Newcastle United have agreed a new front-of-shirt sponsorship deal worth an estimated £25 million a year, according to a report from The Times.

The newspaper understands that the new deal is with a company from another Middle Eastern country rather than Saudi Arabia, and will be announced next month.

The new sponsor will replace betting company Fun88, whose agreement with Newcastle predated the Saudi-led takeover of the club in October 2021 and was worth less than £8 million a year.

Newcastle struck an agreement with Fun88 last year to end their sponsorship deal two years early.

‘Fair market value’ regulation

The Times said Newcastle sources have insisted that the new agreement will fall inside the Premier League’s ‘fair market value’ regulation introduced in December 2021 to counter any potential commercial dealings the club undertook following the takeover.

 

Toulouse face losing out on Europa League spot due to shared ownership with AC Milan

Toulouse could miss out on playing in the Europa League next season as they have the same owner as AC Milan, L’Equipe reports.

The French club, who returned to Ligue 1 this season after a two-year absence, beat Nantes 5-1 to won the Coupe de France on Saturday.

France’s cup winners are handed an automatic place in the Europa League if they are not already qualified for continental competition via their league placing. Toulouse are currently 13th in the French top-flight.

However, their European spot may now depend on where AC Milan – who are also owned by American investment firm RedBird Capital Partners – finish in Serie A. They are currently in fifth place.

UEFA rules prohibit two teams that share an owner from taking part in the same competition.

UEFA criteria

AC Milan would have the priority over Toulouse in all criteria used by UEFA – league ranking, country coefficient, and the more prestigious competition – if they qualify for the Champions League.

Toulouse would only have the advantage if the Serie A side were to play in the Europa Conference League. In any other case, their spot would be handed over to the team that finishes in fifth place in Ligue 1.

Alternatively, RedBird would have to carry out swift structural changes in the ownership of one of the two clubs – as Red Bull did in 2017 for both RB Leipzig and FC Red Bull Salzburg – to make it possible that both teams could play in Europe.

 

Roma owners to discuss €1 billiontakeover offer from Saudi Arabia group

A group of Saudi Arabian investors are preparing a €1 billion offer to buy AS Roma, a report from Corriere dello Sport has claimed.

The newspaper understands that the current owners, the American Friedkin group, are set to meet with the Saudi investors, potentially as early as this Wednesday, to understand the concreteness of their offer.

It is believed there are two figures acting as intermediaries and possibly as frontmen who have been collecting expressions of interest from an Arab group in Riyadh.

Controversial Italian real estate developer Raffaello Follieri, who has previously tried to purchase Palermo, Catania and Foggia, is understood to be playing a role.

Follieri served a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in a Manhattan federal court to conspiracy, wire fraud and money-laundering charges back in 2008.

Jose Mourinho €120 million deal

Last month, it was reported that AS Roma manager Jose Mourinho was to be offered a two-year €120 million deal to take over the Saudi Arabian national team, with other options at club level, a proposal which it is said may be playing a part in the talks over a potential takeover of the Serie A club.

The Friedkins purchased Roma in 2020, taking over from James Pallotta in a €591 million deal.

British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe may have moved ahead in the battle to buy Manchester United after valuing the club higher than rival bidder Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, according to The Times.

Ratcliffe and his chemicals company Ineos is seeking to buy only the 69 per cent stake that belongs to the Glazers – and in one proposal is open to Joel and Avram Glazer retaining a stake if he still has full control of the club.

However, it is understood the offer Ratcliffe submitted before Friday’s 10pm deadline for the third and final bids equates to more than that tabled by the group led by Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim.

It was reported that Ineos is the only bidder to have valued the club higher than £5 billion, and that its offer was also higher than the Qataris in the previous round of bids.

Additional investment

On Friday evening, sources close to the Qataris said Sheikh Jassim’s offer was marginally in excess of £5 billion, with a pledge to provide additional investment in the club’s infrastructure as well as playing staff.

However, The Times said insiders with knowledge of the process have queried that value and suggested that the Qataris have not submitted an offer of additional funds on top of their bid.

 

Sheffield United takeover: Dozy Mmobuosi underlines commitment to buy club

Dozy Mmobuosi has insisted he has not pulled out of the running to buy Sheffield United, despite claims from current owner Prince Abdullah that it is now “unlikely” the Nigerian will take over the club.

In a statement released on Friday, Mmobuosi said: “I wish to state categorically that I have not withdrawn my bid to acquire Sheffield United Football Club.

“Beyond the £8.85M GBP paid to United World, I will continue to work with the experts and professionals I hired to buy the club.

“Earlier today I had positive and constructive conversations with the club’s chairman Yusuf Giansiracusa and chief executive officer Stephen Bettis and I will continue to do so.

“This is my commitment to the fans of Sheffield United and I look forward to reaching a positive outcome.”

Earlier on Friday, Prince Abdullah told talkSPORT he still intended to sell the club despite their promotion to the Premier League but said a sale to Mmobuosi now looked “unlikely”.

The Nigerian businessman agreed a reported £115 million deal to take over the South Yorkshire club last November. However, the Saudi said he was doubtful that will go through and was now looking for another buyer to come in before the start of next season.

“My intention is to sell, but it’s not guaranteed yet,” he said. “I can’t say [Mmobuosi’s takeover] is off, but I think maybe now it’s unlikely, but everything is open. I can’t comment more on that.”

He added: “There are other parties who are interested, but I’d rather do something in the next four weeks or we do nothing. These things never go as you expect, there are always complications.”

Player concerns over bonus payments

Meanwhile, The Daily Mail has reported that Sheffield United's players have raised concerns over whether the club will honour promotion bonuses worth between £250,000 and £400,000 each, and £8 million in total.

United's bonus scheme is among the most generous in the country, with players who have appeared regularly owed more than the £250,000 Manchester United stars would have collected for winning the Premier League, for example.

However, there are said to be major doubts over the current ownership's ability to pay. The club has been struggling with cash flow issues for much of the season following Prince Abdullah's decision to put them up for sale.

 

Benfica launch new bond loan of up to €40 million

Benfica have launched a new bond loan of up to €40 million through the club’s management company Sport Lisboa e Benfica – Futebol, SAD.

In a statement, the club said the Benfica SAD 2023–2026 Bonds will be issued under two offerings running from 2nd to 12th May, both for up to 8 million bonds with a nominal value of €5 each.

The first is for the subscription of new bonds at a fixed interest rate of 5.75 per cent, and the second is an exchange offer for bonds issued by Benfica SAD on July 15th 2020, with a repayment date of July 17th 2023 at a gross fixed interest rate of 4 per cent.

“Each subscription order must refer to at least 500 Benfica SAD 2023/2026 Bonds,” the prospectus states. If demand exceeds the maximum amount of bonds available, Benfica SAD may also increase the value of the bond loan up to 10th May.

Three active bond loans

Benfica SAD currently has three active bond loans: one issued in 2020 with a 4 per cent rate which matures in 2023, another issued in 2021, also at 4 per cent, maturing in 2024, and another issued in 2022 with a gross fixed interest rate of 4.6 per cent which matures in 2025.

The Benfica SAD accounts for the 2021/22 financial year show the club’s bond loans represented a total amount of €142.3 million as at 30th June 2022.

 

Fiorentina and Venezia €150 million stadia funding plans blocked by European Commission

Italy’s controversial plan to use €150 million of EU money to help renovate Fiorentina’s home ground and build two new sport facilities in Venice has been blocked by the European Commission.

The Italian government had planned to release €55 million of its Covid-19 recovery funds as part of a €193.4 million overhaul of Fiorentina’s 40,000-seat Artemio Franchi stadium – a move which proved highly contentious, even within the country.

Italian officials had also proposed a further €93.5 million of the recovery money would be used to help build the Bosco dello Sport – the proposed new 16,000-capacity home for Serie B side Venezia – and a second sports facility in Venice with space for 10,000 spectators.

Approved in Italy last year

The plans for the stadium projects – to be funded with money designated for rejuvenating dilapidated urban neighbourhoods – were approved in Italy last year when Mario Draghi was prime minister.

However, in a statement, the Italian government confirmed the plans to use EU funding have not been given the green light by the European Commission, delaying the release of a third payout of €19 billion. Italy is the largest beneficiary in the EU of the Covid recovery funds.

British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe is proposing a deal for Manchester United that would enable Avram and Joel Glazer to remain stakeholders in the club, The Times reports.

The deadline for the third and final bids is 10pm on Friday. The bids will range from an offer of a 100 per cent takeover from Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, to bids from American investment firms for minority stakes.

It is understood the Ratcliffe proposal involves buying a controlling stake of just over 50 per cent for his petrochemicals firm Ineos, with about 20 per cent remaining in the possession of Avram and Joel, two of the six Glazer siblings.

The other 30 per cent would stay with various investment groups. Ineos only wants to invest in United if it takes a controlling stake. It is believed Ratcliffe will offer the Glazers the chance to sell entirely or keep the 20 per cent stake.

Source of wealth

Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, United have asked bidders for the club to clarify the source of their wealth and explain who would be the ultimate owner.

The New York-based bank Raine Group, which is overseeing the process, is said to have made demands to all bidders, which vary from questions regarding where their wealth originates from, what debts will be secured against the club, along with future financial plans.

It is understood that Raine has made the pre-emptive move in light of the more stringent ownership tests on the table from the UK government through the forthcoming independent regulator for English football.

It is expected that a preferred bidder will be selected within days after Friday’s deadline, with the aim to have investment or new owners in place for the next transfer window, which opens in June.

 

Sheffield United's £115 million takeover set to collapse

Nigerian businessman Dozy Mmobuosi is reportedly set to abort his attempted takeover of Sheffield United despite spending more than £8 million to support the club through their current financial crisis.

Local reports in Yorkshire said senior figures at the club – whose promotion back to the Premier League was confirmed on Wednesday night – were now looking elsewhere for investment.

And, according to The Times, sources close to Mmobuosi said there had been a major breakdown in his relationship with the current Saudi owner, Prince Abdullah.

It is understood the situation could now end in a bitter legal dispute given the money Mmobuosi has already paid to show his commitment to the deal and help resolve the financial issues that resulted in a transfer embargo being imposed by the English Football League (EFL).

Mmobuosi and Prince Abdullah shook hands on a £115 million deal last November, with the Nigerian billionaire underlining his commitment by making a £1 million payment to the Saudi businessman.

£6.5 million to parent company

Sources close to Mmobuosi claim he then paid a further £6.5 million to the club’s parent company, United World, shortly before Christmas to save them from administration. Further to that, Prince Abdullah is said to have asked for another £1.2 million to assist in settling a tax bill with HMRC in January.

The period of exclusivity granted to Mmobuosi as part of the deal with Prince Abdullah has now lapsed, amid accusations and counter-accusations that certain aspects of the agreement had been breached.

 

New FIFA agent exam failed by 48 per cent of candidates

Almost half the candidates who sat FIFA’s new football agent exam last week have failed, with some unable to even sit the test after arriving without their laptops.

FIFA revealed that of the 3,800 candidates from 138 national associations, only 1,962 – 52 per cent – achieved the 75 per cent pass mark.

While 6,586 applied to sit the exam – which costs £300 to take – some simply failed to show while others did not follow the clear instructions about personal computers.

£800 an hour for tutoring

According to The Times, some agents paid as much as £800 an hour to law firms for tutoring, with candidates required to study a 528-page book in preparation for an hour-long test comprising 20 multiple-choice questions.

Longer-serving agents and those who passed the old exam, which was scrapped in 2015, have not been required to go through this process, but those who do must pass the exam by 1st October or they will lose their licence.

There is one more exam prior to the October deadline, on 20th September, and further opportunities to retake it next May and November. There is no limit to how many times an agent can sit the exam.

 

UEFA and FIFA ‘to challenge PSG for Stade de France’

Fresh speculation has emerged concerning the future home of Paris Saint-Germain, with a report from Le Monde claiming that UEFA is planning an attempt to buy the Stade de France to host all of its European competitions' finals.

Such a move would pose a direct challenge to PSG, who were reported earlier this week to have confirmed their intention to apply for the purchase of the stadium, which is the current home of the French national team, ahead of Thursday’s deadline for preliminary submissions.

The current lease to the venue, held by Vinci-Bouygues, runs out in 2025 and the French government has requested declarations of interest in either renting the stadium or buying it altogether.

There have also been some suggestions that FIFA may be interested in acquiring the Stade de France after French president Emmanuel Macron held several discussions with the world governing body’s chief Gianni Infantino during the World Cup.

Paris mayor: €38m Parc des Princes offer "ridiculous"

Meanwhile, PSG were accused by the Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo on Thursday of making a "ridiculous" offer to buy their current home, the Parc des Princes, which is owned by the Paris city council.

PSG are 10 years into a 30-year tenancy agreement but have targeted ownership of the stadium before going ahead with ambitious expansion plans.

Speaking to French broadcaster RFI, Hidalgo said: "We are in a state of law, so there are procedures and we have to set prices that must correspond to the good. The club offered €38 million. I think ridiculous is the right word. There is no longer any possible path."

Maheta Molango, Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), insists that limiting players’ earnings is not the solution to achieving financial stability in European football after Aleksander Čeferin, the President of UEFA, proposed a continent-wide salary cap.

In a statement released to the PA news agency, Molango said: “When players read that ‘everyone agrees’ with capping their wages, I think they will rightly be angry.

Without proper engagement or consultation, players are continually being asked to play more and more games. New competitions are being created and existing tournaments expanded. These all generate more money within football.”

Molango added: “Capping the wages of those who create the ‘product’ that others continue to benefit from is not a solution to ensuring better financial management by leagues and clubs.

Football’s leaders are quickly going to create a real problem if they continue to treat players like this. They need to be treated as the game’s most important stakeholders and must be central to these conversations.”

In 2021, the PFA successfully challenged an independent panel to have squad salary caps of £2.5 million and £1.5 million in Leagues One and Two withdrawn.

However, UEFA is set to table the idea of an absolute cap at a meeting of its club licensing committee on Friday, which will be the starting point for analysis and consultation with stakeholders. According to the report the global players’ union, FIFPRO, will not be represented at the meeting.

Previously against

UEFA had previously opted against pursuing a salary cap due to concerns about its feasibility under European Union labour law.

Instead, UEFA approved a new squad cost rule, which mandates that by 2025 the amount spent on salaries and transfer fees must not exceed 70 per cent of a club’s turnover.

Nevertheless, an absolute cap is now back on the agenda, and it is understood that UEFA floated the idea again to the European Club Association earlier this year.

Some clubs are known to favour salary caps as they provide greater certainty around costs, and a cap was reportedly part of plans for the abortive European Super League two years ago.

FIFPRO issued its own statement on Wednesday afternoon, stating, “It is no surprise that employers in football would like to pay less wages - every other employer wants the same.

More and more ideas from American sport are discussed in football but without accepting the legal foundation on which these are built - collective bargaining agreements.”

 

 

Private equity giants compete for stake in Bundesliga media rights business

CVC, Blackstone and EQT, among other top private equity firms, have submitted bids for a 12.5 per cent stake in the media rights business of Bundesliga, reports Bloomberg citing anonymous sources familiar with the process.

The unit is responsible for managing the domestic and international broadcasting rights of the country’s top 36 professional football teams. The investors were reportedly asked to bid for 20 to 30 years of rights.

DFL, the governing body of Germany’s professional leagues, met on Tuesday to discuss the offers. Spokespeople for private equity bidders declined to comment, while Bundesliga confirmed that its executive committee would review the bids but provided no further details.

Opposition

Last year DFL abandoned an attempt to attract private equity investment worth €18 billion due to opposition from fans and teams. Fan groups also staged protests against Bundesliga’s private equity plan earlier this month.

The current attempt to forge a financial partnership through the recent bids aims to bridge the gap in earnings between Bundesliga and the Premier League.

CVC has already struck similar deals with Ligue 1 in France and La Liga in Spain, while Blackstone has invested over €17 billion in Germany and has experience in sports rights through its investment in YES Network, a US pay-TV channel.

EQT, on the other hand, boasts a network of advisers that includes Michael Bolingbroke, a former CEO at Inter Milan, and Thomas Ebeling, former CEO of the German media company ProSiebenSat.1.

 

 

DiCaprio-backed American businessman seeks financial backers for Charlton Athletic takeover

American businessman Marc Spiegel, co-founder of waste disposal company Rubicon Global and backed by investors including Leonardo DiCaprio and Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, is seeking financial backers for his planned takeover of Charlton Athletic, a former Premier League club now competing in League 1.

Spiegel’s bidding company, Football Strategies Group, has been in discussions with Charlton since February, according to an investor document cited in a Bloomberg report. The potential deal is valued at £11.6 million, with an additional £20 million injection into the London club.

Spiegel sees Charlton as an attractive risk-adjusted investment and aims to elevate the club, expose it to new audiences, and win on the pitch, he said in a recent interview. Charlton declined to comment on the matter.

American trend

The prospective takeover would be the latest in a trend of US-backed M&A deals for lower league teams fuelled by a strong dollar and growing interest in the sport after the success of Wrexham, a Welsh club recently promoted from the fifth tier under actor-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

Other US-based investors have also bet on teams such as Ipswich Town, Lincoln City, and Crawley Town, while hedge fund manager Tom Wagner is nearing a stake purchase in Birmingham City Football Club.

 

 

Barcelona announces up to 40% increase in season ticket prices for Olympic stadium transfer

Barcelona has revealed that the price of season tickets will be increased by up to 40% when the club is temporarily relocated to the Olympic Stadium Estadi Lluís Companys in Montjuïc.

The cost of season passes will range from €723 for seats located in the two goals to €1,738 euros, with prices of €1,002 euros for the side and €905 euros for the four corners.

“All members will lose their membership status and will start from scratch,” said the vice-president, Elena Fort.

The Blaugrana will have a reduced capacity of 49,472 seats in the Olympic stadium, half of the seats in the current Spotify Camp Nou, resulting in a significant reduction in revenue per matchday.

As a result, the club will reduce the number of season ticket holders significantly, from the current 83,500 to 27,835 members. The remaining capacity will be allocated for public sales and commitments.

Expensive move

Barcelona expects a negative impact of €55 million euros in its revenues due to the temporary transfer to Montjuïc, nearly halving the initial estimate of €93 million.

Several changes have been implemented for the Montjuïc season ticket holders, including the elimination of the “seient lliure,” or free seating option, as well as passes designated for supporters clubs and children.

Additionally, season ticket holders will be required to notify the club whether they will attend each match a maximum of six days before the game.

Recently, FC Barcelona announced securing €1.45 billion in financing for the Espai Barça project from a total of twenty investors.

The financing structure includes tranches ranging from five to twenty-four years, with an initial grace period until the stadium renovation is completed.

The board has also approved the renewal of two credit policies with Caixabank and Banco Santander to meet the disbursement requirements.

 

 

PSG to officially apply for takeover of Stade de France

Paris Saint-Germain is set to submit an official file for the takeover of the Stade de France, after being prevented from purchasing the Parc des Princes by the Paris town hall.

The deadline for preliminary submissions to Fin-Infra, the Bercy service managing tenders for the Stade de France, is set for noon today (27 April). The Stade de France is currently owned by the French government.

According to L’Equipe, PSG has confirmed its intention to apply for the takeover, although no specific details or estimates have been provided.

Once all interested candidates have submitted their preliminary files, the government will determine who is eligible for a formal call for tenders. This more involved second stage is expected to open in June, with decisions anticipated in October or November.

Wish to stay

Despite consulting with supporters, PSG’s primary objective remains the acquisition of the Parc des Princes.

The club wishes to remain in Paris, specifically within the Porte de Saint-Cloud precinct, on the condition that they become the owner, which they see as a crucial requirement to undertake significant capacity-increasing renovations.

Discussions with the Paris City Hall on the sale of the Parc des Princes are currently at an impasse, and PSG is exploring other options.

The club are expressing interest in the Stade de France as an alternative, in case the Parc des Princes option remains blocked.

Referee Jakob Kehlet blew the whistle for the last time on Brøndby Stadion at 5.55 pm on Sunday. The home players in the yellow shirts had to accept a humiliating 4-0 defeat at home to one of the small clubs in the Danish Superliga, Randers FC.

But the defeat itself wasn’t the worst thing - it was the constant booing from the stands, which started as soon as the first half when the home team were only trailing 1-0. Arguably, fans were frustrated with the poor performance on the pitch, but it seemed more as if the 17,113-strong crowd had simply had enough of the nervous and shaky atmosphere there has been at the stadium since last autumn when many of the most vocal fans decided to stay away from home games.

They decided to stay away because Global Football Holdings tabled an offer to buy the majority of shares from previous majority owner, Danish businessman Jan Bech Andersen.

Lack of atmosphere

For decades, Brøndby Stadium has been both a fantastic and a terrible place to visit for Danish teams.

Fantastic because of the impressive and intense atmosphere that came from “Sydsiden”, the Danish word for the south stand. Terrible because the intensity from the stands often led to massive defeats at Brøndby Stadium, since the home-team played with extra energy and passion in front of the big and very vocal crowd led by the hard-core supporters at Sydsiden.

But that atmosphere almost turned into a non-league football atmosphere when thousands of the most passionate fans started to boycott the team – home and away – because they were unhappy with the fact that Brøndby were going to be part of David Blitzer's Multi Club Ownership group, if Global Football Holdings were to succeed with their purchase of the shares.

The deal went through, and the most vocal fans decided to protest by stopping attending matches.

Suddenly the vast majority of fans, who continued to back their team at matches at Brøndby Stadium too, seemed a little lost, because the natural leaders in the stands were no longer present.

And on Sunday it all seemed to collapse – both on and off the pitch. Brøndby lost – again – and are left with almost nothing to play for with eight games still to be played in the current season.

Off the pitch frustrations came out loud and clear, from the more modest fans at the stadium as well, and the crowd left the stadium in rather depressed mood, fearing that the new US owners and the hard-core fans, also known as Alpha, would never manage to reach a deal on what the owners can and can’t do in relation to the Danish team they bought less than six months ago.

A difficult deal

Prior to Sunday’s game, Chairman Bech Andersen, who is still the owner of a significant number of shares, wrote on Instagram that he expected fans and owners to sign a deal before Sunday’s kick-off, but had to acknowledge that disagreements between the two parties were still too big.

But all is not sour in “Vestegnen” - the name of the district around Brøndby in Copenhagen. According to sources familiar with the matter, a deal between fans and the owners of Brøndby IF is actually pretty close.

“This is a big and complicated puzzle. Even though the owners and fans don’t necessarily share the same opinion on all issues regarding ownership and fans, then both parties work hard to sign a deal. There is an acceptance that disagreements occur, but compromises can be found in most areas,” says an unnamed source.

According to the source, 80 per cent of the deal is done, and final discussions have started on interpretations of a few things. From the owners’ perspective, they need the whole document to be legally “fit & proper”, with total transparency and clarity about how they can run the club – and eventually sell it if they wish to do so at a certain stage.

What is really interesting about the negotiations, and the agreement both parties are working on, is the fact that when Bech Andersen sold a large number of shares to GFH, part of the deal was that the new owners couldn’t change the club colours or logo, and also promised the club would always play their games in Brøndby.

However, those promises were not enough for the fans. They wanted guarantees that went further. They were afraid that if GFH decided to sell the shares one day, then a new owner could act in a way that the fans didn’t like.

Part of the antipathy from the fans towards the new owners, and the new trends in football, is towards the MCOs. Fans are afraid that Brøndby could just be a small element of a big MCO, whose owners have other priorities than working hard to ensure Brøndby IF remains a real power in Danish football.

“Since negotiations have been going on for five months then trust is being built between the parties. It seems like the fans are about to understand that GFH is not a typical MCO.

"They have the deepest respect for Brøndby IF, and they won’t do anything that is not great for Brøndby. This mindset is not typically what is being described in the press, when you read about MCOs – but it seems like GFH is about to convince some of the most sceptical fans that they only have good intentions with Brøndby,” says a well-informed source.

The source is also eager to see the final document, which should be finished before the end of the season.

“It could be a historic day for European football, when owners and fans commit each other to principles around the running of a football club. And it is more than just principles, it is going to be a deal that explains in detail what the management team – and the owners – of Brøndby IF can do. And what they can’t do.

"We are talking about how the club should continue to invest in local talents, in women’s football and how volunteer work should always be the anchor in Brøndby IF. There is going to be enormous transparency around this deal, so that fans know exactly what to expect from their owners. Also in 20 and 50 years time,” says the source.

In an address at the launch of the Union of European Clubs (UEC) in Brussels on Monday, Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish revealed that the Premier League is set to implement a "New Deal for Football" that would result in sharing more than 20 per cent of its central income with clubs in the Championship, League One, and League Two.

The Premier League, which earns nearly £3.5 billion annually from media rights and commercial deals, currently shares around £500 million, or 15 per cent, with various organizations such as the English Football League (EFL) and the Professional Footballers' Association.

Parish acknowledged that the percentage of income shared by the Premier League has significantly decreased since the league's inception in 1992, with almost half of the amount going to recently-relegated clubs through parachute payments.

The EFL has been advocating for the abolition of parachute payments, citing their negative impact on the competitive balance of the Championship and the encouragement of overspending by clubs.

Instead, the EFL has been pushing for the Premier League to share 25 per cent of its combined media income with clubs in the lower leagues.

An independent football regulator

While the government is finalising the creation of an independent regulator for English football, Parish emphasised that the Premier League is committed to voluntarily increasing funding for clubs in the Championship, League One, and League Two.

He estimated that the increase would be “somewhere in the region of 20-plus per cent of the overall Premier League revenue.”

However, Parish also defended the need for parachute payments, stating that relegation from the Premier League poses immense financial risks for clubs, and without such payments, clubs would face drastic reductions in revenue, making it difficult to sustain operations in lower divisions.
 

Juventus 'could be kicked out of European competitions' as UEFA investigate capital gains crisis that has engulfed the club

The future of Italian football giants Juventus in European competitions hangs in the balance as UEFA conducts its own investigation into allegations of falsification of capital gains from transfer dealings.

Juventus had a 15-point deduction in Serie A reversed on appeal last week pending a re-examination of the case by Italy's highest sporting court. However, UEFA's investigation could still result in the club's exclusion from European competitions.

According to reports from Gazzetta dello Sport, UEFA has been examining documents received from the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office and is fully prepared to intervene if a legal decision in Italy is not made by the end of June.

This is because UEFA needs to finalize the entry lists for next season's Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League, and Italian clubs are expected to enter the play-offs for the Europa Conference League in late August.

Therefore, a decision on which clubs will represent Italy in European competitions needs to be made prior to that.

Financial Fair Play sanctions

If Juventus is sanctioned by the Italian courts, their place in Europe next season would have to be taken by another club. Furthermore, if Juventus fails to qualify for Europe altogether, a possible exclusion from continental competition could be suspended until the 2024-25 season.

Juventus is already under threat from UEFA's Financial Fair Play sanctions, as they were fined €3.5 million in September 2022 for violating FFP rules and agreed to various terms to avoid paying a further €19.5 million.

With their recent reversal of the 15-point deduction, Juventus are currently on course for Champions League qualification, and they are also in the semi-finals of the Europa League.

However, UEFA's investigation could have serious consequences for the club's future in European competitions.

 

Champions League matches could be played in the US as early as 2026 says Čeferin

As football continues to gain traction in the United States, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin has revealed that Champions League matches could potentially be played in the US as early as 2026.

Currently, the upcoming Champions League finals are scheduled to be held in Istanbul (2023), London (2024), and Munich (2025).

However, Čeferin shared during an interview on the Men in Blazers podcast that discussions have already begun about the possibility of hosting the next final in America.

“It is possible. We started discussing it, but then one year there was the World Cup, 2024 the Europeans. This year it will be in Istanbul, in 2024 in London, in 2025 in Munich. And then we'll see. It is possible, it is possible,” said Čeferin.

Increased popularity

“Soccer is extremely popular in the United States these days. Americans are willing to pay big bucks for the best and nothing for the worst. So, they will follow European football as basketball lovers in Europe follow the NBA,” Ceferin explained, as reported by the Daily Mail.

Čeferin also addressed concerns about the perception of prioritizing money over the sport:

“Fans will keep thinking to a certain extent: 'These assholes in Switzerland, it's all about the money', and I repeat it a thousand times, we redistribute 97 per cent of the money we collect. Of course, our revenues are huge, but I'd like them to be much, much greater than now.

"What shocked me actually is that our Euro Finals were watched by more people in the United States than the NBA Finals. With 30 European Championship games, every game was a Super Bowl in terms of attendance,” he added.
 

Saint-Étienne for sale?

Saint-Étienne, one of France’s most historic and successful clubs, with 10 French titles and six Coupe de Frances to their name, is reportedly up for sale.

According to reports from L’Équipe, shareholders of Saint-Étienne are considering a potential sale before the summer, with talks of a potential deal gaining momentum.

Bernard Caïazzo, co-president of the club since 2004, met with Joseph Oughourlian, the president of Lens, to discuss the sale.

Potential English takeover

In addition, there are reports of an “English-speaking” mystery buyer who has put an offer of €32 million on the table.

While Caïazzo was in attendance at Crystal Palace’s draw against Everton on Saturday, a French investor is also said to be offering €3 million more. However, no decision has been made yet.

FC Barcelona have confirmed they have agreed a deal with Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to finance the revamp of the Camp Nou stadium and Espai Barça sports and entertainment space.

In a statement, Barça said: “The Club’s assets were not used as a guarantee and a mortgage wasn’t taken out on the stadium.

“The Club agreed financing with a total of 20 investors to the value of €1.45 billion, a figure that covers the cost of the works.”

Barcelona said the financing “has different instalments to be paid progressively at 5, 7, 9, 20 and 24 years, with a flexible structure, including a grace period.”

€247 million income

The club added that it “will start to repay the operation once work has been completed on the stadium, using income generated by the Spotify Camp Nou, which is forecast to be around €247 million.”

Barça also said they will hold a press conference to present the details of the project “in the coming days.”

 

LFP reports combined €601 million losses for French clubs in 2021/22

France's Professional Football League (LFP) has revealed that Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs suffered combined losses of €601 million in the 2021/22 financial year.

The total deficit marks an improvement on the €685 million experienced in 2020/21 but is still far higher than the €160 million figure for 2018/19, the last pre-Covid year, according to the latest analysis from French football’s financial watchdog the DNCG, presented by the LFP.

Paris Saint-Germain accounted for more than half the total deficit for 2021/22 after posting record losses of €368.7 million. The Ligue 1 champions’ wage bill soared by 52 per cent on the previous year to €729 million following the renewal of Kylian Mbappé’s contract and the signing of Lionel Messi.

Operating income reaches record high

Total operating income for French professional clubs reached a record high of €2.3 billion in 2021/22, up 25 per cent on the €1.8 billion generated in 2020/21. The combined figure in 2018/19 was €2.1 billion.

However, operating costs reached €3.5 billion, up 12 per cent on the €3.1 billion spent in 2020/21. The total amount in 2018/19 was €2.9 billion.

The combined profit from player trading in 2021/22 was €463 million, up from €408.5 million in 2020/21 but still far below the €739.6 million achieved in 2018/19.

 

Bayern Munich board to discuss futures of Tuchel, Kahn and Salihamidzic

The Bayern Munich supervisory board are to meet on 22nd May to decide the futures of new coach Thomas Tuchel, CEO Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic, according to German newspaper Bild.

Since sacking Julian Nagelsmann as manager in March and replacing him with the former Chelsea boss, Bayern have been eliminated from the Champions League by Manchester City and the German Cup by Freiburg.

Bayern have also lost top spot in the Bundesliga following a 3-1 defeat to Mainz on Saturday. Tuchel has overseen just two wins in his first seven matches since taking charge.

Five days before final game

The reported meeting of the hierarchy will come five days before Bayern's final game of the league season away to Koln.

Kahn has been CEO of Bayern Munich since July 2021, and his contract is due to run until the end of 2024. Bosnian Salihamidzic has been sporting director at the club since 2017.

At its launch in Belgian capital,  the Union of European Clubs (UEC) has been hailed by one of Europe’s leading lawmakers as representing “a strong commitment to European solidarity and togetherness” with the new body claiming to offer a fresh point of view for the issues facing small and medium clubs. 

The UEC has been in gestation since 2019, but launched today and will host its first general assembly by the end of the year. It seeks its constituency among Europe’s small and mid-sized clubs that make up the majority of the continent’s 1400 teams on a one member one vote platform.

“In our European Model of Sport, all football clubs need to be heard and treated equally,” Margatitis Schinas, the European Commission vice president, said at the UEC launch, where he was joined by club owners, executives and European and national policymakers.

“Size should not matter. Today’s launch of the UEC is a strong commitment to European solidarity and togetherness. Transparency, meritocracy and unity keep European football strong.”

The UEC co-founder Katarina Pijetlovic, said that the new organisation offered a long-awaited counterbalance to the prevailing narrative in European football.  

“Our closest ideological allies in terms of shared objectives are European Leagues, UEFA and the EU institutions,” she said. 

“For many years – for decades in fact – these institutions only heard the side of the football story told from the point of view of the elite clubs. They never really heard of anybody speak about the small and medium sized clubs and their position and their issues until we spoke of their issues. Now we have told it.

“It is crucial to grow the membership. There is a power in numbers. The clubs must realise what their potential representational scope is. It would make them the most powerful lobby group in European football.”

Strong line up

Prior to the event organisers were concerned that some participants would be pressured into non attendance.41 clubs were represented in person, ranging from giants like Werder Bremen and Sevilla to minnows such as Aberystwyth Town, with another 60 or so joining online. Brighton & Hove Albion, Aston Villa, Brentford and Crystal Palace were the highest profile representative from the EPL – the de facto Super League in European football.

Pijetlovic’s UEC co-founder Gareth Farrelly said that in representing the “vast majority of European clubs” the organisation “offers a solution that sits outside the core remit of other organisations in the European football family, providing UEFA with …a missing piece in the puzzle if you like.” 

Farrelly, a former Everton and Ireland player turned lawyer, spoke of the growth of what he termed “global brand clubs” as being the defining influence in European club football and said that the UEC would challenge that. He said that the UEC “recognised” the long-established European Club Association (ECA) as “the representative body of those clubs who compete regularly in the Champions League.” He said that he saw the UEC and ECA as being “complementary bodies.”

Tebas rap

Others were less conciliatory. The LaLiga president, Javier Tebas, whose organisation have financially contributed to the UEC’s launch said that he was “fed up” of hearing claims that the ECA represent European clubs. “They represent elite European clubs,” he said.

Tebas went on to ridicule ECA’s latest governance reforms, saying that it was too late for them to say they had “taken steps” to open up governance for non-elite clubs, pointing to the fact that the organisation had been in existence for 15 years.

“The ECA is open?” He questioned. “The ECA is open for tea, coffee and Coca Cola. The ECA is open for conferences in five star hotels and fantastic dinners. It’s a legal labyrinth. It represents the interests of 11 clubs.”

Pijetlovic said that small and medium sized clubs have until now been left to “accept the scraps left behind by the elite clubs.” 

“They get just as much as the elite wants to give them, and just as much as necessary to keep them docile,” she added. “This is all possible because clubs don’t realise what an enormous collective power and potential they have.”

Club owners speak out

Among the club presidents and CEOs present Alex Muzio, the Royal Union Saint Gilloise president, was among the most conspicuous by their presence. He remarked how a small team in Europe used to be considered a regional or provincial team, but that he found it troubling that “Now it’s one that’s not absolutely massive.”

Muzio added that he was “very concerned” about what had been happening in football the past twenty years, but said that the game should be “very thankful” for the European Super League, particularly “how poorly conceived it was” because it brought to the surface the political undercurrents of European football, and especially who controlled it.

As a counterbalance to the elite clubs he declared himself “very excited about this project.”

Steve Parrish, the Crystal Palace chairman, spoke at length about the challenges facing clubs outside the elite. He dismissed the notion of big and small clubs, saying “There are simply clubs that are successful now and those that are aspirational.” The problem, he explained was that those that are currently enjoying success had pulled the ladder up behind them in recent years.

“It’s almost impossible to qualify for Europe if you’re outside one of those ‘Co-efficiently’ fortunate clubs who manage to find ways to create rules to stop us to aspirationally succeed. I don’t know the answers, but we need a different voice than the ones at the table and I’m hopeful that this organisation will be a start of  that and a platform where we can at least be considered.”

Would Crystal Palace be joining: “We’re extremely open to joining,” said Parrish.

Membership challenge

This cut to the heart of the immediate challenge facing the UEC. UEFA’s current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the ECA recognises ECA as the “sole representative” of clubs. UEFA’s licensing agreements with clubs also allegedly demand a pledge of allegiance to ECA. How would they get around that?

“MOUs expire,” said Pijetlovic, which is true – ECA’s UEFA MOU is due to be renewed later this year. 

Dennis Gudasic, the UEC General Secretary – a position he pointed out was voluntary, as with those of all its founders – said that he wasn’t asking for clubs to commit at this stage, but that the day was to act as a marker for the nascent organisation.

“I would be very surprised if the MOU was used as scare tactics he said.”

Tebas, who last week announced LaLiga was leaving the European Leagues because of what he claimed in a roundabout way was a lack of democracy, declared himself happy with the new organisation. 

“It brings new ideas,” he said, “A new approach for clubs in Europe.” However, he was keen to distance himself from the idea that this would be his show. Indeed it was previously mentioned that UEC started with €33,000 seed money from an Irish club owner. “We don’t want to intervene,” Tebas insisted. “We don’t want to lead.”

Everton chairman Bill Kenwright has promised supporters that the club will receive fresh investment and has rejected calls for the board to resign.

In an emotional open letter to fans who are operating a campaign for boardroom change under the slogan #alltogethernow, Kenwright responded to “rumours from ‘well placed and trustworthy sources’ that investment is imminent” cited by the fan group.

“Right now, that could be half right, a quarter right…etc.,” Kenwright wrote. “But that has been the situation for some time now. … It’s a quest that we undertake relentlessly and we will succeed. We are succeeding. [Owner] Farhad [Moshiri] and myself are on it hourly … along with the Board and its advisors.”

Last week, it was reported that American investment firm 777 Partners is still considering taking a minority stake in Everton, while New York-based group MSP Sports Capital is also said to be interested in a stake in the club.

Targeting of club directors

In Kenwright’s statement, which was published on the club's website on Friday, the chairman also said he was “horrified” at the targeting of club directors and insisted a boardroom cull is not the answer.

Board members have been absent from home games following advice from club security, with fans’ groups uniting in a campaign urging Moshiri to replace key members of the Goodison hierarchy.

Among the notable absentees from fixtures is club legend Graeme Sharp, who is a non-executive director. “For me, the horror of seeing Grant Ingles, our chief financial officer, and Graeme Sharp being attacked is more than difficult to comprehend,” Kenwright wrote.

 

Chelsea set to commit to £2 billion Stamford Bridge expansion

Chelsea look set to revamp Stamford Bridge instead of moving to a new venue, according to The Daily Mail.

It is understood the club are ready to commit to a £2 billion expansion of their current ground rather than relocating to a new stadium in nearby Earl’s Court, which is now said to have been ruled out.

A decision on the club’s stadium plans is expected to be confirmed by co-owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital over the summer, once costs and time frames are established.

The Chelsea Supporters Trust held a meeting last week, where it was revealed that Earl’s Court was not considered an option, because the site’s owners are not planning to build a football stadium on its land.

Club expect to lose £30 million to settle disputes

Meanwhile, The Daily Mail also reported that Chelsea expect to lose more than £30 million to settle disputes with commercial partners. The extraordinary amount was put aside by the club last season as it continues to wrangle with legal issues.

The club are due to pay out £29.8 million to settle disputes with a number of partners – and a further £1,640,000 to settle with an unnamed former director.

Partners including £40 million-a-year shirt sponsor Three, and former sleeve sponsor Hyundai, suspended their deals with Chelsea last season after Roman Abramovich was hit with sanctions relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

 

FC Barcelona-Negreira case: No Champions League ban for now after Laporta-Ceferin meeting

FC Barcelona will reportedly not face a ban from the Champions League this summer over the Negreira case after the club’s president Joan Laporta met with UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin last week.

Barça face allegations that payments to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, the former vice-president of the Spanish FA’s refereeing committee, were made to influence match results. The club and Negreira have denied any wrongdoing.

Spanish newspaper Sport has reported that Laporta travelled to Slovenia, Ceferin's native country, as he aimed to clear the air and make Barcelona’s case that they did not make undue payments that sought to influence referees.

The report claimed that the summit between the pair went well, with a range of issues, including the refereeing scandal as well as the European Super League, discussed.

It is believed that following the meeting, UEFA is planning to keep a low profile over the Negreira case as it assesses its options and takes a long view of the process.

The European governing body will reportedly wait until next season for a punishment, if any, to be handed out as they wait to see what the courts rule about the Catalan club's case.

Statute of limitations

There is also said to be unease about punishing a club of Barcelona's stature without the backing of a court ruling.

The club will not be punished by the Spanish football authorities due to a statute of limitations that means punishments can only be given for offences within three years.

 

Todd Boehly says mistakes made in first year at Chelsea

Todd Boehly has admitted that mistakes have been made in his first year as co-owner of Chelsea, Bloomberg reports.

The American addressed a room of bankers and associates last Thursday evening, two days after the club was knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid.

Speaking at the private event, which was held at Stamford Bridge, sources said Boehly did not elaborate on the mistakes during the gathering, which was billed as a chance to hear the US businessman talk about his exciting plans for Chelsea next season.

Among those in attendance was investment banker Anthony Gutman from Goldman Sachs, which worked on the £4.25 billion takeover of Chelsea that was completed last May.

It was reported that the event had originally been scheduled for last autumn but was postponed because it ended up clashing with the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

Champions League defeat

Last week’s defeat to Madrid means Chelsea can no longer qualify for next season’s Champions League, as they are too far adrift of the Premier League top four.

It has proved to be a disappointing first season under the club’s new ownership, who have overseen spending of more than £600 million on new players in the last two transfer windows.

 

Fabio Paratici leaves Tottenham after losing appeal against 2.5 year ban

Fabio Paratici has resigned as Tottenham Hotspur’s managing director of football after losing his appeal against a two-and-a-half year ban from working in Italian football.

Paratici’s ban was upheld last week by the Italian Olympic Committee, the country’s highest sporting court, which reversed Juventus' 15-point penalty for alleged false accounting in relation to capital gains.

After FIFA extended the ban worldwide last month, the former Juventus sporting director was forced to take an immediate leave of absence from his role at Tottenham. Paratici has appealed against FIFA’s decision.

In a statement, Tottenham said: “Fabio has consequently taken the decision to resign from his position at the Club with immediate effect to focus on his legal position in respect of the FIGC and FIFA rulings.”

Chief football officer appointment

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said: “This has been a stressful time for Fabio and his family. We wanted to ensure that we allowed for due process to be followed. Fabio is a man who lives and breathes football – we wish him well.”

Earlier this month Tottenham announced the appointment of Scott Munn as chief football officer to head up all departments. “We shall continue to strengthen our football functions over the coming months,” Levy said.

 

New club union kicks off

The Union of European Clubs (UEC), a representative body for Europe’s professional teams based on a one member one vote principle, officially launches in Brussels today, reports Senior Correspondent, James Corbett.

The UEC is an independent representative body founded to improve support and advocacy for non-elite professional clubs across Europe. The body believes all clubs should have a meaningful voice and effective representation in designing the rules that govern them.

The new organisation is seen as a response to disenfranchisement of clubs by the European Club Association (ECA), in which only 110 members have full voting rights, although ECA recently amended its governance structures to permit more members and increased voting rights.

It was co-founded last year by Gareth Farrelly, a lawyer and former Everton and Ireland player, Dennis Gudasic, a Lokomotiva Zagreb executive, and Katarina Pijetlovic, one of Europe’s leading sports law experts.

Farrelly told us then that the UEC aims to “provide a voice for those clubs that feel under represented, knowledge sharing, intelligence, and the ability for those clubs to grow and become sustainable in its truest sense.”

Not an easy task

Representatives from up to 50 clubs are expected to attend in person and online, including some from Big 5 Leagues and which regularly compete in the UEFA Champions League. The LaLiga president, Javier Tebas, will also speak at the event.

“I’m very proud to be one of the founders of this important evolution in European football governance designed to give voice to unrepresented or inadequately represented professional football clubs and create a more sustainable and equitable ecosystem,” Pijetlovic told Off The Pitch.

Although it has the backing of Tebas, the UEC nevertheless faces a number of challenges, not least in terms of attracting members. The terms of UEFA’s Memorandum of Understanding with ECA currently precludes clubs from joining a rival body – even when they are not invited to join the ECA.

One of the Football League’s most influential chairmen has questioned the Premier League’s partial ban on advertising by gambling companies, describing the move as “insignificant” and saying that moves to block a betting sponsorship ban in the Football League are based on “specious scaremongering”.

Earlier this month the Premier League announced that it was banning front of shirt sponsorships by gambling companies by 2026, but said that it will continue to allow pitchside and sleeve sponsorships.

Mark Palios, the Tranmere Rovers owner-chairman and a former FA CEO, has told Off The Pitch that while he welcomes the recent decision, allowing such sponsorships to remain on shirt sleeves “doesn’t add up”.

“It’s either harmful or it isn’t,” Palios said in emailed comments, in which he also questioned football’s ability to self-regulate.

A leading sports commercial executive has also told us that the oversupply of gambling sponsors, who are now restricted to putting their branding onto shirt sleeves, will lead to significant increases in the value of such sponsorships – which many clubs have hitherto struggled to secure a premium on.

Research published at the start of the current season estimated the total value of sleeve sponsorships to be worth £102 million in the EPL, but while the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea were securing deals worth £20 million per season, the likes of Brentford were earning less than £1 million.

Ben Peppi, a commercial expert who is Head of Sport Services at JMW, said that he expected this to increase and that the value of some Premier League clubs sleeve deals could even exceed those on the front of shirt once the ban comes in.  

“While we can be sure clubs would prefer the previous status quo given how much of a premium gambling firms pay for front-of-shirt sponsorship, as a result of the new rules now in place - which certainly benefit teams more than a complete blanket ban and could have been the case had a compromise not been reached - the commercial value of sleeve sponsorships will now certainly increase,” Peppi told Off The Pitch.

“We may even see sleeve sponsorships attract more money than a front-of-shirt sponsor for clubs lower down the Premier League just so that gambling companies can leverage the internationalisation of the competition with a permitted form of on-shirt branding.”

Incoherent positions

Palios said that the Football League, whose title sponsor is SkyBet, currently has an opportunity to “reset” its relationship with the gambling industry and questioned whether arguments about the significance of revenue from betting companies stacked up.

“The Premier League's acceptance of the harm should be a wake-up call to the EFL too,” he said. “It is incoherent for gambling sponsorship to continue in the lower leagues once current contractual arrangements expire. This is the moment to positively reset the relationship between gambling and football, across all levels. The inconsistency of this move leaves more questions than answers - What will happen with this new arrangement if a Championship club signs a five-year front of shirt deal with a gambling company and then gets promoted to the Premier League after one year?”

Tranmere have been vociferous opponents of the gambling industry’s incursion into football, while also supporting community initiatives to address problem gamblers and The Big Step, a campaign organisation that has lobbied for the removal of gambling sponsors from the game.

Palios said that marketing of gambling products has “hijacked the game” and spoke of how the industry preyed on a “vulnerable demographic” and caused “irreparable damage to people; relationships and communities.” 

Questionable economics

The Tranmere chairman has previously spoken about how the club have turned down sponsorship deals linked to gambling. 

“The argument that the removal of FoS (front-of-shirt) sponsorship would damage the game’s finances is partial, specious scaremongering that plays into the self-inflicted, parlous financial state of the football pyramid in this country,” he said. 

“Whilst Fos sponsorship is one of the most valuable pieces of ‘inventory’ a club has, it actually accounts for a relatively insignificant percentage of clubs’ playing budgets which are, in any event, a discretionary spend. At Tranmere, our non-gambling front-of-shirt sponsor is the equivalent of just 7 per cent of our wage bill. 

Palios says that as a consequence, the removal of the opportunity for having a gambling FoS sponsor is insignificant.

“This is especially so because it is not a zero-sum game and can be replaced and even if the amount is reduced, it’s not the full sum. In addition, if all clubs are in the same position, what does it matter? 

“The impact of FoS gambling sponsorship in football is made by virtue of its very existence. The gambling industry wouldn’t spend so much on it if it didn’t work.”