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Posts from the ‘Football Finance’ Category

Oct 11

Cim Bom Call

Not a five-year, nor ten-year plan – the time is NOW for a Euro League exclaims the Chief of Galatasaray Football Club, know affectionately as “Cim Bom”.

Unal Aysal, President of the Turkish Giant hopes for a 20 strong League in 2018, to replace the current Champions League format.  He goes on to say: “It’s the future of football. It has to be created, and not in 10 years, but as soon as possible.  Football is a great industry, a growing industry. A European super league would bring a lot of support and energize football in general. I think it would be 20 big teams, with three to five teams changing every year. It can be fixed in a way to be useful to European football and bring new horizons by football. It can be controlled by UEFA or the clubs, preferably by the clubs.”

The European Club Association and UEFA naturally resisted any attempt to give the Turk’s lone voice any credence – giving the party line that a Euro League is already in place, “the Champions League”. Purely rhetoric, or a PR stunt, who knows? Aysal says that financial backers and sponsors are queuing up but anybody can say that. Show me the money or commitment from the other clubs to this proposition.

Who makes the cut off will be interesting. Naturally, Cim Bom expects to be there. Celtic is one such club that would be anxious to continue to gain a share of the European purse having banked circa £22M last year. Real Madrid, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain are allegedly plotting.

The proposed timeline synchronises with the expiry of the memorandum of understanding between UEFA and the European Clubs Association, a framework for European club and international football, which runs to the end of May 2018.

Sep 5

Bigger than UTD

I have just this week decided to advertise with FC Business.  The same publication illustrates some recent interpretations of Brand Finance’s values attributed to leading clubs.  I give a synopsis of some  of the major points though the full article can be read here.

The Germans with Bayern Münich jump ahead of Manchester United and become the World’s most valuable football club brand at $860M!

Borussia Dortmund – the Wembley rival to above, achieved 14% brand value growth to $260M

Real Madrid increase its ‘brand value to $621M (Barcelona’s was however hit and faced an $8M drop!)

Turkish and Brazilian brands improve due to their flourishing economies (Galatasaray up to $116M)

Summary table 2013:

Rank

 Club

Brand Value  ($M)

Change (%)

1

 FC Bayern Münich

860

9%

2

 Manchester United

837

-2%

3

 Real Madrid

621

4%

4

 FC Barcelona

572

-1%

5

 Chelsea

418

5%

6

 Arsenal

410

6%

7

 Liverpool

361

-2%

8

 Manchester City

332

10%

9

 AC Milan

263

-10%

10

 Borussia Dortmund

260

15%

11

 FC Schalke

259

-3%

12

 Tottenham Hotspur

219

-3%

13

 Juventus

180

12%

14

 Ajax

162

-12%

15

 Inter Milan

151

-30%

16

 Hamburg SV

144

-6%

17

 Galatasaray AŞ

116

NA

18

 Marseille

111

-34%

19

 SC Corinthians

103

34%

20

 Napoli

101

20%

21

 Olympique Lyonnais

101

-16%

22

 Fenerbahçe SK 

95

N/A

23

 Bayer Leverkusen

90

41%

24

 Paris Saint-Germain

85

34%

25

 VfB Stuttgart

83

18%

26

 Valencia CF

83

22%

27

 VfL Wolfsburg

82

25%

28

 AS Roma

82

-3%

29

 West Ham United

82

17%

30

 Newcastle United

81

-6%

31

 Aston Villa

80

-8%

32

 SV Werder Bremen

79

17%

33

 Everton

78

0%

34

 Fulham

75

16%

35

 Sunderland

72

10%

36

 Beşiktaş JK

71

NA

37

 Atlético Madrid

67

34%

38

 Santos

65

70%

39

 São Paulo

62

6%

40

 PSV Eindhoven

61

-18%

41

 Stoke City

59

6%

42

 Benfica

56

NA

43

 Sevilla

56

14%

44

 Celtic

55

-13%

45

 Flamengo

55

20%

46

 Internacional

55

8%

47

 West Bromwich Albion

54

NA

48

 Bordeaux

53

-30%

49

 Fiorentina

52

15%

50

 Lazio

52

 12%

Aug 29

Stockport County Minithon 2011

ACV not AVB

The concept is gaining momentum not least through Supporters Direct’s motivation.  In my tenure as director of Stockport County Supporters’ Co-operative we authorised such an approach to Edgeley Park.  It’s fair to say Stockport MBC had no idea what this meant having never faced such a request before.  At least there are precedents now including: Oxford United to Liverpool.

The main attraction, in theory, is that “under recent legislation if a stadium gets an ACV designation, and its owners later decide to sell up, they must first offer fan bodies or other community groups first chance to make an offer for the ground.”.

A current collective of County fans has sought to reignite this proposition. Will they beat Manchester United to it? What I require to fully appreciate is what this will ‘fans’ or ‘financiers’ do after any such notification, to fund any alternative holding?  It will however, hamper asset stripping.

Aug 29

Football Apprentices

Not for the first time do HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) turn their attention to the ‘beautiful game’. Clubs who fail to pay their staff the National Minimum Wage will be prosecuted.  Never mind the minimum wage, there has been a spate of recruitment adverts offering the opportunity for work, without pay!  2013-14 will result in penalties (or at least that’s the threat).  It doesn’t stop there, HMRC says some clubs are not paying backroom staff the legal minimum.  Research has illustrated that posts are being advertised for work at football clubs in areas such as sport science, marketing, supervisors etc. HMRC is now taking pre-emptive action to safeguard workers by contacting 44 football clubs, to ensure they are not breaching minimum wage regulations.

Michelle Wyer, Assistant Director of HMRC’s National Minimum Wage team, says: “Paying the National Minimum Wage is not a choice – it’s the law. It can’t be right that as some players are paid millions of pounds, other members of staff are paid below the legal limit.  HMRC enforces the rules, protecting workers from rogue employers and ensuring they get at least the wage to which they are legally entitled. Where an employer ignores these rules, we will take steps to ensure arrears are paid out in full and the employer fined. In the most serious cases, criminal prosecution can follow.”

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