Football's Magic Money Tree

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Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:40 pm

150 pages up - thanks for all your support in following a subject that now has become as much a talking point as that which happens on the pitch
This user liked this post: Vegas Claret

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:46 pm

OffthePitch.com kicks off a series talking to Chief Execs in Football by talking to the Premier Leagues Longest serving Chief Exec - Phil Alexander of Crystal Palace

How the pandemic showed Crystal Palace their strategy is the right one
15 July 2021 3:59 PM
  • Phil Alexander, the longest-serving chief executive in the Premier League, says that Palace doubled down on their community work during the pandemic, giving some local residents their first engagement with the club.
  • To help recover losses from the lack of ticketing income, the club plan to grow revenues through data-driven fan engagement and a redevelopment of Selhurst Park.
  • "If it was a western, it would be the Dirty Dozen meets football," says the Chief Executive referring to the Amazon-series about the club.
  • This article is part of a series of interviews with football executives asking what they learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic.
ROBERT KIDD contact@offthepitch.com

During 25 years as chief executive of Crystal Palace, Phil Alexander has helped steer the club through difficult times.

The longest-serving CEO in the Premier League has seen Palace suffer relegation and twice recover from entering administration. The challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic, though, is right up there with the toughest he has encountered.

"Obviously with that pandemic, you're talking about health and people's lives. That has to take priority and is probably the biggest challenge we have faced in my time," Alexander tells Off The Pitch.

"I felt the key initially was to communicate with the staff as best we could to ensure they knew what was going on and what was expected of them on a day-to-day basis. To give them some comfort, and basically show leadership across the business from that perspective.

"And once we understood what was going on a little bit more and how we were going to operate under a lockdown scenario, it was understanding what we could do as a business in the community."

Elderly fans were contacted

Palace are proud of their work in their south London community, which includes some of the capital's most deprived areas. When the pandemic hit, they wanted to help.

Working with the NHS and their Palace For Life Foundation, the club has offered Selhurst Park as a vaccination centre for free and provided food and parking spaces for emergency services workers. Elderly Palace fans were also contacted directly during lockdown to check if they needed anything.

With matches played behind closed doors, the Palace catering team was instead enlisted to make up to 400 meals a day for local residents. Combining donations and funding from the club, the Palace Kitchen project had provided 5,000 meals by December.

"Some of the people coming to the vaccination centre are local people, and I suspect some of them have never been in the stadium before. It is opening it up to new people to understand what the club's all about and to push our values across the whole community," Alexander says.

Solid investment in data collection

Keeping fans engaged with the club and potentially attracting new audiences will remain important post-pandemic. Over the past 18 months, Palace have completed a "complete digital restructure" with a lot of the work during the pandemic.

"We've invested heavily into that. Whatever touch point fans are coming to our club – whether it's via the app, whether it's via the website – now we know who you are, where you are. And it allows us to serve appropriate digital content to the right audience. Our data collection and our data use is far better than it's ever been," Alexander says.

"We recognised the way the world is moving from a commercial point of view with regards to merchandise and selling products online, through to serving up content and interesting information digitally."

A key piece of content is the docuseries, When Eagles Dare, which launched on Amazon Prime Video last month (JUNE). Telling the story of Palace's journey from financial ruin and administration in 2010 to reaching the 2013 Championship play-offs, Alexander says it is another way to promote Palace's unique brand.

"It's kind of an antidote to the sort of polished behind-the-scenes series that you get these days. And it's very us. If it was a western, it would be the Dirty Dozen meets football. It's a compelling watch," he says.

"Hopefully, it will appeal to non-Palace fans as well and maybe get them engaged with the club and going forward get them to be new Palace fans."

Redevelopment of Selhurst Park

Without revenue streams from ticketing and corporate hospitality, Palace chairman Steve Parish announced in April the club would lose "around £30 million" from the two seasons affected by the pandemic.

They are pushing ahead with a plan to redevelop Selhurst Park, which would increase the capacity from 26,000 to more than 34,000 at a cost of between £75 million and £100 million.

"We need to grow our finances and grow our revenues in order to compete with other clubs around us. That's no secret," Alexander says.

Another big investment, planned before the pandemic but which may take on even greater importance after it, is the club's academy. Palace have spent a "huge amount" on new facilities, expected to be completed soon, which have been awarded Category 1 status – the highest possible in the country.

The club's academy has previously produced players like Wilfried Zaha and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Wan-Bissaka was sold to Manchester United two years ago in a deal reportedly worth £50 million.

"We've always been known as a club that brings players through and we give players good enough the opportunity to play in our first team. What we hadn't had in the past was the facilities to actually develop those players under the academy system," Alexander says.

A real push for Europe

"(The new facilities) will be the envy of many clubs. The fans love nothing more than local lads going out and playing for Crystal Palace first team. And obviously from a commercial perspective, it makes sense. Rather than having to go out and spend millions in the marketplace, you can bring young kids through."

Instead of changing Palace's strategy dramatically, the pandemic has reaffirmed that the club is on the right path, according to Alexander.

"This will be our ninth consecutive season in the Premier League. To stay in the Premier League and push on into playing European football has to be our strategy. And for that we need to grow our revenues and have a solid business alongside the academy and the main stand and everything else that needs investment," he says.

"So (the pandemic) hasn't really changed the dynamics of the strategy at all. It has blown us off course a little bit, but we'll be back on track soon."

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:00 pm

An Intriguing twist in the French Ligue, Canal + and BeIN Sport rights dispute from Sportico.com

BeIN taking Canal Plus to court to ensure Ligue 1 sub-licensing deal is respected
Soccer - 16 Jul 2021

By Simon Ward

BeIN Sports, the international pay-television broadcaster, is taking court action to compel French counterpart Canal Plus to honour payments under a sub-licensing deal for domestic rights to Ligue 1, the country’s top soccer league.

Qatar-backed BeIN yesterday appealed to the commercial court of Nanterre as it seeks a guarantee that Vivendi-owned Canal Plus will pay the €332 million ($392 million) it is contracted to pay for the 2021-22 season.

Under a deal that came into effect last season, Canal Plus has been sub-licensing from BeIN rights to two top fixtures per round from Ligue 1, in an agreement that is due to run to the end of the 2023-24 season.

However, Canal Plus has threatened to stop showing these games, and cease the payments, after the LFP, the French professional league, recently awarded the rights to the other eight matches per round to internet giant Amazon, in a three-year deal worth €260 million per season.

The rights to the eight games were previously held by Spanish media company Mediapro in a four-year deal worth €780 million per annum that was terminated, after just a few months, in December 2020.

While BeIN and Canal Plus are allied against the LFP in a lawsuit that is pending in a Paris court over the rights sales process, the Qatari broadcaster wants its partner to honour the existing contract.

Canal Plus is reported to have informed BeIN on Tuesday that it was suspending the arrangement.

It is understood that an initial payment of €500,000 for the upcoming season has not been paid.

In its appeal to the commercial court, BeIN has asked for emergency proceedings to force Canal Plus to respect the sub-licensing deal, and the court has granted an authorisation so the latter will be summoned to proceedings next Tuesday, with a decision expected by the end of the week.

BeIN confirmed the authorisation from the court, but has declined to comment further.

The broadcaster retains rights to two top matches per week from Ligue 2, but while it wants to review the valuation of its €30-million-per-year deal after Amazon was awarded rights to the other eight games, for €9 million per annum, is presently honouring payments.

Earlier this week, a representative of French president Emmanuel Macron urged Canal Plus and BeIN to respect their contractual commitments.

In their ongoing legal action against the LFP, rights holders Canal Plus, BeIN and Free, the French telecoms company, are challenging the league’s rights sales process, claiming that, with the award to Amazon, it is treating packages of rights differently.

Last season, the LFP re-tendered the 80 per cent of Ligue 1 and 2 matches held by Mediapro after rejecting Canal Plus' proposal to include the two top-flight matches each week that the broadcaster sub-licensed from BeIN.

Both Canal Plus and BeIN argued Mediapro's actions had devalued the domestic rights, and all lots should have been re-tendered.

In the end no suitable offers were received - Canal Plus and BeIN did not even bid - with the LFP and Canal Plus eventually agreeing on a deal for Ligue 1 to the end of the 2020-21 season, while BeIN showed all Ligue 2 games.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:18 pm

FIFA implement a 2 year transfer ban on Serie A's Spezia for it's manipulation of transfer rules regarding minors from Nigeria - the other clubs that helped them are subject to sanction also - you may remember that Spezia were taken over by a board member of MSD Capital last year (I am assuming all this pre-dates that.

FIFA SANCTIONS FOR SPEZIA CALCIO, USD LAVAGNESE 1919 AND VALDIVARA 5 TERRE FOR BREACHES OF THE RULES GOVERNING THE INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER OF MINORS
16 Jul 2021

FIFA Disciplinary Committee sanctions Spezia Calcio, USD Lavagnese 1919 and Valdivara 5 Terre for breaches of the rules governing the international transfer of minors.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has sanctioned the Italian club Spezia Calcio for breaches relating to the international transfer and registration of players under the age of 18.

Following an investigation carried out by the FIFA Regulatory Enforcement Department, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee found that Spezia Calcio had breached article 19 of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) by bringing several Nigerian minors into Italy using a scheme aimed at circumventing the aforesaid RSTP article as well as national immigration law.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee took into account that Spezia Calcio accepted responsibility for its serious regulatory violations, and imposed a registration ban at both national and international level for four registration periods and a fine of CHF 500,000. Spezia Calcio will thus be unable to register any new players for the next four registration periods established by the Italian Football Association.

The FIFA Disciplinary Committee also imposed a registration ban at both national and international level for four registration periods and a fine of CHF 4,000 each on Italian clubs USD Lavagnese 1919 and Valdivara 5 Terre, these two clubs having played an active role in the aforementioned scheme.

The protection of minors is a key objective of the regulatory framework governing the football transfer system. Effective enforcement of these rules is paramount to ensuring that the welfare and well-being of minors are protected at all times.

The decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee was notified to the three clubs today.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:22 pm

This weeks Ask Ornstein from The Athletic looks at the financial crises in French Football

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2U8hO9cPYQ

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:53 pm

The corruption crisis at the summit of Portuguese football spreads to Porto, having started at Benfica - from SportsBusiness

Portuguese corruption probe extends to FC Porto deal with Portugal Telecom
Callum McCarthy, Europe office
July 16, 2021

Portugal’s Public Ministry (MP) is investigating a commission payment related to FC Porto’s wide-ranging commercial rights deal with Portugal Telecom, deepening the corruption crisis gripping Portuguese club football.

Portuguese media outlets say the latest probe centres on a €20m commission payment made to BM Consulting, the agency owned by Bruno Macedo that brokered FC Porto’s deal with telco Portugal Telecom.

The deal, struck in 2016, covers media rights to FC Porto’s home matches from 2018-19 to 2027-28; shirt sponsorship rights from January 2016 to the end of 2022-23; and distribution rights to club channel Porto Canal from January 2016 to the end of 2027-28.

TVI 24 reports that the MP is investigating whether some of the €20m payment to Macedo’s company “ended up in the family sphere” of Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa.

Telco Altice, which owns Portugal Telecom, told TVI 24 that it had “entered into an agreement for the provision of services with BM Consulting to mediate in contacts and negotiations with several football clubs”, but that it has not been contacted by the authorities.

Neither FC Porto, Altice nor Portugal Telecom are under investigation for any improprieties.

The commission payment is one part of a wider investigation into Macedo’s activities with Portuguese businessman Pedro Pinho and Alexandre Pinto da Costa, the son of the Porto president.

Portuguese publication Sábado reported that commission payments relating to the transfer of Éder Militão from Sao Paulo to Porto in July 2018 – as well as commission payments from Militão’s subsequent transfer from Porto to Real Madrid in 2019 – are also under investigation by the MP. Both deals were brokered by Macedo.

Macedo is currently out on bail after being arrested in connection with a separate investigation into the business practices of former Benfica president Luis Felipe Vieira, who stands accused of tax fraud and money laundering. Macedo is accused by the MP of acting as Vieira’s representative in deals under investigation and, according to a search warrant issued by the MP, allegedly set up “fraud schemes for the benefit of Vieira”.

Vieira resigned as Benfica president on Thursday evening and was replaced by former Portuguese international footballer Rui Costa.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 4:13 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 1:38 pm
And while we are talking about India this interview with Star's head of sports (it is India's biggest ppv sports channel and the Premier Leagues rights holder) - gives an insight into the market place - Star is owned by Disney who also own ESPN who have made massive investments in Football in the US this year. = from SportsProMedia

An expert’s guide to the Indian sports media market with Star’s Sanjog Gupta
Sanjog Gupta, head of sports at Star India, reveals the secrets to running India's biggest pay-TV sports network and why there is more to the local market than cricket.

By Tom Bassam Posted: July 6 2021

The Indian sports media market is unique, not just in its size but also in its economics. In terms of pure scale only China has more than its neighbour’s 815 million TV viewers, almost 700 million internet users and more than one billion mobile connections.

The cost of TV subscriptions and data are low, with the latter contributing to a growth of base internet users of between 20 and 22 per cent between 2019 and 2020. Unlike the West, TV is still growing but digital, powered by the mobile device, is accelerating faster.

Another quirk is that media revenue in India is almost equally divided between advertising and subscription fees. While average revenue per user (ARPU) remains low, the enormous reach means that marketers are prepared to pay significant fees to access the consumer.

Also, if you thought the dominance of the National Football League (NFL) in the US was remarkable, on average 85 to 95 of the 100 most-watched broadcasts in India annually are live cricket. Linear broadcasts of the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Twenty20 competition, including non-live programming, are watched by around 500 to 550 million domestic viewers every year.

There are two other sports on the radar of the Indian consumer, soccer and kabaddi. Similar to the US, India is an amalgamation of local markets. While cricket is undoubtedly the universal number one sport across all of them, the others vie for second place, with their popularity differentiating by region.

Across all of it sits Disney-owned Star India, arguably the country’s lead pay-TV broadcaster. It has major broadcast partnerships with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for both the IPL and national team cricket and the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) – the elite national competition. It also holds a 35 per cent stake and long-term broadcast rights in the Indian Super League (ISL), which is on a roadmap to usurp the I-League and become the sole top domestic soccer competition.

The Premier League, the only overseas competition to have earned mass cut-through in India, is also among Star’s rights portfolio.

This has not come cheap. Over the past ten years, industry sources suggest that Star has invested close to US$10 billion in cricket rights and rights production marketing. Its 2013 ISL investment was reportedly worth I₹2,000 crore (then US$324.7 million), while the recent renewal of its PKL rights is costing I₹180 crore (US$24.1 million) a year.

To get a better understanding of what it takes to run a premium sports network in one of the world’s largest countries, SportsPro spoke to Sanjog Gupta (pictured left), head of sports at Star India.

India is very much a cricket-obsessed nation, how does this impact Star’s approach to sports broadcasting?
The interesting part of this journey, at least over the last decade, has been our belief in the vision that India has the potential to be a multi-sport sporting nation eventually and should actually progress in that direction.

Broadly speaking, obviously the largest chunk of our investment continues to be in cricket, but we've also invested significantly in football and in an indigenous sport called kabaddi, which is a short format contact sport.

Those three sports now constitute almost 95 per cent of total sports consumption in the country.

In fact, maybe more. Maybe it's between 95 or 97 per cent depending on how many events are happening that year in these three sports.

So, it is a market dominated by cricket with two green shoots in the form of football and kabaddi, which have now started registering quite prominently amongst fans in the country. There are pockets of passion for the sports in the country, which we've seen significant consumption at times even more than cricket. So, in the eastern part and the south western part of the country football is very big, and in the southern part of the country and parts of and western parts of the country kabaddi is very big.

That actually is a great segue into the next big thing that makes media in India and sport in India quite unique, which is unlike most media markets. India's almost an agglomeration of multiple media markets, multiple regional media markets. So, there are many regional entertainment channels, there have been many regional entertainment channels in parts of the country, which have significantly higher levels of consumption than any of the national networks. In fact, the concept of a national network in India is almost fluid, because there are multiple languages spoken in the country and regions have very strong cultures of their own.

There isn't one universal or a national network that is equally watched across the length and breadth of the country. The one thing that does unite the country like nothing else is cricket. Cricket is equally popular in all parts of the country which is what makes it as dominant a property and as attractive a property for customers and for rights holders as it is because it allows you to really speak to viewers across the length and breadth of the nation.

Because these states also have uniquely differentiated cultures, even the consumption of cricket or the way cricket is served in these regions tends to be different. So, for example, we run a mix of national and regional sports channels. Our sports network is an agglomeration of 15 different channels of which six are our regional sports networks, which contribute disproportionately to the overall consumption of sport in the country.

TV is still growing in India, with advertising and subscription fees equally important. Do you see this shifting any time soon?
I think in the near term, we won't see a significant shift in the share of revenues from the two streams, because there are forces at play, which are perhaps causing an expansion of advertising revenues. But at the same time, with digital consumption growing significantly and Disney+ Hotstar being the leading OTT service in the country, this has really taken subscriptions on to a scale that no other player has been able to reach.

So we're seeing a push to subscriptions on our digital platforms. We've seen significant growth in subscriber numbers for Disney+ Hotstar over the last year, which is when we've been very focused on driving subscriptions.

On the TV side, we are seeing significant growth in ad revenues for properties like IPL, basically marquee properties that aggregate audiences. What we are seeing in other parts of the media ecosystem and in other content genres, is fragmentation of audiences. The only real aggregator of audiences at this scale seems to be cricket. Thus, it is now deriving a premium from advertisers for delivering that scale of reach which no other media property can.

So, it's an interesting trend TV. We’re seeing faster growth in ad revenues for sport and digital is seeing significant growth in subscription revenues for sport. Given the relative size and scale of TV versus digital currently, we don't see a significant shift.

Although at least for all major sports properties, ad revenues do have a higher share of the pie than subscription revenue. But it's more or less at a 50-50 juncture and that's where we see it remaining for the next four to five years.

How does this model impact your sports rights acquisition strategy?
When we do business modelling for arriving at what the value of any set of rights is, our ability to charge a certain price and sell a certain volume of ad inventory on enables us to actually acquire those rights. So, when we typically estimate the value of rights we will keep in mind three broad streams of revenues.

Firstly, now that we are the leading player in the TV and digital side of things, all our decisions are firstly governed by our ambition to continue to dominate the media and the sports media ecosystem. So it's not a TV only or a digital only strategy. It's truly a TV plus digital strategy.

The way that we see it is our ambition or our goal or our vision is to solve the sports fan and make quality content available to the sports fan, irrespective of the screen that he or she may want to use to access the content. Thus, our fundamental principle of acquiring sports rights is to acquire it across screens because we believe we can deliver significantly more value if we have rights to both TV and digital - it allows us to also create more value for the consumer and the customer.

So it's come from being at one point, maybe five or six years back, that digital didn't play a significant role in our acquisition strategy. It now plays an equally important role in the decisions that we are taking to acquire certain properties versus the other and also the values that we're willing to pay.

Now we have streams of subscription and advertising revenues across TV and digital - and an estimation of both - our ability to also corner the market to bring in those revenues plays a huge role in at least signalling to us the rights that we should go after, as well as what is the appropriate value to pay for acquiring those rights.

Is it fair to say that India is a market where domestic properties are a priority, take soccer for example?
So, other than Fifa World Cup, which is obviously the global marquee property for football, it is domestic football that draws more significant consumption. In fact, the consumption of domestic football has grown significantly over the last six years since we launched the Indian Super League in 2014.

We've seen significant growth over the last six years in the consumption of football largely on the back of the growth of the ISL. So much so, that national football consumption now is several times the consumption of the total consumption of international football, both in terms of number of minutes watched, in terms of number of viewers who are tuning in to watch the property, and in terms of the revenues that are the commercial value of the property itself.

All three sports that India watches at scale are actually domestic in some sense. India watches India cricket, which includes the Indian Premier League, India watches the Indian Super League and Fifa World Cup - which is watched primarily because it is the iconic event in the world of football - and India watches kabaddi which is an Indian sport.

So, India is a domestic sports market. The total consumption of international sport in India in most years would not be more than a per cent or two per cent of the total consumption. When I say international sport, I'm basically counting all the sporting properties that are broadcast in India, which don't have any Indian representation.

What do overseas sports properties need to understand to be a success in India?
I think the important word here is ‘relevance’.

There is value in niches, but the value is not at the same scale as the value in domestic sports. The big driver of commercial value, and value in general in sport, is the ability of the sport to aggregate audiences at scale.

The qualitative aspects of consumption that are unique to sports - the passion with which viewers engage with the content, the sense of community, the sense of pride - some of those also play a part in driving the salience of messaging around that sporting property, which obviously creates more value for those other stakeholders associated with it.

What tends to happen with most international properties that are currently broadcast in India, with the exception perhaps of the Premier League, is that these properties are watched by a very small niche of audiences and tend to be seen as premium properties delivering a certain segment of the audience which may be of interest to certain advertisers. Largely, the other value that they offer advertisers is the associated value, so the association with a premium sports brand like the NBA is the belief it will rub off on brands that are associated closely with it.

The only property in India that has managed to scale both commercially and in terms of consumption has been the Premier League. That is largely on account of their continued focus on the Indian market in terms of building a strong connection with Indian viewers by way of marketing activities.

Activations by the major clubs are driving fan engagement in a focused manner, working closely with the broadcaster to continually look at ways of expanding the reach of their properties and figuring out how to widen the funnel of audiences.

I think that's something that any league trying to gain a foothold in India has to do at the end of the day. They have to be of relevance to Indian audiences, which ideally should come from representation. But even if representation isn't immediately on the cards, there has to be a focus on developing an audience or developing a market for the property instead of just airing it and believing that the property, due to its evolved nature globally, will automatically find fans in India - that will not happen. It has to be a push strategy instead of a pull strategy to begin with for any league trying to establish itself in India, irrespective of how iconic the league is in its own region, or how popular it is around the world.
some interesting viewer numbers in India for the Euros

https://twitter.com/sportsnexusco/statu ... 7223742466

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 5:07 pm

this thread has been following the problems at Swindon Town for over a year - the Guardian catches up

No manager, not enough players: how Swindon Town were left to fall apart
The League Two club are in utter disarray three weeks before the new season with staff not having been paid in full

Ben Fisher
Fri 16 Jul 2021 08.00 BST

On Tuesday night, Swindon arrived at Hungerford Town with a squad containing five first-team players, a sobering reminder of the way the club has spectacularly nosedived since being crowned champions of League Two a little more than a year ago. With three weeks until the start of the new season, they are rudderless: without a manager, assistant manager, chief executive, director of football or a strength and conditioning coach. Worse still, the remaining players and staff are still awaiting June’s wages in full.

In February, the Swindon owner, Lee Power, who took temporary control of the team in 2015-16 after sacking Mark Cooper, said the club was on the brink of bankruptcy. At the centre of Swindon’s financial problems are a number of legal cases, one in the courts, one from the Football Association and now one from Swindon borough council. The council, which owns the County Ground, has not been paid rent since April last year and is seeking to recover a six-figure sum.

Meanwhile, the English Football League lists defaults in payments to HMRC and non-payment to football creditors among the reasons for Swindon’s transfer embargo.

Four people were tasked with managing the team last season, including John Sheridan, whose appointment was widely regarded as disastrous. Sheridan, critical of players and staff, lasted fewer than six months and for now the goalkeeping coach, Steve Mildenhall, is the de facto manager. The academy coach, Lee Peacock, the club’s former striker, is helping oversee first-team matters.

The start of pre-season was delayed and a squad featuring nine contracted first-team players is being supplemented with academy youngsters and trialists, one of whom last played in the ninth tier. Saturday’s friendly against Swansea City has been cancelled after a mutual agreement that the game would not benefit either party.

It is thought Swindon employees, as well as players whose contracts expired last month, received about 60% of their June pay on Wednesday and were told to expect the outstanding amount to be paid at the end of this month, when July wages are due.

Wages were paid a couple of days late during last season. It is thought money due to the club from the EFL was used to help pay and players’ staff for June. TrustSTFC, the supporters’ trust, is launching a hardship fund to help contribute towards unpaid staff wages.

Clem Morfuni, a minority shareholder who owns a 15% stake in Swindon’s holding company, Swinton Reds, has been trying to buy the club and has the backing of the trust. Morfuni, who owns the building services contractor Axis, is involved in a high court legal battle with Power over the ownership of the club. Morfuni’s application for approval to clear the EFL’s owners’ and directors’ test is thought to be progressing well.

Even the best-case scenario looks bleak. With 22 days until Swindon’s season begins at Scunthorpe they look set up to fail and, all the while, for players and staff communication has been nonexistent. In May, the defender Anthony Cheshire claimed he found out he was being released on Twitter.

“You’re always hearing rumours about things but no one knows what the truth is,” says one person who wishes to remain anonymous but has seen the club unravel from the inside. “It turns into Chinese whispers. Things get put into the WhatsApp group, everyone is asking ‘where did you hear that from?’ and it is just chaos. It is just not professional, that’s the nub of it.”

Swindon appointed the former Colchester manager John McGreal in May but he and his assistant, Rene Gilmartin, left within a month, citing their positions as untenable. Swindon signed the goalkeeper Jojo Wollacott and the defender Pierce Sweeney in June but the latter, whose two-year contract officially began at the start of this month, left by mutual consent 24 hours later and has since returned to Exeter.

Two days before McGreal’s departure, he sent an open letter to fans that detailed plans to sign six additional players to help push for promotion but acknowledged the club was in no position to do so “due to the ongoing court case regarding the ownership”. One prospective signing is even thought to have completed an in-house media interview under the impression he would be able to join but has since signed elsewhere.

The squad relegated from League One in April was unrecognisable from the one that got them there, with Eoin Doyle, Keshi Anderson, Kaiyne Woolery and Lloyd Isgrove among those to depart upon promotion under Richie Wellens, while the loanees Jerry Yates and Steven Benda stayed put at their parent clubs. Doyle, who scored 25 goals en route to promotion, turned down a one-year contract extension in favour of a three-year contract at Bolton, while a clutch of players agreed to stay on reduced terms. This week, last season’s player of the year, Akin Odimayo, joined Portsmouth on trial.

Those close to the club felt the writing was on the wall from the moment Wellens departed for Salford City in November. The exit of the popular assistant manager, Noel Hunt, was also considered a significant blow. The sale of winger Diallang Jaiyesimi six months into a three-year contract was equally galling.

Wellens galvanised a fractured club but former staff held longstanding concerns about the infrastructure behind the scenes. “We were promoted in spite of the way the club was being run, rather than because of it,” says another person at the club that season.

In League One and League Two more than 30% of club revenue is from gate receipts, but many staff and some players were placed on furlough when coronavirus hit during last season. Supporters have boycotted buying season tickets, one-off tickets or merchandise in a stand against Power’s ownership.

In April, the strength and conditioning coach, Jack Deaman, left the club without being replaced, so experienced first-team players moonlighted as coaches and led matchday warmups. Unsurprisingly, injuries started adding up.

“Opposition were laughing at us for taking our own warm-ups,” one person told the Guardian. “It was worse than Sunday League. Walking through the park the other day these guys were having cigarettes and beers, warming themselves up before a game, and that’s what it must have looked like.”

Before the final game of last season, by which point Swindon had already been relegated, players convened at the County Ground from 6.30am for a three-and-a-half-hour trip to Wigan for an early kick-off, digesting their pre-match meal – cereal and toast – on the bus journey north. The previous season, away trips that would take more than two hours resulted in an overnight stay but as the club cut its cloth that was increased to three hours last season.

“At times the place was such a shambles, you thought: ‘We deserve to get relegated for the way the club is being run.’”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 5:17 pm

The Telegraph with a piece on how CFG's farming operation is going to help Manchester City in this summers transfer window - City's wealth means they already distort the competitive nature of the game, their farming operation just serves to exaggerate that gap to absurd levels - FIFA shouold have closed this down years ago

Manchester City looking to bank £100m in transfer deals even before selling star names
JAMES DUCKER JULY 16, 2021

Manchester City are in line to raise around £100 million through transfer deals this summer before the potential sale of any senior players.

The Premier League champions are about to take their close season transfer income past the £50m mark with academy graduate Lukas Nmecha closing in on an £11.2m move to Wolfsburg.

City have already sold Jack Harrison and Angelino to Leeds United and RB Leipzig for £13m and £16m respectively this summer and netted £11.2m in sell-on fees and solidarity payments from their former winger Jadon Sancho’s £72.9m move to rivals Manchester United from Borussia Dortmund.

But City stand to double that £50m figure before the transfer window closes at the end of next month even if no one was to depart from Pep Guardiola’s established first-team squad.

Midfielders Yangel Herrera, Ivan Ilic and Morgan Rodgers and defender Pedro Porro could all be sold this summer in deals that could fetch an additional £50m. Former England Under-20 winger Patrick Roberts, 24, may also depart.

Herrera, a Venezuela international who joined City from Atletico Venezuela in 2017, has enjoyed a successful past two seasons on loan at Granada and is attracting interest from Spain as well as Crystal Palace, Southampton and West Ham United in the Premier League.

The 23 year-old - who is valued at up to £20m - previously spent a season on loan at New York City FC, one of Manchester City’s many sister clubs in the City Football Group stable.

Porro, a 21-year-old right back who has been capped at senior level by Spain and is valued at £15m, was signed in 2019 from Girona, the Spanish club who are now part of the CFG empire. Porro impressed on loan at Sporting Lisbon last season and could yet move there permanently.

Ilic has attracted interest from Italy and could also fetch £15m after the 20-year-old Serbia defensive midfielder proved a hit on loan at Hellas Verona in Serie A last season. He previously spent a season on loan at NAC Breda, with whom City struck a working partnership in 2016.

City bought Rogers from West Bromwich Albion for around £7m in 2019 and the 18-year-old midfielder could depart for at least £10m this summer.

The situation provides further vindication of City’s business model of acquiring emerging talents from across the globe and allowing them to gain experience within the CFG pool, other clubs they have partnered with or elsewhere before selling them for bigger fees down the line.

Despite the huge cash windfall City expect to generate through such deals this summer, it is expected the champions will still need to offload a senior player or two if they are to stand a realistic chance of landing both Harry Kane and Jack Grealish, who combined could cost in excess of £200m.

In addition to financing the large fees, City would also have to find space on their wage bill - which had already jumped 11 per cent to £351m for the 2019/20 season - to accommodate big earners such as Kane and Grealish.

Midfielder Bernardo and defenders Aymeric Laporte and Benjamin Mendy are among a number of high-profile City players who have been linked with potential moves away. But those clubs who could afford hefty fees and wages for such players are likely to be few and far between this summer given the way the coronavirus pandemic has hit income streams across football.

England forward Raheem Sterling - who has entered the final two years of his contract - is due to be offered a new deal and Riyad Mahrez, who also has two years to run on his contract, wants to stay.

“What if I want to go higher? I do not see what is higher [than City],” the Algeria winger, 30, said this week. “I really love England and English football is wonderful. I don’t want to leave. I still have goals to pursue here.”

Meanwhile, CFG have raised $650m (£470m) in one of football’s biggest ever debt deals as it prepares for further investment in its international stable of clubs.

The seven-year loan arrangement has been underwritten by Barclays and is larger than the €525m debt refinancing agreement that Barcelona struck with Goldman Sachs in June.

HSBC and KKR Capital Markets will help arrange and distribute the debt, with CFG intending to use the money to help fund infrastructure projects across the group. These are expected to include a planned new stadium for New York City FC, their MLS franchise.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Fri Jul 16, 2021 5:53 pm

Ha Patrick Roberts, that's a FM player that most will know of.
Very hit and miss though.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 6:03 pm

This is quite a topical pice of research that has now been made available for free - looking at the way social media conversations germinate and grow for major sports organisations - primary focus being the Premier League

Social Media Conversations About High Engagement Sports Team Brands
Show all authors
Simon Chadwick, Alex Fenton, Richard Dron, ...
First Published July 16, 2021 Research Article
https://doi.org/10.1177/22779752211017275
Article information
SAGE ChoiceOpen AccessCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

Abstract
This study conducts an analysis of social media discussions related to high engagement sports brands. More specifically, our study examined the English Premier League (EPL); it sought to retrieve data systematically over the same day, weekly, for a period of five months. After this process, we had built 20 datasets and NodeXL was utilized to analyse the data. After we had this data, we were able to use qualitative observations to identify key users and conversations that formed around the EPL as well as the connections between the conversations that arose from the brand’s posts and the people involved in them. We also analyzed the quantitative data underpinning our network visualisations to provide further insights. The most obvious initial finding was that when the EPL tweets, it prompts a large volume of conversations directly related to these tweets. However, we also noted that EPL tweets also help instigate further, sometimes unrelated, tweets and conversations. More specifically, we identified that the visualized network of conversations was of a broadcast form, which is characterized by messages being generated by a central account (the EPL) and shared by a number of decentralized users. Based on our analysis, we propose guidance around (S)ocial media presence, (C)rafting the message, Planned (i)ntervention, (S)pontaneous follow-up, and (M)essage mortality to form the SCISM framework. This framework is likely to be of interest to brands that wish to promote, sustain and benefit from their instigation of social media.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.117 ... 2211017275

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 7:13 pm

I hadn't realised that Scotland's clubs had turned down the proposals to extend the professional leagues and allow the old firm to have B Teams in them
here The Athletic give the details

https://theathletic.com/2706175/2021/07 ... ible-task/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:31 pm

Recently Saudi Arabia proposed that the World Cup be played every two years, we now know that this was (as always suspected) at the behest of FIFA President Gianni Infantino - how can we be so certain - well this thread has already shown that Infantino has control of CAF the African Confederation and particularly it's new President Patrice Motsepe - today he has come out and championed the world cup being played every two years. The suspicion is that this comes after Infantino's failed attempts to gain media interest in both his expanded club world cup and an African Super League. What we are certain of is that FIFA is desperately looking for ways to increase their revenues and by association power of the world game as both UEFA and to a lesser extent CONMEBOL become more financially independent.

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 2497383435

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:40 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jul 20, 2020 7:50 pm
Is this a sign that Leeds know they are under financial challenges for the coming season already, or just a realisation that they have made a huge mistake - probably a bit of both, The club are seeking to avoid signing Jean-Kevin Augustin a player signed on loan in January with a clause that he should be bought were Leeds to be promoted, he has made just 3 sub appearances. - From the Mail

Leeds could face an £18m legal battle over Jean-Kevin Augustin with his loan deal including a clause forcing them to buy him after promotion... but the Whites will argue it EXPIRED on July 1

Leeds and RB Leizpig look set for legal proceedings over Jean-Kevin Augustin
The Whites last week claimed promotion back to the Premier League
The German side say the triumph triggered a clause in Augustin's loan deal
Leipzig say Leeds now have an obligation to buy him for £18m this summer
Leeds will claim the clause expired on July 1, not wanting to keep the flop striker
By TOBY MILES FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 10:02, 20 July 2020 | UPDATED: 11:37, 20 July 2020

Neither Leeds nor parent club RB Leipzig want Jean-Kevin Augustin, with the clubs set to enter a legal battle over who the Frenchman should play for next season.

The Elland Road side secured promotion to the Premier League as Championship winners last week, with the English giants finally returning to the top flight after a 16-year absence.

Augustin had little influence in the triumph, making just three brief substitute appearances after signing for Marcelo Bielsa's side in January - on loan until the end of the coronavirus-hit campaign.

Despite the flop, Bielsa could now be stuck with Augustin, with Leipzig claiming Leeds have an obligation to buy the striker for £18m due to a clause triggered when they claimed promotion, according to Bild.

The Whites have no intention of keeping the 23-year-old and reportedly claim the clause expired on July 1 - an argument complicated by the coronavirus pandemic extending the season.

Bild believe the dispute is heading for the courts, with Leipzig set to file a lawsuit and complain to FIFA.

Despite the flop, Bielsa could now be stuck with Augustin, with Leipzig claiming Leeds have an obligation to buy the striker for £18m due to a clause triggered when they claimed promotion, according to Bild.

The Whites have no intention of keeping the 23-year-old and reportedly claim the clause expired on July 1 - an argument complicated by the coronavirus pandemic extending the season.

Bild believe the dispute is heading for the courts, with Leipzig set to file a lawsuit and complain to FIFA.
Last month CAS ruled that Leeds must fulfil their contracted obligation to pay £18m to RB Liepzig's Jean-Kevin Augustin a player they quickly realised they didn't want - Leeds are still refusing to pay, but have not yet launched an appeal - here is the Mail with the latest

Leeds 'still yet to pay RB Leipzig £18m for Jean-Kevin Augustin' with Premier League side 'REFUSING' to cough up funds after failing to honour clause and sign striker, despite ruling by CAS
  • Jean-Kevin Augustin was a Leeds flop, making just three appearances in 2019-20
  • However, the Whites were obligated to make the deal permanent if promoted
  • Leeds rose into the Premier League but refused to pay RB Leipzig the £18m fee
  • CAS ruled against them, but the Germans are still yet to receive their money
By TOBY MILES FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 12:04, 16 July 2021 | UPDATED: 17:07, 16 July 2021

Leeds are refusing to budge in their stand-off with RB Leipzig over Jean-Kevin Augustin, with the Elland Road side reportedly still refusing to cough-up the £18m they owe.

Augustin was a certified flop under Marcelo Bielsa and could yet go down as a costly mistake, after playing just 48 minutes during a six-month loan from the Bundesliga and failing to contribute a single goal as Leeds lifted the Championship title in 2020.

Despite having a tough time in Yorkshire the striker looked to be staying, with a clause written into his loan deal stipulating that Leeds must make the deal permanent for £18m if they returned to the Premier League.

Bielsa certainly had no plans to permanently sign the forward and, according to BILD, Leeds are still yet to pay Leipzig despite the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling in favour of the Germans in June.

Leeds argued that the clause should have been voided after the 2020-21 season was delayed due to Covid-19, but lost the case.

The English club have 21 days to launch an appeal and a further 10 to make their case, which could be the reason behind the hold-up – with the £18m reportedly expected to be paid in instalments.

Wanted by neither club, Augustin left Leipzig last summer on a free transfer despite the ongoing row, landing with Nantes in Ligue 1.

It was another season of misery for the 24-year-old Parisian, who again managed just three matches and no goals in the entire campaign.

All of those were brief substitute appearances, none of them were victories, and Augustin didn't see any football after the 12th game of the Ligue 1 season.

It's been a dramatic fall from grace for the striker, who came through PSG's academy as a promising youngster.

His move to Leipzig initially looked promising, with 12 goals in 2017-18, but hamstring trouble and dreadful form have wrecked his career.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Jul 17, 2021 12:32 am

Chester Perry wrote:
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.
While this loan to CFG came to light today an injection of new Share capital (£23m) was made into Manchester City itself

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

- it is a relatively small sum but when combined with all the sales they have and are expecting to make it signals an intent I would say

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Jul 17, 2021 4:27 pm

The board of Benfica have told John Textor where to go - hardly a surprise given some of his claims as I posted the other day - will Crystal Palace do the same) this is how he has reacted to it on his own blog

https://www.johntextor.org/sl-benfica-j ... date-final

UPDATE: July 16, 2021

In response to the Board's decision to object to the purchase of SLBEN shares:

I am of course disheartened to hear, officially, that the board of Sport Lisboa e Benfica would not approve my purchase of shares from Mr. Santos. I am also surprised that my offer to fund the capital needs of the Club, at terms more favorable than the proposed bond issue, seemed to get very little consideration.

I am not surprised by this decision, but I am disappointed. A chance to join the family of SL Benfica, which itself had already invited public investment, would be the opportunity of a lifetime.

My purchase agreement was appropriately originated, negotiated, documented and disclosed in timely fashion. I am independent of leadership, past and present, and I do believe it unwise for the board to view my offers of support through the lens of recent events that are entirely unrelated to me. Leadership is a lonely enterprise, and it requires courage to lead during difficult times. I think a decision to evaluate my proposal on its merits, alone, would have been the obvious choice of leadership.

That said, I do respect the Board's decision to focus on the important challenges of the coming weeks and months, on and off of the field...the UEFA qualifier, preparation for a successful league campaign and, of course, a year-end election to allow the people of Benfica to guide the direction of the Club.

I also do take some comfort in the language of the Board. Maybe I am an optimist, but I interpret their decision to be very much about timing. Recent events have forced the Board and the community to adjust to a leadership change that no one thought possible. It cannot be easy being a board member at SL Benfica during such difficult times. It stands to reason that the Board would want to be careful and contemplative as it sets a course for the future...but I do believe that I will, at some point in the future, be received by this board and this management team for an open, friendly and healthy exchange of ideas.

Lastly, I think that all of those that care about SL Benfica should take comfort that, however shocking the disruption has been, there have been no changes to your impressive SL Benfica management team...and your favorite players are in training, as we speak, and they likely care very little about all of these headlines.

With a heart that is both heavy and hopeful, I wish the people and community of Sport Lisboa e Benfica the greatest of joy and success for the coming season and for the future. My plan is to now focus on investments in the United Kingdom which I hope will one day be viewed as valuable to the board of SL Benfica.

...e não se surpreenda se o primeiro jogador que pedirmos emprestado ao SL Benfica for uma águia!

​Until then,

Saudações Benfiquistas!

John

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Jul 17, 2021 4:50 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:31 pm
Recently Saudi Arabia proposed that the World Cup be played every two years, we now know that this was (as always suspected) at the behest of FIFA President Gianni Infantino - how can we be so certain - well this thread has already shown that Infantino has control of CAF the African Confederation and particularly it's new President Patrice Motsepe - today he has come out and championed the world cup being played every two years. The suspicion is that this comes after Infantino's failed attempts to gain media interest in both his expanded club world cup and an African Super League. What we are certain of is that FIFA is desperately looking for ways to increase their revenues and by association power of the world game as both UEFA and to a lesser extent CONMEBOL become more financially independent.

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 2497383435
Interesting on the Saudi/China we want to host a World Cup scheme

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 6975536137

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 2:11 pm

@SwissRamble has a look at the 2019/20 financial results of our friends down the road

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 0372122629

he has also done his usual summary sheet

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 6025459714

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 2:40 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
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
The Athletic picks up on this theme of PSG's huge summer outlay and asks if FFP (at least at UEFA) dead?

https://theathletic.com/2712736/2021/07 ... ed_article

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 3:21 pm

Spotico.com's John Wallstreet column looks at why MLS teams carry values at double digit revenue multiples (and indirectly states why the same does not apply to European clubs)

MLS Valuations Show Soccer Clubs Hit Sweet Spot for ‘Rich Guys’
JOHNWALLSTREET JULY 19, 2021

Sportico released its 2021 team valuations last week (which can be found here https://outline.com/Bx6YXZ) , and Los Angeles FC topped the list with an estimated worth of $860 million, around 10 times 2019 revenues. Surprisingly, that seemingly frothy revenue-to-value multiple was below the league average (12.2x).

Double-digit revenue multiples are typically reserved for high-flying tech stocks, not pro sports franchises (the average NFL team, for reference, trades at 6.4x). So, it is fair to wonder why savvy investors (like Ted Segal and the Wilf family) were willing to pay 13x and 10x, respectively, to pick up the Houston Dynamo and Orlando City S.C. (the league’s two most recent control transactions).

Sportico valuations authority Kurt Badenhausen suggested the answer has to do with their belief in the growth prospects of soccer in the U.S., as well as scarcity value and the relatively low entry point to pro sports team ownership that MLS provides. “There are a lot of wealthy individuals that want to own a sports team, that can’t necessarily write a billion dollar check for an NFL, NBA or MLB franchise. But they can write a much smaller check and take ownership of an MLS team. And in terms of control stakes, there is not a baseball team, basketball team or football team on the market right now.”

Our Take: To be clear, Sportico’s valuations are designed to reflect what the market would bear for a given club if it became available, not a determination of what an investor should be paying for the franchise.

Many people look at the revenue multiples paid for Houston and Orlando City and believe the new ownership groups overpaid (both transactions were valued at around $400 million)—and perhaps, looking solely at current financials, they did. But there is little doubt any owner who wants to exit at their Sportico’s valuation would “get it, and it wouldn’t take a long time,” said one MLS club executive. He cited David Tepper, “one of the most successful investors of the past 100 years, paying $325 million for an expansion franchise with no IP, no [soccer-specific] stadium and no real estate in North Carolina [above and beyond what he owns with the Panthers],” as evidence smart money still sees MLS as a good investment—even at seemingly rich valuations.

It is logical to focus on the revenue multiple when evaluating a deal for an operating company (it is a tried and true method of getting to a valuation). But as the club executive explained, “Pro sports teams are less like widget factories and more like a piece of art that appreciates annually [despite the lack of revenues]. There is a true scarcity factor with pro sports teams that also must be accounted for.” Think of them as “living Picassos,” he said.

The transfer of wealth that has—and continues to—enrich the 1% has increased the pool of prospective buyers for sports teams and driven up MLS team prices. “There are a lot more people worth $800 million or a billion dollars today than there were 10 years ago,” the club executive said. “But most of them can’t afford to buy a baseball or basketball team for $1.5 billion or $2 billion. They can get an MLS team though, for $400 million, $500 million, $600 million dollars. Those are numbers these rich guys can still work with. MLS is hitting this sweet spot of what rich people can afford and still offering the cachet [that comes with major sports team ownership].”

You can argue about MLS’ place in the U.S. sports pantheon, “but soccer is still the most popular sport in the world, and [the league] is still in the most important sports country in the world,” the club executive noted.

Scarcity and feasibility aside, those buying MLS clubs at double-digit revenue multiples are believers in the growth trajectory of the league and the promise of soccer’s popularity in the U.S. (which presumably would also make Liga MX clubs desirable). While the level of talent in the league today trails the top leagues in the world, there is optimism that MLS can “close the gap over time. If they can, you’ll see more eyeballs and commercial dollars funneling into MLS,” Badenhausen explained. The bull case for MLS has the league outpacing NHL revenues and generating income in the same stratosphere as the NBA and MLB by 2050. For what it’s worth, Sportico’s Anthony Crupi reported the recent European championship final “delivered more viewers than each game of NBC Sports’ coverage of the Stanley Cup Final” and “also handily out-delivered nearly every game of the 2020-21 NBA season.”

Investors putting their money behind MLS clubs aren’t just looking at the growth opportunity, though. They are also attracted to the league’s “centralized system, which controls spending, and the lack of promotion and relegation,” Badenhausen said. While the top clubs in Europe generate significantly more revenue (F.C. Barcelona reported $1.1 billion in 2018-19), many teams lose money year after year. “If you believe in soccer and don’t want to lose $50 million a year trying to avoid relegation or get promoted to the top league, MLS is the safer bet,” he said. The risk of relegation helps to explain why the average EPL team trades at just four times revenue.

There’s an argument to be made that teams across the big four leagues should trade at higher multiples (which would make MLS’ 12.2x average look more reasonable). “You get into these multi-billion dollar valuations and the number of people who can afford to buy in dries up,” the club exec said. “Until the leagues shift to allow a percentage of ownership to be traded publicly (à la Manchester United), [the multiples can’t really go up much].”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 3:47 pm

This is a good listen on historical practices in football and also ideal for transfer season the Football Ramble Podcast talks to Tariq Panja about his book "Football's Secret Trade"

https://stak.london/episodes/book-club- ... riq-panja/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Mon Jul 19, 2021 4:58 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:40 pm
Did Cardiff ever have to pay for Sala ?

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:07 pm

Vegas Claret wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 4:58 pm
Did Cardiff ever have to pay for Sala ?
No still doing the legal rounds that one - this is the last I saw
Chester Perry wrote:
Sun Feb 21, 2021 3:14 pm
The legal drama over the tragic Emiliano Sala case takes a new turn - from GetFranceFootball

Nantes authorities open new investigation following secondary complaint by Cardiff over Emiliano Sala

L’Équipe report that the Nantes public prosecutors have opened a fresh investigation into the Emiliano Sala case after Championship club Cardiff City filed a secondary complaint.

Cardiff’s latest legal complaint concerns a FC Nantes cheque dated 21st January 2019, the date of the player’s death. More than two years on, the legal battle over the €17m transfer continues in this tragic case.

Entrusted to the Territorial Directorate of the Judicial Police, this investigation follows the registration of an additional complaint, sent on January 25th to the public prosecutor of Nantes by the French lawyer of the Welsh club, Mr Antoine Vey. Asked about this new investigation, the Nantes prosecutor’s office did not respond when asked to comment.

Mr Vey – who did not wish to comment – has already filed a complaint against X, on behalf of Cardiff City, on January 28th 2020, for acts including “illegal exercise of the activity of agent,” “illegal exercise of air transport” and “manslaughter.” This first complaint had prompted the opening of an additional investigation by the Nantes prosecutor’s office.

The additional complaint made last month by Mr Vey concerns a €16,291.53 cheque, which was due to correspond to an amount owed to Sala, as part of the termination of his employment contract ahead of the Argentinian’s move to Cardiff City. A cheque made out to the player’s mother, Mercedes Taffarel, and “allegedly dated January 21st 2019” is written in this new Cardiff City legal complaint.

A fatal date which coincided with the death of Emiliano Sala, the victim of a plane crash off Guernsey, around 9.15 p.m. In his legal filing, Mr Vey argues that Nantes backdated this cheque, in order to establish that Les Canaris “no longer had a legal link with Sala.” This would have formally released Nantes from its obligations to the player, in line with labour laws.

For Cardiff, it is, per the filing, “inconceivable” that FCN sent this cheque on the same day as dated, payable to the footballer’s mother, while the disappearance of the private plane (piloted by David Ibbotson) which was carrying Sala occurred late in that very evening. The player’s body was not identified until February 7th 2019. Their argument was why would Nantes send the cheque to the player’s mother before knowing if Sala was dead?

The cheque in question is one of many documents presented before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), where a merciless legal and financial dispute has been ongoing between FC Nantes and Cardiff for more than a year, over the settlement of transfer fees.

The Welsh club’s additional complaint relates to alleged crimes including “falsification of a cheque” and of “attempted fraud” in connection with the production of this cheque.

“FC Nantes’ aim in producing this document was to provide proof that on January 21st 2019, the player was no longer part of his squad and that, therefore, the transfer amount is due to them by Cardiff City FC,” wrote Vey in the filing.

After Sala’s disappearance, the Welsh club quickly refused to pay the transfer fee, contesting the validity of the deal.

An individual close to FC Nantes added: “This is weaponisation of the justice system and the press, even though FIFA said they were wrong (which pushed the Welsh club to appeal to CAS).” Les Canaris did not comment on the cheque.

FC Nantes in this case appear to have the majority of the documentation in their favour, with the player’s transfer agreement being concluded with Cardiff on January 19th 2019 (two days before Sala’s death) and the issuance of his international transfer certificate (CIT), on January 21st, at the end of the afternoon, a few hours before tragedy struck.

A Les Canaris source adds: “In an attempt to escape its payment obligations, however indisputable, Cardiff is shamelessly renouncing any commitment made with Emiliano Sala, dirtying his memory and forgetting the satisfaction of the latter to have signed with the Welsh club.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:14 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:07 pm
No still doing the legal rounds that one - this is the last I saw
you would have thought insurance was in place ?

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:19 pm

Vegas Claret wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:14 pm
you would have thought insurance was in place ?
what like a pilot with a legitimate license for the job he contracted to do, or even someone ensuring that an appropriately licensed service was in operation - that one issue could null and void the insurance (if it was taken out)

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:45 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:19 pm
what like a pilot with a legitimate license for the job he contracted to do, or even someone ensuring that an appropriately licensed service was in operation - that one issue could null and void the insurance (if it was taken out)
no, i was meaning do clubs not have insurance for players who's careers are ended either through injury or death ? I don't know, just asking the question

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:54 pm

Vegas Claret wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:45 pm
no, i was meaning do clubs not have insurance for players who's careers are ended either through injury or death ? I don't know, just asking the question
In the main yes and that could be considered basic workplace insurance required by law, more specific policies relating to individual players have started to drop off as clubs with tight finances have been known to think they are not affordable.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:03 pm

Not content with angering fans with their short lived Super League venture Arsenal have now announced they are joining the Socios fan token nonsense

https://www.arsenal.com/news/socios-par ... experience

for those new to the subject or in need of a refresh @UglyGame is the writer that has been following this obscenity the best - here is a a quick review he posted today

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1417134608806813700

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:28 pm

Doesn't look like the NUFC deal is moving very quickly
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:39 pm

Vegas Claret wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:28 pm
Doesn't look like the NUFC deal is moving very quickly
cue a social media outcry - the noises coming out of the club last week suggested this was in the offing, whatever the level of stoking up from Amanda Staveley and fan protests in Westminster square last Thursday

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:51 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:31 pm
Recently Saudi Arabia proposed that the World Cup be played every two years, we now know that this was (as always suspected) at the behest of FIFA President Gianni Infantino - how can we be so certain - well this thread has already shown that Infantino has control of CAF the African Confederation and particularly it's new President Patrice Motsepe - today he has come out and championed the world cup being played every two years. The suspicion is that this comes after Infantino's failed attempts to gain media interest in both his expanded club world cup and an African Super League. What we are certain of is that FIFA is desperately looking for ways to increase their revenues and by association power of the world game as both UEFA and to a lesser extent CONMEBOL become more financially independent.

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 2497383435
@PhillipeAuclair with an update on just how much control FIFA are now exerting at CAF

https://twitter.com/PhilippeAuclair/sta ... 6907091971

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 11:17 pm

Vegas Claret wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:28 pm
Doesn't look like the NUFC deal is moving very quickly
This is an interesting take from Simon Chadwick he has a lot of connections in the Middle East - Newcastle fans will no doubt vent their fury to him

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 5349306369

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Jul 19, 2021 11:56 pm

this is fascinating, and possibly a contributory reason why FIFA are said to be once again looking at 30 minute ball in play halves, Soccer could earn much more from American broadcasters and possibly all broadcasters if it did - from Sportico.com

Live Sports the Only Thing Keeping the Lights on for TV Networks
ANTHONY CRUPI JULY 19, 2021

If there’s any downside to the glutton’s buffet that is the Sunday NFL experience, that 12-hour, three-window smorgasbord of circus catches and skeleton-pulverizing hits, it’s the numbing litany of the commercial messages that pay the freight for all the football. By season’s end, the average fan will have memorized every fidgety beat of that unavoidable wireless spot and internalized the sleepy mania of the auto world’s fake-holiday blitz. (There’s probably no faux pas more mortifying than wishing a “Happy Honda Days” to someone who celebrates Lexus’ December to Remember.)

The numbing repetition of the ad breaks in football (and pretty much every other televised sport you can name this side of soccer) is a function of its massive popularity, inasmuch as the cost of buying time in a broadcast with such singular reach is prohibitively expensive. NFL broadcasts averaged 17.2 million viewers in 2020—by way of comparison, the Big Four networks averaged 5.1 million primetime viewers over the course of the 2020-21 season—and because nearly all the viewing was done live, the league’s commercial impressions dwarfed everything else on the tube. (Approximately 97% of televised sporting events are consumed in real time, so in addition to the expense of reaching such an outsized consumer base, there’s an additional tariff to pay for advertisers looking to bask in the luxury of the rare content that’s all but immune to the depravations of the DVR.)

All of which adds up to a commercial environment that favors those with deep pockets. In fact, seven of the 10 top advertisers in the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL are among the 10 most profligate spenders in U.S. media. Together, the parent companies Amazon, Progressive, Berkshire Hathaway (Geico), Apple, Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), Verizon and State Farm in 2020 spent an estimated $1.74 billion on in-game ads, which works out to 45% of their combined TV budgets. When sized up with their overall measured media spend of $6.2 billion, these conglomerates invested 28% of their marketing budgets on the four major U.S. sports leagues.

As one might expect, a massive chunk of the sports spend winds up in the coffers of the NFL’s network partners. According to Standard Media Index estimates, the league in 2020 helped generate some $3.4 billion in ad sales revenue, or around $3.96 billion when Super Bowl LV’s in-game spots were factored into the equation. That marked an increase of 3% versus the previous year, a gain driven primarily by the addition of two Wild Card games and a boost in overall commercial units sold. On average, the networks booked 73 30-second spots per regular-season game, up 6% from 69 units in 2019, while commercial avails in the postseason jumped 7% to 77 units.

Which isn’t to suggest that the other leagues aren’t earning their keep. Despite the ongoing pandemic squeeze, the NBA, MLB and NHL are on pace to book more than $2.3 billion in TV sales in 2020-21. College football generates another $1.8 billion in national TV sales and March Madness alone scared up nearly $1 billion in sponsor bucks. And it’s worth noting that all TV sales figures are estimates of the dollar value of the units sold, and do not include a tally for premiums such as halftime show title privileges, integrations or even digital spend, which pour hundreds of millions of additional dollars onto the national TV pile.

In 2019, sporting events accounted for 29% of the ad impressions delivered on broadcast TV and 54% of all live commercial views, according to Sportico’s analysis of the Nielsen C3 ratings data. Toss cable programming into the mix and sports was responsible for 37% of all impressions served up on linear TV. In other words, in the year prior to the coronavirus outbreak, more than a third of the ads that were actually viewed aired during a sporting event.

If that’s a head-spinning percentage—and it should be, given TV’s sheer metric tonnage of scripted series, competition shows and uncategorizable cable filler (at last count there were a dozen cable programs devoted to cake and cake derivatives and at least seven ghost-hunting curiosities)—the well from which all the sports ad dollars are dredged is deceptively narrow. Statistically, pretty much every other ad that airs during a game is either trying to sell you a car, an insurance policy, or a smartphone. The rest are hustling fast food and wireless service and credit cards and movies and booze, although in accordance with our graying, panacea-crazed citizenry, Big Pharma has stormed the battlements of top-tier sports. (There is nothing more invigorating than watching your team get pushed all over the turf and then being reminded that you’re schlepping around what amounts to a future corpse. The Giants just lost at home by 27 points; now, here’s a CGI elephant with a word about chronic inflammatory lung disease.)

If the sameness of the categories repped in the commercial breaks can give rise to a sensation of couch-locked déjà vu, much of the blame lies with a core assumption of modern advertising. Wireless carriers and insurance companies are convinced that normal people spend much of their time hatching plans to skip out on their service contracts, and this notion shapes how billions of dollars in marketing budgets are allocated. The cost of the endless grange war between the people who drop your calls has led to an escalation in creative; we’ll see your stationary Lily and raise you our Kate McKinnon, and no, we’re not sure why she spends so much time clomping around, either. Familiarity may breed contempt, but it also paid for the house in Montauk.

A similar dynamic is in play at the top insurance agencies, which flood the zone with multiple campaigns meant to prop up specific segments of their business. For example, while the gecko is likely the first thing that comes to mind when the word “Geico” wobbles its way into the cochlea, the array of personalities who rep the brand are legion. In the space of just a few hours, the company this week has aired spots featuring ‘90s singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb, motormouthed ESPN hoops announcer Dick Vitale, gold-medal Olympian McKayla Maroney and Yogi Bear, a 63-year-old anthropomorphic member of the family Ursidae who wears a collar and tie but no actual clothing. And while you may never deduce what these four have in common—only three are carbon-based life forms and then there’s whatever Dick Vitale is supposed to be—the networks welcome the rare show of variety and all the cash that comes with the straining spot load.

Aside from the competitive frenzy that ensures a steady stream of ad revenue, the dollar volume is a reflection of the parent brands looking to fish where the scaly things are teeming. In 2019, before the pandemic temporarily let the air out of the ball, live sports accounted for 89 of the 100 most-watched broadcasts, with NFL games claiming 61 of those high-rated slots. And even in the midst of last year’s turbulence, sports still made up 74 of TV’s top 100 airings. Much of the displacement in 2020 was the byproduct of an even-more-bonkers-than-usual election season, in which 11 of the top 50 broadcasts were tied to the Trump-Biden race.

But there’s more to it than that. Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports’ exec VP of research, league operations and strategy, noted during the company’s 2019 upfront road show that audience fragmentation, time-shifting and the rise of Netflix have conspired to all but wipe out the legacy TV ad model. As Mulvihill demonstrated to a huddle of media buyers, advertisers and one reporter, even the most critically acclaimed scripted series can no longer deliver an audience worthy of the expense of primetime real estate. In 1998, a commercial unit in the 25 Emmy-nominated TV series delivered some 329 million impressions. Fast-forward to the present and that same calculus delivers fewer than 30 million impressions; in other words, in the span of 20 years, more than 90% of the “respectable” TV audience—Emmy winners tend to over-index in higher-income households—has evaporated.

Run the experiment again, only this time swap in the top 20 sporting events, and the erosion is almost undetectable. A single spot that served up 467 million impressions during a sports broadcast in 1998 drew 438 million impressions in the same environment in 2018. Net decline: 6%, and much of that loss can be laid at the doorstep of Michael Jordan, whose second retirement in 2003 sucked a good deal of juice out of the NBA ratings.

Incidentally, Mulvihill’s math holds up if you switch the parameters from the most-celebrated to the highest-rated shows and narrow down gross impressions to demo deliveries. During the 2000-01 season, the top 20 entertainment programs on broadcast TV averaged 9.67 million adults 18-49. This past season, the top 20 non-sports programs eked out 1.27 million members of the dollar demo. Thus, in the span of 20 years, 87 percent of the viewers most coveted by advertisers have disappeared into thin air like Barret Robbins on the morning before Super Bowl XXXVII.

Even while broadcasters reckon with a contracting audience base—the number of adults 18-49 who watched TV this season was down 17% versus the 2019-20 campaign, a drop which coincides with a shrinking pay-TV base (only two-thirds, or 67%, of all TV homes now subscribe to a wireline cable/satellite/telco service)—the sports ad dollars haven’t budged. Discounting the inevitable volume deflation in 2020, sports investment continues to thrive for all the reasons cited above … and thanks to the simple dynamics of the TV ad market. While it’s a point that is often lost on observers outside of the media space, TV’s adherence to the fundamentals of supply and demand keeps pricing up even when the ratings are down.

Networks sell impressions, and when the supply of those impressions is reduced, the commodity is rendered more valuable still, so long as advertiser demand remains flat to up. Last week, NBC announced that it had sold 85% of its Super Bowl inventory, a flurry of business that was worked over the course of what broadcasters are calling the strongest upfront market in a generation. Supply is down. Demand is up up up. For sports TV, what started off as a recovery effort has blossomed into a renaissance.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Tue Jul 20, 2021 12:52 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jul 19, 2021 11:17 pm
This is an interesting take from Simon Chadwick he has a lot of connections in the Middle East - Newcastle fans will no doubt vent their fury to him

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 5349306369
he seems to say that's it done and dusted and over for Newcastle and the Saudi's

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 20, 2021 12:34 pm

@SwissRamble takes a look at the finances in the Scottish Premiership - overall less revenue than the Championship though a much tighter financial grip, the big two are galaxies ahead and get the bonus of European monies too to cement the hegemony - it is the modern way that UEFA and FIFA seem to like

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 1870662677

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:56 pm

I have avoided posting about Non Fungible Tokens (NFT's)on this thread for the most part - this article provides a reasonable introduction to how players and clubs are already looking to exploit them - from InsiderSport.com

How NFTs are monetising sports teams and athletes’ fanbases
By Holly Hunt -June 14, 2021

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have quickly become established as a new means of fan engagement in the sporting space, with various high-profile teams and organisations rolling out their own digital collectibles.

As NFTs begin to skyrocket with teams and leagues testing the waters of the innovative collectibles, Insider Sport breaks down the new means of revenue with the help of Amrit Kumar, President and Chief Scientific Officer at Zilliqa.

IS: Do you want to start by providing a rundown of what exactly NFTs are and the value they provide?

AK: NFTs are basically digital assets that sit on a blockchain, and the benefit of creating this blockchain is that for one, you can know who created the NFT and who is the owner of that NFT and at the same time, every time the NFT gets transferred from one person to another one, you can actually have that trail and that trail is established by the blockchain.

It’s not possible for someone to come out and say ‘here’s my NFT and that NFT I bought from someone else’, because that could be verified very easily by the underlying blockchain. That’s kind of the main benefit of NFTs, these are digital assets which are non-fungible, so these are unique. They have a certain value associated with it and they are backed by blockchain so you can trace and track the flow of that token across time.

IS: Once an NFT has been purchased, is the content of that token no longer available to access on the internet?

AK: Let’s say for example you have a video or a painting or a real estate for example, and you want to convert that and tokenise that as an NTF, so what you’d do in the case of a digital painting, then you host that painting somewhere – it could be on a digitalised storage provider or it could be even on centralised service providers like Amazon, for example, so you could host that video on certain servers.

And then you have a URL, so you can create a URL where this video is hosted, and when you’re creating the NFTs, we are minting that NFT on the platform and on the blockchain platform, and you basically link that URL in that token, so that when people buy and sell they know that the actual physical thing or that digital thing that’s sitting behind that NFT is actually stored at that address for that URL.

For example, if you are tokenising physical assets like real estate then is going to be slightly different because you can’t just say that ‘okay, here’s a link where you can find your apartment’, but you basically have to say that, ‘if you buy this NFT then you’re going to get access or you’re going to get the ownership of the underlying asset’, which is going to be the apartment, the building or the underlying physical painting.

IS: What kind of benefits does that provide to athletes, teams and leagues?

AK: It applies to not just sports personalities but any celebrity for example. So, imagine I am a well known football player and I have a huge fan base of a million users – a million followers on Twitter and Instagram – now I’d like to monetise my own personality and my own worth using that fan base that I have.

The way sports players do it is they contact an agency, for example, and this marketing agency then contacts certain products and then they shoot a video and they do advertising for that company and that’s how they make money.

The idea behind NFT’s and monetising yourself is can you actually change and remove some of those middlemen and directly serve your own fan base. For example, you could shoot a video, like a video to wish happy birthday to your favourite fan, and you can sell that NFT to your fan base directly. And that can happen because you have marketplaces which are developed on blockchain, on which you can just take your NFT, put that on sale and then anyone can buy that NFT from you.

You could even do auctions for your NFTs as well so you don’t even need auction houses per se – you could literally go to a marketplace, build on a decentralised network and then auction off your NFT as well. This way, what you’re doing is you’re sort of bypassing auction houses, bypassing your managers, your marketing personalities and agents, and have a direct connection with your fan base, and that’s very powerful.

IS: You’ve recently collaborated with the likes of Everton FC and well known footballers Diego Costa and James Rodriguez. How did that come about?

AK: Very recently, we’ve been talking to a party in Portugal called Polaris, and they are managing quite a few well known football players. The idea was that these football players will produce content and will shoot content for their fan base. You may have seen NBA Top Shot where highlights of certain matches were taken and they were sold as cards here. The idea was different where we wanted to actually shoot very specific videos for the fans so it was done in collaboration with the players themselves.

If you go and buy these NTFs, you have access to certain things. For example, you would have a digital signature from the player and you could even win a signed jersey by the player – these are the sort of physical utility that also gets added to our digital NFTs. You can even win the possibility to have a one-on-one session with the player, so these are some of the benefits that we are giving to people who buy those NFTs. All of this is specially for these entities so it’s not something that can be recycled or rehashed.

IS: How significant were those deals for Zilliqa, working with some of the biggest international stars and Premier League clubs?

AK: Working with big names is always challenging so we had to find partners who would have the right contacts. Overall, over two days or three days we have been able to sell 1.2 million to 1.3 million worth of NFTs already. This shows that there’s a demand in the market for people who want to get access to exclusive content made by celebrities for their fans.

It was a huge deal for us and we are looking forward to extending this into different other formats as well, so it could be players from other sports like golf and racing and whatnot. But the idea is to be able to bring these players and sports personalities closer to the fan base because fans today need more and more access and direct access to the players and sports celebrities. I think NFTs are a good way to do that.

IS: Why do you think NFTs have grown in popularity in the sporting space of late?

AK: I think COVID has changed certain scenarios as well. Previously, people could go to auction houses and buy things and people could go to matches and now things are opening up but not possible right now. This means that a lot of things have moved to digital from physical now and that’s kind of why one of the reasons why people are providing ways to monetise themselves or creating NFTs have been having a blessing in disguise.

IS: And from a fan engagement stance, how can NFTs elevate clubs’ audiences and expose them to new fans?

AK: One of the problems that people have been facing a lot is sometimes people have access to certain coupons and access to rights, and those access rights are not always transferable. The good thing now with NTs is the access and privileges that some people have within a certain fan base and clubs, now they can be transferable so you can actually buy those assets on a secondary marketplace.

If after a match, in a post-match ceremony, you can invite certain fans who have earned certain rights through voting in different things and now they have access to these assets, and therefore the possibility of those events. Now, this person who owns that privilege but also sort of tokenised into NFT and then could sell it to other people, which was previously very difficult to do. So, a lot of engagement that previously was not possible now becomes possible because of the fact that you can transfer some of these assets and privileges through entities.

IS: How can NFTs continue to grow and remain relevant in the sporting world?

AK: Obviously, we are still in a very experimental stage where people are still trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. It’s quite possible that something that looks very good right now may not work in six months. One thing, of course, which is very clear is that this royalty part is very valuable to people. You talk to any celebrity today and they would like to see and they would like to know that, ‘oh, I don’t just want to sell my NFTs but I want to make sure that these NFTs create a sustainable revenue stream for me’. And that’s something that has certainly become very viable for people.

The other thing where I feel the trend is going to go is that some of these NFTs are very expensive. It could range from $1,000 and some NFTs have been very expensive to a point where they have been sold for $16 million, as well. If you have NFTs that are so expensive, it becomes very difficult for common man and normal person or average person to buy those. There is a trend that’s coming up where you can tokenise NFTs even further, so instead of having one apartment, you could divide that apartment to smaller rooms and you can actually sell individual rooms. You can apply that to personalities so if a sports person does a video for the fan base, then you could actually own a portion of that video, not the entire video. So, even if you have $100 and if you want to put your $100 to work, you could still own a certain piece of that bigger pie, which was previously not possible.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 20, 2021 2:11 pm

OffThePitch.com looks at how RCD Mallorca are being run - they see the club as one of the most financially run clubs in Europe

RCD Mallorca are among the best financially run clubs in Europe: "The only way to be competitive on the pitch is if you work towards a long-term project which is financially sustainable"
20 July 2021 10:55 AM
  • The newly promoted LaLiga club finished among the top in a weighted analysis of 170 European clubs by Off The Pitch.
  • Chief executive officer Alfonso Díaz is proud of the result, highlighting the club's focus on making sure all employees are working to ensure sustainability.
  • Despite losing out on about €7.5 million in income due to Covid-19, RCD Mallorca are continuing to invest in sporting and non-sporting staff.
EMIL GJERDING NIELSON nielson@offthepitch.com

The wealth gap in Europe's biggest leagues between the first and second tier usually leads to clubs spending well above their means as they bet big on promotion for a massive financial reward.

But it is nonetheless possible to get promoted without running the risk of losing it all, should the quest for top flight football fall short. Just ask RCD Mallorca, who in the past three seasons have been promoted, then relegated, and then promoted again to and from Spain's top tier, LaLiga.

An Off The Pitch weighted analysis of 170 European clubs could earlier this month reveal the club as one of the continent's best financial performers based on three metrics: the EBITDA margin, return on assets (ROA) and equity ratio.

"It's important to of course build and fuel the ambition of the club, but that must be done in a sustainable and financially responsible manner which requires not spending more than you earn," says Alfonso Diaz, RCD Mallorca's chief executive officer.

Brink of bankruptcy

The club are owned by American investor Robert Sarver and former NBA player Steve Nash who bought the club for €20 million in 2016 when competing shareholders had almost run the club into the ground.

Though what immediately followed was relegation to Spain's third tier, the first time since 1981, the new ownership quickly oversaw an overhaul of which they have recently been able to reap the rewards.

Second tier promotion was achieved in 2017/18, and subsequent promotion to the top flight then followed. Though it was a quick reunion with LaLiga as RCD Mallorca were relegated their first season back, the club needed only an additional year to again find themselves competing in the highest level of football.

"We are still in the process of establishing RCD Mallorca as a LaLiga side and know with that come many ups and downs," Diaz says.

Concretely, that means showing restraint many other clubs typically lack.

"We avoid excess in terms of salaries or player transfers in order to be financially sustainable should we drop down a division and have to fight for promotion, but on the other hand, we also have to plan for the season ahead as a LaLiga side and remaining there which we fully intend to do," Diaz continues.

Massive return on assets

The club in the 2019/20 season were able to boast of a ROA of 33 per cent. The metric explains how good clubs are at generating profits using their assets, in most cases players.

"An acceptable ROA should be around five per cent while we ended the 19/20 season with a rate at 30 per cent. This is an outstanding result for the club and one we are immensely proud of, although at the foundation of that was good operating profit throughout a season made all the more complicated by the pandemic," Diaz explains.

He reveals the club have lost out on income of a bit more than €7.5 million over the course of the past two seasons, but that has not stopped RCD Mallorca from continuing to invest.


KEY FINANCIAL FIGURES
Turnover: €60.7 million

Matchday income: €4 million

Broadcast income: €46.4 million

Commercial income: €8.8 million

Wages: €25.5 million

Equity: €26 million

Cash and equivalents: €12 million

2019/20 accounts


"We are investing across the board in both sporting and non-sporting staff, but ensuring those that do come in are of the highest quality and align with the values we as a club stand for – professionalism, innovation and success," Diaz says.

In addition, the club are also investing in the improvement of facilities at both the training ground and stadium.

"The only way to be competitive on the pitch is if you work towards a long-term project which is financially sustainable. The bigger picture has to be considered as to the direction you are heading in," Diaz says.

"When in the process of building budgets, you have to plan your investments – whether that be players or staff – considering a mid-to-long-term plan to ensure you are ready for whatever the future may hold. As we've seen over the past couple of years, you have to be prepared for any eventuality."

Benefits of a salary cap

Diaz also explains the salary cup set by LaLiga, who has extensive financial regulations restricting player spending, helps the club be diligent in their financial management.

"The Financial Fair Play set up by LaLiga ensures clubs avoid going beyond their financial capabilities and ending up bankrupt which previously happened at the highest levels of Spanish football," Diaz says.

And RCD Mallorca know that better than most, with the club still paying off debt related to their previous off the pitch issues.

"It is important to remember that in our case, debts still exist. We know the importance of investing in the club, but have to remain conscious of our finances as we continue to pay off the debts owed to our previous bankruptcy status," Diaz says.

"A reality as complex as ours requires the utmost care and attention to which everyone at the club is working towards to ensure sustainability and pursuing success are not forfeited at the expense of the other."

Rebuilding the club has meant capital contributions of around €34 million until the 2019/20 season, with most being used to repay long-term debt inhered by the new ownership group. For now, Diaz' focus will be on continuing to do what RCD Mallorca have done so well in the past couple of years.

"A LaLiga club is self-sufficient, and we believe by establishing ourselves as a regular competitor in the division for the duration of three seasons can be the foundation to propelling us to greater successes."

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 20, 2021 2:19 pm

Top of that recent list of top financial performers from OffThePitch.com was Norwegian club Molde - here is what they had to say about them and their report

Norwegian leaders are the best club in Europe: Off The Pitch reveals the top financial performers of 2020
1 July 2021 12:36 PM
  • Molde finished top in a weighted analysis of 170 European clubs well ahead of Mallorca and Atalanta in second and third place, respectively.
  • Finance director highlights unique company structure but says club don't pay much attention to metrics.
  • Along with Atalanta, last year’s winner Leganes and runners-up Eibar feature once more on this year’s top financial performers.
  • Molde in 2020 saw their turnover rise to €20.1 million, a more than 75 per cent increase from the year prior.
EMIL GJERDING NIELSON AND JOSEPH MAILIL, ANALYST nielson@offthepitch.com

Off The Pitch is once again crowning the top financial performing clubs of the past year.

Using EBITDA margin, return on assets (ROA) and equity ratio we have compiled a weighted ranking to determine which European clubs were the best at managing their finances in 2020.

THE METRICS
The EBITDA margin sheds light on how well a club’s operations are driven relative to its turnover isolated from transfer activities. Clubs who do not disclose profits from player sales separately from overall revenues are excluded from the analysis, as this inflates the EBITDA margin.

The ROA-ratio (Pre-tax profit) gives indication to how good a club is at generating profits using its assets, which primarily concerns intangible fixed assets in the form of player registrations.

The Equity ratio’s purpose is to assess how large a share of a club’s assets is being financed by owners’ investments, or how large the share of leverage the club uses to finance its assets is.

Finally, a retribution weight for clubs getting relegated in the given financial year is applied.


The weighting is allocated as follows: 50 per cent on EBITDA-ratio, 30 per cent on ROA, and 20 per cent on equity ratio in order to identify the final coefficient of a given club. All metrics are proportional, meaning it takes into accounts clubs' difference in size.

This year we have introduced a conditional weight, penalising clubs that were relegated in the 2019/20 season. That's because financial stability in and of itself does not sanction high praise unless followed by performing on the pitch.

Molde "don't spend time on metrics"

Molde, who currently lead the Norwegian top tier, managed to increase their turnover to €20.1 million in 2020, representing a more than 75 per cent increase from the prior season.

A key driver to the success stems from their Europa League run, with next year's report expected to reflect reaching the round of 16 of the competition. Although the club did not manage to defend the title in 2020, going far in Europe and becoming runners-up in domestically was highly satisfying in a fully impacted covid-19 year for Molde, whose accounting period follows the calendar year.

The club had an EBITDA-margin of 35 per cent which is the third highest among clubs who disclose their profit on player sales. This is primarily due to the fact that Molde managed to get past the group stage in Europe League, which is expected to pay further dividends in next year’s financial accounts.

Though the numbers are impressive, Odin Holm Olsen, Molde's director of finance, explains the club "don't spend too much time on metrics."

"But we are well aware of the key drivers for our operating profitability, and are working with continuous improvement efforts on these key areas to improve our operating profitability," he adds.

Unusual commercial construction

The Norwegian club have transferred their commercial rights (worth €4.8 million in 2019) to a parent company, Molde Fotball AS. That means the club's accounts do not include commercial income, suggesting they could have performed even better in 2020 if it did.

"This structure ensures that we have a clear focus on our objectives and main priorities in the separate firms, on the other hand, it is a very tight and healthy relationship in between the entities working as one," Holm Olsen says.

Furthermore, the parent company is under the agreement obligated to cover expenses related to the acquisition of players and at the same time entitled to receive any future transfer fees.

EXPLAINER: WHAT DO THESE METRICS INDICATE?
Dr Dan Plumley, a senior lecturer in sport finance at Sheffield Hallam University, explains the metrics:

EBITDA margin

"It can act as a cash proxy for profit, removes the arbitrary nature of depreciation and returns a higher figure than EBIT and operating profit."

ROA

"Football clubs use a return on assets ratio to show the importance of having a good squad in relation to generating revenue."

Equity ratio

"Equity ratio mainly comes down to the ownership motives of individual clubs. It depends on whether the club or the owners are looking to generate some equity in the business so that they can take some money back out of the business or pay shareholders etc."


According to Holm Olsen, this helps ensure "financial stability and security" for the club because the owners of the parent firm have "created a closed economic cycle around a debt-free club and a debt-free stadium and they provide financial support to Molde Fotball AS."

"The foundation as owner will return all its income to the club, including all income from rentals and any player sales. It's a privilege for the club to be in this position," he says.

Broadcasting proceeds rocketed up by 285 per cent to €17 million, up from just €4 million the year prior. Naturally, this meant TV-proceeds went from making up 36 per cent in 2019 to 85 per cent of the revenues in 2020. It is evident that Molde will be highly reliant on another European success to build on this.

Balancing sustainability with competitiveness

The steep rise in revenues along with European success caused wage expenses to increase by 22 per cent to €10.2 million. The club had a profit of about €7 million before taxes, which is the main reason why Molde had the highest return-on-assets ratio in 2020 at 41.5 per cent, compared to last year’s 0.6 per cent.

Furthermore, as the club’s parent company has bought shares in potential future sales of players’ registrations from Molde FK, and as these shares are valued at lowest sales value, the value reduction of these rights are equivalent to the annual player amortisations, why these non-cash expenses are offset in the net interest income.

Holm Olsen explains "solid proactive player logistics is the key focus area" in balancing financial sustainability with competitiveness on the pitch.

"It is a continuous challenge as we strive to be an exporter of great talent to bigger clubs in Europe on one side, and maintain a highly competitive side on the pitch to accomplish our clubs objectives on the other side. Hereunder especially qualify for play in the various UEFA club tournaments," he adds.

Molde did not rank among the very top with regards to equity ratio, as the club are funding assets through a capital structure approximately made up by 50 per cent equity and 50 per cent debt, some way from the highly equity funded clubs at the top of the ranking. However, none of the debt is in financial obligations.

"Little to none" emphasis is placed on the equity ratio, says Holm Olsen, because the club "barely have any debt."

"The focus is to keep it that way to ensure financial stability," he adds.

Winner returns

Three clubs from last year's top performers feature again this year, including the winner Leganés. The club were relegated in the 2019/20 season and failed to get back up in their first attempt, which undoubtedly will make it hard to become a contender for next year’s award.

Atalanta, who reached 7th in last year’s weighted performance ranking, once again appear in the top ten best financially performing clubs in 2019/20, with a coefficient of 29.4, equivalent to a third place overall.

The club had an impressive season, vastly overperforming in terms of budget and financial power compared to their competitors.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 20, 2021 5:50 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Jul 07, 2021 7:42 pm
there have been more events in the last week in regards to Swindon Town so much so the EFL have issued a statement as a growing number of people see parallels with Bury - I do not think at this stage it will come to that - not least as there is a buyer in waiting who has been talking and relatively open with fan groups

https://www.efl.com/news/2021/july/efl- ... ndon-town/

EFL Statement: Swindon Town
7 Hours ago

The EFL continues to monitor the ongoing concerning developments at Swindon Town alongside proceedings in the High Court in respect of ownership issues at the Club.

As part of the ongoing court case, it has been determined that through Axis Football Investments Ltd, Mr Clem Morfuni has the option to acquire the shareholding off current owner Lee Power and as a consequence, control of the Club. Mr Morfuni has now made an application to the EFL for prior approval in accordance with the EFL’s Regulations before determining whether to take up that option.

The League continues to work with Mr Morfuni, considering his application, such that if Mr Morfuni does acquire ownership, he is in a position to meet his obligations required under current rules.

The EFL does, however, reserve its position in respect of any matters arising out of the ongoing situation at the Club and will take the most appropriate action available to it under its Regulations.

As it stands, the EFL powers are limited to those as set out in its rulebook and it does not have any right to step in or take control of Club operations in situations such as this with Clubs having rejected the opportunity to explore this further as part of the Owners’ Conduct review in 2017/18.

As part of that review the EFL Board did implement a policy of taking action against individuals and as matters develop and subsequently conclude elsewhere it will determine what, if any, action against individuals is appropriate in the circumstances.

The EFL will continue to work with the Club and relevant stakeholders as they seek to ensure a successful and viable long-term future for the Club and all those associated with it, particularly its players, staff and supporters.
Swindon Town Supporters Trust are claiming the takeover has been given EFL approval and is in process of handover

https://twitter.com/TrustSTFC/status/14 ... 3001927680

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 20, 2021 6:38 pm

A new podcast for the business of football from OffthePitch.com

Off The Pitch launches "Inside the Executive Box" podcast
13 July 2021 10:15 AM
  • Off The Pitch has just launched our first podcast, "Inside the Executive Box."
  • The first edition of the podcast, hosted by Alexander Janssen, is an interview with Peter Croonen, the chairman of KRC Genk, who are known for having one of the leading academies in Europe.
  • Peter Croonen explains why their ownership structure, which could be looked at as a risk-factor in a crisis environment, actually turned out to be an advantage during the Covid-19 lockdown.
  • The chairman also underlines that stability in the board is very important due to the very complex nature of the football industry.
KASPER KRONENBERG kk@offthepitch.com

Peter Croonen, chairman at Belgium top-side KRC Genk, explains in the first episode of the new Off The Pitch podcast, "Inside the Executive Box", why the special ownership of the club turned out to be an advantage during the Covid-10 lockdown.

KRC Genk are owned by a non-profit organisation, which is a clear limitation in terms of getting access to capital, but at the same time that specific ownership model is forcing the club to always make sure they have the necessary funding in place to back up all sorts of investments.

"There is one big downside though [with the ownership model], and that is [the lack of] access to finance. And we have to reflect on that. If we are going to do all this infrastructure work that we have planned, we need funds, in a way where we can combine it with sporting stability and the long-term ambitions of the club. So, access to finance is a downside.

"Therefore, we need to create our reserves on the inside of the club – in our balance sheet. Our reserves are not in the pockets of a rich owner. It has to be in the pockets of the club itself. And that was a big benefit during the corona-lockdown. So the downside proved to be a upside in a crisis situation like we have just been through," explains Croonen.

Peter Croonen is also happy to see that the ownership model has proven strong in terms of making sure that there is continuity at board level.

"In our club we have 56 members who come together twice a year, who mainly get information, but the only real task for the members is to appoint and to dismiss the members of the board. And we have a very good stability in the last ten years in terms of stability in the board. Most members of the board today has a history in the board of more than 10 years. And football is a very complex environment [so we need that continuity]," says Croonen.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i ... 1574907379
Last edited by Chester Perry on Tue Jul 20, 2021 6:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Tue Jul 20, 2021 6:38 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Jul 20, 2021 5:50 pm
Swindon Town Supporters Trust are claiming the takeover has been given EFL approval and is in process of handover

https://twitter.com/TrustSTFC/status/14 ... 3001927680
locals seem to be happy with that ! :)

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Jul 20, 2021 8:07 pm

The Guardian with a report on a court ruling that reminds us that the Premier Leagues long running FFP investigation into Manchester City - since before the UEFA sanction and the successful appeal at CAS is still ongoing

Court ruling shows Premier League still investigating Manchester City over FFP
City strongly deny wrongdoing regarding financial fair play


Premier League started to investigate City in March 2019

Jamie Jackson

Tue 20 Jul 2021 19.28 BST

Manchester City have lost a ruling by the court of appeal, which confirms that the Premier League is continuing to investigate the champions for alleged breaches of financial fair play, with one of the judges stating part of the club’s argument was “entirely fanciful”.

City’s legal team did not want it reported that it was challenging the jurisdiction of Premier League arbitrators to investigate the case and that it was also fighting a request to disclose documents and information to the panel.

In March 2019 the Premier League said it was investigating City, as Uefa had already done. As with European football’s governing body, the league was interested in leaks to German publication Der Spiegel that claimed the breach of rules.

Last summer the court of arbitration for sport overturned City’s two-season Champions League ban from Uefa, saying that “most of the alleged breaches were either not established or time-barred.”

This, though, has not deterred the Premier League as Tuesday’s ruling underlines. City had lodged the appeal after a High Court judge ruled against the club with regard to the reporting of its dispute with the governing body.

Yet the three-judge Court of Appeal dismissed City’s argument. One of these, Sir Julian Flaux, the chancellor of the High Court, said: “The suggestion that press interest and speculation might disrupt the investigation or the arbitration, where both are being conducted by experienced professionals, is entirely fanciful. Likewise the suggestion that press comment and speculation following publication might damage the club’s relations with commercial partners was unconvincing.

“As Lord Justice Males [one of the other two judges] said during the course of argument, any potential commercial partner with whom the club might enter a contract would be bound to conduct due diligence, which would reveal the existence of the investigation and the dispute.”

As the arbitration was public knowledge the club’s argument that it cannot have a fair hearing was also dismissed. “[This] would seem to be a non-lawyer’s interpretation of the allegation of apparent bias,” Sir Julian said.

City strongly deny any wrongdoing regarding financial fair play. The Premier League supported the club’s argument regarding confidentiality but with the caveat that the league in the future “should be free to rely on and disclose the Merits Judgment in other arbitration proceedings against other member clubs”.

However, the court ruled this was actually a counterproductive argument. “It is difficult to envisage a more eloquent demonstration as to why publication of the Merits Judgment is in the public interest,” Sir Julian said.

Lord Justice Males noted the time that had elapsed since the Premier League launched its investigation. “This is an investigation which commenced in December 2018. It is surprising, and a matter of legitimate public concern, that so little progress has been made after two and a half years – during which, it may be noted, the club has twice been crowned as Premier League champions,” he said.

City released a statement saying: “We respect the decision of the Court of Appeal regarding the arbitration matter. The decision relates to ongoing proceedings and we are obviously not in a position to provide comment until those proceedings are complete.” The Premier League declined to comment.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:34 am

Chester Perry wrote:
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
The Madejski is no more Reading now play at the Select Car Leasing Stadium - God I hope we never go down that route particularly for something as banal and downright awful as that

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 13/photo/1

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:51 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Jul 20, 2021 8:07 pm
The Guardian with a report on a court ruling that reminds us that the Premier Leagues long running FFP investigation into Manchester City - since before the UEFA sanction and the successful appeal at CAS is still ongoing

Court ruling shows Premier League still investigating Manchester City over FFP
City strongly deny wrongdoing regarding financial fair play


Premier League started to investigate City in March 2019

Jamie Jackson

Tue 20 Jul 2021 19.28 BST

Manchester City have lost a ruling by the court of appeal, which confirms that the Premier League is continuing to investigate the champions for alleged breaches of financial fair play, with one of the judges stating part of the club’s argument was “entirely fanciful”.

City’s legal team did not want it reported that it was challenging the jurisdiction of Premier League arbitrators to investigate the case and that it was also fighting a request to disclose documents and information to the panel.

In March 2019 the Premier League said it was investigating City, as Uefa had already done. As with European football’s governing body, the league was interested in leaks to German publication Der Spiegel that claimed the breach of rules.

Last summer the court of arbitration for sport overturned City’s two-season Champions League ban from Uefa, saying that “most of the alleged breaches were either not established or time-barred.”

This, though, has not deterred the Premier League as Tuesday’s ruling underlines. City had lodged the appeal after a High Court judge ruled against the club with regard to the reporting of its dispute with the governing body.

Yet the three-judge Court of Appeal dismissed City’s argument. One of these, Sir Julian Flaux, the chancellor of the High Court, said: “The suggestion that press interest and speculation might disrupt the investigation or the arbitration, where both are being conducted by experienced professionals, is entirely fanciful. Likewise the suggestion that press comment and speculation following publication might damage the club’s relations with commercial partners was unconvincing.

“As Lord Justice Males [one of the other two judges] said during the course of argument, any potential commercial partner with whom the club might enter a contract would be bound to conduct due diligence, which would reveal the existence of the investigation and the dispute.”

As the arbitration was public knowledge the club’s argument that it cannot have a fair hearing was also dismissed. “[This] would seem to be a non-lawyer’s interpretation of the allegation of apparent bias,” Sir Julian said.

City strongly deny any wrongdoing regarding financial fair play. The Premier League supported the club’s argument regarding confidentiality but with the caveat that the league in the future “should be free to rely on and disclose the Merits Judgment in other arbitration proceedings against other member clubs”.

However, the court ruled this was actually a counterproductive argument. “It is difficult to envisage a more eloquent demonstration as to why publication of the Merits Judgment is in the public interest,” Sir Julian said.

Lord Justice Males noted the time that had elapsed since the Premier League launched its investigation. “This is an investigation which commenced in December 2018. It is surprising, and a matter of legitimate public concern, that so little progress has been made after two and a half years – during which, it may be noted, the club has twice been crowned as Premier League champions,” he said.

City released a statement saying: “We respect the decision of the Court of Appeal regarding the arbitration matter. The decision relates to ongoing proceedings and we are obviously not in a position to provide comment until those proceedings are complete.” The Premier League declined to comment.
The full judgement from the Court of Appeal on Manchester City vs the FA Premier League, interestingly both parties wanted to keep the whole process out of the public domain - as yet the investigation continues and Manchester City are still to share the requested information - at this stage no charges have been made against the club

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2021/1110.html

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Wed Jul 21, 2021 4:07 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:34 am
The Madejski is no more Reading now play at the Select Car Leasing Stadium - God I hope we never go down that route particularly for something as banal and downright awful as that

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 13/photo/1
:D :D :D :D horrific indeed

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Wed Jul 21, 2021 4:42 am


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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jul 21, 2021 12:47 pm

Vegas Claret wrote:
Wed Jul 21, 2021 4:42 am
Investment group going after WHU
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... ected.html
I saw that last night - any bidder must surely realise that there is a financial penalty on the twins if they sell before a certain date (2023 I think) which is related to the Stadium lease. They have also been consistent in thinking they the club is worth north of £600m.

The more intriguing part of the story is the bit about what the bidders are wanting to do in and around the stadium (which the club doesn't own) do they think there is a deal to be done - there is no doubt it is a financial drain on government, but the fall out of a sale could be quite spectacular

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jul 21, 2021 12:53 pm

The Athletic charts the rise and rise then sudden collapse in Barcelona's La Liga allowed wage bill - remember folks revenues do not necessarily equal wealth

https://theathletic.com/2717019/2021/07 ... =twitteruk

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:32 pm

Seems like the Premier League has seen a significant uplift in it's broadcast deal for the Balkans, given it is for six years and no longer via an intermediary agency - the sums won't be huge but it is an uplift in a market subject to aggressive competition (rights owners tend to benefit in those circumstances) - from SportsBusiness.com

Telekom Srbija continues aggressive rights pursuit with six-year Premier League deal
Martin Ross
July 21, 2021

Arena Sport, the pay-television broadcaster owned by Serbian telecoms operator Telekom Srbija, has landed rights in the Balkan region to the English Premier League in a six-season deal.

The agreement, which will allow Arena Sport to show all 380 matches each season, represents the latest move by Telekom Srbija in an increasingly rewarding market for rights-holders.

Arena Sport will displace rival pay-television broadcaster Sportklub as the Premier League broadcaster in the region.

The deal will run from 2022-23 to 2027-28 after the Premier League asked broadcasters to submit bids for both three- and six-season durations.

Nebojsa Zugic, director of the Arena Channels Group, said: “Telekom Srbija, a leader in the field of telecommunications and multimedia in this part of Europe, stands firmly behind Arena Channels Group. We believe that this is a great victory for all of us. The Premier League is the top of world club football and it is a great privilege to have it in our offer.”

Sportklub acquired the Premier League rights from 2019-20 to 2021-22 from IMG. The agency had secured Premier League rights in the Balkans directly from the league as part of a wider deal across Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Telekom Srbija and the United Media-owned Sportklub have fought aggressively for rights across the Balkan region in the last two years.

The Infront agency recently signed off on a lucrative deal with Arena Sport for Serie A rights in the Balkans from 2021-22 to 2023-24.

Uefa was boosted in the value of its club competitions in the region across the 2021-24 cycle with the Telekom Srbija-backed broadcaster acquiring the majority of the rights. Arena Sport has also displaced United Media as the LaLiga broadcaster in the region from 2021-22 onwards, while significant rights fee increases have been secured from Arena Sport by the European Handball Federation and basketball’s NBA.

In May, the Premier League launched its invitation to tender in over 40 European and Central Asian countries from 2022-23 onwards with first-rounds bids to be lodged by June 24.

SportBusiness understands that a total of four different live rights packages were on offer in seven of the ‘Broadcast Territories’. In the remaining 16 territories, which comprised individual countries and also regions including the Balkans, one live package of 380 matches per season was available.

The Premier League sold up to 233 live matches available in European markets in the 2019-22 cycle, while it sold 380 live matches outside of Europe.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jul 21, 2021 1:36 pm

Liverpool waterfront loses it's World Heritage Status - Everton's Bramley Moore Dock development was a contributory factor, though there have been some other poor developments closer to the real gems

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-m ... e-57879475

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