Football's Magic Money Tree

[Chester Perry]

I have posted a lot about Private Equity recently and it's desires to get involved in sport to provide a financial return on it's investment. But like many I do not have a great deal of understanding of how it works, how it is regulated or what such sources are looking to achieve beyond a strong return (if anything)

The UnOfficial Partner, the people behind the bundle podcast on media rights have another series called "Money Talks" which involve conversations about sport’s relationship with private equity, venture capital and the financial markets. It asks a series of simple questions relating to money: Who needs it, how do they get it, who do they get it from, and what are the implications of that, how does the source of finance change the behaviour of the people in charge of sport at all levels.

the first 3 are here - and are quite illuminating

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e ... 0475824197 includes a fascinating section on Sports as entertainment as opposed to to a cohesive community asset

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e ... 0480318709 includes a discussion as to why live event/sport is going to be disproportionately hi by investment drain for the next 12 - 38 months

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e ... 0484040973 includes a really clearly argued section on why imposing a strong hyper-critical owners and directors test in football together. also distinguishes the different forms of Private Equity involvement in sport.

I will say that Unofficial Partner have produced a incredible series of Podcasts on a wide range of inputs into the sports business landscape, they are well worth a listen if you are interested in this kind of thing

[Vegas Claret]

Reports of a new interested party in Sunderland - the club who continue to over price themselves as was reported extensively in the media last week - It has to be said that this is far from being an ideal candidate given his history

https://twitter.com/markdonnelly_/statu ... 2979352577

[Chester Perry]

Strong Statement from Barnsley yesterday in the clubs official website - calling out the EFL and clubs who do not pay transfer fees on time (or even a year late but still operate in the same league as them

Fair play I say

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

The 2019/2020 season has been fraught with tribulation on and off the field. Through it all, our staff, players, supporters and community have continued to believe and fight, side by side. Foremost, this is a statement of sincere gratitude to those who pushed themselves for the betterment of our Club. To our squad, led by Gerhard and his staff, thank you for your desire and passion to battle to the bitter end. We look forward to a bright future with this group in continuing the pursuit of competitive growth, as a Sky Bet Championship Club.

Not enough can be said about the commitment of Club personnel and those key workers that allowed us to return to play. Barnsley Football Club is indebted to your service. Most importantly, to our supporters and the Barnsley community, your steadfast care for this Club should never be forgotten. In the toughest of times, in a world unseen, our supporters were there for their Club.

In the end we persevered to remain in the Championship. There are a host of reasons why Barnsley Football Club took the fight for safety to the last day. Mistakes made internally and on the field; a bad bounce or run of luck. As a Club, we accept the challenges of 19/20 that were our own and we must subjectively assess our performance.

What Barnsley Football Club cannot accept is the blatant disregard for sporting/competitive integrity and the lack of governance in our division.

Clubs were charged with breaching rules surrounding Financial Fair Play and harming the EFL and its members. One ownership group, (which was approved by the EFL), failed in their duty to provide the requisite support to their respective Championship organisation. One other ownership group completed a takeover and provided funding to a Club without ever being approved by the EFL to become owners of that Club. Another competitor has yet to pay a transfer fee to Barnsley Football Club that was due in August of 2019. Several clubs have been delinquent in payment to contracted players.

We ask, where is the competitive balance?

Our Club, on a substantially smaller budget, has paid every professional player under contract 100% of their wages this season, one of the few Sky Bet Championship clubs to do so.

It is clear that there has to be a change to the system. Just as our coaching staff, players, Club employees, and supporters have fought this season, so too will your Club continue the fight by all means necessary.

[Chester Perry]

Interesting article in the Economist about how home advantage has reduced for home games in the behind closed door restart of football across Europe - which raises the question should clubs pay fans to attend matches rather than charge them - you may have to register to read the whole article and see all the charts

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detai ... -advantage

[Chester Perry]

Transfer season starts on Monday and it won't be long before someone trots out the shirt sales myth - you know where the big transfer of cost a player will be met by the rise in shirt sales - this has never happened (though they can bring in a host of additional sponsorship that helps reduce the overall cost - see CR7 at Juventus) - @FootballLAw with a new blog piece that gives an update to an extract from his book D2one Deal"

https://www.danielgeey.com/post/the-shirt-sales-myth

[Quickenthetempo]

Nixon reporting both West Brom and Leeds have paid out over 10m in bonuses for promotion to the premier league.
A leeds fan says 19m for all players/staff.

[Chester Perry]

Nixon reporting both West Brom and Leeds have paid out over 10m in bonuses for promotion to the premier league.
A leeds fan says 19m for all players/staff.

that £19m Leeds figure is in their accounts, as a risk of promotion - they will likely spend over £60m all told in wages this season and were pushing FFP very close - there was an element of all or nothing this season. As for West Brom the figure seems pretty standard these days - we weren't far off that last time we went up.

Leeds overall promotion costs are huge:
- £19m promotion bonuses
- £10 upgrade costs for Elland Rd to meet current Premier League requirements
- £4m to a previous owner payable on promotion
- £19m for a player signed on loan in January, used as a sub 3 times then discarded - must buy on promotion according to contraxt - they are trying to get that blocked in court
- £30m+ uplift in current staff wages (that is a guess but a lot of players have a 40%- 50% uplift in their contracts following promotion
- Bielsa is also out of contract now
- they desperately need 4 or 5 players with the right kind of experience to keep the momentum going in the top flight, including a keeper and a striker they are spine of the team signings.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Is that the loan where they're saying that clause expired end of June?

[Chester Perry]

Is that the loan where they're saying that clause expired end of June?

yes

[Chester Perry]

Article in the Times about the ongoing fears in the EFL about the continuing financial impact of Coronavirus

‘It looks bad now but it could get worse in the EFL’
Club chiefs from across the EFL tell Gary Jacob there is no easy solution to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic

Gary Jacob - Sunday July 26 2020, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

The possibility of fans returning to grounds from October will be a lifesaver for English Football League clubs but their optimism is tempered by uncertainties that make it hard to plan for next season, which begins on September 12.

They have avoided going out of business in the past few months but their long-term survival remains highly dependent on gate receipts. Sky Bet Championship clubs earn about 30 per cent of income from match days, but that proportion increases in Leagues One and Two.

Clubs have many questions and few answers. They have no idea how many fans may be allowed inside grounds under social distancing rules, how many will want to attend given worries over health and finances and how hospitality and catering facilities can be safely used as they both generate important revenues.

There are many logistical issues, too. And that all assumes the government gives the greenlight for fans to return from October after test events. Clubs have been pushing for that date to be brought forward in line with the new season.

The guidelines issued by safety chiefs say that stadiums will be a maximum of 33 per cent full and could be at as low as 17 per cent of capacity under social distancing rules. Some EFL grounds are packed out every week but on average EFL stadiums tend to be only 60 per cent full. The percentage is highest in the Championship and reduces in each of the next two leagues.

As a result, many clubs have decided not to sell season tickets until there is more clarity, which has denied them significant sums that normally help them through the close season.

During the pandemic Wigan Athletic entered administration and Rick Parry, the EFL chairman, told a government committee that clubs face a “£200 million hole” from lost revenue. Clubs have survived by putting staff on furlough, deferring tax and keeping sponsors happy, while some negotiated pay deals with players. Nearly all applied for an EFL loan, which was part of a relief fund that included receiving advance payments. Each season EFL clubs receive a combination of payments from the EFL and solidarity payments from the Premier League, which amount to £7.5 million for clubs in the Championship, £1.6 million in League One and £1.07 million in League Two.

Ultimately, though, many clubs survived the crisis because the owners put their hands in their pockets.

The EFL clubs will soon vote on the introduction of a salary cap and a limit on squad size. The proposals limit a club’s wage bill to £18 million in the Championship, £2.5 million in League One and £1.25 million in League Two.

Here executives from each of the three divisions discuss how they are continuing to handle unprecedented difficulties.

‘If an owner is not writing a cheque, a club goes under’

When it costs about £8 million a month to run Queens Park Rangers even before paying players and coaching staff, you get an idea of the scale of the black hole faced by many Championship clubs. The players deferred 25 per cent of their wages for three months and some senior staff took a wage cut of up to 45 per cent. But still the shortfall has varied between £500,000 and £1.5 million each month depending on the level of payments from EFL and the modest sums earned through streaming and retail. “It boils down to if an owner is not writing out a cheque, a club will go under,” Lee Hoos, the QPR chief executive, says. “Income has been a drop in the ocean of what you need to run a club. The culture sector got a £1.5 billion bailout and many clubs don’t know why they did not get help.”

Playing behind closed doors denies clubs revenues, while sponsors will not commit until they know audience numbers. No one knows how many fans will want to attend. “With those uncertainties the issue is how do I commit to playing contracts?” Hoos says. “We need the fans back as it all starts from there. We are aiming for self-sustainability and our road to that leans heavily on player development. What is not clear yet is how the reduction in other teams’ revenues will impact on the value of player trading.”

‘What once seemed an average salary now seems high’

In ordinary times the fact that Portsmouth often sell out home matches would be seen as a positive. But even being permitted to use half of the 20,600-seater Fratton Park will be a “pretty dire situation” according to Mark Catlin, the chief executive of the League One club.

Gate receipts and related revenue account for about £6 million and hospitality about £1 million of the £11 million annual turnover, underlying the difficulties faced by many clubs. Fratton Park is an old stadium with narrow concourses, further complicating generating money through catering under social distancing rules.

They hope to claw back some cash if 20 per cent of their 14,500 season- ticket holders buy the official streaming app to watch matches. “Even with that, for the first time we are budgeting for the prospect of a significant loss,” Catlin says.

Portsmouth estimate a shortfall of a low seven-figure sum by the end of the 2020-21 financial year. It could be more. Until they have an idea of match-day income, they can only produce a range of potential budgets, also making it harder to assemble a squad to try to win promotion, having lost in the past two play-off semi-finals. “What might have seemed an average salary for this level before might now seem, ‘Wow, are you really paying that?’” Catlin says.

Portsmouth have a self-sustainable model and announced a £2 million profit in its most recent accounts. They saved a six-figure sum by furloughing players and all but 30 staff, ramped up their online retailing, kept sponsors happy to avoid paying a refund and took advantage of government business schemes. A small number of fans requested their money back for season tickets but the vast majority have left it as a credit, helping to preserve the club’s bank balance. They have also explored innovative ideas such as using an area outside the stadium to show matches and serve drinks and food.

Ultimately, though, they have the comfort of cash reserves left from the takeover by Michael Eisner, the former Disney executive, three years ago. Catlin has been conscious of not undoing the club’s hard work since they exited administration in 2013. “The main issue is that we don’t want to spend time and money on what may seem a brilliant idea at the time, when a few weeks later the government changes the rules and it completely undermines what we want to do. The uncertainty has been one of the biggest problems for all businesses during the pandemic.”

Portsmouth are critical of the proposed salary-cap rules as they do not take account of clubs who can generate bigger incomes. It would mean Portsmouth would be limited to paying an average basic wage of £1,350 a week. “We have fought hard for clubs to be self-sustaining but in its current form the cap does not address this and encourages others to spend above their means,” he says.

‘I feel the corner is beginning to turn for us all’

Newport County, in League Two, know a thing or two about potential financial oblivion. They were wound up in 1989 and re-formed to work their way up from the bottom of the pyramid to return to the Football League in 2013 and the last thing they were about to do was throw away the hard work.
The club, which is owned by its Supporters’ Trust, expect to lose 40 per cent of their income. They have operated with only five staff including Gavin Foxall, the chairman. “It’s a difficult environment to make decisions when there are shifting sands,” he says. “When we have definite dates it is easier to work with them. We need to know when fans will be back to budget.”

Michael Flynn, the manager, his players and all of his coaching staff were put on furlough in March. They will remain on the scheme until the club knows their date to return to pre-season. The financial uncertainty has meant the club were unable to offer new deals to five out-of-contract players and have made no signings.

Newport’s FA Cup runs in 2018 and 2019 earned them a combined £2 million, which amounts to roughly their normal annual turnover. They have dipped into that pot to survive and used their close contacts with the Welsh government to apply for every possible scheme to help.

Other money was saved by the generosity of fans forgoing refunds and contributing to a crowdfunding appeal to raise £40,000 for the shirt sponsorship. Donors will select which charity appears on the shirt.

Planning for fans to return is complicated without clarity and Newport are different from their English rivals as they face more stringent social distancing ruless. On the plus side, Newport fill around half of the 7,850 capacity at Rodney Parade, which is being used as a NHS testing centre.

One notable positive has been that the 24 League Two clubs have collaborated and tried to act in the collective good, including curtailing the season to prevent suffering additional costs by playing matches.

“We are rivals for 180 minutes [a season] but the reality is we face similar challenges and struggles in the rest of the year,” he says. “Clubs put self-interest aside to assist each other. It will be a very unusual season. When people put their heads together it is amazing what can be achieved. The virus will hopefully mean a reset for football. I do feel we are beginning to turn the corner.”

[Chester Perry]

Quite the bombshell from China last night - in apparent retaliation for the change in UK Gov's stance on relationship - China announced last night that they would cease airing of all Premier League games as of today

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 4137906176

Seems China showed all the Premier League games free to air today after all

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 9428014080

[Chester Perry]

Swiss ramble thinks we will get 16m more than last year, if we finish 9th, each place is now worth 2.7m after the rebate.

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 33569?s=19

@SportingIntelligence gives his guess at what the Premier League distribution would have been without rebates

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 9428014080

note how he thinks the rebate will be deducted

[Royboyclaret]

Chester, the links in the previous two posts appear to be the same......Can we see the link for Sporting Intelligence?

Cheers.

[Chester Perry]

@SportingIntelligence gives his guess at what the Premier League distribution would have been without rebates

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 9428014080

note how he thinks the rebate will be deducted

my apologies - the correct link

https://twitter.com/sportingintel/statu ... 3176425475

[Chester Perry]

The Telegraph thinks The Premier League are going to offer the EFL some additional financal aid in the next few weeks

Premier League may be ready to address financial 'cliff edge' facing Championship clubs
TOM MORGAN JULY 27, 2020

The financial "cliff edge" between the Premier League and Championship will be addressed in the coming weeks, according to Aston Villa's chief executive, in the clearest signal yet that England's top tier is finally ready to help share access to its vast TV riches.

Christian Purslow insisted the Premier League was taking the gulf "very seriously" after a committee of MPs called for a "reset" which would involve potential salary caps and the abandonment of parachute payments.

Villa's final day survival from a relegation worth £200 million was a "hugely stressful experience", he said, accepting that the "vastly different financial outcomes, hinging off of one game of football" was "something we need to look at". The Premier League could be "very helpful" in helping improve the broadcast deals made available to lower tiers, Purslow added.

"I think the Covid-19 crisis has shone a light on very significant differences that exist between the pinnacle of English football, the Premier League, and what goes on further down the pyramid," he told Radio 4's Today programme. "These financial issues were there before the Covid-19 crisis. Nobody would have designed a system where a team finishing at the bottom of the Premier League would be earning in the hundreds of millions for television money and the team finishing at the top of the league below will be earning less than five — that is such an enormous gap, that surely there's a better way. I think that cliff edge, that has really made life very difficult between those two divisions, will be addressed strategically in the coming weeks and months."

After hearing from leading figures across domestic sport, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee last week warned the Government that "the current football business model is not sustainable". The big clubs, earning hundreds of millions in TV money, were singled out for particular criticism after MPs agreed with Rick Parry, the EFL chairman, who called for an "overdue and necessary" restructuring of football finances in England. Salary caps were described as an "essential” option to replace parachute payments as wages in the Championship now amount to 106 per cent of average club turnover.

Speaking to Radio 4, Purslow agreed that practical measures were needed, including "a much higher level of coordination between the management of the two leagues".

"The EFL as a whole is not properly valued by the global media industry, and that's the issue that needs to be addressed," he said. "It's about growing the revenues in Championship football and League One and League Two football. I think the Premier League could be very helpful in that regard, whether the financial issues caused by the pandemic leave us with player salaries and transparencies."

Parachute payments, introduced in 2006 to soften the financial impact of a club's relegation from the Premier League, are worth up to £41.8 million for the first season after the drop with lower amounts for the next two seasons. However, those lower down the leagues say they have distorted the market, encouraging transfer and wage inflation, prompting clubs to spend beyond their means.

With many clubs reeling from the financial strain caused by Covid-19, Purslow said the transfer market will be hit this summer. "I think it's probably quite likely that we'll have a relatively lower volume of transfer activity this summer that has been the case for many years," he added, explaining that the sport needed a "concerted plan to get fans back into football stadia" to ensure smaller clubs survive.

The Premier League is likely to come under increasing pressure from Government to support the EFL in the coming weeks. MPs last week concluded that the current parachute payments for clubs in the lower tiers "must become a thing of the past, and considerable work must be done to advance work on salary caps".

The Government "should engage with the Premier League and the EFL to learn lessons from abroad on policies such as salary caps, which may seem radical to those inside UK football, but seem to work well elsewhere", the MPs added.

The recommendations for football were made as part of a wide-ranging report which concluded the Government had been "too slow" to respond to the needs of the sporting, tourism and cultural sectors during the Covid-19 outbreak, with many organisations facing an “existential threat” to their survival.

[Chester Perry]

Interesting article in the Economist about how home advantage has reduced for home games in the behind closed door restart of football across Europe - which raises the question should clubs pay fans to attend matches rather than charge them - you may have to register to read the whole article and see all the charts

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detai ... -advantage

The Football Today podcast asks "what happens to home-field advantage when there are no fans?"

https://www.footballtodaypodcast.com/po ... re-no-fans

[Bfc]

Chester, firstly thank you for the enlightening reports you write up daily. You've probably wrote more words in your FMMT, than in all of W Shakespeare's works. Secondly you must be an accomplished keyboard typist, to complete all the content you put in them. I guess your not a single finger tapper like me.

[Chester Perry]

It is entirely possible that if this season had played out in front of fans, and we had no Covid pandemic that Liverpool would have come close to if not surpassed Manchester United in earnings, their growth in income in all 3 key sectors and particularly matchday and commercial has been rapid. they show no sign in slowing that as the appoint of a a new commercial director shows - he was essentially behind the massive growth of commercial income at Manchester United. - from SportsBusiness.com

Liverpool appoints former Manchester United man Scammell as commercial director
Adam Nelson, Europe office -July 27, 2020

Newly-crowned Premier League champion Liverpool has announced the appointment of Matt Scammell as its new commercial director.

Scammell arrives at Liverpool having spent nine years with the club’s fierce rival Manchester United in various commercial roles.

He joined the Red Devils in 2011 as sales director, progressing to become the club’s head of global sponsorship sales in 2017 before leaving in February of this year.

At Liverpool, he will focus on the continued expansion of the club’s portfolio of commercial partnerships, at a time when its fortunes are on the rise following two years of on-pitch success. He will report directly to Billy Hogan, Liverpool’s managing director and chief commercial officer.

On Scammell’s appointment, Hogan said: “We’re very pleased to welcome Matt to the club, his vast experience and expertise will undoubtedly continue to drive our commercial partnerships business in the right direction – I look forward to working closely with him.”

Scammell himself added: “I’m delighted to be joining Liverpool at what is a really important time for the teams both on and off the pitch. I’m looking forward to using my experience across sport and technology to enhance the great work already being done at the club.”

Read this: Liverpool’s ‘global marketing platform’ builds foundation for record profit and doubling of commercial revenues

[Chester Perry]

An as if to remind you of the sheer importance of wealth in today;s game - here is Miguel Delaney in the Independent

Strangest Premier League season produces predictable finale to emphasise power of money
The top four ended up being the richest four, while the bottom three heading into the final day all suffered relegation

Miguel Delaney Chief Football Writer @MiguelDelaney

The longest, strangest Premier League season in football history actually ends prematurely and predictably.

There was no twist, no surprise, not even the kind of controversial VAR call that has characterised the whole campaign. It all felt settled as the season ticked into what were drab final minutes.

The top four are the wealthiest four. The bottom three at the start of the day were the bottom three at the end of the day.

That meant that one of the truly decisive moments in the relegation battle came on the very first day of Project Restart.

That date, 17 June, is what this season will always be remembered for. It saw the return of English football amid the complications of Covid-19, the first ‘Black Lives Matter’ gesture in the game and - more trivially - a moment that could have ripples for the sport, and reflects an ongoing discussion around it.

Aston Villa staying up by a point meant that the Hawkeye failure in their first match back, the 0-0 draw with Sheffield United, very directly kept them up. Had Oliver Norwood’s free-kick been judged a goal, Dean Smith’s side would have been relegated. That deflected Andriy Yarmolenko goal for West Ham United in the final minutes would have done it.

Of course, different circumstances would have meant totally different types of games, and Villa could reasonably point to the fact VAR earlier denied them a penalty in that same Sheffield United match.

It does seem strangely fitting that a season dominated by VAR, that ultimately succumbed to the worst off-field stoppage the game has seen, involved such a crucial use - and failure - of technology. This is football’s new reality.

Such narrative aptness will be little solace to Bournemouth or Watford. They succumbed to the long-term reality of the Premier League: that it’s impossible to stay in it for any length of time without serious money. The average is a mere four seasons, no matter what you do. Watford and Bournemouth represented very different models of how to run a club - Watford’s in the last week proving hugely controversial - but both still went down after five seasons. They had their run.

Bournemouth felt like they’d gone stale under Eddie Howe. Watford remained too chaotic, the Pozzo’s insistence on changing managers at the first indication of trouble eventually - and predictably - costing them.

Villa’s big spending ultimately paid off, but it’s difficult to think there was much correlation. Chief executive Christian Purslow will be massively relieved.

That points to another reality, and the most important. Money now dictates football more than anything, and to a greater degree than ever before.

That may be becoming a boring point that you are sick of hearing, but it is now creating real problems for the game, and threatening to make it much more boring than it should be.

Hence, after a season that threatened so many surprises and shocks, where old orders were supposedly going to be overturned… the top four are the wealthiest four.

Frank Lampard and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer might feel some vindication at where they finished, but their feats should still be put in that context. They aren’t the magnificent achievements they’re being painted.

No matter any temporary complications, it will always be easier for Chelsea and Manchester United to finish in the Champions League places than Wolves, Sheffield United or Leicester City.

United turned their season around by sanctioning the £70m signing of a star like Bruno Fernandes. It was similarly fitting he scored the decisive penalty against Leicester - a decision confirmed, of course, by VAR.

Leicester were already in serious decline by the time Fernandes was transforming United in February. It is remarkable that they will now be disappointed with a fifth place finish, an outcome they would have been delighted with before the season began.

That points to how they succumbed to football’s greater realities, too, but there was more to it than that. Questions must be asked about the manner of their decline. It’s similarly impossible not to wonder whether Brendan Rodgers now regrets not going to Arsenal when he had the chance. Leicester’s slide started then.

Just two points behind them, Jose Mourinho will feel his own sense of vindication at returning Tottenham Hotspur to European competition. His points return now looks an awful lot better than much of his football did. He has done a respectable job, and steadied the team.

There are bigger questions about how far they can go under his approach, which now seems so behind the times compared to what Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola do, but they are at least going back into Europe. That is genuinely crucial for Spurs given the expenditure on the stadium at a time when they can’t even use it to house supporters.

They weren’t far off the Champions League places in the end. That is another pointer to the reality that governs the game. With a mere 63 points required to finish in the top four, the big sides didn’t even need to be that good. They often weren’t. It is why the relegation threshold is now so low, at a mere 34 points. The weaker sides just can’t take as many points off the top sides in that way.

Few took any off Liverpool.

Their final-day win over Newcastle United ensures Klopp’s side end the campaign with 99 points, making it the third season in a row the champions have got more than 97 points. You couldn’t have a greater indication of the problem.

It’s a problem that played its part in making this final day more predictable than it might have been. And that amid the strangest Premier League season of all.

[Chester Perry]

AIs this a sign of just how closely that King Power have aligned the nation of Thailand to Leicester City, next season the club's shirt sponsor will be the Thai tourist authority not King Power. Some may see the club as now effectively a promotional tool for a nation state in the manner of Man City. I see it as a means for the owners to increase traffic through Thailand's airports a core element of King Power's business - the really strange part is that replica shirts will not carry the same logo from SportsBusiness.com

Leicester City agrees front-of-shirt deal with Tourism Authority of Thailand
Matthew Williams - July 23, 2020

English Premier League club Leicester City will feature a new logo on its home shirt for the 2020-21 season after an agreement between the club, its main sponsor and owner King Power, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

The slogan ‘Thailand Smiles With You’ will be present on the front of the shirt for all matches at the King Power stadium during the 2020-21 league campaign.

It will also be present in the team’s final game of the 2019-20 season against Manchester United on July 26.

The campaign aims to support Thailand’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic by encouraging tourism to the country.

Leicester has been owned by Thai travel retail company King Power since 2010 and, as detailed by SportBusiness Soccer, the company pay £4m (€4.4m/$5.1m) a year for the club’s shirt sponsorship rights. It also holds the naming rights to Leicester’s stadium.

Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, Leicester City chairman and chief executive of King Power International, said: “The impact of Covid-19 is being felt all over the world and the relationship between Leicester City and King Power gives us the opportunity to support the shared communities that are closest to us.

“In Leicester, the Club has been able to reach out directly to make support available to a number of causes affected by the pandemic and will retain the backing of King Power to continue supporting Leicester’s future recovery.

“This campaign is our opportunity to make a difference in Thailand, where tourism contributes significantly to the nation’s economy and, as a result, the livelihoods of millions of Thai people.”

The Tourism Authority of Thailand has been a sponsor of Leicester City since King Power’s acquisition in 2010. Its ‘Amazing Thailand’ brand has been granted visibility at the King Power Stadium and also featured as part of a back-of-shirt sponsorship during the 2013-14 Championship-winning season.

The replica shirts sold by the club will retain the King Power logo and the company will also retain its presence during European and domestic cup matches through 2020-21.

[Chester Perry]

Is this a sign of the effects of the Pandemic or just the reality of what Milan have allowed themselves to fall too - Milan see a fall in the value of shirt sponsorship deal as the extend with Emirates - the club (like Everton) will dress it up as having the opportunities with other rights for women and sleeve sponsorship, but this is a low value sponsorship for one of the great names in the game - from Sports Pro Media

AC Milan confirm ‘€10m a year’ Emirates renewal
Cut price deal allows Italian club to sell separate women's, training and sleeve sponsorships.

Posted: July 27 2020By: Tom Bassam

- Expiring contract worth €14m a year
- Club will bid to make up revenue through new inventory
- Emirates has sponsored AC Milan's kit since 2010/11 season

AC Milan and the Emirates airline have renewed their shirt sponsorship deal until the end of the 2022/23 season, although the Italian soccer giants had to accept reduced terms.

A Gazzetta dello Sport report earlier this year said the extension, which has now been formally confirmed, would see Milan be forced to accept around €10 million (US$10.8 million) per season, plus bonuses. That is down from the expiring contract covering this season, which was worth €14 million (US$15.2 million) a year, plus bonuses.

Emirates continues as a principal partner of Milan and their official airline in the new three-year contract, which guarantees prime branding on the front of shirts for the senior men's side, youth teams and the Rossoneri academy.

The previous deal also covered AC Milan’s women’s team and training kit, but the club will now be selling that, and sleeve sponsorship inventory, separately.

Casper Stylsvig, AC Milan’s chief revenue officer, said: “This renewal is a testament to the value both parties have brought to the table throughout this long term and collaborative partnership. The partnership of these two brands, with such strong international visibility, is an extremely powerful one.

“Coming out of a global pandemic, our new deal with Emirates has also allowed the club to redefine its partnership strategy, providing an increased sponsorship inventory and therefore greater potential for further commercial partners moving forwards.”

At the end of the three-year term, the total duration of the partnership will have reached 17 years, with Emirates taking over as shirt sponsor ahead of the 2010/11 season.

[Chester Perry]

Hearts and Partick Thistle fail in their bid to get their relegations overturned and loose out on compensation too

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53526063

[Chester Perry]

Chester, firstly thank you for the enlightening reports you write up daily. You've probably wrote more words in your FMMT, than in all of W Shakespeare's works. Secondly you must be an accomplished keyboard typist, to complete all the content you put in them. I guess your not a single finger tapper like me.

Thanks for you appreciation - there is a lot of copy and paste for the articles I post - but while not a fully accomplished typist I do use both hands and about 6 digits most of the time

[GodIsADeeJay81]

6 digits on each hand I presume?

[Chester Perry]

6 digits on each hand I presume?

it's the Burnley way apparently - never knew it was unusual until I went to university

[Chester Perry]

Not sure that I believe this story on the BBC about the delays in the Saudi takeover of Newcastle being as a result of the lack of clarity over who would be in charge

Newcastle takeover: Where is the Premier League club's sale up to?
By Dan Roan and Alistair Magowan

Newcastle United's proposed takeover by a Saudi Arabian-backed consortium has been delayed because of a lack of clarity over who would be in charge at the club, BBC Sport has learned.

Sixteen weeks after documents relating to a £300m takeover were registered with the Premier League, the deal is still being scrutinised under its owners' and directors' test.

But it is understood compliance requires greater certainty as to who would have ultimate responsibility at St James' Park.

The bid has been led by British financier Amanda Staveley, but Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth Public Investment Fund (PIF) is set to take a 80% stake.

PIF's chairman is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and it appears the Premier League's lawyers are struggling to establish the precise links between the consortium and the Saudi government.

This is crucial given the television rights piracy issues that have dogged the saga, with Saudi Arabia denying claims it facilitated the illegal streaming of sports events in the Middle East.

The Premier League, PIF and Magpies owner Mike Ashley have all declined to comment, but with only seven weeks until the new season starts, patience is staring to wear thin on all sides.

On Saturday, manager Steve Bruce spoke for Newcastle fans when he said: "We need a decision and we need one quickly."

What's the latest situation?
The potential takeover has been complicated by television piracy issues and alleged human right abuses.

Families of prisoners held in Saudi Arabia have told BBC Sport that they will "not stay silent" even if the deal goes through.

There is also keen interest in Newcastle from American businessman Henry Mauriss, who is willing to offer £350m for the club, who finished 13th in the Premier League standings.

BBC Sport has been told by a source that an exclusivity clause held between Ashley and the Saudi-backed consortium has come to an end.

That could offer an opportunity for Mauriss' camp to capitalise should the bid fall through.

So, in the meantime, it is all eyes back on Premier League chief executive Richard Masters and its board. It will make the call on whether the prospective owners have broken any laws and meet the required standards to protect the league's reputation and image.

Sources have said that although Bin Salman is the chair of PIF, he is not involved with its day-to-day running, so questions about Saudi Arabia's human rights record are not relevant to the bid.

What are the outstanding issues?
More than 97% of Newcastle United Supporters' Trust members are in favour of the takeover, and many fans have dismissed the manner in which the media has raised issues which could derail the Saudi bid.

Given their significance and complexity, however, those issues have been hard to ignore.

TV piracy in Saudi Arabia is a huge problem for the Premier League to contend with, especially as it has previously complained about it.

The World Trade Organization said there had been an infringement of intellectual property rights via the illegal beoutQ service, but in an apparent response to that ruling, Saudi Arabia then barred beIN Sports from operating.

Its service is the only legal way of watching Premier League football in the country. Saudi Arabia has always denied aiding the beoutQ operation and has insisted there is no link between its government and the alleged piracy.

There have also been appeals to the Premier League and fans about how Saudi Arabia disregards human rights, which Masters said would be "fully considered".

Why are Saudi families concerned by takeover?
Families of prisoners held in the kingdom have told BBC Sport that allowing a Saudi takeover would "legitimise" the regime that "commits horrendous crimes".

The takeover goes to the core of the sports-washing idea that many human rights organisations have raised. They say that if the Arab state is associated with the globally positive image of the Premier League, it would gloss over the abuses that occur in the country.

Lina al-Hathloul says her sister Loujain, a human rights activist, is one such example. Loujain campaigned for women's rights to drive; according to her sister, she has been in prison for two-and-a-half years and has been tortured, sexually harassed and held in solitary confinement for eight months.

The Saudi government says she and other activists were detained for conspiring with "hostile entities", while Bin Salman told CBS's 60 Minutes in 2019 that releasing her was not his decision to make. He added: "If this [torture] is correct, it is very heinous. The Saudi laws forbid torture."

But in an appeal to Newcastle fans, Lina said: "I want to tell them that their everyday life is very different from ours. My sister is in prison just because one of her demands was for women to drive.

"Saudi Arabia will be embarrassed if at every game they have protests. Whatever the decision is at the end, fans have leverage, they can ask for the detainees to be released."

Areej al-Sadhan, whose brother Abdulrahman is a humanitarian worker for Red Crescent and has been in prison for more than two years, said hundreds of families like theirs were affected.

She added: "We cannot stay silent about it. We are actually risking our own lives by speaking out about the situation.

"There are things money cannot buy and fans seriously need to look deeper at the Saudi practices in the kingdom."

Where does proposed takeover leave Bruce?
Bruce has previously said he would "love to be part" of the takeover, but his more immediate concerns will be related to the forthcoming season, which starts on 12 September.

He is set for a meeting on Wednesday with Ashley, where he can discuss if any funds are available for transfer targets. Bruce has said he hopes to get a few deals done, and will also hope that midfielder Matty Longstaff signs a new contract.

But most of all, he, like many fans, wants to know if the takeover will happen or not.

"It is a frustration," he said after losing to Liverpool on Sunday. "The club needs that clarity, all of us, so let's hope we can get that in the next few days or week or whatever it may be.

"If that's not going to happen, we need to know quickly so it can be business as usual."

As has been the case for almost four months, the answer lies with the Premier League.

[Chester Perry]

I have thought for a while now that for the Premier Leagues (and posted about it on this thread) the delay is about negotiating expected practises and behaviours for the Saudi'sand that the government is involved in the diplomacy

Here Simon Chadwick's latest thoughts on the subject

https://twitter.com/Prof_Chadwick/statu ... 7489337344

[Chester Perry]

and the Telegraph has this on the Saudi/Newcastle Deal

Exclusive: Newcastle United takeover 'gridlocked' as Saudi-led consortium struggles to allay Premier League concerns
LUKE EDWARDS JULY 27, 2020 - 5:40pm

The proposed takeover of Newcastle United by a Saudi Arabian-led consortium has reached deadlock due to concerns over the new ownership structure and who will have the final say in the decision-making process at the Premier League club.

A £300 million offer was accepted by current owner Mike Ashley back in April with the expectation that deal would be confirmed by the Premier League a few weeks later. Instead, much to the consternation of Newcastle fans desperate for a change of ownership, the takeover is now into the 17th week of attempting to pass the Premier League’s Owners and Director's Test.

In turn, Ashley has been talking to the American businessman, Henry Mauriss, since the start of the month and it is understood he is free to sell to another buyer after the exclusivity deal with the Saudi-led consortium, which involved the payment of a deposit, expired.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is attempting to acquire an 80 per cent stake in Newcastle with financier Amanda Staveley, who has brokered the deal, receiving 10 per cent and the Reuben family, represented by Jamie Reuben, buying the remaining 10 per cent of the club.

The talks with the Premier League are now said to have stalled and are locked in stalemate, with, according to sources, the buyers struggling to satisfy the organisation which appears to want greater clarity regarding the link between the PIF and the Saudi state.

At the heart of the matter is the long-running legal dispute the Premier League has had with the Saudi government over the illegal streaming of English football and other sporting events in the Kingdom.

The issue was further confused recently when the KSA banned beIN, the Qatari-based international rights holders in the Middle East, from broadcasting in the country which means it is now impossible to legally watch Premier League matches in the Kingdom.

In turn the KSA had released statements saying it would crack down on websites, such as the pirate site beOutQ, which has been illegally showing sporting events, in the hope that it would convince the Premier League it was not backing the activities.

The takeover has not been officially rejected but there is increasingly less confidence that it will go through in its present form with one source telling Telegraph Sport that it was “gridlocked”. The source added: “As things stand there is no chance of the takeover progressing in its current form.

“The problem is this, the Premier League wants to know who will be running the club, who will have the final say on decisions, who will negotiate sponsorship deals and so on and so on.

“The PIF has the majority stake but the management structure does not seem to recognise that. The more questions that have been asked, the more muddled and confused it becomes. The Premier League is not satisfied with the answers it has been given.”

Certainly, so far, the answers provided by the buyers do not appear to have persuaded the Premier League that it can allow the takeover to go through as it has been organised. The crux of the problem appears to remain that the Premier League is unconvinced by the argument that the PIF is independent of the Saudi government and, therefore, is insisting on the link being made clearer.

The buyers have continued to argue that the PIF is a separate legal entity to the Saudi State, an argument apparently undermined by the fact Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country's de-facto ruler, is chairman of the fund. The PIF is understood to have continued to maintain that it is an independent investment vehicle.

It is understood that Staveley, who will be the public face of the takeover, will be in day-to-day charge of the business. Three-fifths of the board will be made up of Saudi representatives, with the chairman expected to be Yasir Al-Rumayyan who is the governor of the PIF. Jamie Reuben, who will have to step down as a director of Championship club Queens Park Rangers, will also be on the board.

Owen Brown, an advisor and friend of former Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez, has also been involved in meetings, including talks over summer transfer targets.

It is understood that structure was designed to put some distance between the club and the government officials on the PIF board.

Rather than serious concerns over the Saudis' human rights record, including the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, it has been the issue of piracy that has complicated the deal with Newcastle appearing to also be caught in the middle of a Middle Eastern proxy war after relations were severed between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

When he appeared before the Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee last month, Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, admitted that “sometimes things get complicated” when it comes to takeover deals. He added, “sometimes there’s a requirement for information”, but it was hoped the issue would be concluded “shortly”.

Nine attempts to take legal action by the Premier League were blocked in KSA before this takeover bid was launched while a report by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled the Saudi Arabia government had facilitated and promoted the illegal streaming.

When contacted by Telegraph Sport, the Premier League refused to deny claims the takeover talks have reached an impasse, before replying with a “no comment” to additional questions about whether they intend to block it.

[Chester Perry]

Meanwhile in the Guardian, Barney Ronay dishes up more of what Miguel Delaney did earlier in the day about how money is more of a determining factor than ever

Premier League's richest tighten grip after season of slow-burn stories
It was a campaign like no other but the wealthiest still came out on top and the ever-growing gap between the best and the rest is cause for concern

Barney Ronay - @barneyronay - Mon 27 Jul 2020 22.00 BSTLast modified on Mon 27 Jul 2020 22.43 BST

Well, we made it then. It was the worst of times. And either side of that, it was also the worst of times. Professional sport has never staged anything quite like the football season just past, 11 months of competition capped by that midsummer interlude where suddenly televised football became a contractual bind cranked out through gritted teeth to pay the bills, Premier League clubs going through the motions like a leather-thonged private dancer making eyes at the table of TV execs in hope of a second series.

Plague, death and economic collapse aside, from a sporting point of view the most remarkable part of the 2019-20 Premier League season was that it maintained a degree of uniform quality throughout. As ever the level of competition was decent, not bad, OK; a reliable advert for the homogenised global pop culture product that is elite level English football.

Liverpool supporters will rejoice in the spectacle of one of the great champion teams of the last quarter century. At the other end of the table Aston Villa’s survival was an absorbing piece of theatre. But for the rest of the field this was a slow-burn, unremarkable season, with little in the way of surprise, innovation, or genuine social mobility.

Never mind the shrill dramas of Super Final Sunday. The four wealthiest clubs at the start of the season are the four clubs that will play in the Champions League next year. Not, it should be said, in exactly corresponding order. Liverpool defied a £100m revenue shortfall to finish 33 points clear of No 1 rich-listers Manchester United. So there’s that.

Otherwise there is little in the final Premier League table that couldn’t have emerged from an algorithm based on income and recent performances. Arsenal and West Ham underachieved on a revenue-to-points basis. Burnley continue to punch above their status. Sheffield United looked an excellent team.

There were spikes of unruliness: Norwich beat Manchester City and Watford beat Liverpool. But Norwich were also relegated after one hapless season, while Watford’s successful attempt to game the system finally choked on its own cuteness.

At the end of which the gap between first and 10th place was 45 points, maintaining an average 10 point increase in the gap between those places in the last four years, compared to the previous decade. The gap between first and fourth was 33 points, compared to 27 the year before, and 25, 17 and 15 in the three years before that.

This sense of settled hierarchies becomes more pronounced every year. It should be a source of concern that there are currently no more than four teams in the league who might even contemplate winning it. In the circles beyond it is a fair guess to say more than 90% of current professional clubs have zero chance of winning the Premier League title ever again, barring some deus ex machina takeover by an unregulated spendthrift billionaire.

Does this matter? It is more open at the top than most other European leagues. Juventus have just won a ninth consecutive domestic title. Bayern Munich are up to eight. Paris Saint-Germain wield a similar tyranny in Ligue 1.

At the same time this gap is likely to become more pronounced in all the major leagues, as revenue streams dry up, and as access to the Champions League becomes a dividing line between the drowned and the saved. Those who have gambled on debt versus income are in for a dose of enforced austerity. The status of the Premier League as a premium global product will rest for now on those established powers, their ability to produce and procure star players.

It should be said the champions look in excellent health. Liverpool are a powerful machine, in need of little more than a service and the odd high-end spare part. It would be a surprise not to see the title retained, and the sense of a genuine act of dynasty-building confirmed.

Manchester City will be stronger. Courtroom vindication will provide both impetus and, no doubt, a mild flood of money to spend. Beyond which it is hard not to conclude that this has been a poor Premier League field, as evidenced by the fact Leicester’s pre-Christmas cavaliers were Liverpool’s closest challengers all season.

There has been some hopeful talk that Manchester United might be a genuine force next year, something that would seem more likely if the Premier League were a five-a-side competition. Unfortunately it is also necessary to field a fully competent backline. Chelsea have riches in midfield and some exciting new arrivals. Both of these teams will have their hand strengthened by a seat at the top table in a time of retrenchment elsewhere

Further down it seems likely financial caution will only increase the sense of leagues within leagues. Tottenham and Arsenal, weakened by the financial slowdown, look some way off now. The sense of a large block of clubs hanging in there, content simply to harvest the broadcast money, will become ever more profound.

Perhaps a less spendthrift environment will reinforce the idea that chemistry, careful coaching and good husbandry is still the best way to succeed.

Leeds’ arrival will provide the league with a distinctive on-field presence, and Marcelo Bielsa with the funds to explore the limits of his systems-based football.

And despite that sense of middling standards, the Premier League has been tactically interesting this year. For the first time since the first Premier League season none of the top three goalscorers played for the top three clubs, a measure perhaps of the way the angles and rhythms of attack have broadened out. The full-back role continued to evolve, to the extent Trent Alexander-Arnold probably requires a new designation, right-back giving way to ball-strike-flank-gallop-man, or right-side-wing-creation-vector.

For now domestic football will be hugely glad of the extended break, with the new season not due to start until 12 September.

Before then we have the prospect of a 10-week summer transfer window; the progress of which is likely to confirm that sense of hierarchies reinforced, of spenders versus savers, and of a league being pulled a little further apart at both ends.

[Chester Perry]

John Nicholson and Adrian Goldberg of The "When Sky Invented Football" podcast presents a "Manifesto for English Football"

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a ... 0486338652

[Chester Perry]

Another Middle Eastern state has "invested" in football to promote itself - though as yet not at the stratospheric cost we are used to - Bahrain buy 20% of Paris FC and immediately use the tourist authority to sponsor the shirt

https://twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1 ... 3582597120

[Chester Perry]

John Nicholson and Adrian Goldberg of The "When Sky Invented Football" podcast presents a "Manifesto for English Football"

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a ... 0486338652

this podcast introduced me to the creator of the "Mitch Cook's left foot" blog - I thought he spoke very well, he certainly matched up to the powerful personalities of Goldberg and Nicholson, so decided to have a look at his blog

there is some good stuff on there, though it can be a bit long winded, like Nicholson I find him a voice worth listening too without always agreeing with his view - this one, from a two weeks back on bad football club owners/the Wigan situation is rather good

https://mclfoot.blogspot.com/2020/07/ye ... -they.html

[Chester Perry]

Anti-Piracy is not something we talk about that much, even though we often read about Piracy, given the popularity of Football it is inevitable that people will seek to make money from the illegal broadcast of it (it is the Magic Money Tree after all). What we are now seeing is that businesses are being built from trying to stop/block piracy - the sophistication of the pirates is such that in-house teams are rarely able to be formed to combat (though the Premier League are amongst the best). Uefa have woken up to the threat - not piracy in itself more the potential loss in revenues from rights holders if they do nothing about it. - from SportsProMedia.com

Uefa seeking anti-piracy service providers in wake of BeoutQ saga
European soccer body issues RFP in growing effort to protect IP rights.

Posted: July 27 2020By: PA

Uefa, European soccer’s governing body, has moved to further protect itself from piracy by signalling its intention to enlist the services of an intellectual property rights management firm.

A tender has been issued by Uefa for companies to assist in its anti-piracy efforts, a process which will run until 4th September.

A statement accompanying the request for proposals said: 'Uefa takes the protection of its intellectual property rights, as well as the interests of its media partners, very seriously.'

The organisation was one of many rights holders affected by the activities of pirate broadcast network BeoutQ, whose operations were facilitated by the Saudi Arabian state according to a report by the World Trade Organisation last month.

Responding to the WTO report, Uefa said in a statement last month: 'What is clear is that BeoutQ’s broadcasts constitute piracy of Uefa’s matches and as such, are illegal.

'BeoutQ was hosted on frequencies transmitted by Arabsat and was promoted and carried out by individuals and entities subject to Saudi Arabia’s territorial jurisdiction.

“Those seeking to follow BeoutQ’s example should be in no doubt that Uefa will go to great lengths to protect its property and support its partners, whose investment in football helps it to remain the world’s most popular sport from grassroots to elite level. Piracy not only threatens that investment but also the existence of professional sport as we know it.

'Today’s ruling shows clearly that no-one involved in audio-visual piracy should consider themselves above the rule of law.'

The issue of piracy also appears to have caused complications for the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle.

The buyout is still being considered by the Premier League under its owners’ and directors’ test, with the Saudi public investment fund (PIF) taking an 80 per cent stake in the club under the terms of the deal.

In February English soccer's top-flight Premier League wrote to the United States trade representative asking that Saudi Arabia be kept on a watch list because the country 'remained a centre for piracy'.

[Chester Perry]

An in depth and lengthy article looking at whether Private Equity investment can awaken Serie A to become the global power it once was

https://www.sportbusiness.com/2020/07/s ... ing-giant/

[Chester Perry]

It is starting from a very low base but Ligue 1 is seeking to build up it's commercial earnings by having a pool of sponsors - no doubt trying to emulate the very successful approach employed by La Liga - naturally it has found a betting partner (though they are subject to much greater limitations than we find in this country - from SportsBusiness.com

Betclic acquires Ligue 1 bookmaker rights as LFP targets pool of sponsors
Matthew Glendinning - July 27, 2020

France’s Ligue de Professionnel (LFP) this month struck only the second betting deal in its history, a three-year agreement with Betclic that will run from 2020-21 to 2022-23.

The deal makes Betclic the official bookmaker of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 and is valued in the high six-figure euros per season, according to industry experts.

Betclic takes on the designation after it was unfilled for two seasons – 2018-19 and 2019-20 – after Française des Jeux (FDJ) exited a three-and-a-half-season agreement (starting January 2017) with two years still to run.

The FDJ deal was worth between €2m ($2.3m) and €3m per year, according to experts, but included major partner rights to the Coupe de la Ligue, worth between €1m and €2m per year, along with official partner rights to Ligue 1, Ligue 2 and the Champions Trophy, the annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France.

FDJ opted out of the contract to focus on club sponsorships with Olympique de Marseille, Olympique Lyonnais, AS Monaco and FC Nantes.

The Betclic deal was made by the LFP’s commercial management with the marketing and sponsorship management department at Betclic. No agency was involved.

The LFP told SportBusiness Sponsorship that the governing body had been in touch with key bookmakers in the French market for the previous year, working on a proposal that would fit the betting operators’ needs within the constraints imposed by the LFP and the clubs. The deal includes neither perimeter board advertising rights nor player image rights.

“The betting industry in France is a competitive market with five or six key players,” an LFP spokesperson told SportBusiness Sponsorship. “Each rights-holder has its own benefits to offer to brands and, as a league, we offered the chance to be associated as the official bookmaker of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 and promote it on every medium.”

The deal will mainly be activated on LFP-owned digital channels, with engaging content, money-can’t-buy experiences and various other assets that will be revealed and activated throughout the length of the contract.

The deal is important, the league said, because it is key to the LFP’s new digital strategy: “Partnering up with a market leader and digital-driven company benefits the growth of LFP fanbase, adds value to LFP’s competition ecosystem and creates engaging content for every football fan. Every agreement is key to LFP’s growth and to generate and add value among its partners and to its competitions.”

The deal is also important because the LFP has moved from a pyramid model of multiple tiers to a pool model, in which a larger group of sponsors with similar rights will sit below the title sponsors to Ligue 1 and Ligue 2.

Food delivery service Uber Eats will be headline sponsor of Ligue 1 next season in a deal worth €10.5m per season, covering 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. Agricultural tyre company BKT deal will be title sponsor of League 2 in a deal worth between €2m and €2.5m per year from 2020-21 to 2023-24.

Beneath these are a tier of partners with rights that are currently mixed with those attached to the Coupe de la Ligue. The league-owned cup competition will be axed after the 2019-20 final between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon on July 31, necessitating a reset of the contracts.

The decision to drop the competition, which generated about €4m per year from sponsorship, was made by the league last year because of waning interest in the property among broadcasters.

[Chester Perry]

It is just another example of how the biggest clubs gain advantage over everyone else - and no surprise that Manchester United were the first to come up with the idea (though they were just trying to catch-up with the famous Milan-Lab at the time). Barcelona and Real Madrid have announced that they have extended their sponsorship with Medical Equipment supplier Cannon Medical. The rest of us have to buy the equipment if we want it. - from SportsBusiness.com

Canon Medical extends with Barcelona and Real Madrid to 2025
Matthew Glendinning - July 28, 2020

Japanese medical device company Canon Medical Systems has renewed its medical supplier agreements with LaLiga clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid for five more years until 2025.

Both deals include the provision of medical imaging equipment, with Canon Medical designated as the official medical systems partner at the global partner level with Barcelona and the official diagnostic imaging partner at Real Madrid.

Despite this, the company is not listed on the digital billboards of either club, indicating that the supply rights are the key asset for Canon Medical, rather than branding or IP rights.

At Barcelona, Canon Medical has supplied the club’s medical centre at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper training facility with a range of imaging solutions since 2015.

As part of the agreement, Canon Medical has also collaborated with the Barça Innovation Hub – the club’s platform for innovation, research and training projects – to develop sports medicine that helps in the prevention and diagnosis of critical injuries both on and off the pitch.

In October 2019, Canon Medical and the Barça Innovation Hub co-presented the Global Sports Medicine Forum, which invited experts to share their thoughts on how medical imaging can support the health and well-being of elite athletes.

The club said the new agreement forms part of FC Barcelona’s quest to proactively source and work with partners that are aligned with club’s own values and philosophy. “It also reinforces its strategy of establishing alliances that can help it to continue leading the way not only on the field of play, but also in terms of sports partnership and marketing,” the club said.

At Real Madrid, Canon Medical has helped Real Madrid conduct more than 4,000 diagnostic studies over the last four years to players from the football and basketball teams, and the academy.

As per the agreements, Canon Medical is set to provide each club with six new diagnostic imaging solutions, including a world-first AI-powered MRI system, the Vantage Galan 3T with Advanced intelligent Clear-IQ Engine (AiCE), and a suite of ultrasound solutions up to June 30, 2025.

Canon Medical is also the official medical systems partner at English Premier League club Manchester United under a multi-year deal signed in October 2018.

[Chester Perry]

Serie A are supposed to be weighing up the proposals for investment on Thursday according to SportsBusiness.com - not that the offers are binding and compare that to the new Ligue 1 TV deal that has no financial guarantees if the new service fails in the market place.

Lega Serie A set to weigh up rights proposals
SportBusiness Staff - July 28, 2020

Six investment funds are said to have made binding offers to Lega Serie A, governing body of the top division of Italian club football, regarding a media company that would market broadcast rights.

Wanda Sports Group and its agency Infront, along with Spanish agency and production group Mediapro are reported to have entered separate joint proposals.

The proposals to the Lega advisor, French financial consultancy Lazard, will be discussed at a Lega club assembly meeting on Thursday, according to multiple reports in the Italian media.

CVC Capital Partners, Bain Capital and Advent International are said to have made offers for minority stakes in the new media company, according to the Il Messaggero newspaper.

Apollo Global Management, Fortress Investment Group, and Blackstone, through its GSO investment arm, are instead said to have put forward financing proposals.

Meanwhile, Wanda-Infront and Mediapro are reported to have made a direct non-binding proposal to the clubs concerning the formation of a partnership to create a Serie A channel.

Infront has strong existing ties to the Lega. The agency holds a six-year near-€6bn ($7bn) minimum-guarantee agreement to work as its exclusive adviser on domestic and international media-rights sales. But that deal comes to an end in 2020-2021. Infront has worked as the league’s media-rights adviser since 2008.

Read this: Serie A | Can new investors wake football’s sleeping giant?

Earlier this month, Lega Serie A was said to have placed a cap of 15 per cent on any potential private equity investment into a new commercial entity. A letter from Serie A president Paolo Dal Pino to the interested parties is said to have added that the proposals must contain a legal assessment confirming that the terms and conditions of the bid comply with Italy’s Melandri law, which governs the collective selling of media rights in the country.

Reports concerning external investment in Serie A have been rife in recent weeks. Lega Serie A this month decided to continue to examine proposals from private equity investors following a general assembly meeting.

CVC was previously said to have enjoyed an exclusive negotiation window. CVC’s reported €2.2bn bid was to acquire 20 per cent of a new company that would manage the media rights, Serie A’s international trademark and commercial development, and part-finance a new investment fund responsible for stadium development.

[Chester Perry]

Fascinating opinion piece at SportsProMedia.com on the rights athletes/footballers have just acquired as "data subjects" and the implications that presents

Fiona Green, co-founder of CRM and data consultancy Winners, explains why athletes' new rights as 'data subjects' could shake up soccer's transfer market.

Posted: July 28 2020By: Fiona Green
Opinion | GDPR has the potential to have the same impact on soccer finance as Bosman

Many of you reading this will be aware of the Bosman ruling concerning the freedom of movement of workers. But how many of you were working in soccer in 1990 when Jean-Marc Bosman first requested a move to Dunkerque or 1995 when the European Court ruled in his favour?

If you’re holding your hand up right now you will remember the huge impact it had on the player transfer market within the European Union, how many column inches it generated for the sports journalists, as well as how many clubs had to reassess the financial and timing impact the ruling had on their transfer decisions moving forward.

Now, 30 years on, we are on the cusp of another transformation in this area, this time driven by the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

You will all have heard of the GDPR, or if you have not you will have experienced the changes it has made to the way we navigate the internet – those annoying cookie notifications the first time you visit a new website that started appearing around May last year for example.

But why am I suggesting these seemingly minor new wrinkles could create a Bosman-size chasm in the way we currently work with soccer players? Well, now those players are afforded new rights as 'data subjects' under the GDPR - as are athletes in any sports where transfers have an impact on their careers.

The new rights for data subjects:
1) The right to access – under this right, any soccer player can ask for access to the records that their clubs have on them. Crucially this includes all their data including biometrics, and any other performance-related information generated during a match, a training session, a medical session, etc.

2) The right to portability – any player can request that their data is made accessible for any other party to be able to access and “take”, transferring it into their own systems.

3) The right to deletion – now any player can ask any club, governing body, or league to delete all the data they have about them. Just like that – years of goal scoring history, performances, red cards, wiped from history. Forever.

So what are the potential ramifications on the transfer market? Primarily because of point two above. Imagine this situation. Club A wants to buy a player from Club B and knowing about the right to portability, asks the player to bring ALL their data with them. Club B refuses because they consider it their data, and Club A says to the player “if you don’t get me your data, I’m not going to buy you”. Club B would then be restricting the player’s ability to get a job. The very same issue at the heart of the Bosman ruling.

Add another level to this, if the player wins the argument and gets their data over to Club A, they then have the opportunity to reverse-engineer the data points and get an insight into Club B’s training methods.

There’s a potential flaw in my discussion here – the right to portability only refers to data that the player gave Club B, not the data that Club B generated themselves. So, would training data, biometrics, etc. be considered data the club generated or data that could only be generated by the player running, jumping, throwing, etc.?

I have tried to open this debate on several occasions with different people ever since Bas Schnater and I first discussed it as case study material for a book I wrote for the sports industry, 'Winning with Data', but there are the two main reasons I have never managed to get traction on the subject:

1) The subject of data is often included in a player’s contract with the club, i.e. ownership is already dealt with. My response to that is while it might be the case, when it comes to the law, it usually sits above any contract between two parties. The player and Club B might agree on one thing, but if the GDPR provides a route to contradict this, surely the law prevails?

2) It is opening a Pandora’s Box and why would you want to do so? Because when May 2018 hit, so many rights holders were not prepared, ill advised, or did not have clarity over what they should do next, and the impact was quite huge. I cannot tell you how many clients we have had to help recover their databases because they thought they had to delete them (they did not) or re-engage their fans because they thought they could not email them (they could).

Surely it is better to be prepared to manage a situation before it happens - to understand all the possible implications, to have a crisis management plan, to have a tried and trusted resource for assistance should we not know where to go?

I’m hoping that as a result of this post, there is enough interest out there to take this discussion one step further and investigate it. I know that the usual practice is to wait for case law – but do we really want to wait until a forward-thinking agent tests the theory with one of their players and the football world goes into freefall as we scrabble around to figure out what to do?

Fiona Green has operated in the sports industry for more 34 years, with the vast majority of her coming on the agency-side representing rights holders in sponsorship, TV rights and licensing. Now a CRM and BI practitioner, Green recently published a book 'Winning with Data: CRM and Analytics for the Business of Sports'. The work was nominated for the 2018 FT.com Best Business Book of the Year award.

[Chester Perry]

Missed this last week - apparently there is a bit of a scandal brewing in Serie A over the T's&C's of match tickets

Brescia and Lecce join AGCM’s Serie A ticketing investigation
SportBusiness Staff - July 21, 2020


The Italian antitrust authority, l’Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM), has widened its probe into the ticketing sales process conducted by Serie A football clubs by launching proceedings against a further two teams, Brescia and Lecce.

The investigation concerns unfair, or “vexatious”, contract terms in the sale of season tickets. The AGCM said Brescia and Lecce had failed to adhere to a request made on January 24 to alter their practices, adding that it has dropped proceedings against SPAL and Hellas Verona after they conformed.

The authority alleges that Brescia and Lecce include terms in their season ticket offers that are unclear and infringe consumer rights. The investigation relates to clauses which limit the rights of ticket-holders to a refund in the case of stadia being closed or matches being postponed and purport to exempt clubs from paying damages in cases where the postponement of a match has been the direct responsibility of the club.

The alleged infringements represent breaches of articles 33, 34 and 35 of the country’s Consumer Code. In January, the AGCM opened proceedings against nine other clubs: AC Milan, Atalanta, Cagliari, Genoa, Inter Milan, Juventus, Lazio, Roma and Udinese.

These proceedings continue after cases against two other clubs, Bologna and Parma, were dropped after the two clubs agreed to modify some of their terms.

[Chester Perry]

Scottish Football has just effectively widened the revenue gap between the old firm and the rest of the game - I really do not understand this decision, it is as barmy as the ifollow nonsense in the EFL - the revenues should be gathered centrally and distributed in the dame wasy as the other media rights

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53560168

[Chester Perry]

Surprised to not see anything about this on here today - The lack of Diversity on the FA board is going to be a big issue going forward - quite possibly for sponsors too - they could easily walk away as we have seen elsewhere around the world recently, this for an organisation that has recently announced swinging cut-backs is very serious

GREG CLARKE HAS WRITTEN A LETTER TO FA COUNCIL MEMBERS FOLLOWING LATEST BOARD MEETING
Tuesday 28 Jul 2020

FA chairman Greg Clarke has written to all FA Council members following July's Board meeting
Dear colleagues,

Over the last few years we have sought to empower the FA Council in one of its core roles: holding the FA Board and Executive to account.

For the Council to exercise this important function it must have timely access to information and be able to challenge and question it. Changes to Council meetings to encourage questions, without notice, and schedule time for them in the agenda has been important to me in my role of Leader of Council. Transparency and accountability are important attributes for any governance system worthy of the name.

I wrote to you earlier in the year about Paul Elliott’s work to develop a voluntary code for equality in football. Sue Hough, Rupinder Bains and Mark Bullingham are working with Paul together with senior individuals, of all ethnicities, from across football.

In parallel with the work Paul has been leading, I have been talking to leaders across the Professional and National Game to encourage progress in inclusion.

Our game is diverse. We have doubled the number of women and girls playing football in the last four years. Across the whole game nearly 20 per cent of males aged 16 and over playing football are from BAME communities. The figure for women and girls is even higher.

The FA Board has made good progress on inclusion since the reforms approved by Council in 2017. 10 per cent of FA Board members are from a BAME background and 10 per cent come from the LGBT+ community. 40 per cent of the FA Board is female.

At last week’s FA Board meeting we debated the need to evaluate further reform to improve inclusion and effectiveness on the FA Board for consultation with Council.

We discussed a number of options including: making the Chair of the Inclusion Advisory Board a Director and giving the Professional and National Games an extra Board seat each that could provide the flexibility to allow appointment of diverse candidates should they be the best qualified person for the role. Both our Independent Directors offered to stand down to create opportunities for a more diverse Board but the Board was united in declining their offer.

The Professional Game were against such a review believing the changes introduced in 2017 were sufficient. The National Game were sympathetic to a review and consultation with Council but did not want to oppose the Professional Game.

However, without the support of the Professional Game and National Game, who have a majority of Directors, a review of the FA Board composition is not possible. I had hoped that the FA, as the game’s governing body, would have been able to examine whether its own Board was appropriately constituted to represent a diverse game and share its thinking with Council. This process is happening across football but will not now happen with respect to the FA Board.

As FA Chairman this disappoints me, as Leader of Council I felt honour bound to inform you of the situation. It seems to me better to be open on the issue now rather than surprise Council when Paul Elliott publishes the recommendations of his working group in October.

Greg Clarke

By Greg Clarke
FA Chairman
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

just for clarity the media are reporting it as The Premier League being the ones who have blocked this proposal

[Chester Perry]

John Nicholson and Adrian Goldberg of The "When Sky Invented Football" podcast presents a "Manifesto for English Football"

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a ... 0486338652

Adrian Goldberg has been busy in the last few days - today not only saw that When Sky Invented Football Podcast but this article in the BylineTimes which actually covers the previous When Sky Invented Football Podcast (which I linked last week) too.

ENGLISH FOOTBALL'S OWN GOAL
A Game of Dodgy Money & Foreign Influence
Adrian Goldberg - 28 July 2020

The beautiful game has become a way for foreign aggressors to gain leverage over British politics, reports Adrian Goldberg

Since the dawn of the Premier League in 1992, English football has never been overly worried about the source of global money swilling through its coffers, with major clubs only too happy to plump their bank accounts with cash from kleptocrats, oil states and oligarchs – and even the occasional harmless philanthropist.

Proud of its status as the most popular league in the world, the English Premier League’s (EPL) unofficial stance seems to have been ‘take the money now, worry about where it has come from later’.

However, it seems that ‘later’ has now arrived.

A time of reckoning is at hand, fuelled not least by the Government’s increasingly combative foreign policy. It is certainly difficult to see the prospect of new investment by Russian billionaires anytime soon, after last week’s devastating parliamentary report about Moscow’s malign influence in British politics – combined with the treatment of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who is seemingly in a dispute with the Government about a new UK visa.

Author Catherine Belton, for instance, has claimed that Abramovich’s purchase of Chelsea was personally ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who won’t be too pleased by the Government’s treatment of his ally. According to Belton, the aim of the Chelsea takeover was to extend Russian influence in London, as part of a larger infiltration of the West, sometimes using “dirty money”.

MPs on the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said that the UK’s investor visa scheme had been abused by Russians, providing an “ideal [mechanism] by which illicit finance could be recycled through what has been referred to as the London ‘laundromat’”.

According to Zarina Zabrisky, an expert in Putin’s rise to power, business people who became seriously wealthy after the collapse of the Soviet Union can only have done so with “krysha” – paid protection – from what has been described as a “Mafia state”.

She told the Byline Times podcast: “If you refuse to live by the rules of the organisation – the whole ‘Mafia State’ – it’s not like you won’t just be able to be a part of it. You will be eradicated, murdered.”

Bournemouth is another club that has been funded by a wealthy businessman who made his fortune in the anarchic wreckage of post-Soviet Russia, but a Siberian chill in relations between the UK and Russia will hardly encourage more to come forward – at least in the near future.

China, meanwhile, relegated television coverage of the climax of the Premier League season from its main football channel to a less popular network, despite splashing out on a mammoth £564 million deal.

This appears to be in retaliation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to ban Huawei from Britain’s 5G telecommunications network and his invitation to up to three million Hong Kong citizens to settle in the UK, after Beijing pressed ahead with the passing of its new national security law on the island.

Supporters of half a dozen professional clubs with Chinese owners – including top flight Wolverhampton Wanderers, Southampton, and newly promoted West Bromwich Albion – will be waiting anxiously to see what happens next.

Professor Simon Chadwick, director of the Centre for the Eurasian Sport Industry at Emlyon Business School, told Byline Times that close relationships with China have been fostered by successive UK Prime Ministers – using football.

“Back in the late 90s, Tony Blair courted the Chinese Government in part through football,” he said. “Blair really saw the value and power of football as an instrument of diplomacy and so he frequently used it in trade missions to China.”

When Labour was ousted in 2010, the incoming Conservative-led Government continued to use football as an expression of UK soft power. Prime Minister David Cameron was famously pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping alongside Manchester City player Sergio Aguero, during a Chinese state visit to the UK in 2015.

Around this time, Chinese investors became seriously interested in the Premier League, prompted by a declaration by President Xi that his country hoped to become a force in world football.

In some cases, Chadwick said, Chinese business owners who had acquired their money by nefarious means took the President’s message as a sign to safely move their money offshore to the UK.

In part an effort to secure the patronage and good favour of their country’s leader, Chinese businessmen bought heavily into European football, taking stakes in clubs in France, Italy, as well as England. “You saw a feeding frenzy of investment overseas,” Chadwick added.

But it didn’t always turn out well. Birmingham City found itself in the hands of Carson Yeung, a Hong Kong-based investor convicted in 2014 of money laundering and sentenced to six years in prison, while Wigan Athletic was recently forced into administration after its Hong Kong-based backers lost patience with the club’s heavy losses.

There have been brighter stories too – notably the ownership of Fosun International, which has turned Wolverhampton Wanderers into Champions League contenders. But the competitive nature of English football makes it a risky business – a fact which has not gone unnoticed in Beijing.

In 2017, Chinese officials criticised “irrational investments” – interpreted as a heavy hint against buying any more overseas football clubs – after which the number of new deals has virtually dried up. Add this to the recent diplomatic spat between the UK and China and, as Chadwick describes it, there is a “perfect storm” which could have a “profound impact” on English teams with Chinese owners.

If this all seems a long way from the ‘jumpers for goalposts’ ethos of old-school footy, that’s because it is. The sport at its highest level has allowed itself to become the play-thing of the super rich and is none too fussy about how that wealth was acquired.

It is a strategy which leaves much-loved local clubs too often reliant on dodgy cash, absentee owners and the whims of foreign politicians – an own goal which, in the long run, could prove costly for the English game.

[Chester Perry]

The Telegraph on that letter from Greg Clarke today on the FA Board diversity - to be clear The EFL and PL voted against (in part to retain their own positions of power on the board - The EFL and PL leagues are owned by clubs - it is the 91 clubs that voted against, though that may not be for the reasons portrayed in the letter or the media - I suspect they do not want an extra seat but would rather fill existing seats with their choice of a diversity representative (which for the professional game is difficult - they themselves don't have much diversity at the top level

FA chairman angered after Premier League and EFL representatives block attempts to promote diversity
TOM MORGAN JULY 28, 2020

The chairman of the Football Association has expressed anger after attempts to add diversity to the governing body's board were blocked by representatives from the Premier League and the English Football League.

Among proposals turned down were efforts to promote the former Chelsea defender Paul Elliott, chair of the FA's inclusion advisory board, to the full board. In a letter to the FA Council, Greg Clarke aimed thinly-veiled criticism at senior figures by saying the vote "disappoints" him.

The gesture of solidarity from Clarke is understood to have been well received by Elliott, who has yet to comment. The snub is a major blow as governing bodies across the sporting sector have launched major drives to improve boardroom representation in recent weeks.

UK Sport and Sport England this month announced efforts to avoid "another false dawn" on boardroom diversity after a Telegraph Sport investigation laid bare the scarcity of black representation in positions of real power.

With just three per cent of board members of taxpayer-funded national governing bodies (NGBs) being black, Elliott had already spearheaded plans with the FA to launch a voluntary diversity code in October to coincide with Black History Month.

However, at last week's FA Board, major new boardroom reforms at the governing body hit a stumbling block, it has now emerged. Clarke described in a letter to the FA Council how "we debated the need to evaluate further reform to improve inclusion and effectiveness on the FA board for consultation with Council". As well as promoting Elliott, Clarke also suggested an alternative option where the professional and amateur sides of football were each given an extra seat on the board.

"Both our independent directors offered to stand down to create opportunities for a more diverse board but the board was united in declining their offer," Clarke said.

The FA board is made up of 10 members, including three nominated by the professional game, three by the national (amateur) game, two independent directors, Clarke and Mark Bullingham, the chief executive.

The professional representatives "were against such a review, believing the changes introduced in 2017 were sufficient". The national game representatives were sympathetic to a review and consultation with council "but did not want to oppose the professional game", Clarke added.

"However, without the support of the Professional Game and National Game, who have a majority of Directors, a review of the FA Board composition is not possible," Clarke added.

"I had hoped that the FA, as the game's governing body, would have been able to examine whether its own Board was appropriately constituted to represent a diverse game and share its thinking with Council. This process is happening across football but will not now happen with respect to the FA noard. As FA Chairman this disappoints me, as leader of council I felt honour bound to inform you of the situation.

"It seems to me better to be open on the issue now rather than surprise Council when Paul Elliott publishes the recommendations of his working group in October."

The meeting last week came as clubs were being invited to sign up for the FA's Equality In Football Leadership, with the aim of increasing diversity in senior roles across the sport, with no black chairmen currently in the Premier League.

Preliminary talks have begun over the code, which will set targets for diversity rather than quotas. A number of club sources have indicated October as the launch date, which is seen as a fitting time of the year due to Black History Month.

In his letter published online by the FA, Clarke said Elliott's work with the voluntary code was part of multiple efforts to "empower the FA Council in one of its core roles: holding the FA Board and Executive to account".

"In parallel with the work Paul has been leading, I have been talking to leaders across the Professional and National Game to encourage progress in inclusion," he added.

"Our game is diverse. We have doubled the number of women and girls playing football in the last four years. Across the whole game nearly 20 per cent of males aged 16 and over playing football are from BAME communities. The figure for women and girls is even higher. The FA Board has made good progress on inclusion since the reforms approved by Council in 2017. 10 per cent of FA Board members are from a BAME background and 10 per cent come from the LGBT+ community. 40 per cent of the FA Board is female.

Anti-discrimination campaigners voiced concern at the decision by football’s leaders.

Sanjay Bhandari, Kick It Out’s chair, said: “Black Lives Matter has rightfully caused organisations across all industries to consider how they attack systemic inequalities and better reflect society.

“That process must start at the top with the senior leadership team. It is only right that the FA should seek to seize the moment, to reflect on the composition of its leadership team and whether it represents the players, fans and participants in the game.

“I applaud Greg Clarke’s effort to do so. It is disappointing that this effort has been rejected. Before commenting further, we would need to understand better the professional game’s reasons for rejecting a review.”

The setback comes as Sport England and UK Sport launch their first joint review of the Code for Sports Governance, with a particular focus on "equality, diversity and inclusion" across the sector.

Launched in April 2017, the Code for Sports Governance has accelerated the professionalisation of many national sports bodies with focus areas such as new rules to ensure at least 25 per cent are independent members and guarantees that at least 30 per cent of each gender are represented on boards.

However, last month Telegraph Sport disclosed how a total of 64 per cent of funded NGBs have no Black And Minority Ethnic (BAME) board members at all. Some of the country’s biggest funded and unfunded sports bodies have only one black board member between them. No Premier League club, meanwhile, has a black owner, chairman or chief executive.

Eniola Aluko, the former England forward, and Paul Cleal, an advisor on improving diversity at executive level, have said clear targets for governing bodies are needed to tackle the current dearth in positions of real power.

[Chester Perry]

Judging by this Telegraph article Bournemouth are going to need a firesale - this just goes to underline the lack of financial discipline at the club

Some of Bournemouth's highest earners have no relegation clauses, compounding club's financial concerns
MATT LAW JULY 28, 2020

Bournemouth face a huge battle to try to make a quick return to the Premier League while fighting the threat of a financial crisis as some of the club’s highest earners do not have relegation clauses in their contracts.

And that leaves Bournemouth under threat of losing stars such as Callum Wilson, Nathan Ake, Josh King and David Brooks for cut-price fees as top-flight clubs seek to take advantage of their predicament.

While Eddie Howe, who is paid around £4 million a year, considers his future, Bournemouth are likely to be forced into having to sell their most valuable assets to offset the financial impact of going down during the coronavirus pandemic.

Telegraph Sport can reveal that Bournemouth’s situation is made even more difficult by the fact that some of their star players do not have clauses in their contracts that mean they have to accept wage decreases following relegation.

In their latest set of accounts for the year ending June 2019, Bournemouth revealed that the club’s wage bill had increased to £110.9m and that their wage-to-turnover ratio was at a worrying 84.6 per cent. One unnamed executive’s salary and pension package rose to £1.9m, which represented an increase of £500,000 on the previous year.

Howe, his assistant Jason Tindall, chief executive Neill Blake and technical director Richard Hughes all took wage cuts during the coronavirus lockdown, but significant long-term cuts will need to be made to the club’s expenditure following relegation.

While some players are likely to see their wages decrease automatically after the club lost their fight against Premier League survival, others earning over £50,000-a-week had no clauses in their contracts covering the club for the eventuality of relegation.

Bournemouth will be forced to sell many of their best players, but could now see their values drop due to the need to raise money.

Chelsea have a £40m buy-back option on Ake, but the Blues, Manchester City and Manchester United are likely to try to negotiate a deal for around £25m if they decide to bid for the Dutch defender.

Striker Wilson has previously been valued at over £30m by Bournemouth, but they will struggle to attract bids for over half that fee. King’s contract expires in one year and the Cherries will get nowhere near the £20m they rejected from United at the end of the January transfer window. Midfielder Brooks is the subject of interest from a number of Premier League clubs hoping to land a bargain.

Bournemouth have already lost Ryan Fraser without earning a fee after the winger did not extend his contract when it expired at the end of June and did not play a part in the club’s unsuccessful fight against relegation.

Other than the money they have been paying out on salaries and the fact that not all players will immediately start earning less as a result of relegation, Bournemouth have a number of other financial worries hanging over them.

The club’s player registration costs were up from £55.8m to £94.2m which contributed to an overall loss of £32.4m - up from a loss of £10.9m a year earlier.

And, like many clubs, Bournemouth also have outstanding transfer fees to pay for a number of players, with the club believed to still owe £81m to other clubs with only £5m owed to them on deals.

[Chester Perry]

I have posted it elsewhere but given the volume of posts about the case on this thread it needs to be here too - CAS have finally released the full decision report on the Man City appeal against UEFA - seems that CAS found City's initial defence reliable and credible on first glance

https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_ ... rnet__.pdf

if that is the case it will be difficult for the Premier League to find differently, even though they are not bound by the same time constraints

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Bournemouth's finances look scary when laid out like that.

People on here have the nerve to complain about our transfer policy etc but it's a damned sight better than Bournemouths.

[Royboyclaret]

Bournemouth's finances look scary when laid out like that.

People on here have the nerve to complain about our transfer policy etc but it's a damned sight better than Bournemouths.

Some scary numbers indeed, Sid, none moreso than the Net £76m in transfer fees owed at the end of the financial year. May well be the correct decision to stick with Eddie next season, as the most likely person to lead them back to the PL, but that said, they have massive off-field problems to address for a newly relegated club. Best of luck with that.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Some scary numbers indeed, Sid, none moreso than the Net £76m in transfer fees owed at the end of the financial year. May well be the correct decision to stick with Eddie next season, as the most likely person to lead them back to the PL, but that said, they have massive off-field problems to address for a newly relegated club. Best of luck with that.

They're about £100 million in debt last I saw, an immediate bounce back up is going to be needed or they're gonna be up a creek without a paddle.

They don't own their ground or training ground either do they?

[Chester Perry]

They're about £100 million in debt last I saw, an immediate bounce back up is going to be needed or they're gonna be up a creek without a paddle.

They don't own their ground or training ground either do they?

No they don't which is why they were looking to build new ones - they have 1 chance before FFP gets them I think so they look like they are going to go for it - Who will be their Joey Barton to drive them on the pitch though, far from convinced that Eddie could manage such a personality

Maxim Demin released this statement on the club website today

AFC Bournemouth owner Maxim Demin has released the following statement to the club's supporters:

On Sunday, our five-year stay in the Premier League came to an end.

We cannot hide from the fact that this has been a strange, difficult and bitterly disappointing season.

Relegation hurts and the pain that you, our loyal supporters, are feeling is also being felt throughout the club.

But this is not the end of the journey.

The Premier League broke new ground for this club; it gave us incredible moments and created history along the way.

But I do not want the past five years to merely be memories that fade over time. I want to create new memories that match and better the ones that have gone before.

I am committed to taking this club back to the Premier League as soon as possible, to a level I believe we belong at.

Over the past five seasons we have built and developed a young, talented, squad with international experience.

These players are the future of this football club; ones I believe can thrive in the Championship and help us achieve our goal.

And that is what we are now fully focused on. While it is important to analyse and assess the past 12 months, we are looking to the future and ensuring that we are a stronger and better club for this experience.

AFC Bournemouth is built on unity. Whatever challenges this club has faced historically, togetherness has always been its greatest strength.

And so thank you for your unwavering support of the club, particularly during such uncertain recent months. I know you will be there with us again next season, behind us every week, either from home or in the stadium when it is safe to do so.

Together, anything is possible.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Good statement, but it would be interesting to see how long his support lasts if they don't come back up soon and start drowning financially.