Manchester United will accept a third round of bids from prospective buyers at the end of this month as the Glazer family continue to explore a sale, Sportico has reported.

It is understood that seven potential investors have each received feedback from Raine Group, the New York-based investment bank chosen by the Glazers to oversee the sale of the club, and the goal of the American family remains to sell United for at least US$6 billion.

British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, and Finnish businessman Thomas Zilliacus are among the bidders for the club but none of the proposals have convinced the Glazers to sell so far.

Lack of updates

The latest development comes after reports of frustration among bidders over a lack of updates on the potential takeovers, more than two weeks after second bids were filed.

According to the Daily Mail, there have been growing concerns that, with the clock ticking, should the Glazer family accept an offer for full control, any chosen buyer may not be in place in time to oversee the summer transfer window.

Second offers were lodged on 23rd March by Ratcliffe's group and a day later by Sheikh Jassim. Both parties had been given extended deadlines to place their bids after struggling in what was a short timeframe instigated by Raine Group.

At that stage, with time thought to be of the essence, those involved expected to hear back in around seven days. But that did not happen, and it is understood that the situation has caused frustration and even annoyance in some quarters.

 

Fabio Paratici launches appeal to FIFA against worldwide ban

Fabio Paratici has launched an appeal to FIFA over his two-and-a-half year worldwide ban from football, The Daily Mail reports.

The Italian agreed to step back from his role as managing director of football at Tottenham Hotspur after FIFA extended his ban from Italian football handed out by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) in January.

Paratici was one of 11 former Juventus executives to be banned from the game in Italy after the reopening of a trial into alleged false accounting by the Turin club in relation to capital gains.

Juventus were deducted 15 points in Serie A following the hearing and Paratici received a two-and-a-half year ban from the FIGC. All 11 of the individuals, as well as the club itself, deny any wrongdoing and an appeal against the FIGC sanctions will be heard by the Italian Olympic Committee on 19th April.

A FIFA spokesperson said: “FIFA can only confirm that an appeal has been lodged by Mr Paratici against the decision passed by the Chairperson of the Disciplinary Committee.”

“Immediate leave of absence”

Paratici, who began his role at Tottenham in July 2021, addressed the Spurs squad last month, before agreeing with the club that he would “take an immediate leave of absence pending the outcome of an appeal”.

 

FIFA receives 6,586 applications for new football agent exam

FIFA has revealed that 6,586 candidates from 138 member associations representing all confederations have submitted an application to take the first-ever FIFA football agent exam.

The exam, scheduled for 19th April, has been introduced following the introduction of the FIFA Football Agent Regulations (FFAR), which came into force in January.

Additional exams have been scheduled for 20th September 2023, as well as for May and November 2024. Following a transitional period, the use of licensed football agents will become compulsory from 1st October 2023.

“Key component of the FFAR”

In a statement, FIFA said: “The introduction of the licensing system is a key component of the FFAR as it raises the professional and ethical standards for the profession of football agents, thus leading to an increase in the quality of the service they provide to their clients across the football industry.”

FIFA’s chief legal & compliance officer Emilio García Silvero commented: “The significant number of applications we have received confirms that many individuals across the world are looking forward to working within the new regulatory framework, which will ensure basic service standards for football agents and their clients through well-defined rules and increased certainty.”

Lazio, Roma and Salernitana are all facing possible points deductions after coming under investigation by local prosecutors for allegedly inflating player transfer values to falsify capital gains.

Italian media have reported that the headquarters of the three clubs were raided by Italy’s financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, last week to recover documents related to numerous transfers that took place between 2017 and 2021.

There is a belief that some suspicious deals involved inflated transfer values, including the swap between Luca Pellegrini and Leonardo Spinazzola between Roma and Juventus, and Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro’s €12.7 million move from Salernitana to Lazio.

The developments have come following the reopening of the investigation into the use of capital gains in Italian football, which resulted in a 15-point deduction for Juventus back in January.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Tivoli is leading the investigation into Lazio and Salernitana and the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rome is scrutinising Roma.

As well as the clubs, the actions of several individuals are being examined, including Lazio president Claudio Lotito, Roma’s president and vice president Dan and Ryan Friedkin, and former chairman James Pallotta.

Statements released by clubs

The three clubs have all released statements following the developments. Lazio said they were confident that "any misunderstandings or doubts" related to the alleged illicit actions would be cleared up quickly.

Roma denied any wrongdoing and said it was "cooperating with the competent authorities and hopes that full clarity will be provided on the matter as soon as possible".

Salernitana, which used to be owned by Lazio chairman Claudio Lotito, said they would work with authorities but noted that its current owners had nothing to do with the deals under investigation. Lotito sold the southern Italian club in January 2022.

Bologna to be investigated

Meanwhile, Italian media have also reported that Bologna are to be investigated over the club’s acquisition of Italian winger Riccardo Orsolini from Juventus for €15 million in 2019.

Prosecutors in Udine are examining the transfer after fresh evidence in relation to capital gains emerged from the Juventus case.

Report: UK Government put pressure on Premier League to allow Newcastle United takeover

Fresh revelations have emerged which appear to show the extent to which the UK government put pressure on the Premier League to allow Newcastle United’s takeover by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) to go ahead.

An investigation by The Athletic, which has obtained 59 pages of emails between government officials, found that the British government considered the possible failure of the takeover to be an “immediate risk” to the UK’s relationship with the Gulf nation.

The Premier League blocked the takeover until October 2021, after legal action by the former Newcastle owner, Mike Ashley, and after Saudi Arabia dropped its ban on beIN Sports, the Premier League’s broadcast rights holders in the Middle East.

The investigation also found that then-prime minister Boris Johnson’s chief strategic advisor even sought to find a “senior interlocutor to impress the interests” of the government onto the Premier League.

“Legally binding assurances”

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has previously claimed there was “no pressure applied” by the government during the process that culminated in the PIF acquiring 80 per cent of Newcastle, with Amanda Staveley’s PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben brothers sharing the remaining 20 per cent equally.

The Premier League approved the takeover after receiving what it described as “legally binding assurances” the Saudi state would not control the club, but the contents of these assurances have never been disclosed or explained.

The British government has always denied attempting to influence the takeover or having a role in it.

German clubs’ revenue rises to €4.48 billion for 2021/22

The German Football League (DFL) has revealed that the total revenues of German professional clubs rose in the 2021/22 financial year for the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19 – but still remained well below the record levels of the pre-pandemic period.

According to the 2023 DFL Economic Report, the 36 clubs in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 generated €4.48 billion in revenues in 2021/22 – up 10.5 per cent on the previous year but still around €325 million less than before the pandemic (2018/19: €4.8 billion).

Clubs suffered in particular from significant ongoing restrictions on spectator attendance, with matchday income totalling €402 million, compared with €650 million in 2018/19.

In addition, revenue from the German-language media rights for the current cycle (2021/22 to 2024/25) is slightly lower than in the previous four years (€1.1 billion on average instead of €1.16 billion per season previously).

The DFL noted that this is because it is “based on the contracts concluded shortly after the beginning of the pandemic under challenging conditions.”

“Not time to give the all-clear”

Hans-Joachim Watzke, speaker of the DFL executive committee, said: “In the light of these figures, it is possible to talk about a slight economic recovery, but it is not time to give the all-clear just yet, because the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 are still a long way off the pre-coronavirus level overall.

“The league and clubs are going to have to find ways of evolving and of maintaining the appeal of the competitions, as well as our international sporting and economic competitiveness whilst also protecting the unique characteristics of German football.”

Ceferin defends Premier League amid imbalance concerns

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has defended the Premier League amid concerns its success is creating an imbalance in European football.

Fears about the gap between the English top-flight and Europe’s other big leagues have grown following the January transfer window, in which Premier League clubs spent a record £815 million and Chelsea’s outlay alone was greater than that of all clubs in Europe’s other ‘big five’ leagues combined.

The gulf has been highlighted as a problem by a number of observers of the sport at continental level, including LaLiga president and UEFA executive committee member Javier Tebas and Super League promoters A22.

However, speaking at last week’s UEFA Congress in Lisbon, where he was re-elected unopposed for a second four-year term, Ceferin said the Premier League should be applauded not attacked for its success.

“We must never forget that jealousy has never been a good counsellor,” he said. “A few months ago, UEFA and its club competitions were being blamed for all the evils in football and the inequalities within the leagues. Today, it’s the English Premier League that seems to be under attack.

“Since the British government, supporters and clubs said no to the Super League, the Premier League has been demonised and labelled a Super League in its own right that needs to be toppled.”

“Audacious approach”

The UEFA chief added: “However, the Premier League’s success was not achieved by accident. By adopting an audacious approach based on a vision, a strategy and a lot of hard work, its leaders and clubs developed a remarkable model founded on sporting merit and a highly egalitarian distribution of wealth – one of the most egalitarian systems in the world.

“Rather than a model to be destroyed, this is a model that should be followed.”

Leeds United post £36.7 million loss for 2021/22 and amend 2020/21 result

Leeds United have reported a £36.7 million loss for the 2021/22 year, and have amended their result for the previous year.

The club had reported a £25.9 million profit for 2020/21, but have now changed this to a £11.9 million loss. This is due in part to a transfer settlement but also because a £21.3 million loan waiver is no longer a part of the accounts.

For 2021/22, the loss came despite turnover rising to £189 million, up from £171 million the previous year. The return of supporters after the Covid-19 pandemic was a key contributor, with matchday income reaching £24.6 million, compared with £1.9 million in 2020/21.

Merchandise sales also increased, rising from £20.3 million to £25.1 million, while other commercial revenue rose from £15 million to £18.9 million.

Fall in broadcast income

However, broadcast income fell from £132 million in 2020/21 to £115 million in 2021/22. The club finished in 9th place in 2020/21 on its return to the top-flight, but ended the 2021/22 season in 17th place, narrowly avoiding relegation.

The club’s wage bill increased from £108 million to £121 million, contributing to an operating loss of £34 million.

There are plenty of things that can be said about the European Club Association (ECA), but one criticism that cannot really be levelled at it is that its leaders go missing.

Two years (and what seems like a lifetime) ago, barely a week seemed to pass without its former chairman, Andrea Agnelli, sticking his head above the parapet, arguing for bigger and bigger chunks of the pie for Europe’s leading clubs.

After the Super League plot forced Agnelli to resign in April 2021 when he was outed as one of its ringleaders just hours after approving UEFA competition reforms, the body was faced with an existential crisis. The inclination may have been to duck and hide, but in the following 24 months neither Agnelli’s successor, Nasser al Khelaifi, nor his CEO, Charlie Marshall, have done so as they have sought to not just rebuild the credibility of the organisation, but expand it too.

At a time when football leaders dodge even the most basic media scrutiny, such accountability is to be commended – not least when questions are frequently raised about who benefits from the ECA’s existence.

In many ways, Marshall has one of the trickiest jobs in football. The ECA is still perceived to be the mere reincarnation of the old G14, perennially battling for the interests of Europe’s super clubs. It derives its authority from a broader membership, but particularly from the biggest clubs in Europe’s smaller football nations – the likes of Ajax, Legia Warsaw, Olympiakos and HJK. At the same time, because of the demands of the European Model for Sport, it is supposed to reflect a broader consensus across European football, both in terms of redistribution and representation.

Balancing three such competing interests represents a serious challenge. Over the course of a 40-minute conversation in Budapest following the ECA’s 29th General Assembly last month, Marshall told Off The Pitch about how he went about doing this, about “perceptions” about his organisation, the body’s current workload, its positions on some of the game’s prevalent issues, and where it stands on the coming challenges facing football. 

European football’s “most important” development

We start with a walk through of the ECA’s joint venture (JV) with UEFA. Last year Al Khelaifi called it “the most important development in European football in recent times”. Marshall gives a highly granular description of its workings, and how a similar joint venture with FIFA – proposed in Budapest a day before we met – might look. 

The UEFA JV “deals with the commercial aspects of the competitions, not the sporting aspect,” he explains.

“It is about the revenue generation side, not about the sporting rules or the financial regulations or even the distribution. That's taken care of at UEFA level within this sort of sporting context. The JV is exclusively a body that is devoted to the commercialisation of the competition.

What it achieves, he says, “is a change in the model”. Previously clubs assigned all of their rights to the governing body to exploit, now they and UEFA put everything in the same pot and collaborate on commercialising them.

“This is the competition organiser and the competition participants coming together in a new corporate structure which they co-own,” he says.

“This JV has existed as a construct for about seven years and basically it's UEFA's management teams and ECA's management team - we're much smaller - collaborating on a daily basis on all of the commercial aspects of the competitions.”

Its remit, he adds, is “pure sports commercial stuff: What is the commercial concept? What is the package for the media rights? What markets do we sell? How do we tender to go to those markets? Who should the agency be? We ran an RFP as you probably remember for the agency selection. And what should the sponsorship strategy be? How many packages should be sold?”

Long term view

Marshall argues that the involvement of clubs in these sorts of decisions is to “think properly long term, to commit for more than just a year to have an outlook.”

This, I find slightly baffling, as clubs are never in European competition for more than a year.

“Correct, but through a vehicle like ECA, basically the theory is if I qualify then this is the framework that I will work under,” says Marshall.

“The hope for the JV is that we can start to think about critical commercial issues in sports, such as the transformation of the commercial model. You know, at one point do we really invest in direct consumer? How do you properly do digital, which, if you look across the leagues and sort of European schools bodies, is often quite difficult because you will think quite short term. So that's the value. It's not creating lots of dividends for the shareholders.”

But competition organisers already do this sort of thing. Only last month, for example, Richard Masters said that the EPL was evaluating direct to consumer models for its international customer base. What's different to what a league or a governing body is doing here in terms of developing that commercial value?

“Well, in a league like the Premier League, the shareholders are clubs,” Marshall replies. “In the UEFA competitions until the creation of the JV, the shareholders, if you could put it that way, were UEFA, so it is essentially giving that ownership to the clubs.”

In essence then, it seems like an ideological move. Indeed it seems to bear some echoes of the criticisms levelled by A22 – the company behind the Super League – that UEFA isn’t up to organising its own competitions, which I’ve never really understood given the commercial might they have created in European club competitions.

Others within the European football landscape have suggested that it is the first step towards ECA emerging as a competition organiser within its own right – something the body has always denied.

Rising power

But the sense that the ECA is getting far bigger and more powerful is inescapable. Its General Assemblies are lavish affairs, hosted in amazing venues in some of Europe’s great cities. Last September’s was in Sultan Abdulaziz’s former palace on the banks of the Bosphorus. Last month’s was in the Buda Castle complex. They are democratic in the sense that an executive from Gibraltar’s Lincoln Red Imps can rub shoulders with one from Manchester United’s Red Devils, but no one is really in any doubt where the power lies.

With growing power comes malcontents. In Budapest one delegate from a leading European club suggested to me that the extravagance on show was to wow smaller clubs.  Others were unhappy that what they consider “the real business” is conducted by the ECA’s board before the General Assembly begins. Plenty don’t like the tiers of membership, which afford just 40 per cent of member clubs actual voting rights.

Last year ECA’s income rose above €10 million for the first time, more than €6 million of which went on staffing, consultancy and research. Members pay a nominal fee to be part of the organisation – just €25,000 comes directly from the entirety of its 240 members. Almost all of the income is listed in its accounts as a “UCL Contribution”. Inevitably this has bred more conspiracy theories about who it really represents.

Marshall acknowledges that this is “poorly described” in ECA’s accounts and says that it is more a UEFA treasury accounting procedure than anything else.

“The funding of ECA comes from the surplus of the Champions League, so that surplus would otherwise be redistributed right back to the clubs,” he says, going on to explain how it is deducted from UEFA payments to its member clubs, who in addition also pay a “peppercorn” fee to the organisation.

Governance reforms

In Budapest ECA also announced governance reforms, giving associate members a route up to board level, and expanding membership at all levels so that it reaches 500 by September.

The reforms said Dariusz Mioduski, the Legia Warsaw president and ECA board member who was responsible for the governance changes, make “the ECA a completely different organisation to the way that I think it was perceived to be in the past,” he said. The perception, he admitted, was that ECA “was built around the interests of the big clubs” but the reforms make “it a very representative body.”

The timing was interesting, coming weeks ahead of the launch of a rival organisation, the Union of European Clubs, based on one member one vote and open to all of Europe’s 1200 professional clubs.

Marshall says that the reform package “that has been worked upon for two or three years – before anyone had heard of that. There’s been an awareness for some time, almost as part of the evolution of the association and what we’re driving, that club football is becoming much broader and much deeper.

“It’s no longer just a few clubs participating each year – it’s a lot of clubs impacted by European competitions. That awareness has been there for a long time.”

He adds that the best response to other forms of representation was what he describes as “self-remedy and evolving your own structures and governance to a way that was more representative and appropriate.”

Future challenges

What of the challenges of the future? ECA is (obviously, given its proposed JV) in favour of the newly expanded Club World Cup, but there are still many things to work out he says. He doesn’t dismiss idea of All Star Games between rival leagues (“We’re open to – and do – look at absolutely everything”). Asked about demographic challenges and so-called shortened attention spans among younger generations, he points to extensive research conducted and published by ECA.

Foremost among the governance challenges facing ECA in the near future is multi club ownership. Around 200 clubs worldwide are now part of MCO groups. Al Khelaifi, the ECA’s own chairman, even runs a small one – which his executives promise will get bigger before the year’s end.  What are the implications for football integrity? Could MCOs be abused to get around financial controls?

Marshall declares himself in favour of the current rules that UEFA currently have in place and acknowledges that “it hasn't been a detailed stream of discussion within ECA” but says that it will inform the body’s next “detailed piece of our strategic thinking”.

“There is clearly a period of reflection and understanding: What it all means, what are the different models? What are the pros and cons of the different models? Our starting point is definitely not multi club ownership is bad. I mean, that's not a starting point.”

He says that thinking will be consistent with the ECA’s views on other forms of external investment, that they favour “the right kind of ownership, the right kind of capital, the right kind of investment which we would seek to understand and promote for the benefit of European football.”

There is a caveat to all this, he adds. “The integrity of those competitions is incredibly important. Exactly how the integrity of the competitions can be preserved is going to be the work of the coming period of time.”

He believes that the removal from 2024 of “feeding” between different European competitions – i.e. when third placed Champions League teams drop into the Europa League after the group stage – will help this.

“But this is not just going to be a question of integrity for European competition, it is about domestic competition as well.”

UK government officials have privately flagged concerns about Manchester United bidder Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, according to Bloomberg.

The reservations, said to have been voiced internally over the past few weeks by senior government officials working on football governance, have focused on previous regulatory failings at the UK unit of the Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), where Sheikh Jassim has been chairman since 2006.

The reservations relate to Sheikh Jassim’s management of QIB, centering on a £1.4 million fine given to the UK unit in 2016 by the Bank of England (BOE) for violating capital requirements that left the firm exposed to high levels of risk.

Andrew Bailey, then CEO of the Prudential Regulation Authority and now the BOE governor, said at the time that QIB had “failed to meet some of the most basic regulatory standards.”

The QIB said at the time of the fine that the bank has taken “remedial action,” while the BOE said the bank had since undergone significant restructuring to stop similar breaches. The QIB is not understood to play any direct role in the current bid for Manchester United.

Pressure on Premier League

While there’s no suggestion that the UK is set to intervene to block Sheikh Jassim’s bid, the concerns by the UK government suggest ministers may put pressure on the Premier League to pose its own questions when it conducts its due diligence on Manchester United’s suitors.

UEFA targets quick resolution to FC Barcelona-Negreira case

UEFA is pushing for a quick resolution to its disciplinary investigation into the FC Barcelona-Negreira case so the matter is resolved before places in next season’s Champions League are finalised, according to a report from Marca.

The European governing body announced last month that it has opened an investigation into Barça over the club’s payments to the former referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, which were allegedly made to influence match results.

UEFA disciplinary regulations state that measures that can be imposed on clubs range from “a warning, reprimand and fine to disqualification from competitions in progress and/or exclusion from future competitions and withdrawal of a title or an award.”

It is understood that UEFA does not want the process to be delayed, as it is aware that Barcelona would go to the UEFA Court of Appeal and then to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in order to reduce a possible sanction or seek temporary measures that would allow them to compete in the 2023/24 season.

UEFA is to assign the handling of the investigation to an independent committee, and it is believed that it wants the work on the case to be completed before June so it is prepared for what could happen in the summer.

“Serious situation”

Earlier this week, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin told the Slovenian sports newspaper Ekipa that the Negreira case is “one of the most serious situations I've ever seen in football."

Negreira, who was vice-president of the Spanish FA’s refereeing committee from 1993 to 2018, has denied ever favouring Barcelona in terms of refereeing decisions. Barcelona has said it paid an external consultant who supplied it with "technical reports related to professional refereeing" but has also denied wrongdoing.
 

Fulham post £57.6 million loss for 2021/22

Fulham have reported a loss of £57.6 million for the 2021/22 financial year, when the club won an immediate return back to the Premier League by winning the EFL Championship.

The deficit follows a loss of £93.5 million in 2020/21, when the club was relegated from the top-flight. Turnover for 2021/22 fell to £71.6 million, down from £116.1 million the previous year.

The club noted that reduced distributions following relegation was the main reason for the decline in revenue, and said that matchday income recovered following the return of fans after the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.

The accounts show that Fulham spent £90.4 million on player wages, a record for a Championship club, after spending £113.9 million the previous year in the Premier League. The club’s wage-to-turnover ratio rose from 98.1 per cent in 2020/21 to 126.3 per cent in 2021/22.

Riverside Stand revamp

During the year, Fulham continued to redevelop the Riverside Stand at Craven Cottage, after works began in May 2019. The club said the revamp, due to be complete for the 2023/24 season, will “create a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match day as well as for the wider community year round.”

Fulham added that they also continued to develop plans for the former BBC sports ground purchased in May 2017. “Plans are being drawn up to develop this into a second elite training facility to benefit the club and academy for many years to come,” the club said.

Reading deducted six points for beaching EFL budget rules

Championship club Reading have been deducted six points by the EFL with immediate effect after admitting to their failure to comply with budget restrictions.

The club was previously handed a six point penalty in 2021 after admitting to exceeding profit and sustainability limits, with an additional suspended six point deduction to be applied if the club failed to fulfil an agreed business plan.

The EFL said Reading had "admitted to the two breaches" of that business plan following a review by an independent panel.

The league added that "the club will be required to agree a new budget with the independent Club Financial Reporting Unit for the 2023-24 season aimed at ensuring future compliance with the regulations.”

Following the fresh points deduction, Reading are now just one point above the Championship relegation zone in 20th place, with seven games left this season.

“Radical changes”

In a statement, Reading said they had failed to adhere to the plan "despite radical changes implemented at first team level and right across the structure of the business ... and a rigid adherence to a strict league-monitored wage structure and transfer embargo.

“As a result, the independent Club Financial Review Panel has been unable to ratify that the club has met its forecast for compliance.”

The club added: “We have worked closely with the EFL and the independent Club Financial Review Unit throughout the process in our aims to achieve the targets set out in the agreed business plan." Reading’s transfer embargo is to be lifted in the summer.

FC Barcelona have called for LaLiga president Javier Tebas to resign after a Spanish newspaper report claimed he provided false evidence to the Spanish public prosecutor's office during its investigation into the Negreira case.

Last month, the prosecutor's office filed corruption charges against Barcelona, as well as former club presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, over allegations that the former referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira received more than €7 million in payments from the club between 2001 and 2018 to influence match results.

In an article published on Monday by La Vanguardia, the newspaper claimed that Tebas wrote to the prosecutor's office and provided a document handwritten by former Barcelona board member Josep Contreras, who died at the end of 2022. The veracity of the document has been disputed, and it is alleged that Tebas claimed it was recent despite being written more than a decade ago.

Tebas defended himself on Twitter, saying: “The title of La Vanguardia is false. We haven’t accused anyone. The editorial staff itself confirms this by emphasizing what the letter to the prosecutor’s office says. ‘This letter also does not imply any specific accusation against anyone.’”

In a furious statement in response to the newspaper report and Tebas’ Tweet, Barcelona said it “wishes to expresses its deepest indignation, anger and dismay … We urgently require the LaLiga president to appear in public to explain himself, beyond the Tweet sent in the early hours by Mr. Tebas, lacking substance and with a threatening tone.”

The club went on to call for the LaLiga president to step down, adding: “Aware of his obsession with persecuting FC Barcelona and showing his constant averse and manifest dislike of our club, we understand that the current LaLiga president will persist in his efforts to keep damaging our club.”

Ceferin: “Serious situation”

Meanwhile, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has told the Slovenian sports newspaper Ekipa that the Negreira case is “one of the most serious situations I've ever seen in football." UEFA announced last month that it has opened a disciplinary investigation into Barça over the payments to the former referee.

Negreira, who was vice-president of the Spanish FA’s refereeing committee from 1993 to 2018, has denied ever favouring Barcelona in terms of refereeing decisions. Barcelona has said it paid an external consultant who supplied it with "technical reports related to professional refereeing" but has also denied wrongdoing.

 

Premier League clubs’ spending on agents up 17 per cent to £318 million

Premier League clubs paid a record £318 million to agents over the past two transfer windows, the latest figures released by the FA have shown.

The data indicates a 17 per cent rise in payments by top-flight clubs to agents compared with the previous period. More than 10 per cent of the total spent by Premier League teams was accounted for by Erling Haaland’s move to Manchester City, who spent a record £51.5 million on agents fees in the last two windows.

Of the amount, around £35 million was paid in relation to Haaland’s transfer from Borussia Dortmund. City’s record total exceeds the £43 million paid by Liverpool in 2018/19.

Chelsea spent the second highest amount after City in the past two windows, shelling out £43.2 million, followed by Liverpool, who spent £33.2 million. Nottingham Forest had the lowest spend, of £4.4 million, despite signing 30 players.

Championship spending falls

The amount on agents spent by EFL Championship clubs fell from £44 million to £36 million, while payments by League One clubs totalled £5.7 million, with £1.7 million spent by clubs in League Two.

 

Oaktree ‘submits €1.75 billion bid’ to invest in Serie A media rights business

American investment fund Oaktree Capital has submitted a preliminary non-binding offer to invest €1.75 billion in Serie A's media rights business, according to a report from Reuters.

The Italian league is looking to agree a deal on fresh investment in the business as it prepares to hold a tender for its domestic and international broadcast rights from 2024/25.

Sources said Oaktree would structure its proposed investment through a combination of debt and cash that would imply an enterprise value for the business of €15 billion.

It is believed the Oaktree investment would comprise a debt tranche worth €1 billion and €750 million of cash in return for a 5 per cent stake in a venture managing the media arm. The proposal would be subject to a lock-up period of five years.

Financial adviser

Serie A's media rights business has so far attracted interest from international banks including JP Morgan, as well as private equity firms. On Friday, the league said it will hire a financial adviser to study the approaches it has received.

Oaktree provided a €275 million loan to Inter Milan in 2021 to help the club weather the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

Fortuna Sittard players consider strike action over salary delays

Players at Eredivisie club Fortuna Sittard are considering striking over delays in receiving their salaries, according to Dutch media reports.

The playing squad are still waiting for their March pay cheques, which should have arrived a week ago, and it is understood that some of the big earners in the team have been facing issues with salary payments for some time.

It is believed that some players have now made calls to strike, although opinion is said to be divided within the team over whether to take action. Club management has promised that all the players will be paid next Wednesday. Agents are also understood to be waiting for commission fees.

Proposed takeover

Fortuna are facing significant financial difficulties after a proposed takeover of the club by Amsterdam-based gaming business Azerion was put on hold due to an investigation into alleged malpractices at the firm.

Azerion already has a 20 per cent stake in the club after becoming a minority shareholder in May 2021. Driven by an ambition to play in Europe from the prospective new owners, the club spent heavily on new players last summer.

Everton have released their accounts for the 2021/22 financial year, one week on from the announcement by the Premier League that it had charged the club with a breach of its financial fair play rules.

The Premier League said the charge relates to the 2021/22 season and that it has referred the case to an independent commission, but it did not reveal any details of the alleged breach. Everton, who said it “strongly contests the allegation of non-compliance”, reported a loss of £44.7 million for 2021/22, considerably lower than the deficit of £121 million suffered in 2020/21. That followed losses of £139.9 million for 2019/20, £111.8 million for 2018/19 and £13.1 million for 2017/18.

Question marks have been raised about the scale of Everton’s losses over recent years, with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules allowing for losses of no more than £105 million over three years.

However, Covid-related losses, as well as costs relating to Everton’s new £550 million stadium being built at Bramley-Moore Dock, women’s team and community work, can be incurred without counting towards that.

£150 million loan

The accounts also revealed that Everton face the prospect of having to repay a £150 million loan should they be relegated from the Premier League.

The accounts state: “Whilst the club has been able to secure longer term funding facilities during the year end 30 June 2022, some of these facilities include a covenant that assumes the club will remain in the Premier League, therefore the Board have had to consider the scenario of relegation and the availability of these facilities in that scenario.

“The providers have indicated that they remain supportive to the group under each scenario. However, at the time of approval of the financial statements, there are no contractual commitments in place that would guarantee a waiver of the amounts payable in full or in part and therefore relegation would require a material repayment of debt as per the contract.”

Finance director Grant Ingles writes about the loan in his initial 'Strategic Report' section: "The Club successfully secured an increase of £50m to the existing five year credit facility with Rights and Media in the current period, which has the same repayment profile as the original £100m facility taken out in the period ending 30 June 2021."

Going concern

In the notes in the financial report the board of directors admit that the conditions in relation to a relegation scenario: "...indicate the existence of a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt about the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern."

The Board also state that they are confident that if Everton are relegated funding will be secured or refinanced and "that they will be able to achieve the levels of revenue and savings to allow the club to continue in operational existence for a period of 12 months after the date of signing the financial statements."

Newcastle United reveal £70.7 million loss for 2021/22

Newcastle United have recorded a loss of £70.7 million for the 2021/22 financial year, which covers the final three months of Mike Ashley’s tenure and the first nine months under the majority ownership of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

The result follows the deficit of £12.2 million suffered in 2020/21, which was driven largely by the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on matchday revenue and rebates to TV companies.

The majority of the losses in 2021/22 were due to the £90 million spent on five new players during the January 2022 transfer window as the club sought to secure its Premier League status. The club has confirmed that a further £170 million has been invested on new signings since.

Newcastle are heavily focused on generating growth in commercial income so they can continue to make significant outlays in the transfer market in line with the Premier League’s financial fair play rules.

In 2021/22, turnover reached £180 million, up from £140.2 million the previous year, with commercial revenue rising to £26.5 million, up from £17.6 million. Newcastle began a new six-year kit deal with Castore at the start of the 2021/22 season.

Wage bill up 59 per cent

The need to continue delivering higher revenues was also highlighted by a dramatic increase in Newcastle’s wage costs, which rose year-on-year from £106.8 million to £170.2 million – a hike of 59 per cent. The club’s wage-to-turnover ratio shot up to 94.6 per cent, from 76.2 per cent the previous year.

FC Barcelona to ask UEFA for €100 million compensation if banned from Champions League

FC Barcelona will demand €100 million in compensation from UEFA if the European governing body bans the club from the Champions League next season over the Negreira case, according to Mundo Deportivo.

The figure is said to be based on the estimated amount the club would receive for participating in the competition, together with income it would lose from sponsors and merchandise sales.

UEFA announced last month that it has opened a disciplinary investigation into Barça over the controversial payments made by the club to former Spanish referee Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

UEFA disciplinary regulations state that measures that can be imposed on clubs range from “a warning, reprimand and fine to disqualification from competitions in progress and/or exclusion from future competitions and withdrawal of a title or an award.”

Corruption charges

The move came after the Spanish public prosecutor's office filed corruption charges against Barcelona, as well as former club presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, over allegations that Negreira received more than €7 million in payments from the club between 2001 and 2018 to influence match results.

Negreira, who was vice-president of the Spanish FA’s refereeing committee from 1993 to 2018, has denied ever favouring Barcelona in terms of refereeing decisions. Barcelona has said it paid an external consultant who supplied it with "technical reports related to professional refereeing" but has also denied wrongdoing.

Lazio post €21.5 million loss for H1 2022/23

Lazio have reported a loss of €21.5 million for the first half of the 2022/23 financial year, ended 31st December 2022, after earning a profit of €4.6 million in the same period last year.

Turnover was €67 million, down from €71.6 million in the first six months of 2021/22, which the Serie A club said was “largely due to the lack of variable royalties on the sale of cryptocurrencies” by its main sponsor Binance.

During the half-year period, Lazio earned €46.1 million in broadcast revenue, €9.4 million in commercial income, and €1.3 million from merchandise sales.

Staff costs reach €52 million

Operating expenses amounted to €70.8 million, up around €1 million on the same period the previous year, with personnel costs of €52 million, amortisation of performance fees of €14.8 million, and other depreciation and amortisation of €0.97 million.

At the end of 2022 Lazio’s net debt was €53.8 million, up from €46 million at the start of the 2022/23 financial year, while shareholders’ equity was negative at €30 million.

FA considers dropping 3pm Saturday TV blackout for FA Cup matches to boost rights value

The FA is considering dropping the 3pm Saturday TV blackout for FA Cup matches in an attempt to boost the value of the competition's broadcast rights, The Daily Mail reports.

Under the current four-year deal with the BBC and ITV, a maximum of eight FA Cup ties in each round were broadcast live this season, with only four at weekends due to the blackout, which prevents any TV coverage between 2.45pm and 5.15pm on Saturdays.

The FA will begin negotiations with broadcasters this summer for the next rights cycle beginning in 2025/26, and its executives are said to be convinced they will land a far better deal if 3pm kick-offs can be sold.

Removing the blackout is likely to invite bids from the new generation of streaming services in addition to traditional broadcasters, which would increase the price.

Skewed towards big clubs

Lower division clubs are likely to welcome the move as it would lead to increases in prize and appearance money, which they feel is currently too skewed towards the big clubs who make the latter stages.

The Premier League remains in favour of keeping its matches off TV on Saturday afternoons, while the EFL has yet to make its minds up on the controversial issue despite inviting broadcasters to bid for 3pm kick-offs in its TV rights auction for 2024/25 onwards that is currently taking place.

Manchester United have reported a profit of £6.3 million for the second quarter of the 2022/23 financial year, ended 31st December, 2022, after suffering a loss of £1.4 million for the same period last year, and posting a deficit of £26.5 million for the first quarter of 2022/23.

The return to profit came despite total revenue falling by 9.8 per cent year-on-year to £167.3 million. Broadcast income declined by 32.1 per cent to £58.7 million, primarily due to the club playing in the Europa League this season after being in the Champions League last year.

Matchday revenue fell by 13.6 per cent to £29.9 million, due to United playing two fewer home games compared with the same period last year, because of the mid-season break for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

However, commercial revenue rose by 22.2 per cent to £78.7 million, driven by a growth in sponsorships, and record sales of tickets, hospitality and memberships.

Sponsorship income was up 43.2 per cent to £50.4 million, due to the impact of the club’s training kit agreement with Tezos, together with a one-off sponsorship credit, while United’s memberships currently stand at 360,000 for the current season, which the club claims is the largest paid membership programme in world sport.

Total operating expenses for the quarter fell by 6.7 per cent to £167.6 million, with staff costs down 20.9 per cent to £77.3 million, as a result of squad turnover and the club not participating in the Champions League this season.

GBP debt increase

Meanwhile, the results also showed that United’s debt increased to £535.7 million, up from £477.1 million in the second quarter of 2021/22, due to the weakening of the pound against the dollar in that time, with the figure unchanged in US currency at $650 million.

The Glazer family did not take a dividend in Q2 2022/23, after being heavily criticised for pocketing the bulk of a £11 million pay-out in June.

The quarterly results were the first financial figures published since the Glazers announced they would consider selling the club last November. However, there was no mention in the report of the talks between the American family and potential buyers over a possible sale of the club.

 

Report: Premier League clubs avoided £250m in tax on agent payments

Premier League clubs may have avoided paying £250 million in tax on agent payments over a three-year period, according to estimates from financial experts revealed by the BBC.

A BBC Newsnight report said that tax officials are investigating the use of dual representation contracts, which sees an agent paid for acting for both the player and the club involved in the deal.

When half of the agent's fee is paid by the club, it means that half of the payment avoids tax, and the Tax Policy Associates think tank has estimated the practice is potentially worth tens of millions of pounds a year.

If the agent's fee is picked up solely by the player, HM Revenue and Customs can expect to receive around 60 per cent of the total payment in tax. However, the amount of tax due falls to about 30 per cent of the payment if the fee is split between the player and the club using dual representation.

68 per cent of player deals

Use of the practice has become standard in English football, with some top-flight clubs using it in all of their deals. In 2021, FA data revealed around 68 per cent of Premier League player deals were done through dual representation.

Tax Policy Associates estimates the practice may have saved top players, their agents and their acquiring clubs £81 million in 2019, £91 million in 2020 and £81 million in 2021 – more than £250 million over the three years.

HMRC said it was investigating "a number of clubs". While the BBC said it did not know which clubs were being investigated, the teams thought to have benefitted most from dual representation in the past few years include Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea. The clubs all declined to comment.

 

Fiorentina stadium funding plan challenged by European Commission

Italy’s controversial plan to put €55 million of EU money towards renovating Fiorentina’s home ground has been challenged by the European Commission, The Financial Times reports.

The European Commission has also questioned the Italian government’s plan to build two sport facilities in Venice, using an additional €93.5 million of the Covid-19 recovery funds, of which Italy is the largest beneficiary in the bloc.

The Italian government said earlier this week that Brussels had raised questions about the merits of funding these sports venues, contributing to a delay in the disbursement of Italy’s next €19 billion tranche of the recovery funds.

The plan to use recovery money as part of a €193.4 million overhaul of Fiorentina’s 40,000-seat Artemio Franchi stadium has proved highly contentious, even within the country.

Approved last year

The proposals 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, commission officials have said it was not clear that the Florence and Venice stadium projects fulfilled the recovery plan’s goals of making rundown neighbourhoods greener and more sustainable.

 

Shakhtar file complaint to EU over FIFA transfer rules which ‘cost club €40m’

Shakhtar Donetsk has filed a complaint before the European Union Commission against FIFA over the club’s dispute with the governing body related to its emergency transfer rules during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Last June, FIFA moved to help protect foreign players affected by the conflict in Ukraine by amending its Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) and allowing them to suspend their contracts until June 2023.

In a statement released on Thursday, Shakhtar CEO Sergei Palkin claimed that “the over-reaching measures applied by FIFA led to massive loss of player transfer income and a depletion of essential club revenues amounting to approximately €40 million.”

Palkin confirmed that "FC Shakhtar has filed a complaint before the European Union Commission against FIFA regarding the ongoing suspension of employment contracts by international players and coaches.”

He added: "This complaint follows the club's intention to appeal against the decision of the FIFA Council to extend the temporary amendments to the FIFA RSTP.

"Action has been taken to file this complaint to the European Commission given the importance and reliance of Shakhtar to undertake transfer market trading with players within the European Union – and the obvious impact FIFA’s decision has had on the club's EU market activities."

Appeal dismissed by CAS

Shakhtar previously filed an appeal against FIFA’s emergency transfer rules to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which was dismissed in a case heard in December. Palkin said all parties were "still waiting for the grounds" of the CAS decision.

 

Premier League clubs set to agree on front-of-shirt gambling sponsor ban

Premier League clubs are set to agree to ban gambling companies from advertising on the front of their shirts, according to The Times.

The proposal, under which front-of-shirt sponsorship by betting firms would be banned but sleeve deals still permitted, was said to be on the agenda for a top-flight shareholders’ meeting on Thursday.

It is expected that the clubs will support the move in order to avoid government legislation banning gambling advertising completely. A white paper on gambling is due to be published by the government next month but ministers have signalled that it will not include shirt sponsorship restrictions if the voluntary agreement is reached.

The Premier League had been expected to agree to the ban last year but it delayed a decision after Liz Truss was elected prime minister in case she changed the proposed legislation.

Summer meeting

A final vote on the ban may be put off until the Premier League’s summer meeting in June but it is thought that enough clubs will back the plan if a three-year transition period is included, something that is likely to be accepted by the government.

It is understood that ministers are not looking for clubs in the EFL to take similar action because of the financial hardship it would cause.

Nasser al Khelaifi has confirmed that he is seeking another term as chairman of the European Club Association when his term ends later this year, reports Senior Correspondent James Corbett from the ECA General Assembly in Budapest.

The 49-year-old Qatari, who is also president of Paris Saint Germain and Bein Sports, took over from Andrea Agnelli in April 2021 after the latter’s role as a European Super League plot leader came to light. ECA chairs are elected by the organisation’s board of directors and the current term limits expire in September.

Negotiations between the ECA and FIFA

Al Khelaifi also gave an insight into the ECA’s negotiations with FIFA which resulted in a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) being signed earlier this week in Budapest. The Qatari acknowledged that after a breakdown in negotiations at the end of last year he thought such developments were impossible.

“A few months ago it was really difficult,” he told Off The Pitch after the conclusion of the General Assembly.

“It really was not easy discussion. Of course, FIFA want to protect themselves, we want to protect the club interests. It was really not easy to reach, but in the end each party understands the benefits if we come together, and that’s what the case.”

“For the coming six years we have aligned our interests in club football to protect the players and the clubs – the investment you make as a club in the players,” added ECA vice chair and Ajax CEO Edwin Van der Sar. “It’s most important that we cooperate with governing bodies like FIFA and UEFA and for clubs to do that in a stable way, so that we can grow as clubs also.”

Asked to walk Off The Pitch through the finer details of the talks, Al Khalifa quipped: “Next time I’m going to bring you with us for the negotiation.”

Brentford post record profit and turnover for 2021/22

Brentford have revealed record results for the 2021/22 financial year, when the club played its debut season in the Premier League and returned to the English top-flight for the first time in 74 years.

The West London club made their highest-ever profit of £29.9 million, after suffering a loss of £8.5 million in 2020/21, while turnover also reached a historic high, rising to £140.9 million, up from £15.3 million the previous year.

The club said the growth in revenues was “driven primarily by the huge increase in central distributions from the Premier League, as well as strong growth in commercial and matchday revenue streams following the welcome return of fans post-pandemic into the new Gtech Community Stadium.”

Commercial income rose to £15 million, up from £4.1 million in 2020/21. The club earned an operating profit before player trading of £25.1 million, compared with a loss of £53.2 million in 2020/21.

Brentford noted that the significant turnover increase was somewhat offset by increased administrative expenses of £45.4 million, “driven by player wage and player amortisation growth, a natural consequence of investment in a playing squad capable of competing at Premier League level.”

Player trading profit falls

Profit on player trading fell to £4.6 million, down from £44.3 million for 2020/21. The club said it was “able to keep hold of its key assets given the significant increase in revenue streams.” It added that “the profit generated in the current year is driven primarily by contingent events triggered in the 2021/22 season but linked to historical player sales.”

Brentford also revealed that owner Matthew Benham’s total investment in the club at 30th June 2022, comprised of equity and loans, stood at £104.4 million (2021: £104 million). This sum includes £22.8 million (2021: £22.4 million) of loans specifically in relation to the stadium project.

Huddersfield Town name prospective new American owner

Huddersfield Town have named American businessman Kevin M. Nagle as their new prospective owner.

Nagle, who owns the USL Western Conference team Sacramento Republic, has agreed to buy the club from chairman Dean Hoyle, subject to legislative and governance procedures.

In a statement from Huddersfield, Nagle said: “I am beyond pleased to announce I have entered into agreement with Dean Hoyle to purchase a full stake in Huddersfield Town. As the approval process is now under way, there will be no further comment until finalization, as we wish to 100% respect that process.

“I would however like to thank Dean for all his help and support along the way, and I cannot wait to meet and speak to the wonderful Town fans.”

14-year association

The deal would end Hoyle’s 14-year association with the West Yorkshire club. The lifelong fan took over in 2009 before selling the club to Phil Hodgkinson 11 years later.

Hoyle then returned in 2021 to provide funding due to Hodgkinson's financial difficulties but stepped down as chief executive for health reasons in 2022. Earlier this month Hoyle paved the way for the takeover by Nagle as he became the club's sole shareholder and simultaneously exchanged contracts with the American.

Huddersfield, who are third from bottom in the EFL Championship, three points from safety, were placed under a transfer embargo earlier this month for submitting their annual accounts late.

Roman Abramovich secretly bankrolled Vitesse Arnhem, leaked documents suggest

Roman Abramovich secretly funded the takeover of Dutch top-flight club Vitesse Arnhem and bankrolled it for years during the period that he also owned Chelsea, leaked documents appear to show.

The financial information has come to light in the Oligarch files, a cache of leaked data originating from the Cyprus-based offshore service provider MeritServus.

The documents, reviewed by The Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, appear to reveal for the first time at least €117 million in secret funding from Abramovich for a takeover of Vitesse in 2010, which flowed through a series of entities registered in opaque offshore tax havens.

Links to Chelsea were suspected at the time of the takeover, which was led by the Georgian former footballer Merab Jordania. While he described Abramovich as his friend at the inaugural press conference, Jordania denied the oligarch was involved.

Suspicions of links continued after Jordania’s takeover, as Chelsea used Vitesse – which plays in the Dutch Eredivisie – as a partner club, to which players not yet ready for the demands of the English Premier League could be loaned and gain competitive experience.

First investigation

The Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) launched a first investigation into the financing of the takeover but found nothing to conflict with its rules.

Further investigations by the KNVB were also unable to uncover any financial ties between Abramovich and Vitesse Arnhem, and concluded that the Russian oligarch had no managerial influence on Vitesse.

Both Vitesse under its then owners, and Chelsea under Abramovich, repeatedly denied the oligarch was involved in funding the Dutch club.

Fabio Paratici’s Italian football ban extended worldwide by FIFA

Tottenham Hotspur managing director of football Fabio Paratici has had his Italian Football Federation (FIGC) ban for alleged financial malpractice extended by FIFA.

Paratici, who began his role at Spurs in July 2021, is one of 11 former Juventus executives who were banned from Italian football in January after the reopening of a trial into alleged false accounting by the Turin club in relation to capital gains.

Juventus were deducted 15 points in Serie A following the hearing and Paratici received a 30-month ban from the FIGC. All 11 of the individuals, as well as the club itself, deny any wrongdoing and an appeal against the FIGC sanctions will be heard by the Italian Olympic Committee on 19th April.

A FIFA statement read: “FIFA can confirm that following a request by the FIGC, the chairperson of FIFA Disciplinary Committee has decided to extend the sanctions imposed by FIGC on several football officials to have worldwide effect.”

Search for next head coach

Paratici was scheduled to lead the search for Tottenham’s next head coach after Antonio Conte left the club by mutual consent on Sunday. However, it is now widely felt that he can no longer continue as the club’s managing director of football. Spurs have yet to comment.

DAZN bids to broadcast every EFL match live

Streaming platform DAZN is bidding to show every single EFL match live in the UK and across the world in a move that would lead to the Saturday 3pm blackout being ditched, The Times reports.

If successful it would mean that all 1,656 matches a season across the Championship, League One and League Two would be screened live. Most of them would remain on Saturdays so the EFL would need to drop the blackout.

Under existing deals, the Premier League makes 200 matches available to three domestic broadcasters a season, and the EFL 138 games plus the play-offs to Sky Sports.

DAZN is understood to be competing against Sky Sports, the rights holders since 2002, as well as the Nordic streaming giant Viaplay – which has just started showing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’s Euro qualifiers – for the next set of broadcast rights from 2024.

Other broadcasters are also considering bidding, with the EFL open to a hybrid option where more than one platform shows matches, including possibly a terrestrial broadcaster. The auction is expected to conclude this summer.

NFL deal

DAZN would be open to sharing some games but wants to position itself as the place to go to see every EFL match for fans both in the UK and abroad, similar to the deal last month when it secured the global rights outside the US to every NFL match.

The EFL rights are traditionally sold in four-year blocks but DAZN would want at least five years and preferably more. The Sky deal is worth £119 million a year but the EFL is aiming to secure more than £200 million annually from the new deal.

“It all makes sense”.

Conrad Wiacek, head of sport analysis at GlobalData, wasn’t really surprised when Bayern Munich and Allianz announced their renewal of the stadium-naming rights deal surrounding the Allianz Arena, where Bayern Munich have played their home matches since it was built in May 2005.

“It’s in line with what Allianz have done across Europe. They continue their partnership with one of the biggest clubs in the world, and also for Bayern Munich it makes sense,” says Wiacek, referring to the deal’s value of €13 million per year, according to German media. That sum is up from around €8 million in the previous agreement. This brings it close to the value of Allianz’s deal with Juventus, which will be worth €14 million a year from 2023/24.

The German financial institution, involved in both insurance and banking, is a massive player in the sports industry, having stadium-naming rights deals with no fewer than seven big stadiums as part of its portfolio – named “Family of stadiums”.

Besides Allianz Arena in Munich, Allianz are also naming rights partner for big stadiums in Sidney Australia, St. Paul in Minnesota US, Nice in France, Sao Paolo in Brazil, Vienna in Austria and Turin in Italy.

However, even though the renewal of the Bayern-deal earlier this week has been labelled as rather predictable, there are several interesting points around the Bayern Munich and Allianz partnership.

First of all, Allianz is sending a strong signal to brands all over the world that you can get significant bang for your buck if you decide to allocate some marketing resources to women’s football. Part of the deal with Bayern Munich is also the financial giant’s continuation as shirt sponsor for Bayern Munich's women’s team.

“To coincide with this the company is launching a new financial coaching service called ‘Ready Coach,’ designed to give young professional female athletes greater financial literacy and confidence in financial dealings,” the press release read.

“As a brand you can achieve quite a significant footprint paying very reasonable money in women’s football. I think it highlights the growth of women’s football. We see brands getting involved in sports because there is a ‘sexy’ element in sports, because it is all about emotions. For a brand like Allianz, and you could always discuss whether financing is sexy or not, but they are definitely building some strong values into their brand with this uplift in what they do for the women’s game,” says Wiacek.

Looking at this deal more broadly, Wiacek believes Allianz is sending a strong signal that it continues to believe in the value of stadium-naming rights deals. And the rise in the value of the deal is also a signal to those clubs around the world who shy away from stadium-naming rights deals for fear it might frustrate fans.

“Especially English fans don’t subscribe to this trend that you can make extra revenue if you connect your stadium to a certain brand. For them the stadium is a piece of inventory which is not for sale.”

In the US, the whole culture around sports is very different, so new stadiums are being built quite often and name changes also occur all the time. It is simply an asset around which you can build value and owners in US sports would never miss out on such opportunities.

“But we all know that it is still a different ballgame in Europe. However, you have many more American owners today in European football, we also see stadiums especially in Italy and Spain being modernised if clubs don’t chose to build whole new stadiums, and you need to finance these building costs. So there are going to be many more stadium-naming rights deals signed in the next decade. The big question is if Premier-League clubs at some stage feel a pressure to actually do these type of deals or if their broadcasting deals can continue to let them ignore this rather big business opportunity,” Wiacek says.

He also mentions the current work being carried out at FC Barcelona’s Spotify Camp Nou and Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium.

“Maybe the clubs in the UK can ignore stadium-naming rights deals being signed by medium-sized clubs around Europe, but if these clubs set a new standard in this area then Premier-League clubs might have to revisit their view on these types of deals.”

And speaking about Premier League clubs, he mentions Tottenham Hotspur too, who were apparently in the market for a naming-rights sponsor for their relatively new state-of-the-art Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. But so far, chairman Daniel Levy hasn’t been able to sign a deal.

“Apparently they are in search of a £20 million a year deal, which I find hard to see materialising. And now we have seen Bayern Munich, a title-winning machine, and one of the biggest clubs in the world, do a €13 million a year deal, then I find it hard to see Spurs sign an even bigger deal – also taking into consideration that NFL games will be played at that stadium,” he says.

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has refuted claims by former sports minister Tracey Crouch that the top-flight was “unwilling to engage” with plans to reform football governance and sought to frustrate the process.

Giving evidence to a parliament committee on Tuesday, Crouch – whose fan-led review was published last November – said the Premier League tried to “kick plans for an independent football regulator into the long grass.”

She told the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) select committee it was “disappointing and surprising” the English top-flight tried to put up “a whole series of hurdles that people are having to constantly jump over.”

Speaking at the same hearing but on a different panel later on, Masters hit back, saying: “We have done nothing but engage with the process. … We scheduled additional meetings in the summer to progress all of our proposals, to address the fan-led review issues. … I don't recognise the 'kick it into the long grass' narrative.”

No comment on Newcastle ownership

Meanwhile, Masters refused to confirm whether the Premier League is investigating Newcastle United’s Saudi Arabian ownership. A number of clubs have asked the league for clarification over who owns the North East club after disclosures in a court case in the US involving the Saudi-owned LIV Golf.

The Premier League allowed the 2021 takeover by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) on the basis that it had received “legally binding assurances that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control Newcastle”. But documents submitted to a US court on behalf of the PIF earlier this month say that it should be regarded as “a foreign state”.

Masters told the DCMS select committee that he could not respond to its questions about the case. “I’m afraid I can’t really comment on it,” he said.

“Even to the point of saying ‘is the Premier League investigating’ it, I can’t really comment. Obviously we are completely aware and you are correct about the general nature of the undertakings we received at the point of takeover but I can’t really go into it at all.”

 

Chelsea may have to raise large sums in summer transfer window to meet FFP rules

Chelsea are facing the prospect of having to raise large sums of money in the transfer market this summer to avoid breaching the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules next year.

Earlier this week the club reported a loss of £121.3 million for the 2021/22 financial year, despite making a profit on player trading of £123.2 million. The club suffered an even bigger deficit of £153.4 million in 2020/21.

The West London club said it “continues to comply with UEFA and Premier League financial regulations.” However, they have spent around £600 million in the past two transfer windows, and prize money is expected to drop after a relatively poor season on the pitch.

Football finance author Kieran Maguire told The Times that the club would be “dancing on the head of a pin” to try to avoid breaching the Premier League’s financial rules this time next year, which allow maximum losses of £105 million over a rolling three-year period.

This three-year period includes 2019/20, when the club made a £32.5 million profit, but that will have dropped off when the Premier League calculates the figures in 12 months’ time and will be replaced by the club’s financial figures for 2022/23.

Substantial amounts

Maguire said Chelsea might have to raise substantial amounts of cash from selling off players to avoid breaching the rules. Last week the Premier League charged Everton with breaching its profit and sustainability rules after three seasons of heavy financial losses.

“The one thing Chelsea have in their favour is that they have a very large squad so they are in a position to raise money by selling players in the summer,” Maguire said. “We have already seen speculation about Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher being sold.”

 

West Ham consider buying loss-making London Stadium

West Ham United are exploring the option of turning their rental of the London Stadium into a permanent purchase, according to The Times.

The Hammers are understood to be open to seeking a full takeover of the former Olympic venue after the stadium’s owner admitted it would remain a burden on the capital’s taxpayers even if a naming rights deal was secured.

The Times has seen unaudited accounts for the publicly funded London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), which are said to show that its subsidiary E20 Stadium Group, which operates the stadium, made a £31.1 million loss in the year ending 31st March, 2022.

Earlier this month, the LLDC chief executive Lyn Garner told the London Assembly she was “very confident” that the LLDC would finally agree a naming rights deal for the stadium this year.

However, it is understood that has not convinced club insiders as even if a deal is done, it would only reduce, not eliminate, the deficit. Garner admitted that even if a naming rights deal for the stadium was achieved, it would still leave an annual operations loss of £8-10 million for the stadium.

Nothing off the table

It is believed West Ham have made it clear that nothing is off the table in terms of making the stadium work, including the club taking it over completely.

Those close to Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech billionaire who became one of the main shareholders in the club in 2021 and who may complete a full takeover, have said he would be open to a deal for the stadium.