Football's Magic Money Tree

[Chester Perry]

There is a lot to like about Grimsby Town co-owner Jason Stockwood, though I do not always agree with him. In this months column for the Guardian he makes a lot of strong points about the path being taken by the ownership team at Birmingham City. The criticisms could be stronger, but there is much about football in this country that will remain an anathema to American owners, even as they exploit it for their own gain - I have yest to see one that is truly a custodian, in the traditional English sense, of the club that they own

Birmingham owner’s vision could transform city but football clubs are not just balance sheets
Knighthead’s ambitions are big but it will be telling to see how a profit-driven approach collides with an independent regulator
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... nce-sheets
https://archive.ph/KO0vM

[Chester Perry]

This has been a popular cross-topic of discussion over the last 18 months, but what are the numbers

from The Athletic

Premier League clubs, PSR and £1.9bn in academy sales since 2020: How much has each club made?
https://archive.ph/NaaFf

[Chester Perry]

It is kind of nice to know that some American owners really do know how to boost commercial income. If we look at our own club, the best Velocity have achieved is just over £14m which scrapes in as the 3rd best in the clubs history (thanks to Covid repayments in 2019/2020 or it would have been 4th, the suggestion is that year will be much better. It is likely that Wrexham will (at least) double what we do.

For the sake of fairness, Wrexham will also likely outperform (at least) half the Premier League) in commercial revenues, we will be in the relegation zone with Brentford

from The Financial Times

Wrexham commercial revenue set to rival Premier League clubs’
Distribution deals after Disney documentary mean Welsh football team’s shirts will be sold in US retail chains
https://archive.ph/JjAoB

[Chester Perry]

It can be all well and good for people (yes I include myself) to criticise how are clubs are run - but could we run the boardroom of a Premier League club? - I know I could not/ should not

Anyhoo the Financial Times have a new game where you can test yourself

https://ig.ft.com/football-game/

[Chester Perry]

I am far from sure that this premise is true - Betting sponsors can go on the sleeve and it is quite likely that the income from sleeve sponsorship is going to grow significantly, as will training kit sponsorship and perimeter advertising rates I suspect - there may still be a deficit (which will be disproportionate for the smaller clubs) but I would not be surprised if it is less than half the sum being mentioned

from The Athletic

Premier League clubs face £100m black hole left by betting sponsors – who will fill it?
https://archive.ph/CkiEc

[Chester Perry]

It is just possible that by this time next month Josimar Football may cease trading due to financial pressures (they need £50k of subscriptions) so this may just be their last report on the whole sorry affair of 777 Partners and their failed financial actions within football

Collateral damage
Roll up. Roll up. 777 Partners are being forced to auction off all of their shares in all of their football clubs, with a sale to be completed this week.
https://josimarfootball.com/2025/06/05/ ... al-damage/
https://archive.ph/530UP

The flights of fancy/nightmares that was 777 Partners ownership of Standard Liege (amongst others was though to have come to an end when Standard announced a takeover by a local consortium fronted by the ex CEO - and all 777's football remaining football assets went to auction. As ever in this case (and probably many other cases), all is not as it initially seemed. A-CAP ended the auction with all 777's assets in their holding and it now seems that it they who still own Standard too. It kind of makes sense for A-CAP as they would have had to write off a lot of debt otherwise, but is made murkier by the involvement of a certain Chris Farnell,who is well known and ill-considered on these shores. The articles includes some updates on his recent other activities too.as well as the legal cases still ongoing related to 777 Partners

from Josimar Football

Standard operating procedures
Giacomo Angelini may be the new owner of Standard de Liège but his ‘takeover’ was funded entirely by A-CAP. How is this possible, and what does it mean for the Pro League club?
https://josimarfootball.com/2025/09/03/ ... rocedures/
https://archive.ph/Kj3Kb

[Chester Perry]

As much as many fans want tight control over football club owners, I cannot be the only one who believes that this approach is fraught with unforeseen problems. there are some good reasons why the games authorities have not gone down this route in the recent past, and I am not talking about the punishment in the headline.

from The Guardian

Independent Football Regulator could seek prison sentences for rogue club owners
Destroying documents sought by IFR will be a crime
Other sanctions include fines and compelled sale of clubs
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... ompel-sale
https://archive.ph/zgkiK

[Chester Perry]

It is an idea abhorrent to many so called 'legacy supporters', yet is one that has long been talked up by various leagues as the financial power of the Premier League has grown = this summer outspending all the other big five leagues combined. Some will tell you that the final opportunity to prevent it occurs in the next few weeks, The reality however, is the battle was lost two years ago when Relevent came to an out of court settlement with FIFA (it was clear the American courts were going to rule against them) and at the same time further deepened it's commercial partnership with UEFA. To my mind there is no room for manoeuvre. All of which was posted on this thread at the time

from the Guardian

Uefa has last chance to keep genie of domestic matches abroad in its bottle
Domestic game risks being ripped from its fabric as La Liga and Serie A seek approval from Uefa to play fixtures abroad
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... its-bottle
https://archive.ph/ZaL4j

[Chester Perry]

we have seen it in this country a number of times, even at our own club and now it is becoming a feature in France, where the problems with a succession of failed TV deals, remind us of how the Football league was hit by the collapse of ITV Digital, the parrallels of which I have remarked on previously.

As the following article eventually states - "When all else is lost, turn to the only people who can be trusted to put their clubs first, sell them a share of what they already own, emotionally speaking...." the words immediately following have been a truth on occasion (and that includes our club) "then ignore them again".

from The Guardian

Vive les Socios: struggling French clubs open doors to shareholder fans in tough times
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... ans-socios
https://archive.ph/Fp4Fc

[Chester Perry]

More on that Manchester City threat of the new rules - I have a suspicion we have either abstained or changed tack from the previous vote

from The Telegraph

Man City believed to be behind Premier League legal threat over ownership rule changes
Premier League clubs such as Chelsea, Newcastle and City have most to lose from a redrafting of multi-club ownership rules
https://archive.ph/Qnx7D#selection-2681.0-2769.217

from The Times

Premier League tightens sponsorship rules despite Man City legal threat
Vote exposes split among top-flight clubs on issue of associated-party deals, with champions believed to have threatened a legal challenge
https://archive.ph/DpZ5P

If this accord between the Premier League and Manchester City lasts then it will save both parties a considerable sum, However, I suspect that Manchester City's owner will be all to willing to start new actions if the Premier League makes decisions he disagrees with. It is worth noting that Manchester City have likely won this battle because of the costs associated with the many parallel cases between the two, Sheik Mansour carried out his threat and seemingly won - at least for now

from The Times

Premier League backs down in sponsorship row with Manchester City
Top flight will let club complete lucrative Etihad deal and in return City have dropped their legal challenge against new rules on Associated Party Transactions
https://archive.ph/EAUQ3