Football's Magic Money Tree

[Chester Perry]

Following the announcement of several financial results this week over two thirds of the Premier League have now published their 2018/19 figures and the big picture gets worse almost every time

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1241447242663370761

[Chester Perry]

@FootballLaw is making the most of working from home at the moment - he is planning a series of daily weekday broadcasts on youtube covering the whole span of the football industry - the schedule for the 12 broadcast at the link

https://twitter.com/FootballLaw/status/ ... 4010322949

[Chester Perry]

Previous posts from yesterday suggested that Championship clubs would not be able to survive for too long on those EFL relief payments - @KieranMaguire did a calculation based on the most recent accounts (wage bill is very likely to have increased for many since) of how many days it would cover the wages for Championship clubs some would run out by next weekend -

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 81/photo/1

[Chester Perry]

I mentioned that @DrRob_Harris was doing articles for the Mail yesterday (and the dichotomy of their political persuasion), I also said that I didn't always agree with him. This article underline my fundamental issue with the line he has been pushing for the last couple of weeks.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... vival.html

I have no issue with the need for a remodel of distribution and governance (this thread testifies to that), I do have a problem with his assertion that Premier League clubs are awash with ready cash simply by simply stating their headline revenues (we know differently as we have looked at the accounts - courtesy of @KieranMaguire, @SwissRamble and @Vysyble - the premier league is as much a financial mess as the rest of the pyramid, the numbers are just bigger). He knows all this of course. He just chooses to make a political point rather than provide a route for long term pyramid stability which is very poor for a well regarded academic and there are others falling into the same trap (they are all mates by the way).

These minds are more than capable of working with the football authorities on this approach, they would love to be involved (and not just for the status it would confer on their institutions), but this is not the way to open the doors for them to get involved. They (and the different interest groups) need to understand the Weltanshauung of each other so that they can reach a common solution. That understanding leads to empathy and empathy will be the path to the solution. What is sad is that the academics already know this but are not doing it, which makes them as guilty as the rest.

[Tricky Trevor]

Piece in tomorrows Times. “Listed companies ordered to stop publishing annual results”.
Party time in some boardrooms.

[Chester Perry]

Piece in tomorrows Times. “Listed companies ordered to stop publishing annual results”.
Party time in some boardrooms.

Burnley are not Listed they are a private company, struggling to think of English clubs that are (apart from United and that is for a meagre share in reality)

[Chester Perry]

Derby fans are probably getting very excited at this moment - apparently Mel is in talks with the 25th richest person in the world, Michael Dell

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/ ... nt-3974934

[Chester Perry]

Gianni Infantino seizes the moment to talk about a new future for football - sounds great at first but beware, all the traditions we hold dear are going to be smashed I believe - smaller leagues - 18 possibly even 16, less domestic cups (if any at all) probably a ban on non sanctioned competitions (which is partly why the International Challenge Cup went for UEFA backing)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... anges.html

There is no doubt the game needs reform, but people like Infantino will be doing it in such away that the money passes through his organisation and their collective sticky hands, if history has anything to inform us with

[Chester Perry]

Just when you think you have seen it all in football and players contracts, it turns round and says what about this - Neymar has an "Ethical" bonus in his contract

https://twitter.com/ElMengem/status/1242075715396415489

oh and that is a weekly bonus, though in reality it is for more that just clapping as @UglyGame points out

"To be fair, it's not €4.5m a year for clapping fans; that would be absurd. It's €4.5m a year for clapping fans, being punctual, conducting himself well off the pitch, showing respect to reporters *and* not betting on *any* competitions PSG are playing in. He puts in a shift."

I suspect there are times when it has been stopped

EDIT - I did have to check the date when I read it

[Chester Perry]

Deloitte have prepared an analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on Serie A - as you would expect it is not a pretty picture

https://www.soccerex.com/insight/articl ... ish-season

[Chester Perry]

With the inevitable global recession that is to follow Covid-19 the Argentine authorities are going to regret the way the handled the initial tender process for International rights back in January, which has now been scrapped. They are having to do it all again after a mountain of complaints from Interested parties. The new reality is likely to see bids much lower than they would have initially hoped for

https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/cala ... -scrapped/

[Chester Perry]

Aberdeen very clearly articulate the problems that they and other clubs are facing as a result of the indefinite shutdown

https://www.afc.co.uk/2020/03/23/afc-up ... -chairman/

[Chester Perry]

Marca on Barca's negotiations to reduce player wages through to the end of the season - whenever that may be

https://www.marca.com/en/football/barce ... b45fe.html

[Chester Perry]

the first episode of @FootballLaw's series on the Football Industry was streamed live earlier, this episode acts as an introduction and an overview - it can be seen here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-34qVcW9s9M

[Chester Perry]

at last the media are beginning to talk about much needed reforms in the way the game is run and especially about the recklessness in the EFL (where only 3 clubs can grasp the reward they all (think they) want - this article from Jason Burt in the Telegraph only begins to scratch at the surface - there is so much that needs to happen,

https://digitaleditions.telegraph.co.uk ... icle/27001

which brings me to the inevitable relaxation of FFP for periods covering the suspension. Authorities must be very clear that the rules are relaxed for specific (revenue shortfall for missed matchday, TV refund, sponsorship refund and commercial activities cancelled due to lockdown) and already contracted reasons (existing transfer fee, financial loans and salary agreements) and not for new spending. Otherwise you will a scenario where a cash rich chances floods their club with cash by which they can sign up the best players from the competition to significantly enhance their chances

[Chester Perry]

@SwissRamble looks at the financial impact of Covid-19 pandemic on our game and the pyramid - it is his usual though work

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 0833333248

[Chester Perry]

Paul Scally outlines the problems in Leagues 1 and 2 - no mention of the needs in the Championship or National League or those below

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... aul-scally

I think many are looking at that last Premier League cash held position of £1,5bln that @SwissRamble referred to above - forgetting that that has significantly reduced with a February payment to member clubs and the possibility of a £750m refund

I strongly suspect that if you asked the game would want to cover the next 3 months
- Championship £150m + (though the clubs who you would expect to be most affected are greatly aided by parachute payments from the Premier League - It is more likely that Leeds, Derby, Preston, Sheffield Wednesday etc are the ones that have overstretched themselves in a bid for promotion)
- Leagues 1 and 2 £50m (as claimed by Paul Scally)
- National League £20m (as already claimed)
- rest of pyramid £30m (while almost universally small amounts for each club the sheer proliferation of them ends up creating such a big figure)

this doesn't take account of the grass roots or women's game

[Chester Perry]

Article from Forbes.com looking at how clubs in different leagues are looking to cut (I suspect defer) player wages during the pandemic.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbymcmah ... e9352d466d

[Chester Perry]

@Vysyble again pushing their measure of Economic profit (I like this measure not too many (enough) in the business/finance world do)- this time looking at the economic profit of clubs in their first season after promotion in the Premier League since 2009 (where it could be reasonably expect that with lower costs and a huge acceleration in revenues would lead to profits) - Naturally all 3 occurrences for or club feature prominently though there is not to much correlation with TV cycles or overall revenue

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1242 ... 18/photo/1

[Chester Perry]

@Vysyble again - this time in response to an @MiguelDelaney article about the need for clubs to show their true commitment to communities - @Vysyble are critical of clubs in a number of ways here including their continuing waste of increasing revenues that are turned into increasing losses

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1242182906191249409

[Chester Perry]

@Vysyble again - this time biggest economic losses on first season after promotion since 2009 - can you guess who has the top 2 places (remembering that it is based on published results so Villa this season will not be in)

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1241 ... 82/photo/1

[Chester Perry]

@Vysyble again (final one for now) - the biggest economic losses in the English pyramid over the last 10 years - this is the top 8 with economic losses of over £3.1bln between them

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1241 ... 49/photo/1

[ecc]

Hi Chester,

I hope you and your family are keeping well

Thank you very much as always.

These figures from the interview with the Gillingham Chairman show the gulf between the Pl and L1:

"Gillingham’s highest-paid player gets around £3,000 a week, the lowest £250 a week."

I'd love to get £150,000 p.a. but when you think of the wages our players are reportedly earning, the difference is staggering.

[Chester Perry]

Hi Chester,

I hope you and your family are keeping well

Thank you very much as always.

These figures from the interview with the Gillingham Chairman show the gulf between the Pl and L1:

"Gillingham’s highest-paid player gets around £3,000 a week, the lowest £250 a week."

I'd love to get £150,000 p.a. but when you think of the wages our players are reportedly earning, the difference is staggering.

Cheers ecc - we are well thanks - we have had 4 branches of the family (locally) in lockdown locally (prevention rather than presumed infection they are either elderly and/or have underlying issues) for nearly 2 weeks now, so apart from a bit of shopping for them we have been social distancing all that time.

Re the figures at Gillingham - yes it is a stark contrast to the Premier League (Accy is even less btw) - they did manage a small operating profit in their last accounts for 2017/18 (£100k https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/comp ... ng-history) one of a growing number of clubs at that level that have been getting their houses in order - which is good to see and will help in these challenging times

Should add that I hope all stay safe and keep well, it is a time to care about others (always should be really) and not just yourself and your nearest and dearest

[Chester Perry]

@KieranMaguire in a lengthy interview with Football CFB podcast

https://anchor.fm/footballCFB/episodes/ ... ire-ebsbki

[Chester Perry]

Birmingham City become the first Championship club to ask players to take a 50% deferment in wages - it is a Telegraph story but behind a paywall sp read this rewrite

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/updat ... situation/

[Chester Perry]

Tifo Footbal - the Economic impact of Coronavirus on Football

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfM4UdPhVDU

[Chester Perry]

Tifo Football again - What is the fit and proper person test and does it work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orFJIUQ0siI

[Chester Perry]

In what is something of a surprise move (which may cause some interesting exchanges at the next Premier League meeting - 8 of the current top 10 teams in the Premier League have launch an appeal to CAS to prevent a bid from City to be allowed to take part in the Champions League while their appeal is ongoing - only Sheffield United are not part of it - from the Mail

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... urope.html

EDIT I should have emphasized that if this article is correct - then we are one of the teams involved - though it could just as easily have been Everton who have clearly stated European aspirations, hence the expensive recruitment of Ancelotti

[Chester Perry]

With reports that Leeds have joined Birmingham City in asking players to take significant deferrals on a percentage of their wages, speculation has started mounting as to when Premier League players will be asked to do the same (at the moment it appears to be the only league in Europe where reports of such discussion/agreements have not been made

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/footba ... 96441.html

In the English game the PFA has advised players about their rights and their ability to refuse - though whether they would litigate as this article suggests is not really clear

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sport ... posal.html

In Scotland players contracts are a little different as almost all contain a clause allowing for a 50% cut in times when the season is halted for a period (foresight in practice) some of which have been enacted already - though there the Scottish PFA is calling for deferrals rather than actual cuts

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/scotti ... -executive

[Chester Perry]

Article looking at how rights holders and distributors are balancing legal and duty of care issues created by the pandemic - from SportsBusiness.com

Health and duty of care considerations override rights commitments as sports seek Covid-19 legal advice
Ben Cronin, Europe Editor - March 20, 2020

- Legal firms seeing unprecedented demand for advice
- Rights-owners ‘anxiously checking’ force majeure definitions
- Legal experts counsel collaborative approach in crisis

UK law firms acting for clients in the sports industry say they are dealing with an unprecedented demand for advice after the Covid-19 outbreak caused the widespread cancellation of sporting events.

One UK law practice said it has been running daily surgeries with sports stakeholders to understand their exposure to the crisis and to help them decide on an appropriate response.

But the global scope of the problem and the often-conflicting guidance offered by different local and national governments has only increased the complexity of the situation for sports organisations.

While leagues and federations are conscious of the financial implications of the outbreak, one expert said duty of care obligations to fans and athletes, together with the importance of adopting a respectful tone in what is a public health emergency, have tended to take precedence in decisions to postpone or cancel events.

“The political and health considerations are often taking priority over any strict legal or liability considerations or even contractual considerations,” explains Nic Couchman, head of the sports practice at Charles Russell Speechlys. “Event owners and sports businesses have both moral and legal duties of care and other legal obligations to staff, contractors, athletes and fans, which have to be at the top of their agenda.” He adds that the vastly differing problems faced by stakeholders, and the evolving nature of the crisis, also make it dangerous to offer any broad-brush advice.

The one pattern to have emerged so far, it is that right-holders have favoured postponing events rather than cancelling them outright, where the calendar allows. At this stage, the consensus is that it is preferable for them to delay the performance of their rights obligations while the crisis evolves rather than confront the repercussions of non-delivery straight away.

Media, advertising and entertainment lawyer Nick Breen, senior associate with London-based legal practice Reed Smith, says stakeholders will be “anxiously checking” the force majeure provisions in contracts that govern liability in the event of failure to fulfil rights obligations.

“The basic concept is that a party to a contract will not be liable for a delay in performance or non-performance of its obligations where such delay or failure is caused by a force majeure event,” he says.

He suggests that the most sophisticated sports promoters and sponsors will carefully detail what constitutes a force majeure and add contractual provisions for pandemics. But these clauses are often overlooked or omitted completely by other rights-holders. In countries with common law legal systems – such as the UK, the US, Germany and Australia – Breen says the law will be likely to look for specific reference to epidemics or diseases in force majeure provisions to relieve organisers of any liability for failure to deliver an event.

“Any party that wants to try and rely on a force majeure provision is either going to have to hope that their provision already covers a quite appropriate or analogous position, such as epidemics,” he says. “Or they are going to have to hope that their force majeure provision provides for the consequence of that epidemic, for example actions or instructions given by government agencies to stop sporting bodies from holding events.”
Breen suggests the reason a handful of rights-holders have resisted postponing or cancelling sporting events until the last-minute is because they were waiting for governments to explicitly prohibit such activities, thereby indemnifying them against non-delivery.

“The party wishing to rely on it [a force majeure] clause will also need to show that they cannot perform their obligations because of the circumstances that are beyond their control. They also need to demonstrate that no reasonable steps could have been taken to avoid the force majeure event,” he says.

However, all the legal experts spoken to by SportBusiness recommended against an adversarial response to the crisis given its human dimension. The changing picture and the possibility governments will create emergency laws to deal with the problem, or compensate industries affected by it, also ought to dissuade anyone from going on the legal offensive straight away.

Responsible
“In one sense they [rights-holders] ought to be applauded for taking responsible actions, irrespective of what their contractual arrangements might or might not lead them to be doing,” says Couchman. However, he predicted industry cash flow problems will inevitably create friction further down the line.

“It will be interesting to see whether the stakeholders in sports do dig deep and cooperate in a pragmatic way to achieve solutions,” he says. “Sport is built on long term mutual relationships, so trying to protect yourself at all costs has the potential to create an inverse effect in the long run as people work out who’s behaved in the right way and who hasn’t. The sports world is very small and hugely interdependent”.

Uefa and Fifa have already been commended for putting their turf war to one side in working together to rejig the international match calendar now that the Euros have been postponed until next year. Uefa president Aleksander Čeferin thanked Fifa president Gianni Infantino personally in a statement and has commended Conmebol for agreeing to move the Copa América.

In contrast, tennis stakeholders have accused the French tennis federation (FFT) of acting unilaterally and appearing to protect its own interests in postponing the French Open to September.

Breen suspects that it will be easier to ‘recast’ sponsorship rights to compensate brands but that broadcast agreements would prove trickier to adapt.

There is already evidence of sponsorship agencies trying to provide alternative inventory and assets to help brands gain a return on their sports investments in the absence of live content.

Joel Seymour-Hyde, head of Octagon UK, tells SportBusiness: “The biggest question we are asking at the moment as a business is: how can we solve our client’s problems and create different opportunities? The simple one is: if we have assets that we were creating for a live or experiential purpose, can they be repurposed for a digital ecosystem?”

There is a suggestion that broadcasters will not want to damage long-term relationships with rights-holders and jeopardise future negotiations by taking an adversarial approach, but by the same token, some parties might take advantage of the crisis to exit unfavourable deals early.

[Chester Perry]

Of course the longer this drags out - which is the direct consequence of the whole policy of lockdown/flattening the curve (for health system capacity reasons) - the more all organisations will look to protect their own financial stability, Which is why we have the continual ludicrous discussions of finishing the season by mid July at the latest

https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/lfp- ... -recovery/

no thought about the players and their fitness - they will need a least a month to prepare so they are physically fit enough or injuries will occur, similarly the idea that teams can play every 2 or 3 days from this cold start is nuts - we don't do the Christmas madness thing until half way though the season when players are truly match fit

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 20901.html

[Chester Perry]

Roma FC continue their innovative use of the social media accounts, which has brought them much praise (and increased numbers), as they demonstrate true social awareness/responsibility and gratitude. First it was implemented to find missing persons now it is being used to highlight contributions of medical personnel around the world during the pandemic. Bravo!!

https://twitter.com/ASRomaEN/status/1242509905984192515

[Chester Perry]

Last night's @FootballLaw youtube session was on transfers - you can watch it back here

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

[Chester Perry]

The PFA are seeking urgent talks with the EFL and Premier League re the financial impact of the pandemic shutdown

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52041452

I suspect they want to broker standard levels of deferrals rather than clubs doing it on an individual basis which could be difficult given the broad range of finances across the members of such organisations

[Chester Perry]

all levels of the pyramid below League 2 have aske the FA to end the season so that they can better deal with the financial impact of Coronavirus

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52039174

[Chester Perry]

I have been posting for quite some time about the perilous state of Barcelona's finances and suggested prior to it occurring that a shutdown would place them under severe financial stress - the scale of that stress can probably be best determined by the size of wage deferrals that they are asking players to take and if the reported 70% across the board (including youth and women's squads) is true then it is huge for the club with the worlds largest wage bill of well over £500m

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... s-lockdown

[Chester Perry]

It would appear that some players do not want to play ball with Barcelona - something about the club making to many expensive but bad signings recently - so why should they help them out of a mess they had no part in creating

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... -cuts.html

[Chester Perry]

Meanwhile the Spanish Football Federation has come up with a creative approach to help clubs at all levels through this challenging period - the numbers are the largest I have come across from anywhere though it is all in repayable loans - be aware that the article is via google translate

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... l-covid-19

[Chester Perry]

@FootballLaw with part three of his course on the Business of Football - Player Contracts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_z_QuSruL8

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Its interesting to see what clubs and players will end up doing and I suspect that this could see a change to how much players are paid after this.

We all know that there are players who steal a wage, maybe this will enable clubs to become more prudent with their wage bills and reduce power of the agents.

[Chester Perry]

Huddersfield Town announce their 2018/19 financial results - they managed to squeeze a tiny operating profit from the relegation season

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

they have debts too https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52049672

@KieranMaguire has a look https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 7997744128

[Chester Perry]

Interesting move from the Bundesliga's Champions League participants as revealed by @rob-harris

"Germany's Champions League participants - Dortmund, Munich, Leipzig & Leverkusen - have pledged €20m financial support to clubs in Bundesliga & Bundesliga 2 struggling due to coronavirus.

- €12.5m from UEFA national media revenue share
- €7.5m from the 4 clubs themselves"

[Chester Perry]

The Chairman (woman) of Hearts clearly outlines the current position of the club following media speculation - taking direct aim at the Sun in particular

https://www.heartsfc.co.uk/news/article ... march-26th

[Chester Perry]

This story is getting a lot of attention at the moment - Fifa suggests player contracts and transfer windows be changed - but it should be remembered it is a working paper (which applies basic logic) and much is dependent on when the game actually restarts

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... be-changed

[ecc]

"Germany's Champions League participants - Dortmund, Munich, Leipzig & Leverkusen - have pledged €20m financial support to clubs in Bundesliga & Bundesliga 2 struggling due to coronavirus.

- €12.5m from UEFA national media revenue share
- €7.5m from the 4 clubs themselves"

Fair play to them. I saw yesterday that the Bayern and Dortmund players had agreed to 20% pay cuts. I hope other players follow this example.

[Chester Perry]

@KieranMaguire looks at the 2018/19 financial results of Salford City - the season they got promoted to the football league - as you would expect they made significant losses

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 5940424706

[Chester Perry]

@UglyGame on that - Fifa suggests player contracts and transfer windows be changed - story- passing the responsibility and risk to the players don't necessarily expect them to agree - it is a point I have made a few times in the last few weeks

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1243184384338952192

[Chester Perry]

All of Serie A's teams have reported on their financial results from last season - the picture is dire when you pair it with the suspension of the game

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... ation.html

[Chester Perry]

The FA agrees to end the season without promotion and relegation for all leagues below National League North/South

https://nonleaguedaily.com/step-3-6-lea ... te-effect/

They also did the same for the women's game below the top 2 divisions - that includes Burnley Ladies

http://www.thefa.com/news/2020/mar/26/n ... ate-260320