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 » Thu Aug 05, 2021 10:21 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jul 12, 2021 10:55 pm
A new EFL statement re Rochdale ownership claims - no change yet as far as they are concerned

EFL statement: Rochdale AFC
8 Hours ago

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

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

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

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

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

https://rochdaleafcnews.com/2021/08/04/ ... ison-pill/

Aug 04 2021
Hostile takeover fears relayed to supporters at RAFC fans’ forum

Somebody clearly didn’t get the memo that was sent out to the footballing world on 1st June from the collective majority of shareholders at Rochdale AFC. Its message was clear enough – we have the final say in who runs OUR football club.

After an historic night of AGMS and EGMs, where the then board of directors saw its proposals thwarted – proposals that would have issued shares to an unseen party, and thus awarded them a controlling stake in the club – a new threat has emerged from the shadows.

The fallout from that night, which also saw chief executive David Bottomley and Graham Rawlinson removed from the board of directors by democratic shareholder vote, has been festering like an open sore. Initially, the night was hailed as a victory for supporter power (which you can read about here), with new board members put forward from a cohort of long-time supporters. Chief among those was Simon Gauge, who was swiftly appointed the club’s new chairman. His vision was to unify the club and supporters once again, instead of a board working in a silo, where secret first-team manager contract extensions are awarded. Things were looking positive.

But behind the curtain, a plot thicker than a frozen bowl of Lancashire hot pot was thawing. One of the parties interested in acquiring a controlling stake in the club prior to the EGM, launched a campaign of their own – to target those shareholders with the largest holding and acquire them at any cost!

This was relayed to supporters by the board of directors at tonight’s fans’ forum. Their fears were real.

You see, the ownership of Rochdale Association Football Club is broken up into 502,957 ordinary shares which are owned by 337 different parties. If any one party ever achieves ownership of 251,479 ordinary shares in their own name or by consortium, they would control the club and it would no longer be independent.

Suspicions were raised that a hostile takeover was afoot when the club and fans became aware that a certain Alex Jarvis, of Blackbridge Sports Limited, had been contacting shareholders asking to purchase shares on behalf of a Darrell Rose and Andy Curran.

Jarvis claimed to shareholders that deals had already been done for the holdings belonging to former RAFC chairman Andrew Kilpatrick and former directors David Bottomley and Graham Rawlinson. Rose and Curran are also believed to have agreed to buy the shares of US businessmen Dan Altman and Emre Marcelli, which would provide a combined shareholding of somewhere in the region of 42%. There are serious questions as to how the personal data of shareholders beyond those five have been obtained, information that only those who have ever worked within the club would have access to.

We also know that Rose and Curran have been actively pursuing the shareholding of current director Andrew Kelly, who has 58,250 shares. However, the Rochdale AFC Supporters’ Trust has since issued a statement saying it has struck an agreement with Kelly to take his shares, although it was revealed at tonight’s forum that this is now subject to a legal process.

The hostile takeover bid is being run via a company called Morton House Mgt and First Form Construction Limited. The company is a payroll services company.

Morton House has three listed directors in Darrell Rose, Faical Safouane and Denise Courtnell.

Based on its last published accounts in July 2020, the company has a net worth of just £121,000.

Ambiguity also remains around the actual progress of the share purchases Rose and Curran claim to have made.

As it stands, the club says it has received no share transfer forms or evidence that the shares have been properly and legally sold. To be regarded as a valid transfer, the club must receive signed transfer forms from the selling party transferring ownership to the buyer, and then the transfer must be ratified at a club board meeting. None of this has happened, yet the EFL seem content there is cause to give the prospective purchasers an audience.

And what do we know of the three main antagonists?

Darrell Rose has a family-run used-car showroom and paint shop in Worksop and is also involved with a family-run housebuilding company. While a limited ownership of things in his name, members of his direct family have an extensive history of running limited companies for very short periods before they are dissolved.

Andy Curran comes with very little digital footprint. Very little information regarding his history is available other than one involvement with a construction company back in 2009. The only other information involves a link with Swindon Town FC last season, where his son, Taylor, was a member of the first-team squad before being transferred to Maidstone United earlier this summer.

Andy Curran is known to have visited Spotland for the evening of the Swindon Town game on 13th April 2021, presumably to watch Taylor, as his car was seen in social media pictures of fans protesting against the board of directors prior to that game.

Alex Jarvis is listed many times on the internet in relation to his previous deals. He has been involved in takeovers and attempted takeovers at Barnsley, Hull City, Peterborough and Woking. He is not expected to be part of any future involvement in the club, and it seems his role is simply to try to acquire sufficient shareholding for Rose and Curran.

So, the question from me is, why do these two men, with no obvious affiliation to the town of Rochdale, or visible heritage of any business-generated wealth, want to take control of its only professional football club? They have candidly said to the Supporters’ Trust that their intention is to come along on match days, enjoy a beer or two, and help the club financially where they can. Perhaps a lifelong Dale fan who had won the Euromillions could afford to indulge in such extravagance. However, someone with no emotional tie to this football club, the tie that we all have as supporters, would surely not be prepared to sink money into it through sheer altruism?

So, what’s the next plausible motivation? It has to be some form of financial return on investment. That would make sense for a non-Dale supporter. However, we are a small League Two club that has survived for years by selling our best players to pay the bills or via the benevolence of board members who themselves have been lifelong supporters. With the best will in the world, there is no real money to be made from this football club while keeping it viable.

Are the assets owned by the club of some appeal? It’s not hard to glance across the town’s border and feel a shiver when you remember Bury too, up until very recently, had a professional club representing it. The same fate cannot be allowed to befall Rochdale, can it?

The integrity of those proposing to buy the club must be beyond reproach. Yet a Governance Manager at the EFL has already contacted the club to highlight a Supporters’ Trust statement, issued after a meeting with Andy Curran, was factually incorrect. The Trust’s original statement had read that the prospective investor had stated he had purchased over 40% of the shares and had provided the proof of funding to the EFL. The EFL demanded the statement be changed as they had seen no evidence of the shares having been acquired nor, it said, had Curran provided evidence of funding to the EFL. The Trust duly changed the statement, having originally taken what they were told at face value.

Then there is Morton House Mgt and First Form Construction Limited itself. It is a company that states it is “a fully compliant umbrella company” and “offers a wide range of dependable payroll solutions to both recruitment agencies and contractors”.

The Company was formed on 28th May 1999 and was owned by Ana Sacco and Darren Sacco – a couple from Barking in Essex. On 30th April 2019 they sold their shares to Denise Courtnell and since that date until last week, she owned the company. Darrell Rose joined as director on 1st May 2021.

Darrell Rose has retrospectively filed paperwork that states he is the true owner of Morton House, via a transaction that completed on 1st May 2021. The filing of the paperwork at Companies House completed on 28th July 2021, noting that Rose now owns 51% of Morton House, with Denise Courtnell retaining 49%.

All umbrella companies should be registered with HMRC under the money laundering supervision rules as ‘payroll agents that provide accountancy services and/or tax advice’. The register at the date of this article shows that Morton House is not registered. In addition, all credible umbrella companies are a member of the body FCSA. Morton House is not accredited. Morton House has not registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office either, despite a payroll company being a processor of personal data. At the time of writing, all of this is correct and in the public domain, if one knows where to look.

The board also admitted, when asked at tonight’s forum, that they have submitted a complaint to the FA regarding discriminatory comments made to the EFL about them and the people of Rochdale by the prospective purchasers.

Things really aren’t pleasant at the minute.

Unusually, the prospective purchasers remain completely silent and have yet to make any form of public comment despite being on manoeuvres since the removal of the two directors at the EGM. The club, supporters and Supporters’ Trust, however, are vehemently opposed to the proposed takeover. We must remain strong. Everything else at the club looks promising – together we can keep it that way.

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Aug 05, 2021 10:29 am

The Financial Times with a long read on how Barcelona blew a fortune - it is not pretty

How FC Barcelona blew a fortune — and got worse
SIMON KUPER AUGUST 05, 2021

When I began writing a book about FC Barcelona in 2019, I thought I would be explaining the club’s rise to greatness, and I have. But I have also ended up charting its decline and fall.

Before the pandemic, Barcelona became the first club in any sport ever to surpass $1bn in annual revenues. Now its gross debt is about $1.4bn, much of it short-term.

Spain’s La Liga has blocked it from spending any more money it doesn’t have. Barça has faced obstacles to giving a new contract to the world’s best and highest-paid footballer, Lionel Messi, even though he has reportedly agreed to cut his pay by half. The club has put most of its other players in an everything-must-go sale, with few takers so far.

The pandemic hurt, but it was only the coup de grâce. Almost invisibly, Barcelona has been in free fall ever since the night in Berlin in June 2015 when it won its fourth Champions League final in 10 years. The club had achieved dominance on the cheap, thanks to a one-off generation of brilliant footballers from its own youth academy. Back then, Barça could afford to sign almost anybody in football. In any talent business, the most important management decision is recruitment. But Barcelona lost the “war for talent”. What went wrong?

Barça’s process for buying players is unusually messy. Rival currents inside the club each push for different signings, often without bothering to inform the head coach. Candidates for the Barça presidency campaign on promises of the stars they will buy if elected. The sporting director of the moment will have his own views, as will Messi.

The man overseeing Barcelona’s disastrous transfer policy between 2014 and 2020 was Josep Maria Bartomeu. An amiable chap, he runs a family company that makes the jet bridges that take passengers from plane to terminal. In January 2014, he went from obscure Barça vice-president to accidental president when the incumbent, Sandro Rosell, stepped down. Bartomeu was considered a mere caretaker. However, in July 2015, a month after the win in Berlin, grateful club members gave him a landslide victory in Barça’s presidential elections.

The problem was that he knew little about either football or the football business. His sporting director, the legendary Spanish goalkeeper Andoni “Zubi” Zubizarreta, had signed players like Neymar and Luis Suárez, who gelled with Messi into the “MSN” attack, the best in football. But Bartomeu soon sacked Zubi. In all, the president had five sporting directors in six years.

Barcelona’s descent began with the loss of Neymar. The Brazilian was a hyperefficient winger who ran on to Messi’s passes. Expected goals (xG) is a measure of how many goals a team is likely to score based on its quality of chances. In the 2015/16 season, Neymar by himself accounted for 1.2 xG per game, only slightly behind Messi’s staggering 1.4. But Neymar wanted to be Messi: the main man of his team. In 2017, he joined Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) for a transfer fee of €220m, a world record. Barcelona never managed to replace him.

When a club sells a player for €220m, it doesn’t actually have €220m to spend. There are taxes, agents’ fees and payments by instalment. Still, every other football club in 2017 knew Bartomeu had a wad of money in his back pocket and a need for a human trophy to wave in front of Barça’s 150,000 Neymar-deprived club members.

Almost any footballer will listen to an offer from Barcelona. “Sometimes you cannot reach an agreement,” Rosell told me, “but everybody sits at the table.”

In 2017, the Spanish agent Junior Minguella offered Barcelona’s board the sensational 18-year-old French forward Kylian Mbappé. But Minguella didn’t even hear back from Barça until finally a WhatsApp message arrived from a board member, Javier Bordas: “Neither the coaches nor Presi [the president] wanted him.”

Bordas would say years later that Barça’s technical staff had also rejected the young Norwegian Erling Braut Haaland, because he wasn’t considered “a player in the Barça model”. Today, Mbappé and Haaland are the two most coveted young men in football.

Messi’s calling the shots. He knows he can take out anyone. He’s not looking for fights — he’s a nice guy. But he knows he has the power

Barça staffer


Instead Barça targeted another young Frenchman, Borussia Dortmund’s Ousmane Dembélé. Three weeks after Neymar left, Bartomeu and another Barcelona official flew to negotiate — Dembélé’s transfer with their German counterparts in Monte Carlo, a favourite hub of the football business.

The Barça duo landed with a firm resolution, reported The New York Times: they would pay a transfer fee of at most €80m. Anything more and they would walk away. Before walking into the assigned room, the two men hugged.

But in the room, they got a surprise. The Germans said they had no time to chat, had a plane to catch, wouldn’t negotiate and wanted about double Barcelona’s budgeted sum for Dembélé. Bartomeu gave in. After all, he was president of the world’s richest club, and still something of a football virgin. He committed to pay €105m up front, plus €42m in easily obtained performance bonuses — more than Mbappé would have cost.

Not six months later, Barça paid Liverpool €160m for the Brazilian creator Philippe Coutinho. Neymar’s transfer fee had been blown, and more. A transfer fee of more than €100m should be a guarantee against failure, but neither Dembélé nor Coutinho succeeded at Barça.

Some of this may be due to the anxiety inherent in joining this club. The English striker Gary Lineker, who came from Everton in 1986, told me: “The moment I got off the aeroplane, there were hundreds of photographers and press. I was there with [Welsh striker] Mark Hughes. We’d just signed and we were told, ‘We’re going to train on the pitch today, it’s when they introduce you to the crowd,’ and we thought, well, who’s going to turn up? Maybe 30 people, maybe 40. There was about 60-odd thousand people there, just to cheer the new players and watch a bit of training.”

Lineker agreed that Hughes, who failed at Barcelona, may have been one of the players who are said to “die” of nerves in the Camp Nou. “I think he was a bit too immature. But the expectancy levels there!”

No wonder Barcelona face a peculiar hurdle in the transfer market: many potential signings feel they aren’t good enough for Barça. These men are experiencing possibly justified imposter syndrome. Rosell said, “Sometimes an agent comes and says, ‘No, no, no, we are not ready.’ This is very honest. I liked it when it happened to me.” Bartomeu told me of similar rejections from “very important players now playing in other clubs”.

In early 2019, when Barcelona approached Ajax Amsterdam’s young midfielder Frenkie de Jong, a Barça fan since childhood, he was torn. He worried he wouldn’t get on to the team. Accepting an offer from Manchester City or PSG felt more realistic. He lay awake at night fretting over what might prove the biggest decision of his professional life. Reassured when Bartomeu made the effort to visit him in Amsterdam, De Jong finally decided he had to take the risk of joining Barça, rather than spend the rest of his life wondering whether he could have made it there.

Barcelona paid Ajax a transfer fee of €75m. According to football agent Hasan Cetinkaya, advising the Dutch club, this was nearly double what Ajax had initially hoped to get. Cetinkaya said: “There was tremendous pressure on Barcelona’s sporting management to get the deal done, and they really wanted to protect themselves. Those in Barcelona’s sporting leadership were so relieved that the then sporting director Pep Segura began crying as soon as the papers were written.”

Barça was used to overpaying. Whereas most clubs target a type — say, a young playmaker who costs under €30m — Barcelona until 2020 shopped at the top of the market, and could afford to target an ideal. In this case, Barça didn’t want a “De Jong type”. It wanted De Jong himself. As so often when bidding for a player, it had no alternative in mind, and the selling club understood this. “You know you will pay more than another club,” shrugged Rosell.

In early summer 2019, Neymar messaged Messi to say he wanted to leave PSG. (“MSN” lived on in a WhatsApp group.) Messi saw the chance to repair Barcelona’s mistake of 2017. He replied: “We need you to win the Champions League.” He summoned Bartomeu and let him know. Messi made the same case in the media, putting pressure on the club.

The way they showed contempt for me at Barcelona at the start of the season . . . Then Atlético opened all its doors for me

Luis Suárez


But Barça took one look at the injury-prone, fun-loving, then 27-year-old Neymar and decided it wasn’t going to pay PSG’s asking fee of approximately €200m. By this time, Barcelona was running out of money, partly because of its run of bad purchases and partly because the pay rises Messi’s father Jorge kept extracting for his son were bleeding the club dry.

Between 2017 and 2021, Messi earned a total of more than €555m, according to extracts from his 30-page contract published in El Mundo newspaper. Neither Messi nor senior Barcelona officials denied the figure. One senior Barça official told me Messi’s salary had tripled between 2014 and 2020. But he added, “Messi is not the problem. The problem is the contagion of the rest of the team.” Whenever Messi got a raise, his teammates wanted one too. Messi’s salary finally made it impossible for Barcelona to buy the player Messi most wanted.

Barça spent summer 2019 more or less pretending publicly to sign Neymar, so that it could eventually go back and tell Messi, “Sorry, we tried everything but we couldn’t get him.” Instead Barcelona paid Atlético Madrid €120m for Antoine Griezmann, the 28-year-old Frenchman who had rejected the club a year earlier. It was a record fee for a footballer older than 25. It also enriched Barcelona’s rivals Atlético over and above the peculiar arrangement of Barça paying the Madrileños millions a year for “first refusal” on their players.

Barça’s ostentatious pursuit of Neymar doesn’t seem to have fooled Messi. Asked if the club had done everything possible to get the Brazilian, he replied, “I don’t know . . . not everything is very clear.” Asked if he ran the club, he issued his usual irritable denial: “Obviously I don’t direct things, I’m just another player.”

A club staffer who has worked with Messi since before his first-team debut in 2004 disagrees. “He’s calling the shots,” this man told me. “He knows he can take out anyone. He’s not looking for fights — he’s a nice guy. But he knows he has the power.” When Messi lost a battle, the staffer said, he would say nothing but metaphorically “write it down in his notebook”.

The failure to buy Neymar was Messi’s biggest defeat inside Barça and it went into his mental notebook. He couldn’t forgive Bartomeu. Messi didn’t particularly want power. He would have preferred that the directors and coaches handled everything — but only as long as they bought exactly the players he wanted.

Players who join Barcelona have often been the stars of every team they have played for since age six. At Barça, they become watercarriers for Messi. The drop in status was hard for a veteran superstar like Griezmann, especially when, for the first time in his career, he was benched. He rarely reached his best at Barça.

In total, Barcelona spent over €1bn on transfers between 2014 and 2019, more than any other football club, yet as veteran defender Gerard Piqué admitted, “Every year we were a little bit worse.” By January 2020, when Barça needed a striker to replace the injured Suárez, the club was reduced to discount shopping. Sporting director Eric Abidal contacted the agents of Cédric Bakambu, a French-Congolese forward at Beijing Guoan.

When Bakambu got the phone call that every journeyman footballer dreams of, he jumped on a plane to Hong Kong, from where he could catch a flight to Catalonia. He sat wide-awake with excitement during the four hours to Hong Kong. As the plane came in to land and the signal on his phone resumed, a message from Abidal arrived: Barça had changed its mind. Instead the club signed a different journeyman, the Dane Martin Braithwaite, who had flopped at Middlesbrough in the English Championship.

Yet the strangest purchase of the Bartomeu era was Matheus Fernandes. In January 2020, Barça signed the unknown 21-year-old reserve midfielder from the Brazilian club Palmeiras. The transfer fee was €7m, plus €3m in potential add-ons. Fernandes was almost a secret signing. Barça never gave him an official presentation. After a spell on loan at little Valladolid, where he played just three matches, he returned to the Camp Nou and was given the “Covid” shirt number 19, which nobody else wanted. Last season, “the Brazilian Phantom” played 17 minutes for the first team.

Nobody could work out why Barça had bought him. Palmeiras’s sporting director, Alexandre Mattos, explained later that he had somehow lured Abidal to come and see the club’s reserves train. “At that moment, they called me crazy: ‘You want to sell a player from Palmeiras reserves, who doesn’t play much, to Barcelona?’” One wonders what Messi made of Braithwaite and Fernandes.

By summer 2020, Barça’s transfer deficit was haunting Bartomeu and his board members. Under the rules that govern Spanish member-owned clubs such as Barça, directors had to repay losses out of their own pockets. The board needed to book profits urgently before the financial year ended on July 1. And so a bizarre swap transfer was concocted. The counterparty was Juventus, also eager to improve its books. Juve “sold” Bosnian midfielder Miralem Pjanic to Barça for a basic fee of €60m, while Barça sold Brazilian midfielder Arthur Melo to Juve for a basic €72m.

These sums would never actually be paid. They were invented for accounting purposes. Under bookkeeping rules, each club could book its handsome supposed selling price as immediate income. The notional payments would be spread out over the years of the players’ contracts. Only €12m in actual money would end up changing hands, the difference between the two players’ fictional prices, paid by Juve to Barça. What mattered was that the swap helped both giants clean up their books.

It was a good deal for Bartomeu’s board, but not for Barça: the ageing squad acquired another 30-year-old in Pjanic, who was soon a fixture on the substitutes’ bench. By last August, after an 8-2 thrashing by Bayern Munich in the Champions League, Barça’s financial crisis became acute. The club needed to offload overpaid older players for whom there was little demand. Suárez, 33, was informed in a one-minute phone call that his services were no longer needed. He joined Atlético. Barcelona continued to pay a portion of his salary.

Bartomeu does deserve credit for signing 17-year-old Pedri from Las Palmas that summer, for an initial fee of just €5m. The boy became a sensation. He shone for Spain in this summer’s European Championship and should play in Saturday’s men’s Olympic football final against Brazil. Still, that success cannot outweigh all Bartomeu’s failures.

In 2016 Messi wins his fifth Ballon d’Or (1); three years later Barça wins La Liga (2). But by 2021, the club faces obstacles to giving Messi a new contract, even though he has reportedly agreed to cut his pay by half © Fabrice Coffrini; Lluis Gene; Manu Fernandez via Getty Images
Barcelona ended last season third in the Spanish league, its worst performance since 2008. Atlético Madrid won the title, largely thanks to Barça’s gift of Suárez. The Uruguayan scored 21 league goals, and was the striker that Barcelona lacked all season. After scoring the winner in the last match, he sat on the field crying with happiness as he phoned his family. “The way they showed contempt for me at Barcelona at the start of the season,” he had said earlier. “Then Atlético opened all its doors for me.”

This season could be worse for Barça. La Liga has been indicating it will only let the club spend about €160m or €200m on player costs this year, less than a third the amount of three years ago. Barcelona isn’t merely paying unaffordable wages. It’s also still amortising failed transfers of years ago. The club has gone from discount shopping to only signing out-of-contract players who carry no transfer fees at all. Even then, La Liga will only register them to play and re-register Messi if Barça can first slash its wage bill.

Barça has offloaded a few relatively modestly paid reserves, without noticeably denting the wage bill. Fernandes received an email saying his contract was being terminated; he is reportedly taking legal action for unfair dismissal. Barça would love to sell some expensive players, but Dembélé is injured and Coutinho recovering from injury.

The club may end up having to sell its most treasured young players, Pedri and De Jong. Rival big clubs are pitiless. Messi might choose to leave. Barça needed to lower its sights for a while, another senior club official told me, “not try to win every year La Liga or the Champions [League]”. I have sometimes felt I was writing a book about Rome in 400AD with the barbarians already inside the gates.

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Aug 05, 2021 12:29 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Aug 03, 2021 6:48 pm
Today's Unofficial Partner Podcast is Episode 5 of the series Re-thinking sport with guest EFL Chairman Rick Parry - it sounds like it is going to be quite interesting

the blurb

This is episode five of our series of Re-Thinking Sport, with Portas, the global strategy consultancy dedicated to sport and physical activity.

Today we’re talking about government regulation of football with our guests Rick Parry, the chairman of the EFL, and Adam Paker from Portas.

Rick Parry is the former chief executive of Liverpool, the original CEO of the Premier League and a board member at New York Cosmos.

He was recruited from his position as a senior management consultant with leading UK firm Ernst & Young in 1991 to assist in planning the new Premier League. Appointed Chief Executive in February 1992, the competition was officially ratified just seven days later by The Football Association, allowing Parry to proceed with negotiations for a television deal which was eventually awarded to BSkyB and the BBC for a then record bid of £304 million over five years.

The context of the conversation is the recent review of English football carried out by Tracey Crouch MP, the former sports minister and a previous guest on Unofficial Partner.

Her review was set up following the failure of The Super League, which features six of the Premier League’s leading teams. UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced he had “no choice” but to move quickly and launch the Government’s manifesto commitment of a fan-led review.

The review he said will be wide-ranging in nature and will examine the potential for changes to ownership models, governance, how finance flows through the game and how to give supporters a greater say in the running of the game.

The launch of the fan-led review comes following a number of high profile collapses in recent years including Bury Football Club that went into administration last year after being expelled from the Football League in 2019.

https://www.unofficialpartner.com/podca ... rick-parry
There has been a huge backlash against this podcast episode from a wide range of sources including from Accrington Stanley Owner/Chairman Andy Holt

Interestingly he has just accepted an invitation go do a podcast with Unofficial Partner - it will be well worth listening too when it comes out

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/14 ... 9330665476

Paul Waine
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Paul Waine » Thu Aug 05, 2021 3:15 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 10:10 am
What people are not recognising about these efforts to increase the frequency of the world cup, partnered with 48 teams in the finals is that the sheer volume of games will inevitably lead to a FIFA edict (ostensibly about player safety/health) about the maximum size of the top leagues - which may be as low as 16 but will not be higher than 18 teams - so few leagues have more than 16 teams (in Europe it is 5) and UEFA is already pressuring for a reduction to 18 in England Spain and Italy (France have already voted to go to 18 in 2024, Italy are due to vote for the same thing later this year). It will be interesting to see how that will impact broadcast revenues for domestic leagues, particularly if a reduction to 16 happens

Naturally the English will resist, and be called selfish as over a 100 years of tradition is not considered as important as the development of the game globally. There is some legitimacy to that argument, but this is about FIFA growing revenues so it can exert greater control via it's distributions.

What nobody is talking about is who will host all these mega competitions, though even there it seems FIFA has already established the notion that the era of a single nation host is more or less over - apart from the very few.

From a revenue perspective I also think eliminating the scarcity value will see diminished returns
It's the same "money grab" as all the rest of the "money grabbing" that has gone on in football for several decades. If the national teams are competing in World Cups every two years, including qualifying games, the national teams will become the top of the pyramid. National leagues will only become feeders into the national team. Maybe the national teams will have A, B and C teams (and maybe add a few more). Maybe the "billionaire" club owners can aspire to become the owners of national teams.

I guess we can't have too much of a good thing, eh! ;) :( :o

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Aug 05, 2021 5:51 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 10:21 am
Desperate news from Rochdale

https://rochdaleafcnews.com/2021/08/04/ ... ison-pill/

Aug 04 2021
Hostile takeover fears relayed to supporters at RAFC fans’ forum

Somebody clearly didn’t get the memo that was sent out to the footballing world on 1st June from the collective majority of shareholders at Rochdale AFC. Its message was clear enough – we have the final say in who runs OUR football club.

After an historic night of AGMS and EGMs, where the then board of directors saw its proposals thwarted – proposals that would have issued shares to an unseen party, and thus awarded them a controlling stake in the club – a new threat has emerged from the shadows.

The fallout from that night, which also saw chief executive David Bottomley and Graham Rawlinson removed from the board of directors by democratic shareholder vote, has been festering like an open sore. Initially, the night was hailed as a victory for supporter power (which you can read about here), with new board members put forward from a cohort of long-time supporters. Chief among those was Simon Gauge, who was swiftly appointed the club’s new chairman. His vision was to unify the club and supporters once again, instead of a board working in a silo, where secret first-team manager contract extensions are awarded. Things were looking positive.

But behind the curtain, a plot thicker than a frozen bowl of Lancashire hot pot was thawing. One of the parties interested in acquiring a controlling stake in the club prior to the EGM, launched a campaign of their own – to target those shareholders with the largest holding and acquire them at any cost!

This was relayed to supporters by the board of directors at tonight’s fans’ forum. Their fears were real.

You see, the ownership of Rochdale Association Football Club is broken up into 502,957 ordinary shares which are owned by 337 different parties. If any one party ever achieves ownership of 251,479 ordinary shares in their own name or by consortium, they would control the club and it would no longer be independent.

Suspicions were raised that a hostile takeover was afoot when the club and fans became aware that a certain Alex Jarvis, of Blackbridge Sports Limited, had been contacting shareholders asking to purchase shares on behalf of a Darrell Rose and Andy Curran.

Jarvis claimed to shareholders that deals had already been done for the holdings belonging to former RAFC chairman Andrew Kilpatrick and former directors David Bottomley and Graham Rawlinson. Rose and Curran are also believed to have agreed to buy the shares of US businessmen Dan Altman and Emre Marcelli, which would provide a combined shareholding of somewhere in the region of 42%. There are serious questions as to how the personal data of shareholders beyond those five have been obtained, information that only those who have ever worked within the club would have access to.

We also know that Rose and Curran have been actively pursuing the shareholding of current director Andrew Kelly, who has 58,250 shares. However, the Rochdale AFC Supporters’ Trust has since issued a statement saying it has struck an agreement with Kelly to take his shares, although it was revealed at tonight’s forum that this is now subject to a legal process.

The hostile takeover bid is being run via a company called Morton House Mgt and First Form Construction Limited. The company is a payroll services company.

Morton House has three listed directors in Darrell Rose, Faical Safouane and Denise Courtnell.

Based on its last published accounts in July 2020, the company has a net worth of just £121,000.

Ambiguity also remains around the actual progress of the share purchases Rose and Curran claim to have made.

As it stands, the club says it has received no share transfer forms or evidence that the shares have been properly and legally sold. To be regarded as a valid transfer, the club must receive signed transfer forms from the selling party transferring ownership to the buyer, and then the transfer must be ratified at a club board meeting. None of this has happened, yet the EFL seem content there is cause to give the prospective purchasers an audience.

And what do we know of the three main antagonists?

Darrell Rose has a family-run used-car showroom and paint shop in Worksop and is also involved with a family-run housebuilding company. While a limited ownership of things in his name, members of his direct family have an extensive history of running limited companies for very short periods before they are dissolved.

Andy Curran comes with very little digital footprint. Very little information regarding his history is available other than one involvement with a construction company back in 2009. The only other information involves a link with Swindon Town FC last season, where his son, Taylor, was a member of the first-team squad before being transferred to Maidstone United earlier this summer.

Andy Curran is known to have visited Spotland for the evening of the Swindon Town game on 13th April 2021, presumably to watch Taylor, as his car was seen in social media pictures of fans protesting against the board of directors prior to that game.

Alex Jarvis is listed many times on the internet in relation to his previous deals. He has been involved in takeovers and attempted takeovers at Barnsley, Hull City, Peterborough and Woking. He is not expected to be part of any future involvement in the club, and it seems his role is simply to try to acquire sufficient shareholding for Rose and Curran.

So, the question from me is, why do these two men, with no obvious affiliation to the town of Rochdale, or visible heritage of any business-generated wealth, want to take control of its only professional football club? They have candidly said to the Supporters’ Trust that their intention is to come along on match days, enjoy a beer or two, and help the club financially where they can. Perhaps a lifelong Dale fan who had won the Euromillions could afford to indulge in such extravagance. However, someone with no emotional tie to this football club, the tie that we all have as supporters, would surely not be prepared to sink money into it through sheer altruism?

So, what’s the next plausible motivation? It has to be some form of financial return on investment. That would make sense for a non-Dale supporter. However, we are a small League Two club that has survived for years by selling our best players to pay the bills or via the benevolence of board members who themselves have been lifelong supporters. With the best will in the world, there is no real money to be made from this football club while keeping it viable.

Are the assets owned by the club of some appeal? It’s not hard to glance across the town’s border and feel a shiver when you remember Bury too, up until very recently, had a professional club representing it. The same fate cannot be allowed to befall Rochdale, can it?

The integrity of those proposing to buy the club must be beyond reproach. Yet a Governance Manager at the EFL has already contacted the club to highlight a Supporters’ Trust statement, issued after a meeting with Andy Curran, was factually incorrect. The Trust’s original statement had read that the prospective investor had stated he had purchased over 40% of the shares and had provided the proof of funding to the EFL. The EFL demanded the statement be changed as they had seen no evidence of the shares having been acquired nor, it said, had Curran provided evidence of funding to the EFL. The Trust duly changed the statement, having originally taken what they were told at face value.

Then there is Morton House Mgt and First Form Construction Limited itself. It is a company that states it is “a fully compliant umbrella company” and “offers a wide range of dependable payroll solutions to both recruitment agencies and contractors”.

The Company was formed on 28th May 1999 and was owned by Ana Sacco and Darren Sacco – a couple from Barking in Essex. On 30th April 2019 they sold their shares to Denise Courtnell and since that date until last week, she owned the company. Darrell Rose joined as director on 1st May 2021.

Darrell Rose has retrospectively filed paperwork that states he is the true owner of Morton House, via a transaction that completed on 1st May 2021. The filing of the paperwork at Companies House completed on 28th July 2021, noting that Rose now owns 51% of Morton House, with Denise Courtnell retaining 49%.

All umbrella companies should be registered with HMRC under the money laundering supervision rules as ‘payroll agents that provide accountancy services and/or tax advice’. The register at the date of this article shows that Morton House is not registered. In addition, all credible umbrella companies are a member of the body FCSA. Morton House is not accredited. Morton House has not registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office either, despite a payroll company being a processor of personal data. At the time of writing, all of this is correct and in the public domain, if one knows where to look.

The board also admitted, when asked at tonight’s forum, that they have submitted a complaint to the FA regarding discriminatory comments made to the EFL about them and the people of Rochdale by the prospective purchasers.

Things really aren’t pleasant at the minute.

Unusually, the prospective purchasers remain completely silent and have yet to make any form of public comment despite being on manoeuvres since the removal of the two directors at the EGM. The club, supporters and Supporters’ Trust, however, are vehemently opposed to the proposed takeover. We must remain strong. Everything else at the club looks promising – together we can keep it that way.
The EFL have issued a statement about the Rochdale situation

EFL statement: Rochdale AFC
2 Hours ago

The EFL continues to work with Rochdale AFC, Morton House Mgt and First Form Construction Limited alongside a number of other individuals in relation to applications under the EFL’s Owners’ and Directors‘ Test.

Based on discussions to date, the EFL has reserved 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.

Any allegations in relation to discriminatory comments are matters for the Football Association which can investigate any individual who is subject to the FA Rules at the time the comments were allegedly made.

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.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:02 pm

The FA have now opened an investigation as a result of what happened at the recent meeting at Rochdale - from the Telegraph

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... -rochdale/

FA investigating homophobic slur accusation as part of 'hostile' Rochdale takeover
The slurs were said to have been made during a Zoom call between the EFL and those trying to buy the League Two club

By Ben Rumsby - 5 August 2021 • 5:24pm

A self-confessed “hostile takeover” of Rochdale sparked a homophobia row on Thursday night after one of those involved was accused of calling the current board “Nancy boys”.

Andy Curran, described on Thursday as an advisor to a takeover bid by Morton House MGT and First Form Construction Ltd, was also alleged to have called the people of the town “small minded” and to have “expressed a desire to settle any dispute with a physical fight in a boxing ring”.

The slurs were said to have been made during a Zoom call last Tuesday between the English Football League (EFL) and those trying to buy the League Two club.

Dale Supporters Trust published the comments on their official website on Thursday, which was later alleged to Telegraph Sport to have been made by Curran.

Rochdale chairman Simon Gauge, who was on last Tuesday’s call, confirmed the club had “lodged a complaint” with the Football Association about “discriminatory and threatening comments made” during what was an initial interview conducted by the EFL as part of its owners’ and directors’ test.

Curran did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday after the specific claims against him were put to him via text message.

That followed a bizarre phone call with this newspaper in which he said he had “nothing to do with Rochdale”.

The call nevertheless prompted a WhatsApp message from Alexander Jarvis, who described himself in a phone call as an advisor to what he admitted was a “hostile takeover” and said that Curran was “a bit of a recluse”.

Jarvis said he himself had been on the “heated” Zoom call and that he could not recall the alleged comments being made by Curran, adding: “I don’t think, if he did say it, that he meant it in the way that it would be perceived.”

Jarvis said he was “waiting for a call from the FA” about Rochdale’s complaint, which could see it take action if Curran was deemed a participant in football.

The EFL said: “Any allegations in relation to discriminatory comments are matters for the Football Association which can investigate any individual who is subject to the FA rules at the time the comments were allegedly made.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Aug 05, 2021 8:00 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Aug 03, 2021 10:42 pm
Everton become the latest team to join the Socios nonsense

https://www.evertonfc.com/news/2204760/ ... -socioscom

a reminder of what the FSA said about Socios when it failed at West Ham United

“The Socios model attempts to monetise fan engagement which the leagues and clubs have committed to doing for free. “There should be no financial barriers to engaging with your football club.”

https://thefsa.org.uk/news/west-ham-end ... rtnership/
Leeds United announce that they too are joining the Socios fan token nonsense - it has been a good week or so for the Chiliz platform in terms of Premier League sign ups

https://www.leedsunited.com/news/club/2 ... socios-com

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Aug 06, 2021 1:19 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
You would think that the Premier League's Owners and Directors Test would kill any prospective bid for West Ham given the source of the funding based on this article from The Athletic

https://theathletic.com/2753521/2021/08 ... ed_article

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Aug 06, 2021 1:51 pm

Really interesting (an possibly depressing) stuff from Miguel Delaney in the Independent on the background intrigue as Barcelona and Lionel Messi part ways

[b]Lionel Messi’s Barcelona exit is about much more than Lionel Messi
Barca have made their position clear – it is not just about choosing their finances over their star forward[/b]

Miguel Delaney - Chief Football Writer
1 hour ago

On the surface, Joan Laporta’s press conference relays a stark acceptance that Barcelona just can’t afford the greatest player in their history. There is even a fair argument that this was an essential decision to come to, and a logical one.

If you go a little deeper, though, Lionel Messi may yet end up a bit part in his own story. That doesn’t refer to his place at Paris Saint-Germain, or wherever he ends up. It is about something much bigger, and what many believe is the true political intrigue behind these developments.

Barcelona and Real Madrid aren’t just refusing to give up on the Super League idea. Several sources say they are actively reviving it, to the point that figures within Uefa and the European Club Association are getting worried.

If so, you can probably extend that to La Liga.

The thinking had been that the Messi situation was all posturing by Barcelona, and an attempt to pressure the Spanish league into easing economic restrictions so that exceptions can be again made for big clubs. The fact they have confirmed his departure – to a literal point of no return – indicates that isn’t the case.

It isn’t quite as simple as Barca’s financial issues, either, although that is the source of so much.

The prevailing school of thought is that this is just a proxy battle because La Liga are trying to get Spain’s big two to sign off on this new financial deal, which sees 10 per cent of the competition sold off to CVC, which would effectively kill off the Super League plans.

This could be inferred in one conspicuous comment by Laporta.

“The only way to have margin on our salary scale and register Leo passed is through accepting something which we see as not good at all for Barca. We did not want to mortgage the future of the club.”

Laporta went on: “La Liga said they would have accepted Messi within their rules if we accepted the operation they are doing. But we could not give up a part of our broadcast rights over a long period. The club has to be above players, presidents, everyone.”

President of La Liga, Javier Tebas, for his part, immediately rejected this on his social media.

“Joan Laporta, you know that the CVC operation does not mortgage the TV rights of Barcelona for 50 years, what it does is allow more value for all the clubs and so you can MORTGAGE your BANKS and solve your great debt. That's what you were told hours ago.”

Laporta himself rejected this, arguing “the sum that CVC are bringing to the operation is a lot less than we think 10% of La Liga is worth.”

The feeling elsewhere is that Barca and Madrid want to pursue their own avenues, to maximise their own worth. They want to be above the rest of the game.

The two clubs haven’t just remained committed to the idea of a Super League – constantly releasing press conferences – out of belligerence or obstinacy. They still see it as the future. Maybe the near future.

They will want to do their own deals with private equity.

The Independent has been told by sources on the political side that some of the figures involved in financially backing the original Super League plan were in London over the summer, as part of talks to restart the project.

There is complete confidence that Real Madrid will win their legal case. A court in the Spanish capital has asked the European Court of Justice to consider whether Uefa breached EU competition law by blocking the project in April. It was conspicuous that the Super League attempted to expedite the process.

Time is a factor here, which is why the Messi story comes at such a crucial point. He is ultimately a free agent because Barcelona couldn’t get enough players off their wage bill ahead of the new season, meaning they couldn’t register his new contract.

Laporta meanwhile confirmed that Messi’s agreement would have been two years of play, but with the player paid over five years as a way of getting around the financial restrictions for 2021/22.

That is actually staggering in itself.

There are fair arguments about the insanity of investing so much in a 34-year-old, no matter how legendary he has been. Getting rid of Messi at this point is probably even the right move, unpalatable as the nature of it may be.

Laporta said Messi is “sad” about that. The Argentine could equally have accepted less – although the figures indicate even that might have been impossible. “Without Messi, the salaries are at about 95% of the revenues of the club.”

The story again exposes how financially overstretched some of Europe’s biggest clubs are.

“To be able to find €25m we need to free up €100m,” Laporta said. “We have been working fast on that, we have reached a series of agreements. But with other players it is not easy, players have already reduced salaries or restructured their deals previously. It is not easy.”

It may be even more complex than that. It is about so much more than Messi or the circumstances that force him out.

Laporta went on to sensationally reveal Barca are expecting losses of €487m for last season.

The situation has ratcheted up to such a degree that there is so much at stake, not least the commercial future of these teams.

There has already been a lot of tension about the financial power of the Premier League, and fears of a split at the top of European football where it is basically dominated by the English clubs and Paris Saint-Germain.

Many prominent figures want reform.

It just wouldn’t be the revolution that the game really needs, to revitalise competitive balance. It would be the opposite, with more going to the biggest clubs, as powerbrokers like Florentino Perez attempt to use trickle-down economics to justify all of this.

That could be seen in Laporta’s pointed reference to how “Financial Fair Play is also blocking us”.

“I can’t make a decision that would destroy the club.”

The big clubs instead just want to upend European football.

It is why the thinking for a while has been that the revived Super League may not quite come as crudely as a fully-formed competition. The belief is it would instead be a direct challenge to Uefa’s governance rather than as a league – but that would still just be “a Trojan horse” for the overall concept.

The Independent has repeatedly been told of overtures to so-called “second-tier” clubs to try and get them on board.

There is growing confidence that it will happen.

Laporta meanwhile ended any hope that Messi would stay.

“I don’t want to generate false hopes. It is true that the player also has other offers, we heard that during the negotiations. There is also a deadline for us, La Liga is starting soon. The FFP is also clear and the player cannot stay in this situation.

“There is a before and after with Leo – just like other players in the club’s history – [Josep] Samitier, [Ladislao] Kubala, Johan [Cruyff]. Leo Messi has left so much joy, excitement, tremendous successes, many images for history. We are eternally grateful at this club to Leo Messi.

There may yet be a before and after in European football.

Barca have made their position clear. It is not just about choosing their finances over Messi. It is about future plans that go beyond the immediacy of the team. There is so much beneath the surface here.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Aug 06, 2021 2:01 pm

This thread lst night from a different source backs up that Miguel Delaney piece

https://twitter.com/samleveridge/status ... 1211258885

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Aug 06, 2021 2:24 pm

Yesterday was a remarkable 24 hours for La Liga - news of the CVC deal (very) early in the morning and Messi leaving in the evening, behind it all is the belief that the big two are still fighting furiously for the Super League. Of course the CVC would prevent a super league during it's existence and LA Liga's spending rules have forced Messi leaving - so this story from SportsBusiness.com contains few surprises - La Liga have kiced back hard on these statements though

Barcelona, Real Madrid denounce LaLiga’s CVC deal
SportBusiness Staff
August 6, 2021

LaLiga giants Barcelona and Real Madrid have hit out at the Spanish football league’s €2.7bn ($3.2bn) deal with CVC Capital Partners, through which the private equity firm would assume a 10-per-cent share of a new holding company with a focus on commercial ventures.

LaLiga announced the deal on Wednesday, and the agreement was later ratified by the LaLiga Delegate Commission. The next step for the deal is the approval of LaLiga’s general assembly, which is set for an extraordinary meeting next week.

If the deal was to be fully approved, LaLiga would place all of its businesses, subsidiaries and joint ventures into a new company, in which CVC would hold a 10-per-cent stake. The investment is designed to significantly ease the financial burden clubs are facing due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, LaLiga’s two biggest clubs have expressed opposition to the agreement with CVC, with Barcelona last night joining arch rival Real Madrid in denouncing the proposal.

In a strongly-worded statement, Real Madrid said the agreement was made without its participation or knowledge. Real Madrid added that LaLiga had only provided the club with “limited access” to the terms of the agreement for the first time yesterday (Thursday).

“The clubs have assigned the audiovisual rights exclusively for their commercialisation in competition and for a period of three years,” the club’s statement said. “This agreement, using a deceptive structure, expropriates from the clubs 10.95 per cent of their audiovisual rights for 50 years and is against the law.

“The negotiation has been done without a competitive process and the economic conditions agreed with the CVC fund give it returns of more than 20 per cent per year. It is this same opportunistic fund that unsuccessfully tried similar deals with the Italian and German leagues.

“Real Madrid cannot support an operation that gives investors the future of 42 Primera and Segunda División clubs and the future of the clubs that will qualify during these 50 years.”

Barcelona has also expressed its opposition to the deal, stating that the amount proposed is “not congruent with the years of duration” and that part of the audiovisual rights of all clubs for the next 50 years would be affected.

Barcelona said it was “inappropriate to sign a half-century contract” amid the ongoing uncertainties surrounding the world of football.

A club statement read: “FC Barcelona wants to show its surprise at an agreement promoted by LaLiga in which it has not had the criteria of teams, such as FC Barcelona itself, and does not even show options among more competitors to be able to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages in a scenario with many questions such as the post-pandemic situation.”

Barcelona’s statement was released after the club announced yesterday that star player and record goal scorer Lionel Messi would be leaving this summer. Barcelona said that an agreement had been reached with Messi over a new contract but this cannot be signed because of “LaLiga regulations on player registration”.

Earlier this year, Serie A accepted an offer from private equity companies, including CVC Capital Partners, to sell a 10-per-cent stake in a new entity that would manage its media-rights business for €1.7bn. However, the deal was never signed off.

The German Football League (DFL) had also been exploring the idea of selling a stake in a new unit marketing the Bundesliga’s international media and sponsorship rights to private equity investors. However, the DFL announced talks over external investment had been called off after a meeting of Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga clubs in May.

CVC has become one of the most active investors in sport, completing a deal to buy a 14.3-per-cent stake in Six Nations Rugby, the organising body of the European national team competition for £365m (€430m/$508m) earlier this year. In February, the private equity house also committed $300m to acquire a 33-per-cent share of a vehicle managing the International Volleyball Federation’s commercial rights.

Real Madrid and Barcelona, along with Italian Serie A team Juventus, are the only three clubs still pushing for a new European Super League. The project, initially announced in April, has already been denounced by its nine other initial backers – Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Atlético Madrid, AC Milan and Inter Milan – but Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus remain committed.

Last week, the three clubs claimed they “have the duty” to address the “very serious issues” facing the sport after stating they would press on with the Super League plans following a court ruling.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Aug 06, 2021 2:45 pm

Real Madrid's Statement on the CVC deal


05/08/2021

Real Madrid, in response to the announcement of the agreement reached between LaLiga and the CVC fund states the following:

- This agreement was made without the participation of Real Madrid and without their knowledge and LaLiga has allowed for the first time today that we have limited access to the terms of the agreement.
- The clubs have transferred the audiovisual rights exclusively for their commercialization in competition and for a period of 3
years. This agreement, using a deceptive structure, expropriates from the clubs 10.95% of their audiovisual rights for 50 years and against the law.
- The negotiation has been done without a competitive process and the economic conditions agreed with the CVC fund give it returns of more than 20% per
year. It is this same opportunistic fund that unsuccessfully attempted similar agreements with the Italian and German leagues.
- Real Madrid cannot support an operation that gives investors the future of 42 clubs in the First and Second Division and the future of the clubs that will qualify during these 50
years.
-Real Madrid will convene the assembly of members to discuss the agreement and the significant capital losses unprecedented in our 119-year history that such an agreement would cause.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Aug 06, 2021 2:46 pm

Barcelona's statement on the CVC deal

FC Barcelona official statement

09:08PM THURSDAY 05 AUG

FC Barcelona, after analysing LaLiga’s recent announcement of a strategic agreement with the CVC international investment fund, wishes to express the following position:

FC Barcelona considers that the operation that has been announced has not been sufficiently discussed with the clubs (the owners of the TV rights); that the amount is not congruent with the years of duration, and the deal affects part of all clubs’ audiovisual rights for the next 50 years.

FC Barcelona feels it is inappropriate to sign a half-century agreement given the uncertainties that always surround the football world.

The terms of the contract that LaLiga is describing condemn FC Barcelona’s future with regard to broadcasting rights.

FC Barcelona wishes to express its surprise at an agreement driven by LaLiga in which the teams’ opinions, including those of FC Barcelona, have not been taken into account. There has not even been a presentation of options offered by other competitors in order to evaluate the pros and cons in a post-pandemic situation in which there are still many questions that are left unanswered

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Vegas Claret » Fri Aug 06, 2021 2:51 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Fri Aug 06, 2021 1:19 pm
You would think that the Premier League's Owners and Directors Test would kill any prospective bid for West Ham given the source of the funding based on this article from The Athletic

https://theathletic.com/2753521/2021/08 ... ed_article
I'm not subscribed so only got the first few paragraphs, the Azerbaijani guy sounds like a lovely gentleman !

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Aug 06, 2021 3:43 pm

La Liga President Javier Tebas responds to this mornings press conference from Barcelona's President Juan Laporta - this from marca.com

Sparks fly between Tebas and Laporta: Now you're worried about LaLiga Santander's income, despite leaving us for dead?
The LaLiga president has hit out at Barcelona's


MARCA - 06/08/2021 - 13:41

Joan Laporta's explanation of Lionel Messi's Barcelona exit has sparked a number of reactions, but few have been as direct in their response as Javier Tebas.

The LaLiga president was in no mood to bite his tongue and he has responded to the Barcelona president, making reference to the controversial agreement that had been reached with CVC to secure 2.7 billion euros of investment in LaLiga Santander.

"The CVC deal doesn't mortgage Barcelona's television rights for 50 years," Tebas began in a tweet. "What it does is give more value to all of the clubs so that you can solve your club's huge debt. That's how you understood it a few hours ago."

But Tebas didn't stop there. The LaLiga president continued in his response to Laporta, again making reference to the amount of money that CVC valued LaLiga Santander at and were willing to invest.

"You recently said that we're broke," Tebas went on. "Now that we're valued at 2.4 billion euros, with the opportunity to grow, and you're worried about the future income of LaLiga Santander, which you had left for dead?

"We've proven that you were wrong. It seems as though young people are watching us."

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Fri Aug 06, 2021 3:59 pm

So with Messi gone, their retail revenue streams will drop a lot won't they?
Will they fall foul of a spending reduction again next summer?

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Aug 06, 2021 4:23 pm

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Fri Aug 06, 2021 3:59 pm
So with Messi gone, their retail revenue streams will drop a lot won't they?
Will they fall foul of a spending reduction again next summer?
It may not be 2018/19 levels but revenues will be up this season - Spain are to start the season at 40% crowd capacity - Messi leaving will have an impact but his earnings were greater than the revenues he brought in - particularly if you consider other players were hugely over paid to keep them happy with Messi's wages - Barcelona do have Pedri (who cost then 5m euros) as their next star

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Aug 06, 2021 4:37 pm

Rick Parry maintains his stance on Project Big Picture and the notion of an Independent Regulator (which many of accused him of being tone deaf about) this time in a long interview with OffthePitch.com

Rick Parry Interview: EFL chief on covid, financial sustainability and the government's "kick in the teeth" on Project Big Picture
5 August 2021 7:44 PM
  • In an exclusive interview with Off The Pitch, the EFL chairman praises the “resilience and commitment” of the EFL’s 72 owners during Covid.
  • Parry maintains that many of the challenges facing the EFL would have been resolved by last October’s controversial Project Big Picture. He is also very sceptical that a sponsorship gaming-ban would solve anything.
  • The EFL chairman also talks about troubleshooting, Covid, founding the Premier League and why the world’s oldest league will always endure.
JAMES CORBETT corbett@offthepitch.com

“The big stuff never been far from my mind, that's always been absolutely top of my agenda,” says Rick Parry, reflecting on almost two years as Football League chairman.

The 66-year-old took over an organization facing an existential crisis in September 2019. The organization had been without a chairman since Ian Lenagan had stepped down 12 months earlier, with the interim chair, Debbie Jevans, deputising. It was without a CEO too, after Shaun Harvey had left at the end of the 2018/19 season.

Leaderless, the body had become increasingly rudderless too and was facing significant public scrutiny and bad headlines. Two times FA Cup winners Bury had just been expelled – the first league club in a generation – despite the EFL’s initial regulatory failure in allowing a new owner without proof of funds to take over.

There was a legal revolt by Championship clubs, led by Middlesbrough, over rivals, such as Derby County, being allowed to circumvent financial control rules with controversial stadium.

Others were deeply unhappy about a new TV deal with Sky and there was speculation of a breakaway “Premier League Two”. Numerous clubs faced the financial abyss. And all this was six months before Covid and its multitude of logistical and financial challenges hit.

Those who know Parry and his ideas on how football should be run, knew that he wouldn’t be taking on the job to simply be a troubleshooter. But nearly two years on, I ask, when I was having a wide-ranging hour long exclusive interview via Zoom, what portion of his job has been firefighting and what portion has been actually pursuing a meaningful reform agenda?

“I'll answer it in a slightly different way,” he says. “Bearing in mind I'm part time - two days a week – and so in a sense, I suppose, at times all of the two days a week has been taken up with firefighting. I kind of use the other five days that I'm not employed to try and make the reform stuff. So it has been seven days a week, a lot of the time.”

He gives a wry smile, before adding, “But that's alright because I wasn't doing much else in the pandemic.”

Football Forrest Gump

Parry came into the role having been a kind of football business Forrest Gump, present when many of the big off the pitch developments took hold in the game over the past three decades. A trained accountant he had worked as a consultant for the Football League in the mid-1980s.

After a spell as an executive on Manchester’s unsuccessful bid for the 1996 Olympics, he was hired again as a consultant, this time by FA CEO Graham Kelly to work on the embryonic Premier League.

Initially sceptical that anything long term would come of it, Parry found an appetite among First Division chairmen to rebrand and seek a greater share of an under-exploited TV market (Parry later reflected that ‘ITV had bought 100 per cent of the product and thrown 95 per cent of it away’, showing just 18 matches per season and having a single Saturday lunchtime magazine show).

It's that resilience. It's that local heart. It's the authenticity. It's all summed up in the way that they responded to the Covid crisis

Plans soon gathered momentum. He became one of the EPL’s founding fathers and, in February 1992 six months before its launch, at the age 37 its first CEO.

He held the position for five years, a period of revolution in English football: stadiums were rebuilt as the switch to all-seater stadia took hold; there was the first influx of significant foreign players; the Bosman ruling; while football helped transform pay-TV from a niche 200,000 strong market in the UK to something at the forefront of home entertainment.

In 1997 he joined Liverpool, the club he had supported since childhood, as CEO.

Again, his career traced the patterns of football’s evolution: Liverpool at were the forefront of an expanded Champions League (which they won in 2005) and the G14 of big clubs; hiring and firing overseas managers and overseeing huge international transfers; the sale of stakes to media companies, and ultimately foreign owners – in Liverpool’s case a disastrous period under American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

Parry left Anfield in January 2009 after losing out in a three-way power struggle with the owners and manager Rafa Benitez.

The Spaniard lasted another 16 months; the Americans just three months longer and were forced to sell with the club on the verge of bankruptcy. ‘The thing that hurt the most was that the club was not being run in the correct way, with the right values,’ he told the author Simon Hughes in 2016.

There followed a decade of committee positions (at UEFA, where he worked on financial controls) and consultancies in the US and Middle East. He was part of a group that tried to revive the New York Cosmos franchise and co-authored the manifesto of FIFA presidential candidate Prince Ali Bin Hussein in 2016, articulating a clear vision for the reform of global football and FIFA.

Covid challenges and benefits

But the Football League seemed the sort of challenge that was more in keeping with his nineties and noughties track record.

“It's 72, very different, very individual entities,” he says.

“And the memorable thing that will always stay with me - and they're all different, they show their commitment in different ways - but the support of our owners has been what makes the EFL special. It's that resilience. It's that local heart. It's the authenticity. It's all summed up in the way that they responded to the Covid crisis.

“First of all, in keeping the team playing, but then going over above and beyond in terms of all the work that clubs like Port Vale and many others have been doing in the community - phenomenal. Making meals, testing centres, vaccination centres, help with mental health, phoning fans, finding the time to be at the heart of that community, it's been a brilliant story.”

He talks about iFollow, the club specific streaming service, and how it took off during the pandemic, bringing in £40 million of revenues – “That's a serious number. And that is alongside the broadcasting contract.” – and serving as a way of giving back to season ticket holders, many of whom sacrificed refunds as a way of helping ensure their clubs survived.

There is, of course, a flipside to this narrative and that is the extraordinary financial pressure placed on clubs through having stadiums locked down almost continually since March 2020.

The background was already bleak: Championship clubs lost a collective £358 million in 2018/19, League One £34 million and League Two £20 million. This was compounded by the British government’s refusal to provide grant support to professional clubs, despite providing £135 million to Rugby Union, £40 million to horse racing and £28 million to Rugby League. The Premier League instead would have to bail out the EFL’s 72.

We can experiment in a way and innovate in a way that would be more difficult with the Premier League

When I put to Parry the extraordinary contradiction of a right wing, free market government insisting one private entity bails out another, perhaps astutely he doesn’t get drawn in by the obvious injustice.

“We just got on with it and made the best of it,” he says.

“It wasn't all bad because things like the furlough scheme, things like PAYE deferral, VAT deferrals were helpful. They were a lifeline in the short term to clubs. So not all bad news. And we have, of course, got through it. Are we disappointed that there wasn't more? Yes, of course. But listen, no point looking backwards.”

Fundamental rethink

Instead, he says, talks with government gave him an opportunity to “bang the drum about redistribution.” He said it was time to have “a fundamental rethink” about how football clubs are run, and he pushed this agenda rather than complaints of the unfairness about the way football was treated.

“The message I've been giving has been consistent since the very first appearance at the select committee…right at the start of the pandemic was “Hang on, now is the time to have a fundamental reset that this isn't just about the short term.”

"The fact that we have a major problem short term really just exacerbates the fact that we need a proper longer-term solution. Why have clubs not got any reserves? Why are the owners having to dig deep? Because that's what they have to do every year at our level. So let's have a fundamental rethink.”

He adds: “The bit that disappointed me, really disappointed me – because we've been, I think, very grown up in terms of not pushing the case with government and we said, 'Yeah we roll up our sleeves, we'll try our best. We'll try to keep everybody alive' – the kick in the teeth was with [Project] Big Picture and them not even then engaging in debate about what's needed longer term.”

Big Picture Thinking

Project Big Picture [PBP] was devised by Parry and the owners of Liverpool and Manchester United, John W. Henry and Joel Glazer, and after it was leaked last October it was widely reported that the former FA chairman, Greg Clarke, partook in discussions too.

The project’s authors describe it as “a reset of the economics and governance of the English football pyramid”, which, they say, “is long overdue”.

Under the scheme the EPL would have provided the EFL and FA a £350 million rescue fund made up of a combination of non-repayable grants and advanced payments based on “significantly increased future revenues” to the EFL.

Going forward, the EPL would commit 25 per cent of its future broadcast revenues to the EFL – around double what it currently gets. There would be a reduced Premier League of 18 clubs, the League Cup and Community Shield would be ditched and there would be widespread governance changes: a Championship salary cap, a fan charter, and – most contentiously – abandonment of one member one vote for EPL clubs.

Parry, who was the only one to put his head above the parapet and support the proposals, was singled out in an EPL statement. It criticised him for giving his “on-the-record support.”

The Department of Culture Media and Sport also put out a statement within hours declaring themselves to be “surprised and disappointed” by the leak, describing it as “backroom deals being cooked up that would create a closed shop at the very top of the game.”

The plan was widely supported by Football League clubs, but there was anger in the EPL at what was seen as a power grab that was, in effect, dressed up as a bail out.

Was the fundamental issue, not the substance, but the way it was presented to the public: namely as a leak to a Daily Telegraph journalist?

“Yeah, absolutely. But I suppose would say that wouldn't I?” answers Parry.

So the original concept was, those who've been a part of it should actually share in the rewards at the very start. It was never intended as a sort of ongoing protectionist measure

He offers me a defence of the Liverpool and Manchester United owners and surprises me by giving a lengthy explanation of their commitment to the structure of English football, without getting sidelined in justifying their apparent attempts to make the EPL less democratic.

He says that by jointly selling TV rights with the EPL as well as securing the EFL’s financial stability “it provides all sorts of opportunities to potentially use the EFL as the test bed” for new ideas in broadcast and marketing.

“We can experiment in a way and innovate in a way that would be more difficult with the Premier League.”

“I don't think in reality, we are an awful lot closer in terms of reaching agreement with the Premier League and the government,” he admits.

“And that's disappointing. Very disappointing. So have we achieved it? Have we delivered it? No. Can we articulate it? Absolutely. We can articulate it very, very simply. We know what the problem is.”

“An evil that needs to be eradicated”

The problem is unequal distribution of wealth between divisions. The key driver of this discrepancy are parachute payments for clubs relegated from the EPL.

Combined they distribute around £250 million each year to up to nine clubs relegated from the EPL in the preceding three years. Parry has described them as “an evil that must be eradicated.”

Ironically he was the person who introduced them in his previous role at the EPL in the 1990s, but he says they have long outlived their purpose.

“The real purpose of them [in 1992] was that 22 clubs had resigned from the Football League in order to form the Premier League,” he explains, saying that they were worth just £750,000 back then.

“They had made the commitment, they had taken the risk. But because we negotiated the formation of the Premier League properly, three of the clubs who handed in their notice the previous year weren't actually going to be in it because we worked through promotion and relegation.

"So the original concept was, those who've been a part of it should actually share in the rewards at the very start. It was never intended as a sort of ongoing protectionist measure.”

“We're now in a situation where – and I think it's grossly wrong and unfair – that enshrined in the solidarity agreement with the Premier League, the solidarity payments that the Championship clubs get is actually pegged to the parachute payments, which I find completely bizarre.

"I find that virtually immoral, because what it means is that all the other clubs are going to be getting 11 percent of the money that the first year parachute clubs get.”

Gambling (sponsorship) addiction

A further problem may come when the British government announces the findings of its review into the gambling industry. It is expected that there will be restrictions placed on betting companies sponsorships and advertising.

For the EFL the consequences would be dire: SkyBet are its title sponsors and a score of clubs are sponsored by bookmakers.

“We always have a plan B, and a plan C. To suggest it will be easy to replace them is frankly ridiculous,” he says.

Parry chaired the Sports Betting Integrity Panel for the UK government in 2009 and gives detailed reasons why a ban on betting sponsorship shouldn’t be barred.

“We've made an evidence based submission that we think is very compelling. And by and large, nobody wants problem gambling and nobody is going to pretend that problem gambling is not an issue,” he says.

“But our premise is, and this is backed up by facts and research, people will gamble; the percentage of people gambling isn't actually that much greater than it was 40 years ago, 50 years ago when gambling was first legalised.

"In the early 60s, before gambling was legalised, there are any number of research projects which show the volume of gambling was pretty much the same before and after. What legalisation brings is a degree of safety, a degree of formality, there is consumer protection. You're better off having people gambling in a regulated environment than an unregulated market. And prohibition doesn’t work.”

He says that the irony is that the US, where it is largely prohibited, is waking up to the potential of sports gambling after recognizing that it adds value to live sporting events (“People who watch football want skin in the game, they enjoy recreational gambling.”) while the UK, currently one of the most liberalized markets in the world where those opportunities have been recognised, is cracking down.

Extraordinary resilience

When we spoke in mid July it was before Tracey Crouch had offered her preliminary findings of a separate government “fan led review” of football.

Parry says that the Football League put together “a whole package in terms of parachute payments and redistribution along with cost controls” to her review.

He wouldn’t anticipate the outcome, but added that if she advocated the outlawing of parachute payments “put a whole package in terms of parachute payments and redistribution along with cost controls.”

48 hours after we speak Crouch put forward a wide-ranging 7 page letter to the secretary of state, saying that she was undecided on whether they were a “symptom or a cause” of financial instability in football and would be assessing their impact further.

“I am in no doubt they distort competition and drive unsustainable financial activity but recognise that they do also assist the ambition of promoted clubs and stability of relegated clubs," she said.

The EFL put out a statement broadly welcoming Crouch’s findings, but when we spoke Parry was less keen on predicting whether the government would act on her findings.

“Come what may,” he says, “We will survive because the EFL does. The resilience of our clubs is extraordinary.”

Is simply surviving enough?

“No, it should be thriving,” he says.

“The key word – the absolutely key word – is sustainability. It's reasonable shares of revenue, proper cost controls. And I think we've got a one off opportunity to really fundamentally reset and have a structure where clubs can at least break even and thrive.”

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Aug 06, 2021 6:36 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 2:22 am
This is interesting

https://twitter.com/mjshrimper/status/1 ... 1230992385

"Moroccan FA president Fouzi Lekjaa: “Those who are against the World Cup every two years are selfish people who discriminate against billions of people just to protect their own commercial interests.”

This one isn’t going away."


Another African country joins up to FIFA's plan, no surprise given FIFA's almost total control of CAF now - that is 54 votes potentially right there
Anyone spotting a theme here - A world Cup every year - actually means alternating men's and Women's world cups, this comes because of what happened to the Club World Cup (it could not get the broadcaster interest) - from Associated Press

https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-o ... 8a4f56238a

Every year could soon have World Cup on Infantino’s travels
By ROB HARRIS
yesterday

TOKYO (AP) — It’s been a busy few weeks of globe-trotting to soccer finals for FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

There was the Copa America final on July 10 followed by an overnight flight on a Qatari-owned private jet from Rio de Janeiro to London to see the European champion crowned.

Having already started July in Miami for the CONCACAF congress, he was back in the U.S. to see the American men beat Mexico in the Gold Cup final in Las Vegas on Sunday.

Now he’s in Tokyo to see the Olympic medal matches.

All that’s missing in this congested summer of soccer traveling for Infantino is a major tournament with FIFA’s name on it. How about a World Cup every year? Infantino’s already on the case — talking up the sporting case for men’s and women’s World Cups becoming biennial rather than quadrennial tournaments.

“You don’t need to be an Einstein,” Infantino said after a recent FIFA Congress, “to know that if you have two World Cups in four years you will double the revenues.”

FIFA went on to say “this will not happen” but it was unclear what Infantino was referring to in May about the commercial prospects of more regular World Cups. The men’s and women’s tournaments could be played in alternating years if this plan was adopted.

Saudi Arabia’s national federation was the one to nominally ask at the congress in May for FIFA to explore World Cups being staged every two years.

The South American confederation, CONMEBOL, and France had also promoted the idea.

FIFA has launched a feasibility study, although it isn’t going into details.

The sport’s governing body has declined interview requests over the last year with Infantino to discuss his vision for an overhaul of international football after 2024. It is being conducted with his chief of global football development, Arsene Wenger, the former Arsenal manager.

Saudi Arabian Football Federation president Yasser Al Misehal, in Tokyo for the Olympics, told The Associated Press he wouldn’t comment on the World Cup proposal, or the prospect of his country launching a bid for the 2030 tournament.

Players at the Olympic tournament had varying opinions on the idea.

Saudi captain Salman Al-Faraj was more willing to talk up the idea. Al-Faraj was part of the Saudi team that qualified for the 2018 World Cup — its first in 12 years — and was eliminated in the group stage.

“It would give an opportunity to many more players to participate,” he said. “At the moment because it is held every four years some players may never get the chance to play in the World Cup.”

And that’s why it could win support if taken to a vote of FIFA’s 211 members. The decision has already been made to expand the men’s World Cup from 32 to 48 teams from 2026.

For others, though, it’s the relative rarity of World Cups that makes the event special.

“The World Cup has always been every four years,” Spain forward Dani Olmo said. “So this is the essence of football.”

Olmo has reached the Olympic final having come straight from Spain’s run to the European Championship semifinals. That’s on top of a full season in Germany with Leipzig interspersed with trips on international duty.

Higher frequency of the global showpiece would increase player workloads, especially when there are still continental tournaments like the European Championship to fit in, which Wenger believes should also be every two years.

But there are even reservations in Egypt which, despite being the record seven-time African champion, has only played at three of the 21 editions of the World Cup.

“So many teams would not benefit from this (idea),” said defender Ahmed Hegazi, who played for Egypt at the 2018 World Cup and at the Olympics. “It would actually be counterproductive because they play too many games and there is no time to rest.

“It might be entertainment for people. It might be a pleasure to watch all these games and it might also give the chance for other teams that don’t usually qualify for the World Cup to get the chance to play. But it would be less enjoyable.”

There would be more support in the women’s game to play World Cups more often, with a desire among leading nations to play each other more often as they try to grow the audience.

The Women’s World Cup will expand from 24 to 32 teams when it is co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand in 2023.

“We as footballers want to play as much football as possible,” Australia striker Kyah Simon said this week. “So if it’s a matter of changing how often that tournament’s played, I’m 30 at the moment so if I can squeeze in another two World Cups, that would be nice for me.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Aug 07, 2021 1:04 am

SportsProMedia talk to Alexandre Dreyfus the creator and CEO of Socios

Why the likes of Inter, PSG and Barca are banking on Socios fan tokens to help generate new revenue
Socios.com has grown its roster of partners from 20 to 48 in the last seven months alone. Having already generated nearly US$200m in 2021, Alexandre Dreyfus, the company’s founder and CEO, explains why some of the world’s most recognisable sports teams are opening their eyes to the business of fan tokens.


By Sam Carp Posted: August 6 2021

Alexandre Dreyfus is well within his rights to sound enthusiastic.

One by one, the deals have been trickling through. And with each partnership announced by Socios.com, the blockchain-based fan voting and rewards platform founded by Dreyfus in 2018, comes what the French internet entrepreneur believes is further endorsement of the company’s strategy to bring supporters closer to their favourite sports teams.

Even in the time writing this feature, Socios has announced deals with top-flight English soccer clubs Everton and Leeds United, who this week became the 47th and 48th partners of the Chiliz-owned platform, joining other Premier League sides such as Manchester City and Arsenal, in addition to major European teams like Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.

A piece published by the i newspaper in March even went as far as describing Dreyfus as someone ‘who could yet shape the future of European football’, but the man himself doesn’t quite subscribe to that theory.

“I would never say that,” laughs Dreyfus, the chief executive of Socios and Chiliz, speaking to SportsPro from the south of France. “I don’t think we can do that, and that’s not our goal anyway. It’s just to support clubs to achieve a better connection between the fans and themselves.”

'Instead of owning a share of a company, you own a share of influence'

The obvious question, then, is how does it work?

The teams that have partnered with Chiliz have done so in order to launch their own fan tokens – or collectible digital assets – on Socios. Supporters can then buy fan tokens using the $CHZ cryptocurrency, which secures them the right to vote on club decisions such as kit designs, goal music and where the team might travel for its pre-season tour - although the polls are ultimately decided on by the clubs. Unsurprisingly, the more tokens a fan buys, the more votes they get in club polls.

As it turns out, fan tokens are in high demand. When Barcelona, for example, launched their initial fan token offering in June last year, they sold out in less than two hours, generating US$1.3 million for the cash-strapped La Liga side. Clubs determine the price of their tokens, but the revenue from when those tokens are either traded or sold is split 50-50 between the teams and Socios.

The sports industry will move from a passive fan to an active fan industry, where fans will have more influence.

In 2021 alone, Socios claims its fan tokens have generated close to US$200 million in revenue, meaning its partners are in line for a share of around US$100 million, depending on how many they have sold.

With that in mind, Dreyfus believes that Socios is serving a purpose for an industry where sports properties have “reached a ceiling” from a revenue perspective. He points out that teams can’t sell more tickets than they have available, nor can they increase ticket prices exponentially due to a potential backlash, while there is evidence that income from sponsorship and broadcast rights is plateauing in many leagues.

What they can do, though, is find new ways to monetise their following in what Dreyfus describes as a global and scalable way.

“Our business is to support clubs to generate additional revenue,” he adds. “And that revenue comes from an idea that we started three and a half years ago, which is a belief that the sports industry will move from a passive fan to an active fan industry, where fans will have more influence. Of course limited [influence], but still influence, and that influence can be monetised.

“We think that fanbases can be monetised, not in a way that it's about the fans that are in the stadium and the community around the stadium, it's actually the 99.9 per cent of people that are not in the stadium, and not even in the city of the team they are supporting.

“So we came with this vision that two things matter for a fan: one is being recognised as a fan, and even though I'm in Korea, in Japan, in Brazil, or in France, or wherever, I can still be recognised as a fan, because that's what sports is today: it's global, it’s not local. And suddenly, as a recognised fan, I can have a say.”

Dreyfus acknowledges that using the term ‘polls’ can make Socios’ offering sound “basic and gimmicky”, but he rejects the suggestion that the things fan token owners are able to vote on are inconsequential. He also stresses that it is different from taking part in a poll on a social media platform such as Twitter given that fans are part of a community who have ultimately paid to participate.

“The reality is what we really offer you is a share of influence,” Dreyfus adds. “Instead of owning a share of a company, you own a share of influence.

“Last week, for example, PSG asked their fans what cover of the FIFA 22 [video game] they wanted to have for the PSG edition. It's small, but yet it has never been asked before. What is the music of Juventus every time they score a goal in the stadium? Maybe it's a small thing, but yet it was never asked before.

“It’s about all this education that we have to do towards the clubs, the fans, the media, and even the sponsors at some point, and now we need another two, three, four years to really push this to go to the next step.

“But, for us, the foundation is this influence, this participation, this recognition of me being a fan and being able to be part of this community, this new digital community that gives me a new way to interact with my team.”

'You cannot buy legitimacy, you have to earn it'

Socios, whose name derives from the Spanish word used by the likes of Barcelona to describe their members, has actually been around for a while, but many people won’t have heard of the platform until recently. The company says it has grown its roster of partners from 20 to 48 in the last seven months, while it has also been busy taking its first steps into new markets and sports outside of soccer. In addition, Socios made mainstream headlines this summer when it unveiled its inaugural shirt sponsorship deals, first partnering with La Liga club Valencia before announcing an agreement with Italian champions Inter.

Indeed, the first SportsPro article about Socios was published in late 2018, but Dreyfus says it has taken time for the business of fan tokens to gather the momentum it appears to be accumulating now.

“Nobody wants to be first, nobody wants to be last - especially in the sports industry,” he notes. “I think it's a matter of education. Clubs like Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain were the first two to partner with us. They took a risk, they got massively rewarded financially in terms of the revenue we generated for them, and they became our best ambassadors.

“The thing is, all of these teams, they talk to each other. So they call each other and say, ‘hey, can we have more information about your partnership with Socios? Does it work? Are we legit? Did you really get paid the amount you got paid?’

“You cannot buy legitimacy, you have to earn it. We are still in a very early stage, but today we are still in the process of trying to earn that legitimacy. Every time we add more teams that are powerful brands, the more we become legit. And therefore all the other teams want to be part of this, because they do see the value today which they may not have necessarily believed two years ago. And that's fair.”

Unsurprisingly, there has been an element of scepticism among supporters about Socios’ attempts to monetise their engagement. Premier League side West Ham United, for example, were forced to abandon their deal with the platform last year before even issuing a single fan token following criticism from their fans.

At the time, Kevin Miles, the chief executive of the UK’s Football Supporters’ Association, claimed that Socios’ model “attempts to monetise fan engagement which the leagues and clubs have committed to doing for free”, adding that “there should be no financial barriers to engaging with your football club”.

Dreyfus, though, is keen to highlight that it is written into many of Socios’ agreements that season ticket holders or paying club members have the opportunity to receive a fan token for free. He also reiterates that the company’s aim is to generate revenue from fans further afield, rather than those who buy tickets to games every week.

“I say that unfortunately they don't read what we are doing,” says Dreyfus, when asked what he would say to those who are critical about the concept. “Our target is not to monetise the traditional, hardcore fan. Our target, as I said, is to go after the 99.9 per cent of fans that are not in the stadium.

There is a bit of bad faith from some supporters’ associations that don't want to try to understand what we do. At the end, it's not for everybody, and nobody forces you to be part of it.

“Number two, they are arguing that ‘we should not pay for that’. Now, as I said, it's free. But ironically, the fact that they say that shows that they actually think that what we do is valuable. They want what we do, but for free, which we actually give them. But if it was free for everybody, it will not work.

“So there is a misconception. That's why it's all about education. There is a bit of bad faith from some supporters’ associations that don't want to try to understand what we do. But it's okay. At the end, it's not for everybody, and nobody forces you to be part of it.”

Dreyfus also rejects any suggestion that the Socios model could lead to a scenario similar to that involving Football Index, the UK-licensed product that enabled users to bet on the future success of individual soccer players. The company went into administration earlier this year following a major crash on its market, before suspending trading, deposits and withdrawals on its exchange, leaving many customers with money trapped in the platform.

Socios allows fan tokens to be sold on the app’s marketplace, and their price does fluctuate according to supply and demand, but Dreyfus says the comparisons end there.

“I never heard of [Football Index] before it collapsed,” he notes. “In our case, not only do we not do gambling, but most importantly, you actually buy something that is valuable. When you own a token of a team, you can vote, you can get a five to ten per cent discount at the club shops, you have VIP experiences in the boxes, and then tickets, etc.

“So when you buy a fan token, sure, the price may fluctuate, but the value of the service is still there. So the price is just conflation of what fans and users think it is. That doesn't change the fact that there is value against it. There is a service, there is a benefit.

“So it's obviously completely different. And it's done in partnership with the teams. So there is a commitment to provide value - not as a financial value, but as a utility value.”

'The US is a different animal'

Whatever your opinion on the long-term viability of the business of fan tokens, the speed at which Socios has become a familiar name within sports industry circles is difficult to ignore. According to Dreyfus, the company now has nearly 140 full-time employees across regional headquarters in Madrid, Istanbul, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, with that number set to grow to 200 by the end of the year.

Chiliz will also open a new office in North America as part of the company’s plans to spend US$50 million on its expansion in the region. The National Hockey League’s (NHL) New Jersey Devils became Socios’ first partner in the US at the end of April, while it also now has deals with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Dreyfus reiterates throughout that there is plenty more to come.

“The US is a different animal because the regulatory framework is much more complicated and changing than everywhere [else] in the world,” he says. “So we have to be more cautious the way we approach it. And we have our own strategy there.

Our mission is definitely to be the major player in our space there and that's why we are securing a relationship with most of the biggest brands already.

“The US is way, way behind in terms of global fan monetisation, their domestic market is huge. Therefore it always has been very profitable, but like everybody else they are facing challenges. So the question is, how can you grow that revenue?

“It will take a few years to pick up, but our mission is definitely to be the major player in our space there and that's why we are securing a relationship with most of the biggest brands already.”

What Dreyfus describes as “most important”, though, are his global ambitions for Socios and how the product is going to evolve in the coming years. In the first instance, he says that Chiliz is “going to sign more and more teams”. Based on the company’s recent track record, only a brave individual would doubt him.

“Now, for us, there are a few keys,” Dreyfus says. “One is to have a better product. Our product is still in a very early stage. We need more features, we need more utility, we need more community tools, we need more innovation. That's not all about trading or voting, but about the gamification. So we can focus on that, the product is going to be critical.

“And then it's going to be the marketing, because funnily enough, when you think about it, we never did proper marketing. We leverage the promotion that the teams are giving us, but we didn't do TV advertising, or digital advertising, or YouTube, or Instagram, or whatever. We don’t do that yet.

“So now that we have 50 plus [partners], and eventually a little bit more, now it makes sense for us to actually promote our product in order to do user acquisition that eventually is going to translate into revenue. But it would have been too early to do it before.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Aug 07, 2021 1:19 am

Sportico.com with a bit more detail on La Liga's proposed deal with CVC and the subsequent action from Real Madrid

Real Madrid Threatens CVC Investment as LaLiga Nears Approval Vote
MICHAEL MCCANN AUGUST 06, 2021

On the heels of Barcelona’s announcement that Lionel Messi will not remain with the club, Spanish-league rival is considering legal action to stop a pending multi-billion dollar deal between LaLiga and private equity giant CVC Capital Partners. Under the arrangement, which LaLiga’s executive committee unanimously approved on Thursday but still must be approved by the clubs, LaLiga would distribute proceeds from the sale of TV and sponsorship rights over the next 40 years.

LaLiga’s general assembly is set to vote on the measure on Aug. 12, and will require approval of two-thirds of the 42 clubs that make up the league’s first and second division in order to pass. The potential legal action, first reported by El Independiente and ESPN, is based on unnamed sources and may serve to influence the vote regardless of any formal court filing.

Real Madrid’s potential claims, however, reveal the importance of media broadcast and voting rights to LaLiga’s member clubs.

The reports suggest that misappropriation of assets is a main point of contention for Madrid. Asset misappropriation refers to executives and other personnel fraudulently abusing their power to steal financial resources from an organization. The theft is designed to personally enrich the fraudsters at the expense of the organization and its members. Here, Madrid reportedly objects to CVC becoming able to monetize TV rights that would otherwise benefit Madrid. It’s not clear at this time whether such actions would benefit LaLiga personnel at the expense of the league or clubs.

Madrid’s official statement on the pending agreement hints at other potential legal claims.

One is for breach of contract. The statement complains that the agreement was reached “without the involvement or knowledge of Real Madrid.” It also charges the agreement impermissibly “expropriates 10.95% of the clubs’ audiovisual rights for the next 50 years.” If Madrid’s membership contract with LaLiga supplies notice and access rights to member clubs, or if it precludes or restricts the transfer of clubs’ audiovisual rights, Madrid could argue the contract was breached.

Madrid might also view the transaction as illegally interfering with its contractual relationship to LaLiga. An interference claim would entail an assertion that CVC and LaLiga’s dealings obstruct LaLiga’s obligations to member clubs, including Madrid.

The statement also hints at potential claims under competition law, which in the U.S. would be called antitrust law. “The negotiation,” the statement asserts, “was carried out without competitive proceedings . . .” If there was an absence of competition in negotiating, it could have led to an inferior result for member clubs.

Madrid’s membership contract with LaLiga would shed light on the range of permissible claims, including defining jurisdiction and whether any grievances would need to go through private arbitration before they could be litigated in a court of law.

Madrid is not alone in expressing opposition and intimating potential litigation. On Friday, Barcelona’s president, Joan Laporta, warned that his club “will find ways to defend” itself if the deal is approved.

It’s worth stressing that (1) LaLiga and CVC would likely repudiate any claims and (2) no lawsuit, arbitration filing or other legal action has occurred.

It’s also unclear if Madrid is seriously exploring a legal remedy or merely saber-rattling through the press.

If the clubs believe that one or more members might initiate a lawsuit against the league and possibly other clubs, they could become less inclined to vote yea. They might worry litigation would bring about legal expenses and the sharing of sensitive materials and trade secrets. If support for the deal wanes in the face of Madrid’s maneuvers, the vote could also be postponed. Meanwhile, CVC and LaLiga could return to the bargaining table and tweak the deal to appease Madrid and other dissenting clubs. Another possibility: The vote happens, the deal is approved, and no club takes legal action.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:21 pm

It has taken a while but we now have a dull set of Premier League 2019/20 financial results thanks to this filing from Newcastle United

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

In the next week I expect to see a flood of reports on that years finances - I am particularly looking forward to the annual "we're so rich it's unbelievable" report from Vysyble

In the meantime we have this summary from @KieranMaguire

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 57/photo/1

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Aug 07, 2021 11:02 pm

@KieranMaguires review of those Newcastle United accounts 2019/20 financial results makes for some interesting reading

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 3927139335

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Aug 08, 2021 12:00 am

Sam Wallace of the Telegraph has been critical of Barcelona's financial management for years - here he looks at how that has climaxed this week - how it could yet get worse for them and the power struggles between the giants and La Liga

Disastrous spending, a rancorous presidency and power struggles - Barcelona has betrayed Lionel Messi
Barcelona was the club that had it all, and then lost it all, and the decline has been every bit as astonishing as the triumphs


SAM WALLACE CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER
5 August 2021 • 10:09pm

A decade ago the great myth of invincibility around Barcelona was at its strongest – a team with two Champions League titles in three years, capable of playing Manchester United off the Wembley pitch and with the world’s greatest player at the heart of this irresistible, unique force.

Ten years on and the legacy of Lionel Messi – of Pep Guardiola and the modern reimagining of football – has been squandered in the most extraordinary terms. A club that should have set the standards for the world game, a fan-owned cooperative, a local movement of global repute, has thrown it all away. Now Barcelona are reduced to threatening La Liga, and the financial rules for which they voted – Spanish football’s “Control Económico” – in a desperate last attempt to generate the cash to keep their greatest player, their biggest asset and, increasingly, their only hope.

Messi departing Barcelona. How has it come to this? In its most recent published accounts in June last year, Barcelona reported a negative working capital – debts that exceeded short-term assets. Encompassing debts of €320 million (£284m) to other clubs in transfer fees; bank borrowing of €280m (£249m); bonds of €200m (£178m); unpaid wages of €200m; debts to suppliers of €84m (£75m), and public administrators €55m (£49m). The club’s €146m (£130m) state-backed credit line was eaten up by last summer’s six-monthly wage bill.

In short, Barcelona are broke. Their total debts exceed €1 billion and will be revealed in full when the next annual financial reports are published this summer. The club say they have an agreement with Messi for his new contract but under La Liga rules, which set wage caps according to 12-month revenue projections, they might as well be paying their No 10 in seashells and bottle tops. Two years ago, Barcelona’s La Liga-set wage cap exceeded €600m. They are expected to announce losses of around €300m this year which will be deducted from future revenue projections, thus triggering a severe adjustment in the club’s wage capacity. Now it is likely to be capped in the low €200m region.

It leaves Barcelona with one move: threaten La Liga and its pugnacious president Javier Tebas with the loss of Messi and the attendant effect on television revenues. Who blinks first? With its continuing devotion to the European Super League, which survived about as long as a tropical butterfly in an English summer, Barcelona have made enemies of Uefa, all La Liga clubs bar Real Madrid and, crucially, Tebas. The power is with the president. He has just sold 10 per cent of the league’s future income to private equity firm CVC for an up-front Covid rescue-package investment.

It is a deal which the Premier League would resist to its last breath. Spain’s clubs have no option but to take it. Indeed Barcelona president Joan Laporta was in favour until very recently when he switched to back his Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Perez, in opposition. For the likes of Seville and Real Sociedad, the windfall of around €120m each is a lifeline. For Real and Barcelona it is just a trickle into the great empty barrel that they need filling if their debt-laden clubs are to survive.

At the heart of it is Messi, that inscrutable maestro who has dominated the game’s imagination for the last 17 years or so. While he has maintained astonishing levels of excellence up to his 34th birthday in June, the club around him has crumbled. Disastrous overspending, including – but not limited to – the €160m signing of Philippe Coutinho, 21st century football’s MySpace acquisition. The rancorous reign of former president Josep Maria Bartomeu did so much damage, not least leaving Messi disenchanted and betrayed.

Yet still nothing compares to the jaw-dropping financial mismanagement of a club that had the chance to be the game’s most compelling brand and its most successful organisation. While Barcelona publicly railed against the sale of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, that record fee of €222m briefly kept the club in the black. In recent months, as the darkness has truly set in, they have tried to wrangle players into 60 per cent wage cuts to finance the deal for Messi. Quite how a loyal soldier like Sergio Busquets feels about that one has to wonder. Meanwhile, there have been no takers for Coutinho, or Antoine Griezmann, or anyone else whose exit might have cut their costs.

Even in the midst of this financial meltdown, Barcelona have struggled to kick the addiction that has done them so much damage. They have not stopped signing players. No fees were paid for Sergio Aguero, Memphis Depay or Eric Garcia although one can be sure they will not be working pro bono for one of the world’s biggest clubs. Barcelona cannot help themselves. But when the expectation is now that their fellow La Liga clubs change the rules one can almost hear the collective clearing of throats from the other sides. They have spent the last two decades as cannon fodder for the Messi-driven machine, and now they find themselves expected to vote for more of it.

There may be nowhere for Messi to go, and a deal will be scraped together at the last. But this is already past humiliation for a giant of the game forced to play poker to keep the player who has defined its most successful era. Barcelona was the club that had it all, and then lost it all, and the decline has been every bit as astonishing as the triumphs.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Aug 08, 2021 3:16 pm

John Wallstreet for Sportico.com with a deeper look at that CVC deal with La Liga

CVC Buying Stake in LaLiga’s Business Despite Possible Rights Bubble
JOHN WALLSTREET AUGUST 06, 2021

Capital Partners and LaLiga have reportedly agreed in principle on a 50-year deal that would give the private equity firm a 10.95% stake in a new holding company (Boost LaLiga) that would control the league’s commercial ventures (think: JVs, LaLiga Tech, sponsorships) for $3.2 billion (LaLiga was valued at €24.25 billion). The transaction is pending majority approval by the 42 first- and second-division clubs.

Spanish league clubs are facing financial troubles and in need of a capital infusion. So one can understand why LaLiga’s executive committee (Comisión Delegada) would be open to the idea of a private-equity tie-up. It is less clear why CVC would invest in the league at a time when some suggest the air is leaking out of a European media rights bubble. Albachiara SAGL founder Roger Mitchell suggested it is unlikely CVC’s investment thesis is about “re-rating media valuations.” He said it is more likely based on “opportunistic special situation investing, marketing innovation and decision making.” CVC did not respond to our request for comment.

Our Take: LaLiga clubs are desperately in need of cash after a year and a half without fans in attendance. In addition to the current economics falling short, “the two biggest clubs, Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona, are massively leveraged,” Mitchell said. “Really, the whole league is.” As of January, Barcelona alone had around $1.5 billion in debt, and just yesterday, the club announced it had to part ways with its superstar Lionel Messi. Financial troubles help to explain why Real Madrid and Barcelona continue to support the Super League project.

Neither Spanish league giant is represented on the executive committee. And neither has publicly stated how it feels about LaLiga’s deal with CVC (though Cadena SER has reported Barcelona believes it is irresponsible to tie up broadcast rights for a half century at today’s valuation, and El Independiente is reporting that Real Madrid plans to sue the league and CVC). But it is safe to assume the private equity firm isn’t going to buy into the NewCo without their support and a long-term commitment to LaLiga. “No serious financial investor is going to pour money into that league unless they have an ironclad guarantee that those two clubs are going to be a part of it. [LaLiga’s commercial rights] would lose 50%, 60%, 70% of their value without them,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell—a Europe-based corporate financier and consultant—indicated the private equity firm may not be concerned with the domestic media rights trajectory, because the opportunity is too good to pass up. “When an industry is bleeding cash, a smart investor can negotiate a favorable deal that maybe they could not have gotten two years ago and that they won’t get two years from now,” he said.

That appears to be the case. Last season, the league generated around $2.1 billion dollars in media rights revenues. If one assumes an approximate 15% cost margin on delivering those revenues (which would be high), and CVC keeps about 11% of the net, they would have been entitled to around $200 million. Even if rights fees were to remain flat over the next 30 years, the PE firm would take in more than the $3.3 billion it put up on a discounted cash flow basis (remember, it’s a 50-year deal and that figure doesn’t account for their interest in the holding company). It is worth noting that while CVC is entitled to a percentage of media rights revenues, the company will not own an actual stake in the league’s media rights, which will not be under the Boost LaLiga umbrella.

If one looks at CVC’s investment in Pro14 rugby and the Roc Nation-led rebrand it has undergone, it would be reasonable to assume the PE firm also believes it can use marketing as a means of growing LaLiga’s value. “Private equity people believe sport is stuck in the mud with its thinking, that [leagues] are not approaching modern audiences the right way, and if they are given some support they could move the business forward significantly,” Mitchell said. He pointed to Formula One’s turnaround under Liberty Media as an example of how a new approach could change a sport’s fortunes and help to grow the pie.

The third reason CVC may be willing to overlook the current media rights trend is because of confidence it can eliminate the discount to valuation that exists—due to suboptimal decision-making and internal politics—simply by running the business more efficiently. As Mitchell explained, the vast difference in resources among clubs means LaLiga is “always working to a compromise; to find something that is more or less acceptable to Real Madrid and Getafe. And that means the league is not really doing the best it can.”

It is also possible CVC is simply more bullish on LaLiga’s domestic media rights future than the bears, as JL Sports Investment CEO Jochen Losch is. “Football is the number one [piece of] content in Europe, by far,” Losch said. “It’s lightyears ahead of everything else. [The European leagues] are going through a small period now, where rights fees have flattened as a result of the transformation in the media market from linear TV to streaming. But in the medium- and long-term, the fees will always go up, as they have always gone up in the past.” It’s worth mentioning CVC previously tried to buy interest in a company that would have controlled Serie A’s media rights.

While the deal looks to be opportunistic from CVC’s point of view, one prominent sports banker suggested it might make more sense financially for LaLiga to borrow the money. Mitchell didn’t disagree. But he said the league may see CVC as the “glue to keep the whole thing together. You don’t get that with debt.”

While true, taking the equity route has its own potential pitfalls. Remember, PE is buying in for the purpose of generating a large return over a relatively short period. Their motivations may not align with the league’s long-term best interests. For what it’s worth, LaLiga reportedly will have total control over rights negotiations and the terms of their commercial deals.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:26 pm

https://twitter.com/AJIunit/status/1424 ... 79046?s=19

Something's going to be revealed tomorrow, speculation it's about Derby or Reading.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:48 pm

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:26 pm
https://twitter.com/AJIunit/status/1424 ... 79046?s=19

Something's going to be revealed tomorrow, speculation it's about Derby or Reading.
It appears to be related to the wrong-uns identified here
Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Jan 18, 2021 2:44 am
The Athletic did an extremely detailed piece on Derby on Sunday - just loved the takeaway from the Derby County blog

https://twitter.com/derbycountyblog/sta ... 1849368577

for clarity

Zingarevich almost killed Reading https://thetilehurstend.sbnation.com/20 ... n-analysis
and
Tony Xia took Aston Villa to a couple of hours from financial collapse before NSWE stepped in

You can may want to add those those middlemen - Chris Samuelson and Andrew Obolensky together with Philippe Huber (of Thaksin Shinawatra and Venky's fame) to the list of middlemen to keep an eye out for in much the same way we now look out for Chris Farnell

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:55 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:21 pm
It has taken a while but we now have a full set of Premier League 2019/20 financial results thanks to this filing from Newcastle United

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

In the next week I expect to see a flood of reports on that years finances - I am particularly looking forward to the annual "we're so rich it's unbelievable" report from Vysyble

In the meantime we have this summary from @KieranMaguire

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 57/photo/1
Well that was prescient of me - Vysyble announce that the 6th Edition of Were So Rich it's Unbelievable - The illusion of wealth within football is coming soon (September). The good news for us is that it looks like being free to access again after the first 4 were subject to a substantial fee

https://vysyble.com/8th-august-2021-pre ... ssive-year

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 12:09 am

Alexandre Dreyfus keeps on telling us that the Chiliz/Socios platform is about fan engagement not about investing in ownership so why is he bragging about this market price rise in PSG fan tokens on the back of Messi rumours (and the subsequent drop in value at Barcelona).

https://twitter.com/alex_dreyfus/status ... 5603222529

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 6:32 am

@KieranMaguire starts reviewing the Premier League teams financial results for 2019/20

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 0321907713

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 2:30 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Aug 09, 2021 6:32 am
@KieranMaguire starts reviewing the Premier League teams financial results for 2019/20

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 0046563330
You have to imagine that last season is going to change those numbers somewhat - particularly on the last graph (net debt)

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 2:35 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:21 pm
It has taken a while but we now have a full set of Premier League 2019/20 financial results thanks to this filing from Newcastle United

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

In the next week I expect to see a flood of reports on that years finances - I am particularly looking forward to the annual "we're so rich it's unbelievable" report from Vysyble

In the meantime we have this summary from @KieranMaguire

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 57/photo/1
@SwissRamble looks at those Newcastle United 2019/20 financial results - you do wonder how with no real commercial growth in over a decade Lee Charnley got himself such a big pay rise

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 3715914756

and here is the summary sheet

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 6652721153

I suspect @SwissRamble will be crunching the numbers on a full review of the 2019/20 seasons financial reporting and posting soon

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 3:29 pm

There is going to be a lot of football on the telly this year following last week's news that Sky have taken the rights for the Bundesliga next season (https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/sky ... nd-ireland)

BT have announced that they have acquired the rights to Serie A and will be showing 5 live games a week on top of their Premier League and UEFA Club competitions and their (up to 5 live games a week) offering of Ligue 1 in France.

https://www.bt.com/sport/football/serie ... n-bt-sport

La Liga does not have such a major provider - it's deal continues with a dedicated channel on Premier Sports

https://sport-onthebox.com/2019/09/10/p ... 2019-2022/

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 3:58 pm

you may remember that 2020 was a period of SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies) mania for sports investment. An awful lot were formed but many still have not made an investment (they have up to two years from funding to do so). Here Sportico.com looks at what has been happening and in particular the role of of PIPE funds (Private Investment in Public Equity) have had in determining whether deals get across the line - in some cases they have been the only sane voice in the room. Meanwhile we take on board more finance industry terminology.

Sports SPAC Boom Anniversary Finds Deals and PIPE Funds Aligning
BRENDAN COFFEY AUGUST 09, 2021

Three of these people still need to find a deal for their SPACs. Mario Paulis / Adobe
It was a year ago that sports SPAC mania sparked, as Gerry Cardinale and Billy Beane brought their RedBall blank check company to market. Since then, another 143 special purpose acquisition companies with a sports focus, or led by a sports figure, have formed. Less than a third of the group have closed deals or announced an acquisition, according to the Sportico Sports SPAC Tracker.

RedBall priced its upsized, $575 million IPO on Aug. 12 last year, becoming the first sports-focused SPAC since a Hank Aaron, Jack Kemp and Mario Cuomo-led vehicle failed to buy the Chicago Cubs, Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens between 2007 and 2009.

SPACs, long a little-used design that raises money then finds a business, took off after the largely unexpected success of DraftKings’ going public by SPAC in April 2020. After that, blank checks exploded in popularity and then seemingly imploded amid heightened regulatory scrutiny. The latter development suggests a difficult road ahead for sports SPACs. But there is reason to hope, said Will Braeutigam, a partner at Deloitte and head of the SPAC execution group for the consulting group.

“With deal announcements and deals closing, my anticipation, [we’ll] see a much stronger PIPE market at the end of August, leading into a strong pipeline for deals in September,” explained Braeutigam in a phone call. “We’ve seen cycles where PIPE deals are really strong and they last 10 to 14 weeks.” Essentially, SPAC deals slow down because a lot of investor money is already tied up in pending SPAC deals. Investors who fund PIPEs (private investment in public equity), which are often needed to bring additional cash to close a SPAC acquisition, end up recycling their capital into new deals once their investment is freed up.

According to Braeutigam, the SPAC market has shown this cyclicality over the past year. The market was vibrant last August into October, then slowed around the presidential election as deals got worked through, followed by another burst of activity starting in December that slowed down significantly by this spring and early summer. Even with some investors leaving the PIPE market due to a fear of getting caught with losses, there remains plenty of institutional interest, Braeutigam said. “If you’re ready as a target company with your management team and financial readiness, you will be able to access and get a deal done with a SPAC because PIPE capital will be available.”

That would be a welcome development for the eight sports SPACs that formed last summer and are at or near the halfway market to get a deal done (14 of the 22 sports-related SPACs on the market the end of last summer have announced or closed mergers.)

The absence of deals hasn’t been for lack of trying. RedBall, for instance, reached an agreement with John Henry to bring Fenway Sports Group public in late 2020, a deal that fell apart when PIPE financiers balked at Fenway’s $8 billion valuation. Horizon II doggedly pursued Sportradar, another deal that fell through with PIPE backers due to a $10 billion valuation. Yet attempting deals doesn’t change the deadline SPACs face. By rule, SPACs can raise money from investors at an IPO but in exchange have to submit to a window in which they either complete a transaction or return the IPO money to shareholders and disband. Most SPACs chose 24 months as their window, though some are as short as 18 months and others choose to go up to 36 months. The big losers in the event of a SPAC disbanding: the sponsors, executives who fronted millions of dollars in underwriting and legal fees to bring the blank checks to market.

Right now, it appears SPACs with better-known executives and a lot of corporate funding to bring to a deal without PIPE funding appear to have the advantage.

“It’s gotten harder to get combinations done because the PIPE market is particularly difficult and the discounts from fair trading value are probably widening,” Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said on a call with analysts Friday. Liberty Media formed its own $500 million media-focused SPAC in late 2020, with the wrinkle the Atlanta Braves and Formula One owner would buy $250 million in shares to support the entity at merger time. “Weaker players have probably been washed out. We know of deals proposed at X price that didn’t get done at any price. I think that trend favors us.”

Still, Deloitte’s Braeutigam expects the SPAC market will continue to appeal for sports businesses, especially in sports betting and digital content delivery.

“Frankly, with all new forms of technology [it’s] an arms race for capital to get market share. We’ve see that in health tech, fintech, electric vehicles and I think we're going to see it in sports,” Braeutigam said. “They're going to need capital to garner that market share, and they’re going to need quick access to that capital. The sports arena is going to continue to look at SPACs for that reason."

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 4:08 pm

OffthePitch.com looks at the perilous financial position of clubs in Ligue 1

Ligue 1 clubs now owe more than they are due in player receivables: "They could all fall like dominos"
9 August 2021 3:00 PM
  • Clubs in France's top tier as of 2020 have more creditors than debtors from player transactions, the first time since 2017.
  • And it's not just a slight shift in balance – clubs collectively owe almost €200 million more than they have due.
  • The analysis comes amid an unprecedented financial situation, which also involves a failed TV deal and uncertainty over the return of fans.
  • While missing payment deadlines are usually harshly punished, governing bodies have been warned against cracking down on clubs due to a potential chain reaction.
EMIL GJERDING NIELSON AND JOSEPH MAILIL, ANALYST nielson@offthepitch.com

Clubs in France's top tier division now owe more than they are due in player receivables, according to an Off The Pitch analysis revealing a significant shift in balance for a league otherwise so dependable on transfer profits.

Figures from the Ligue de Football Professionnel's (LFP) recently published annual financial overview show clubs collectively as of 2020 had €728 million in creditors and just €540 million in debtors, representing a shift in balance not seen since 2017.

The analysis comes amid unprecedented financial turmoil brought on by a raging pandemic which contributed to the termination of the LFP's record Mediapro TV rights deal.

"Taking this into the context of Covid-19, missing matchday income and the issue with broadcasting rights, one has to wonder how clubs are going to plug that hole," says Hazel Venables, a lecturer in finance at UCFB.

Troubling liquidity ratio

To assess the financial situation Venables draws inspiration from the financial metric called the current ratio that is used to assess a company's liquidity through looking at its ability to pay short-term obligations. The current ratio is calculated simply by taking debtors over creditors.

With €763 million in debtors and €483 million in creditors Ligue 1 clubs' collective ratio stood at 1.58 in 2017/18. Meaning, for every €1.58 clubs had coming in they owed just €1.

The latest figures reveal a ratio of just 0.74 and as such tells an entirely different picture of the situation.

"You have to look at the sustainability of having the huge deficit. Where is the cash coming from?" Venables says with the caveat that it is unclear when exactly clubs' financial obligations fall due.

But, she says, in the context of the loss of income over the last 1.5 years and continued uncertainty over when stable revenue streams are restored, things are not looking too bright.

"This is an indication that at some point they have to plug the hole. They have to find the money and the income streams they were relying on now have different degrees of uncertainty as compared to the past," Venables says.

She emphasises it is important to look at the whole picture and not just a single financial variable.

Knock on effects

What is more worrying about the rising debt is that the corresponding downturn in income means some clubs are likely having troubling meeting their payables.

That could potentially be catastrophic for not just top teams, but also lower league clubs who are usually dependent on Ligue 1 clubs paying significant fees for their youth talent.

"PSG may owe Marseille who owe Lyon who owe somebody else. It's debt in the millions that could be a real issue," Venables says.

Usually, UEFA and FIFA's regulations are very strict when it comes to clubs missing their transfer payables. Clubs could face fines in the millions an even expulsion from club competitions if they have acted particularly egregiously.

However, Venables warns against imposing penalties as that would most likely further descend the situation into chaos.

"I don't think the regulations will be enforced at the moment because of the potential chain reaction. If you fine a club or prevent it from competing you are simply imposing more financial stress. They could all fall like dominos," she says.

Strengthening cash position

Fortunately for clubs most have been prudent in strengthening their cash position ahead of last season. Collectively, clubs' cash and cash equivalents rose 38 per cent to €389 million in 2019/20.

While clubs did decrease their spending on players last season by 45 per cent to just €460 million, their transfer balance still stood at negative €43 million, according to Transfermarkt. That means clubs will still be struggling with a cash squeeze.

"Lower spending will certainly help but if someone hasn't spent money someone hasn't earned money either, meaning they don’t have that income coming in," Venables says.

And clubs last season have likely not been as successful at stocking their cash piles due to the further deterioration of the situation with broadcasting income and overall depression of the European transfer market.

"I can't see how they would have generated huge amounts of cash last season if they were not selling players. The only way to get cash in is either in the form of soft loans or soft debt from owners or parent companies, or through raising capital," Venables says.

"That could give them the cash to pay these obligations. But you can only generate cash through operations, capital or debt, and I have to question how much cash they are getting in through regular operations."

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 4:52 pm

An interesting discussion of FFP with Dr Dan Plumley and the BloodRed Bottom Line podcast from the Liverpool Echo, incorporates the different approaches of Manchester City and Liverpool together with a thoughts of a salary cap in the English game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-rGWp3qYhY

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 6:46 pm

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:
Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:26 pm
https://twitter.com/AJIunit/status/1424 ... 79046?s=19

Something's going to be revealed tomorrow, speculation it's about Derby or Reading.
As predicted the Al Jezeera Investigation Unit piece heavily trailed yesterday is about Christopher Samuelson - and also about how interests can be supported in money Laundering, it also seems inextricably linked to other Investigations that the i:unit has done particularly around Cyprus.

This article focuses on a theme the mem who sell football - which itself has been an ongoing investigation for which there are now 3 associated podcasts - the third of which is linked to this article

the podcasts can be found here https://www.ajiunit.com/investigation/t ... orruption/

the associate article is here
https://www.ajiunit.com/article/investi ... der-money/

Investigation reveals how football can be used to launder money
Al Jazeera's Investigative unit exposes murky world of club ownership and how the football authorities’ rules can be abused.


9 AUG 2021

English football clubs can be bought by criminals to launder the proceeds of their crimes, an Al Jazeera undercover investigation has revealed.

The investigation delves into the murky world of club ownership in English football and exposes how rules are being abused.

The Men Who Sell Football shows middlemen telling undercover reporters how they can hide a criminal’s money and identity behind offshore trusts and submit fraudulent due-diligence reports to English football authorities.

It also shows how the same middlemen use “dirty tricks” and can obtain new passports for the criminals – with new names – to deceive football authorities.

Do you have information on corruption or want to share another tip? Contact Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit on +974 5080 0207 (WhatsApp/Signal), or find other ways to reach out on our Tips page.

“Football fans should be angry because the investigation shows the… vulnerability of the English football system to funds from dubious origins and unsuitable owners for their clubs,” Transparency International’s Ben Cowdock, who investigates money laundering, said.

“Al Jazeera’s investigation into football club ownership will be of great interest to the police and also the English football authorities.”

The Magician
Posing as agents for a fictitious wealthy Chinese criminal, I-Unit’s undercover reporters contact a middleman, Christopher Samuelson who helped them get to the brink of a deal to buy Derby County, one of England’s oldest football clubs and twice England champions in the 1970s.

Samuelson is a trust fund manager and football deal-maker known as “The Magician”.

According to offshore finance analyst Adrian Gatton, it has been said of Samuelson that he “can make an elephant disappear”, a reference to his skills in concealing funds using trust accounts.

This “ultimate man in the shadows”, was the subject of money-laundering investigations in several European countries but has never been charged.

The reporters told Samuelson their client, “Mr X”, had been convicted, and given a seven-year jail sentence, in absentia of bribery and money laundering, and had smuggled money out of China through casinos in Macau.

Now, he wanted to launder it by buying a football club, Samuelson was told.

The English Football League’s (EFL) Owners’ and Directors’ Test bars anybody who has an unspent criminal conviction with a sentence of more than 12 months from owning a club.

Unfazed by the client’s crimes, Samuelson gave a step-by-step guide on how he can use offshore trusts to hide the investor’s money and identity.

To hide Mr X’s conviction, Samuelson proposed using two so-called minority investors to “front” the Derby County purchase as joint shareholders of an offshore company.

They would sign a “Declaration of Trust” that they are holding shares for Mr X. Under this arrangement, Mr X’s identity would be concealed.

‘We’ll just manufacture it’
Samuelson told the undercover reporters he would make sure that the criminal investor would be approved by the EFL.

“I’ll come up with an idea of how we can structure it so we defeat the EFL. I can pressure the football league,” he told Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters. “We’ll manage it. We’ll just manufacture it.”

Samuelson took the reporters to Derby, where they met Mel Morris, owner of the club, to discuss a 99-million pound ($137m) deal to buy Derby County. Morris suggested he become a minority shareholder.

Samuelson has long been a player in international business. In the 1990s, he helped build Valmet, one of the world’s biggest offshore trust companies.

His companies moved hundreds of millions of dollars out of Russia for oligarchs, including Boris Berezovsky and “Badri” Patarkatsishvili.

In 2004, he arranged a deal using opaque offshore trusts for a secretive Russian tycoon to buy Premier League club, Everton.

The deal fell through after the tycoon’s name, Boris Zingarevich, was leaked to the media.

In 2012 and 2016 respectively, he set up deals for the purchase of two English clubs – Reading and Aston Villa. Both were taken to the brink of financial ruin under mysterious new owners.

Samuelson told Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters how he and an associate, private investigator and former Scotland Yard detective Keith Hunter, use “dirty tricks” to seal the deals.

During a meeting with Al Jazeera undercover reporters, Hunter confirmed that he obtained a British journalist’s private telephone records to find the “mole” who leaked Zingarevich’s name.

In the case of Aston Villa, “we were monitoring what the football league was saying behind the scenes”, Samuelson said. “They didn’t know this, of course,” he added.

An internal Scotland Yard report obtained by the I-Unit shows that Hunter was investigated, but not charged, by the anti-corruption team and was suspected to be “an aggressive corruptor of serving Metropolitan Police Service staff”.

Cypriot passport
Samuelson and Hunter said they could help the undercover reporters obtain a new passport for their client, and give him a new name to completely deceive the football authorities.

“We’ve done this many, many times for others who, I can assure you, are in a worse position than your boss,” Hunter said.

Hunter then introduced Al Jazeera’s undercover operatives to contacts in Cyprus.

In a series of meetings, a network of enablers, including an MP and the de facto deputy president, expressed willingness to help the non-existent criminal investor obtain an EU passport with a new name, even though a criminal conviction should disqualify someone who applied through the country’s passport-for-investment scheme.

This investigation into Cyprus passports was released in October 2020 and led to high-level resignations, EU and Cyprus government investigations, the scrapping of the passport scheme and weeks of anti-corruption demonstrations in Cyprus.

Responses by those involved
In response to the I-Unit’s findings, Samuelson’s lawyers said he was never told that Mr X had a criminal conviction for money laundering and bribery and that, had he known of any criminality, he would have ended discussions immediately.

Hunter refused to engage with the details of our findings but said that he strongly disputed most of them.

Hunter said he left the police with an exemplary record.

Morris told Al Jazeera the club would only be sold to “appropriate custodians” and that they had not had any “formal association” with Samuelson for some time.

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 7:00 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Aug 09, 2021 6:46 pm
As predicted the Al Jezeera Investigation Unit piece heavily trailed yesterday is about Christopher Samuelson - and also about how interests can be supported in money Laundering, it also seems inextricably linked to other Investigations that the i:unit has done particularly around Cyprus.

This article focuses on a theme the mem who sell football - which itself has been an ongoing investigation for which there are now 3 associated podcasts - the third of which is linked to this article

the podcasts can be found here https://www.ajiunit.com/investigation/t ... orruption/

the associate article is here
https://www.ajiunit.com/article/investi ... der-money/

Investigation reveals how football can be used to launder money
Al Jazeera's Investigative unit exposes murky world of club ownership and how the football authorities’ rules can be abused.


9 AUG 2021

English football clubs can be bought by criminals to launder the proceeds of their crimes, an Al Jazeera undercover investigation has revealed.

The investigation delves into the murky world of club ownership in English football and exposes how rules are being abused.

The Men Who Sell Football shows middlemen telling undercover reporters how they can hide a criminal’s money and identity behind offshore trusts and submit fraudulent due-diligence reports to English football authorities.

It also shows how the same middlemen use “dirty tricks” and can obtain new passports for the criminals – with new names – to deceive football authorities.

Do you have information on corruption or want to share another tip? Contact Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit on +974 5080 0207 (WhatsApp/Signal), or find other ways to reach out on our Tips page.

“Football fans should be angry because the investigation shows the… vulnerability of the English football system to funds from dubious origins and unsuitable owners for their clubs,” Transparency International’s Ben Cowdock, who investigates money laundering, said.

“Al Jazeera’s investigation into football club ownership will be of great interest to the police and also the English football authorities.”

The Magician
Posing as agents for a fictitious wealthy Chinese criminal, I-Unit’s undercover reporters contact a middleman, Christopher Samuelson who helped them get to the brink of a deal to buy Derby County, one of England’s oldest football clubs and twice England champions in the 1970s.

Samuelson is a trust fund manager and football deal-maker known as “The Magician”.

According to offshore finance analyst Adrian Gatton, it has been said of Samuelson that he “can make an elephant disappear”, a reference to his skills in concealing funds using trust accounts.

This “ultimate man in the shadows”, was the subject of money-laundering investigations in several European countries but has never been charged.

The reporters told Samuelson their client, “Mr X”, had been convicted, and given a seven-year jail sentence, in absentia of bribery and money laundering, and had smuggled money out of China through casinos in Macau.

Now, he wanted to launder it by buying a football club, Samuelson was told.

The English Football League’s (EFL) Owners’ and Directors’ Test bars anybody who has an unspent criminal conviction with a sentence of more than 12 months from owning a club.

Unfazed by the client’s crimes, Samuelson gave a step-by-step guide on how he can use offshore trusts to hide the investor’s money and identity.

To hide Mr X’s conviction, Samuelson proposed using two so-called minority investors to “front” the Derby County purchase as joint shareholders of an offshore company.

They would sign a “Declaration of Trust” that they are holding shares for Mr X. Under this arrangement, Mr X’s identity would be concealed.

‘We’ll just manufacture it’
Samuelson told the undercover reporters he would make sure that the criminal investor would be approved by the EFL.

“I’ll come up with an idea of how we can structure it so we defeat the EFL. I can pressure the football league,” he told Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters. “We’ll manage it. We’ll just manufacture it.”

Samuelson took the reporters to Derby, where they met Mel Morris, owner of the club, to discuss a 99-million pound ($137m) deal to buy Derby County. Morris suggested he become a minority shareholder.

Samuelson has long been a player in international business. In the 1990s, he helped build Valmet, one of the world’s biggest offshore trust companies.

His companies moved hundreds of millions of dollars out of Russia for oligarchs, including Boris Berezovsky and “Badri” Patarkatsishvili.

In 2004, he arranged a deal using opaque offshore trusts for a secretive Russian tycoon to buy Premier League club, Everton.

The deal fell through after the tycoon’s name, Boris Zingarevich, was leaked to the media.

In 2012 and 2016 respectively, he set up deals for the purchase of two English clubs – Reading and Aston Villa. Both were taken to the brink of financial ruin under mysterious new owners.

Samuelson told Al Jazeera’s undercover reporters how he and an associate, private investigator and former Scotland Yard detective Keith Hunter, use “dirty tricks” to seal the deals.

During a meeting with Al Jazeera undercover reporters, Hunter confirmed that he obtained a British journalist’s private telephone records to find the “mole” who leaked Zingarevich’s name.

In the case of Aston Villa, “we were monitoring what the football league was saying behind the scenes”, Samuelson said. “They didn’t know this, of course,” he added.

An internal Scotland Yard report obtained by the I-Unit shows that Hunter was investigated, but not charged, by the anti-corruption team and was suspected to be “an aggressive corruptor of serving Metropolitan Police Service staff”.

Cypriot passport
Samuelson and Hunter said they could help the undercover reporters obtain a new passport for their client, and give him a new name to completely deceive the football authorities.

“We’ve done this many, many times for others who, I can assure you, are in a worse position than your boss,” Hunter said.

Hunter then introduced Al Jazeera’s undercover operatives to contacts in Cyprus.

In a series of meetings, a network of enablers, including an MP and the de facto deputy president, expressed willingness to help the non-existent criminal investor obtain an EU passport with a new name, even though a criminal conviction should disqualify someone who applied through the country’s passport-for-investment scheme.

This investigation into Cyprus passports was released in October 2020 and led to high-level resignations, EU and Cyprus government investigations, the scrapping of the passport scheme and weeks of anti-corruption demonstrations in Cyprus.

Responses by those involved
In response to the I-Unit’s findings, Samuelson’s lawyers said he was never told that Mr X had a criminal conviction for money laundering and bribery and that, had he known of any criminality, he would have ended discussions immediately.

Hunter refused to engage with the details of our findings but said that he strongly disputed most of them.

Hunter said he left the police with an exemplary record.

Morris told Al Jazeera the club would only be sold to “appropriate custodians” and that they had not had any “formal association” with Samuelson for some time.
There is some interesting stuff in the podcast about a failed investment in Everton in the noughties where the clubs CFO leaked the info to the Times which resulted in the Russian Investment not happening

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 7:15 pm

I have just worked out that all 3 of those Al Jezeera Investigates podcasts - for the Men who Sell Football - are part of the same story and have all bee released today - they are all well worth your time (less than 90 minutes in all)

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by GodIsADeeJay81 » Mon Aug 09, 2021 7:21 pm

https://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/2021/a ... its-fans-/

Reading FC statement about its embargo etc

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 8:41 pm

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Aug 09, 2021 4:52 pm
An interesting discussion of FFP with Dr Dan Plumley and the BloodRed Bottom Line podcast from the Liverpool Echo, incorporates the different approaches of Manchester City and Liverpool together with a thoughts of a salary cap in the English game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-rGWp3qYhY
as a follow up to that discussion what about this

Welcome to the level playing field of the Premier League - John Stones (who improved enormously last season agrees a new 5 year deal that sees him probably getsportwitness.co.uk paid more than Burnley's first choice back 5 of Pope, Tarkowski, Mee and Taylor

https://twitter.com/David_Ornstein/stat ... 9284310030

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 9:02 pm

for me one of the better things about Covid and it's consequential financial impact on the game is that to some extent it is punishing clubs for their previous ill though largesse, particularly the wages lavished on players who were prospects not the fully honed article, that now need to be shifted to allow more capable talent into their club. Though in reality this an issue that was manifesting itself prior to the pandemic, and something yhat I have posted about a few times. Here Rory Smith of The New York Times looks at the difficulties the greedy six and those that want to be part of their club are facing this summer

Paying the Price for Premier League Riches
AUGUST 07, 2021

The headed clearance did not quite get the requisite power, or direction. It floated, rather than fizzed, out of Brentford’s penalty area, the danger not quite clear. Two Manchester United players converged on it, sensing opportunity. The ball bounced off the turf, not too high, not too quick, and hung in the air for just a second. And that is where Andreas Pereira met it.

There is a reason some Manchester United fans have come to know Pereira — with equal parts affection and admonishment — as the Preseason Pirlo. It is in the exploratory exchanges, the warm-up fixtures and the touring exhibitions, where he does his best work. Once meaning is introduced to the games, once the season gets down to business, Pereira tends to fade from sight.

Perhaps that is the sort of player he is: undeniably talented, often capable of the spectacular, but too much of a luxury to fit into a tightly defined system. Perhaps it is lack of opportunity or managerial trust. Perhaps he falls — and this is no criticism — just a shade below the level required to thrive at a club as grand, and as demanding, as Manchester United.

Whatever the reason, the chance against Brentford was his sort of moment. Pereira was first to the bouncing ball. He pulled his right leg back, catching the ball at its apex, and cracked a volley toward goal, where it hit the underside of the bar and dropped like a stone. Not quite half full, Old Trafford’s crowd stood, open-mouthed, to applaud.

After the game, Pereira used his sudden spotlight to issue a cri de coeur. He stood ready to serve, he said. He just needed United’s manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, to give him a run, he said. He was ready to compete for a place, to play regularly, to show that — at age 25, almost a decade after he first moved to Manchester — he was a man, not a boy.

His plea will, in all likelihood, fall on deaf ears. Even with uncertainty hovering over the future of Paul Pogba, Solskjaer has an abundance of options in his central midfield: Bruno Fernandes, Scott McTominay, Fred, Nemanja Matic, Donny van de Beek. Having committed more than $140 million to sign Jadon Sancho and Raphaël Varane, the club needs to balance the books. No matter how much he looks like Andrea Pirlo in the preseason, Pereira will be sold, if a suitable offer arrives.

Pereira is not the only player in that bind. Diogo Dalot, a Portuguese fullback, also featured in that game at Old Trafford late last month. So did Jesse Lingard. Like Pereira, Lingard spent last season out on loan. Like Pereira’s, his departure this summer from United would most likely be accepted as an economic — and to some extent sporting — necessity. Like Pereira, Lingard had a chance to play in preseason because many of Solskjaer’s first-choice players have been given extended breaks after featuring in the European Championship and the Copa América.

There are more — many more — players like them across the upper echelons of the Premier League. A couple of days after United played Brentford, Arsenal hosted Chelsea in another tuneup game. Arsenal’s team included Mohamed Elneny and Sead Kolasinac; Chelsea, the European champion, introduced the likes of Davide Zappacosta, Danny Drinkwater and Ross Barkley from the bench. All of them, too, are available to the highest bidder. Or, in fact, any bidder.

It is the same situation at Liverpool — where Xherdan Shaqiri, Nat Phillips and Divock Origi have been part of Jürgen Klopp’s preseason camp — and at Manchester City, where even Patrick Roberts, a wing who has spent the last five years out on loan, has managed an appearance in recent weeks. But City cannot attract bids for Riyad Mahrez or Bernardo Silva, let alone Roberts. Tottenham would like to clear the decks, too, but it has been unable to find a buyer for Serge Aurier, Moussa Sissoko or Harry Winks.

None of these players, with the possible exceptions of Silva and Mahrez, are likely to feature regularly for their clubs once the season starts next weekend. They are all, to some extent, now more useful to their teams as potential sources of income — not so much as defenders or midfielders or forwards but as assets to be sold, to free up space and to raise funds.

And yet, with only a few weeks left in the transfer window, they all remain firmly in place. It is not because they lack talent. It is not, necessarily, because of a shortage of suitors: There are plenty of teams for whom all of those players would be fine recruits. The problem, instead, is money: They all earn too much of it, and the teams that might desire them do not have enough of it.

It is an issue that does not just apply to England. No team in Europe requires funds quite so much as Barcelona, with its stratospheric salary bill and its apparent inability to find a way to sign Lionel Messi to a new contract, while somehow staying within La Liga’s financial rules.

It has attempted to shed some of its high earners, too, but with no luck so far. Samuel Umtiti, Miralem Pjanic and Philippe Coutinho and all of the others are still there, at Camp Nou, pinned down by the sheer weight of their contracts. There are plenty of clubs out there that would be delighted to have any of them. And there are some that could afford a transfer fee and their salaries. Those two groups, though, do not intersect.

This is precisely the problem — albeit a scaled-up, more urgent iteration of it — facing clubs across the Premier League. Their surplus players would make fine assets for teams across Europe, but no club that wants them can afford them.

The most immediate explanation for that, of course, is the coronavirus pandemic: a year of hosting games in empty stadiums, along with the rebates due to the broadcasters that have kept the game afloat, has led to purse strings being tightened and reduced budgets.

But there is a deeper issue at play, too. Over the last few years, the teams of the Premier League — alongside a cadre of continental superclubs — have gloried in recruiting as many of the best players on the planet as possible. They have done so by offering them far higher salaries than they could feasibly obtain elsewhere.

The on-field consequences of that trend have been clear. The Premier League stands alone as the most competitive domestic competition in the world; the rest of Europe’s major leagues have come to be seen as the private fiefs of a handful of elite clubs. It is only now, though, accelerated by the pandemic, that we can see the off-field impact.

The player trading market that underpins the activities of every club in Europe — even in the Premier League, insulated from the worst of the downturn by its vast television revenues — is fundamentally fractured. The salaries on offer at English teams, and at the likes of Barcelona, are way out of step with what everyone else can afford to play.

For years, that has brought an impressive reward: The Premier League has gloried in its financial potency. Now, though, the cost is becoming clear. England’s elite are able to buy, but — sufficiently detached from the rest of their peers — they are increasingly unable to sell.

Pereira, as one example, most likely could not earn what he does at Old Trafford if he moved to the sort of team, in Italy or in Spain, that might be interested in his services: Lazio, say, or Valencia. Even if he was prepared to accept a lower salary, and willing to join a lower-profile club, United would have to pay out the rest of his contract, as it did with Alexis Sanchez.

And even then, signing Pereira — still relatively youthful at 25 — might appeal less to one of those clubs than picking up a younger, cheaper model, with greater resale value, from France, Belgium or Portugal, where prices have dropped precipitously as a result of the pandemic: the very same rationale that means selling players to other Premier League teams is not proving as easy as, perhaps, everybody thought. The unwanted reserves of the great English teams and the overpaid castoffs of the super-clubs are too old, too expensive, too much risk and too little reward.

For some of those players, there will be a way out. Moves will materialize once liquidity pours into the market. Pereira may get a chance to prove his Andrea Pirlo tribute act can endure after the start of the season. More creative, lower risk deals — loans with options for future purchase, in particular, offsetting the cost — may rescue others.

Still more, though, will remain where they are, stuck in limbo, not valued enough by their current employer but valued far too highly by everyone else. In doing so, they will absorb not only money but space and time in squads increasingly laden with unwanted passengers.

The pattern is one that England’s teams would do well to heed, as they consider how best to exercise their financial superiority in what has become, and is likely to stay, a buyer’s market. How much of that money they can spend, of course, may define how much success they enjoy today. It is how well they spend it, though, that will define what tomorrow looks like.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Aug 09, 2021 9:49 pm

I missed this last week and I am somewhat surprised that more has not been made of the fact that the Premier League has updated it;s rukes and introduced an Owners Charter to prevent a future super League - from Sky sports.com - the article does tend to wander though

https://www.skysports.com/football/news ... per-league

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Aug 10, 2021 12:46 am

An interesting read from Forbes.com, on the engaging of distant fans with new technology while referencing a shirt sponsorship deal (Simon Chadwick probably makes a better point on that element here https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 4418272260). I get the detail, the technology and most of all trying to give distant fans a sense of participation and belonging to a community of shared interest/fandom - I just find it exploitative and more than a little contrived (particularly in it's current guise). The more the game pursues money the more it loses it's soul is probably what I am trying to say

Jul 29, 2021,08:39am EDT|3,645 views
What Brands Can Learn From Italian Soccer Club AS Roma’s $42 Million NFT Partnership
Cathy Hackl
Cathy HacklContributor
CMO Network
I’m a tech futurist & speaker with expertise in AR VR & the Metaverse.


From Tom Brady’s deal with Draft Kings to Team Great Britain becoming the first Olympic team to launch an official NFT collection, every week brings with it new announcements from the world of sports, cryptocurrency and NFTs.

This week one of Italy’s most recognized teams, AS Roma, announced a $42 Million, 3-year exclusive partnership with blockchain fintech Zytara Labs. According to Coindesk, this partnership probably represents the most notable sponsorship deal between a soccer club and blockchain firm to date.

The soccer team's famous red and yellow shirts will bear the branding of the DigitalBits blockchain, whose foundation is supporting the partnership. Additionally, the club will use the DigitalBits blockchain to create digital player cards and digital collectible NFTs of current and historical moments in the Club's near 100-year history. They will also integrate DigitalBits native token, which is called XDB, as a new purchasing method. This will allow AS Roma fans to interact with the club in blockchain-based shared virtual worlds, and reward fans in possession of the teams digital assets, NFTs, and XDB tokens access to new live experiences like game day activations from inside the stadium.

So what can brands learn about this partnership? Here are 3 key takeaways from this branding partnership.

Engaging A New Generation Of Fans

In the first half of 2020, the pandemic limited extremely attractive opportunities for new brand integration deals, forcing many brands to rethink their digital approach. It made brands look to the metaverse for ways to reach younger consumers who are more tech-savvy and want to create powerful emotional connections with brands. As a result, we saw brands are willing to invest in strategic integration of their logos and products in new ways that will help expose their assets in new, meaningful ways.

"Partnerships like the one are the beginning of NFT experiences that take fans beyond transactional shopping offerings, which provide only ownership of a digital asset in an idle wallet. Brands and sports teams alike start seeking the additional Layer of NFT utility, which embodies gamification mechanics and contextual meaning, said Tommaso Di Bartolo, Silicon Valley based UC Berkeley Faculty, serial-entrepreneur, author and startup investor.

With this partnership AS Roma is expanding the collective imagination of what it means for fans to be connected to their teams, the future of branding is bright with new technologies like the blockchain, which can help prioritize the security, speed, and cost-savings benefit of industries such as professional sports and reach a new generation of fans that think digital first and find digital ownership attractive.

According to Kathleen Hessert, President of Sports Media Challenge, ”teams have always had displaced loyal fans living far outside of the team’s geographic footprint. Most of those fans never even have the opportunity to attend an in-person event. By building a virtual stadium and experiences in the Metaverse, teams enable young, digitally savvy fans to more deeply engage their chosen team no matter where they live.“

Tokenized Economies & Future of Branding
With new tech comes great responsibility. But for brands, big and small, the ability to capitalize on new trends and technologies can help them to redefine the relationship between the brand and the consumer.

This partnership points to a large and historical sports organization looking for ways to better connect with its own players, while bridging the gap between the team and its fans. This is the modern-day definition of brand and customer loyalty.

With the ability to integrate and accept a native blockchain-based digital assets and collectibles, giving fans access to virtual worlds and allowing them to access special activations because of their fandom can be a game changer for sports marketing.

“In bringing professional sports organizations like AS Roma into tokenized economies, we are lending validity to the idea that its athletes are walking brands - which require consistent attention to their name, image, and likeness,” said internet attorney and CEO of AR Media Consulting, Andrew Rossow.

Athletes Are Ready to Take Their Name Image And Likeness (NIL) To The Next Level
With the emergence of cryptocurrency, athletes are paying closer attention to how they invest their money and how they monetize their personal brands. AS Roma’s deal allows the club to bring its athletes into the crypto ecosystem faster and allows them to become more knowledgeable about digital currencies too.

Many players in the US are already moving in this direction. Take former Kansas City Chiefs’ Sean Culkin who previously announced his decision to convert his entire NFL salary to Bitcoin, becoming the first NFL player to convert his entire salary to Bitcoin, according to ESPN. Or Carolina Panthers veteran offensive lineman Russell Okung who back in December announced that approximately half of his 2020 salary would be converted to Bitcoin.

According to Rossow, this has the potential to re-shape the ways in which these contracts are drawn up, forcing businesses of all types to educate themselves on the world of decentralized finance and financial literacy.

With the NCAA’s recent decision to allow college athletes to monetize their name, image, and likeness with professional agencies, the power of cryptocurrency is just starting to be explored.

“Many student-athletes who have begun to make money from their personal brands are putting out run of the mill content marketing that represents the low hanging fruit,” explained Hessert. “The more savvy and strategic among them are signing with professional agents and quickly pushing the limits of their personal brands. For the most marketing-centric athletes, will take a longer term strategic approach and learn to include AR, VR and explore NFTs to separate themselves from thousands of young new competitors.”

AS Roma, DigitalBits and Zytara Labs, are hoping this partnership will demonstrating how blockchain technology can be leveraged to elevate the connection between sports teams and their community of fans and supporters, on their way to reaching new audiences, allowing the players to elevate their brands further and expand their brand further into the digital world.

Cathy Hackl is a globally recognized tech futurist. She’s a business executive, keynote speaker & strategist with deep expertise in AR, VR, spatial computing, virtual goods, virtual worlds & the Metaverse. One of the most influential women in tech, Hackl is considered a leading management thinker by Thinkers50 & a top technology voice on LinkedIn. She founded the Futures Intelligence Group & has worked for some of the biggest names in tech including Amazon Web Services, Magic Leap & HTC VIVE

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Aug 10, 2021 1:54 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Mon Aug 09, 2021 12:09 am
Alexandre Dreyfus keeps on telling us that the Chiliz/Socios platform is about fan engagement not about investing in ownership so why is he bragging about this market price rise in PSG fan tokens on the back of Messi rumours (and the subsequent drop in value at Barcelona).

https://twitter.com/alex_dreyfus/status ... 5603222529
Something very strange going on here with socios and it certainly does not seem to be about fan engagement

https://twitter.com/alex_dreyfus/status ... 6268252161

Martin Calladine is right wake up EFL and Premier League
https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1424856570651942918

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Aug 10, 2021 2:07 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Aug 10, 2021 1:54 am
Something very strange going on here with socios and it certainly does not seem to be about fan engagement

https://twitter.com/alex_dreyfus/status ... 6268252161

Martin Calladine is right wake up EFL and Premier League
https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1424856570651942918
I should add that is $2 billion in trades of tokens in the last 3 days

this is what Martin Calladine had to say yesterday as Dreyfus bigged up the trade in PSG tokens

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1424614086080409607

It is totally scandalous, this is fans being deeply exploited not brought into the "bosom" of their favoured club

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Aug 10, 2021 2:15 am

Chester Perry wrote:
Tue Aug 10, 2021 2:07 am
I should add that is $2 billion in trades of tokens in the last 3 days

this is what Martin Calladine had to say yesterday as Dreyfus bigged up the trade in PSG tokens

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1424614086080409607

It is totally scandalous, this is fans being deeply exploited not brought into the "bosom" of their favoured club
A reminder that the four Premier League clubs who have recently signed up to join this exploitation are Manchester City, Arsenal, Everton and Leeds United - only City have gone live yet as far as I am aware

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by IanMcL » Tue Aug 10, 2021 2:49 am

Paul Waine wrote:
Thu Aug 05, 2021 3:15 pm
It's the same "money grab" as all the rest of the "money grabbing" that has gone on in football for several decades. If the national teams are competing in World Cups every two years, including qualifying games, the national teams will become the top of the pyramid. National leagues will only become feeders into the national team. Maybe the national teams will have A, B and C teams (and maybe add a few more). Maybe the "billionaire" club owners can aspire to become the owners of national teams.

I guess we can't have too much of a good thing, eh! ;) :( :o
I think that's where the clubs stamp their feet. What's the point of an International team? Football starts with your club. Internationals are to recognise the best, from time to time, not steal them from their owners!
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Aug 10, 2021 1:03 pm

Different perspectives on football fandom

- trading "fan tokens" so you can "influence" your club on made up decisions and generate profits for someone not at your club

https://twitter.com/alex_dreyfus/status ... 6268252161

- recording every game you have ever attended as soon as you get back home in a ledger that you can refer to and treasure for a lifetime

https://twitter.com/TonyIncenzo/status/ ... 9668013056

I know which I think is more valuable and does more to preserve the soul of the game, what about you

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Aug 10, 2021 1:23 pm

A new statement from Real Madrid in regard to the CVC deal with La Liga - translated from the Club website, I expect Barcelona to make a similar statement

Official Press Release
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10/08/2021

The Board of Directors of Real Madrid C. F., meeting today at 11:00 am, has unanimously agreed to carry out both civil and criminal legal actions against the president of LaLiga, Mr. Javier Tebas Medrano, against Mr. Javier de Jaime Guijarro responsible for the CVC Fund and against the CVC Capital Partners SICAV-FIS Fund itself.

Likewise, the Board of Directors has also decided to carry out the legal actions of all kinds that are understood to be appropriate to cancel and cancel the possible agreements adopted by the Assembly of LaLiga, to be held on August 12, 2021, regarding the agreement between LaLiga and the CVC
Fund.

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