Football's Magic Money Tree

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Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jul 11, 2021 5:43 pm

and just to emphasise that point about China there is this from Simon Chadwick earlier this month - from IRIS France Geopolitics

https://www.iris-france.org/158867-chin ... -progress/

China’s Championship Sponsors and the Relentless March of Beijing’s Politico-Economic Progress
Tribune2 juillet 2021
By Professor Simon Chadwick, Professor and Director of Eurasian Sport at EMlyon.

For avid watchers of male football’s UEFA European Championships, currently being staged across several countries, one thing has occupied the minds of many observing off-field matters: what are those Chinese letters appearing on the pitch-side perimeter signage during the matches?

The words may be impossible for many Europeans to understand, some of the brand names may be unfamiliar, and the availability of their products may be non-existent in Paris, Prague and Porto, yet Alipay, Antchain, Hisense, TikTok and Vivo are surely now firmly implanted in the minds of fans and consumers alike.

The story is no different in Brazil, where the controversial staging of South America’s equivalent to the Euros – the Copa America – is now taking place. There had been problems finding a host for this year’s tournament, though Jair Bolsonaro’s populist government eventually stepped in as a last-minute replacement for Columbia, at which point several sponsors stepped-out.

The Copa America has therefore been left with only four sponsors: Betsson, Kwai, TCL and Sinovac, the latter three of which are Chinese. Sinovac Biotech is perhaps the most interesting of the Copa’s saviours: it is the pharmaceutical company responsible for driving the Chinese government’s response to Covid-19. Sinovac has not only developed a vaccine that is being widely used across China and several other countries, it also donated 50,000 doses of the vaccine to the Copa organisers.

During the last African Cup of Nations in Egypt, Africa’s equivalent of the Euros, Huawei was a prominent sponsor of the tournament. The telecommunications used the event as a platform for launching the rollout of its African 5G network, although the Cup of Nations was originally scheduled to take place in Cameroon (which relinquished hosting rights following organisational difficulties).

In 2022, Cameroon is scheduled to stage the tournament, which will see Africa’s best footballers playing games in a series of stadiums that have either been funded or constructed by China. Around the same time, Beijing will be hosting the Winter Olympic Games, which currently appears like a Chinese corporate brand fest with all manner of local companies already engaged as commercial partners. If you don’t know the Hengyuanxiang Group or Jinlongyu Cooking Oils, you soon will.

At the end of 2022, when the men’s World Cup takes place in Qatar, Hisense and Vivo will again be making an appearance, accompanied by China’s Wanda. And before that, Alibaba’s presence will be visible again at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. For bemused Europeans and others, they had better get used to those indecipherable messages that are increasingly populating their screens.

The profusion of Chinese sponsors now clustering around sport raises a question: why are they there? In simple terms, it’s because Chinese corporations have the money to acquire the sponsorship rights associated with sport events. At one level, the rapid and sometimes double-digit recent growth of the Chinese economy means that the likes of Alibaba have the resources to outbid their global rivals. At another level, European companies seem much less predisposed towards paying big money for their names to be associated with UEFA, the Olympics and others.

One reason for European reluctance to engage in such deals is that they are essentially based on visibility and awareness, that is people can see your name and may know what you do. Sponsorship in Europe is a rather more mature, sophisticated business practice than it appears to be in China. That said, perhaps this is what Chinese brands need right now hence the current raft of deals is something akin to a down payment on the future recall of consumers across the world.

The growing strength of Chinese industry, allied to the power of businesses from China, to out-muscle their sponsorship rivals, is exactly the game plan that government in Beijing has been pursuing over the last three decades. In the eyes of many across the country, China has ascended to its rightful place in the world and will now press home its economic advantage by attempting to sell us Vivo mobile phones upon which we all download TikTok.

Growth begets growth, and it won’t be too much longer before China overtakes the United States as the world’s biggest economy. However, China’s growth is not a triumph of business, profits and the free-market, rather there are strident ideological, state and strategic underpinnings to what its corporations do (many of which often play host to Communist Party branches).

The engagement with African football is particular striking; for more than a decade, China has been funding the development of stadiums across the continent, which have been freely constructed in return for access to natural resources such as oil and rare earths (which help sustain Chinese economic growth). Huawei’s 5G Egyptian rollout also marked the role that sponsorships play in Chinese attempts to secure first-mover competitive advantage in strategically important markets.

At the same time, sponsorships are very often used as the means to other ends and, as such, There’s no surprise that we are currently seeing Chinese sponsors clustering around football’s most important governing bodies. It is no secret that China wants to host the men’s World Cup, perhaps as early as 2030. Lavishing cash upon the likes of UEFA creates something of a financial dependence, and with dependence comes power. We should therefore expect that, when the time comes for football to vote on future World Cup hosting rights, China will start calling in some favours.

Though sponsorship is often labelled in business as being a form of marketing communication, sponsorship in China has clearly been elevated to a position of diplomatic and strategic importance. Sinovac’s ‘generous’ contribution of vaccines to the Copa America being an illustration of this, where sponsorship is a constituent part of Beijing’s vaccine diplomacy. One wonders too what role that data surveillance plays in China’s strategy. For instance, if Alipay becomes the prescribed payment platform for ticket purchases, then a company that has close links to the Chinese government will have access to all manner of personal information.

At the time of writing, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo was the leading scorer at the UEFA Euros. However, irrespective of which player eventually tops the charts, it seems likely that the top scorer at every event over the next year or so will be China.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Sun Jul 11, 2021 5:55 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Sun Jul 11, 2021 5:43 pm
I wonder if we will end up with a Chinese shirt sponsor this time ?

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jul 11, 2021 5:57 pm

This tale in the Athletic about John Textor, the proposed new investor in Crystal Palace (yes another American), covers an awful lot of bases - from Chicken farmers turned football club owners (not Venky's) through multi-club ownership and player development farms, through to fraud, money-laundering, tax avoidance and and the power of relationships in Portuguese football - it is almost a complete picture in microcosm of modern football off the field

https://theathletic.com/2699565/2021/07 ... ed_article

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:00 pm

Vegas Claret wrote:
Sun Jul 11, 2021 5:55 pm
I wonder if we will end up with a Chinese shirt sponsor this time ?
As I have said before I am not sure what advantage that would offer a Chinese business (or it's government) - we do not seem to be geographically/economically positioned anywhere that would meet their interests

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:43 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:00 pm
As I have said before I am not sure what advantage that would offer a Chinese business (or it's government) - we do not seem to be geographically/economically positioned anywhere that would meet their interests
we are in the PL that gets broadcast worldwide, sponsoring our shirt for whatever million is peanuts to some of these companies. I suspect given the owners we may go American though

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:50 pm

Vegas Claret wrote:
Sun Jul 11, 2021 6:43 pm
we are in the PL that gets broadcast worldwide, sponsoring our shirt for whatever million is peanuts to some of these companies. I suspect given the owners we may go American though
All genuine/sanctioned Chinese spend in European/world football has been associated with other geo-political strategic aims

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 12, 2021 3:58 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Sun Jul 11, 2021 5:57 pm
This tale in the Athletic about John Textor, the proposed new investor in Crystal Palace (yes another American), covers an awful lot of bases - from Chicken farmers turned football club owners (not Venky's) through multi-club ownership and player development farms, through to fraud, money-laundering, tax avoidance and and the power of relationships in Portuguese football - it is almost a complete picture in microcosm of modern football off the field

https://theathletic.com/2699565/2021/07 ... ed_article
John Textor makes a statement about his relationship with Benfica

https://www.johntextor.org/slbenfica


To the people and the community of Sport Lisboa e Benfica:

In light of the news that we have all learned in recent days, I do wish to share with you certain of my beliefs and I also wish to clarify for your benefit my interests in becoming involved with your beloved Club.

I am a lover of the game of football, and I believe it has proven to be the greatest unifier of people and cultures that we have ever seen in the world of sport…and it’s global influence is only growing.

I believe football clubs and communities are inextricably linked and that ownership of football clubs should be in the hands of the public.

I am specifically interested in football clubs that have the opportunity to provide direct and tangible benefits to the people in their immediately proximus communities and to those within their global reach

I am attracted to Sport Lisboa e Benfica because it is truly the People’s Club…and it will always be the People’s Club. Unlike any company or club with which I have had the pleasure to be associated, it was formed, is structured, and is run principally for the benefit of its community. If I were ever invited by the people of Benfica to support the mission of SL Benfica, I would not have to create that connection with the community…it has been the way of Benfica since long before my arrival…I would only hope that I could help to strengthen SL Benfica for the benefit of its people.

I believe SL Benfica is the sleeping giant of world football, the greatest developer of talent in its academies, with an unmatched opportunity to extend its mission and its brand to fast growing global audiences.

I believe SL Benfica made a wise decision to become a publicly listed and a publicly owned club, a logical extension of its successful form of governance by the people of Benfica, though I do believe the limited scale and liquidity of the Portugal capital markets has not allowed SL Benfica to maximize its potential as a global concern.

I believe that greater coordination between the Portugal markets and global stock exchanges in the United States and elsewhere would provide SL Benfica with efficient access to large pools of people and capital which would better serve the mission of Benfica.

I believe that the story and the teachings of SL Benfica, conveyed through international academy expansion and through media, would be welcomed and valued around the globe, bringing new revenue opportunities from far off places that would bring returns back to the people of Benfica in Portugal.

I believe I may be one of the people that can bring ideas to the Benfica community that can help improve the capitalization and the revenues of the Club, for a purpose that is right for the fans…the goal to keep many more of the best players of SL Benfica playing for SL Benfica. It’s clear that the thrill of playing in the Champions League, for Benfiquistas, has become less of a thrill, and more of an expectation. Shouldn’t it now be the goal to win?

To be clear, these are just my beliefs. They are not yet plans. I have not acquired shares in SL Benfica. I have enjoyed my conversations and correspondence with the devoted SL Benfica fan, Mr. Jose Antonio dos Santos. I believe he truly loves the Club and I believe that he sees, in me, a person that has the right heart and the right experience to advance the mission of the Benfica community.

I have never sought, negotiated or reached an agreement to purchase SLBEN shares from any party, other than Mr. dos Santos, nor have I purchased any SLBEN shares (directly or indirectly) in the open markets. Mr. dos Santos was introduced to me, not by leadership of SL Benfica, but rather by an investment banking institution based in London with whom I regularly discuss investment opportunities, namely in the sports industry.

Like you, I am digesting very quickly the unexpected news that is impacting SL Benfica. Though I was looking forward to meeting the management team of SL Benfica in the coming weeks, I am now evaluating whether or not I intend to consummate a purchase of SLBEN shares. It was my great hope to be received as a positive and contributing partner to the community of Benfica and I am obviously having to evaluate the remarkable change in circumstances as I evaluate this opportunity. Again, like you, I am reserving the right to make my own judgments and my own decisions as I learn more.

In the meantime, I wish you all the best of outcomes and personal joy during the coming season, as I feel confident that Sport Lisboa e Benfica will continue to be as strong in the coming year as it has been for the last 117 years.

Warmly,
John Textor

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:15 pm

Every now and again fans with little knowledge of the marketplace suggest that a naming rights deal for their ground would bring in millions of additional revenue to their club, this is because they constantly here of the massive deals in the US for sports franchises. What they do not understand is that in Europe the marketplace is substantially different, though it is something that keeps getting talked up - in the UK the three most know deals are The Etihad (Man City), The Emirates (Arsenal) and The Amex (Brighton) all are new stadia and most would be shocked at how little income these deals actually generate. Spurs have been trying to get a £25m a year deal for their new ground since it was in construction and have not found a taker willing to reach anything close to £20m and they host NFL and are on the flight path to Heathrow with a huge roof to emblaze a logo on. Here SportsBusiness suggest that the European market needs a mega deal to kick start the market - My bet would be the newly announced Saudi international airline at Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium once the refurb is complete (it covers a few other issues I have posted about recently too)

Flat naming rights market in Europe requires showcase deal to achieve lift off
Matthew Glendinning
July 8, 2021
  • Easy access to debt is mitigating the need for clubs to put stadium naming rights up for sale
  • A major naming rights success story at Tottenham Hotspur or Barcelona could kick-start the market
  • Experts are split on whether European properties should be benchmarked against those in the US
The European stadium naming rights market for new builds or new offerings on existing stadium properties stagnated in the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the market held back by multiple factors, according to industry experts.

In the years before the pandemic struck, it was widely expected that naming rights sales would grow with major rights on offer for new or projected new builds at Tottenham Hotspur and Barcelona, and agencies and professional services companies jockeying to serve the market.

But SportBusiness research shows the market for new builds has not moved since March 2020 in the top-tier leagues of the five major European economies, although contract extensions and switches of naming rights partners have continued.

Three deals were made on existing properties at stadia linked to German Bundesliga clubs after March 2020 – extensions with Arminia Bielefeld (Schüco) and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (Pre Zero), and a switch of partner at Eintracht Frankfurt (Deutsche Bank replacing Commerzbank). Meanwhile in the French Ligue 1, Olympique de Lyonnais signed a two-year extension with Groupama, and OGC Nice a nine-year extension with Allianz.

Among the top five leagues, the Bundesliga has the most clubs with naming rights agreements, with 15 coming into the 2021-22 season – the same as in 2019-20.

The English Premier League, Ligue 1 and Italy’s Serie A each have four clubs with naming-rights partners, while Spain’s LaLiga has three. This mirrors the 2019-20 season, excepting the Premier League, which is down from five because Bournemouth, owner of the Vitality Stadium, was relegated.

While the pandemic has reduced brands’ appetite for major naming rights commitments, not least because stadiums operated without fans for much of the last 15 months, industry sources cited other contributory factors for the flat market, including easy access to debt finance; a lack of successful recent naming rights agreements; inflated price expectations; and global economic uncertainty.

Easy money
Despite the increasing level of debt among Europe’s major clubs, exacerbated by losses of income caused by the pandemic during the 2020-21 season, clubs have not launched sales of their stadium naming rights assets.

SportBusiness understands from industry sources that Real Madrid currently has no plans to sell naming rights to its revamped stadium, which will open for the start of the 2022-23 season at a cost of €796.5m ($943m), despite debt levels of €901m at the end of the 2019-2020 season.

Mitigating the need to rush its naming rights on to the market, Real Madrid continues to source long-term loans on low-interest terms. The club, for example, will begin to repay the €575m loan for the stadium in June 2023, paying it off at a cost of €29.5m per year until 2049.

As one source at a sponsorship agency told SportBusiness: “There’s a lot of cheap liquidity in the market, cheap money that is allowing those clubs to source refinance or to securitise against potential assets within the business. I would be surprised if there’s any desperation yet at this stage that would force any club to go, okay, we need to rush into something we didn’t want to do. Clubs have not been forced to make desperate decisions.”

Debt-laden clubs
Debt finance has kept afloat two of Europe’s biggest clubs which have major naming rights agreements on the market.

Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur hold the highest estimated debt in European football and have both struggled to agree naming rights deals at prices acceptable to their executive leaders.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium opened in April 2019 at a cost of £1.2bn (€1.4bn/$1.65bn), with initial borrowings of £637m from three banks to cover the project, and repayments including £215m in interest, putting the overall liability at just over £852m. The club also took out a loan of £175m last year to ease the burden of debt and address immediate cash issues.

With the pandemic hitting the club’s finances, its overall debt is thought by experts to be closer to £1.2bn, however the majority of this is long-term debt. The naming rights, moreover, were never budgeted into the stadium build finances, hence Spurs chairman Daniel Levy has been minded to wait for the right deal, which he is understood to have set at between £20m and £25m per year over a 10- to 15-year duration.

Barcelona is in a more perilous situation with debts close to €1.2bn and the club urgently needing to reduce its wage bill, having secured a €100m bank loan in May to help pay player salaries.

The majority of Barça’s debt is short-term, rather than long term, which is putting a greater onus on the club to sell naming rights. This month, club president Joan Laporta said new sponsorships would be key to managing the debt over the next two years. Although he expects more from the front-of-shirt deal with Rakuten which expires at end of next season, only a naming rights deal could make a significant difference in terms of commercial revenue generation.

Sales strategies
Both clubs have marketed these rights for some time without success. Spurs has burned through agencies in the US and UK since the rights were first offered to the market more than five years ago and, in February, hired Todd Kline as the head of media rights and corporate partnerships – largely for his experience selling Miami Dolphins’ stadium naming rights to Hard Rock and his premium property and naming rights sales roles across the Endeavor agency.

Barcelona hired the US agency Van Wagner to sell the naming rights for the projected stadium redevelopment in 2015 after an agency shoot out, but this agreement has been terminated, with sales now also being managed in-house. The club is thought to be targeting between €400m and €500m in naming rights revenue from a contract of up to 30 years’ duration.

According to the Turnstile agency, the two key factors to consider in naming rights sales positioning are price and duration. Based on the size of the home team fanbase and the application of industry benchmark rates, Turnstile analysis suggests that the Spurs stadium deal is not only overpriced but is also requesting a relatively long-term deal at 15 years.

“A reduction in price of circa 20 per cent would place it more in line with industry benchmarks and a slight reduction in deal term would also help to make the asset more attractive to the market,” Turnstile general manager Dan Gaunt told SportBusiness.

In comparison, Turnstile believes Barcelona’s rights are priced very competitively at around €15m over 30 years. “In this case it would appear that the 30-year deal term is the inhibiting factor and if the club were to be more flexible in this respect, then they could expect to see brands circling,” Gaunt said.

Global or local?
Although there was some early interest from Spanish companies in the Barcelona property, it is now thought only a global company could afford the rights.

As one of Laporta’s financial backers, José Elías, president of the Audax Renovables company, told Spanish media in March: “I don’t have €350m to name the Camp Nou. In fact, I doubt that any Spanish company is going to name the stadium.”

In a move interpreted as one to prepare the global market for a naming rights deal last year, the club put forward the idea of a charitable naming rights deal to benefit the club’s foundation, a strategy not dissimilar to its front-of-shirt deal with Unicef in 2006, which prepared the ground for its first commercial shirt deal.

There were no takers for the short-term rights and Paul Garbett, associate director at the CSM Sport & Entertainment agency, who has been tracking the project, argues it was always an unusual proposition. “I doubt the highly tactical one-year deal was very appealing to brands looking for a more strategic sponsorship approach, particularly during a pandemic with games taking place behind-closed-doors,” he said.

The positioning of the Spurs stadium as one that can host NFL games and other sports and entertainment events is also meant to attract a global player, however, this has not resulted in the uptick in interest, particularly from the US brands, the club hoped to attract.

Market dynamics
One company extolling the naming rights agenda before the pandemic was the Kroll-owned business consultancy Duff & Phelps, which estimated the potential total value of Premier League stadium sponsorship deals at £142m per season in 2019-20, of which nearly £100m was unrealised.

In making this estimate, the Premier League was benchmarked against the NFL, which was considered to have comparable revenue-generating metrics. The consultancy works with the Nielsen agency to reach its valuations, which have been revised downward because of the pandemic.

Duff & Phelps’ managing director Michael Weaver told SportBusiness he still believed stadium naming rights are “undersold and valuable” and that it “is only a matter of time before Europe starts doing it [making deals]”.

His confidence is based on the global appeal of football brands. “Our analysis of social media followers in European football, for example, whether they are Messi or Barcelona, versus some of the US properties show how football is a global sport and there is an inherent value in that [for brands]. That said, there just haven’t been many deals and therefore there haven’t been many success stories that you can talk about.”

Weaver expects the catalyst for renewed interest in the rights category will come with a successful showcase deal that proves its value. “It could be naming rights attached to [new stadia at] Brentford [opened for 2020-21 season] or Everton [scheduled to open for the 2024-25 season], but there really needs to be an example where someone just goes in and sponsors Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and gets a huge benefit out of it, or a scenario like the ‘Google Nou Camp’, which could be a catalyst.

“A new stadium build is key because technology can be built in specifically for a brand. Technology companies are very well-placed to make a showcase for storytelling in a new stadium if they can get plugged into that new stadium and that’s not the case necessarily with crumbling old stadia that were made in the 30s, 50s or 70s.”

Asked about the impact of the pandemic on sponsor brands and their appetite for long-term deals, he said: “I think that consumer spending will come back and then brands will probably need six months of track record before they’re so comfortable in their own business that they might be willing to take some risks on naming rights.”

Benchmarking
Other sponsorship agencies with experience of naming rights sales told SportBusiness that the European market should not be benchmarked against the US naming rights market, which has a variety of different dynamics, including a larger national economy, larger local economies, a longer history of naming rights deals, weaker cultural ties with fans around ‘historic’ naming conventions and a greater number of new stadium builds.

In Europe, it can be argued that only Germany has any similarity to the US market, with the naming rights market receiving a boost when new stadia were built for the 2006 World Cup.

Weaver maintains there is a broader opportunity for European clubs based on global metrics, such as broadcast eyeballs and media mentions, but agrees that Germany has traits in common with the US market: “In Germany, GDP is spread much more evenly than it is in other countries and as our German real estate business shows, you really need a centre in seven key cities to cover the country.

“In Germany, you’ve got seven big cities – Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Munich, Frankfurt and Stuttgart – that are also home to corporate headquarters. In England, these tend to be in London. Some businesses have significant operations in Newcastle or Manchester, but it’s rarer, and likewise in Spain, it’s mostly about Barcelona and Madrid.”

The bigger naming rights deals are likely to take place in cities of this stature, he concludes, but there is a market for all stadium properties at the right price.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:25 pm

This is a bit surprising to me, given that Canal + has apparently given back it's Ligue 1 domestic rights, they have extend their deal for Premier League rights but at a reduced fee, it would appear that they were not seduced to paying more for a six year deal. From SportsProMedia

Premier League extends Canal+ broadcast deal for three more years
Renewal includes rights to all 380 matches each season in France, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Posted: July 8 2021 By: Michael Long

- Vivendi-owned network will reportedly pay less than its current €115m-per-year deal
- Elsewhere, the Premier League signs three-year extension with Belgium’s Telenet

Vivendi-owned pay-TV broadcaster Canal+ has retained exclusive broadcast rights to English soccer’s Premier League for a further three seasons in France, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The renewal, which runs from 2022 to 2025, includes the rights to all 380 matches each season, with coverage set to be shown across the Canal+ TV channels, the myCANAL app and the Canal+ Premier League digital offering.

While financial terms are not available, Les Echos reports that Canal+ will pay less than the €115 million per year it agreed to pay over the course of its previous three-season deal spanning 2019 to 2022.

“The Premier League is delighted to continue our outstanding partnership with Canal+ in France and to extend our longstanding collaboration in two new markets Czech Republic and Slovakia through the M7 Group,” said Paul Molnar, the league’s chief media officer.

“Canal+ has consistently delivered market-leading sports coverage and Premier League fans can look forward to more matches being made available live in these territories through to the 2024/25 season.”

News of the agreement comes after Canal+ lost out to Amazon Prime Video for the bulk of the rights to French soccer’s Ligue 1 for the next three-year cycle.

Last month, Canal+ threatened to boycott its own agreement with France’s Professional Football League (LFP) due to the fact that Amazon is reported to be paying €275 million (US$333.2 million) a season for its rights package, which averages out at eight games per week.

That annual fee is far less than Canal+ has agreed to pay over the same term, with the broadcaster having previously struck a deal to show two games per week at a cost of €330 million (US$399.8 million) a season.

Elsewhere, the Premier League has also agreed a three-year extension of its rights deal with Belgium’s Telenet, whose Play Sports network will continue to show matches until 2025.

The deal comes with the Premier League currently in the process of agreeing rights deals with broadcasters in markets across Europe.

Earlier this week, the competition announced that Nordic Entertainment Group (Nent Group) had extended and expanded its deal to include the Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. That deal, which runs until 2028, also includes Poland, where Canal+ holds exclusive Premier League rights until next year.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 12, 2021 5:26 pm

The Huddle up newsletter gives an overview of the Prize money from the Euros

https://huddleup.substack.com/p/italy-w ... mpaign=cta

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 12, 2021 5:42 pm

Last season Manchester United kept reporting matchday earnings in it's quarterly reports even though games were behind closed doors - the final figure is likely to be around £7m - £8m - far more than our club has ever earned in a full season with fans. I have speculated previously that it was for hosting fees and given a recent announcement by Rangers it would seem that is close to the mark. this from the Mail shows what I mean - United of course have a very large press box

Rangers charge £25,000 for media access
Rangers appear to have let their first Scottish title in 10 years go to their heads.

In a worrying development, the Ibrox club are trying to charge newspapers £25,000 for one reporter and one photographer to attend matches and pre-match press conferences.

The tidy sum will also buy five exclusive interviews and a sit-down with manager Steven Gerrard.

For £10,000, media get access and one exclusive. The response from major newspapers has been cool, but Rangers claim: ‘We are very pleased that we have received positive responses to our media partnership packages.’

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 12, 2021 6:15 pm

following that piece earlier on stadium naming rights - this appears bizarrely topical from the Mail - though we have been here before in regards to Spurs.

Tottenham close to breakthrough in finally sealing stadium naming rights deal
Chairman Daniel Levy rumoured to be in advanced talks on naming rights
Tottenham does not have a naming rights sponsor two years after it opened

By MIKE KEEGAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 22:30, 11 July 2021 | UPDATED: 14:45, 12 July 2021

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is rumoured to be in advanced talks on naming rights for Tottenham’s stadium and a deal could be confirmed before the new season.

It has been more than two years since the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium opened and it still does not have a naming rights sponsor. But sources claim Levy and the Spurs hierarchy are close to a breakthrough.

The news will come as a potentially massive boost to Tottenham after seeing their finances badly hit by the pandemic.

Following two years of record profits, the club recorded losses of £63.9million for the year ending June 30, 2020.

Tottenham were already more than £600m in debt as they look to pay off the costs of the £1.2billion stadium complex, which opened in 2019.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:55 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:36 pm
More strange goings on at Rochdale, where fans thought new investors were in place - on Tuesday the Supportes Trust met with who they believed was a major new investor and they released this on Wednesday

https://www.daletrust.co.uk/2021/07/tru ... -investor/

since then the EFL have been in touch with them and effectively rubbished much of what they were told by the "investor" which has led to this statement

Trust update re: investors
July 9, 2021 Dale Trust Statements: Trust update re: investors

We were contacted by the EFL yesterday morning with regards to the statement that we put out on Wednesday morning regarding the potential investors and our meeting with them on Tuesday afternoon.

The EFL had a problem with these two lines:

He has acquired over 40% of the shareholding in the Football Club
He has provided proof of funding to the EFL
The first bullet point had been confirmed to us at the meeting on Tuesday. We now believe that the shares are not “acquired” until the share transfers have been signed by the Club. As such, we immediately amended the article changing the first point to “agreeing to purchase” rather than having “acquired”.

The information in the second bullet point was given to us via an email from the investor on Monday evening that stated “I’ve also provided proof of my funds to the EFL evidencing I have the money to support the Club for the next few years.”

We deleted the bullet point and subsequently contacted the EFL with regards to seeking further clarity on whether proof of funding had been provided to the EFL. The EFL Head of Governance Ryan Hyde wrote to us on Friday afternoon and confirmed that they “cannot find any evidence of the source and sufficiency of funding on behalf of the potential purchaser having been provided to us.”

Having previously informed our members that proof of funding had been provided, it is important that we provide our members and fellow supporters of Rochdale AFC with what the EFL has confirmed to us. We have informed the Investor on Friday evening with the information provided to us by the EFL.

Should proof of funding be provided to the EFL, we will update our members at the earliest opportunity but only when we have received full confirmation from the EFL.
A new EFL statement re Rochdale ownership claims - no change yet as far as they are concerned

EFL statement: Rochdale AFC
8 Hours ago

The EFL is aware of the continuing reports relating to a possible change of control at Rochdale AFC and wishes to clarify it remains in regular dialogue with representatives of the Club, as well as the Dale Supporters’ Trust.

Throughout these discussions it has been made clear to all parties what obligations must be met under EFL Regulations.

That includes the requirement that approval, as set out in Appendix 3 of the Regulations (the Owners’ and Directors’ Test), must be obtained from the EFL before acquisition of control, and not doing so renders both the Club and individuals concerned subject to misconduct.

At present no approval has been granted as a result of the specific requirements not being met. The EFL is still to receive any evidence of the source and sufficiency of funding on behalf of any potential purchaser, and, in addition, the Club is yet to submit the necessary Future Financial Information (FFI).

The EFL will continue to work with the Club to ensure it can meet the necessary criteria with the long-term viability of the Club the primary focus in the interests of all key stakeholders, particularly the staff at the Club, supporters, and the local community.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:11 am

The New York Times on the messy Messi situation amid Barcelona's financial crises that he has been a key factor in creating

Barcelona Wants to Keep Lionel Messi. La Liga May Not Allow It.
JULY 12, 2021

Barcelona’s financial woes and the expiration of its star’s contract have left the club in a bind. And the only solution — about $200 million in salary cuts — won’t be easy.

When Lionel Messi stepped off the field late Saturday night after the final of the Copa América, the Argentina captain — one of the most celebrated athletes in history — was, at long last, a champion in his national colors.

He was also, only weeks after his 34th birthday, unemployed.

Messi’s talent has never been in question. A six-time world player of the year, he is among the best players of his or any generation. His professional future, though, and even his ability to suit up for F.C. Barcelona next season, is suddenly very much in doubt.

Messi wants to stay at Barcelona, the only professional home he has ever known, and Barcelona desperately wants to keep him. But the club’s dire financial straits and a series of fateful decisions by team management — including the potentially disastrous one to let Messi’s contract expire at the end of June — have imperiled what is arguably the most successful association between a club and a single player in soccer history.

Messi said nothing about his contract situation over the last month while leading Argentina to victory in the Copa América in Brazil. And Barcelona’s new president, Joan Laporta, has tried to present a confident front. “Everything’s on track,” he told news crews camped outside his offices last week, when he and other Barcelona executives had huddled in search of a solution.

But the problem is that Messi’s future may no longer be in the player’s hands, or his club’s. Spanish league rules limit each club’s spending to only a percentage of club revenue, and league officials have said repeatedly that they not will weaken their rules to accommodate Barcelona, which is far over that limit.

In short, if Barcelona cannot cut 200 million euros, or about $240 million, from its wage bill this summer — an almost impossibly large sum in a soccer economy cratered by the pandemic — it will not be allowed to register any new players, including Messi, for next season. (Barcelona’s decision to allow Messi’s contract to expire last month means he now must be registered as a new signing, instead of a renewal, which might have been easier.)

A rupture between Messi and Barcelona would be seismic for both sides. Messi has been the focal point of Barcelona for nearly two decades, the architect of much of its success on the field and the engine of its financial might away from it.

But while Barcelona has collected money at breathtaking speed in recent years — in 2019 it became the first club to surpass $1 billion in annual revenue — it also spent with even more alacrity, living life on the financial edge through impulsive management, rash decisions and imprudent contracts. Messi’s most recent four-year deal alone, if he met every clause and condition, was worth almost $675 million, a sum so large that it had an inflationary affect on the salaries of all of his teammates, fueling a payroll that now eats up about three-fourths of Barcelona’s annual revenue.

Now, facing debts of more than 1 billion euros and losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Barcelona is struggling to balance its books in a way that adheres to league rules.

It is partly because of Messi, of course, that Barcelona finds itself on the brink. Its losses in the past two years have surpassed more than $500 million, much of that because of rich contracts like the one Barcelona’s former administration gave Messi in the fall of 2017.

Details of the 30-page deal, which was leaked to a Spanish newspaper, are a testament to Barcelona’s taste for living on the edge: A salary of about $1.4 million a week. A signing bonus of $139 million. A “loyalty” bonus — to a player it has employed since he was 13 — of $93 million.

A new contract, yet to be completed, almost certainly will require Messi, one of the world’s most valuable athletes, to accept a substantial pay cut.

Victor Font, one of the losing candidates in this year’s presidential election, said he was surprised the team had yet to make the financial arrangements required to keep Messi. But like Laporta, he said he was convinced Messi would remain with the club.

“The alternative would be so much of a disappointment that I cannot think there’s an alternative,” Font said in a telephone interview.

The team is not getting any sympathy, or preferential treatment, from the Spanish league. Javier Tebas, the league’s chief executive, told reporters this week that Barcelona only has itself to blame for its financial crisis. Yes, he told reporters, the coronavirus pandemic had battered the team’s finances, but other teams — notably Barcelona’s archrival Real Madrid — have found ways to operate within the league’s rules.

The issue, Tebas said, was that Barcelona has no room to maneuver. The league calculates different limits for each team based on each club’s income statements, but caps spending at 70 percent of revenues.

“It’s not normal for clubs to spend right up to the last euro of the salary limit,” Tebas said.

It is not just Messi’s fate that hangs in the balance, either. Barcelona has already announced the signings of his friend and Argentina teammate Sergio Agüero for next season, as well as those of the Netherlands forward Memphis Depay and the Spanish national team defender Eric García.

All three arrived as free agents, meaning Barcelona did not have to pay multimillion-dollar transfer fees to their former clubs, but the league will not register any of them, or Messi, until the club first makes deep cuts to its costs.

In an effort to create some financial wiggle room, the club has been furiously working to offload players, tearing up contracts with fringe talents and negotiating the exits of some of its other stars. But all of its biggest earners remain, and with the transfer market deflated by the lingering effects of the pandemic, it is unlikely to receive significant offers from rivals for players those teams know it needs to sell.

Instead, Barcelona may be pushed to sell off key players — the German goalkeeper Marc Andre ter Stegen, the Dutch playmaker Frenkie de Jong and even Pedri, the latest locally reared Barcelona starlet, would most likely bring the highest returns — in order to make ends meet.

Font said he expected that Barcelona would prioritize re-signing Messi, even if that meant some of the team’s newest signings, or other key players currently under contract, would have to go.

“It’s a matter of trade offs,” Font said. “You may not register other players, but you will not prioritize others over Messi.”

But if, as is likely, Barcelona will not be able to make the necessary cuts, it will find itself in another bind. Under the Spanish league regulations, a team can spend only a quarter of the money it receives from player sales on new contracts. That means even if it can clear tens of millions of dollars off the books, it will have only a fraction of that total available to sign Messi — or anyone else.

Could the unthinkable — Barcelona’s losing Messi for free — be imminent? Perhaps. But La Liga said as recently as last week that there would be no exceptions, no special rules to keep him in Spain.

“Of course we want Messi to stay,” said Tebas, La Liga’s chief executive. “But when you are running a league you cannot base decisions on individual players or clubs.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Tue Jul 13, 2021 4:43 am

"A salary of about $1.4 million a week. A signing bonus of $139 million. A “loyalty” bonus — to a player it has employed since he was 13 — of $93 million"

It's no wonder Man City haven't bothered

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:33 am

He's 34 and they're possibly willing to sacrifice a rising star and the future in Pedri...
The obsession with Messi is clearly out of control, they're not going to build a future team around someone who could retire anytime in the next few years.
Now is probably the best time to step back and think properly.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 13, 2021 12:27 pm

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:33 am
He's 34 and they're possibly willing to sacrifice a rising star and the future in Pedri...
The obsession with Messi is clearly out of control, they're not going to build a future team around someone who could retire anytime in the next few years.
Now is probably the best time to step back and think properly.
The problem of being a fan/member owned club, one that has a deeply held conviction that it is better than any other, is that they will demand that he stays with them for life - when you build your whole commercial business plan on the back of one player (however magnificent he is) you have to reward him for it, the real problems, as Barcelona have found, is that you have to raise the rewards of team mates to maintain a semblance of harmony (they still get a fraction of what he does overall) and you have to plan for his eventual retirement in more than one sense.

Just as the other clubs have found, high wages, while great at attracting the players you think you want *and puts strain on clubs seeking to compete without the same revenues), make it absolutely impossible to get rid of players if they fail for you, particularly after paying huge transfer fees. It is a self created problem fuelled as much by ego as it is by seeking to kill off rivals interests in players.
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 13, 2021 12:34 pm

It seems that Reading, a club that has been a bit of a financial train wreck of late has found a stadium sponsor which will lead to a re-name - it is not confirmed as of yet but is looking likely

https://www.getreading.co.uk/sport/foot ... y-21025724

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 13, 2021 1:11 pm

The Premier League rolls over it's Spanish rights deal with DAZN for the next cycle - price held but the temptation of six years for more money has not proved sufficient it seems, it must be remembered that in current markets even marginal reductions are better results than rival leagues - from SportsProMedia

Premier League to stay on DAZN in Spain
Extended rights deal runs until end of 2024/25 season.

Posted: July 13 2021By: Tom Bassam

- DAZN launched Spanish service with Premier League rights in 2019
- Deal covers live matches, documentaries, interviews and original productions

DAZN, the global digital sports media specialist, has announced the renewal of its exclusive Spanish broadcasting partnership with the Premier League for the 2022 to 2025 rights cycle.

The extension of DAZN’s current agreement kicks in at the end of the 2021/22 campaign and covers more than 235 live matches per season.

In addition to the live and on-demand Premier League coverage, DAZN’s Premier League offering covers a range of content, documentaries, interviews and original productions.

"With the renewal of our agreement with the Premier League in Spain through 2025 we will continue to offer fans one of the world's most prestigious sporting competitions, building on our existing successful partnerships" said Veronica Diquattro, DAZN’s chief customer and innovation officer.

"We will keep on working together to offer the growing number of fans who follow the Premier League in Spain the best experience and the best content, so that they can enjoy it to the full and discover new stories first hand through the key players, on and off the field."

Having launched the Spanish service with the Premier League in 2019, the deal ensures DAZN retains a key piece of its soccer offering in Spain, including rights to the Copa del Rey domestic cup competition, the Copa Libertadores South American club tournament, English soccer’s FA Cup and Carabao Cup, the Coppa Italia, as well as Major League Soccer (MLS).

The upcoming season also sees the platform offer the Uefa Women's Champions League, the elite women’s club soccer competition, that DAZN recently snapped up in a global broadcast partnership with European soccer’s governing body.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 13, 2021 1:25 pm

The return of fans has been a welcome relief for sport and has raised spirits for many - though reading this board it seems it is the same people going to multiple events across a variety of sports. The introduction of test events has led to the use of digital ticketing which means that government actions has helped sports introduce the approach without and real challenge from the public - this will have long term benefits for sports organisations though questionable ones for privacy - SportProMedia looks at the gains via a focus on the recent Test Event at Edgbaston

How Edgbaston highlighted the role of data and digital in sport’s post-Covid revenue model
Fans are finally coming back to live sport but the industry cannot let itself return to pre-pandemic ways. Ben Wells, PTI Digital’s chief commercial officer, believes a major change in attitude is needed to correct an outdated approach and usher in new growth.

By Ed Dixon Posted: July 13 2021

So far in 2021, UK sport has had to settle for mini milestones in its bid to get fans back to its biggest events.

The government’s various pilot schemes have offered glimpses into the live event experience as we enter the ‘new normal’ and showpiece competitions get ready to open their doors once more. Standouts include the Wimbledon tennis Grand Slam getting permission for capacity crowds, while Wembley welcomed more than 60,000 punters for the semi-finals and final of the Uefa European Championship.

Naturally, no British summer of sport would be complete without a Test cricket series, so the news that Edgbaston would be letting in 18,000 fans for each day of England’s second match against New Zealand in June was a welcome boost for fans starved of red ball action.

While the prospect of hosting so many people would have delighted those at the Birmingham ground, being given barely two weeks’ notice to prepare itself to operate at 70 per cent capacity threw up its own set of unique challenges.

For starters, the ticketing process had to be redesigned, including a requirement for attendees to consent to be part of the pilot study, which mandated that all tickets had to be digital. Then there was a shift to cashless payments, in-app pre-ordering, and click and collect functionality. Edgbaston’s consumer Wi-Fi also had to be up to the task, in addition to the venue providing fans with wayfinding tools to reduce close contact.

Considering what was at stake - not to mention the fallout if the ground failed to deliver - it would have appeared quite a daunting prospect. For Edgbaston, that meant calling on its technology partner, PTI Digital, to ensure a Covid-secure event without compromising the fan experience.

The sight of the venue’s famed Eric Hollies stand revelling in the return of fans was enough evidence of success, but the Test also provided Edgbaston with even more tangible results.

The ground reported 37,575 new mobile app downloads and more than 314,000 engagements across the match. With 48,750 tickets issued across the first three days, Edgbaston’s new digital ticketing suite ensured the data registration of four times as many customers as would otherwise have been the case. Food and beverage revenue via the app stood at more than UK£85,000 for the first three days, helped by the fact that average wait times for click and collect orders lasted under 90 seconds.

Average Wi-Fi speeds across the ground also kept up with demand, often exceeding over 50 megabytes per device through peak periods.

The Test showcased the merits of an integrated data, digital and technology strategy, particularly from a revenue standpoint. But Edgbaston’s efforts during the UK government’s Event Research Programme (ERP) should not be taken merely as a one-off in the wake of the pandemic. For Ben Wells (pictured below), PTI’s chief commercial officer, such an approach is long overdue in sport.

“I think, as an industry, we tend to rush into the ‘what’ rather than understanding the ‘why’,” he tells SportsPro. “People decide that such and such a thing is the answer. Well, what's the question?

“For the last ten years, our industry has been wrestling with the concept of data and the role it plays in our future. There's this sort of misconception that if I buy a CRM solution then, suddenly, everything will be fixed. But there are no silver bullets.”

While Wells claims he and PTI “are not evangelists for data and digital”, he also says the facts don’t lie when looking at the companies who have effectively utilised the pair.

“There's a chart I use a lot when I'm presenting which shows the top ten companies by market cap in 2009 compared to 2019,” he adds. “For 2019, not only are seven of the top ten tech companies, but their market cap is two and a half times of their equivalent from ten years ago. And it's all built on data. It's all about scale. Once you've got the insights it allows you to work smart, as well as hard.

“As an industry, we've never been brilliant at taking the time to ask, ‘what are we trying to achieve here? How do these things fit?’.”

The temptation would be for companies to lean on customer relationship management (CRM) or bring in consultancies to address those questions. Wells believes that will only take them so far.

“In isolation, that is never going to achieve very much,” he continues. “It might take you to a certain level after a period of time, but there's no way of scaling that because nothing else is plugged into it.

“This is the time when sport needs to innovate more than ever. It needs to recognise an event-based commercial model, which is based on 20 or 30 days a year, is no longer fit for purpose.”

Wells asserts that the mentality up to now has been to double down on selling tickets and merchandise to fans, adding that anyone unlikely to part with their money that way is of little value. He feels that method is gathering dust.

Instead, Wells believes sports properties need to ask themselves that if their current product range doesn’t interest someone, then what will? It’s about identifying the unmet need and involving brands when addressing it.

Of course, data and digital are hardly new to sport. The terms have been freely bounded around for years. Yet, for Wells, sport has adopted a broad and unfocused attitude to the pair, hampering both progress and revenues.

“Ultimately, if you just want to sell more tickets, you haven’t defined the role of data within your strategy, often because there isn't one,” he says. “Where there is a strategy, the role of data is perceived to be so narrow. It's basically: ‘can you help us sell our existing products and services?’.”

For Wells, sports teams and venues are only inhibiting themselves by prioritising an events-based model. That way is automatically limited because of a venue’s capacity and how many times it can stage events in a year. It’s also a short-term business strategy, according to Wells, who adds that marketing is also mostly operating “as a sales support function”, restricting customer relationships.

“These things need to be defined in the context of growth strategies,” Wells continues. “Rushing in and saying, ‘right, we need to sell more tickets’, yes, that's fine. But where do you go after that? What’s the long-term roadmap here?

“You need to integrate all these, you need to understand why you're doing this, which is ultimately the strategic piece.

“You need to then understand what's the best way to do that. Data and digital play a big role in there. But, ultimately, that all needs to sit on the right tech infrastructure. That can be everything from hardware to software. If you don't have the means to deliver that experience for people, then it falls down.

“So it is an integrated approach. It means it takes time, it costs money. It's quite a lot of hard work and a lot of hard thinking. But what Covid has shown us is that however many ways you slice and dice your existing commercial model, it cannot possibly keep pace with the inflation in player wages.”So if the events-based commercial model really is ancient history, then data appears to be paving the path towards a new approach. It can potentially unshackle a constricted commercial model, according to Wells.

“What data allows is for you to unshackle that because you're thinking about how do we engage, how do we acquire and how do we monetise data year round? There's no ceiling to that,” he explains. “That's not to say you forget your existing revenue streams. Of course, you use data to maximise those. But what it does enable is when someone comes into your data ecosystem, you try to understand what kind of customer they are. Whereas the temptation would have been beforehand to try and just sell them a ticket.”

By finding out what is best for a customer, it should drive maximum value over the period that they engage with a particular sports property. Gathering consumer information, however, is the easy part. The true test comes from taking ownership of it and knowing what to do with the data.

“It's probably the biggest scam of all over the last ten years that we, as an industry, as have many others, have basically outsourced our engagement strategy to Silicon Valley, who've taken all of our customer data, made money from it, and then shared none of it with us,” Wells argues.

“Rather than actually getting on the front foot and working out how we could do it, we take the easy option because it doesn't cost anything. We dazzle people with Facebook likes and retweets, and all that kind of stuff. Now it's a race to who's got the biggest database. But, ultimately, it's an illusion. Brands now are spending more money on digital platforms, and it's increasing, because they can offer that hyper-targeted customer, a very in depth customer profile.

“I think for sport, if you can ally best practice of data strategy with the emotion and the passion that sport creates then you've got a really powerful platform. We see very much the driver of sponsorship moving away from media value and into data. There will still be room for people who want to stick their logos on things. But the really smart brands will actually start seeing this is a much more interesting place to be than just targeted advertising through the internet.”

What Wells doesn’t want to happen is for sport to slip back into old habits once fans fully return to venues. When restrictions are totally lifted, the temptation would be for the industry to assume everything will go back to normal. But the prolonged jolt Covid-19 has given the sector - and wider society - suggests otherwise, particularly for lower-tier events.

“We have seen enough evidence in Australia where, after the initial itch was scratched, audiences have tailed off,” Wells notes. “I don't for one second think that premium events will struggle, because people will want to go and see the big shows that they've missed out on. But I think it's the guys below who are offering not great value for money that I think will struggle.

“We've had 18 months of people getting out of their matchday rituals and finding other ways to spend their time and money. A lot of people spent the last 18 months thinking about the however many hundreds or thousands of pounds that they spend [on sport], asking if it is good value for money and if they’re being treated well.”

This, though, isn’t necessarily a new problem. Rather, Covid has meant more fans have been able to think about the value they’re getting and how they want to engage going forward. As Wells points out, the average age of season ticket holders has already risen across various leagues. If sport needs to find alternative ways to attract younger people, then it has to clearly define what ‘engagement’ is.

For Wells, it means acquisition – gathering data and knowing unequivocally what to do with it.

“These guys are spending their time gaming, watching video on demand, using social media,” he says. “What is being done to create an experience which is actually relevant to those people? And the answer to that is probably not a huge amount.

“The average age for a season ticket holder is about late 50s, early 60s. The average life expectancy of that demographic is 80. You've got 20 years to save your sport and you’ve got to start now and you’ve got to do it properly.

“You can't outsource it, it’s got to be done properly. You cannot do it on a budget. You cannot scrimp and save. You actually need a proper strategic view as to how you're going to manage your sport over the next 20 years.”

There’s been plenty of doom and gloom to digest over the last year or so, but Wells doesn’t want to be the bearer of more bad news for sport. There will be challenges ahead, but with that comes opportunity. An integrated data, digital and technology strategy could potentially turn organisations banking on live events from, say, a 30-day-a-year business to a year-round revenue-generating operation.

“We see this being very much a tipping point for our industry,” declares Wells. “But this is a brilliant opportunity if you can harness this and really understand what is going on in the world around us and ask, ‘what's driving that?’, and ‘how do I apply that best practice?’.

“Whatever people think about the next generation of customers, and how they behave and spend their money, it's probably never quite as bad as it's all made out to be. But they do behave differently. Is the value exchange we're creating for them relevant? Or are we just preaching to the choir? How do we actually broaden that out?

“It might be that, actually, they don't want tickets, they want something else. How do we engage them, how do we give them access to what we're doing and remain relevant but in a slightly different way?

“Our approach often is to say, ‘how do we take our way of thinking about it and apply it to the problem?’. Actually, it needs something completely different.”

All that will mean a significant shift in mindset. After everything that’s happened over the last 16 months, there may never be a better moment to start.

“The thought process is very simple. Doing it is more complicated,” Wells concludes. “But if a global pandemic isn't going to force sport to think differently, I really struggle to think what might.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:46 pm

We have become all too familiar with less than scrupulous types taking advantage of small (yet vital to their communities) clubs - even by that measure this tale from Dumbarton is a strange and sad one

https://democratonline.net/2021/07/12/78369/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:53 pm

Canal + move forward with their threat to end their broadcast deal with the French Ligue - from SportsBusiness

Canal Plus moves to exit Ligue 1 contract, Amazon unveils pricing, L’Équipe tie-up
Martin Ross
July 13, 2021

The row over the value of broadcast rights to French football’s Ligue 1 shows no signs of abating just weeks before the new season begins, after pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus signalled its intention to withdraw from its contract to show two fixtures per week.

Canal Plus wrote to France’s Professional Football League (LFP) this morning, reports L’Équipe, to inform the league body that it will exit its contract with fellow subscription broadcaster beIN Sports.

The news comes as Amazon has unveiled its pricing for its Ligue 1 channel as it prepares to take on the rights from next season, while the online retail giant has also teamed up with L’Équipe, the digital terrestrial channel and digital platform, on Ligue 2 coverage.

Canal Plus holds rights to two Ligue 1 matches per match week for the 2020-24 cycle, which it sublicensed from beIN as part of a renewable five-year exclusive distribution deal. The latter acquired them from the LFP in 2018 for €332m ($392.1m) per season.

The matches take place at 9pm (CET) on Saturdays and 5pm on Sundays.

Canal Plus had warned it would no longer show Ligue 1 matches after the LFP awarded Amazon the rights inventory to the top two divisions previously held by Mediapro. The Vivendi-owned broadcaster took on the Ligue 1 rights held by Mediapro for the remainder of the 2020-21 season following the collapse of the deal with the agency and production group.

Amazon is paying €250m per season for eight Ligue 1 matches per match week from 2021-22 to 2023-24.

Both Canal Plus and beIN, who had been in talks with the LFP to acquire the same rights, have been irked by the award of rights to Amazon, along with the value of its agreement compared to their outlay.

Canal Plus is reported to have today (Tuesday) provided a copy to the LFP of the correspondence it has sent to beIN to signal its withdrawal from the contract. Canal Plus confirmed to L’Équipe that it had written to the LFP and claimed that it will be “freed” from the contract with beIN.

BeIN has been waiting to see what legal avenues Canal Plus will explore before deciding its stance on its next Ligue 1 fee instalment, amounting to €55m, which is payable to the LFP on August 5.

BeIN also holds rights to two Ligue 2 matches per match week for the 2020-24 cycle, for which it paid €30m per season. In the wake of the Amazon award, beIN delayed paying its €7.5m July instalment for these rights.

The Ligue 2 aspect of the Amazon rights deal, which runs for the next three seasons, includes live rights to eight fixtures per week from the second tier and is worth just €9m per year, compared to the €34m per year under the previous Mediapro agreement.

Vincent Labrune, president of the LFP, recently called for Canal Plus to show “common sense”. Speaking in the middle of last month, he also told L’Équipe: “We have a contract with beIN Sports, which has not yet expressed its desire to terminate it.”

The LFP awarded rights to Amazon after France’s competition watchdog, the Autorité de la concurrence, rejected a complaint submitted by Canal Plus against the league over its decision to exclude the broadcaster’s rights to two matches per week in an earlier unsuccessful auction of Mediapro’s rights.

During the second half of last season, beIN became the exclusive Ligue 2 broadcaster in France after reaching a deal with Canal Plus to sublicense the latter’s rights to the property.

Last week, it emerged that telco Iliad remains in talks with the LFP to lower its fee for near-live digital clip rights to Ligue 1. Iliad acquired its rights for €42m per season for the four seasons from 2020-21 to 2023-24, which it exploits on its mobile network, Free.

Thomas Reynaud, chief executive of the Iliad group, told BFM Business: “When we see the evolution of the packages, we have paid a high price. The question now arises of treatment and fairness between the different operators.”

Reynaud complained that Amazon acquired its rights for a “totally knockdown price”.

The 2021-22 Ligue 1 season will kick off on the weekend of August 7 and 8.

Amazon unveils pricing, L’Équipe alliance for Ligue 2
Amazon today announced that its ‘Prime Video Ligue 1’ channel will launch on August 1.

It will only be available to Amazon’s Prime subscribers and will be priced at an additional €12.99 per month. An Amazon Prime subscription in France costs €5.99 per month.

Prime Video Ligue 1 will broadcast eight fixtures from the French top flight each matchweek, including the flagship Sunday evening match.

It will launch at the start of August to coincide with its live coverage of the Trophée des Champions curtain raiser between Lille and Paris Saint-Germain, a match that will be available free of charge to Prime customers.

Amazon has also agreed a deal with L’Équipe for free-to-air coverage of the simultaneous ‘multiplex’ of Ligue 2 matches on Saturday evening at 7pm. The agreement covers the 2021-22 season.

In addition, L’Équipe will stream free coverage of the eight matches individually during the first ten matchweeks. The matches will be shown on eight channels available on the new L’Équipe Live service.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 13, 2021 8:56 pm

ecc wrote:
Sat Jul 10, 2021 5:29 pm
Hi Chester,

Re. your post concerning Bordeaux and Angers.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


"Angers & Bordeaux relegated to Ligue 2 preliminarily by the DNCG

French football’s prodigious financial watchdog, the DNCG, on Friday took steps to provisionally relegate two Ligue 1 clubs to the French second division: Angers and Bordeaux.

The decision for Le SCO occurred owing to financial irregularities, but club owner Saïd Chabane has told L’Équipe that he is not worried as he believes the decision came down to a missing document. Angers have appealed and will sit in front of the DNCG again on 12th July.

Chabane said: “This is a normal procedure and there are no worries that should be had.”

As for Bordeaux, the DNCG has decided to preliminarily relegate Les Girondins because of the decision made by current owners King Street to step back and place the club under the protection of a commercial court. Luxembourg businessman Gérard Lopez, who is attempting to finalise the acquisition of the club, has got the club to appeal the decision, and is confident that they will overturn."


_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The French FA was - I believe - the first to set up a form of FFP way back in the late 80s. The DNCG is much-feared by clubs and whilst its existence is crucial IMHO it sometimes goes to far.

I like to see Angers do well. They're a small club that has established itself in Ligue 1 by prudent financial management, investing moderate sums in lower division players and then selling them on for a handsome profit. Same Chairman and, until very recently, manager for ten years or so.

But their income was 90% based on TV rights and the farce that was Mediapro did for them like the vast majority of French clubs.

Their appeal is on Monday and it looks like they will stay in L1 as Wolves have decided, as was expected, to take up the option to buy following the loan of full-back Rayan Aït Nouri.

In England, Angers would be a shining example of how to run a football club but the system in France is draconian and the antithesis of the EFL's FFP.
Both Bordeaux and Angers have won their appeals and will not be relegated

https://worldsoccertalk.com/2021/07/12/ ... thorities/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jul 14, 2021 1:13 am

This is a fascinating discussion and I thoroughly recommend a listen as this is one of the best ever from the Unofficial Partner Podcast with it's 4th discussion in a series called Re-thinking Sport

the blurb

Unofficial Partner|7/9/2021
Re:Thinking Sport - The Players and Private Equity

This is the fourth episode in our series ReThinking Sport, organised in collaboration with Portas, the global strategy consultant dedicated to sport and physical activity.

Today’s topic looks at the role of private equity in football through the lens of the players. This alters the perspective on the conversation and I think, like me, you’ll find it opens up some very interesting routes in to what is one of the biggest questions in professional sport: Is private equity a good fit for sport?

Our guests are Jonas Baer Hoffman, general secretary of FIFPro, the global representative of professional footballers which acts to support players interests across 64 national member associations. Joining Jonas is Peter Hawkings, part of the Portas leadership team with a focus on investment, who has served and advised CEOs of some of the largest federations in England and globally.

https://www.unofficialpartner.com/podca ... ers-and-pe

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Wed Jul 14, 2021 1:24 pm

https://mol.im/a/9787145

Real Madrid have been told to slash their wage bill by £150 million.
Could be another fire sale like Barca.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:03 pm

I was just coming on here to ask about the situation in Spain - has the La Liga wage cap always existed ?

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:08 pm

This from the Athletic is a good overview of the Reak Madrid situation - difficult but far from the problems that Barcelona have

https://theathletic.com/2695590/2021/07 ... -odegaard/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:16 pm

Vegas Claret wrote:
Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:03 pm
I was just coming on here to ask about the situation in Spain - has the La Liga wage cap always existed ?
No, it's something newish and for those of us outside of Spain, exciting to watch the club's flap around.

If Spain can have one, no reason the PL can't

More info on the link

https://newsletter.laliga.es/global-fut ... -play/rrss
This user liked this post: Vegas Claret

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:29 pm

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:16 pm
No, it's something newish and for those of us outside of Spain, exciting to watch the club's flap around.

If Spain can have one, no reason the PL can't

More info on the link

https://newsletter.laliga.es/global-fut ... -play/rrss
thanks for the link, on the back of which it sounds like Messi has agreed a 50% pay cut to stay at Barca.........so he will only get 500K a week now ! :shock:

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:31 pm

Salary Cap has been in place in Spain since 2013 - but was not a problem for the big clubs, particularly as the Champions League monies increased massively - they more or less equal what they can earn in La Liga - all the while the Salary cap gave them the virtuous circle of having much more to spend than their domestic rivals, ensuring the regular participation in the Champions League, that ease in domestic competition saw the big two be much more fresh for the latter stages of UEFA competition and helped the countries dominance in the last decade. It will be interesting to see how long it takes

The accelerated spends were more about the fear of the Premier League and it's collective strength which forced the development of it's biggest clubs. It can be reasonably be argued that a salary cap will just enforce the status quo domestically - like it does in Spain and Germany (this formed part of the discussion in the podcast I posted last night).

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 1:22 am

Summer is really only getting started but Jorge Mendes is having a good time of it again

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 7384465412

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Thu Jul 15, 2021 4:02 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 1:22 am
Summer is really only getting started but Jorge Mendes is having a good time of it again

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 7384465412
parasite

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by claretonthecoast1882 » Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:25 am

Barcelona give Messi a 5 year deal :D

Has a club ever been more desperate and sad regarding keeping 1 player.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:36 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 1:22 am
Summer is really only getting started but Jorge Mendes is having a good time of it again

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 7384465412
I always used to complain about the managers on the managerial roundabout here in the UK, Hughes, Big Sam etc, didn't think someone else would copy it though

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:38 am

claretonthecoast1882 wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:25 am
Barcelona give Messi a 5 year deal :D

Has a club ever been more desperate and sad regarding keeping 1 player.
They still can't register him yet though can they?

Also, I can't see how he's gonna survive on a paltry €60 million a year if the claims about his old contract are true.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 1:45 pm

This is interesting re PSG, the question raised is about UEFA FFP, personally I am wondering how PSG are managing to circumvent the scrutiny of the DNCG - probably time to find out just what they are about

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 5053933569

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 2:45 pm

GetFrenchFootballNews seem to be providing an overview of the financial peril in the Ligue this weeken - should be a good read - for noe the DNCG seem somewhat disbelieving of the sales targets French clubs have

https://twitter.com/GFFN/status/1415437961471090695

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 3:29 pm

french football again - how about this for helping you with your finances - I have long been against the multi-club model and this is quite offensive I feel, a real two fingers to the regulators- from GetFrenchFootball

Nancy conclude dubious operation with KV Oostende, who have the same owners, with Mickaël Biron deal

Ligue 2 side Nancy on Thursday announced the sale of 23-year-old Martinique-originating attacker Mickaël Brion, in an arrangement that has certainly taken advantage of the Pacific Media Group’s multi-club project.

The player has been sold to KV Oostende in the Belgian 1st division, also owned by the same Chinese-American consortium, only for Biron to be loaned back for 2 seasons to the French 2nd division outfit.

Biron scored 12 goals for Nancy last season and the club president Gauthier Ganaye was very candid about the deal:

“Nancy is achieving a really nice deal because this fills the coffers with a sale of a player who arrived for free one year ago all whilst being able to continue to profit from its striker for the next two seasons.”

July 15th, 2021

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 4:09 pm

French Football again - OffthePitch.com look at the French Ligue/s own report on the finances of the 2019/20 season

Massive losses, surprising profits and questionable foundations: Here's what you need to know about Ligue 1 clubs' financial results
13 July 2021 11:00 AM
  • France's football league has finally published its financial overview of the 2019/20 season, almost a year after it ended.
  • PSG and Marseille recorded the biggest losses while others like Bordeaux and Lyon also suffered.
  • The results have been revealed against a backdrop of significant financial turmoil from a cancelled TV rights deal and closed stadiums.
  • Scroll down to view graphs of the top and bottom performers of a season to remember.
EMIL GJERDING NIELSON AND JOSEPH MAILIL, ANALYST nielson@offthepitch.com

It took almost a year after the 2019/20 season's end for France's football league, the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), to publish its annual financial overview of a campaign when the coronavirus pandemic first started having an impact.

The report includes the profit and loss accounts and balance sheets of the 40 clubs in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, and while some of the figures make for grim reading, the lack of transparency could seem at odds with an industry vying to become truly professional.

Off The Pitch could earlier this year reveal how Bundesliga clubs, who report their financial results in a similar style to the French, were among the least financially transparent in Europe, prompting criticism from several experts.

But the results are finally here, and Off The Pitch has compiled an overview highlighting the most noteworthy findings in the results for Ligue 1 clubs.

PSG's massive loss

The season saw PSG win the French championship and make it to the Champions League final in which the Qatari-owned club were beaten narrowly by Bayern Munich.

Despite that, the club reported a loss of €124.9 million, down from a profit of €32.2 million the year before. What in no doubt played a significant part was the season's suspension and the subsequent deferral of UEFA-related income which will be included in the accounts for 2020/21.

But a rising wage bill – from €370.9 million to €414.4 million – also played its part, with amortisation also jumping by €19.2 million to €142.1 million.

Marseille, owned by American entrepreneur Frank McCourt, were the club with the second biggest loss of €97.8 million. A massive figure for a club with total operating income of €129.6 million, but it was only an increase of €6.4 million from the prior season.

McCourt, who acquired the club in 2016, was for a period heavily rumoured to be interested in selling. But he has since then affirmed his commitment and overseen a managerial overhaul which saw president Jacques Henri Eyraud being replaced by Pablo Longoria.

Warning signs at Bordeaux

Other noteworthy losses include Bordeaux's €34.9 million deficit, a deterioration from the €25.7 million loss of the 2018/19 season. Their future has just now been secured after a period of massive uncertainty. The club's now former owner, US investment fund King Street, earlier this year pulled funding.

The firm cited Covid-19 and the termination of Mediapro's €830 million a year deal that was supposed to have run until 2024 as the reasons for ceasing support.

In replacement came former Lille owner Gerard Lopez, who at first struggled to provide proof of funds to the LFP's financial overseer, the DNCG. That saw Bordeaux, along with Angers, administratively demoted to the second tier.

But on Monday 12th July the DNCG approved Lopez' takeover, meaning Bordeaux will again compete in Ligue 1 for next season. Nevertheless, a transfer ban and supervision of the club's wage bill have been imposed.

Angers also managed to make the cut and will be competing in the top tier for another season.

Lille's positive result reveals core issue

It was not all doom and gloom for French clubs, however. Lille managed to finally turn a profit after suffering losses of €40.5 million, €141.9 million, and €66.6 million for the prior three seasons. Instead, the club recorded a pre-tax profit of €26.9 million.

But the club's good fortune off the pitch also reveal the troubling foundation French football is built on. It was only made possible due to an impressive €125 million profit on player sales, making up for an operating loss of €94.1 million.

It is evident that French clubs will have had a significant harder time using transfer proceeds to make up for unsustainable business models since the end of the 2019/20 season.

Globally, clubs in 2020 combined spent 23.4 per cent less than in 2019 on transfers, a decrease in actual figures of €1.47 billion to €4.75 billion.

Many foresee this trend continuing into 2021, with Brexit and its coming in to force also expected to have a significant impact on leagues like the French who are dependent on the Premier League to sell of their players for hefty sums.

Now remains only the question of when we will be able to see what impact exactly a full Covid-season has meant for Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs. Recent developments could show that this time next year might be an overly optimistic guess.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 4:34 pm

Real Madrid announce their 2020/21 financial results - a very minor profit - the reckon pandemic has seen a revenue loss of 300m Euro in the last two seasons

https://www.realmadrid.com/en/news/2021 ... 4000-euros

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 4:46 pm

Meanwhile the long running divisions in the running of the Spanish game have come to the fore again as their FA (RFEF) argues for changes that suit UEFA and FIFA, including a reduction in the number of clubs (remember UEFA want 18 by 2024/25 to sit with their expanded Champions League, France have gone with, Italy is voting on it later this year and Germany already has it - La Liga and the Premier League are fighting it)

LaLiga hits back at Rubiales’ ‘irresponsible’ reform claims
SportBusiness Staff
July 15, 2021

LaLiga, the organising body of the top two divisions of Spanish club football, has rejected claims from Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president Luis Rubiales that it should seek to enact reforms such as fewer match days and hosting games at neutral venues.

Rubiales, speaking at a Desayunos de Europa Press gathering, said that LaLiga needed to move with the times, adding he would seek talks in the coming days with his counterpart Javier Tebas. “We have changed the format of many competitions and the result is there,” Rubiales said.

“With respect, it is necessary to propose that there be fewer (match)days, there be more spectacle. You have to invent and capture the attention of the youngest with emotion.”

He continued: “LaLiga has been immobile. If we change the format we have to do it unanimously. We are going to propose that there be neutral venues for LaLiga matches. That there would be fewer days, that they would generate more income. You could study the Miami game.”

The Relevent Sports agency has been looking to put on official LaLiga matches in the US following a long-term partnership signed with the organisation in August 2018. Indeed, a planned match between FC Barcelona and Girona at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium in January 2019 was cancelled after widespread opposition from various stakeholders.

LaLiga and the RFEF have held a rocky relationship in recent years, marked by disputes over a number of issues. The Provincial Court of Madrid last month ruled in favour of LaLiga in a dispute with the RFEF over the staging of league matches on Mondays and Fridays.

The judgement left LaLiga free to stage matches on these days and came after the dispute went to trial in February 2020, with Madrid’s Commercial Court Number 2 having urged LaLiga and the RFEF to reach an agreement over the matter.

The issue went to trial after the RFEF sought to prevent LaLiga from staging matches on Mondays and Fridays, a move which had proved popular with fans who felt that kick-off times on these days were unsociable. LaLiga wishes to stage matches on these days to increase the number of broadcast opportunities.

In response to Rubiales’ comments, LaLiga sought to point to the success of its current business model, particularly during Covid-19. LaLiga said: “LaLiga will not consider a change in the competition format of any of its categories. The current model, its structure, its competition days, its schedules, etc., have been a great success in recent years.

“Among many other achievements achieved is an increase of spectators in the stadiums of more than 20 per cent; an exponential growth of our national and international audiovisual rights, among which the latest agreement with ESPN in the United States stands out; an economic stability that has made it (LaLiga) the only major league competition with a positive net result in the first season of Covid, etc.

“Therefore, any modification of the current format, or its mere approach, would be irresponsible. And it would also generate uncertainty about other sports and non-professional football, to which LaLiga contributes €125m ($147.7m) per season.

“At LaLiga we are willing to talk with the RFEF on various issues to improve football such as the improvement of the VAR, which we have already proposed days ago; coordinate with the new 1st RFEF (third-tier) category, a common strategy against the European Super League, etc.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by ecc » Thu Jul 15, 2021 6:55 pm

Hi Chester,

"This is interesting re PSG, the question raised is about UEFA FFP, personally I am wondering how PSG are managing to circumvent the scrutiny of the DNCG - probably time to find out just what they are about"

Oddly enough was thinking about this today. As a general rule the DNCG doesn't care too much how a club's revenue is generated -provided its sourced legally of course - as long as income matches expenditure i.e. different criteria to UEFA and EFL criteria. That's why PSG get away with their massive losses. They reportedly lost €125m in 2019/20. They are "cutting back" by their standards by signing out-of-contract players such as Donnarumma and Ramos but they will still come at a huge cost compared to what other French clubs can afford. They have spent £54m on Hakimi. Loose change for Qatar.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 6:57 pm

For anybody who thinks "soccer" will never catch on in the US

"Pretty wild that the Euro Soccer final averaged more viewers in the United States than the NBA Finals are averaging".

https://twitter.com/GrantWahl/status/14 ... 4307562499

this from WorldSoccerTalk.com gives the numbers

9.3 million watch Euro 2020 Final on ESPN and Univision combined World Soccer Talk July 13, 2021 ESPN, Euro 2020, TV Ratings

Sunday’s UEFA EURO 2020 Final on ESPN, Univision and TUDN set a record as the most-watched European Football Championship match ever in the United States with an audience of 9,388,000 viewers.

On ESPN, the viewership was 6,488,000. On Spanish-language television, Univision’s TUDN drew impressive viewership this past weekend with the Euro 2020 Final delivering 2.9 million Total Viewers 2+ and 1.4 million Adults 18-49, becoming the most-watched European Championship match on Spanish-language television in the United States. Euro 2020 on Univision’s networks combined to deliver an average of 1.2 million Total Viewers 2+ and 523,000 Adults 18-49 across the tournament’s 11 televised matches.

Meanwhile, the Copa América final between Brazil and Argentina delivered 3.5 million Total Viewers 2+ and 1.7 million Adults 18-49, marking a double-digit increase in both demos over the 2019 final on Telemundo and becoming the fifth most-watched program on television for the entire week.

Following the start of the Copa América Quarterfinal Round, matches on Univision’s flagship network averaged 1.8 million Total Viewers 2+ and 907,000 Adults 18-49 over the tournament’s final 8 matches (excludes third place match). In total, the Copa América on Univision’s networks delivered a combined average of 1.1 million Total Viewers 2+ and 539,000 Adults 18-49 across the tournament’s 28 matches.

The Gold Cup is off to a fast start following the tournament kick-off Saturday night as Mexico met Trinidad and Tobago. Airing on Univision, the match averaged 2.4 million Total Viewers 2+ and 1.3 million Adults 18-49, becoming the 7th most-watched program on television for the entire week. In addition, the USMNT tournament debut on Sunday netted the team’s largest Gold Cup group stage audience on any network since 2015, with 1.3 million Total Viewers 2+ and 604,000 Adults 18-49 on Univision.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:13 pm

ecc wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 6:55 pm
Hi Chester,

"This is interesting re PSG, the question raised is about UEFA FFP, personally I am wondering how PSG are managing to circumvent the scrutiny of the DNCG - probably time to find out just what they are about"

Oddly enough was thinking about this today. As a general rule the DNCG doesn't care too much how a club's revenue is generated -provided its sourced legally of course - as long as income matches expenditure i.e. different criteria to UEFA and EFL criteria. That's why PSG get away with their massive losses. They reportedly lost €125m in 2019/20. They are "cutting back" by their standards by signing out-of-contract players such as Donnarumma and Ramos but they will still come at a huge cost compared to what other French clubs can afford. They have spent £54m on Hakimi. Loose change for Qatar.
There are journos who are already saying that PSG are favourites if not certainties for the coming season's Champions League - and David Conn of the Guardian has this observation to make about successful teams in economically challenging times

https://twitter.com/david_conn/status/1 ... 9447342085

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:17 pm

They're making some very astute signings at PSG, winners of both the CL, domestic titles and internationals

They're determined to grab the CL

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:24 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Jul 14, 2021 1:13 am
This is a fascinating discussion and I thoroughly recommend a listen as this is one of the best ever from the Unofficial Partner Podcast with it's 4th discussion in a series called Re-thinking Sport

the blurb

Unofficial Partner|7/9/2021
Re:Thinking Sport - The Players and Private Equity

This is the fourth episode in our series ReThinking Sport, organised in collaboration with Portas, the global strategy consultant dedicated to sport and physical activity.

Today’s topic looks at the role of private equity in football through the lens of the players. This alters the perspective on the conversation and I think, like me, you’ll find it opens up some very interesting routes in to what is one of the biggest questions in professional sport: Is private equity a good fit for sport?

Our guests are Jonas Baer Hoffman, general secretary of FIFPro, the global representative of professional footballers which acts to support players interests across 64 national member associations. Joining Jonas is Peter Hawkings, part of the Portas leadership team with a focus on investment, who has served and advised CEOs of some of the largest federations in England and globally.

https://www.unofficialpartner.com/podca ... ers-and-pe
For those of you who have not listened to this yet this weeks Unofficial Partner Newsletter gives a few takes on what was discussed in Episode 4 of the series, Re:Thinking Sport - The Players and Private Equity

https://unofficialpartner.substack.com/ ... mpaign=cta

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:31 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jul 12, 2021 3:58 pm
John Textor makes a statement about his relationship with Benfica

https://www.johntextor.org/slbenfica


To the people and the community of Sport Lisboa e Benfica:

In light of the news that we have all learned in recent days, I do wish to share with you certain of my beliefs and I also wish to clarify for your benefit my interests in becoming involved with your beloved Club.

I am a lover of the game of football, and I believe it has proven to be the greatest unifier of people and cultures that we have ever seen in the world of sport…and it’s global influence is only growing.

I believe football clubs and communities are inextricably linked and that ownership of football clubs should be in the hands of the public.

I am specifically interested in football clubs that have the opportunity to provide direct and tangible benefits to the people in their immediately proximus communities and to those within their global reach

I am attracted to Sport Lisboa e Benfica because it is truly the People’s Club…and it will always be the People’s Club. Unlike any company or club with which I have had the pleasure to be associated, it was formed, is structured, and is run principally for the benefit of its community. If I were ever invited by the people of Benfica to support the mission of SL Benfica, I would not have to create that connection with the community…it has been the way of Benfica since long before my arrival…I would only hope that I could help to strengthen SL Benfica for the benefit of its people.

I believe SL Benfica is the sleeping giant of world football, the greatest developer of talent in its academies, with an unmatched opportunity to extend its mission and its brand to fast growing global audiences.

I believe SL Benfica made a wise decision to become a publicly listed and a publicly owned club, a logical extension of its successful form of governance by the people of Benfica, though I do believe the limited scale and liquidity of the Portugal capital markets has not allowed SL Benfica to maximize its potential as a global concern.

I believe that greater coordination between the Portugal markets and global stock exchanges in the United States and elsewhere would provide SL Benfica with efficient access to large pools of people and capital which would better serve the mission of Benfica.

I believe that the story and the teachings of SL Benfica, conveyed through international academy expansion and through media, would be welcomed and valued around the globe, bringing new revenue opportunities from far off places that would bring returns back to the people of Benfica in Portugal.

I believe I may be one of the people that can bring ideas to the Benfica community that can help improve the capitalization and the revenues of the Club, for a purpose that is right for the fans…the goal to keep many more of the best players of SL Benfica playing for SL Benfica. It’s clear that the thrill of playing in the Champions League, for Benfiquistas, has become less of a thrill, and more of an expectation. Shouldn’t it now be the goal to win?

To be clear, these are just my beliefs. They are not yet plans. I have not acquired shares in SL Benfica. I have enjoyed my conversations and correspondence with the devoted SL Benfica fan, Mr. Jose Antonio dos Santos. I believe he truly loves the Club and I believe that he sees, in me, a person that has the right heart and the right experience to advance the mission of the Benfica community.

I have never sought, negotiated or reached an agreement to purchase SLBEN shares from any party, other than Mr. dos Santos, nor have I purchased any SLBEN shares (directly or indirectly) in the open markets. Mr. dos Santos was introduced to me, not by leadership of SL Benfica, but rather by an investment banking institution based in London with whom I regularly discuss investment opportunities, namely in the sports industry.

Like you, I am digesting very quickly the unexpected news that is impacting SL Benfica. Though I was looking forward to meeting the management team of SL Benfica in the coming weeks, I am now evaluating whether or not I intend to consummate a purchase of SLBEN shares. It was my great hope to be received as a positive and contributing partner to the community of Benfica and I am obviously having to evaluate the remarkable change in circumstances as I evaluate this opportunity. Again, like you, I am reserving the right to make my own judgments and my own decisions as I learn more.

In the meantime, I wish you all the best of outcomes and personal joy during the coming season, as I feel confident that Sport Lisboa e Benfica will continue to be as strong in the coming year as it has been for the last 117 years.

Warmly,
John Textor
You have to say this about John Textor (proposed new shareholder in Crystal Palace and Benfica) he is sharing an awful lot of information begore any deal is complete

Here is his latest on the Benfica situation

EDIT There are some questionable claims in this I think - I will Highlight them


UPDATE: July 15, 2021

To the people and the community of Sport Lisboa e Benfica:


I appreciate so many of the well wishes that I have received from Benfiquista in Portugal and abroad. I am also very happy to learn that many of you were able to read the initial statement, via my personal biographical website, which clarified my beliefs and my hopes to become a part of the Benfica community.

It therefore seems a very good idea to continue to use this website to communicate clearly my position as facts get twisted and circumstances evolve. Please consider the following as an update, as of July 15, 2021:

PROCESS

I have respectfully requested a meeting with leadership at Sport Lisboa e Benfica, by email, and it is my hope to travel to Lisbon by Wednesday of next week.

I understand now that certain members of the Board, or possibly the management team itself, may be looking to distance the Club from my contract to purchase an interest in the Club, as my involvement is too closely associated with the recently departed Chairman. The Chairman has been trusted to lead SL Benfica for 17 years. Surely my short meeting with him, as I have detailed below, should not be disqualify my proposals in any way.

To be clear, I was introduced directly to Mr. Santos by my investment banker in London. I have no business connection to the departed Mr. Vieira. If other parties have learned of private business dealings between Mr. Santos and Mr. Vieira, that is simply not something I would have ever known, and it could not possibly invalidate Mr. Santos right to sell his shares, or another party's right to buy such shares. The leaders long ago believed it wise to create SAD as a publicly listed company and I am merely an investor that sees incredible value in the shares of SL Benfica SAD.

The parties that would seek to distance themselves from anything that appears connected to Mr. Vieira have been supporters of his for many years. I am entirely new to the community of Benfica, am here to be helpful, and I reject the dishonest attempt to suggest that a customary negotiated purchase of a share block is an illicit transaction.

Our transaction was conducted in broad daylight, signed in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Lisbon. Immediately after securing the transaction at an attractive price per share, We congratulated each other on a successful signing and were visibly photographed together in a very public place. Such photographs would be customary and there was nothing secret about this meeting.

Upon completion of the signing, I believed it was then appropriate for me to meet with leadership of the Club, which I believed was necessary to be sure that I was welcomed into the Club as a positive contributor. I have previously given a statement that I believe it is not appropriate for me to comment on Mr. Vieira, under the circumstances of the investigation, and I have also made clear that he had nothing to do with the origination, negotiation or completion of the purchase from Mr. Santos. Those statements remain true.

In light of recent and persistent questions on this matter, I think it appropriate to elaborate on this point. I was fortunate to have a brief meeting with Mr. Vieira, on the day following my signing of the agreement with Mr. Santos. The meeting was brief, conducted through a translator, and I felt comfortable that Mr. Vieira valued my intended contribution to SL Benfica. It would of course be customary for a 25% purchaser to request such a meeting and it would be necessary for leadership to know who was potentially buying shares. Also, given the possibility that I might acquire interests in other European clubs in the future, I wanted to make sure this would be seen as collaborative and valuable to Benfica. I left the meeting believing it was a successful first introduction.

Since the moment I learned of the arrest of Mr. Vieira, including monitoring methods, it has been my assumption that the authorities would have been aware of this meeting. I am not concerned with my participation in a requisite meeting with leadership, though I have chosen not to discuss the specifics, as I still believe it is not appropriate for me to comment on Mr. Vieira in the press. I am of course happy to comment in depth to any official that would seek my testimony in connection with a formal affair. I believe this process, from my perspective, was entirely appropriate.

I have never denied this meeting, I have just chosen not to discuss the meeting...and I have kept my comments focused on the fact that I only negotiated with Mr. Santos.

After that meeting, I then toured all of the relevant facilities of SL Benfica...the stadium, Benfica TV studios, the Academy campus. I felt very welcomed and this felt very normal for an incoming shareholder. So why on earth should anyone consider these meetings secret? I had no control over who was told, but I toured SL Benfica 'in the sunlight', getting photographed constantly along the way, while being introduced openly to a number of people. For me, this was a great day...a dream come true.

Further, I have requested to meet the full management team to be sure they would be supportive of my involvement, otherwise I would not be interested in making an investment. This signing was only three weeks ago and a meeting upon my next trip to Lisbon would be very timely, especially with a contract closing date of September 15. If the Board was not notified, and the management team not informed, that would be a surprise to me. Frankly, I find it hard to believe this is true.

VALUATION​

Do not believe what you read when others suggest that I paid a high price. Sport Lisboa e Benfica is among the most valuable football clubs in the world. This should be no surprise to the associates of Benfica. At the average price of 3.00 Euros per share, and 23.0 million shares outstanding, the trading market in Portugal would suggest that SLBEN is worth only 69.0 million Euros. This is nonsense. The lack of trading on the Portugal exchange, which has allowed this depressed price to prevail, would have us believe that the entire Club is worth less than one Bernardo Silva (the Textor family's favorite player) or one Ruben Dias. This is simply not correct.

I retired from my former company fuboTV as the largest shareholder and have since sold my position. I was able to take that small company, originally known as Facebank Group, from an $80,000 cash balance sheet in the middle of 2018 to a peak value at the time of my October 2020 resignation of $8 billion. I understand the public markets and I know value. Sl Benfica, if allowed to open up its listing on the New York Stock Exchange as I propose, would be valued at a starting value of '5 times revenue', slightly less as a multiple than the slow growth Manchester United. This would imply a starting valuation of more than $1.5 billion...or $65 per share.

With a plan to establish true Benfica academies in six major markets in the United States, with football development and academics of equal importance, American and South American families would provide another $200 million to increase SL Benfica's revenues. There is nothing like such a program (with a Benfica comparable brand) in the United States, a country that pays more attention to European football than its woeful American counterparts.

Benfica TV, which is distributed in the United States by my former company fuboTV, could fill the vacuum of 24-hour coverage of football in the Americas and around the globe, with both Portuguese and English-speaking delivery.

A sports valuation only gets you so far on Wall Street, but a brand that maximizes the revenues across media, social media, with vibrant content and technology driven consumer apps (like those we build at Facebank.com). Sports companies may trade at 5-times-revenue, but technology and media revenues that are driven by big brands like Benfica can trade at 12-times revenue.

Most important in valuation is the obvious principal...the loyal audience of the team, will always be more valuable than the team. Other sports and media companies have figured this out (Marvel, Star Wars, Manchester United). Why not Benfica? It's time for SL Benfica to offer more to its audience, to interact with its audience through technology, social apps, and other affinity programs, during the days when the team is not on the field. Our company Facebank launched one facial interactive app, for women, which yield $30 million in revenues with a $24 million profit...while another app (augmented reality faceprint for fans) yielded 35 million downloads during a short promotion. The Audience is more valuable than the business model of the team...and the Benfica audience around the world is massive.

More revenue, and a higher valuation for YOUR ownership of SL Benfica SAD means more money for YOUR favorite players. SL Benfica SAD is already publicly listed. That decision was made long before I showed up...so why should you accept that SL Benfica can be such a success on the football pitch and such a failure as a public company. A valuation of 3.00 Euros a share is a joke...and I can fix it.

There is nothing questionable about an American investor, that loves football and its connection to the community who sees 8.70 Euros per share as a beautifully cheap price. I have the talent and the experience, across technology, media, games, consumer apps and Wall Street to turn your 3.00 Euro price into something much higher...for you and for all stakeholders...so SL Benfica can take its rightful place among the most powerful clubs in Europe.

THE BYLAWS SHOULD NOT BE USED AS AN ARBITRARY ACT OF CONTROL

Now ask yourself why the people on the board, or in management, would choose not to take a meeting with me and quickly announce that I am a Competitive entity, abusing a tool in the Bylaws to cancel the shares I may buy. If it's corruption they are trying to escape, this is no way to start...branding me as competitive and hostile, without so much as a conversation. Why would they not open up to all ideas and give me an audience to propose helpful solutions. I'll let you decide, do I look like a competitor?

My Florida academy could not possibly be a competitive entity. FC Florida Preparatory Academy was started by me, and a Portuguese friend whose family still lives in Lisbon, as a non-profit entity to help financially starved children use soccer to claim scholarships to American universities. FC Florida Prep Academy receives no revenues for its efforts, only my personal donations to cover the expenses of training and travel to create schooling opportunities for kids. We also have made direct contributions to educational expenses when deserving student-athletes cannot cover their school costs. I feel comfortable that the Board would celebrate our work at FC Florida, and not deem our donations to children as competitive with SL Benfica. After all, is every shareholder of SLBEN that volunteers their money and time to student-athletes at risk of seeing their shares cancelled? This cannot be the purpose of the bylaws of a community minded club like SL Benfica.

My former affiliation with fuboT could not be deemed competitive. Please know that I retired from fuboTV in October of 2020. I am no longer and officer of fuboTV. I am no longer a director of fuboTV. I have no affiliation with fuboTV. I may have once been the largest shareholder of fuboTV, but I now own considerably less than 1% of fuboTV as a common public shareholder...and I would commit to sell these immediately if this passive investment causes concern. That said, as fuboTV was among the very first (maybe the only) national television distributors of Benfica TV, I am sure the board knows that fuboTV is a friend of Sl Benfica and not a competitor. So why would they announce that the Benfica TV distributor in the United States is a hostile and competitive association? To the contrary, my experience with fuboTV should be expected to dramatically enhance the programming and distribution of Benfica TV to strengthen the U.S. audience for SL Benfica.

Crystal Palace and Fulham? I am not currently an investor or an owner of any other football club, anywhere in the world. I have made clear my interest in becoming a minority owner (not a control owner) of an English football club in the future, but that means I am not a competitor now (under any definition in the Bylaws of SL Benfica)...and is it not true that SL Benfica has considered similar ideas to expand into the UK?

To the extent that I do become an investor in a UK club, I believe such a partnership would dramatically enhance the marketability of Benfica academy players, thereby increasing revenues per player transfer, and reducing the need to transfer as many of Benfica's best players. Frankly, I would rather see revenues grow internationally so that player transfers could be reduced to match the practices of the very best clubs win Europe. In any case, as SL Benfica has long considered acquisitions of clubs in Europe and SL Benfica routinely collaborates with clubs in England, I am sure the board knows that my ideas to invest in a collaborative club would only benefit Benfica, and not be competitive. In any case, the board should not operate on rumors of what I might acquire in the future as a determination that I am already a competitor...which I am not.

To conclude on this issue of competition, an individual who once was aligned with a TV streaming company that promoted Benfica TV, who donates his time and money to a charitable organization for student athletes, and is considering investing in clubs that can provide attractive and profitable collaboration for SL Benfica should not be seen as hostile. Who else would you like to see buy the shares of the outgoing Mr. Santos? Alibaba? I would suggest that the board would enjoy having a passionate investor, that wants to be in the minority, elevating the interest of the majority that is owned by the people. Please read my initial statement again, on this website. I believe in the People's Club of SL Benfica...but I believe its time to finally open up to the world of opportunities, beyond the narrow economy of Portugal, so that SL Benfica can take its rightful place at the top of world football.

Four Benfica players in the starting XI for Manchester City...ready to play against us if ever we should meet...isn't it time to try something else?​

To Update you on my proposal, as I emailed to your leadership just today, I would like to add to my proposed financial investment in SL Benfica SAD...to be as helpful as I can in this challenging time:

I have asked the Board to stop playing games with the definition of a competitive entity and bless, in advance, my purchase of shares from Mr. Santos. Article 13, section 4, of the bylaws was created to make sure that Sporting Lisbon would not become a shareholder. It was not created to reject public company investors that come to Benfica because they already have an established love for football, with investments or activities in sports that are clearly helpful to SL Benficawith helpful ideas as a tool for your board to arbitrarily decide who can challenge their ideas. They keep out for individuals to wield their power to preventOther facts which seem relevant today.

I will offer to buy-out any other shareholder that may look to exit, or that the board may want to exit, and I will vow to never vote my shares against the people of Benfica. I am buying into the will of the people, and I will commit to that will for the life of my involvement with the Club.

I will immediately fund the unfunded portion of the current bond issue, as I understand (from rumor) that the bond issue may be in trouble. Whatever the public has decided not to buy (effectively a loan to SL Benfica SAD), I would immediately fund the difference, so the Club can carry momentum into the season with all of the resources necessary to be successful in competition.

If for some reason their are no investors committing to fund the bond issue, with a 4.75% interest rate, I will fund the entire bond issue of 55 million Euros at a 3% rate. Debt is bad, but if it comes from me, it can at least be cheap...because SL Benfica should stop borrowing money (50 million at a time) and SL Benfica should raise 200 million euros in a high price float on the New York Stock Exchange.

I have offered again to travel to Lisbon immediately to discuss all of my proposals and offers of help, before next week's AG meeting, which apparently will offer an agenda item to cancel my proposed investment. What could be the harm in meeting, when a party comes bearing gifts. Certainly they have the right to say no, and choose another path, but to reject such proposals off of rumor and innuendo is simply not a good way to handle the People's business.

To conclude, I have asked the board to give these ideas a chance. It seems clear this won't happen, but maybe someone on the board is not thinking about optics, or the coming election, and we can put some good ideas to work. I have no opinion of who should be the next President / Chairman, though I do believe the direct management to be top class and ready for a global markets debut. As for me, I am completely independent...and my helpful proposals, which are exactly what the Club has been seeking, should not be rejected because of a two hour meeting that was entirely appropriate for the purchase I was contemplating.

I do regret all of the mess that has resulted from what I believed to be appropriate and conventional meetings. I honestly do not know how my arrival through the front door could have been perceived any other way. I believed my project to be transformational for SL Benfica and I remain hopeful that, whatever the decision of the Board might be this week, that I would have an opportunity to present these ideas sometime in the future. These are extraordinary times for the Club and the job of the Board is not an easy one, under the circumstances. I will respect any decision the Board believes is best for SL Benfica the time.

Warmly,

John Textor
Last edited by Chester Perry on Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:39 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Jul 01, 2021 10:32 pm
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 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.
The European Court refuses to make a swift decision on the fates of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus as ordered by the Madrid Commercial Court - No surprise there, but this could now rumble on for years - from the Independent

Bid for quick decision on whether UEFA broke EU law over Super League rejected
A Madrid court had asked the European Court of Justice to consider whether UEFA had breached European competition law.
Jamie Gardner
3 hours ago

A request for a quick decision on whether UEFA’s blocking of the Super League breached European competition law has been rejected, the PA news agency understands.

A Madrid court had asked the European Court of Justice to consider whether UEFA had broken EU law by first trying to thwart the breakaway league’s formation, and then by opening disciplinary proceedings against three of its founder members – Real Madrid Barcelona and Juventus.

The ECJ will still consider the matter, but not on the expedited basis that had been requested.

It is understood this means that a ruling in Madrid in early July to annul disciplinary proceedings against those clubs – and peace agreements involving the other nine – cannot be enacted yet as a result, and means hopes of getting the Super League back on track quickly have been dashed.

UEFA’s appeals body announced last month that proceedings against the three clubs had been stayed, which remains the case following the ECJ’s rejection of an expedited decision.

UEFA promised a “robust” defence of its position in a statement on May 31, when it noted the announcement from the ECJ that it had received a referral from a court in Madrid.

Super League sources are confident of their case too, and believe the decision would have as seismic an impact on the structure of European club competition as the 1995 Bosman ruling had on the transfer market and player contracts.

Twelve clubs announced themselves as founder members of the Super League on April 18, but the competition had collapsed within 72 hours after nine of the clubs withdrew amid fan protest, opposition from UEFA, FIFA and domestic leagues and even the British Government.

The Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ agreed last month to make a combined goodwill payment of just over £22million to support grassroots and community projects, and that if any one of those clubs attempted such a move again they would be docked 30 points and fined £25million.

A similar arrangement was reached with UEFA in May.

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 1:21 pm

CFG take out a huge loan to fun infrastructure projects (primarily a stadium for their New York team) - from the Financial Times - also remember that when people talk of the Investment from Silver Lake is mute as that is a working partnership with a agreed intent to invest the sum by 2030 - which is some way away, do not be surprised if the China Media Capital deal is similar.

Manchester City owner raises $650m in one of football’s biggest debt deals
MURAD AHMED JULY 16, 2021

Manchester City’s parent company has raised $650m in one of football’s biggest ever debt deals as it seeks to step up investment in its international network of football clubs.

City Football Group, the Abu Dhabi-controlled holding company that owns the English Premier League champions alongside clubs in the US, Australia and India, recently raised the loan, which will come due in July 2028, according to multiple people familiar with the transaction.

The debt deal beats the €525m debt refinancing arrangement between Goldman Sachs and Spain’s FC Barcelona agreed in June, and is roughly the level of England’s Tottenham Hotspur, which borrowed £637m in 2019 from a number of banks to build its new stadium.

CFG intends to use the money to fund infrastructure projects such as a new stadium for its Major League Soccer franchise New York City FC, which has been mooted for years but still requires approval from local authorities.

But the group has shown an appetite for rapid growth, having either taken full ownership or bought minority shares in 10 clubs around the world over the past decade.

The seven-year loan was underwritten by Barclays, with HSBC and KKR Capital Markets helping arrange and distribute the debt, according to people familiar with the deal.

Separately, CFG has also organised a revolving credit facility worth £100m with the same finance providers, though a person close to the group said it had no immediate intention to draw down on the facility.

CFG declined to comment. People close to the deal said its executives had opted for raising debt, believing it to be a cheaper route to cash than selling more equity.

CFG sold a 10 per cent stake to US-based private equity firm Silver Lake Partners for $500m two years ago, which valued the group at $4.8bn — then a record valuation for a sports group. A further 12 per cent is owned by China Media Capital, a venture capital group.

The majority owner is Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a billionaire member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, who bought Manchester City in 2008.

He has spent an estimated £1bn on transforming the club from an also-ran into one of the most successful sides in English football.

Critics have suggested such spending has skewed competition in England and Europe, while human rights activists say it is part of a “sportswashing” project designed to clean up the global image of the United Arab Emirates. Sheikh Mansour’s brother is Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the Gulf nation’s de facto ruler.

The new debt deal ties the group closely to western financial institutions. A year after Silver Lake’s investment in CFG, it secured $2bn from Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund which is run by Khaldoon al-Mubarak, who is also Manchester City chair.

The money will help prop up the lossmaking group whose finances have been hit hard in the pandemic.

CFG’s annual revenue dropped to £544m in the financial year ended June 2020, down almost 14 per cent year on year because of lost ticket and broadcast revenue. The group’s annual net loss widened to £205m from £84m a season earlier.

Manchester City’s revenue fell to £478m in the 2019-2020 season, down from £535m the year before. The club swung to a net loss of £126m from a net profit of £10m. It had previously been the only profitmaking club within CFG’s global network.

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 1:50 pm

A separate thread has started (again) on the subject of the 2030 World Cup but it is one this thread has been following for some time - The Athletic have come with this story of Saudi Arabia bidding to host the competition (it certainly fits their overall strategy) but they recognize they need an established partner to have a chance of being successful - Step forward Italy, a country whose clubs are looking to build new stadiums and who have had football partnerships with Saudi previously (that cost then a lucrative media deal with BeIN Sport) - Of Course Italy has strong political links with China too, who are also bidding for the 2030 world cup. It should not be forgotten that Saudi Arabia has an ongoing relationship with The Spanish DA and Real Madrid, so could they tag onto that established bid?

that Athletic piece https://theathletic.com/2709095/2021/07 ... ed_article

some interesting observations from Simon Chadwick

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 4478548994

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