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 » Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:05 pm

The Spanish Football Federation have backed down on a plan to replace Adidas as Shirt supplier part way through a 7 year deal and now have agreed a 4 year extension to the existing deal - funny that Adidas could afford better lawyers than them

https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/adid ... s-subside/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 12, 2019 12:09 am

We have all heard of bonuses for success in football (and not even for that in far too many cases) but this latest revelation from Barcelona may explain a portion of their ridiculously high wage bill - apparently any player that won a European trophy with the club gets a lifetime salary

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... ayers.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 12, 2019 10:38 am

@SwissRamble does his thing with Norwich City's finances following the publishing of their 2018/19 financial results

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 9358824448" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 12, 2019 12:52 pm

A bit of detail (and a lot of hype) around the Sheffield Utd ownership furore that is going to the appeal court

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... -club.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am sure that the Footbal League will be looking closely at the commercial valuations of Bramall Lane and the training ground especially as to how they compare to Pride Park, Hillsbrough and Villa Park

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 12, 2019 1:10 pm

I have pointed out a few times the difference between the media hype re the numbers of tv viewers for games and the reality - here, after the weekends big game at Anfield, John Nicholson takes his turn

https://www.football365.com/news/liverp ... ing-orgasm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 12, 2019 1:14 pm

Many fans would object to players going on strike (even when they are regularly paid late) but can you call it a strike if you are not insured by your club (which is supposed to be professional) Macclesfield's players are in limbo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50383149" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 12, 2019 11:30 pm

The EFL commence an investigation into Macclesfield repeated failures to pay it's staff on time - just don't think that they are being pro-active, the rules do not allow it

https://www.efl.com/news/2019/november/ ... ield-town/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 13, 2019 12:42 am

In post #2262 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=2261" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) I linked the fines list at Real Madrid - here we see the fines at Frank Lampard's Chelsea - being late for training will cost more than many in Burnley earn in a year!!! - it is one way to reduce the wage bill I suppose

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... ealed.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 13, 2019 11:09 am

Remember when Fifa president Gianni Infantino, back in 2018, told his board to let him close a $25bn deal with this lot (Softbank) within 60 days ... they didn’t let him. A close escape? - From the New York Times (like my other posts on them it is a long one)

The SoftBank Effect: How $100 Billion Left Workers in a Hole
SoftBank poured money into start-ups that use armies of contractors. That has upended the lives of drivers, hotel operators and real estate agents around the world.
By Nathaniel Popper, Vindu Goel and Arjun Harindranath - Nov. 12, 2019

For five years, Sunil Solankey, a retired captain in the Indian Army, had run the 20-room Four Sight Hotel in a New Delhi suburb. Business was steady, but he longed to make the establishment a destination for lucrative business travelers.

Last year, a hospitality start-up called Oyo told Mr. Solankey that it would turn the Four Sight into a flagship hotel for corporate customers. It guaranteed him monthly payments whether the rooms were booked or not, as long as he rebranded the property with Oyo’s name and sold the rooms exclusively through its site.

At Oyo’s request, Mr. Solankey sank 600,000 rupees, or $8,400, into reupholstering the hotel’s furniture and adding new linens. But corporate guests did not materialize, and Oyo stopped making the payments. Now he is on the verge of eviction.

Mr. Solankey is one of millions of workers and small-business people who worked with start-ups financed by the biggest venture capital fund in history, the $100 billion Vision Fund run by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. The fund was part of a flood of money that has washed over the world in the past decade — and that has upended people’s lives when the start-ups broke their promises.

Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s chief executive, was hailed as a kingmaker in 2016 when he unveiled the Vision Fund. Using the cash hoard, Mr. Son poured money into fledgling companies across the world, many of which have a business model of hiring contractors who deliver their services. Above all, he urged these start-ups to grow as fast as possible.

Many of the young companies used SoftBank’s cash to dangle incentives and other payments to quickly attract as many workers as they could. But when they failed to make a profit and SoftBank changed its tune on growth, the companies often slashed or reneged on those same incentives.

That has now left contractors like Mr. Solankey holding the bag. With little power to fight back, many of them have been financially and personally devastated.

The New York Times reviewed contracts and internal company documents, and interviewed more than 50 workers with SoftBank-funded start-ups like Oyo, the delivery firm Rappi and the real estate brokerage Compass in places such as Chicago, New Delhi, Beijing and Bogotá, Colombia. What emerged was a pattern that repeated across the world: a distinctly modern version of the bait-and-switch.

“These start-ups try to get workers attracted to them and bring them within the fold,” said Uma Rani, a researcher at the International Labor Organization who is surveying start-up contractors in emerging economies. “When the workers attach to the whole thing and are highly dependent on it, then you slash it. This is something we are systematically seeing.”

SoftBank’s Vision Fund is an emblem of a broader phenomenon known as “overcapitalization” — essentially, too much cash. Venture funds inundated start-ups with more than $207 billion last year, or almost twice the amount invested globally during the dot-com peak in 2000, according to CB Insights, a firm that tracks private companies.

Flush with the cash, entrepreneurs operated with scant oversight and little regard for profit. All the while, SoftBank and other investors have valued these start-ups at inflated levels, leading to an overheated system filled with unsound businesses. When the companies try to cash out by going public, some have run into hurdles.

At two of SoftBank’s biggest investments, WeWork and Uber, some of these issues have become public. Uber, the ride-hailing service, staged an underwhelming initial public offering in May and posted a $1.2 billion loss last week. WeWork, the office leasing company, recently ousted its chief executive and accepted a rescue plan from SoftBank as its value was cut. Last week, SoftBank reported a $4.6 billion hit from its WeWork investment.

“Since the money started pouring out of SoftBank, they have completely distorted the priorities and focus of young ventures around the world,” said Len Sherman, a Columbia Business School professor.

SoftBank backs companies in a variety of industries. The Vision Fund’s 88 investments include the e-commerce firm Coupang in Seoul, South Korea, and the messaging company Slack in San Francisco. And SoftBank is far from the only firm to invest in start-ups that rely on contractors.

But none have invested as widely in these companies as SoftBank. The Vision Fund, which is nearly 10 times larger than the next-biggest venture fund, has 16 of them in its portfolio. Several are among its largest investments.

The model of using contractors, which has defined the last decade of start-up investing, has created work opportunities. But among people who are most dependent on these companies, unrest is growing.

Protests against SoftBank-funded start-ups have erupted in New York, Bogotá, Mumbai and beyond, with many captured on video and posted to YouTube. Some of the videos, which have been viewed thousands of times, showed chanting workers or destruction of property. All displayed a visible frustration.

In China alone, three SoftBank-backed companies — the logistics firm Manbang, the ride-sharing service Didi Chuxing and the food delivery company Ele.me — faced 32 strikes last year, according to data gathered for The Times by the China Labour Bulletin.

Jeff Housenbold, a managing partner at SoftBank’s Vision Fund, said, “This is an important, complex issue that predates the Vision Fund and affects many companies we haven’t backed in equal measure.”

That is of little comfort to contractors like Mr. Solankey. “I am in the pit,” he said.

‘The Global SoftBank’

In an investor call in 2015, Mr. Son said he was embarking on SoftBank’s second stage. He called it “the global SoftBank.”


Mr. Son, now 62, the child of Korean immigrants to Japan, had built the company into a telecom conglomerate. He had also successfully invested in the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba in the 1990s.

Now he wanted to diversify. In late 2014, SoftBank started by putting hundreds of millions of dollars into three ride-hailing companies that copied Uber: India’s Ola, GrabTaxi in Southeast Asia and China’s Kuaidi Dache, which later merged with its biggest rival, Didi.

Mr. Son made it clear the money was for growth. “We always work toward further growth, and we will sow seeds for the further growth,” he said at the time.

When he announced the $100 billion Vision Fund, the biggest contributions came from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, with smaller investments from companies like Apple.

Few venture funds had raised even $1 billion before. Mr. Son said he wanted the money to go to companies pursuing artificial intelligence and the “Singularity,” when computers become smarter than humans.

But he was enamored with Uber-like businesses that used contractors. “Uber, using internet, changed the business model,” he said in 2016. SoftBank invested in Uber two years later.

Over time, SoftBank and start-ups with contractors became mutually dependent. SoftBank needed places to deploy its billions, and it often provided $100 million or more at a time to these companies. The start-ups needed vast sums to attract workers.

At Ola, where SoftBank was the largest shareholder, 62 percent of what drivers earned in 2016 came from investor money rather than fares, according to the data firm RedSeer.

When some of the start-ups cut costs, often prodded by SoftBank, they reduced payments to workers. Many contractors said they wanted to stop working with the start-ups, but couldn’t because of upfront investments they had to pay off.

In response, drivers for Grab smashed the windows of the company’s offices in Jakarta, Indonesia, last year. At a 2017 demonstration against Ola in Bangalore, India, one driver set himself on fire and another drank poison.

Last week, when Mr. Son discussed SoftBank’s earnings, he said: “I learned a lot of lessons, but no change in our strategy. We don’t see any rough sea.”

‘It Is Suicidal for Me’
SoftBank’s money barreled into Mr. Solankey’s hotel in July 2018.

That month, Oyo told the hotelier it would bring him high-paying corporate travelers if he joined its network and upgraded the property. Under the arrangement, Oyo guaranteed him monthly payments of 700,000 rupees, or around $10,000, for three years, according to a contract viewed by The Times.

Mr. Solankey, now 63, agreed.

But within a year, the payments evaporated. Instead of business customers, unmarried couples looking for private rooms turned up. And Oyo discounted the rooms so much online that Mr. Solankey could not offer them to guests at a higher price.

“It is suicidal for me,” he said while sitting recently in his hotel’s empty restaurant.

Oyo said Mr. Solankey had misrepresented the health of his business before signing the contract.

Oyo was founded in 2013 as a website to organize and standardize India’s budget hotels. It coaxes small hotels to become Oyo-branded destinations that list exclusively on its site, without its having to own most of the properties.

SoftBank, which began investing in Oyo in 2015 and now owns nearly half the start-up, has pushed to add more hotels to the company’s network. Last month, it helped the site raise $1.5 billion, valuing it at $10 billion and making it India’s second-most-valuable start-up.

“It’s completely a new type of hotel, and they are growing so fast,” Mr. Son said of Oyo last year. “The number of rooms and net growth is going to continue at the pace of more than 10,000.”

Oyo now claims to offer more than 1.2 million rooms, including in China and the United States, where it recently bought the Hooters Casino Hotel in Las Vegas.

It has scaled up partly by promising hoteliers monthly payments, made possible by SoftBank’s money. The payments, which are an advance on the hotel owner’s share of room revenue, were supposed to be paid no matter how many rooms were booked.

In exchange, the hotels added free breakfasts and linens in Oyo’s signature red and white. They agreed to book all rooms — even walk-in guests — through Oyo and let it control how the rooms were sold on other sites.

But those payments led to rising losses in India. And over the last year, SoftBank has pushed Oyo on profitability rather than just growth, said current and former employees of the start-up, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation.

Several hotel associations said Oyo had now canceled or cut the payments. Some also said Oyo had deeply discounted room rates and increased its commissions and fees.

In June, more than 70 hoteliers in the coastal city of Kochi marched to Oyo’s local headquarters before a two-day strike against the site. The unrest spread to Bangalore, New Delhi and other cities. Last month, the Competition Commission of India opened an antitrust investigation into Oyo’s practices.

“The situation is so bad, we’re looking at it as a scam,” said Pradeep Shetty, the honorary joint secretary of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India, which represents around 3,000 hotels and filed the competition complaint.

Ritesh Agarwal, who founded Oyo when he was 19, said in an interview that only a few hotels had been unhappy or tried to leave. He said Oyo had occasionally reduced the guaranteed minimums, but only when hotels had misrepresented their business in contract negotiations.

“Asset owners continue to believe that Oyo is the best option in terms of the value proposition we can provide for them,” he said.

Not Mr. Solankey. He said he was losing 150,000 rupees, or $2,100, a month. While he plans to quit Oyo, he needs the money the company owes him. Oyo has offered to pay just half the debt — and then only if he signs a new contract with no guaranteed payments, according to correspondence shared with The Times.

Mr. Solankey has taken out loans, but fallen behind on rent and electricity payments. In September, his power was temporarily cut off. This month, his landlord asked him to vacate the property.

Taking Safety Risks
Farley Molina was delivering a Papa John’s pizza in Medellín, Colombia, last month when a motorcyclist grabbed his cellphone, his cash and the orange bag he uses to carry packages for the start-up Rappi.

Mr. Molina reported the theft to Rappi. The company told him to pay back the $35 he had collected from customers and buy a new cellphone himself.

Mr. Molina, 21, borrowed money from his mother. “They never support us,” he said of Rappi.

Like many SoftBank-funded start-ups, Rappi not only depends on contractors to deliver its services but also offloads its fixed costs — and the risks of the work — onto them.

The company, established in 2016 by three Colombian entrepreneurs, harnesses bike and motorcycle riders to deliver everything from flowers to cash from the A.T.M. In Colombia alone, it has 20,000 couriers.

This year, SoftBank gave Rappi $1 billion — twice as much as what the company had gotten from all its previous investors combined. In announcing the funding, SoftBank declared that the start-up, which it valued at $2.5 billion, would be responsible for “improving the lives of millions in the region.”

SoftBank’s money has helped Rappi expand into nine South American countries. And the company initially offered drivers 3,500 pesos, or around $1, for every delivery — enough to earn more than Colombia’s minimum wage of around $8 a day.

In return, couriers provided their own cellphones, bikes and motorcycles. They had to buy a Rappi delivery bag, which costs around $25. And they have to shoulder most of the physical risks of delivery.

In August, a judge in Argentina ordered Rappi and two other delivery services there to shut down until they provided workers with insurance and safety equipment like helmets. The judge said 25 couriers had been treated in Buenos Aires public hospitals over the previous month.

Rappi said it would appeal the decision, which it said “puts at risk the continuity of thousands of people’s income.” It has continued sending riders out on the streets.

In September, a survey of 320 Rappi couriers in Colombia, conducted by the University of Rosario and several nonprofits, found that nearly two-thirds had been involved in an accident on the job. Almost none were covered by insurance.

Simón Borrero, Rappi’s chief executive, said in an interview that Rappi had insurance to pay hospital bills for those injured on the job, but that it did not cover stolen personal items like Mr. Molina’s cellphone.

For couriers, the safety risks have been compounded by wage cuts. Rappi slashed its $1 basic delivery fee by 45 percent last year, around the time its annual losses tripled to $45 million, according to government filings.

“I sometimes have to work 17-hour shifts just to get by,” said Walter Salazar, 26, who started delivering for Rappi a year ago and now works seven days a week to afford a bed in a six-room dormitory.

Mr. Borrero said Rappi was designed for part-time workers, not those seeking a full-time living wage.

In July, around 100 workers protested outside Rappi’s headquarters in Bogotá. They made a bonfire out of the orange delivery bags.

A Cutting-Edge Brokerage
In an email last year, Robert Reffkin, the founder and chief executive of Compass, apologized to his company for its bumpy growth.

His New York firm, which received $1 billion from SoftBank, had sprouted to 8,000 real estate agents from 2,100 in a year. Mr. Reffkin said the company had been unprepared to integrate agencies it had bought and had pushed brokers to use technology that wasn’t ready.

“I’ve learned that moving too fast,” Mr. Reffkin wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Times, “can be just as dangerous as moving too slowly.”

Compass, which Mr. Reffkin founded in 2012 as a tech-enabled real estate firm, has expanded rapidly since SoftBank invested in 2017. Mr. Reffkin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, said in a Wired interview that year that the money would let it compress its three-year growth plan into one.

“They are making a great growth,” Mr. Son said of Compass in 2018. “This company, I believe, is going to be a great unicorn.”

Compass, which is valued at $6.4 billion, now has 13,000 agents, all contractors, in 238 offices across the United States. It has grown by promising some agents bonuses and 90 percent of the commissions on future deals, in an industry where 70 percent to 80 percent is standard.

The breakneck growth has led to cracks. Several top executives have recently left, as have recently arrived brokers.

One was Tricia Ponicki, 44, who started at a Compass office in Chicago in February. She said she had been drawn by the generous compensation; the company also promised more resources to aid home sales.

But there was so much turnover in Compass’s marketing offices that it took three months to produce a brochure for a house. When she requested a For Sale sign, she was told they were back ordered. Her husband made the sign instead.

“Right from the beginning, I was constantly being misled and misled,” she said.

Over six months with Compass, Ms. Ponicki sold one property, earning $4,300. A year earlier, she had netted around $100,000 selling homes at a local agency.

In August, the mother of four applied for food stamps. She also returned to her old agency, At Properties, where her sales have picked up, she said.
Compass employees and agents have generated less revenue per person than other online brokerage firms and, sometimes, even traditional ones, according to research by Mike DelPrete, an independent real estate strategist and visiting scholar at the University of Colorado.

Compass said that by its metrics, it was more efficient than other online firms. It declined to comment further.

Ms. Ponicki said she wondered how long Compass’s spending could last.

“I realized the illusions you see in the mirror are not what they appear to be,” she said.
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Previous posts on SoftBank

http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... &start=782" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is plenty in this article that describes the near miss with FIFA

http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1355" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 13, 2019 11:53 am

The folly of FIFA taking the Club World Cup to Qatar (Liverpool's issues with hotels connected with modern slavery and human rights issues not withstanding) - It has emerged that they have sold tickets to fans in countries where a trip to Qatar would lead to prosecution

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 99296.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 13, 2019 6:21 pm

It is not that unusual when a new owner comes into a club that a manager and some coaching staff are replaced - Romford announced a new owner yesterday - today all the staff have been sacked and 15 new players have been signed - this guy has previous form too

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... ayers.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Nonayforever » Wed Nov 13, 2019 7:44 pm

Chester Perry wrote:It is not that unusual when a new owner comes into a club that a manager and some coaching staff are replaced - Romford announced a new owner yesterday - today all the staff have been sacked and 15 new players have been signed - this guy has previous form too

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... ayers.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Oh dear.
Steroids could possibly be also added to the list of substances mentioned in that article.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Nov 13, 2019 11:29 pm

Duff and Phelps have updated their Stadium naming rights valuations for European Football as part of an analysis of whether they are currently undervalued - much of the press has been focussed on Spurs and their continuing search for a sponsor

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/spur ... nc.twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

full report

http://deal-advisors.com/wp-content/upl ... ghts_2.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 14, 2019 1:27 am

So Sunderland's new Investors came in with plenty of hype - but new documents published at Compamies house show that the investment is a loan secured against assets including the Stadium of Light and the training ground

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 3885509632" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Stewart Donald sought to calm fears in a Radio interview

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 3885509632" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

but the fans are concerned

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/f ... s-17251969" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... round.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 14, 2019 2:56 pm

The recriminations from this are going to be huge - HMRC suggests that the tax bill that put Rangers into Liquidation was overcharged by as much as £50m

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football ... -1-5045604" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

they are not happy

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/foo ... c-20880714" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football ... -1-5045880" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 14, 2019 3:01 pm

It is better news for some ex-players and staff though - regarding penalties - but not lost earnings as a result of Liquidations

https://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/18 ... -tax-bill/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 14, 2019 3:15 pm

In another story involving tax - but tax advisors not HMRC - St James' Place (a tax advisory group) are being sued by ex footballers who were penalised after following their advice - from the Times

Ex-footballers sue St James’s Place over tax schemes
James Hurley - November 14 2019, 12:01am,

A group of retired footballers, including Andy Townsend, the former Chelsea and Republic of Ireland player, are suing St James’s Place over claims that it advised them to invest in tax avoidance schemes.

Fourteen investors are alleging that the embattled wealth manager said that they should put their money into film and small business-related investment schemes later deemed to be illegitimate by the tax authority.

The case is the latest example of the fallout from the widespread promotion of tax avoidance strategies. An industry emerged to take advantage of the Labour government’s tax breaks for investing in films in 1997. The rules were changed a decade later after concerns that the schemes were being abused. HM Revenue & Customs pursued many who used them, which resulted in actors, pop stars, bankers and others suing their wealth managers.

Along with Townsend, 56, now a football pundit, other claimants against St James’s Place include David Livermore, 39, a former Millwall player, and Colin Cooper, 52, who played for Nottingham Forest and was twice picked for England.

A spokeswoman for St James’s Place said that the claim was “without merit” and that the partner who had suggested the schemes “was never authorised to advise on any of the investments in question and had retired by the time many were executed”.

She said that the investments were “not approved” by St James’s Place. Several were made through a pension scheme “administered by an unapproved third party”, she added.

St James’s Place also suggested that the statute of limitations on the claims had expired because the investments were made more than ten years ago.

According to a court filing reported by Bloomberg, the group’s claim is worth £15 million. Half the investors say that they were advised to back film schemes.

St James’s Place, which has almost £113 billion under management, is one of the biggest wealth managers in Britain. It relies on a network of 4,000 self-employed financial advisers, known as partners, serving clients with between £50,000 and £5 million in non-property wealth. It was founded in 1991 by Sir Mark Weinberg, Mike Wilson and Lord Rothschild.

Andrew Croft, chief executive, said that “demand for sound, personal and trusted financial advice” was growing. He has said he was “dialling down” the emphasis on sales growth after a series of articles in The Sunday Times revealed lavish rewards for advisers. The firm has been stung by criticism of its fees and perks. It is conducting a review of its rewards and culture and in September said it would cancel Mediterranean cruises for hundreds of star advisers.

In the three months to September 30, it had gross inflows of £3.74 billion, compared with £3.83 billion the year before. On a net basis, taking account of redemption, inflows were £2.11 billion, down from £2.47 billion a year ago.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 14, 2019 3:17 pm

Interesting move from the EFL - considering what happened last season - they may argue that they are learning from that - Macclesfield charged for late payment of players

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50423155" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 14, 2019 3:19 pm

Price of Football podcast Episode 6 - primarily about Football agents (including the latest on the Sala debacle, also why only Richard Keogh has been sacked by Derby for the Drunken party and crash

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/p ... 0456768772" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 14, 2019 3:29 pm

@KieranMaguire has revealed the most profitable clubs over the history of the Premier League (we are 4th) 1993-2018 as this is what we have complete financial results for - No Surprise that the Top 10 for the biggest total losses in the same period (i.e. total time in the Premier League saw a cumulative loss) includes Blackburn Rovers, Bolton, Middlesbrough, Fulham, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Man City

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 3015433216" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Thu Nov 14, 2019 4:02 pm

Chester Perry wrote:@KieranMaguire has revealed the most profitable clubs over the history of the Premier League (we are 4th) 1993-2018 as this is what we have complete financial results for - No Surprise that the Top 10 for the biggest total losses in the same period (i.e. total time in the Premier League saw a cumulative loss) includes Blackburn Rovers, Bolton, Middlesbrough, Fulham, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Man City

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 3015433216" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And a very impressive 4th at that, considering that to Jun'18 Burnley had spent just four seasons in the big league.

An equally impressive £121.5m Profit over those four seasons behind only Arsenal, Tottenham and Man United who I guess had spent all, or most of, those 25 years in the Premier League.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Thu Nov 14, 2019 4:26 pm

Royboyclaret wrote:And a very impressive 4th at that, considering that to Jun'18 Burnley had spent just four seasons in the big league.

An equally impressive £121.5m Profit over those four seasons behind only Arsenal, Tottenham and Man United who I guess had spent all, or most of, those 25 years in the Premier League.
You are right about those three being in the Premier League throughout it's duration - Leicester only 5th thanks to a £70m UEFA contribution from Champions League quarter final appearance following their title win - in contrast our Europa League experience raised us £600k

Kieran has only good things to say about us in this weeks podcast too -

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Thu Nov 14, 2019 4:31 pm

Chester Perry wrote:You are right about those three being in the Premier League throughout it's duration - Leicester only 5th thanks to a £70m UEFA contribution from Champions League quarter final appearance following their title win - in contrast our Europa League experience raised us £600k

Kieran has only good things to say about us in this weeks podcast too -
Ah right, CP, I'll give that a listen this evening.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 12:33 am

BT have retained the rights for UEFA club competitions in the next cycle by matching the asking price of UEFA - From the Telegraph

BT Sport retains rights to show Champions League football until 2024 in deal worth £1.2bn
Tom Morgan, Sports News Correspondent - 14 November 2019 • 10:48pm

League, ­after fending off improved offers from ITV and Sky for another three seasons from 2021.

The broadcaster is set to ­announce it will continue to show every game live and air highlights, with sources claiming it had met Uefa’s asking price for a second successive cycle.

A new deal, first disclosed on the AP newswire and subsequently confirmed by Telegraph Sport, is expected to be in the region of £1.2 billion, matching the figure it paid for its 2018-21 rights.

The offer will have delighted ­European football’s governing body, as experts had predicted a potential drop-off after the Premier League last year saw a decline in money raised from the sale of rights to show matches in the UK.

In total BT and Sky had bid £4.4 billion to screen the lion’s share of 200 games domestically each season between 2019-22. That amount fell short of the £5.1 billion the Premier League netted in 2015.

However, the Champions League has lost none of its lustre for domestic broadcasters, especially after last season’s all-English final. Both Sky, which was bought last year by American telecommunications giant Comcast, and ITV were understood to have tabled bids for what remains one of the most prized products in sports broadcasting.

Viewing figures have been growing steadily for BT Sport, a subscription broadcaster fronted by Gary Lineker, who also anchors BBC’s Match of the Day.

For last summer’s all-English Champions League final, between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur, BT Sport attracted bumper audiences by making it free-to-air. Combined digital and TV figures of 11.3million were estimated by the broadcaster for the match, won 2-0 by Liverpool at Atletico Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano stadium on June 1.

Uefa last week struck a deal in the United States with CBS and Univision, who will pay a combined $140 million (£109 million) a season for Champions League rights from 2021 in a three-year deal. That is up from the £78 million paid in the current Turner/Univision deal.

The BT Sport deal helps to protect the huge riches available to ­Europe’s elite clubs. An estimated £2.29 billion in prize money is split between the clubs competing in the Champions League and Europa League in 2019-20.

With the figure derived from expected competition revenue of £3 billion, Uefa said that £1.83 billion will be distributed as prize money to Champions League teams, with £478 million split between those in the Europa League.

The bumper deal will also ensure the spending power of England’s elite clubs continues to grow. ­Despite a domestic fall, booming overseas demand for Premier League television coverage has boosted the coffers of the top-tier clubs by £1.1 billion.

Broadcast rights for the league have risen by almost eight per cent to £9.2 billion for the next three seasons, despite a drop in the value domestically.

Foreign broadcasters are paying about 30 per cent more for deals to show all 380 games live each season for £4.2 billion in the 2019-22 cycle, up from £3.1 billion.

The deadline for offers for the British deal was set at Monday morning. ITV was understood to have submitted several non-exclusive rights packages to bring the tournament back to free-to-air. Streaming service DAZN was also reportedly thought to be keen to show games.

BT chief executive Philip Jansen was said to have previously told ­investors that BT would be “very disciplined” in how it approached the new tender.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 12:43 am

Absolutely no surprise that Rangers are considering legal action against HMRC following today's news - From the Telegraph

Rangers consider taking legal action after HMRC says £50m penalty was ‘too high’
Roddy Forsyth, Scottish Football Correspondent - 14 November 2019 • 6:12pm

Rangers are considering taking ­legal action against HM Revenue and Customs after it appeared to admit that it was wrong to have claimed £50 million in penalties from the club’s former operating company, which went into liquidation in 2012 and triggered one of the biggest club crises in Scottish football history.

The revised figure is understood to be around £20 million, a liability which – had it been agreed in the first place – would have made the Ibrox club more attractive to buyers of genuine substance. ​

In such circumstances, according to former Rangers chairman John McClelland, former owner Sir David Murray would not have been forced to sell the club to venture capitalist Craig Whyte, who triggered liquidation by failure to pay taxes.​

“At the time of the sale of the club in 2011, had the tax claim been at the level now being reported then, in my opinion, the outcome would have been different,” McClelland told The Times. ​

“I believe there would certainly have been a much higher level of interest in acquiring it and therefore more potential buyers.”​

The original issue was Rangers’ use of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs), a tax avoidance scheme, the scale of which was first flagged in 2006 when the club’s annual report disclosed that £9.2 million had been paid into the trusts as part of staff costs totalling £28 million.​

In April 2010, HMRC began an investigation into Rangers’ use of EBTs to players from 2001 onwards. The club – then owned by Murray – declared that they would ‘robustly defend’ their position in what ­became knows as the “big tax case”. ​

Later that year, legislation was ­introduced to outlaw the use of EBTs by companies seeking to avoid tax payments.​

HMRC’s initial claim in respect of EBTs was for £74 million, a sum that, when combined with an £18 million overdraft at Ibrox, forced Murray to sell the club for £1 to Whyte in May 2011, on condition that Whyte would accept responsibility for the bank debt.​

Whyte’s regime soon ran into ­financial trouble and the business was placed by HMRC in administration for non-payment of VAT and PAYE in February 2012.​

Liquidation followed that summer and Rangers were accepted into the Scottish Football League, beginning life anew in the old Third Division. ​
The “big tax case”, meanwhile, was ongoing and BDO – Rangers oldco’s administrators – won appeals against HMRC in First and Upper Tier tax tribunals. ​

Further hearings in the Court of Session in Edinburgh and the ­Supreme Court in London favoured HMRC and Murray responded with a statement which read: “I am hugely disappointed that the ­Supreme Court has upheld the ­decision of the Court of Session, ­reversing the decisions of the specialist tax First Tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal in this matter.​

“The decision runs counter to the legal advice which was consistently provided to Rangers Football Club, that on the basis of the law and legal precedent at the time, the contributions made to the trust were not earnings and should not be taxed as such.​

“It should be emphasised that there have been no allegations made by HMRC or any of the courts that the club was involved in tax evasion, which is a criminal ­offence.​

“The decision will be greeted with dismay by the ordinary creditors of the club, many of which are small businesses, who will now ­receive a much lower distribution in the liquidation of the club, which occurred during the ownership of Craig Whyte, than may otherwise have been the case.”​

Last December, Rangers oldco’s liquidators revealed that they had won a reduction in HMRC’s claim to £68.3 million and forecast an ultimate total pay-out to creditors of £1 million. ​

When reports of the reduction of HMRC’s claim to £20 million ­became public, reaction from ­aggrieved Rangers fans was predictably fierce, with the tax authority’s customer helpline on Twitter being bombarded with complaints, although there were also messages of support from Celtic supporters.​
Many Rangers fans declared that HMRC should pay damages. ​

Tax barrister Jolyon Maugham QC said on Twitter: “Lots of noise about HMRC and Rangers. But this seems to be the nub of the story. Rangers seems to have persuaded HMRC its tax conduct wasn’t sufficiently culpable to attract a penalty. But HMRC doesn’t seem to accept it assessed Rangers to the wrong amount.”​

Asked if he believed HMRC would be liable to pay compensation as a result of their original miscalculation, Maugham replied: “I’m not sure it is even theoretically possible to sue HMRC. But it would take an awful lot more than getting the number wrong.”​

Nevertheless, Telegraph Sport can confirm that legal action will be considered by the Rangers board. The club made no comment on Thursday but it is understood that they intend to undertake a forensic examination of tax and company law in respect of HMRC’s recalculation and its impact.​

The biggest single adverse consequence for the Ibrox club has been the financial and competitive gulf which opened between them and Celtic after 2012. That gap has only now looked as though it might be narrowed, with the teams separated by a single goal at the top of the Ladbrokes Scottish Premiership table and due to meet in the Betfred Scottish League Cup final on Dec 8.​

In the meantime, Rangers legal advisers will pore over tax case law.​

Telegraph Sport understands, however, that if an attempt is made to take HMRC to court, one option could be an individual action by a former Ibrox player or employee.​

As for the liquidators, a BDO spokesman said: “Since we published the last creditors report in June, BDO’s tax specialists have been negotiating with HMRC over the size of the tax bill. ​

“There is no final decision, negotiations are ongoing and we expect a resolution of this in 2020”.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:00 am

It is the end of an era - Scotland's oldest club (Queens Park) are to finally rescind their amateur status and turn pro after 152 years

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/footbal ... ssion=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:16 am

The Athletic broke the story but as I don't subscribe I will use the story from The Mail - Man City set to avoid Champions league ban over FFP issues

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... t-FFP.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

an awful lot of politics behind this I suspect - this from Simon Chadwick - kind of sums it up

"UEFA caught between a rock & a hard place: on the frontline of an ideological clash between petro-dollar politics from the east & commercial aggressors from the west. What started out as a mechanism for moderating financial performance now turning into hugely contested space...."

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:18 am

The Premier League have announced that the dates have been confirmed for the January 2020 transfer window - The window will open on Wednesday 1 January and close at 23:00 GMT on Friday 31 January 2020

https://www.premierleague.com/news/1494 ... 23646621=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:23 am

On the subject of transfers I came across this series of podcasts a couple of weeks back - totally focussed on the transfer process - should be plenty of detail (though I have not had the opportunity to listen yet) especially for those who haven't read a lot of the detail that I have posted on the subject

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t ... 1448955630" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:30 am

Everton have released an update on the Bramley-Moore Dock consultation project

https://twitter.com/Everton/status/1194661201872973824" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:33 am

The first signs of a thaw in the gulf stand-off or just a political play of easing tension as the World-Cup and it's intensive media scrutiny draws closer

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/ ... 39178.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:44 am

Speaking of which the Qataris don't really want fans to stay in the country and soak up the atmosphere - it is a rather small place - from the New York Times

Qatar Faces a Tight Squeeze for Its Compact World Cup
The tiny Gulf country will host the world’s biggest soccer tournament in 2022. But three years before the first match, organizers have concerns about where fans will sit and where they will sleep.
By Tariq Panja - Nov. 14, 2019, 9:28 a.m. ET

DOHA, Qatar — Since the day Qatar was named the host of the 2022 World Cup, it was obvious the tournament would be different from the ones that had preceded it.

For a start, Qatar is a tiny country, and Doha, its capital, has never hosted an event on the scale of the World Cup. Qatar has billed this as a positive: the chance to put on the most compact tournament in history, a soccer celebration lacking only the quadrennial hassle and expense of frequent air travel and hotel hopping.

But with just over three years until the opening match, and with more than a million foreign fans expected to descend on Qatar during the monthlong tournament, the planners tasked with World Cup lodging and ticketing continue to grapple with an uncomfortable, and inescapable, reality:

Qatar, the smallest country to host a World Cup, might struggle to find rooms for all the expected visitors.

Publicly, organizers say this will not be an issue. A frenzied building and rental program is expected to deliver the 100,000 rooms that FIFA requires through a mix of hotels, apartments, desert campsites and even ships that will act as floating hotels. With eight stadiums and several fan zones — none of them more than an hour apart — “fans will be able to watch more than one live match whilst also enjoying the country’s fan zones, beaches, restaurants and cultural attractions, all in a single day,” said Nasser al-Khater, the chief executive of the local organizing committee.

Yet even with all of those options, organizers are still expecting an extremely tight squeeze, particularly during the group phase, when all 32 teams — and their supporters — will be present at the same time.

On the busiest day, World Cup officials predict 160,000 visitors to be in the country. Concerns have grown so much that unlike previous World Cups, where host nations hoped visiting fans would stay on a few extra days as tourists, Qatar is instead hoping to entice visitors to attend multiple games on a single day and depart once their tickets are gone.

The officials’ plan, they believe, will help alleviate two concerns: preselling as many tickets as possible will help minimize the prospect of empty stadiums, a nightly backdrop that embarrassed organizers of track and field’s recent world championships in Doha, while also reducing the number of traveling fans — and the need for thousands of extra beds.

In essence, organizers have linked their housing strategy to their ticketing one: They want each pillow to correspond to a seat at a game.

Gulf politics, however, are making a thorny problem even more difficult. Housing excess World Cup visitors — and finding things to keep them occupied in the days between games involving their countries — has become more of a pressing concern because of an ongoing blockade of Qatar by a bloc of its regional neighbors.

Those neighbors, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, had once been seen as allies in putting on a broader Gulf World Cup. Instead, the blockade means cities like Dubai, a 30-minute flight from Doha, are no longer a ready-made option for spillover housing and entertainment. Flights between Qatar and the U.A.E. have been suspended for more than two years, and the dispute has shown no signs of ending. (Those conditions remain subject to change at any time; this week, for example, national teams from the blockading countries announced they would participate in a tournament featuring Gulf national teams that will be hosted in Qatar later this month, a rare thawing of relations.)

Ticketing is a separate concern. At previous tournaments, the local population has made up at least 40 percent of ticket buyers, and large blocks of seats — many in the lowest-priced ticket category — were reserved for domestic fans.

The domestic-foreign split of ticket sales is expected to continue in Qatar. But the extreme wealth of the local population may require a change in strategy; at previous events in the country, Qataris, like citizens in other wealthy Gulf States, have shown a preference for V.I.P. sections over cheaper tickets amid the masses. At a recent Asian Champions League semifinal game in Doha, for example, a number of fans tried to gain access to the most exclusive section of the stadium even though they had seats elsewhere in the largely empty stadium.

One plan for the World Cup is to flip the usual allotment and make a number of Category 1 and V.I.P. seats — the most expensive tickets available for general sale — exclusive to Qataris, according to an official briefed on the ticketing strategy.

FIFA, which is responsible for ticketing, said the final ticketing program remained under discussion.

Qatar is also wrestling with ways to strike a balance between conservative local sensibilities and the more festive, often alcohol-infused experience foreign fans have come to expect. To that end, another category of tickets is likely to be reserved as a so-called family section, where tickets will be sold to family groups. The classification is common in Qatar, even in some restaurants, where groups of men are seated separately from women and children.

And as at the world track championships, where there was fierce criticism about empty stadiums, organizers are making plans to fill out crowds by providing tickets to some of the imported workers who have toiled in the fierce heat to build the stadiums, roads, hotels and other infrastructure necessary to host the World Cup.

For the track championships, tickets were typically assigned to representatives of foreign embassies or community groups, who handed them out to workers as they boarded buses to the arena. An official responsible for a particularly raucous group of Ethiopians said this was done to ensure that workers who were given free tickets would actually turn up at the event.

World Cup organizers have signed memorandums of understanding with more than 40 embassies or missions to provide tickets in a similar manner in 2022.

A run-through of what fans can expect in 2022 — from housing to ticketing to a test of Qatar’s rules about alcohol consumption — arrives in December when Qatar hosts FIFA’s Club World Cup. The tournament — featuring regional club champions from around the world, including Liverpool, the reigning European champion, and Mexico’s Monterrey — will be played at some of the recently completed World Cup venues.

To ensure bigger crowds, Qatar’s national airline has offered free match tickets to fans who book flight and hotel packages through its website.
The airline is a FIFA partner. It’s likely similar promotions will be offered before the World Cup.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by RammyClaret61 » Fri Nov 15, 2019 2:30 am

So glad it’s all running smoothly in the country that was clearly the best choice for a World Cup ever!!

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:51 pm

While Man City may get off with a fine from UEFA rather than a Champions League ban (see post #2427 above, the planned hearing can now go ahead after CAS ruled against the clubs appeal to stop the charges

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50435304" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It is really a case of come to us when UEFA has made a judgement not before

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 2:14 pm

There is still some way to go in the Rangers tax case according to the Liquidators - the true bill will probably not be known until next year

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... e-50m.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Fri Nov 15, 2019 5:37 pm

La Liga's desire to play a league match in Miami next month has been foiled by a Madrid court's refusal to grant an injunction against the Spanish Soccer Federation who do not want the game to happen

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 04356.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

La Liga are being very persistent with this intent and with the Spanish Federation already have the Super cup being played in Saudi Arabia are somewhat vexed by this seemingly contradictory attitude

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Nov 16, 2019 6:52 pm

Hull join Cardiff in the "we signed a player then something happened over which we had no control so we are not going to fulfil the terms of the Sale agreement" club

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sport ... onald.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

a really poor approach

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:29 pm

Interesting article from the Telegraph about just were recruitment/scouting is at ahead of the looming transfer window -

Modern day football scouting: art, science or a combination of the two?
by Alistair Tweedale, in Amsterdam - 15 November 2019 • 2:11pm

Even the agent did not look convinced. Dressed in a sharp suit, and clutching an A4 file, he approached the head of recruitment at a major Football League club and launched into a hard sell of his German-based talents - all of whom, he insisted, could be the answer to this club's sputtering promotion charge. The answer was a polite but firm 'no', and the agent moved on to try his luck elsewhere.

This encounter - and hundreds more like it - took place at Wyscout's annual convention, deep in the bowels of Ajax's Johan Cruyff Arena on Thursday, where scouts, agents, recruitment analysts, sporting directors, coaches, club presidents and even owners converged to do deals, swap ideas and forge partnerships. It also felt the appropriate place to ask whether scouting has become more science than art - and whether the nerds have eclipsed the old school talent-spotters, who were driven mainly by gut instinct.

Nobody is disputing that platforms such as Wyscout, which gives clubs access to video footage of around 300 competitions in more than 100 countries worldwide, makes an element of recruitment far easier and cheaper. All but nine of the 98 clubs in Europe’s top five leagues use it, saving both time and money on unnecessary journeys to watch players. Those clubs have detailed highlights of a large proportion of the world’s professional (and even some semi-professional) footballers at their fingertips.

“Wyscout has meant the international scale of our search is massive,” Brentford head of recruitment Lee Dykes tells Telegraph Sport. “From a business perspective, we have to think about the cost of travelling, and video allows us to decide when it’s worth going to see someone play at the beginning of the recruitment process.”

Even so, video scouting is just one small part of how clubs decide who to pursue in the transfer market. Clubs now use a combination of video analysis and statistics to narrow down their search before sending scouts to watch their priority targets live.

“We [Brentford] are a forward-thinking club and there’s a perception that we recruit off data,” Dykes says. “But data is just used like at every other club. Ultimately it comes down to the eye. It always comes back to opinion-based analysis.”

The rising stakes in football mean the pressure is higher than ever on those in charge of recruiting to avoid costly mistakes. And yet the human skill in judging a player’s ability remains the most important of the three steps in modern scouting.

“We have a very thorough recruitment process,” Middlesbrough head of scouting operations Stephen Gent says. “It’s all about money these days. We evidence everything with stats and we do a lot of video work, too, but we would never sign anyone without seeing them live.

“You can watch as many videos as you want but watching players live you get to see other things: how they react to getting substituted or having a bad game. You get to know their character.”

Similarly, events like Wyscout’s happen because value is still placed on meeting contacts. The vast majority of transfer business is done via email and phone, but the chance to speak in person can make or break a deal. There is a realisation these days that the way for clubs to become the best they can be is through collaboration.

“The biggest thing is building your networks and personal relationships,” says Jordan Miles, head of recruitment at West Ham. “This is a chance to hear about opportunities or situations that we wouldn’t normally know about. Being able to sit face-to-face with someone is really important.”

With squads at major European clubs larger than ever, the chance to establish these connections is crucial for smaller teams. Even with access to such a large quantity of players, the pool is getting smaller, with “a conglomerate of richer clubs hoovering up all of the best talent,” Nnamdi Aghanya, chief scout at Swiss side St Gallen, tells Telegraph Sport.

“If a player has a choice between Manchester United and St Gallen, there is only one winner” he says. “For us, it’s about making a relationship with a player and then keeping in touch to see if they will reconsider further down the line.”

Links between foreign and English clubs are also now a key part of the modern game and events like Wyscout’s forge paths that wouldn’t normally emerge, which is particularly important for the many emerging British players who struggle to get first-team football at home.

“Good, young British players are now actively seeking to player in Europe,” says football agent Andy Evans. “Instead of dropping down a league they are looking to move sideways. Jadon Sancho’s success has shown what a move to Europe can do. Events like this give us a really good chance to explore new markets.”

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Nov 17, 2019 12:48 am

It seems that we have another group that want to make decisions about our game - we have worried for a while about the European Clubs Association led by Gianni Agnelli - well now we have a World Clubs Association endorsed by FIFA no less - No Agnelli there (Juventus don't really win much silverware in Europe do they) - in truth not many there at all (8 clubs only) but it will grow no doubt. Apparently being driven by Real Madid (they do like a European trophy or too) and Perez is the inaugural President of the group

https://www.marca.com/en/football/real- ... b463f.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

that FIFA endorsement
https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we- ... ssociation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not sure what AC Milan ere doing there - it is a while since they achieved anything of note even domestically

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Sun Nov 17, 2019 12:03 pm

there has been a landmark judgement in court this week, the implications of which could decimate the lower football pyramid and amateur sport in general - it effectively reverses years of precedent and the implications are definitely huge - Osset Utd are not wrong in this statement

https://www.ossettutd.com/news/article/ ... all-sport/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nonayforever
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Nonayforever » Sun Nov 17, 2019 7:14 pm

Rangers cannot sue HMRC as they are a totally different company that went into liquidation.
The former owners of Rangers may have a case to consider, but that will have no affect whatsoever on the current Rangers company.

levraiclaret
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by levraiclaret » Sun Nov 17, 2019 8:03 pm

Chester Perry wrote:Hull join Cardiff in the "we signed a player then something happened over which we had no control so we are not going to fulfil the terms of the Sale agreement" club

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sport ... onald.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

a really poor approach
Two wrongs,

Chester Perry
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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 18, 2019 4:38 pm

The Chinese majority owner of Wigan is to move the clubs shares away from the HK Stock market listed parent,

https://twitter.com/nigelforlan/status/ ... 1696259072" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

seems pretty sensible given the turmoil out there, and should not have a direct impact on the club's operations

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 18, 2019 4:44 pm

Man Utd have released their Q1 financial results - net debt rockets as a result of having to use cash reserves to pay for the majority of the summers signings (It is the way the sellers demanded the deals be done - especially Harry Maguire)

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingn ... 64990.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

lack of Champions league is costing them - but significant increases in matchday revenues together with a bump in commercial revenues means earnings overall were flat

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 1907686401" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 18, 2019 5:13 pm

@SwissRamble's European tour sees him stop off in Turin and look at the 2018/19 Financial Results of Juventus - the club that provide the most comprehensive accounts in the football world according to @KieranMaguire

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 8061760512" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 18, 2019 5:31 pm

The Telegraph gives us an overview of Ed Woodward's Investor's teleconference today following their Q1 results

Manchester United feel the pinch of failure to qualify for Champions League as they brace for £67m revenue drop
James Ducker, Northern Football Correspondent - 18 November 2019 • 4:53pm

million this season as the club starts to feel the pinch of their failure to qualify for the Champions League.

United released their first-quarter results for this season on Tuesday and are forecasting revenues of between £560m and £580m, a significant fall on the club’s £627.1m turnover for 2018/19.

Although wages for the three months to Sept 30 fell by 8.8 per cent owing to the club’s non-participation in the Champions League, a £9.9m drop in broadcast income offered a first glimpse of the financial impact of not playing in Europe’s premier club competition.

United’s second-quarter accounts, by which time the Champions League group stages will have been completed, will offer a fuller picture of the cost of missing out.

United have already secured their place in the Europa League knockout stages with two group games to spare and the competition offers a valuable alternative route back into the Champions League at a time when the team is currently nine points adrift of the Premier League’s top four.

Net debt soared by £137.3m to £385.4m primarily due to large cash payments on players last summer, when Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James arrived.

Total revenue for the quarter was marginally up on last year, in part due to a near six per cent rise in commercial income, and Ed Woodward, United’s executive vice-chairman, is adamant Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are “on the right path” despite admitting it had been a “mixed” start to the Premier League campaign.

Currently seventh in the table after losing four of their 12 matches, United travel to Bramall Lane on Sunday to face a Sheffield United side who are one point and two places above them. Confidence has been boosted of late, though, by a run of five wins from the past six matches in all competitions.

United will spend in January if the right players become available and Woodward reiterated the club’s commitment to creating a trophy-winning team that plays “fast, fluid, attacking football” and “fuses graduates from our academy with world-class acquisitions.”

“Though season-to-date we have had a mixed start to our Premier League campaign, in Europe we have qualified for the Europa League knockout stages with two games to spare and we have also progressed to the quarter-finals of the League Cup,” Woodward said.

“Our ultimate goal is to win trophies, playing fast, fluid, attacking football - with a team that fuses graduates from our Academy along with world-class acquisitions. We know this will not be achieved overnight. However, we have made investments across the club that we believe have set us on the right path.

“We have a clear vision in terms of football philosophy and recruitment. The significant investments that we have made in recent years in areas such as transfers, recruitment infrastructure, analytics and our academy are already beginning to bear fruit.

“I want to reiterate that our ability to make the investments we need to be successful on the pitch is underpinned by our continued strong financial performance.”

Woodward said United were proud to have fielded the youngest team in the Premier League this season, with the side that defeated Brighton 3-1 this month having an average age of just under 24, and that the club were approaching a “milestone 4000th first team consecutive competitive game featuring an academy player in the matchday squad.”

He also made a point of highlighting that 31 of the 32 goals United had managed this season were either scored or assisted by an academy graduate and that their graduates are “playing 58 per cent more minutes than from any other club” in the Premier League.
“We know our academy is a strong competitive advantage and is an area that we will continue to invest in as it is the heart of the club,” Woodward added.
Despite the impact of no Champions League football on income, Woodward said United were encouraged by a new broadcast deal the US television giant CBS has struck for European football and the continuing growth and popularity of the Premier League.

“We remain very optimistic for continued increases in global football broadcast rights as demonstrated by recent news that CBS has acquired the Uefa club competitions in the US through [to] June 2024,” he said. “According to Bloomberg, this was at an estimated 50% increase from the prior US contract and will feature select games free-to-air.”

Woodward said cumulative live audiences for the Premier League were up 10 per cent last season and that combined live audiences so far this season had increased 17 per cent in the UK. He cited United’s 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Old Trafford last month as Sky’s third most watched Premier League game ever.

Woodward also referenced Fifa’s plans for a revamped Club World Cup tournament that will replace the current annual winter tournament comprising seven teams. The new competition will take place in the summer every four years, commencing in China in June 2021, and has been expanded to include 24 teams. It replaces the Confederations Cup.

Furthermore, Woodward said United welcomed Fifa reforms to limit loans and the introduction of new agents’ rules, which will restrict multiple representation to avoid conflicts of interest and a cap on agents’ commissions.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the end of the day this is what it means when a club is publicly owned - regular, timely and detailed communication - it is probably the one thing most Burnley fans would say could improve under the current ownership (though the shareholders in the holding company are no doubt privy to that kind of information)

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Royboyclaret » Mon Nov 18, 2019 7:20 pm

Chester Perry wrote:@SwissRamble's European tour sees him stop off in Turin and look at the 2018/19 Financial Results of Juventus - the club that provide the most comprehensive accounts in the football world according to @KieranMaguire

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 8061760512" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A remarkable, if complex, set of financial accounts. Fascinating reading including an overall Loss before Interest despite Profit on Player Sales of £127million. The player amortisation figure includes a staggering £29million for Ronaldo alone which, to put the figure in context, is higher than Burnley's total annual amortisation in our last set of accounts.

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:58 pm

Many of us think transfer fees are bonkers now (unless your team are selling a player then for some it is never enough) but are transfer fees and transfer spending on a league basis that much greater than before - @KieranMaguire looks at inflation adjusted transfer spending for the Premier League through it's history

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 0730986497" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 19, 2019 12:03 am

Another thing to come out of today's Q1 results for Man Utd - the finance charges and interest paid by the club to facilitate the takeover now stands at £817.8m - the debt on that takeover financing is still north of £500m - the Glazers still extract dividends and Management fees each year too rather than paying down the debt

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 1989285888" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Football's Magic Money Tree

Post by Chester Perry » Tue Nov 19, 2019 12:10 am

This is not as silly as it may first sound given the temporary nature of a tournament and is actually more green than building accommodation (with exploited labour) or flying punters in and out of the country - Qatar hires 2 Cruise Liners for World Cup fan accommodation

https://apnews.com/79060629135f4e6486e4036fa6521c2e" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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