Skip to content

Archive for

Jul 5

Charitable football club

Charity begins at home

……and goes to Brighton, Old Trafford and further afield.  I know many embark on charitable feats and link to local communities, as indeed they should.  One Club I am currently associated with embodies all that is good with such an approach.  Huddersfield Town.

I choose to highlight last season’s bike ride by supporters to an away game in Brighton and their trip to the play off final in Manchester. 

In the former, 170 cyclists rode 270 miles, raising more than £250,000 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the Club’s Academy.  Even David Cameron applauded the result. This on the back of a similar previous year’s adventure to Southend (A). 

More recently I was one of several businesses that made a donation so that 800 under-privileged children received free tickets and transport to watch Huddersfield in the npower League One play-off final at Old Trafford. 

Both the successes have led to the Club establishing a Foundation with my input.

Jul 5

Stockport County Jigsaw
1 Comment

Jigsaw pieces

So Tony Evans is the new Owner at “County”.  The article suggests his first step will be to bring in Bell Pottinger.  Well it doesn’t take a genius to know on a commercial basis that their fees wouldn’t be viable in a non-league (or even lower league) environment.  However, if yesterday’s ‘scoop’ is anything to go by they may be in need of even more PR help if the rumours are found to be true.

@nonleagueshow has suggested that Evans may be a front man for Stephen Vaughan.  Known for the wrong reasons in football especially more recently at Chester City FC (R.I.P).

Rob Dawson at Manchester Evening News said about the imminent takeover “They’ve gone about things in a very professional way, which can only be a good thing.” 

If the belief is founded then I really worry.  You only need to read the award winning football blog “Football Management” to witness facts about some of the characters behind the scenes.

Just had it confirmed by a Stockport County employee that one of Vaughan’s right hand men is now running the Club’s Training Ground.  Are the pieces in this nightmare starting to fall in to place or may a clearer less alarming picture come out?

Jul 1

Premiership match

Top returns

If you add the turnover of every club in the EPL (English Premier) it has now reached the massive figure of £2.03 Bn.  Next year it is estimated to be over £2.2 Bn.  This market intelligence comes from Deloitte (who else?).  Is it any surprise that these teams search for ways to make token gestures to football further down the pyramid by means of grants!

The 20th Annual Review of Football Finance further announced that the whole European football market grew to a record £13.3 Bn. Constituent ‘slices of the pie’ were: Germany (£1.4 Bn), Spain and Italy (£1.3 Bn) and France (£0.9 Bn). All noticeably less than EPL.  Warning signs continue with EPL wage costs rising by £64M but sales revenues just £49M.  Now there is a record wages to revenue ratio of 68%. 

Returns are on a high yet fundamental flaws in sustainability and financial viability mean a ‘slight wind change’ can sink the ship aka ‘Pompey’ (though with additional excruciating factors).

Newer Entries »