonight’s host of Annual and Extraordinary General Meetings.

Rochdale AFC shareholders also voted to remove club chief executive David Bottomley and Graham Rawlinson from the board of directors during the five-hour marathon event.

The collective shareholders expressed concern at a proposed resolution that would have seen them waive their rights to purchase new shares for the next five years, as well as those to issue unlimited, 697,042 and 397,042 shares respectively.

Should the resolutions have been passed, it was revealed that the board had already identified preferred investors for the club, who intended to acquire a 51% stake. The identities of these investors were not revealed due them having signed Non-Disclosure Agreements.

However, after several compelling presentations from shareholders, the board agreed to withdraw the resolutions and explore alternative ways of raising funds and attracting investors.

It was then down to the other business of the evening.

Part of the Supporters’ Trust’s call for an EGM concerned the reversal of shareholders Dan Altman and Emre Marcelli’s decision to join the board of directors, claiming this was based upon “serious internal issues” at the club and their dissatisfaction at the club’s handling of those concerns. The attending board members were grilled by attending shareholders on key issues such as the extending of first-team manager Brian Barry-Murphy’s contract by a further year, and not informing the supporters, as well as questions around pay rises awarded to unnamed executives.

As a result, the two members put forward prior to the meetings, David Bottomley and Graham Rawlinson, were voted off the board of directors. This leaves only interim chairman Andrew Kelly, Tony Pockney and the newly elevated Nick Grindrod as full board members. Bottomley does, of course, retain his employed position as chief executive.

What remains now is for the shareholders and remaining board members to collectively decide on the future of the football club. Investment is desperately needed and that is not up for debate, but not at the risk of the club’s long-term future. Fresh leadership is needed too, with Kelly stepping down in the coming months.

Chairman of the Supporters’ Trust, Colin Cavanah, said: “I am personally delighted that the club’s share proposals have been withdrawn this evening. Had they been approved, we’d have been giving authorisation to sell the club to a board consisting of three people with a combined shareholding of less than 15% of the club. We are not averse to the club asking shareholders to approve the sale to a named individual or group, but it cannot be acceptable for shareholders being asked to approve a ‘blind’ sale.

“Under no circumstances should any of the outcomes from tonight’s meeting be considered personal or a vendetta, and it is both hurtful and offensive to the Dale shareholders to even suggest that. You only have to look at the number of people who have voted the same way as the Trust tonight.

“Dale fans share a common concern about the governance of any football club, and it is without doubt that there is a genuine pride among the fanbase that we remain the one EFL side in the Greater Manchester area to have never been in administration. Tonight’s outcomes indicate a real need for the club to engage with the fanbase and ask what supporters want from their football club.

“We will provide a full update to our members and fellow supporters via our website on Wednesday.”

The club has also been approached for comment.
Rochdale announce that their CEO has left the club

https://www.rochdaleafc.co.uk/news/2021 ... 28.062.21/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:53 pm

Newcastle United play the changing Account date game just days before the 2019/20 accounts are due to be published - though changing to the End of July is welcome in the sense of full transparency for that season - in the same way that Burnley, Palace (announced but not yet published) and a couple of others have done - we are still waiting for Watford as well

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 3168228356

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:06 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Jun 09, 2021 8:24 pm
I missed this yesterday - Venky's continue their generous support of the charity tea, down the road by buying another £5.25m of shares that are not worth the paper they are printed on.

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 58/photo/1

There used to be a manager in the Premier League who referred to this practice as financial doping, no one really seems to care anymore
So have Blackburn Rovers had a very bad year financially or are Venky's going all out for a promotion push - they have put another £29.5m into the club it seems

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 1799447560

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:29 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:11 pm
Jorge Mendes watch - @Tariq Panja on the case again, with Fiorentina refusing to have anything to do with him or any agent connected to him

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 7104531459
Tariq Panja with the detail on why Gennaro Gattuso left Fiorentina for the New York Times - Jorge Mendes being Jorge Mendes

The Coach Wanted the Job. His Agent Wanted More.
JUNE 28, 2021

Rocco Commisso was hoping this appointment would be the one.

After a bumpy first 18 months as the owner of the Italian soccer team Fiorentina, Commisso had finally alighted on a coach that he believed would give flight to his project.

The coach, Gennaro Gattuso, would be the fifth employed by Commisso since he bought Fiorentina in 2019. But this hire would be different, Commisso told the team’s website when he announced it in May. Gattuso would bring determination, competence and desire to the club. He would bring respectability. He would bring victories.

Fans of the Florence-based team never got to see what Gattuso would have brought, though. On June 17, only 23 days after he was hired, Gattuso was gone. A two-sentence statement posted on the same Fiorentina website where Commisso had welcomed Gattuso with ebullient praise now tersely announced that the coach and the club had agreed to part company.

The split — like so many between managers and clubs — was about money and control and players, according to officials with direct knowledge of the talks between the club and its now-former coach. But at the heart of Gattuso’s exit, those same people said, was Gattuso’s relationship with Jorge Mendes, the Portuguese soccer agent whose influence is now so widespread that he is widely considered to be among the most powerful figures in sports.

The details of Gattuso’s brief stay are shrouded by nondisclosure agreements signed by both the coach and the club. But at Fiorentina, insiders said, acrimony had flared almost as soon as he arrived.

Within days of taking charge, Gattuso, who had most recently coached Milan and Napoli, provided the club’s management with a list of three major transfer targets. Two of the players are, like Gattuso, represented by Mendes. But all three also currently play for clubs that rely on Mendes to get them the best prices for the players they wish to offload.

Those apparent conflicts immediately alarmed Fiorentina officials, and in particular the team’s American owners, whose previous experiences in the transfer market had left them wary of the influence of agents on their club’s business.

Two of the players, Sérgio Oliveira, 29, and Jesús Corona, 28, currently play for Portugal’s F.C. Porto. (Gonçalo Guedes of Spain’s Valencia was the third.) Both could be acquired, though, Fiorentina was told, if the club paid a fee of 20 million euros (about $23.8 million) for each player and then agreed to meet the salary demands — 3 million euros (about $3.5 million) per year — in the five-year contracts that Mendes, who was brokering the deal, said they required.

For Fiorentina, the figures made little sense. The coronavirus pandemic has sent the finances of hundreds of European clubs, including Fiorentina, into crisis, and left many, including Porto, desperate to balance their budgets by selling off talent. Most clubs agree, though, that paying premium prices for players approaching their 30s in an uncertain market makes little business sense.

Fiorentina executives tried to persuade Gattuso, according to the people familiar with the discussions, that other, younger targets were available. But the coach is said to have stood by his list.

So Fiorentina started negotiating with Porto for Oliveira, hoping to strike a deal for a figure closer to its valuation of the player, which was about half the initial asking price. An emissary sent to Portugal for discussions called executives back in Italy to say the Portuguese team would not be moved.

Mendes spoke with Fiorentina officials to say the same, although he tried to broker an accommodation: He told Fiorentina he was willing to accept less than his usual commission from the buying team, according to one of the people involved in the negotiations. (It is not uncommon for soccer agents to be paid by all parties in deals they arrange, a practice that FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, has suggested should be outlawed.)

Representatives of Mendes, Gattuso (through Mendes), Fiorentina and Porto declined to comment on any of the discussions. But the talks quickly signaled the end of the nascent relationship between Gattuso and Fiorentina.

Informed that the team was no longer prepared to negotiate for any of the three players on Gattuso’s list because of their links to Mendes, the coach informed Fiorentina that he no longer felt wanted. The sides negotiated his exit before he had met the players. All that remains from his 23-day tenure is bad blood and hard questions.

The episode represents another failure in the eyes of Fiorentina fans angry about Commisso’s inability to build a team to compete with rivals in the higher reaches of Italy’s top division, Serie A, or to follow through on promises to modernize the club’s Artemio Franchi stadium. The owners, meanwhile, are bewildered by the criticism, feeling that their achievements have not been taken into account. Serie A’s management, for instance, recently credited Commisso, a telecommunications billionaire, with helping broker its new television contract in the United States.

For Mendes, the events in Florence were a rare setback. His rise from small-market player to market maker can be traced to 2004, when he brought his client José Mourinho to Chelsea and helped him stock the London team with a clutch of players from his stable.

As Mendes’s reputation grew — Mendes has also guided the career of Cristiano Ronaldo — so did his reach. Chinese soccer, for instance, turned to Mendes for counsel and players when it wanted to improve its top league. One Chinese conglomerate, Fosun International, was so impressed with his work that it bought a stake in Mendes’s agency, Gestifute.

That relationship deepened when Fosun bought the English team Wolverhampton Wanderers. A group of Mendes players acquired to bolster the roster helped the team win promotion to the Premier League, and newer, costlier additions have allowed it to maintain that status. When the team parted ways with the Mendes client who had overseen its rise, Nuno Espírito Santo, his replacement, Bruno Lage, was another Portuguese coach handpicked by the agent.

Wolves even played a minor role in the events in Florence. Fiorentina had not yet signed its contract with Gattuso, and Wolves had not yet announced Lage as its coach, when Mendes indicated that Gattuso was also an option he had in mind for the Premier League team.

Mendes told Fiorentina he wanted to insert a 2 million euro buyout clause in Gattuso’s contract, a fee that could be paid at any time and would allow him to move on should a better coaching offer emerge. Fiorentina balked, saying it did not make sense to commit millions of dollars for players signed to suit Gattuso’s playing style if it was at risk of losing him at any time for such a low fee. A compromise figure of 10 million euros was agreed upon, but the contract was never signed.

For soccer, it is the kind of influence Mendes wields that raised the thorniest questions. FIFA is in the process of reforming its regulations amid growing unease within the game about the power of a handful of agents. As well as caps on commissions, the new rules seek to bar agents from representing the interests of a player, a selling club and a buying one in the same negotiation, the kind of arrangement that has become commonplace in a typical Mendes deal.

“Conflicts of interest have to be eliminated,” said Pippo Russo, the author of a book on Mendes’s career. “It is not possible an agent can represent all the parts involved in the bargaining.”

For now, though, Mendes’s power appears unlimited. The most recent evidence came at this season’s Champions League final, where pandemic restrictions meant that the capacity for fans at Porto’s Estádio do Dragão, which hosted the game, was strictly limited, and that the number of invited dignitaries and guests was even smaller.

The rules applied to both teams, but not, apparently, to everyone. On the day of the final, some top executives at European soccer’s governing body expressed surprise when they arrived in the presidential suite, an area reserved for a handful of the most important invited guests, to find an unexpected visitor: Mendes.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jun 28, 2021 11:15 pm

It is that time of year when we await the release of a new kit (or 3) this from 1978 looks a little quaint now but it's resonance is still ringing out loud - children's kit's are expensive - perhaps more so back then in relation to earnings - seems a little strange to us today that Admiral was the "premium brand"

https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1 ... 7863987202

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:02 am

The more I read about Mendes, Raiola and their ilk the less I like them and want Fifa to do something about them.

Same with those involved in the transfer of that lad who signed for Cardiff and died in the plane crash.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by KRBFC » Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:12 am

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:02 am
The more I read about Mendes, Raiola and their ilk the less I like them and want Fifa to do something about them.

Same with those involved in the transfer of that lad who signed for Cardiff and died in the plane crash.
Mendes isn't too bad, I hate that leech Raiola though. Did you see what Raiola did with his client Donnarumma? AC qualified for the CL and Raiola demanded a 20 million euro bonus, plus 20 million salary for Donnarummas contract. He's now signing for PSG. Maldini spoke publicly about it.

A few years ago I remember Raiola turned the AC fans against Donnarumma too, ended up with the keeper in tears in the dressing room. Raiola has done the same with Pogba, Pogba has NEVER come out and spoke about leaving Man United, Raiola is desperate to force him out though. An absolute leeching scumbag ruining the game and causing nothing but disruption for clubs.
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:13 am

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:02 am


Same with those involved in the transfer of that lad who signed for Cardiff and died in the plane crash.
he won a court case against him over a different issue recently

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-57585075

As for Mendes and Raiola there is an easy way to put an end to them - all clubs should just refuse to deal with any player that has them as an agent - in 18- 24 months they would all change agents = but as we know clubs and owners do not have that kind of discipline for the most part

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:11 am

Like me Simon Chadwick wonders just what it is that people think will change in the game as a result of the fan led review - there is so much that is outside of the influence of it and a football regulator for the game at a national level

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 3395244032

and the government seem to be well aware of this given their pandering to UEFA

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... id-says-fa

but I still believe that UEFA will back the Spain Portugal bid even though as FA Chief Mark Bullingham says

https://twitter.com/SamWallaceTel/statu ... 0717255681

FA chief questions Spanish World Cup bid given two clubs still tied up with defeated ESL
By Sam Wallace

Mark Bullingham, the Football Association chief executive, has called on Uefa to explain how Spain can be part of a successful bid to host the 2030 World Cup while Real Madrid and Barcelona remain defiant over the rebel European Super League that was defeated in April.

The English FA is considering a joint bid with counterparts in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland for the centenary tournament but would first have to get the backing of Uefa over the joint Spain-Portugal bid. After previous England bids for the 2006 and 2018 tournaments ended badly, a final decision has not yet been made on the United Kingdom and Ireland proposal, which has the British government’s backing.

Nevertheless, Bullingham admitted that any successful European bid would first have to win a “primary” in Uefa to secure the backing of its 55 member nations. Spain and Portugal formally launched their own joint bid for 2030 ahead of the Euro 2020 warm-up game between the two sides. The UK and Ireland will have to decide this year on the viability of their own bid, with the final decision to be made by Fifa in 2024.

On Thursday night, Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president who is the most powerful man in Spanish football, doubled down on his attempt to defy Uefa and insisted in a radio interview that the agreement between the 12 Super League founding clubs was “binding”. He continued to claim that the decision of a Madrid court in April had greater authority than Uefa’s agreement with the nine who had withdrawn, including the rebel six from England.

A 2030 World Cup in Spain and Portugal would need the support of Aleksander Ceferin, the Uefa president, who is on a war footing with Perez as well as the executives of Barcelona and Juventus. Bullingham was asked how a World Cup could go ahead in Spain with games inevitably played at its two most famous stadiums, the Bernabeu and the Nou Camp.

“That’s a question for Uefa,” Bullingham said. “A question I would maybe like to answer but I’m not going to. In all seriousness, it is a question for Uefa. I don’t know what those clubs [Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus] are trying to achieve by staying in and continuing their line.”

He said that winning the Uefa vote would be critical for any European bid, especially with a likely rival bid from South America including Uruguay, where the first World Cup finals were played in 1930. “If we decide to bid, the first step will effectively be a primary in Europe, and you could argue that’s as much of a challenge as actually winning it,” Bullingham said.

“Spain and Portugal have now announced they are going for it and they would be compelling. We would obviously hope – if we went for it – we would present an even more compelling story. Uefa are being very clear they only want one bidder and … whoever goes into it from a European point of view does so with 55 votes in the bag.”

He confirmed that the FA told the rebel six – Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur – that if they joined an unsanctioned league they would be blocked from obtaining government work permits for foreign signings. The FA holds “governing body endorsement” status and is the conduit between clubs and government on the eligibility of foreign workers applying for UK visas. “They [clubs] couldn’t bring in foreign players to play in that [unsanctioned] competition,” Bullingham said.

“We [the FA] have got lots of credit from different parts of football from around the world for the way in which the European Super League ended, and we’re proud of the role we played. I think the French and the German clubs not joining was critical. I think Uefa did a really good job, being really firm early on, and I think our fans were fantastic.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

to be honest I think that statement makes it more likely - Barcelona and Real Madrid (even Atletico Madrid) are in need of the state aid to help them pay for their stadium refurbs/replacements
Last edited by Chester Perry on Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:18 am

All that and not forgetting a recent World Cup Host - from AlkassDigital.net

SAINT PETERSBURG EURO QUARTER-FINAL TO GO AHEAD DESPITE COVID SURGE
28 Jun 2021 Alkass Digital Football

The Euro 2020 quarter-final in Saint Petersburg on Friday will go ahead as planned, Russia’s tournament organisers told AFP Monday, as the city posted a new pandemic high for daily virus deaths.

“The quarter-final will take place as planned,” the press service of the organising committee in Saint Petersburg said.

A UEFA spokesperson told AFP that the surging outbreak “changes absolutely nothing” and “there are no plans to change the location of the match”.

Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second city and one of the country’s main virus hotspots, has seen a surging outbreak due to the highly transmissible Delta variant first identified in India.

On Monday, Saint Petersburg recorded 110 fatalities from coronavirus, setting a new pandemic high for the second time in three days.

The city was where dozens of Finland supporters were infected after they travelled there for their team’s loss to Belgium in the group stage.

But while authorities have tightened some restrictions, including banning food sales at its Euro 2020 fan zones, authorities on Friday allowed high school graduation celebrations to go ahead including a packed concert that drew thousands.

Russia is among the worst-hit countries from coronavirus with the fifth-highest caseload in the world, according to an AFP tally.

The teams playing in the quarter-final in Saint Petersburg will be known later Monday after France face Switzerland and Croatia take on Spain in the last 16.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Simon Chadwick spells it out clearly again

"A Gazprom owned stadium, in which a Gazprom owned club team plays, staging a competition sponsored by Gazprom, organised by a governing body with other Gazprom sponsorships, on whose exec committee a Gazprom exec sits, and with Putin a local lad....of course it goes ahead."

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 4704131073

though it is an interesting looking stadium

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 6180463621

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Tue Jun 29, 2021 3:43 am

jamesisaburyfan wrote:
Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:48 pm
I did the voiceover for that!
it was a really nice piece, I'm sure we all wish Bury the best going forward

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:37 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:06 pm
So have Blackburn Rovers had a very bad year financially or are Venky's going all out for a promotion push - they have put another £29.5m into the club it seems

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 1799447560
I have been thinking about this a bit more - yesterday in the Price of Football Podcast Kieran Maguire was talking about the SCMP model that will be in play for Leagues 1 and 2 next season. SCMP or Salary Cost Management Protocol is effectively a soft Salary Cap, which club owners can inflate by putting additional monies into share capital. This is based on the false premise that it does not have an adverse impact on the club. How anyone can think that consistently and normalising spending beyond means is not having an adverse impact is beyond me - is it not exactly what Eddie Davies did at Bolton, Jack Walker at Blackburn - both in the Premier League and look what happened when they were taken over by new owners. The EFL are being far to complacent here I feel, though it is a problem that both Aston Villa and Everton are also participating in.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:51 pm

This is probably good news for the Premier League ahead of it's rights tender in the US, it increases the reach of Peacock the NBC/Comcast owned service - from SportsProMedia

Peacock goes live on Amazon devices as NBC gears up for Olympics
Streaming platform gains access to 50m active monthly Fire TV users.

Posted: June 24 2021By: Tom Bassam

- WSJ report in May said Peacock had less than 10m paying customers
- NBC streaming service to launch dedicated Olympics destination on platform
- NBCUniversal has agreed a deal with digital giant Amazon for the US media company’s Peacock streaming service to be distributed via Fire TV set-tops and Fire tablets.

From 24th June, NBCU’s 15 network apps – including NBC Sports and Telemundo – will go on to Amazon’s Fire platforms in the US.

For Peacock, which rolled out just under a year ago, the timing is crucial with the agreement coming a month before the Tokyo Olympics. NBC is the US broadcast partner for the Games and is planning to lean on Peacock heavily to offer broad coverage.

LA28 brings on Salesforce as latest sponsor in seven-year deal
Although it was technically possible to add Peacock to Amazon devices previously, NBC now has full access to the 50 million active monthly Fire TV users.

Comcast, NBC’s parent company, confirmed at the end of Q1 2021 that Peacock had 42 million users, but the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently reported that fewer than ten million of those are paying customers. NBC will be hoping the deal with Amazon boosts that latter figure.

“We aim to make Peacock as widely available as possible, so we’re excited to bring the service to millions more people who stream on Fire TV and Fire tablets,” said Maggie McLean Suniewick, NBCUniversal’s president of business development and partnerships, direct-to-consumer.

By landing on Amazon, Peacock is now available on the three leading streaming devices with agreements already in place with Apple and Roku. According to the WSJ, Comcast has been considering acquiring Roku.

Peacock will launch a Tokyo Olympics destination on the platform on 15th July. That dedicated Olympics section will offer live coverage of gymnastics, track and field and the US women’s basketball team. NBC confirmed that all of Peacock’s Olympics programming will be available for free with the exception of US men’s basketball live coverage, which will be on the platform’s paid tier.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 2:56 pm

Someone has come up with a new way to try and make money out of football - from Sportico.com

TOCA RAISES $40 MILLION WITH TOPGOLF-FOR-SOCCER CONCEPT
Jacob Feldman
BY JACOB FELDMAN

June 29, 2021 8:30am

TOCA Football has raised $40 million in Series E funding in advance of launching TOCA Social, a series of soccer-themed entertainment venues in the vein of Topgolf. TOCA already has 14 training-focused locations and plans to expand that vertical as well. The first TOCA Social location is set to open in London’s O2 Arena in July.

“Topgolf was able to take a sport that, candidly, was beginning to die off and through gamifying their experience and creating incredible consumer experiences, was able to really turn the tide,” TOCA CEO Yoshi Maruyama said in an interview. “So you take that success and you say, Wow, we have the opportunity in a sport that is substantially bigger—in fact the most popular sport in the world.”

Maruyama joined TOCA in 2019 as the company began focusing on the venue concept. He’d previously worked in location-based brand experience for DreamWorks Animation and Universal Parks & Resorts. Founded in 2014 by U.S. midfielder Eddie Lewis, TOCA built a training platform around proprietary machines, digital targets and app-based tracking for players ranging from kids to pros. “I joined with the primary agenda to shift away from the manufacturing and selling of those technologies, but rather to focus on services,” Maruyama said.

Now the hope is that the technology can attract the happy hour set. TOCA’s chairman is former Topgolf Chairman Erik Anderson, while its head of business development held the same role at Topgolf, which was acquired by Callaway Golf for more than $2 billion in March. National Soccer Hall of Famer Abby Wambach has also joined TOCA’s board. Previous investors WestRiver Group, RNS TOCA Partners, and D2 Futbol Investors led the round, which included investment from Qualtrics co-founder Jared Smith.

TOCA, which has now raised a total of $105 million, is working to open additional centers throughout Europe, with a test facility in Dallas preparing for U.S. expansion.

“There’s a massive pent-up demand of people in markets like London that have truly wanted to socialize but because of the pandemic have not been able to,” Maruyama said. “So we think that the timing is perfect.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 3:39 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:26 pm
That loan to fund the rights issue looks more like a Private Equity group taking a stake in Atletico Madrid via shares in a company that controls a majority shareholding in the club - from SportsBusiness.com

Ares Management acquires Atlético stake through capital increase
SportBusiness Staff
June 28, 2021

US alternative investment manager Ares Management has acquired a 33.96-per-cent stake in a new company created for a €181.9m ($217.2m) capital increase at Spanish LaLiga football club Atlético de Madrid.

The announcement came following a general meeting at the reigning LaLiga champions on Friday. The meeting approved the capital increase, which had been initially proposed last month. Atlético called the extraordinary general meeting of its shareholders in a bid to shore up its financial position through the capital increase.

The announcement came just days after Atlético clinched the 2020-21 LaLiga title in a dramatic end to the season in which it pipped city rival Real Madrid to top spot. At the time, Atlético said the purpose of the capital increase was to “mitigate the adverse economic effects” caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on the club’s income during the 2020-21 season, as well as to reduce the level of indebtedness caused by both investment in the club’s new stadium, Wanda Metropolitano, and player acquisitions.

Following Friday’s meeting, Atlético said its current shareholders will have a pre-emptive subscription right to subscribe to the 972,082 new shares issued through the capital increase. Atlético’s majority shareholder is chief executive Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, who holds 46.7 per cent of the club’s shares, 2.98 per cent directly and 43.7 per cent through the Holding de Inversiones Atléticas company.

Some 32 per cent of the club’s shares are held by Quantum Pacific Group, an investment company of Israeli businessman Idan Ofer. In February 2018, Quantum Pacific more than doubled its stake in Atlético after agreeing a deal to acquire the interest held in the club by Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group. Quantum acquired Wanda’s 17-per-cent stake, increasing its interest from an initial 15 per cent.

Atlético chairman, Enrique Cerezo, is the currently the third-largest shareholder, controlling 2.6 per cent directly and a further 12.6 per cent through his Video Mercury Films company. In his speech at Friday’s meeting, Gil informed the shareholders of the recent creation of the Atlético HoldCo company, to which he and Cerezo have contributed all their shares in Atlético.

This makes Atlético HoldCo the club’s current majority shareholder with a 65.98-per-cent stake in its share capital. Gil told shareholders that Atlético HoldCo will exercise its pre-emptive subscription right in the capital increase, which means Atlético HoldCo will contribute almost €120m to the club.

Gil said that in order to meet this significant outlay, Atlético HoldCo has reached an investment agreement whereby funds managed by the credit group of Ares Management will join as a strategic investor. Ares has taken a 33.96-per-cent stake in Atlético HoldCo’s capital, in which Gil will continue to be the majority shareholder. Under the agreement, Mark Affolter, partner and co-head of US direct lending at Ares Management, will join Atlético HoldCo’s board of directors.

Cerezo read out a statement from Affolter and fellow Ares Management partner Jim Miller, which said: “Ares is pleased to make this strategic investment in Atlético de Madrid given its international brand equity, loyal fan base and resilience through the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As the world begins to reopen and with the support of Ares’ flexible capital, we believe Atlético de Madrid is well-positioned to capitalise on growth in content demand and opportunities for expansion.”

Quantum Pacific’s role in the capital increase is yet to be declared.
Today's Huddle Up newsletter looks at that investment from Ares Management into Atletico Madrid - and my initial take is that all 3 of Spain's biggest clubs are carrying a billion or more in debt

The Private Equity Giant Investing $217 Million In European Soccer
US-based Ares Management has invested ~$217 million for a 34% stake in Atlético Madrid.
Joseph Pompliano
56 min ago

Looking to continue the multi-year trend of US capital flowing into European soccer, Ares Management, a US-based investment firm with more than $225 billion in assets under management, announced a significant investment in La Liga’s Atlético Madrid yesterday.

Here’s a high-level overview:

Ares will invest ~$217 million for a 34% stake in Atlético Madrid.

Atlético Madrid plans to use a majority of the funds to reduce debt mainly caused by COVID-19, investment in their new stadium, and the acquisition of players.

In a joint statement, Ares partners Mark Affolter and Jim Miller confirmed the investment and stated:

“Ares is pleased to make this strategic investment in Atletico de Madrid given its international brand equity, loyal fan base, and resilience through the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the world begins to reopen and with the support of Ares’ flexible capital, we believe Atletico de Madrid is well-positioned to capitalize on growth in content demand and opportunities for expansion.”

Competing in Spain’s top league, Atlético Madrid took home the championship this year, winning just their second La Liga title in the last 20+ years.

When it comes to soccer in the United States, La Liga — Spain’s 20 team league historically dominated by Barcelona & Real Madrid — falls behind Mexico’s Liga MX, England’s Premier League, and even Major League Soccer in terms of US fan viewership.

Most Popular Soccer Leagues On US TV
  • Liga MX
  • Premier League
  • Major League Soccer
  • La Liga
  • Bundesliga
Heading into the 2020 season, when talking to Sports Illustrated, La Liga president Javier Tebas stressed how important the US market has become.

“For us, the USA is, after Spain, the most important country that we need to actually activate. The league has to make an effort to attract American viewers and supporters. We need to find those supporters.”

But similar to most other professional sports leagues globally, COVID-19 wrecked La Liga’s business model and crushed any hope of increased international viewership.

After bringing in a record ~$7 billion in income during the 2019/20 season — the only one of Europe’s top five leagues to achieve positive net financial results — La Liga now estimates that income during the 2020/21 season will fall more than $2 billion to $4.85 billion — a 30% year-over-year decline.

Even worse? Despite being crowned La Liga champions this past season, Atlético Madrid has watched their total debt bill climb north of $1 billion for the first time in club history.

Now, they’ll digest a $217 million investment from one of the largest private equity firms in the world to help pay down debt & expand their footprint in the United States.

The interesting part: Private equity continues to fall in love with professional sports.

Here are just a few examples:
  • CVC Capital Partners invested $952 million in Formula One in 2006, providing an almost $7 billion return by its exit in 2016.
  • Arctos Sports Partners purchased a 5% minority stake in the NBA’s Golden State Warriors earlier this year, valuing the team at $5.5 billion.
  • Silver Lake paid $280 million for a 12.5% stake in the New Zealand Rugby League, valuing the national rugby league at $2.2 billion.
  • CVC also purchased a 14.3% stake in the Six Nations rugby tournament, paying about $500 million over five years.
  • RedBird Capital Partners agreed last week to acquire a 15% stake in the Rajasthan Royals, a cricket team in the Indian Premier League, with the deal valuing the Royals at around $250 million.
So why has private equity taken an interest in professional sports?

Well, there are obvious things like the ability to diversify against traditional investments (stocks, bonds, etc.) and the outperformance vs. the broader stock market — the average major US pro franchise has appreciated ~500% over the last decade — but ultimately, COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of capital inflows.

Whether you talk to a private equity CEO, managing director, associate, analyst, or even summer intern, they all believe the same thing — pro sports are set to come back stronger than ever before.

Over the last decade, the increase of broadcast rights has attracted investors, as revenue from these agreements effectively creates downside protection. Still, the operational experience of PE investors can’t be overstated either.

They have deep pockets to weather the financial storm caused by COVID-19 and arrive with operational experience to transform a business typically driven by wins & losses into a data-driven, financially disciplined profitability machine.

Some pro sports teams/leagues have avoided institutional investments for that exact reason, but if they are unable to quickly back bounce to pre-pandemic revenue, don’t be surprised if more PE-focused capital comes calling.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 3:43 pm

This is rather depressing from OffthePitch.com

Multi-club owners and former FIFA profiles disappear after emptying accounts of Danish side
29 June 2021 9:00 AM

EMIL GJERDING NIELSON nielson@offthepitch.com

Multi-club owners and former FIFA profiles disappear after emptying accounts of Danish side
A group consisting of former FIFA profiles utilising a so-called multi-club ownership model has disappeared after emptying the bank accounts of the Danish second tier side it owns, Vendsyssel, according to newspaper Nordjyske.

Having acquired the club just last year, Core Sports Capital (CSC) is seemingly no longer willing to live up to its obligations and could now be facing a police investigation. Up to 4.5 million Danish Crowns (€600,000) are said to be missing.

The group is run by its founder, Ahmet Schaefer, a former personal assistant to then FIFA president Sepp Blatter who was banned from all football related activities for six years over ethics violations. Serving as its managing director of international relations and communications is Jerome Champagne, who was an executive under Blatter and twice unsuccessfully attempted to run against him.

Also part of the group is managing director of football Ingo Winter, who previously worked with Young Boys, and managing director of strategic investments Yannick Flavien, a former banker.

Sources estimate the club have unpaid bills worth up to five million Danish Crowns, while Schaefer is said to have an outstanding sum with former majority shareholder Jacob Andersen worth about three million Danish Crowns.

Schaefer previously threatened to pull funding from the club in case they were relegated to the third tier.

No one from Core Sports Capital responded to a request for comment by Off The Pitch. The report comes shortly after the Danish FA launched a review into club ownership due to increasing interest from investors in Danish clubs.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 3:49 pm

it follows this report yesterday at Offthepitch on the Danish authorities considering putting protocols in place for the changing environment and foriegn investment in the game in Denmark

Investors are targeting cheap Danish clubs in recognition of country's prominent youth development
25 June 2021 3:32 PM
  • Uptick in foreign investment in Denmark's first and second tier shows how some local owners no longer have faith in their ability to keep up with football's growing costs.
  • With cheap entry points, investors see a way to easily recoup their money with just few player sales.
  • But new owners could create cultural clashes between clubs that have traditionally been in the hands of local businesspeople.
  • The Danish football association has launched a review into foreign and national ownership to assess whether a type of owners' and directors' test should be implemented.
  • Off The Pitch examines the often-contentious topic in the intersection of emotion and professionalism.
EMIL GJERDING NIELSON nielson@offthepitch.com

One of the more unexpected tendencies that emerged in conjunction with the coronavirus pandemic was the influx of foreign investors in Danish football.

Five clubs in the first and second tier have since August 2020 accepted investment either wholly or in part by international groups, some of whom purport to utilise the multi-club ownership structure that has become increasingly popular.

Adding to those already in the top two divisions, ten out of 24 clubs now have significant foreign stakeholders. And that’s an unusually large number for a league that internationally doesn't necessarily hold the accolades that scream great potential for a significant return on investment.

Off The Pitch has spoken with several key stakeholders in the Nordic country's football industry to examine the simple question: What are the implications of Danish football becoming a hotspot for foreign investment?

Player development

Before entering the Danish market, Pacific Media Group (PMG) and its spokesperson, Paul Conway, closely assessed and discussed opportunities for investment with several clubs first and second tier clubs.

Ultimately the choice of the US based group, which also owns stakes in Championship club Barnsley, French AS Nancy, Belgium's KV Oostende, and Swiss FC Thun, fell on Esbjerg FC, a club in a seaport town in the country's Western part famous for its oil and offshore activities.

Having acquired a more than 50 per cent stake as part of a €4 million investment, Conway says what drew him to the club, whose academy helped develop Martin Braithwaite that now plays for FC Barcelona, was their synergy with PMG's strategy of utilising youth with the goal of selling players on for a profit.

"There is a lot of good, undervalued Danish and Scandinavian talent, and we wanted to invest in a Danish club to take advantage of that," Conway says.

And perhaps he has drawn experience from another successful investor in Danish football. British entrepreneur Tom Vernon acquired a 97.4 per cent shareholding in top tier "Europe's youngest team" FC Nordsjaelland in 2015 for the reported price of €13.5 million.

The club have since then become known for their ability to develop players as part of the firm Vernon founded, Right To Dream. The firm is an academy group with locations in Ghana and now Egypt after Vernon in January sold a majority stake to Mansour Group in a €100 million transaction.

"The regulations regarding foreign players are obviously important for investors. You can play as many foreign players in your team as you like. I also believe that we have shown in FC Nordsjaelland with our Right To Dream-project that you can play a very young team in the Danish Superliga [first tier] and still be quite successful," Vernon says.

Cheap entry points in stable economy

When you combine the potential for gains on player development with clubs that can be acquired at a relatively low cost it becomes evident to see why investors are attracted to Denmark.

"A lot of Danish clubs just about break even or are loss-making, and that means clubs are not particularly expensive when you start applying multiples. For example, if you purchase the majority of the shares in a club for €7 million it doesn't take a lot of player transfers to recoup your investment," says specialist in sports and entertainment law Frederik Bruhn, a partner at Dahl Law Firm.

The law firm acts as the house lawyer of several clubs including first tier sides Viborg FF and FC Midtjylland, who in the past month welcomed significant Danish majority and minority investors, respectively.

Bruhn himself and Dahl Law Firm have been involved in several club acquisitions and says more are on the way, while Dahl Law, in response to the recent interest, has begun work to focus on and establish a specific football M&A sub-department.

"Denmark compared to Norway and Sweden has a proven track record of attracting and developing foreign players, and many investors see the opportunity to use it as a talent incubator," Bruhn says, also highlighting the country's reputation as an open economy with little corruption that's easy to do business in.

Vernon concurs, further explaining that you "shouldn't underestimate Denmark's international reputation" as a liberal and open-minded society.

"Players can easily adapt in Danish society, so it seems like a safe bet from an investors point of view. Furthermore, people in Denmark speak English very well, so neither language is a problem even though Danish is a tough language to learn," Vernon says.

Locals being squeezed out

The amount of capital flowing into the game over the past couple of years has also started to show its impact. Clubs today have to invest more and more to remain competitive. In particular as more European competitions see clubs now having to go up against an ever-growing variety of international clubs.

Experts believe this trend is playing a significant part in the exodus of local owners who no longer see themselves being able to compete in the new football economy. For Viborg, who have been promoted to the first tier for the coming season, that development forced the board to make a difficult decision.

"With the development in both Danish and international football it has long been evident for the board that we are in need of additional capital to have a realistic chance of achieving our ambitions of becoming a stable part of the Superliga," chairman of the board Kim Nielsen said recently.

That's why the board in June accepted a €5.7 million investment for 70 per cent of the shares from a group that includes the Better Collective sports betting firm, and the owners of Notts County and Football Radar, a provider of football betting advice.

"The development in the sport both in terms of the competition but also in player wages means local investors can't keep investing," Bruhn says.

Sport business researcher and business development strategist Dr. Kenneth Cortsen from the University College of Northern Denmark also sees this trend as playing its part in the withdrawal of local businessmen.

"From a historical perspective, clubs have been dependent on capital and thereby people with deep pockets. The growing requirements to be able to compete, which will always be part of elite sport because it's about winning, mean that clubs are moving from being on local, regional or national hands to being internationally owned," Cortsen says.

Clash of cultures

The shift in ownership from local businessmen to international professionals unsurprisingly also has its challenges. First tier side Sonderjyske was in September acquired by Robert Platek, an American businessman who also owns Portuguese side Casa Pia and Serie A club Spezia.

Platek and his team has since then gotten rid of Sonderjyske's head coach, assistant coach, sporting director and head of scouting among others as part of an overhaul that has raised eyebrows among local supporters.

But while some would accuse foreign investors like the Plateks of tearing clubs up by the roots, the case of Sonderjyske could also serve as an example of the potential for optimisation that local owners don't necessarily have the cynicism to capitalise on.

Cortsen explains how football is characterised by what in technical terms is known as managerial complexity which requires a diverse set of skills and competencies to facilitate the long-term process of talent development and management on and off the pitch.

"There is a high degree of production inefficiency in football because of a recruitment practice that is unlike any other industry when it comes to the importance of balancing talent and persistence with positive human relations, employment and onboarding," Cortsen says.

And often local investors will struggle to change their mindset without someone from outside coming in with a disruptive attitude.

"Many Danish clubs are still driven by businesspeople who have a sort of con amour for running a team and perhaps forget their business sense. If you have a professional investor who doesn't in the same way have the lifeblood for the club that could in many cases be helpful in the process of streamlining the business," Bruhn says.

But in Viborg, the professional cynicism which often seems to be the modus operandi of foreign owners ultimately meant the club rejected a series of approaches from foreign investors.

"It's always been our desire to keep the club on local hands," said chairman Nielsen.

For Conway, whose PMG only took over part of Esbjerg, it's all about finding the right balance, as well as having people on the ground who know the local culture.

"In all of our clubs we have local investors who know the local culture much better than we do. But the biggest problem in European football is the leakage, and that's where we come in to say, basically, 'either you get on the train or you don't'," Conway says.

Ownership review

In response to the influx of foreign investors the Danish football association (DBU) has launched a task force to assess its implications. Bruhn, who is part of the task force, says they have been tasked with mapping the up- and downsides of the growing interest from investors in Danish football, including foreign investors, and to issue a series of recommendations on how to respond to the new reality.

He underlines the task force does not have the purpose of preventing professional investments or acquisitions, including from international investors but simply to make sure that a sustainable environment and transparency will secure clubs' continued competitiveness.

"If you look at history there aren't any foreign investors who have burned Danish football badly. On the other hand, some Danish owners have. So, history doesn't show that foreign investors are more scary than the Danish," Bruhn says.

He is backed by chief executive of the Danish football league Claus Thomsen, also the chair of the European Leagues.

"Overall, we don't distinguish between international and Danish owners. We want to make sure that there are the proper conditions for both foreign and international investors, and that there is a sound financial development in the sport," he says.

Whether that will in the future be secured through an owners' and directors' test similar to that in England is at this point not entirely clear, but Thomsen says regulation should only be introduced if it effectively solves the issue that's in need of being addressed.

UEFA is at the moment, as part of its Financial Fair Play (FFP) overhaul, looking into whether new regulations are necessary to respond to the development in ownership across Europe over the past few years.

Cortsen, however, warns that a sensible balance needs to be carefully considered before new rules are introduced.

"More regulation could distance potential investors because it's obvious that when you pay a lot of money for the keys to something you want to have as much control as possible. If you tinker with that I believe many will cool down their interest," he says.

But for Vernon, in addition to Conway, regulation could have its upsides if it helps keep the integrity of the sport.

"I think it is vital that DBU [the Danish FA] takes this development seriously and try to protect the strong football-culture in this country. As a foreigner I am not the one to tell exactly how to do it, but I believe that some sort of an ownership test could make a difference," Vernon says, adding:

"And it shouldn't be one similar to the ones we have seen in English football. They have just set up a system that is a box ticking exercise, but it doesn't prevent bad owners from gaining power and destroying value in clubs. Denmark should do something different."

Additional reporting by Kasper Kronenberg

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 8:17 pm

More from OffthePitch.com this time a column on the need for an independent regulator - there is a lot of sound discussion on regulation activities and absolutely no recognition that there are significant influences beyond the jurisdiction of any government appointed regulator

If other industries allowed football’s regulatory failings “the public would be screaming from the roofs, as would the politicians.”
28 June 2021 5:31 PM
  • Regulatory expert says that the appointment of an independent regulator to English football would set an example to the rest of the world and boost the game’s commercial potential.
  • Football’s appetite for enforcement is “pathetic” and dominated by a “boys club” ethic to self-regulate,” says Toby Duthie, founding partner of Forensic Risk Alliance.
  • “You can have the best regulator in the world, but if it's not regulated, it doesn't have the chops to actually ban people…then it becomes fairly pointless.”
JAMES CORBETT corbett@offthepitch.com

One of Europe’s leading forensic accountants and regulatory investigators tells Off The Pitch that the British government should “seize the opportunity” to give English football an independent regulator and set an example for excellence in global sporting governance.

“Given where English football sits in the world, I think there's a real opportunity to clean this up and set standards for other leagues, other jurisdictions to follow suit,” says Toby Duthie, founding partner of Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA), head of its UK and European offices and Who’s Who Legal’s Investigations Forensic Accountant of the Year 2018 and 2019.

In April, following the Super League fiasco, the government announced a “fan led” inquiry into the running of football, chaired by former sports minister, Tracey Crouch.

Crouch, who presents her initial findings in July, has since said, “The question is actually not about an independent regulator. It’s about what it regulates,”

Duthie says that it is “nuts” that an industry as culturally significant as football has been allowed to self-govern until now, and describes the game’s appetite for enforcement of its own rules as “pathetic”.

Cultural significance

He says that there is a clear opportunity for the game to make a break with its past, and in doing so it will make itself even more commercially appealing.

He argues that the game should take from other regulatory concepts when deciding what model it adopts, but says that there is no way that other industries would have tolerated the sort of excesses football has succumbed to in recent years.

“If you look at what works well and what doesn't work well in banking, what works very well is very transparent, highly regulated, highly visible markets,” he says.

“What didn't work so well was Libor [an interbank rate fixing scandal], where you had a very small group of people effectively setting a rate between them so that they could gain profit. And really the regulators and everyone else were asleep at the wheel then.

“Football's that on steroids, isn't it? They will have panels that review internal breaches and the enforcement appetite is pathetic.

“By and large, the Man City UEFA ruling in Geneva that happened recently, you cannot imagine something like that being tolerated in the banking markets. The banking markets are much more economically fundamental to all of our well-being, but culturally sport is meant to set an example and it's much more than a game.

“So if you imagine these kind of outcomes occurring outside of sport in the business world - the public would be screaming from the roofs, as would the politicians.”

Boys Club

Duthie suggests that the game is still beholden to an amateurish – “boys club” – ethos that ignores the reality that the game in the 21st century is a multi-billion industry. This has led to deep failings from the very top of the game that have trickled down.

“I think self-regulation works only so well. It depends very much on the culture of these sort of sectors, but typically you don't get challenges around enforcement.

“If you look at what's actually happened as a result of some of the FIFA scandals, if you'd put that in the financial services sector, you'd have found a very, very different outcome. Lots, lots more people would have ended up having some sort of criminal penalty or sentence applied to them. You would have had external legal processes to ensure that there was a governance overhaul.

“The problem with self-regulation is it does create a sort of a boys club mentality where people try to resolve things themselves, don't want to rock the boat, everyone's somehow potentially compromised or implicated, even if not actively but through wilful blindness.

“I think given where sport exists in the national cultural environment and also in terms of the business world, I mean, this is nuts in my mind that it's still going down, this sort of amateur self-regulation kind of process when clearly we're talking about billions and billions and fundamentally the cultural backbone of most of European countries. I mean, football is much more than just a game in this country.”

Different interests

Given the multitude of interests English football represents – professional and amateur clubs, players (both elite and grassroots), sponsors, broadcasters, fans (both domestic and international) – what an independent regulator should actually look like is hard to articulate.

Shaf Sohail, FRA’s Associate Director, acknowledges these challenges and says that when Tracey Crouch lays out the case for a regulator she needs to ensure that all those interests are represented.

“Because of its place in culture, football has a totally different set of stakeholders to some of the other industries that might need to be a bit more narrowly regulated,” says Sohail.

“It needs to represent quite a wide array of interests and participants, and it needs to somehow be able to draw on their experiences and give them a say in how the game is being regulated.

“Owners versus players, this is a classic dynamic in a lot of sports, but also fans, advertising interests, government will want some kind of a stake in this.

“It's really difficult to kind of draw comparable regulator that has so many competing interests. However we structure it a UK football regulator really does have to, at the very least, make sure it has representation from all those parties.”

Transparency is key

Duthie believes that the most fundamental quality a regulator should have is transparency. Stakeholders need to see how decisions are arrived at and rulings need to be consistent.

“I think where regulators get into trouble is where they operate behind closed doors and then come out with a verdict or whatever.

“And that is always problematic because that gives the impression of political influence being exerted, even if that's not the case. So I think there's got to be a very, very clear set of parameters and processes that are defined and revisited periodically up front to ensure that there's a transparent governance structure.

“And then the absolutely key thing is a clear enforcement regime. You can have the best regulator in the world, but if it's not regulated, it doesn't have the chops to actually ban people, levy fines, take some really quite draconian measures, then it becomes fairly pointless.

"So I think and again, there should be some sort of independent scrutiny between an appeal process around the enforcement function. But all of that needs to get very clearly defined and a framework that protects against allegations of political influence.”

Broadening opportunities

Duthie has worked on many complex financial frauds and bribery investigations, most notably leading the FRA team supporting Airbus in a multi-year, multinational investigation, which resulted in a €3.6 billion settlement with investigative authorities from France, Britain and the US.

FRA’s work in football has so far been limited to advising companies concerned about being caught up in the FIFA-gate scandal, but he anticipates more clients from the game as it moves to a more highly regulated future.

“I think what sensible clubs should do is smell the coffee and actually get on the front foot, start working in a transparent and open way to advocate what a sensible independent regulatory environment looks like,” he concludes.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:12 pm

It seems that Carlo Ancelotti's return to Madrid has caused an old tax issue to be re-opened against him as Spanish tax authorities request Real to to hold back some of his salary

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... 1610706213

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:17 pm

The vultures are at the door - Private Equity seeks to reshape the Brazilian league model - this is a hugely detailed piece

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... irao.ghtml

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jun 29, 2021 11:06 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 3:39 pm
Today's Huddle Up newsletter looks at that investment from Ares Management into Atletico Madrid - and my initial take is that all 3 of Spain's biggest clubs are carrying a billion or more in debt

The Private Equity Giant Investing $217 Million In European Soccer
US-based Ares Management has invested ~$217 million for a 34% stake in Atlético Madrid.
Joseph Pompliano
56 min ago

Looking to continue the multi-year trend of US capital flowing into European soccer, Ares Management, a US-based investment firm with more than $225 billion in assets under management, announced a significant investment in La Liga’s Atlético Madrid yesterday.

Here’s a high-level overview:

Ares will invest ~$217 million for a 34% stake in Atlético Madrid.

Atlético Madrid plans to use a majority of the funds to reduce debt mainly caused by COVID-19, investment in their new stadium, and the acquisition of players.

In a joint statement, Ares partners Mark Affolter and Jim Miller confirmed the investment and stated:

“Ares is pleased to make this strategic investment in Atletico de Madrid given its international brand equity, loyal fan base, and resilience through the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the world begins to reopen and with the support of Ares’ flexible capital, we believe Atletico de Madrid is well-positioned to capitalize on growth in content demand and opportunities for expansion.”

Competing in Spain’s top league, Atlético Madrid took home the championship this year, winning just their second La Liga title in the last 20+ years.

When it comes to soccer in the United States, La Liga — Spain’s 20 team league historically dominated by Barcelona & Real Madrid — falls behind Mexico’s Liga MX, England’s Premier League, and even Major League Soccer in terms of US fan viewership.

Most Popular Soccer Leagues On US TV
  • Liga MX
  • Premier League
  • Major League Soccer
  • La Liga
  • Bundesliga
Heading into the 2020 season, when talking to Sports Illustrated, La Liga president Javier Tebas stressed how important the US market has become.

“For us, the USA is, after Spain, the most important country that we need to actually activate. The league has to make an effort to attract American viewers and supporters. We need to find those supporters.”

But similar to most other professional sports leagues globally, COVID-19 wrecked La Liga’s business model and crushed any hope of increased international viewership.

After bringing in a record ~$7 billion in income during the 2019/20 season — the only one of Europe’s top five leagues to achieve positive net financial results — La Liga now estimates that income during the 2020/21 season will fall more than $2 billion to $4.85 billion — a 30% year-over-year decline.

Even worse? Despite being crowned La Liga champions this past season, Atlético Madrid has watched their total debt bill climb north of $1 billion for the first time in club history.

Now, they’ll digest a $217 million investment from one of the largest private equity firms in the world to help pay down debt & expand their footprint in the United States.

The interesting part: Private equity continues to fall in love with professional sports.

Here are just a few examples:
  • CVC Capital Partners invested $952 million in Formula One in 2006, providing an almost $7 billion return by its exit in 2016.
  • Arctos Sports Partners purchased a 5% minority stake in the NBA’s Golden State Warriors earlier this year, valuing the team at $5.5 billion.
  • Silver Lake paid $280 million for a 12.5% stake in the New Zealand Rugby League, valuing the national rugby league at $2.2 billion.
  • CVC also purchased a 14.3% stake in the Six Nations rugby tournament, paying about $500 million over five years.
  • RedBird Capital Partners agreed last week to acquire a 15% stake in the Rajasthan Royals, a cricket team in the Indian Premier League, with the deal valuing the Royals at around $250 million.
So why has private equity taken an interest in professional sports?

Well, there are obvious things like the ability to diversify against traditional investments (stocks, bonds, etc.) and the outperformance vs. the broader stock market — the average major US pro franchise has appreciated ~500% over the last decade — but ultimately, COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of capital inflows.

Whether you talk to a private equity CEO, managing director, associate, analyst, or even summer intern, they all believe the same thing — pro sports are set to come back stronger than ever before.

Over the last decade, the increase of broadcast rights has attracted investors, as revenue from these agreements effectively creates downside protection. Still, the operational experience of PE investors can’t be overstated either.

They have deep pockets to weather the financial storm caused by COVID-19 and arrive with operational experience to transform a business typically driven by wins & losses into a data-driven, financially disciplined profitability machine.

Some pro sports teams/leagues have avoided institutional investments for that exact reason, but if they are unable to quickly back bounce to pre-pandemic revenue, don’t be surprised if more PE-focused capital comes calling.
As ever Simon Chadwick looks at the wider picture re Ares Managment's buy in to Atletico Madrid - and it starts to look more like Silver Lakes partnership with CFG as Atleti are building a Sports City/Entertainment complex

https://twitter.com/Fire_and_Skill/stat ... 1812568066

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jun 30, 2021 4:02 pm

UEFA announce a ground breaking worldwide broadcast deal for their Women's Champions League

https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/mediase ... ring-wome/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Wed Jun 30, 2021 4:04 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 11:06 pm
As ever Simon Chadwick looks at the wider picture re Ares Managment's buy in to Atletico Madrid - and it starts to look more like Silver Lakes partnership with CFG as Atleti are building a Sports City/Entertainment complex

https://twitter.com/Fire_and_Skill/stat ... 1812568066
CP, why do you think we've seen all this investment from the US over the last year or so ?

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jun 30, 2021 4:44 pm

Vegas Claret wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 4:04 pm
CP, why do you think we've seen all this investment from the US over the last year or so ?
Most of the Ultra rich have seen their wealth double or triple during the Pandemic, a lot of Private Equity funds have also seen big gains. There is a huge amount of liquid cash out there at the moment and very little place to invest this wealth that provides a return of more than a couple of %, therefore if you believe there is long term value appreciation in something like elite football it is worth the punt of, what is for many, a micro amount of their actual wealth. I keep referring to the valuation of American franchises and this is playing a part in the ambitions. The Americans still believe that broadcast deals for the big 4 leagues are still significantly undervalued

With regards to the Ares deal at Atletico Madrid, they have investments in Entertainment complexes just like Liberty at CFG - Liberty are the driving force for the Co-op Live area at the Etihad and they are doing something similar in Mumbai with CFG and Reliance - it is all about the coming together of Sport and Entertainment and repeating it in specific centres around the globe -what we have previously called the Disneyfication of sport.

CFG are way out in front in this globally, but there are a number of Nation states trying to do this as well - Saudi Arabia have a $500 billion project doing something similar by building a whole city based on the idea (Interestingly Saudi announced inward investment opportunities on that project for foreign interests only last week) - China are doing something similar (in the city where CFG have a club) and a number of other countries are at it as well.

In many ways CFG is a diplomatic front by which to develop much bigger commercial relationships for Abu Dhabi. This is where it becomes interesting because Europeans and Americans like rules and regulations with defined punishments whereas those from the East (including Russia) like to do deals and move on and the battleground for this is Europe, it reflects a wider geo political picture and we are effectively spectators and subjects to the activities of interests whose wealth is difficult to comprehend. It was very marked that it was the western mindset that drove Super League (which had a lot of rules) and the Eastern interests either refused or were reluctant participants. Of course FIFA, whose leadership have historically preferred to do deals, appear more closely aligned and partnered to the Eastern interests - we are seeing the same thin in the Olympic movement too.
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jun 30, 2021 6:00 pm

Bolton may have new owners having come out of administration two years ago but it seems that old habits die hard - this is an awful lot of money for a league 1 (as it was in 2019/20) club to lose in a relegation season, even with the pandemic lock down.

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 2405047309

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jun 30, 2021 6:19 pm

Wrexham show the power of it's owners in announcing their new shirt sponsor - Tik Tok - naturally the owners are perfect purveyors of the medium

https://twitter.com/Wrexham_AFC/status/ ... 1871374340

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 01, 2021 12:21 am

Seems to be a right palaver going on at Northampton Town- and this time not about the missing money, but still about ground development - i will try and get this in the right order

The club are redeveloping a stand and have entered into a land deal with the new unitary council, the stand was supposedly a fans end with additional corporate facilities

This is how the club describes it

https://www.ntfc.co.uk/news/2021/june/o ... se_250621/

The supporters trust had a number if questions about the development

https://www.ntfctrust.co.uk/news/articl ... vin-thomas

the response to which saw the trust withdraw support for the land deal

https://www.ntfctrust.co.uk/news/articl ... -land-deal

and staff at the club - purportedly free of incitement/encouragement of the owners wrote this challenging letter to the supporters trust claiming incredulity at their actions

https://www.ntfc.co.uk/news/2021/june/open_letter/

which saw this response

https://www.ntfctrust.co.uk/news/articl ... on-town-fc

followed by the fans group who were working on the fan controlled element of the new development putting their involvement on pause

https://twitter.com/tomreedntfc/status/ ... 3444593669

I still find it astounding that the council is prepared to enter into a deal like this with the club when it's predecessor has spent close to $2m on an investigation to find out what has happened to the £10m+ loan to the club that has disappeared, that investigation is still ongoing. Yes there are new owners since that event but this is just strange.
Last edited by Chester Perry on Thu Jul 01, 2021 3:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 01, 2021 12:34 am

GameofthePeople.com with an article on why the European Elite clubs may never get the returns they are hoping for in the Asia - it is an interesting read, just a little strange that it is based on research published last August (source research https://brandfinance.com/insights/brand ... n-research)

The Asian dream may remain elusive for Europe’s corporate clubs

As Europe’s international teams close in on the final stages of the 2020 European Championship, the shadow of the European Super League mutiny refuses to disperse.

The contribution to Europe’s football strength is underlined in the surviving squads in the competition – 48 players are from the ESL dozen, including 14 from England and one less from Spain. These players are part of the reason why the project was aimed not just at Europe but also rising football nations. With the exception of the top South American players, European players are a strong currency in Asia Pacific’s many football markets. They represent aspiration, glamour and prosperity, a way out of poverty and the realisation of dreams.

It is all too often uncovered that western business looks at the potential-rich expanse of Asia and its growing middle classes in much the same way a cartoon character’s eyes turn to dollar signs when good fortune comes their way. This exposé of human nature represents the more cynical side of capitalism and can often become evident when traditional markets start to see the graph head south or demand begins to evaporate.

With brands becoming so powerful and continually refreshing their offering to preserve customer appetite, the life cycle of any consumable, be it a phone, a computer or other forms of technology, can be relatively short. Such is the pace of modern business that the saturation point can be reached sooner than in the past.

When the financial crisis of 2008 broke and banks and corporates eventually climbed out of the mire, they spoke warmly and enthusiastically about the opportunities in Brazil, China, India and Russia. The BRICS, a phrase coined by Manchester United fan Jim O’Neill who was with Goldman Sachs when the world turned upside down, were supposed to be the way out of crisis and the platform for future growth.

Although they reinforced their emerging market presence to fight on the battlegrounds of South America, Asia and the Steppes, there seemed to be a little cynicism about it all. These countries had, after all, seen banks move in and out of these markets as and when it suited them.

In some respects, football adopted a similar strategy in so far that the big clubs have concentrated on building global franchises which really amounts to enticing Asian and American fans. It would seem some clubs may have reached saturation point in their own countries.

European football is not generally a pastime where allegiances are transferable – as the misogynistic music hall wag on the terraces would tell you, “you change your wife but not your club”. Europe’s football-watching public has, to a certain degree, strengthened the theory that the game has become ecclesiastical among its followers, where emotions are over-dependent on 22 young men on a well manicured field, playing a game where the margin of success is extremely fragile.

If the truth was known, the 12 mutineers were aiming at a market that has very different football values than Europe’s mature locations. They may also have overlooked the fact that Asian football leagues are growing, creating their own heroes, fanbases and cultures. China, as one example, is no longer an undeveloped football nation, but at the same time, it is not a football nation like any found in Europe. The government has been very influential in China’s story, encouraging overseas investment on one hand but pulling back the reins when it got out of control. This should not surprise anyone who has any knowledge of China’s history, but there is something a little uncomfortable about the way European football, a child of capitalism, reaches out to a country that until very recently was inaccessible and mysterious.

But if the European Super League’s grandees thought China and its football fans would embrace the European Super League, they might have been in for a shock. Brand Finance research demonstrated that among football fans, the Chinese Super League is still the most followed across the country. Similarly, Japanese football fans are very loyal to their own teams, even though they also have an appetite for big Premier League clubs.

There is a danger that Asia will, eventually, develop strong affection for its own creations and young fans may realise that there is a fine line between customer exploitation and creating a “global family” supporting the club. Some clubs have got it more right than others, and it has to be said there seems a genuine attempt to create friendships and partnerships, but it has to be about something more than just monetising social media followers.

North American fans also have their own leagues and club cultures. Major League Soccer, which may have inspired club owners to pursue a competition which delivered more business certainty than those found in England, Spain and Italy, continues to grow and appears to be well-run and pragmatic. Brand Finance’s research also revealed that 31% of football fans choose MLS first as their league of choice.

If the ESL was to launch, it is fairly clear they may have found a tepid response from fanbases they anticipated would warm to the chance to patronise a new, glitzy, elitist product. The mood in Europe was very clear – the ESL was seen as a heinous crime.

When the ESL collapsed, analysts seemed to be more concerned with the lost business opportunity rather than the havoc an elitist, structure-threatening synthetic league would wreak. The statement made by Juventus’ Andrea Agnelli that Gen Z is not interested in football lacked real substance. If he meant they cannot afford football, then he may be right, but floating the ESL boat away would merely have created “wasteland football”.

What sort of fans do European clubs want in Asia? Most will never get to see their teams in the flesh, so their relationship with the club may only ever be virtual. Clubs can “sell” something that is lifestyle-orientated or an aspirational acquisition, but the real essence of being a fan will inevitably elude the majority.

No longer are the west’s clubs football missionaries – that job was completed a long time ago. Football is a global game, a global language, so nobody has to be convinced of that. For globalisation to really show its benefits, clubs from emerging regions needs to be able to look their opposite numbers from Europe in the eye and, ultimately, compete with them. Using developing football markets as a place to sell raw materials is outdated – and haven’t we been somewhere like this before?

@GameofthePeople

JUNE 30, 2021

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 01, 2021 12:51 am

Lionel Messi is now a free agent, but will he re sign for Barcelona - as we have read previously La Liga's salary cap is going to make it difficult unless a number of player agree to salary cuts (more likely deferrals) and some players are going to be shipped out on the cheap, maybe not as cheap as James Rodriquez from Real Madrid last season but still cheap. You have to believe that La Liga will find a way of keeping it's biggest star in the league, particularly id Spain fail to go all the way at the Euros.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 01, 2021 12:57 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:49 pm
Rochdale announce that their CEO has left the club

https://www.rochdaleafc.co.uk/news/2021 ... 28.062.21/
Rochdale announce the manager and ex player and coach who has been at the club for 11 years has left the club after a request from his agent

https://www.rochdaleafc.co.uk/news/2021 ... rrymurphy/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 01, 2021 1:16 pm

Ipswich Town have released their 2019/20 accounts which reveal the level of generosity of former owner Marcus Evans was to the club - even though he was regularly accused of being tight fisted - he obviously made a number of mistakes though

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

@KieranMaguire has had a look https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 7314613248

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 01, 2021 1:31 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jun 21, 2021 4:21 pm
That same site is also suggesting that Juventus (one of the 3 standing firm on Super League) are looking for a capital injection of as much as 400m euro, though given it is that long since the Agnelli family (through it's business interests) put that much into the club to help it over this period.

Juve are studying a capital increase: hypothesis 300-400 million
of Editorial board - June 19, 2021

The hypothesis of a capital increase for Juventus is making its way . Currently no process has been initiated, but according to what reported by Il Sole 24 Ore, the indiscretion begins to circulate in the environment of investment banks.

The coffers of the Bianconeri club require resources, due to the Covid emergency and budget reductions in recent years, so Exor - the holding company of the Agnelli-Elkann family that controls the Juventus club -, together with the club, would be evaluating the situation, in waiting to understand the cash needs and the extent of any transaction at the end of the summer market session.

A value of the new possible recapitalization is not foreseeable at the moment, even if - according to rumours - we are talking about a figure between 300 and 400 million , therefore at a level similar to the last resource injection operation. Exor would subscribe pro quota the possible increase.

The timing, on the other hand, remains to be defined, although once the market is over, the situation could be clearer and more suitable for making a final decision. Among the other options, a convertible loan and the minority entry of a financial partner would have been studied , but both hypotheses would have been immediately discarded.

Juventus' accounts in the first half saw revenues of € 258.3 million , down from € 322.3 million in 2019/20. Costs also increased slightly to 263.4 million euros (compared to 260 million in the previous year), while losses for the period amounted to 113.7 million (50.3 million in 2019/20).
Juventus have announced their 2020/21 financial results, which explain the need for a re-financing and the desperate clinging to Super League.

press release https://www.juventus.com/en/news/articl ... ss-release

BBC report https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57671886

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 01, 2021 2:48 pm

The remaining Super League 3 continue with their winning court actions - translated from Confilegal.com

The Commercial Judge orders UEFA to refrain from excluding the founding clubs of the Super League from its competitions

Carlos Berbell | 07/01/2021 13:13 | Updated: 07/01/2021 13:33

The head of the Mercantile Court 17 of Madrid, Manuel Ruiz de Lara , gets tougher if possible with UEFA.

In a car, which has a date, he orders this private organization, chaired by the Croatian Aleksander Ceferin , who has been especially combative against this initiative, to "Refrain from excluding the founding clubs of the European Super League from organized competitions " for her.

In addition, it expressly and clearly warns you that failure to do so will lead to the imposition of fines and even the possibility of incurring a crime of disobedience to the judicial authority.

Regarding the measures and commitments imposed by UEFA on several of the founding clubs of the European Super League, Ruiz de Lara orders that “annul, nullify and archive the disciplinary proceedings initiated against Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, ​​Juventus de Turin and Barcelona Soccer Club".

And specifically: " The disguised sanction consisting of a 5% reduction in income and the contribution to the Solidarity Fund of 15 million euros, the obligation imposed to proceed to dissolve the European Super League ".

As well as "putting an end to the legal proceedings initiated by the European Super League and the penalty of 100 million euros in the event of non-compliance with the commitments of the agreement and, in particular, if they intend to participate in the European Football Super League."

Also, UEFA, according to the magistrate, must annul any of the other terms that "have the effect of preventing or hindering, directly or indirectly, the preparation of the European Super League of football," he says in his order.

Judge Ruiz de Lara raised, last May, a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union, to clarify whether there is abuse of a dominant position, by UEFA and FIFA, both beneficiaries of television economic rights and the power to prevent other rival competitions from being organized.

And if this state of affairs goes directly against the law of the Union.

The forecasts say that the Luxembourg court, the Supreme Court of the 27 Supreme Courts of the European Union, could issue a resolution between next October and December.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 01, 2021 8:30 pm

Watford finally get around to releasing their 2019/20 financial results - a huge operating loss, absolutely enormous debts and a wage + amortisation to revenue ratio of 112%

https://www.watfordfc.com/storage/40495 ... Report.pdf

there has been a flood of these today so @KieranMaguire has only just had the briefest of looks

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 0535431178

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 01, 2021 8:41 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Jul 01, 2021 1:31 pm
Juventus have announced their 2020/21 financial results, which explain the need for a re-financing and the desperate clinging to Super League.

press release https://www.juventus.com/en/news/articl ... ss-release

BBC report https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57671886
The Financial Times with a brutal assessment of Juventus following their financial results

Juventus: club’s ambitions exceed its finances
JULY 01, 2021

European footballers wail at the slightest collision on the pitch. Football clubs such as Juventus are not faking their financial injuries. Milan-listed Juventus announced plans late on Wednesday to raise up to €400m equity later this year to cover shortfalls. The new Serie A season begins in August. Injury time will drag on after that.

The pandemic has been painful for football. But Juventus, famous for its striped bianconeri kit, suffered years of negative operating cash flow before that. The club needs more equity. The planned fundraising would follow a €300m rights issue at the end of 2019.

Top shareholders Exor and UK fund managers Lindsell Train will have to stump up. In the 12 months to December, net debt exceeded ebitda by 6.5 times. More than half of the cash raised last time went to debt repayment.

Fans have high expectations, and those cost plenty. Until last season “Juve” had won the Serie A championship nine consecutive times. Success on the pitch is the only thing that seems to boost the share price. But the club’s playing fortunes have declined since 2019. Juventus’s stock has trailed other listed clubs, such as Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund. The latest equity raise equals nearly half Juventus’s market value.

A lack of fans through the turnstiles hurts any club. At Juventus, match day revenue accounts for just a tenth of total revenues. Broadcasting rights and sponsorship make up the balance of its roughly €400m top line.

Sky Italia, which has televised most league matches since 2003, baulked at paying the league for fewer games last year. Now a rival broadcaster, Leonard Blavatnik’s DAZN, has won rights to most games. The streaming service will pay €840m for each of the next three seasons, beating Sky by €90m. Even so, Italy’s top league earns perhaps half what the English Premier League does.

The pandemic has given lossmaking European clubs useful cover for financings. The black-and-white message is that pressure to shine on the pitch will depress profits long after everyone has been vaccinated.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 01, 2021 10:32 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Jul 01, 2021 2:48 pm
The remaining Super League 3 continue with their winning court actions - translated from Confilegal.com

The Commercial Judge orders UEFA to refrain from excluding the founding clubs of the Super League from its competitions

Carlos Berbell | 07/01/2021 13:13 | Updated: 07/01/2021 13:33

The head of the Mercantile Court 17 of Madrid, Manuel Ruiz de Lara , gets tougher if possible with UEFA.

In a car, which has a date, he orders this private organization, chaired by the Croatian Aleksander Ceferin , who has been especially combative against this initiative, to "Refrain from excluding the founding clubs of the European Super League from organized competitions " for her.

In addition, it expressly and clearly warns you that failure to do so will lead to the imposition of fines and even the possibility of incurring a crime of disobedience to the judicial authority.

Regarding the measures and commitments imposed by UEFA on several of the founding clubs of the European Super League, Ruiz de Lara orders that “annul, nullify and archive the disciplinary proceedings initiated against Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, ​​Juventus de Turin and Barcelona Soccer Club".

And specifically: " The disguised sanction consisting of a 5% reduction in income and the contribution to the Solidarity Fund of 15 million euros, the obligation imposed to proceed to dissolve the European Super League ".

As well as "putting an end to the legal proceedings initiated by the European Super League and the penalty of 100 million euros in the event of non-compliance with the commitments of the agreement and, in particular, if they intend to participate in the European Football Super League."

Also, UEFA, according to the magistrate, must annul any of the other terms that "have the effect of preventing or hindering, directly or indirectly, the preparation of the European Super League of football," he says in his order.

Judge Ruiz de Lara raised, last May, a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union, to clarify whether there is abuse of a dominant position, by UEFA and FIFA, both beneficiaries of television economic rights and the power to prevent other rival competitions from being organized.

And if this state of affairs goes directly against the law of the Union.

The forecasts say that the Luxembourg court, the Supreme Court of the 27 Supreme Courts of the European Union, could issue a resolution between next October and December.
more detail on that Spanish commercial court decision today and the warnings it gave to UEFA from TheN24.com

The judge demands that UEFA not exclude the teams from the Super League and threatens fines
Home » News » The judge demands that UEFA not exclude the teams from the Super League and threatens fines
The judge demands that UEFA not exclude the teams from the Super League and threatens fines
Post author:The News 24
Post published:July 1, 2021

The head of the Commercial Court 17 of Madrid, Manuel Ruiz de Lara, has issued this Thursday a new order in which it warns UEFA that it must refrain from excluding from organized competitions all the clubs included in the European Super League under the warning of sanctions. The magistrate Manuel Ruiz de Lara also warns that, in the case of not complying with his order, the agency may commit a crime of disobedience.

In the car, to which El Confidencial has had access, the judge demands that “all the disciplinary proceedings initiated against Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, ​​Juventus de Turin and Fútbol Club Barcelona be annulled” and specifically highlights “the disguised sanction consisting of 5% reduction in income and contribution to the Solidarity Fund with 15 million euros“.

The judge demands that UEFA not exclude the teams from the Super League and threatens fines
Beatriz Parera Alejandro Requeijo

The magistrate details the actions carried out by the body. It indicates that on April 20, the president of UEFA Alexander Ceferin He stated at a press conference that he was going to ban all players from the clubs called to be part of the UEFA from participating in the competitions European Football Super League. The Premier League later announced that it was considering all actions against the English clubs called to participate and the Professional Football League issued an informative note and published a video on its YouTube channel with the slogan “Win ​​it on the field, football is of the fans ”accompanied by the UEFA logo.

On May 12, 2021, UEFA announced that it had reached a “agreement” with various clubs of the European Super League by virtue of which each one accepted without reservation the binding nature of the statutes of UEFA maintains its commitment. “What goodwill gesture, and together with the other clubs, they will make a donation totaling € 15 million, which will be used to benefit children, youth and grassroots football in local communities across Europe, including the UK and will be subject to the withholding of 5% of the income they would have received from UEFA club competitions during a season, which will be redistributed, “the agreement required.

“As a gesture of goodwill, and together with the other clubs, they will make a donation for a total of 15 million euros”

It also indicated that clubs would accept substantial fines if they intend to play in an unauthorized competition of this type (€ 100 million) or if they breach any other commitment they have made in the Club Statement of Commitment. (50 million euros). After them, three of the founding clubs of the European Super League learned that an investigation procedure was initiated for a potential violation of the regulatory framework in relation to their participation in the constitution of the European Super League and the Super League project. As early as June, the president of the professional football league and member of the UEFA executive committee publicly stated that sanctioning measures could be applied in the future against the founding clubs of the European Super League.

Breach
For the magistrate, these actions represent “a flagrant breach” of the order of precautionary measures that he issued in April, “seeking an imposition by way of the facts of allegedly anti-competitive practices, with express disregard for what was ordered in a judicial resolution of which there was public knowledge “. The infringement appreciated It is not “isolated” but “the result of a strategy directed by the defendants in order to cause the ineffectiveness of a judicial resolution “.

The order that Confilegal has advanced indicates that the successive public statements of UEFA senior managers and organizations associated with said entity – in particular the UEFA President Mr. Aleksander Ceferin and Javier Tebas – show a desire to anticipate the formal notification of the order of precautionary measures, “taking advantage of the processing times which are further expanded in this case by reason of the defendants’ domicile in Switzerland and the necessary notification through international judicial assistance “.

This performance is carried out despite the fact that it is public and notorious that there was knowledge of the full content of the order of precautionary measures for its dissemination in various media. “The declarations, threats and actions taken put at risk the very effectiveness of the agreed precautionary measures, pursuing the objective of imposing a de facto situation, apart from what was ordered in a mandatory judicial resolution and therefore also outside the State of Law, that compromises and definitively frustrates the judicial protection that could be granted in a eventual estimate judgment“, he adds.

The magistrate adds that the opening of the disciplinary procedure to the Real Madrid Football Club, Juventus of Turin and Football Club Barcelona is not only a breach but its effect is not mitigated by being paralyzed, as the body recently did. “With this, actions that contravene the literal content of the precautionary measures adopted are expressly imposed by means of the facts and practices are crystallized. allegedly anti-competitive that cause the risk of frustrating the right to effective judicial protection that in the event of a eventual estimate judgment“, he adds.

In the operative part of the order, it orders UEFA to annul all the disciplinary proceedings initiated against Real Madrid football club, Juventus de Turin and Fútbol Club Barcelona and refrain from excluding the founding clubs of the European Super League from the competitions organized by UEFA. Regarding the measures and commitments imposed by UEFA on several of the founding clubs, it demands that “the disguised sanction consisting of the reduction of 5% of income and the contribution to the Solidarity Fund with 15 million euros“and the obligation imposed to proceed to dissolve the European Super League and to terminate the legal proceedings initiated by it.

It also cancels, “the penalty of 100 million euros in case of breach of commitments of the agreement and, in particular, if they intend to participate in the Super League and any other terms of the agreement that have the effect of preventing or hindering the preparation directly or indirectly. “For greater security, it orders that it proceed to publish the actions previously described carried out in compliance with the order.

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