Football's Magic Money Tree

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 30, 2019 4:28 pm

Is this an example of another mistake by a European Club on tour in the far East trying to win support - Juventus in South Korea - Ronaldo on the bench for the whole game and the squad were in the country for 9 hours in total

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... asia-tours" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 30, 2019 9:56 pm

We have seen recently that Liverpool FC are trying to trademark the work Liverpool in all kinds of areas (post #1745 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1744" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) - but this is not the first attempt down that path - Last November they tried to do the same with Allez. Allez, Allez before realising the futility of it - This lot are fast becoming more shameless than Utd on the commercial front

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/live ... copyright/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 30, 2019 10:01 pm

6 hours ago AFC Wimbledon launch a crowdfunding based share issue to help fund the building of their new ground

https://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/news/201 ... -revealed/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

it already exceeded £700k in 4 hours

https://twitter.com/KentWomble/status/1 ... 0709254147" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

this is what can happen when you place a club in the heart of a community

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Tue Jul 30, 2019 10:19 pm

In contrast to AFC Wimbledon Liverpool FC's trademark attempts are creating a wedge between themselves their supporters and the city

https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/live ... t-shankly/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 1:15 pm

Nigel Clough gets it mostly wrong when saying that the Premier League should bail out clubs like Bolton and Bury - that would just encourage owners to take more risks

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... are_btn_tw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The premier League should not bail anyone out because of the ineptitude of the owner, regulations should be in place to prevent the owner creating such a mess in the first place - which would do away with FFP and include a more rigorous approach to "fit and proper". There is a good argument to be had over a better solidarity payment (and distribution) together with a complete review of the parachute payment system and the distorting effect it has on the championship,

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 1:20 pm

Steven Pressley manager at Carlisle has a different view

https://twitter.com/CFMRadioNews/status ... 5278957569" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

unfortunately he hadn't checked the clubs last set of published accounts as one Bury fan noticed

https://twitter.com/IblisLord/status/11 ... 5865497600" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That was before Pressley's tenure and the club are on a different path now

https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/sport/176 ... g-process/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 1:26 pm

AS he often (not always) does @AndyhHolt knows what should have been done and who is responsible

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 8734285824" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 1:29 pm

@uglygame gets it and knows what has gone wrong with society to get us here

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1156531154834665472" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and even suggests what to do about it

https://twitter.com/uglygame/status/1156453285626359809" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

just imagine what the EFL could do with the Parachute money on top of the solidarity payment - that's around £360m a season - less than the revenue of any of the top 6 - but close to 4 times what it has now and Championship clubs currently take 80% of the solidarity payment and usually all the parachute payment

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 1:46 pm

@KieranMaguire brings us up to date on the profit and loss from 2017/18 for the 92 in the pyramid

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 0562207744" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 1:59 pm

I have posted about Saudi TV operator Beoutq pirating Bein Sports broadcasts in Saudi a few times - now FIFA, UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation, Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A have released a joint statement threatening legal action in...…...Saudi Arabia - good look with that then, given that 9 different Saudi law firms have refused to prosecute on their behalf

https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we- ... -league-an" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 2:08 pm

Remember the fiasco over the African Champions League final - we have VAR until it is needed to review a goal - which led to protest and demonstrations at the FIFA Congress in Paris - which in turn led to a decision to have the match relayed, which led to an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport - well CAS have made their judgement - CAF need to review the circumstances and then determine whether or not to replay the game - so that was useful wasn't it

https://twitter.com/SKhmira/status/1156544392322342913" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 2:23 pm

Part 3 of the Independent's Sporting Mind series - Changing room culture

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/the ... 42166.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 2:30 pm

If anyone (not sure there is any more) doesn't believe football has Mental Health issues - then read this

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foo ... 42206.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 2:44 pm

We will soon be able to take Peterborough United off the list of clubs who do not own their ground - good for them - Darragh has been listening to has mat @AndyhHolt I feel

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49178819" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 4:50 pm

The BBC take that Nigel Clough piece (see post #1805 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1804" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and make a much better fist of it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49177284" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 4:53 pm

looks like we may have a winner in the dispute of ownership of Sheffield Utd - would explain the sudden splash of cash

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 4394896385" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 5:11 pm

A nice graphic showing the huge change in types of businesses sponsoring in the Premier League in it's first season and the coming one

https://twitter.com/Obs_Sport_Biz/statu ... 3607288832" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting speculation about the next trend in shirt sponsorship - Energy or GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft - I had to look that one up)

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 7:27 pm

Interesting move from Reading - offering free coach travel to the 15 furthest away games

https://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/2019/j ... -fixtures/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

GodIsADeeJay81 · Post by **GodIsADeeJay81** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 7:39 pm

Chester Perry wrote:The BBC take that Nigel Clough piece (see post #1805 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1804" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and make a much better fist of it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49177284" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wouldn't matter how much money trickles down if rules aren't enforced properly to stop clubs running up such massive debts.

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 9:41 pm

Intriguing move from Chelsea - not allowed to buy anyone - (£40m for Mateo Kovacic excepted) and pulling in monies for players like Hazard - why have they gone and raised £164m from a new share issue

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 4227087360" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can think of 3 options - they want to hoover up even more talent for the Academy (they are allowed to spend there), they think they can reduce the ban to one window and will splurge in Jan or they want to move ahead with the ground redevelopment process

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 10:11 pm

There were whispers of this at the FIFA Congress in Paris at the beginning of June - FIFA examining the possibility of leaving Switzerland - at that time France were said to be keen to provide a home for them - @TariqPanja strikes again for the New York Times

FIFA Quietly Considering Plan to Leave Switzerland
World soccer’s governing body is weighing a move away from Zurich, its home since 1932, saying Swiss law has made it difficult to hire employees from outside Europe.

By Tariq Panja - July 31, 2019

Senior executives at FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, are giving serious consideration to leaving Switzerland, the organization’s home for nearly 90 years and where in 2015 some of its most senior officials were arrested in connection with a major corruption scandal.

Under Gianni Infantino, a Swiss administrator who was elected as president in 2016 after the fall of FIFA’s longtime leader Sepp Blatter, FIFA has tried to move away from its past. Top leaders have been purged and efforts have been made to reform the organization and its decision-making processes, with varying degrees of success.

But after he was re-elected to a second term as president in June, Infantino tasked his top lieutenants with studying the viability of FIFA’s leaving its glass-and-steel headquarters in Zurich. The discussion, which is still in its early stages, is driven by many factors, but two primary reasons are difficulties in hiring staff members from outside Europe and an acceptance that continuing to base its operations in a country with a reputation for corporate secrecy might not align with the goals of an organization trying to win back the public trust.

While FIFA has not made any public statements on the discussions, or the motivations behind them, two people familiar with the organization’s plans told The New York Times that the organization is studying options for leaving Zurich. The plans could include leaving Zurich entirely or a partial relocation of operations, which could see FIFA open subsidiary offices in different parts of the world to give it better access to, and oversight of, its 211 member associations. Officials also have not ruled out maintaining the status quo, with all global operations handled from its current office.

The discussions with potential host countries and cities could be similar to those held by international corporations like Amazon, and just as in those competitions, a final decision most likely would depend both on practical concerns but also on what concessions FIFA can win.

FIFA was established in Paris in 1904 but moved to Zurich in 1932 because of Switzerland’s location in the center of Europe, its political neutrality and because “it was accessible by train,” according to a timeline on FIFA’s website. In 2007, FIFA moved into its headquarters building on a hill overlooking Zurich, built at a cost of more than $200 million. The building, known as FIFA House, has several subterranean levels, including the marble-floored, soundproof room where its governing council holds its meetings.

Among the possibilities under consideration is a return to Paris, according to one of the people familiar with FIFA’s thinking. But other locations are also under consideration with a number of factors expected to factor in any outcome, including proximity to a major international airport; what tax and visa status FIFA would be granted; and how local employment laws would affect FIFA employees and visitors. In recent years, FIFA officials have complained that Swiss law has made it difficult to recruit from overseas.

For Switzerland, which over decades has grown into the location of choice for international sporting federations, the departure of FIFA would represent a major loss, even with the organization’s recent embarrassing scandals. Switzerland has long boasted of its ability to attract major sports organizations — Lausanne, the home of the International Olympic Committee, actively recruits such organizations and has labeled itself “the Silicon Valley of sports” — and highly paid employees provide a boost to the local economy.

Along with FIFA and the I.O.C., dozens of other regional and international sports bodies, both large and small, call Switzerland home. Their world here has been largely independent: they are lightly taxed, and for years they were exempt from Swiss anticorruption laws. The country even has its own arbitration court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which is based in a chateau in Lausanne.

Sports organizations bring more than a billion dollars to Switzerland annually, according to a six-year study published in 2015.

“For a long time, we didn’t have to do anything to attract them,” Sabrina Attias, the city official charged with luring sports bodies to Lausanne, said in an interview with The New York Times in 2016. “Then we realized the opportunities and decided to be proactive.”

Leaving Switzerland also may come as a relief to Infantino, who has found himself under siege in the Swiss news media recently over private meetings he held in 2016 with the country’s attorney general, Michael Lauber. Revelations of the meetings led to the removal of Lauber from oversight of a Swiss investigation into corruption at FIFA that began in 2015 and has yet to result in any trials, much less a conviction.

The failure of the Swiss authorities to act in the corruption case has frustrated elements in FIFA’s current leadership, who have privately expressed incredulity at the inaction given the amount of evidence obtained in raids on FIFA’s headquarters.

Officials said they would not rush to make a decision on a possible move, though they acknowledged they did not feel any need to remain in Switzerland.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You would have to say that Cyprus would given them absolutely anything that they would want - it is an accommodating place like that as many from the former USSR can testify

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 10:43 pm

Simon Chadwick offers his own suggestions for FIFA's new home

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 8230654976" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

flippant (like my suggestion) but any of these three would love the opportunity and would probably pay for a new headquarters - wouldn't be too free of political interference though I imagine

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Wed Jul 31, 2019 11:14 pm

Interesting contrast in the escalation of monies in the Premier League - @sportingIntel compares the teams from 1998/99 to 2017/18 (last available accounts

https://twitter.com/sportingintel/statu ... 2993331201" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Aug 01, 2019 12:50 pm

@AndyhHolt gives more detail to his post from yesterday (see post #1807 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1806" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 6929817601" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and then to add more detail gives an overview of his spending at the club since he got there - he is also close to publishing their 2018/19 accounts and gives a summary

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 0635813893" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

you will probably have noted that he has loaned the club money for infrastructure development, he expects to get that back from revenues, player sales and "football fortune" quite soon. Then the club can grow it's revenues from within, he loaned the money because no bank would, he tried hard on that front. Budgets are always done on the sensible business plans with no reliance on football fortune. There is a lot to admire about the way he goes about things whatever you think of him as a person

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Aug 01, 2019 12:57 pm

@KieranMaguire follows yesterday's piece on profit and loss in the 92 with this comparison of Revenue and Wage increase in the Premier League and Championship between 2014 and 2018

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 2269260800" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Aug 01, 2019 1:07 pm

Like most Premier League clubs, ours(and possibly Man Utd excepted) excepted, West Ham ease their cash flow concerns with a loan - this time secured against property and equipment in a rinse and repeat exercise

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 2256627712" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

To my mind this is a slow death spiral, loans against future income are pretty standard instruments these days - I recognise that, but no matter how big you are you have to stand on your own to feet especially when you consider the relative uncertainty for most of the 14

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Aug 01, 2019 1:17 pm

I have mentions this a few times - the risk to players of an over congested match calendar on players health, as Clubs, Associations leagues and confederations seek to get revenue out of them - FIFPro have done some of their own research in support of their membership

https://fifpro.org/news/fifpro-survey-m ... estion/en/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is perhaps the most important dimension to consider as the ECA, UEFA and FIFA look to maximise their revenue opportunities with new competitions and revised formats of existing ones

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Aug 01, 2019 1:46 pm

Those of you based in the UK who were looking forward to watching La Liga games this season are going to be disappointed - La Liga have withdrawn their tender due to there being no satisfactory bids

https://www.soccerex.com/insight/articl ... l-and-void" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Thu Aug 01, 2019 1:55 pm

I have posted the occasional article about TV rights having reached a peak and we certainly saw that with the new Premier League domestic deal. Many fans and a few football executives hold the belief that the International rights will continue grow. the recent international viewing figures would not seem to show that kind of value (average global audience of 3.5m a match). This extract from an article that is unfortunately behind a paywall should trigger some boardroom caution and actually may explain the slowdown in transfer activity and spend in the Premier League.

https://twitter.com/SportBusiness/statu ... 2650730496" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 12:10 am

Part 4 of the Independent's - Sporting Mind series Life away from the spotlight

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/the ... 45991.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 12:12 am

We saw at the end of that piece above that gambling was a source of the lost adrenalin flow - here player associations across sport say that gambling is one of the biggest risk issues in mental health for elite athletes

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/men ... 42226.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 12:26 am

@AndyhHolt rates her and husband highly - they sing from the same hymn sheet re football clubs being at the heart of the community - though they are new to the role they appear to want to run Port Vale much like he does Accrington - they have spent enough time with him to know what it is he does, Here Henry Winter of the Times talks to Carol Shanahan

Carol Shanahan – the ‘female jesus’ bringing a sense of community back to Port Vale - by Henry Winter

Even now, Carol Shanahan shakes her head at the memory of the dreadful state that Port Vale were in under the previous owner, Norman Smurthwaite. “The players were fed left-over pies sometimes,” Shanahan sighs. “The players. Yes, really.”

Under Smurthwaite the League Two club were facing liquidation — “100 per cent,” Shanahan says. The local paper was being banned, fans were protesting, managers coming and going, and the players’ diet ignored. Until Shanahan, and her husband, Kevin, stepped in last May. Owners of a successful computer business adjacent to Vale Park, the couple had been going to games, increasingly sharing fans’ frustration with Smurthwaite. One of the sense-talking owners in English football, Shanahan knows how important Vale are to the community, and people’s lives.

She recalls a recent conversation about the power of football with her youngest daughter, Francesca, who is doing a degree at the University of Manchester in Theological Studies in Philosophy and Ethics. “She said, ‘When I finish can I come and work at the club?’ I said, ‘I thought you didn’t like football much?’ ‘Well, I’m studying faith-based systems and football’s a faith-based system.’ Clubs are religion. Bill Shankly always said that. It’s about caring for the players, giving them the right food, and for the supporters, giving them hope.

“We’ve had two funerals drive past in the last few weeks, one was an old player [Graham Barnett, forward and coach], one a really good fan [Paul Hanks]. The whole club came out and we all applauded, really gave them respect. It’s in their faith. Francesca said to me that night, ‘How privileged are we to work in an organisation that somebody wants to drive past on the way to their funeral?’

“If you worked in Asda for 30 years, you don’t say, ‘can we have one more trip past Asda’. But I want to go past the Vale. I want my ashes to be at Vale, I want my wedding to be at Vale. It makes me even more aware of my responsibility as a custodian. Because we’ve been going since 1876. Look at that history! I’ve heard so many people say, ‘the first time I came to the Vale . . . was with my grandfather,’ ‘the first time . . . we sat over there’, ‘the first time . . . we played Preston’. No matter what else is going in the rest of their life, they’ve got the Vale.”

Shanahan has always loved football, growing up in the West Midlands, her mother was secretary to the doctor who looked after West Bromwich Albion. “As a ten-year-old I used to go on my own, walk down the street and watch West Brom. Jeff Astle! Bobby Hope! When they played away, I’d go and watch the Wolves or the Villa. I just love football.”

Full of energy and ambition, Shanahan was working in computers at 17, and met Kevin when assigned to a British Leyland project. The pair founded Synectics Solutions in 1992, building up a hugely successful company which, amongst other things, designs software to protect companies’ data and prevent fraud. They were based in Newcastle-under-Lyme but needed bigger offices. “The one we found was an old supermarket next to Port Vale. Burslem is really run-down so we started to help, I was doing work in the holidays, feeding kids.” They started with 6,000 meals a holiday, this summer 9,000.

“I said to Kevin if we really, really want to help Burslem we’ll make Port Vale successful because that permeates the community. It’s that whole feelgood factor, it helps our staff’s well-being, helps everybody.” It took three years of on-off negotiating to prise Smurthwaite’s grip off the Vale, paying slightly more than the reported £4 million. “You would never pay for a club like we’ve done,” Shanahan says. “It isn’t worth it.”

Not as a business, but as a community asset? “It was a Sunday morning, and I said to Kevin, ‘There is somebody who’s got our loved one hostage and we’ve got to pay the ransom. When you view it as negotiating with a hostage taker, rather than as a business deal, suddenly the money [issue] disappears. Suddenly, it’s we’ve got to do it. My view was if we are successful in six years’ time, that [sum] is going to be a player’s leg.”

So they paid what Smurthwaite demanded. “Should he have had it? No. But who’s won? When I stand there with all the fans and we’re all together and he’s sat there counting his money, I know which one I’d rather be.” She’s a proper custodian. “He certainly wasn’t.”

Fans love Shanahan, as she discovered when watching Vale defeat Kidsgrove Athletic 2-1 in a friendly last month. “Somebody said to me, do you feel like Jesus?’ ‘No, why would I feel like Jesus?!’ ‘Because everybody keeps coming up and says, ‘Thank you for saving us’!’’ I’m the female Jesus! I feel humbled.

“We had only bought the club two days and a lady called Marilyn [Darcey] came in with a bunch of flowers for me. She was in tears. She said, ‘I’ve been coming to this club since 1957, and I’ve only not had a season ticket the last two years because of what was happening’. And now she was going off to get a season ticket.’’

Shanahan cares. At the 2017 Institute of Directors awards, Shanahan was named “Director of the Year for Leadership in Corporate Social Responsibility”. She’s driven by a sense of responsibility and community. “If you look at Burslem, all of the central services have gone, the children’s centre facilities.” So Shanahan opened up the stadium more on non-match-days, signing over the social club to the Port Vale Foundation as a community centre. “For everything from mothers and toddlers to pensioners’ tea-dances, the whole lot. I love what football can do to help the community. I think a lot of teams have moved away from that. That saddens me hugely.”

After first-hand experience with Smurthwaite, Shanahan worries about some owners. She was speaking on Tuesday, at an EFL event held at Nottingham Forest, where much of the talk concerned the futures of Bolton Wanderers and Bury, just as it has been in recent times over Blackpool, Charlton Athletic and Coventry City. She believes the EFL should separate its organisational and policing roles. “How can an organisation speak on your behalf but also hold you to account? There seems a conflict there. There needs to be a separate way of holding clubs to account - and holding owners to account because Port Vale isn’t the only club which has been held hostage.”

She finds some of the EFL rules too lax, some too restrictive. “I’m looking at things like players’ bonuses, and was mortified to find out I have to register something by Friday and that’s it! I can’t then change it! This is my business! What if I want to motivate somebody in December? In some ways, you are very restricted. In some ways, you are too free.”

She’s found some decisions easier, giving a three-year contract to John Askey, who had arrived in February and kept Vale up. “I was very lucky with the manager. John Askey’s local, his dad [Colin] played for the Vale, he’s very gentle on the outside but steely on the inside. He believes, like I do, that we have a responsibility while our players are with us to develop them on the pitch and off.” Signings have been about potential. “I’ve had fans say to me, ‘but you haven’t signed names.’ ‘No, but I sign people who are going to be names’.’’

Negotiating with agents, some driven solely by greed, has been a painful eye-opener. “There are good agents but we’ve come across some you just wouldn’t give the time of day. It’s horrendous. How on earth that whole scenario has been allowed to grow I have no idea. If the rest of the world acted in the same way we’d be in a lot bigger trouble than we already are.”

Club messages are accompanied with the hashtag “#ANewEra”, staff talk about the club being run properly now, of hope and pride restored. There’s a new gym, created when volunteers came in to clear out a larger room and shift the equipment in, allowing the players to all work out together, rather than in small groups and shifts like before.

Shanahan has also tackled the food problem. “They were fed fish and chips on the way back from away matches! It was horrendous. One of the first things I did was sort the kitchen out, bring one of my chefs from next door and say, ‘Right, work with the fitness coach and come up with a menu.’ So now we have proper food. Last time on the coach, we had pesto pasta chicken and that went down really well.”

Saturday brings more good food, following Saturday’s trip to Colchester United as Vale push to rise from the EFL’s lowest level. “We’re not really a League Two club, we just happen to be there at the moment,” Shanahan says. “People say to me, ‘Your stadium’s too big’ because the capacity is 20,000 and I say, ‘No, the league is too low, the stadium’s fine. Let’s sort out the league.”

The passion is there. Vale supporters showed that when taking on Smurthwaite. “Our fans are wonderful,” Shanahan replies. “They’re the best of the 92. They’ve been through so much. I want to create a community so it’s all of us in a cohesive group. They deserve it.”

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 12:34 am

@AndyhHolt carries on the theme from this morning (see post #1824 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1823" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 3450208257" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 6446175232" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 12:55 am

Following another summer of getting it wrong on occasion (mainly because football sees touring as a transaction rather than relationship building) the NBA show football how to build relationships and establish goodwill and presence in other parts of the world,

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 2446313472" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 1:01 am

We are well aware now of Qatar's desire to place itself at the centre of sport but as Simon Chadwick has said - Sport policy in Qatar not just about owning PSG & buying Neymar. Sport is central to economic & industrial development, also to socio-cultural improvement. Aspetar is one example of measures introduced aimed at creating global competitive advantage, Welcome to the world's most advanced sport's science facility

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/49109097" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 12:18 pm

Following his surprise on hearing this news

https://twitter.com/officialcufc/status ... 3099897856" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://twitter.com/Deadly_sub/status/1 ... 3442940934" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

@AndyhHolt whose team may yet face Bury at home next Saturday had this to say about the nature of debt in football, the importance of trust and the need for tighter regulation and swifter punishment

https://twitter.com/AndyhHolt/status/11 ... 8100321280" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

though I am sure he is looking at the Tranmere option

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Fri Aug 02, 2019 7:27 pm

Part 5 of the Independent's Sporting Mind series - the mental strain of life after sport

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/the ... 42516.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Aug 03, 2019 10:12 am

It is the Charity Cup final tomorrow and the interviews in the build up have led to a bit of a spat between the managers of Liverpool and City about the ability to spend some brass every year. @KieranMAguire looks at the net spend of the two clubs

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/statu ... 9449288704" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pep's angst over Klopp's remarks - https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... rgen-klopp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Aug 03, 2019 10:16 am

Man City Fan Chat looks at football finance with @KieranMaguire and the equally knowledgeable Colin Savage from the King of the Kippax -

Part 1 - an introductions to FFP and financial regulation - this could be an interesting and insightful series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqFq5xChw6c" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Aug 03, 2019 10:56 am

Two news reports from last night that tell of the state of game below the top flight

first is local - and is the first part of a series

https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2019-0 ... l-finance/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the 2nd from the BBC 10pm news

https://twitter.com/danroan/status/1157523894858735616" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

that football expert in the clip - John Purcell - is from Vysyble who have been warning about Bolton for some time

https://twitter.com/vysyble/status/1157557915676549120" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Aug 03, 2019 1:01 pm

It is of no surprise to us that big clubs who make statement signings with huge wages to boot find it difficult to move these players on if they do not perform as expected. Football in general, for all it's wealth, has struggled to catch-up, we live with that in a smaller context at our club and I remain thankful for our prudence. Yet even the biggest and wealthiest of clubs are finding it difficult to refresh in these circumstances.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/03/foot ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Must admit I have little sympathy for the clubs concerned, these circumstances were created out of the choices they made and the impact is felt even by clubs like ours

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sat Aug 03, 2019 1:10 pm

In the case of Neymar - this is what got PSG (and him) in such a mess

https://theconversation.com/qatar-psg-a ... 198m-81859" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Aug 04, 2019 1:36 am

Missed this from a couple of weeks ago - Simon Jordan argues that the Premier League should bring everything in house and become the Netflix of football - the key to this is that they already own the content, they can sell advertising on broadcasts and utilise the data they generate. Downside is every club becomes aware of their worth and the biggest demand their "fair share".

http://www.sportbible.com/football/reac ... l-20190719" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Aug 04, 2019 1:50 am

A reminder from the Telegraph that the Big Six are about to cash in on the growth of overseas TV Rights, coupled with a cautionary note of the falling value of rights in the Far East

Premier League ‘Big Six’ cash in as overseas TV rights rise 35 per cent - by Tim Wigmore - 3 August 2019 • 8:57pm

The value of the Premier League’s overseas broadcasting rights for 2019-22 has risen 35 per cent to £4.35 billion, ensuring that the League’s overall rights have gone up in spite of a fall in the value of the domestic market, figures seen by The Telegraph show.

The increase in foreign rights,revealed in new figures from SportBusiness Media, is slightly more than Premier League insiders had envisaged, and means that 46 per cent of all the League’s broadcasting revenue now comes from overseas. The deals cement the Premier League’s position as earning more money from overseas broadcasting than any other sports league in the world.

The rise in overseas rights explains why the largest Premier League clubs pushed – successfully – for overseas revenue to be divided up on a new merit basis from this cycle, with teams at the top of the table receiving a greater share of the cash. Previously, all 20 clubs received an equal share of the overseas broadcasting revenue. There are concerns that this will damage the Premier League’s competitive balance, as The Telegraph first reported in March.

The change means that the “Big Six” clubs stand to receive up to £80 million more in overseas broadcasting revenue than the League’s bottom sides over a three-year cycle.

The increase in broadcasting cash has been driven by Europe. In the 2019-22 broadcasting rights cycle, which kicks in when the new Premier League season begins on Friday, the European market accounts for 30 per cent of the League’s total international fees, according to research by SportBusiness Media. It finds that four of the five largest percentage increases in this rights cycle were in Europe, as the Premier League’s popularity on the Continent continues to increase.

The Premier League’s broadcasting rights in Denmark and Portugal have doubled from the 2016-19 rights cycle. Those in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (which are sold jointly) and Spain rose by around 65 per cent.

In much of Europe, the Premier League has benefited from the emergence of new over-the-top entrants into the market, who have bid aggressively to increase competition and the cost of rights. DAZN, a subscription video streaming service which launched in 2016, bought the rights to the Premier League in Spain. SportBusiness Media believes that, even in markets when these insurgent companies did not win the rights, the bidding still drove up the prices.

But the sharp decrease in the value of broadcasting rights in Asia will be a considerable concern for the Premier League, the first European league to gain a major foothold on the Continent. Rights in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia (one market) and Hong Kong have fallen between 34 and 61 per cent, according to SportBusiness Media’s figures.

The decrease is somewhat masked by the surge in rights for the Premier League in China, with rights for 2019-22 worth £535 million, a 12-fold increase and the highest of any overseas market. But the current rights for China were sold in late 2016.

Of the total 35 per cent growth from overseas markets, around half can be explained by the pound’s fall against the dollar and the euro, SportBusiness Media said.

The technology giants – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, the “FAANGs” – had little impact on the overseas broadcasting rights. While Amazon won two small packages to show matches in the UK, none of the five companies will show games in overseas markets.

Facebook submitted winning bids in Thailand and Vietnam, but the deals collapsed because Facebook and the Premier League could not resolve some details after initially signing a “standstill agreement”. This meant that the Premier League was forced to return to market in Thailand and Vietnam.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That article contains much of the data I was unable to show in post #1829 (http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1800" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) as it is hidden behind a paywall

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Aug 04, 2019 2:08 am

Another cautionary tale of a chancer taking advantage of a community club - this one is further down the pyramid, but still has an important role to play in it's community - From the Telegraph

The inside story on Croydon Athletic, a club back from the brink of a tabloid scandal, two jail sentences and severe financial wrongdoing
by Robert Dineen 3 August 2019 • 2:51pm

The scene around the Mayfield Stadium in south London on a warm summer’s evening depicts grass-roots football at its most encouraging. On a playing field beside the ground, an enthusiastic squad of players are preparing for AFC Croydon Athletic's first ever FA Cup fixture next Saturday, a qualifying tie against Virginia Water. Up in the ground’s modest stand, the chairman Paul Smith is talking hopefully about the non-league club’s future, citing a thriving youth section and recent successes in league and cup.

Not for a moment would you think this could be the site for one of the darkest - and, until now, untold - episodes in English football, involving a club's traumatic battle for survival, a tabloid scandal, two jail sentences, severe financial wrongdoing and one case of human tragedy. That Smith could sit here now and describe what happened for the first time with the club in relatively good health is remarkable.

"It was an incredibly difficult period, almost surreal," he recalls. "You would never expect to experience what we did, not in football, especially not in the non-league game."

Smith was just a fan of Croydon Athletic when the story begins in 2008, with the club having received an ambitious takeover bid from a property developer called Mazhar Majeed.

Born and educated in Croydon, Majeed seemed the perfect candidate to own the club. He had glowing references from borough councillors and held offices in the town. He was prepared to buy 90 per cent of their shares and promised the further investment needed to contend for promotion from Division One South of the Ryman League.

"He seemed genuine,” Smith says. “He had the money and he was respected in the community. I remember the Mayor had turned up to open his offices. There seemed no reason to concern oneself.”

With his offer accepted, Majeed quickly strengthened the staff. Tim O'Shea, the former Gillingham Town defender and a well-regarded non-league coach, was hired as manager. He was given the resources to recruit an assistant and higher-calibre players.

The facilities were upgraded, too. Majeed bought a electronic scoreboard for the club's stadium. He had the clubhouse painted and fitted with new windows. He also demanded that fruit machines were removed from the building, but that seemed reasonable for a supposedly devout Muslim. “He changed the mood around the place,” Smith, a trade union official, says. “Things really started to look up.”

Results quickly improved, with Majeed attending every game, home and away, often bringing along his brother and young children. He seem thrilled when the club won the title less than two years into his reign. The achievement placed Croydon Athletic in the Ryman Premier League - two divisions below the Football League - for the first time in their 22-year existence. "You got the impression he just really enjoyed the buzz of being involved," says Chris Roots, another stalwart supporter at the time.

The hopeful mood did not last. In the July after promotion, fans were disturbed to discover that the club chairman Dean Fisher had been found guilty of defrauding his media-agency employers of more than £500,000, earning him a three-year jail sentence. The son of club founder, Ken Fisher, Dean had helped to bring Majeed to the club and managed their accounts on his behalf.

If his wrongdoing came as a surprise, however, its impact was nothing compared to the shock of reading the News of the World splash a month later. Its sting operation revealed that Majeed had orchestrated spot-fixing at Lord's involving three members of the Pakistan cricket team, who were later convicted. The newspaper filmed Majeed accepting £150,000 from reporters posing as representatives of a gambling syndicate. During their conversation, Majeed correctly predicted when bowlers would overstep the mark against England.

"I remember word began to travel around the club that morning on mobiles," Smith says. "It was just shock. We were way out of our comfort zone. No one had inkling that Majeed was capable of something like this.”

Majeed immediately went to ground, leaving the club's wages unpaid. In response, O'Shea quit after one more game, with his players soon following suit. As the club went into tailspin, the Ryman League gave them 12 days' grace - officially, a suspension - to get their affairs in order.

Here, Roots and Smith stepped up, assisting the recently-appointed chairman David Le Cluse in trying to keep the club alive. They persuaded the non-league coaches Bob Langford and Dave Garland to run the team unpaid. Hastily-organised open trials unearthed enough voluntary players for the club to restart their campaign.

Off the field, however, the situation spiralled. While a criminal investigation was launched into the cricket scandal, the Football Association opened an inquiry into Croydon's financial dealings under Majeed, who had told journalists that he bought the club to wash money through it.

Alarming, fresh details began to emerge on Majeed's background. It turned out that he had been the director of 14 dissolved companies. Several of his businesses had been registered under relatives' names, including Croydon Athletic.

He had piled £307,000 on to the club's debt in the first year of his ownership alone. Majeed and his family did not respond to requests to contribute to this article.

"Clearly, if there was a failing on the part of the club, then it was the due diligence that was done - if there was any at all," Smith says.

Le Cluse's commitment to the club at this point impressed Smith and Roots. Though he was never implicated in the spot-fixing, he was a business associate of Majeed's and had reportedly lost £50,000 in deals that failed because of the damage to Majeed's reputation. He had no reason to stay on at Croydon Athletic other than through a sense of duty.

This, it seems, ran deeper than the others realised. On Saturday, October 2, 2010, Le Cluse was found dead in a lock-up garage two miles from his home in Carshalton, Surrey. He had shot himself with a rifle that he used in his pest-control business, two days before his elder daughter's ninth birthday.

A relative was quoted by the Daily Mail. "It was plain to see that the scandal had really brought him down," he said. “Staff had left and it was through no fault of his own. He took it really personally and saw it as his failure.”

Roots says: “I saw him just a couple of days before it happened. I had no inkling…. What happened was by far the worst thing to come out of all of this. No one thought he was responsible.”

The team managed to fulfil their fixtures that season, but were still relegated. Their hopes of surviving in the lower division were then decimated when the FA’s inquiry found that the club had committed 24 breaches of the rules relating to the payment of players. The details of the wrongdoings were never disclosed. The punishment was a £7,500 fine and 10-point deduction, plunging them to the bottom of the table. Majeed, meanwhile, was imprisoned for 32 months.

With the club's bills going unpaid, the council then evicted them from their stadium. For Smith and Roots, now acting as chairman and vice-chairman, that was the final straw. In the second week of December 2011, they wound the club up. “We had no alternative,” Roots says. “The battle we’d been fighting was lost.”

Roots went on to work with the non-league club Welling United. Smith, though, was unwilling simply to walk away. By the following summer, he had set up AFC Croydon Athletic, who were accepted into the Combined Counties Football League in the 10th tier of the league pyramid.

Officially, AFC Croydon Athletic is distinct from the expired team, with different kit and club badge. They attract the core of the old support and play at the reopened old stadium. The fruit machines have not been returned.

Lessons have been learnt, with fans owning all of the club's shares, but the scars from what happened remain. “There is a sense of betrayal," Smith says. "Non-league football is a tight community. If you’re part of a club, even as a fan, you feel especially close to it.”

Were the club partly to blame? “There was always the question: why was he doing it? But non-league football is a way of getting into the game without being a billionaire. A lot of people said the club should have known better, but it's easy to be an expert after the event."

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Aug 04, 2019 2:16 am

The final piece in the Indpendent's Sporting Mind series - we have come a long way but there is still a long way to go

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/the ... 45361.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HunterST_BFC · Post by **HunterST_BFC** » Sun Aug 04, 2019 2:41 am

Can the title not be changed now to the "Chester Perry Thread" ?

He's earned it

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Aug 04, 2019 12:54 pm

Liverpool seem to be in a sweet spot moment for negotiating a new kit deal - sales have been rising as has their prominence in the big competitions, but is a deal with them really worth more than Utd who sell nearly half as much again (note United brought all other merchandising back in house this is not usual in these deals).

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

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Aug 04, 2019 2:05 pm

Part 2 of that Man City Fan Chat on Football Finance - Net spend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... Cl37mTf8JU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Part 1: FFP and financial regulation - in post #1839 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1838" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

@KieranMaguirre posted a net spend comparison between City and Liverpool on Saturday see post #1838 http://uptheclarets.com/messageboard/vi ... start=1837" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chester Perry · Post by **Chester Perry** » Sun Aug 04, 2019 2:07 pm

Part 3 of that Man City Fan Chat on Football Finance - Uefa Investigation into Man City and Liverpool's finances

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QdtdF95xAE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;