Football's Magic Money Tree

[Chester Perry]

this is an intriguing and upbeat article from the European Sponsorship Association (www.sponsorship.org)

Why sport sponsorship’s next chapter will be its most exciting
By Anthony Scammell, a Director in H+K’s Sport + Partnership Marketing team, who are consulting, activating and evaluating for brands and sports rights holders both domestically in the UK and around the world.

Significant moments offer great opportunity to develop new habits.

Research from The Office for National Statistics (ONS) this week showed that more than a quarter of people are considering changes to their career, relationships or home life after the UK lockdown.

The In, or more optimistically, Post COVID-19 world will alter many aspects of our lives. So it follows that the world of sport sponsorship will not be immune. You only have to consider the huge number of cancelled or postponed events erased from the calendar and the bleak projections emanating from the Football Association to appreciate the financial strains the pandemic is placing on sport, its ecosystem and the relationships within it.

How sponsorships are conceived, activated and measured has always evolved. But, too often, they have been built on emotion and subjectivity; and bound by their own rules. The shutdown has shone an industrial-strength torchlight in every corner of corporate spending. Sports sponsorship spend is being scrutinised like never before – hence the pace of change and evolution has never been faster.

What the ‘new normal’ looks like is a question many in the industry are grappling with. Here’s what I’ve learnt working at the coalface of a number of different sponsorships over the last three months.

1. The need to demonstrate value will enhance sponsorship
I’ve felt for some time that sponsors and rights holders don’t always appreciate the fact they are on the same side and need to be fighting harder to find value for each other. With the world watching in even greater numbers, now is the time.

If a brand can’t prove its association with a sport is delivering positively for its business and, ultimately, the bottom line, then why bother?

Answers such as: “Sport is a good metaphor for our business” or “We share the same brand values as the sport” might all be true, but they will quickly be followed by Boardroom responses such as: ‘So what?’ and ‘Who cares?’

Similarly, if a rights holder can’t articulate how its sponsors are helping to grow the sport, or make it better, then where is the money going?

Recently we worked with a global sponsorship client to write ‘joint marketing initiatives’ into their contract with a rights holder. This is not a new practice per se, but one that will become even more important as partners become more focused on mutual collaboration that delivers for both parties.

2. Digital sponsorship has the opportunity to prove its worth
When live sport was paused abruptly, so were the activation campaigns of thousands of sponsors. Leaving them little to fall back on.

Which brought this research from WPP sister agency Two Circles, a data-led team who work exclusively for rights holders in sport, sharply into focus.

It found rights holders had under-exploited their sponsorship businesses by £12bn a year on average since 2014. This was despite sports sponsorship spend growing by 4% on average during the same period. The area responsible for this under-valuing? Digital assets.

At H+K we counsel and bring to life sports sponsorships for a host of high profile international brands and rights holders and two things have struck me in particular from the last few months.

First, the speed with which we’ve been able to pivot and run virtual events, involving players, pundits and the media. Taking these events to more people than would have attended physically, across more markets; but at much less cost.

And secondly, the more positive feedback and advocacy this has led to amongst the employees and customers.

Take this into account alongside events such as the virtual Grand National, the Zwift-hosted Tour de France and the fact we are now spending more than a quarter of our waking hours online; and this under-use of digital feels even starker.

Expect digital and physical rights to blend more seamlessly in future sponsorship deals.

3. Data can show sponsorship impact like never before
While it has always been sponsorship’s ‘holy grail’ to try and prove its ability to influence purchase and convert sales, the data actually used to illustrate success was largely impersonal and related to imagined TV viewing figures.

Not now. With the increased scrutiny and financial pressures, allied to new technologies, the data is more plentiful and being more closely interrogated.

“Who was watching or engaging? Where were they from? Have we re-engaged them?”

With every digital footprint sports fan leave, it’s becoming possible to understand not just how many are watching but specifically who they are; where they are from; and then whether the association had an influence on how they behaved towards a brand or event.

We proposed, negotiated and then activated a three-day sponsorship for a client around Amazon’s first-ever English Premier League broadcast in December 2019 and the depth of our data and analysis helped to prove the case for the investment in a way I’d not seen before. Refreshingly, I found myself talking about conversion and sales rather than just column inches and I’m convinced this will happen more and more – and in a way that’s not happened before.

So while the purse strings continue to tighten and the scrutiny intensifies, this is a significant moment for brands and rights holders to develop the right new habits, that can propel them and the industry into its most exciting chapter yet.


Anthony Scammell is Director, Sports + Partnership Marketing at ESA member Hill + Knowlton Strategies

6 July 2020

[Chester Perry]

KPMG's Football Benchmark looks at Stadium's in a post viral era - you have to say for club's like ours (even Manchester United) with old tight fitting grounds, it looks like there is going to have to be substantial funds diverted from the pitch to cover the cost of adaptation.

https://footballbenchmark.com/library/s ... _viral_era

[Chester Perry]

An opinion piece from SportsProMedia.com as to how technology can facilitate, enable and enhance the return of fans to games post lockdown,

Opinion | Five steps to prepare for the post-Covid season
Mike Bohndiek, chief executive at sports and entertainment technology, digital and commercial specialists PTI, looks at the role technology can play in helping clubs and venues prepare for the post-Covid return to play.

Posted: July 7 2020By: Mike Bohndiek

Covid-19 has hit sport as hard as any other sector, but with a host of European sports properties across soccer, rugby and cricket returning to action, sport is coming in from the cold.

Below are five steps clubs and venues should put in place to help maximise the return of fans, drive commercialisation, and provide reassurance for those attending events once again.

1. The digitalisation of fan engagement
Pre Covid-19, studies reported that:

- 66 per cent of devoted fans go online at least once per day for sports-related reasons
- 72 per cent of sports fans are most engaged by exciting pre-game content
- 52 per cent of all sports fans use a tablet or smartphone to access sports content while watching televised sports

It is a must for clubs and venues to accelerate their digital transformation or face losing fan engagement and ultimately fan revenue. In the “new normal”, digital will play a role at home and at the reopening venue, where items such as contactless payments, digital ticketing and smart wayfinding will help build consumer confidence in returning to live sports events.

2. Communicating via different channels – put the content where fans want it
With no sport throughout lockdown, it is now more important than ever to retain a sense of community. Fans have needed club engagement to preserve the connection and to boost morale. Through this time, fans have actively selected a preferred channel for communication by virtue of greater free time and the emergence of new avenues, such as Twitch for gaming.

Clubs should take these learnings to provide specific and relevant information, thus reaching a wider audience. Let’s go forward to personalise, not return to the old approach.

3. Using analytics allows for personalised experiences
To ensure they achieve the above, clubs need to go back to basics with data. Clubs and venues need to analyse their data to not only understand their fans but also to track and trace which methods of communication work best.

Essentially, clubs need to create a unique and personalised experience for fans that is engaging and emotive. Personalisation is not just adding the recipient’s name onto a push or email, it is understanding their behaviour, preferences, and how to target them.

Personalisation can deliver five to eight times the ROI on marketing and lift sales by ten per cent or more, while personalised emails generate six-times higher transaction rates if done correctly. The counterbalance is startling. A study by Average and Researchscape highlighted that 74 per cent of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content (eg., offers, ads, promotions) appear that have nothing to do with their interests.

Another study showed that half of Millennials and Gen Z say they will ignore communications from companies unless they are personalised for them. Get this wrong at your peril.

4. Don’t walk away from the virtual world you created
Whilst the sporting hiatus has been used by club staff to dip a toe into esports, expand their digital horizons and start to build a better data landscape, those same staff had ‘day jobs’ before; namely looking after venue sales, operations or matchday delivery.

The return of core revenues – ticketing, hospitality, food and beverage, etc – will of course be a significant boost for clubs, a much-needed cash boost, but let us not forget or walk away from your virtual successes.

Not only does activated digital engagement provide an opportunity for the sports industry to stay afloat, but it brings the traditional advertisers up to speed on what the future of marketing looks like in a digital world. There can be no doubt that the game has now changed and is unlikely to revert to where it was.

Grasp your old-world revenue streams but let’s keep focusing on the future ones too.

5. Using technology to prepare your venue to welcome fans back
When the time comes for sports stadia to reopen their doors and welcome back fans, they will be looking for the ways in which you’ll be keeping them safe, showing your adaption to the new world. Across the board, technology can play a role, with three such examples being:

Digital ticketing:
Entry to the stadium via a digital ticket reduces touchpoints, allows fans to use their own devices for entry and ultimately keeps them in control

Crowd analytics:
It will be more important than ever that stadium managers and operators have real-time crowd density information. This could be used to enforce social distancing (should this be required) or simply to learn the new matchday routines that fans will carry with them. The days of the 2.55pm rush may be behind us.

Cashless payments:
Another major touchpoint reduced. The public has grown used to a further reduction in cash payments across all retail and sports venues must keep up to meet fan expectations.

For many clubs, there has been a hesitation in taking the leap in such areas previously. ‘What’s the ROI?’, or ‘do our fans really want it?’ are often the key blockers. Now, those blockers are removed. Fans are demanding it and moreover, without it the true cost of underperforming technology could be the reduction of your traditional revenues.

[Chester Perry]

Some of that last post has direct relevance to this study report on the growth in streaming audiences for football's restart - though I expect the interest to drop over the next 2 seasons - from SportsProMedia.com

Study: Sport’s European return sees 24% streaming surge
Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A help viewing time recover to pre-lockdown levels.

Posted: July 8 2020By: Ed Dixon

- Sport’s streaming share drops to only 3% during sport’s drought
- Social media engagement up 30% across top-flight teams in England, Germany, Italy and Spain
- Serie A enjoys 63% engagement increase on social for second half of June

The coronavirus-enforced lockdown saw sports viewing in Europe hit historic lows during March and April, only for the return of live action to cause a 24 per cent increase in sports streaming viewing time, according to online video solutions firm Conviva.

The new streaming figure, which is taken from the end of June and compared to the baseline set in the first week of March, highlights the clamour among European consumers for live sports content. The return of soccer’s Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A helped sport streaming viewing times to recover to pre-Covid levels last month.

The Return of Sport in the Time of Coronavirus study from Conviva also shows that the streaming share that sport commanded plunged to just three per cent compared to entertainment’s 97 per cent at the height of the sport’s drought. As of June, however, sport has not only returned, it has exceeded the 30 per cent share typical of pre-Covid viewing.

While the dearth of live action prompted the massive downturn in sports streaming from March, in contrast, time spent streaming entertainment content scaled notable heights in the midst of ‘shelter-in-place’ orders, which were up 65 per cent in early April.

Conviva adds that this shift indicates how viewers are exchanging entertainment viewing with sport. News consumption also decreased slightly, having been up 180 per cent in mid-April, but remains durable with viewing time still double what it was before the pandemic, up 98 per cent at the end of June.

Streaming was not the only medium fans turned to for their sport fix, with social media also enjoying a boost as teams looked to stay connected with supporters. Engagement leapt to 30 per cent across all teams, including league accounts, within the Bundesliga, La Liga, the Premier League, and Serie A in the second half of June compared to the first half of the month. In the same period, video views increased by 82 per cent, videos posted increased by 31 per cent, and posts increased by 55 per cent for these accounts.

Italy’s Serie A led the way last month, having only returned to play on 20th June, as teams delivered 117 per cent more posts and 68 per cent more videos on average in the second half of June as compared to the first. This translated to a 289 per cent increase in views and a 63 per cent increase in engagements for the league.

The Premier League was runner-up in Conviva’s standings, with the English top flight having the second largest increase in posting frequency, with clubs increasing their posts by 61 per cent and videos by 40 per cent on average. This translated to a 33 per cent increase in video views and a 21 per cent increase in engagements.

‘If Europe is indicative of what the return of sport will look like worldwide, sport broadcasters should take solace as viewers can’t watch enough,’ Conviva noted. ‘Streaming and social media are both obvious winners in the return of sport, with more heights to reach as leagues around the world schedule returns in the coming months.’

[Chester Perry]

More on using technology to assist in trying to get fans back into grounds, though at those prices it is only suitable for the biggest grounds - from SportsProMedia.com

Liverpool exploring AI tech to get fans back to Anfield
Borussia Dortmund and Real Sociedad have tested G2K tracking system.

Posted: July 8 2020By: Tom Bassam

- AI platform 98% accurate on temperature checks in recent test
- Platform alerts venue officials to fans not social distancing or wearing masks

English soccer champions Liverpool are exploring the use of German technology firm G2K’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform to assist with bringing supporters back to their Anfield home next season, according to the Athletic.

G2K’s Situational Awareness Builder (SAB) performs automated temperature and mask checks, as well as offering digital crowd management to assist with social distancing. The solution was tested by German soccer club Borussia Dortmund at their Signal Iduna Park home when they played Hoffenheim on 27th June.

The Athletic reports that SAB is expected to become part of the Bundesliga’s plans for bringing fans back into stadia for the 2020/21 season, with La Liga also testing the system at Real Sociedad’s Anoeta Stadium following a recommendation from league partner Microsoft.

Study: European soccer’s elite facing €4bn revenue shortfall

According to the report, after Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp took a personal interest, the club are holding talks with G2K this week but implementation would need Premier League and British government approval.

Pre-match tests with media and staff at Signal Iduna Park (pictured above) reportedly revealed 98.3 per cent accuracy on the automated temperature check compared with the more time-consuming individual tests which can cause lengthy and unsafe queues.

A test run with 40 extras reportedly showed the algorithm could reliably identify fans sitting too close together and an automated system alerts stewards or can issue a warning on public information screens.

SAB requires the installation of temperature-sensitive cameras but its social distancing tracker is done via CCTV. G2K confirmed to the Athletic that the technology could be installed in stadiums within two weeks at a price of roughly €100,000 (US$112,000) per game.

G2K is also working on a joint venture with a biotech company to integrate an inexpensive and rapid coronavirus test into the system.

[Chester Perry]

The European Clubs Association has been surprisingly quite during the lockdown - they now seem to be preparing for something as they release a study of how their finances have been impacted so far and are likely to be through next season - from SportsProMedia.com

Study: European soccer’s elite facing €4bn revenue shortfall
Matchday income across continent’s top leagues could drop 38.5 per cent, according to new ECA analysis.

Posted: July 8 2020By: Michael Long

- Projected income for 2020/21 set to fall from €23.1bn to €20.7bn
- Collective gate receipts could decline from an estimated €3bn to €1.9bn
- Player wages to climb above 70 per cent of overall revenue next season

Europe’s top-flight soccer clubs are facing combined revenue losses of €4 billion (US$4.5 billion) by the end of the 2020/21 season, according to new analysis by the European Club Association (ECA).

The new study, which evaluates the financial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on elite clubs across the continent, warns that the greatest losses will be seen during the coming campaign, even if the season is played in full.

Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, clubs across Europe’s top divisions stood to make a combined €22 billion (US$24.7 billion) in the 2019/20 season and €23.1 billion (US$26 billion) in 2020/21, but those figures, which exclude income from player transfers, have now been revised down to €20.4 billion (US$22.9 billion) and €20.7 billion (US$23.3 billion) respectively in light of the pandemic.

All traditional revenue streams, including broadcast rights and sponsorship sales, will be affected by the pandemic, the report says, but direct matchday income will be impacted the most, delivering a particular blow to clubs in smaller leagues that rely more heavily on gate receipts.

According to the study, gate receipts across a representative sample of ten top European leagues will drop by 14 per cent this year, from €2.9 billion (US$3.2 billion) to €2.5 billion (US$2.8billion). It is also projected that next season’s matchday revenue will decline 38.5 per cent, from an estimated €3 billion US$3.3 billion) to €1.9 billion US$2.1 billion).

“The financial impact of Covid-19 on European clubs, as far as we can see now, is already a seismic shock, even with most competitions up and running again,” said ECA chief executive Charlie Marshall.

“The financial impact does not stop when the game resumes. Rather, it will continue into the next season and we must take measures to create a more sustainable football industry in the long run.”

As well as assessing lost revenue, the study also found that some 70.1 per cent of overall club revenue will be spent on covering player wages in 2020/21, a significant rise on the figure of 62.9 per cent that was projected without Covid-19.

“Player wages are an easy target for opinion but a very complex financial matter to tackle,” said Hugo Hamon, the ECA’s head of finance. “We have to think broadly about the impact at an industry-wide level while also taking into account local regulations and specificities, which have a considerable impact on clubs of all sizes.”

The ten leagues sampled in the study, all of whom suspended their seasons in March, include Europe’s so-called ‘big five’ - in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France - as well as the top divisions in Turkey, Holland, Portugal, Scotland and Poland.

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Here is a link to the study's key findings - https://www.ecaeurope.com/media/4771/ec ... -clubs.pdf

[Chester Perry]

This is really good news for the summers transfer stage payment carousel - Man United have paid outstanding monies to Palace for the Wan Bissaka transfer - enabling them to pay-off the factored loan on the deal

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 7499138049

[Chester Perry]

The Premier League are increasingly confident that fans will be back in grounds early in the new season - from the Telegraph

Premier League confident of fans returning to stadiums by autumn using passport system
JASON BURT JULY 08, 2020

The Premier League is increasingly confident it can introduce a digital health passport system to allow fans back into stadiums.

The organisation was among the sporting bodies that met with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on Wednesday to discuss the so-called ‘Stage Five’ protocols which covers supporters attending events.

It is hoped that a test event might be staged in August, or even towards the end of July, to see whether a system is viable of using testing and antibody data so that fans could have their own individual health passport to ensure they are not carrying the virus.

The government is understood to be delighted with the way football has returned and how the Premier League has organised Project Restart. Football is now expected to put itself forward as the ‘guinea pig’ for events to permit fans to return which is, of course, vital to the survival of sport.

The return of fans will be gradual, and limited, although original fears that games will have to be played behind closed doors until the beginning of next year have been allayed. There is now growing optimism that a number of fans may be allowed in by the end of September or into October.

The change of social distancing guidelines from two metres to one has been crucial while the biggest concerns will be fans travelling around the country and also getting in and out of stadiums. The fact they will be sitting outdoors will help although there will be worries that they are shouting and singing so, for example, it could be a requirement to wear a mask, at least initially.

Football is clearly at the vanguard of sport’s return with more than 20,000 coronavirus tests having now been administered during Project Restart and the last round of testing showing no positive results.

Lower league clubs, in particular, are nervous about committing to the new season without knowing when fans can return while the issue is also even affecting the likes of Manchester United and other leading clubs in terms of their transfer budgets. The Premier League clubs will discuss the return of fans at their shareholders meeting on Thursday.

While television provides the bulk of revenue for top-flight clubs, match-day revenue is still significant and is having a direct effect on clubs’ spending for the next transfer window, with intermediaries told plans will be clearer when next season’s plans are finalised. Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium, the newest in the Premier League, can earn more than £5million per match.

United can get almost 75,000 paying customers through the gates for their home games and it is understood their budget will be adjusted according to what they can financially expect from 2020/21.

"It's going to be a strange transfer window and I don't expect a lot of big transfers," said United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. "We don't really know how the market is going to be.”

United are long-term admirers of Jadon Sancho but Borussia Dortmund’s valuation of £115million for the England forward may see negotiations drawn out. Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish is also also on Solskjaer’s radar.

Richard Masters, the Premier League chairman, has confirmed talks have already started with government over getting fans back in their seats. "The Premier League is back but it won't be fully back until we get those fans back inside the stadium," Masters said. "We're very keen to see fans back in the stadium at the earliest possible juncture when it's safe and appropriate to do so."

[Chester Perry]

I have posted about it before (and probably will again in the future too), that has usually been a series of tweets or separate loosely linked articles - here Simon Chadwick looks at the business, entertainment and sporting links in the CFG empire and ponders if recent Saudi activity and acquisitions will see them following a similar path. - from ejinsight.com (the Hong Kong Economic Journal)

Global red thread defining football's future

Simon Chadwick
July 08, 2020 08:31

During recent weeks, several investors have acquired stakes in Reliance Jio, an Indian telecommunications business. Reliance is India’s biggest company, operating in a territory that is the world’s second largest internet market.

Reliance Jio is headquartered in Mumbai, not only India’s largest city but also its tech capital, financial centre and home to India’s film industry ‘Bollywood’. In just two (coincidentally mid-pandemic) months, Reliance Jio has raised more than US$12 billion.

Among recent investors in Reliance Jio, several are especially notable. In one case, American private equity investor Silver Lake has spent nearly US$1.5 billion to secure more than 2% of the company.

Based in California (home to Hollywood and Silicon Valley), Silver Lake is invested into numerous other organisations including Chinese e-commerce business Alibaba, AMC in the entertainment sector and the sport’s Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The Abu Dhabi government’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala has also taken a stake in Reliance Jio, spending US$1.2 billion on its holding. In addition, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – PIF: the Public Investment Fund - has spent nearly US$1.5 billion on the company’s shares.

Significantly, links between Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi are already well established, the former having taken a stake (of US$475 million) in the country’s City Football Group (CFG) late last year. CFG most notably owns English Premier League club Manchester City, as well as a franchise network of other clubs across the world.

This network includes clubs in New York, one of the world’s most important financial centres, as well as in China (Chengdu) and in India. It should be no surprise that CFG chose to acquire the Indian Super League club Mumbai City as the focus for its operations. For that matter, it should be equally unsurprising that CFG decided to invest in Sichuan Jiuniu of Chengdu.

Not only is Chengdu populated by more than 16 million people (which is more than 30 times larger than Manchester itself), it amongst the top-5 fastest growing cities in China – having achieved economic growth of more than 70% over the last decade.

Furthermore, whilst Beijing is the political capital of China and Shanghai the country’s commercial centre, Chengdu is its cultural capital. The city is a focus for Chinese music, cinema and the arts, whilst at the same time playing host to one of the fastest growing tech sectors of in China.

The decision to focus on Chengdu is presumably also an outcome of guidance provided by CITIC and China Media Capital, both of which acquired a 13% stake (worth US$330 million) in CFG during 2015, a deal that was announced as President Xi paid a visit to City’s stadium when he was in Manchester on an official state visit to Britain.

It is also worthwhile noting that CFG’s global franchise network also extends to an ownership stake in Japanese football club Yokohama FC, which is located in the Greater Tokyo area. Tokyo surely needs no introduction: like New York and Mumbai, it is one of the world’s most important financial centres.

Tokyo is also one of the world’s biggest cities (with a population of 38 million), in a country that still has the third largest economy in the world. Indeed, CFG now owns football clubs in four of the five countries that have the world’s largest economies. Of course, Tokyo has long been a global leader in technology and innovation, and is an important film making hub.

In taking a red thread starting in Silver Lake in California and stretching it across to New York, Manchester, Abu Dhabi, Mumbai, Chengdu and finally Tokyo, it therefore becomes clear that something significant is happening.

In simple terms, this is a networked form of integrated business that increasingly characterises the ownership, organisation and structure of 21st century global corporations.

For this particular network, football plays a key role both in connecting nodes across the network and also in being the source of content that forms the basis for digital developments (of which Manchester City’s ‘Cityzens’ platform is an example) and content creation (such as Amazon’s ‘All of Nothing’ series).

But the network is not just about football; rather, it constitutes a value chain that links a multitude of stakeholders each of which is working to derive benefits from their investments.

For Abu Dhabi, a rentier state for which it is commonplace to generate off-shore incomes, it is seeking to wean itself off a dependence upon oil and gas revenues. It helps as well that CFG’s franchises are all located in cities to which Abu Dhabi’s state owned airline, Etihad Airways, flies.

For the likes of Silver Lake, a private business in the world’s biggest free market, its involvement is driven by the need to generate a financial return for its owners. In turn, for CITIC and CMC, in a highly state-regulated country the pressure is inevitably upon building China’s presence and political influence overseas.

Back at base (if that’s what Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium can be called), senior managers are driven by a vision of football that draws heavily from notions of ‘Disneyfication’. That is, using Walt Disney as a reference for CFG’s development and growth.

Interestingly but not uncoincidentally, in addition to acquiring a stake in Reliance Jio Saudi Arabia’s PIF has also recently spent US$500 million on Walt Disney shares. Cartoons aside, Disney itself owns sports broadcaster ESPN, which won’t have gone unnoticed in Riyadh.

Indeed, government in the city has of late been making some rather bellicose noises about building its own global sports media empire. This has been accompanied by even louder noises as PIF has engaged in the protracted pursuit of Newcastle United, a club that plays football in the English Premier League.

Rumours have also been circulating that Saudi Arabia may also be interested in buying Italian Serie A club AS Roma and France’s Olympique Marseille. An international network of football clubs with links to media, entertainment and digital – sound familiar?

If this is Riyadh’s game plan, we shouldn’t be surprised; after all, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi are close allies, though the former’s mimicking of its much smaller neighbour is intriguing.

It might seem like long way from Manchester to Mumbai. However, with Abu Dhabi as a staging post and with the means of transport fuelled by money from the United States and China, football’s journey from being a sport to becoming an entertainment product embedded in global tech and finance is just a red thread away.

[Vegas Claret]

joy

[Chester Perry]

the Football Today podcast asks what does this year’s race for the Champions League look like? And who is set to lose the most by missing out?

https://www.footballtodaypodcast.com/po ... ons-league

EDIT this is a fascinating discussion because it is not primarily about the immediate financial implications, yet finances play a huge part of the discussion

[Chester Perry]

Sky Italia's Football Benchmark looks at how the recent tax changes has helped Italian clubs (especially Juventus) recruit big names to Italian football

as ever the subtitles are available on the 5th icon in from bottom right of the screen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo

[Chester Perry]

Scottish football expecting to have some fans at games possibly as soon as next month

https://twitter.com/BBCchrismclaug/stat ... 0578286594

[Chester Perry]

If Football (and sport in general) has shown anything at all this century it is that individuals are rising to become more prominent than their clubs or even sport, and possibly more commercially viable. As this opinion piece in SportsBusiness,com illustrates

No player is bigger than the sport – really?
Kevin Roberts

July 8, 2020

In an interview for SportBusiness Review, Manu Leroy, head of marketing and communications at the Royal Belgian Football Association, was asked whether having a team of stars who all play for clubs outside their home country had an impact on their relationship with home fans.

His answer was illuminating, and highlights one of the major changes facing the sports sector right now. It makes no difference, he explained, because fans have access to TV coverage from leagues around the world and can follow their favourite players wherever they play. In fact, he went on, more and more fans are following individual players rather than teams and switching club allegiance whenever their player is transferred.

When City Football Group chief executive Ferran Soriano was asked about the trend at Globe Soccer in Dubai a couple of years ago, he was unconvinced that the idea fans would focus their devotion on players rather than clubs was even a thing. But as the head of an operation with an ever-growing portfolio of clubs around the world, that’s the response you might expect.

What’s clear is that it would take a Canute-like refusal to accept reality to argue against the idea that globalisation simply has to change the nature of fandom. Supporting your local team through thick and thin is no longer an automatic choice for a sports fan because the local team is not the only dish on the menu.

A fan of European or South American football from China will be free of the shackles of local loyalty and family tradition that influenced many of us in our choice of teams. Instead the world is their oyster. Why not declare as a Real Madrid fan? And if Cristiano Ronaldo was a major influence in becoming a Real fan in the first place, why not transfer your affections with him when he moves to Juventus?

As sport – particularly the big leagues with massive international reach – evolves, financial imperatives determine that revenues from overseas markets are an increasingly important item on the balance sheet. And that means embracing a new type of fan, who may fleetingly cloak themselves in a club’s colours but views the relationship through the affinity with players.

Leroy’s Belgian perspective provides more evidence for the trend of players moving closer and closer to the top of sport’s commercial ecosystem.

Ultimately sport is about talent and, in the professional era, top talent is richly rewarded. But until now there has been a system in which players are paid by their clubs or promoters in wages or prize money. Some get very rich; others just get by.

Could that status quo now be under threat? Could talent end up competing with clubs and federations for revenue and how would that impact the sports business in the long term?

Earlier this month, Mediacom Sport & Entertainment, part of the giant WPP marketing services conglomerate, announced it had signed a long-term commercial representation deal with the 19-year-old Real Madrid and Brazil star Vinicius Jr., who became the world’s most expensive young player when he moved from Flamengo on his 18th birthday.

The deal represents something of a coup for the company and vice-president Misha Sher sees it as a timely and logical move. “Never before have athletes had such an incredible opportunity to transcend their sport and develop a strong, personal brand that’s relevant in culture,” he said in the official announcement.

Mediacom is not replacing the player’s personal management team, which will continue to handle contracts and other football-related matters. Instead it will use its experience working with some of the world’s major corporations to develop the Vinicius Jr brand.

While the arrangement may not be unique – super agent Jorge Mendes has a team of commercial marketers and digital experts to look after his stars in much the same way, and there are plenty of content creators out there – it can be seen as an indication of the way the wind is blowing.

Applying high level, near industrial branding disciplines to individual players is clearly the direction of travel. And players who build a massive, club-neutral fanbase, which connects through a deep understanding of who they are and what they stand for, offers unparalleled levels of engagement for brands and are set to be the big winners in the next phase of the evolution of the sports business.

If a fan follows a player because of their environmental activism, outrageous sense of humour or guitar playing (athletic brilliance is a given here) they are likely to become career-long if not life-long adherents.

All this will seriously challenge the long-held notion that no player is bigger than the club or the sport itself. Cristiano Ronaldo has already made us question the truth of that statement and, as the industry gets to work to create the next generation of globally connected, professionally branded superstars, it will come under further pressure.

[Chester Perry]

In tha last 2 days I have posted about PSG and their growth as a lifestyle brand and about CFG and their Sport/Business/Entertainment model (Which Saudi's PIF may be trying to ape). Previously I have posted about Liverpool's new kit deal being used with Nike brand associated individuals with direct relevance to foreign markets to promote merchandise sales, Tottenham partnering with NFL, even Wolves using e-sports to promote their brand in China. AC Milan become the latest club to seek financial growth (regeneration?) through diversifying interests and activities with an established partner - from SportsBusiness.com

AC Milan enters into ‘industry-first’ deal with Roc Nation
SportBusiness Staff - July 9, 2020

Italian Serie A football club AC Milan has agreed what it claims is a “unique, industry-first partnership” with sports and entertainment agency Roc Nation as it seeks to return to the top table in the European game.

Under the deal announced today (Thursday), the two parties said they will focus on philanthropy, music programming, merchandise collaboration, brand amplification and creative activation, digital strategy and execution, commercial sales and cultural events and experiences.

Today’s announcement formalises prior ties between Milan and Roc Nation, the agency formed by hip-hop artist and entertainment mogul Jay-Z. On May 3, the two parties collaborated to stage ‘From Milan with Love’, a virtual live event featuring performances from a host of global music artists which was designed to honour and pay tribute to key workers fighting Covid-19 in Italy and across the world.

Casper Stylsvig, chief revenue officer of AC Milan, said in a statement: “AC Milan as a club has always looked to push the boundaries and do things differently. This ambitious partnership will help us to showcase the power of the AC Milan and Roc Nation brands across sports, entertainment and lifestyle and provide us with some exciting new ways to engage with our fans and partners around the world. We showed a glimpse of what we are capable of by delivering the From Milan with Love event under extremely difficult circumstances and I can’t wait to build on this success.”

Michael Yormark, co-chief executive of Roc Nation Unified, added: “Both brands possess a strong commitment to community, which was evident through the success of From Milan with Love. I am looking forward to building on that success by creating more opportunities together that combine the integrity of the club’s rich history and Roc Nation’s signature ability to create and move culture.”

The Roc Nation deal comes with Milan attempting address a fall from grace, both on and off the pitch. The club is in the midst of its longest Serie A title drought since the 1980s and currently sits seventh in the 2019-20 table, two points behind Napoli in the final Uefa Europa League qualifying position of sixth, but 15 points behind city rival Inter, which currently occupies the final Champions League qualifying slot in fourth.

January’s Deloitte Football Money League for the 2018-19 season saw Milan drop to 21st with revenue of €206.3m ($233.8m). By contrast, Spanish LaLiga club Barcelona was said to have pulled in €840.8m to top the table.

In October, Milan posted a record loss of €145.9m for the financial year 2018, €20m more than the embattled club posted in the previous year. Overall turnover also fell by 6.1 per cent, to €241m. Milan has accumulated losses of over €500m over the past six seasons, due, like its neighbour Inter, to dropping out of the Champions League over that period.

Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, Stylsvig said Milan is looking to take inspiration from another European giant that had fallen on lean times, before bouncing back in recent seasons. “Four, five years ago, no one considered Liverpool and see where they are now,” Stylsvig said.

“They obviously play very attractive football. They are winning, they have a fantastic manager, a fantastic team and now they are following suit from a commercial perspective. It has taken time, but their model seems to work.”

Regarding the goals of the Roc Nation tie-up, Stylsvig said: “We are obviously a global brand. I’ve probably been talking too much in the Italian market in the last few years and (Covid-19) sort of pushed us to think more global again.

“I do think merging sport and entertainment could be the way of engaging new fans. The world has changed dramatically and we need to follow suit. Roc Nation is helping us, challenging us with that, having someone on the sideline to do that.”

Milan also has another major project it is working on. Milan and Inter are seeking to develop a stadium and sports and entertainment district on the site of their current home, the San Siro. The plans would see part of the current San Siro retained as part of a multi-purpose complex alongside a new 60,000-seat stadium.

In September, the clubs presented two design concepts for the stadium they envision will replace the historic San Siro. Two concepts, from Manica/Sportium and Populous, are vying for the contract, with a decision expected soon.

Regarding the new stadium, Stylsvig said: “That will change the club. The revenues are incredibly important but also for the perception of the club.”

[Chester Perry]

No doubt the Premier League will be among many interested observers of DAZN's attempt to relaunch a global OTT platform for viewers everywhere as it leads the push with Boxing

https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/daz ... sts-boxing

I will temper any excitement that I cannot see any change to the territorial selling of rights in the medium term (next 2 cycles)

[Chester Perry]

Belgian courts rule that the Belgian FA's decision to relegate a club following their curtailed season was unfair and should be re-appraised - note is does note it does not say that the club should have it's league status re-instated.

https://twitter.com/ATFIELD_sport/statu ... 5483466753

[Chester Perry]

So after a couple of days not adding to this thread - anyone ready for some serious reading

Simon Chadwick contributes to a white paper about how Covid19 has caused an erosion in Soft Power for the Middle East

How Covid-19 Has Undermined Gulf Airlines’ Sports Sponsorships
Nick Burton, Brock University; Simon Chadwick, Emlyon Business School; Paul Widdop, Manchester Metropolitan University

https://serjournal.com/2020/07/06/white ... er-eroded/

in what can be seen as a direct follow-up to the above white paper this about the potential financial loss of sponsorship from Gulf airlines

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... -les-ailes

[Chester Perry]

Betting company shirt sponsorship for La Liga is banned from next season, also betting companies will face restrictions on stadium sponsorships

https://www.football-espana.net/2020/07 ... ponsorship

[Chester Perry]

I am not sure how this is possible given that FIFA only allow a 12 week summer transfer window - from the Guardian

Premier League may extend transfer window for deals with EFL clubs
Extra fortnight for business in October under discussion
Move would help EFL clubs to trade a way out of trouble

Paul MacInnes - Thu 9 Jul 2020 16.07 BSTLast modified on Thu 9 Jul 2020 16.09 BST

The Premier League is considering extending the transfer window to allow an extra two weeks’ trading with EFL clubs.

A shareholders’ meeting on Thursday, scheduled to discuss the issues around starting next season, ended without decisions being made. Considerations over when to begin the 2020-21 campaign and what to do about clubs who compete in the Uefa competitions in August are still to be addressed.

Dates for the summer transfer window are also to be agreed, after an expected vote was postponed. There were, however, discussions over the possibility of pushing any closing date to the middle of October, with the extra time reserved solely for domestic transfers with clubs outside the top division.

This topic has been raised in talks between the Premier League and EFL over how to resolve the financial crisis faced by football because of the pandemic.

Transfer trading has been one key way identified by the EFL for its clubs, who have effectively seen their revenues wiped out in recent months, to stay afloat.

Uefa has issued guidance that transfer windows across Europe’s top divisions should close by 5 October, to give clubs in European competition enough time to register players. The Premier League proposal would see that date pushed back to 19 October, the day before the scheduled first round of Champions League fixtures.

Uefa would not be able to enforce any compliance with the 5 October deadline and this would not be the first time the Premier League has adopted a different timeframe to the rest of Europe, having only this season voted to return to end trading in line with the continent after two years of finishing earlier.

The window is expected to open as soon as the season finishes on 26 July.

The meeting also included an update on the government’s working groups regarding the safe return of spectators, though there was no discussion between clubs. There was debate over a possible return for academy fixtures but no agreement was made.

The next shareholders’ meeting is scheduled for 24 July. At this point it seems likely a start date of 12 September will be agreed for the 2020-21 season, although clubs who feature in the final stages of the Champions League and Europa League may be allowed to delay their return.

[Chester Perry]

No surprise that there is still no decision on the transfer window by the Premier League today

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53350174

[huw.Y.WattfromWare]

No mention of the cost of checking for the digital passport system. Regular checks will be required but at what cost.

City have been told their CL home leg against Real Madrid will be at the Etihad, not Portugal as previously envisaged.

[Chester Perry]

Blackpool release their 2018/19 financial results

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9007263744

[Chester Perry]

Arsenal pay-up existing bonds on the Emirates Stadium - highly likely that they will refinance at a significantly lower rate than the 5.2% they were paying - sound business and frees up a little bit more money

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/new ... s/14608523

[Chester Perry]

Reading this I am minded of the crowded terraces of the 70's with streams of cascading down the terraces - no toilets for early fans return to the games - from the Guardian

No half-time toilets, no away fans: talks held over supporters' return to grounds
Ideas being examined include filling one in three seats
Fans brushing past in the stadium is a pressing concern

Paul MacInnes - Thu 9 Jul 2020 18.55 BST Last modified on Thu 9 Jul 2020 21.00 BST

Closing toilets at half-time, filling one in every three seats and a ban on away support are some of the ideas being considered to help get fans back into grounds next season.

It is expected that supporters will be allowed to return to English league stadiums in some form from September, if the progress of the coronavirus pandemic allows, but there are many challenges to making such an ambition work.

“Stage five” of the return of professional sport involves working groups from across the sector as well as public health officials, with reference to specialists in the Sports Grounds Safety Authority. Plans remain at an early stage but are being built around an assumption that grounds may be allowed to fill one-third of their capacity.

Watching the match gives authorities least concern, with sources party to some early meetings suggesting it has been argued that because fans will be facing the pitch the prospects of exhaling Covid-19 droplets on to their neighbours would be small. But the “brush past” risk when fans are moving around the ground is of greater concern.

That is why one idea under consideration is to close toilets at half-time. Customary queues could be eliminated if fans were forced to go during the game, a “nudge effect” that would help to regulate the movement of people. It is also expected that the “brush past” factor would mean seats towards the end of rows would be left unoccupied.

Another cause for congregation is half-time refreshment. One proposal would seek to change the Football Spectators Act to allow fans to drink alcohol in the stands, with staff bringing beer to the seats. In another move to prevent crowding, fans could be given tickets with a designated arrival time, with a window for providing contact details for potential track and trace.

As with the previous stages of the restart, government guidance will be interpreted by individual sports. In football it is anticipated that rules will likely be developed club by club depending on the size of ground, location and fanbase.

Given the limits on capacity, some clubs seem likely to want to bring in only home fans, with season-ticket holders first in line. The counter-argument is that some big clubs have fanbases who travel more widely than visiting fans.

Clubs could use loyalty points or a lottery to select ticket holders, but other factors may prove seductive. With family members not having to social distance from each other, there may be an incentive for clubs to let parents and children in first.

[Chester Perry]

Southampton's parent company Lander Sports release their 2018/2019 accounts - significant losses

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 2632881152

I have been saying for some time that the clubs finances are stretched even though they looked sound on the face of it

Landers Sports full accounts - https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/comp ... ng-history

Southampton FC full Accounts - https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/comp ... ng-history

[Chester Perry]

Arsenal pay-up existing bonds on the Emirates Stadium - highly likely that they will refinance at a significantly lower rate than the 5.2% they were paying - sound business and frees up a little bit more money

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/new ... s/14608523

And just where are Arsenal getting those new much reduced interest loans - @SwissRamble reveals all including the potential benefit to the club

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 5805712389

Anyone feel that this is starting to sound like the Glazers at United (though the loan was for a new stadium not to by the club with it's own money - Arsenal - have also been paying down the principle as well, unlike United)

I should point out that KSE is Kronke Sports and Entertainment - the owners prime holding vehicle - so there may be no interest at all, which would be a surprise given the outlays they have taken on the new stadium in LA for the Rams - believed to have a budgeted cost of $5 billion as of last November.

In May Kronke was looking for additional NFL finance and a significant relaxation of the NFL repayment rules to deal with Pandemic impacts on overruns

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/rams ... er-report/

[dsr]

I am not sure how this is possible given that FIFA only allow a 12 week summer transfer window - from the Guardian

If the transfer window doesn't officially open until August, that gives them up to the end of October to comply with the 12 weeks. Remember there is no restriction on agreeing deals and signing contracts at any time; it's only player registration that can't happen until the window opens.

[Chester Perry]

If the transfer window doesn't officially open until August, that gives them up to the end of October to comply with the 12 weeks. Remember there is no restriction on agreeing deals and signing contracts at any time; it's only player registration that can't happen until the window opens.

There will be a lot of pressure from UEFA who want them closed by Oct 5th so their competitions are not compromised - which may explain the EFL purchases only. Of course all that does is give Europe a 2 week advantage of trading with each other up front.

[huw.Y.WattfromWare]

If the transfer window doesn't officially open until August, that gives them up to the end of October to comply with the 12 weeks. Remember there is no restriction on agreeing deals and signing contracts at any time; it's only player registration that can't happen until the window opens.

Doesn’t the 12 weeks cover both the Summer and Winter windows? Winter is usually 4 weeks.

[Chester Perry]

Doesn’t the 12 weeks cover both the Summer and Winter windows? Winter is usually 4 weeks.

see paragraph 6.2 page 14

https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload ... o8b1hv3mnp

2.
The first registration period shall begin after the completion of the season
and shall normally end before the new season starts, subject to the temporary
exceptions below. This period may not exceed 12 weeks. The second
registration period shall normally occur in the middle of the season and may
not exceed four weeks. The two registration periods for the season shall be
entered into TMS at least 12 months before they come into force (cf. Annexe 3,
article 5.1 paragraph 1). FIFA shall determine the dates for any association that
fails to communicate them on time.

i. For associations following a dual-year calendar, the first registration period
for the 2020/21 season may overlap with the completion of the 2019/20
season for a maximum of 4 weeks.

ii. During the portion of the first registration period for the 2020/21 season
which overlaps with the completion of the 2019/20 season:

a) the transfer of a player between clubs is permitted. The player shall only
be eligible to participate in domestic competitions for their new club in
the 2020/21 season;

b) the engagement of an out-of-contract player is permitted. The player
shall only be eligible to participate in domestic competitions for their
new club in the 2020/21 season.

[Chester Perry]

And just where are Arsenal getting those new much reduced interest loans - @SwissRamble reveals all including the potential benefit to the club

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 5805712389

Anyone feel that this is starting to sound like the Glazers at United (though the loan was for a new stadium not to by the club with it's own money - Arsenal - have also been paying down the principle as well, unlike United)

I should point out that KSE is Kronke Sports and Entertainment - the owners prime holding vehicle - so there may be no interest at all, which would be a surprise given the outlays they have taken on the new stadium in LA for the Rams - believed to have a budgeted cost of $5 billion as of last November.

In May Kronke was looking for additional NFL finance and a significant relaxation of the NFL repayment rules to deal with Pandemic impacts on overruns

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/rams ... er-report/

a bit more thinking on that Arsenal bond repayment - it certainly gives them wriggle room in the transfer market this summer re FFP

https://twitter.com/DarrenArsenal1/stat ... 8623933440

[Chester Perry]

This is interesting - Simon Chadwick believes that recent political events in regards to the UK and Saudi Arabia means that the Newcastle takeover will complete as soon as the end of this month

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 3091615744

[Royboyclaret]

Blackpool release their 2018/19 financial results

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9007263744

Hard to believe that just a few seasons ago Blackpool's financials were not too dissimilar to our own at Turf Moor.

Now they have a Total Income of just over £4m (with a Wage bill even higher) compared to our £138m for the same financial year.

Worth remembering just how far we have come in such a short period of time and never to become complacent.

[huw.Y.WattfromWare]

..

Re:transfer window. So they are calling the Summer window 12 weeks but very little happens until July 1st when contracts are up.
I still wish they’d revert to the open transfers we used to have. Better for the big clubs, obviously, but brought an excitement to the game.

[The esk]

I eventually published part IV of Football Shorts with an honourable mention for Burnley https://theesk.org/2020/07/10/football-shorts-part-iv/

[Royboyclaret]

I eventually published part IV of Football Shorts with an honourable mention for Burnley https://theesk.org/2020/07/10/football-shorts-part-iv/

Fascinating read, again.

Couple of observations/questions - "Burnley demonstrated the real lack of robustness of many football clubs" - Certainly like to hear some expansion of that statement. Also within the chart detailing the change in potential cash flow for the 2020/21 season we're seeing the likes of Brighton, Wolves & Bournemouth as low as £1m, £2m & £2.8m respectively whilst Burnley are showing as £14.8m. Can we have some more detail behind those figures?

[The esk]

Fascinating read, again.

Couple of observations/questions - "Burnley demonstrated the real lack of robustness of many football clubs" - Certainly like to hear some expansion of that statement. Also within the chart detailing the change in potential cash flow for the 2020/21 season we're seeing the likes of Brighton, Wolves & Bournemouth as low as £1m, £2m & £2.8m respectively whilst Burnley are showing as £14.8m. Can we have some more detail behind those figures?

Roy, hope you are well, thank you for your comments

This is the full paragraph on Burnley, I was actually trying to be complimentary to your club - the point you highlighted was directed at football as a whole where a few months lost revenue create significant financial problems.

"Although extremely well run, and this is in no way a criticism of the club, Burnley demonstrated the real lack of robustness of many football clubs. In early April, their Chairman and 49.2% largest shareholder, Mike Garlick warned that a £50 million reduction in turnover would mean “we as a club will run out of money by August”. This from a club with no debt and only a marginal trade balance in favour of creditors. Given that the season is now almost certain to finish, I project the cash flow impact on Burnley to be significantly less than he might have feared. Burnley, to their credit, can see through this crisis despite not having an extraordinarily wealthy owner (Garlick’s net worth is estimated at £62.5 million) nor being heavily reliant on debt. The sensible manner in which they have been run will reap benefits in the hard times ahead."

With regards to the change in cash flow (not actual cash flow but a calculation regarding the extent to which cash flow will deteriorate, I made the following assumptions:

For 2019/20, an equal reduction in broadcasting revenues of £5.035 million per club, a pro rata loss of match day revenues based on how many home games left before project restart and a 5% reduction in commercial income.

For 20/21 I calculated no match day income, a 25% reduction in commercial income and a 10% reduction in broadcasting revenues. I then looked at the 2018/19 transfer activity and reduced net spend by the following factors - a 25% reduction in volume and a 25% reduction in transfer values (equal to a 44% reduction in net spend). I then applied that to the cash flow analysis.

As a result those clubs with a relatively high net spend in 2018/19 benefit in cash flow changes versus similarly sized clubs with a lower net spend.

I am the first to say that the figures are just projections and there are assumptions made across all clubs, however that is the nature of forecasting.

Regardless, now that it seems certain that 2019/20 will be completed Burnley will be in a relatively strong position going into 2020/21 even if no spectators can attend that season.

I wish the same could be said of my club. As ever happy to answer any further questions

[Royboyclaret]

Cheers for that, The esk.

Very difficult to make any projections at the moment with any degree of certainty, but the difference in figures between particularly Wolves and Burnley seemed hard to understand, although now I see your reasoning.

Posted on here the other day that I had been asked to provide a forecast P&L account for our Club for year to Jun'20 and it proved one of the most difficult I've ever undertaken with all the uncertainty around. Total Income was a minefield with all the potential broadcast rebates that will be applicable. For overseas broadcast rebate did you use a similar percentage reduction to the domestic figure?.....Also are you aware of any changes to the threshold for facility fees this season?.....the figure had previously been ten live games with something like £1.05m for each game above that level. With all the 92 games since the lockdown being shown live I'm assuming some kind of adjustment to facility fees will apply?

Just to add that, sadly, I'm unable to share your optimism that Burnley will go into the '20/'21 season in " a relatively strong financial position."

[The esk]

Cheers for that, The esk.

Very difficult to make any projections at the moment with any degree of certainty, but the difference in figures between particularly Wolves and Burnley seemed hard to understand, although now I see your reasoning.

Posted on here the other day that I had been asked to provide a forecast P&L account for our Club for year to Jun'20 and it proved one of the most difficult I've ever undertaken with all the uncertainty around. Total Income was a minefield with all the potential broadcast rebates that will be applicable. For overseas broadcast rebate did you use a similar percentage reduction to the domestic figure?.....Also are you aware of any changes to the threshold for facility fees this season?.....the figure had previously been ten live games with something like £1.05m for each game above that level. With all the 92 games since the lockdown being shown live I'm assuming some kind of adjustment to facility fees will apply?

The value of each match in terms of threshold will fall due to the increased number of games broadcast. However, marginally it will assist the clubs less popular on TV who by virtue of 25% of the whole season being televised will have a marginal increase in their exposure to all televised games. The difference is marginal though and will only be a few %

[Royboyclaret]

The value of each match in terms of threshold will fall due to the increased number of games broadcast. However, marginally it will assist the clubs less popular on TV who by virtue of 25% of the whole season being televised will have a marginal increase in their exposure to all televised games. The difference is marginal though and will only be a few %

Burnley have always been one of "the clubs less popular on TV", but surprisingly even prior to the pause we had already reached a higher number of live games than any other season in our PL history.

In the new three year broadcast cycle the overseas element increased by some 35.5% per annum but I understand all of that increase will be allocated on the merit payments basis so as, once again, to benefit the big six.

[Chester Perry]

@RorySmith - on the financial madness behind the fall of Turkey’s big three teams - from the New York Times

Fear and Loathing on the Bosporus
Turkish soccer, hobbled by fallen giants and rife with conspiracy theories, can no longer match Europe’s powerhouses. Fixing its problems will require the one trait no one seems to have.

By Rory Smith
July 10, 2020, 1:00 a.m. ET

ISTANBUL — The fury drew them in their hundreds to the doors of the Ulker Stadium. They pressed up against the barricades, climbed onto each other’s shoulders and chanted for change: for the manager to be fired, for the owner to step aside, for the players to be chased out of town.

Fenerbahce had lost, and someone, anyone, had to pay.

It had not, after all, lost just any game. For the first time this century, Fenerbahce had lost the game known as the Intercontinental Derby on home turf. Galatasaray, its bitter rival from the European side of Istanbul, had come to a simmering Ulker — in the Asian half of the city — and won.

For the fans, it proved one humiliation too far. Dreams of the title had long since disappeared. Now defeat had all but ended Fenerbahce’s dwindling hopes of landing a place in next season’s Champions League. Now their club was drifting into mediocrity. Their fury was rooted not just in disappointment, but fear.

That Fenerbahce was not the only team suffering provided scant solace. Istanbul has three totemic clubs: Galatasaray and Besiktas in Europe, Fenerbahce in Asia. Between them, they account for all but one Turkish championship since 1984. Their fans number in the millions, not just in Istanbul but deep into the country’s interior, too. They are less sports clubs and more vast, unwieldy empires.

But this season, with three games to play, all three Goliaths have fallen by the wayside; most likely, none will even feature in next year’s Champions League. The championship will be won by a David: most likely Istanbul Basaksehir, a team from one of the city’s package-fresh suburbs that has barely a decade of top-flight experience, which could see off its final challenger Trabzonspor — the biggest club from outside Istanbul — as early as Monday.

Fenerbahce was the first to fall away, long before the rage filled the streets outside the Ulker. Besiktas lasted a little longer, until a late equalizer at home to Trabzonspor — the night before the Intercontinental Derby — saw its title challenge fizzle out. Even Galatasaray found that victory in the Intercontinental derby was illusory: It lost ground soon after the Super Lig restarted in June.

On both sides of the Bosporus, the gilded palaces that have held sway over Turkish soccer for a century are falling. Their foundations, though, have been crumbling for some time.

On the Edge
Almost every other league in Europe had stopped, frozen by the coronavirus pandemic, by the time a team of cleaners entered the Turk Telecom Stadium — home of Galatasaray — and started the laborious process of disinfecting every seat, every surface.

Turkey, as late as the middle of March, was planning to play on. The country had started to record its first cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and many players were confiding how uncomfortable they were with the idea of the league’s continuing. No matter, the country’s sports minister declared. The games, that weekend, would go ahead, albeit without fans.

For the richest leagues in Europe, the economic consequences of the pandemic, and the subsequent hiatus and even the games without fans, would be unwelcome. In Turkey, they sat somewhere between unfathomable and existential.

Even before the coronavirus struck, the teams of the Super Lig were already operating with some $2.6 billion in debt. They, and by extension Turkish soccer, could not afford a shutdown.

Most of that debt belongs to Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas, as well as Trabzonspor. Much of it relates to unpaid taxes, though the collapse of the lira, the country’s currency, has not helped. All four teams have breached UEFA’s financial fair-play regulations in recent years.

But largely, it is the consequence of years of financial mismanagement, in which Turkey’s major teams bought high and sold low, paying vast salaries in euros to veteran, imported stars. The Super Lig has the oldest average age of 31 European leagues, according to the CIES Football Observatory.

By January, it had become clear that the situation was no longer “sustainable,” as Yildirim Demiroren, the head of the Turkish soccer federation, put it. “The big clubs are, to all intents and purposes, bankrupt,” said Caner Eler, the editor of the sports magazine Socrates.

Turkey’s banks, though, offered a lifeline: a debt-restructuring deal, in which the country’s banking association would manage each team’s debts, and club finances would be regulated by the federation.

The rescue staved off collapse, but Ali Ozturk, president of Antalyaspor, a mid-table Super Lig club, said it was not a long-term solution. “The system is not healthy,” he said. “Clubs are earning less, and the expenses are more and more. I am not optimistic for the next few years.”

To some extent, the dire financial circumstances of the old aristocrats has served to level the playing field in Turkey, allowing the likes of Basaksehir to thrive. “There are no big and small clubs any more,” said Fatih Terim, the Galatasaray coach and, for the last three decades, the dominant figure in Turkish soccer. “While the gap between European and Turkish clubs has grown bigger, on the contrary side, the Super Lig is getting more balanced.”

But in trying to solve one problem, the intervention of the banks — and by extension, the Turkish state — exacerbated another. “Each financial arrangement for each club is different,” Ozturk explained. “The system is not clear enough, and that creates space for people to be suspicious.”

Careful Whispers
The thing with conspiracy theories is that it does not always matter if they are true; what matters is if people believe them. There is no shortage of them in Turkish soccer: a million dark whispers of some subtle hand at work, of favorable treatment for a rival, of an outcome foretold.

Some of the ideas are more grounded than others. The theory that Basaksehir — an overnight success, backed by figures with strong links to the A.K.P., the governing party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — has enjoyed some political support in its meteoric rise is hardly far-fetched.

The belief that Trabzonspor winning the championship this year would be expedient for the government sounds more paranoid. It makes little political sense: alienating the millions across the country who identify with one of Istanbul’s big three would seem foolhardy for a politician as calculating, and as keen to harness soccer to his own ends, as Erdogan.

Accuracy does not diminish the effect: The whispers create and sustain an atmosphere of suspicion and outrage in which everyone believes the field has been arranged against them.

It is a climate instinctively stoked by club presidents, always eager to mollify their fans, to guarantee re-election, to explain away their own shortcomings. “You can probably say that is the problem,” said Eler, the magazine editor. “They talk so much that we know all the names of the club presidents.”

Turkey’s clubs are member organizations, electing a president every few years. It is, in theory, a model of democracy that protects the institution from the influence of private interests. Increasingly, though, there is a sense that it no longer works in Turkish soccer’s new reality.

“It would be much easier if individuals or companies could invest,” said Ozturk, a hotelier in the resort town of Antalya who said that he runs the local team to try to “give something back.”

“As it is,” he said, “we cannot get private investors.”

Without that infusion of income, clubs have limited options to pay off mounting debts: cost-cutting, really, is the only choice, one that leads to what Ozturk calls a “negative spiral of quality of play, and then the value of the teams, dropping.”

But the election model — combined with the possible political capital to be made out of running a successful team — has another impact. Presidents are encouraged to think short-term, the only way of keeping their post for another few years, to maintain the powerful position they have acquired.

It is not only an expensive approach, but a deeply flawed one, prioritizing statement signings of older players at vast expense. Eler sees it as a “vicious circle,” in which clubs build teams of loan players and aging stars for this year, and are then saddled with their wages when they are no longer of use.

“Presidents think they have to give gifts to the fans,” said Hamit Altintop, the former Bayern Munich and Real Madrid player who now works for the Turkish soccer federation.

Perhaps more damaging, though, is that the approach discourages long-term planning. “When there is a failure as a soccer team, as a first step, the clubs give up their coach,” Terim said. “That is the easiest way to show them as the cause of failure.”

The Black Box
Emre Utkucan’s journey, he admits, has been unusual. Eight years ago, he was working as a television commentator; his role was, largely, covering games from the rest of the world, particularly Italy and Spain.

One night — as it was explained to Utkucan — Terim was watching a game, and listening to his commentary. Terim admired the way Utkucan saw the game, the way he analyzed players, his depth of knowledge. So he invited him to the club’s training facility.

Not long after, Terim asked Utkucan — a lifelong club member — to join his staff, assigning him to overhaul the way Galatasaray operated in the transfer market. “It was a big move,” Utkucan said. “Inviting a TV commentator, someone in a wheelchair, to be in charge of recruitment and analysis.” Terim got away with it because he is Terim.

Since he joined, Utkucan has worked with seven managers and four presidents. He has stayed, though, building up his team of international scouts, expanding his personal network, hiring his own team of analysts — his “nerds,” as he calls them.

In a country, and a league, where “everything changes” all of the time, Utkucan is an outlier. He describes himself as Galatasaray’s “black box,” a kind of repository of institutional knowledge. He is almost one of a kind in Turkey, a team executive impervious to the buffeting political tides that roil the rest of the clubs.

It is no surprise, he said, that in his eight years at Galatasaray, it has won four league titles and four Turkish cups. He does not believe it is down to any special talent; it is just hard work and consistency. “Organizational stability is a huge luxury,” he said.

It is that trait that has been sorely lacking across Turkish soccer, and it is the one thing that all of those who want it to recover and to improve cite as the key absence. Terim is adamant that a “healthy solution” to the country’s problems can only be found with “consistent, long-term planning.” Altintop wants clubs to be “more constant, more disciplined.”

Such an approach is especially crucial in the field of youth development. For a country with a population of 80 million, Turkey lags alarmingly behind other European nations in terms of producing its own stars: a surprisingly large percentage of the national team has long come, like Altintop, from Germany’s second- and third-generation Turkish community.

“We have great potential,” Altintop said. “But we don’t have the right system. The concentration is on first teams and results. We forget to give youth teams and players the details they need.”

The priority, he said, must be not only in training a new breed of coaches, but paying them properly: many Turkish youth coaches are paid little more than minimum wage. Even Altintop, tasked by the federation with transforming a whole soccer culture, does it on a voluntary basis.

“Clubs have to understand that if you don’t have money, you have to work, and you have to take your time,” he said. “The way to change it is the right education for youth coaches, and then to trust in our own boys.”

Like Altintop, Terim hopes that Turkey’s clubs will see the current financial crisis as a chance to reset. He sees no other option; the days of lavishing money on veterans and mercenaries, of thinking only of next week, of hoping to win elections through largess, must end. “This situation will continue, unless there are correct, and permanent, solutions,” Terim said.

Outside the Ulker Stadium, hours after the Galatasaray defeat and long after most fans have left, a solitary Fenerbahce fan stood on the street, still screaming into the night, still demanding a different sort of change. Two days later, he got his wish. Fenerbahce fired its coach.

[Chester Perry]

CAS say the Man City Appeal decision will be announced on Monday Morning at 10:30 am local time

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 9743510529

[Vegas Claret]

they'll get away with all the dodgy deals

[claretandy]

Burnley have always been one of "the clubs less popular on TV", but surprisingly even prior to the pause we had already reached a higher number of live games than any other season in our PL history.

In the new three year broadcast cycle the overseas element increased by some 35.5% per annum but I understand all of that increase will be allocated on the merit payments basis so as, once again, to benefit the big six.

And we will benefit with a top ten finish.

[Chester Perry]

CAS say the Man City Appeal decision will be announced on Monday Morning at 10:30 am local time

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 9743510529

Simon Chadwick on why the CAS decision will be hugely significant for the future of western style of regulation in football - I have posted about this a few times on this thread

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 2471696384

[Chester Perry]

a bit more thinking on that Arsenal bond repayment - it certainly gives them wriggle room in the transfer market this summer re FFP

https://twitter.com/DarrenArsenal1/stat ... 8623933440

This from Arsenal Supporters trust is good

https://www.arsenaltrust.org/feed/afc-f ... mption-KSE

- just look at that overall debt - £700m!!!

- I said on Thursday I was minded of the Glazers, this is starting to look as disturbing

[Chester Perry]

An article from Sports ilustrated's si.com on the chakkenges La Liga is facing in cracking the US TV marker

La Liga's North American Project and Its Hurdles in Cracking the U.S. Market
Spain's top flight is dying to gain a stronger foothold in North America, but a couple of significant obstacles remain despite the progress made so far.

BRIAN STRAUS JUL 2, 2020

Soccer has returned to our TV screens, and while the game on the grass remains mostly the same, the surroundings are a reminder of the times. The stands are empty and silent, and different leagues and teams are confronting that atmospheric issue in different ways. Some leave the seats bare. Others use tarps, fans in cardboard form, scarves, mannequins that may or may not be sex dolls or advertising to fill the empty space.

Then there’s La Liga, which took a novel approach. The stands in Spanish stadiums remain deserted in real life, but on TV they’re filled with a computer-generated crowd. The shimmering mosaic of shapes and colors makes it seem that from a distance, the place is packed. With a few keyboard strokes, La Liga generated an impression of passion where there’d been a void.

It’s a modern solution to a modern challenge, as well as a symbolic sign that La Liga, despite its success on the field, is willing to try something new to build an audience. Outside Spain, the audience it covets more than any other is in the USA. There, La Liga has another modern challenge. And, it hopes, a modern solution.

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

Tebas referenced the population, the maturity of the TV and sports marketing industries and the country’s “purchasing power”—all of it still a relatively untapped resource for a highly regarded league that’s been in business since 1929.

“It’s a constant job we need to do. It’s not enough to play some games in the USA. You need to do many other things. You need to have a digital strategy, audiovisual distribution, many other things,” Tebas said. “And we are working on that, actively. You always need to better yourself, because you better yourself or you die.”

The playing field is now world-wide. At the highest level, pro soccer has transformed from a parochial, community-oriented activity to something resembling a global arms race, where viewers and dollars—especially in Asia and the Americas—are increasingly important as player salaries and competitive stakes rise. To be bigger, leagues have to look beyond their borders.

La Liga has done so broadly, with the placement of individual employees they call “delegates” in 43 countries around the world. And it’s done so more narrowly, with the opening of 11 international offices, including one in Mexico City. Then there’s the USA, which is getting a level of attention and investment that’s unique in international soccer.

The process began in the summer of 2017, when Barcelona and Real Madrid—the rivals who are in some ways La Liga’s greatest asset and in others a significant liability—played a friendly outside Miami. The International Champions Cup game at Hard Rock Stadium drew more than 66,000 fans and generated some $38 million in direct revenue. That led to a conversation between La Liga and Relevent, the ICC organizer controlled by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.

“Relevent pitched La Liga and said, ‘You can’t expect to come to the U.S. every four years to try to renegotiate your TV rights and see an uptick in the value of those rights if you’re not working to develop the market—doing stuff day-in and day-out to help grow the value of the brand,’” Boris Gartner said.

Gartner, a former Televisa and Univision executive from Colombia, now runs the result of those conversations. Two years ago, La Liga and Relevent formed La Liga North America. It’s a 15-year, 50/50 joint venture designed to generate marketing and sponsorship opportunities in the USA and Canada and to, as Gartner said, do the day-to-day work that’ll build La Liga’s brand equity. Relevent has invested close to $10 million so far, Gartner confirmed.

“You ask any international football executive, and they all pretend to have or want to have a U.S. strategy,” he said. “But very few of them are willing to commit the money and resources to actually do that.”

Why the investment? Why the effort? Because even if La Liga is No. 1 on the field—it leads UEFA’s coefficient ranking by a healthy margin, although the Premier League has gained ground over the past three seasons—it’s far from No. 1 in Tebas’s No. 2 market.

Liga MX’s popularity is buttressed by the nearly 40 million U.S. residents who identify as Mexican or Mexican-American. The EPL is the sport’s most glamorous domestic circuit. It features a relatively significant amount of top-to-bottom competitiveness and its clubs, especially those beyond the title contenders, are well-branded and recognizable. It’s also benefited from its NBC platform since 2013. And then there’s the Bundesliga, whose games were on Fox for five years and whose clubs field more Americans abroad than any other major league (not to mention the best Canadian prospect ever).

“We’ve been at this almost two years—not even two years,” Gartner said. “The Premier League, as a presence in this country, they’ve been at it for much, much longer. We need to catch up. I think even as we accelerate our growth, there’s a ton more that needs to be done.”

From a distance, La Liga faces two significant obstacles—one of which isn’t entirely of its own making. There’s a reason the excitement and publicity that surrounded sports’ return from the pandemic pause fell more generously on the Premier League and Bundesliga: the decline of La Liga’s American TV partner, BeIN Sports. The Qatari company broadcasts Spanish matches in 17 territories around the world, Gartner said, but it’s U.S. audience plunged two years ago when BeIN was dropped by both Comcast and DirecTV. The network fell from around 55 million subscribers during the 2017-18 season (English and Spanish language combined) to 27 million.

And after a renewal was triggered last year, La Liga now is tied to the network for four more seasons, until 2024.

“It means we have narrower reach, so we have been developing other strategies,” Tebas said. “I think a balance needs to be struck between what you get paid and the exposure you have.”

Gartner has no choice but to look for silver linings. One is that the money is decent. BeIN pays La Liga “just under” the $167 million per season the Premier League nets from NBC. Another is that the league feels valued.

“When you are the core property for a network, they’re going to give you disproportionate amounts of attention and promotion and everything that comes with it,” Gartner said. “The other thing is understanding where some of the competing leagues are in the landscape, and you see Serie A is on [ESPN] Plus. The Bundesliga was buried on Fox somewhere and now it’s going to [ESPN] Plus. The Champions League had a big window on Univision but is buried on B/R Live. The fact that we had an outlet with English and Spanish, with a linear presence and that we were going to be the core property for it … you have to build a balance with that scale and the value of your rights.”

He continued, “Everything we do is governed by what clubs want or need. You sit down with clubs and you ask them, ‘What do you want, more distribution or more revenue?’ They’ll all tell you that philosophically they want more distribution, they’re in this for the long run, get their property in front of as many people as possible. Well that means the revenue you’re receiving is 20% less. Then they’ll say, ‘Actually hold on ….’”

That makes sense, because in La Liga every cent matters. It matters because the league is ruled by the two wealthiest clubs in the sport. That’s the second obstacle. Barcelona and Real Madrid attract the the interest and fascination of the world. They play in La Liga, but they’re bigger than La Liga. Their domestic dominance makes many games, besides the ones against each other, almost moot. And the shadow cast by El Clásico renders so many smaller clubs in Spain, like the Osasunas and Levantes, almost anonymous beyond its borders.

Barcelona and Madrid have combined to win 14 of the past 15 La Liga titles, and it’ll be 15 of 16 by the end of this month. And even though the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 are each currently ruled by one club, that hasn’t historically been the case. Teams in those countries have had the chance to build up their trophy cases, and thus a bit of renown. Only five Spanish clubs have won at least three top-tier championships. Compare that to England (14), Germany (12), Italy (eight), France (14) and Mexico (12).

The recent Europa League success of Sevilla (five titles) and Atlético Madrid (three) speaks to La Liga’s quality. But the fact that those two clubs have combined to beat out both Barça and Madrid just once in that 15-year span demonstrates how high the hurdle is.

Tebas, Gartner and their colleagues want to grow La Liga, and to do so, they’ll have to get American fans to become more familiar with the other 18 clubs. Where’s Real Sociedad from? Who’s the best player on Leganés? What are Valladolid’s colors? Those questions and identities matter when you’re trying to build interest in an inclusive, season-long narrative.

“The history of Spanish soccer has been built on the pillars of Real Madrid and Barcelona, and that is a reality we can’t deny. But even with that reality, La Liga, together with the Premier League, is one of the biggest leagues in the world,” Tebas said. "What we need is for other clubs to grow in the same way. We don’t want to do anything artificial. We want things to be as natural as possible so other clubs might appear, such as Atlético and Sevilla. They are also winning titles and eventually, they’ll be as competitive as Madrid or Barcelona.”

Tebas took a massive step toward helping Atleti, Sevilla and the rest of the league compete back in 2015, when TV rights were centralized for the first time. Previously, each club marketed its broadcast rights separately, which left almost nothing for mid-size and smaller clubs. According to La Liga, the TV revenue gap between the biggest and smallest teams used to be 12:1. Following the 2018-19 season, it had dropped to 3.5:1.

Money earned through participation and success in continental competition still isn’t shared, which skews the ratios further in favor of Madrid, Barcelona and to a lesser degree the likes of Atleti or Valencia. But it’s not as bad as it was. It’s a start.

Meanwhile, La Liga North America will try to balance the appeal of its most valuable asset with the need to make the competition about more than just El Clásico.

“It would be crazy for us, as a league in the U.S. trying to grow the brand and the value to not leverage the existing, overwhelming dominance and fandom that Real Madrid and Barcelona have,” Gartner said. “It would be equally crazy and equally stupid not to use the platform that we have and the access that we have, driven by those two teams and arguably Atlético as well, to promote and push the other 17-18 teams.”

Augmenting BeIN’s production with its own digital content is a massive part of the joint venture’s strategy. It produces 12 weekly shows—six in Spanish and six in English—geared toward American audiences. Former U.S. international Jimmy Conrad is among its presenters. Overall, video views on social media and YouTube have increased nearly four-fold to more than 7 million this season.

“We try to tell many stories about the clubs, sentimental stories and stories out of the ordinary not strictly related to sports,” Tebas said.

“We can build a content piece around Messi and it would have millions of views, because at the end of the day, it’s Messi. It requires a bit more research and knowledge of the competition and your audience, but you can achieve this same scale and views with 10 smaller stories that probably will have deeper engagement,” Gartner said. “If I tell a [Real] Betis story with Andrés Guardado and Diego Lainez, yes, it’ll be a fraction of a Messi story, but the engagement it’ll drive from U.S. Hispanics with Mexican descent is crazy.”

Gartner said he’s a big believer in demographics as destiny. La Liga North America is a “long-term play.” The growing Hispanic population in the U.S., which includes a lot of first- and second-generation natives with a cultural predisposition to soccer, is the primary initial target for the joint venture’s initiatives.

“The country is getting more brown and more young and more diverse, and these people are already bought into soccer,” he said. “If you’re trying to get the full picture of the country, all demos, [soccer] might [rank] fourth. But what’s the growing demo, and where’s that growth coming from? A young, diverse, multicultural audience that favors soccer.”

In addition to content and sponsorship (its announced three partners so far, with two more coming), La Liga North America has gotten involved with youth soccer, launching academy and camp programs in Miami and Toronto and partnering with U.S. Club Soccer. At a higher level, its La Liga ProPlayer program creates a pathway for older Spanish academy players to move to the USA, attend college, earn a scholarship and play soccer. Twenty-six players from 21 first- or second-division La Liga teams took advantage in 2019, bringing the gospel of Spanish soccer with them. For fans, its working with bars and restaurants in different cities to create “permanent homes” for La Liga broadcasts.

The joint venture's holy grail, however, is the game itself. It’s as novel an idea as the virtual fans—play an official league match on American soil. On the pyramid of pillars underpinning La Liga North America, staging a game (or several) in the USA is at the top. It's unprecedented, and it's controversial. The first attempt, a Girona-Barcelona meeting in Miami in January 2019, was abandoned when the parties ran out of time to secure approval. The Spanish federation (RFEF), U.S. Soccer Federation, UEFA and Concacaf all had to sign off.

“We still strongly believe that having an official league match is the right step in the evolution of the growth of international soccer in the U.S., but also La Liga. If you follow the international strategy of all the American leagues, it was clearly along the same lines,” Gartner said, referring to the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB all playing regular-season games abroad.

Not everyone feels that way. FIFA president Gianni Infantino lacks jurisdiction, but didn’t seem thrilled with the idea in 2018, when he told Sports Illustrated, “I think I would prefer much more a great MLS game in the U.S. rather than La Liga being in the U.S.” The RFEF and USSF, which partners with MLS through Soccer United Marketing, are even less enthused. Both want to protect their turf. La Liga sued the RFEF in Spain in late 2018, and Relevent filed a federal antitrust case against U.S. Soccer in April 2019 that’s still in its early stages.

It may be a while before La Liga can stage its game here, if ever. But both sides of the joint venture are willing to put in the time. Again, this was a 15-year agreement. The BeIN deal runs another four seasons, and the 2026 World Cup is just beyond that as another tantalizing catalyst.

“You have highly motivated parties in Relevent, Stephen Ross, Tebas and La Liga, to try and pull that off,” Gartner said. “Just from a U.S. perspective, to fuel the growth of the league here, there would be no bigger stunt than this. It you think about the growth of the value of international football—not just La Liga and not just the two teams that come—it’ll help grow the value of the TV rights even more, the commercial value, and that revenue gets distributed to all 42 teams [in the Spanish first and second divisions]. It will fuel the growth of the other teams.”

[Chester Perry]

Anyone surprised that the 2 richest (biggest) teams in League 1 are the only ones against a flat salary cap - no me neither - Portsmouth and Sunderland are not happy though

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/f ... t-18584473

[Chester Perry]

This from Arsenal Supporters trust is good

https://www.arsenaltrust.org/feed/afc-f ... mption-KSE

- just look at that overall debt - £700m!!!

- I said on Thursday I was minded of the Glazers, this is starting to look as disturbing

Kieron otherwise known as @SwissRamble does a deep deep dive into what the bond buyout by Kronke Sports and Entertainment (KSE) means for Arsenal in a pandemic hit world - there are some parallels to Football Shorts in this analysis

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 4128893956