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The Great Arsenal Mystery
Posted on December 23, 2009
No, I’m not referring to the near-eponymous classic 1939 black & white film The Great Arsenal Stadium Mystery, which incidentally is now available as a digitally remastered DVD. I’m on about the internecine guerilla war which is currently taking place between Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov. Each has been buying up small tranches of Arsenal […]
Posted in Ownership, Premier League | 1 Comment »
Deconstructing Peter Lorimer
Posted on May 15, 2012
Peter Lorimer’s thoughts on fans being on the boards of football clubs (1) were, at least as reported by the BBC, somewhat confusing and even confused. Certainly his assertion that he does not envisage a member of the Supporters Trust having a place on the Leeds United board is hardly a surprise given the way […]
Posted in Benefactors, Investors, Ownership, Trusts | 4 Comments »
The ins and outs of the transfer window
Posted on September 3, 2011
So, the transfer window finally slammed shut, to use the mandatory cliché, amid the predictable hype. In one respect this was hardly surprising – of the 289 August deals reported by the BBC (1), no fewer than 93, or 32%, had taken place on the final day. In total 141 (49%) had taken place in […]
Posted in Costs, Globetrotterisation, Premier League, Transfers, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
The battle of football’s ‘global brands’ – in Morocco
Posted on August 31, 2011
Last year I blogged on the case of merchandising in Kenya, noting that while clubs such as Arsenal undoubtedly had a presence there, there was little sign of any commercial activity which they were benefiting from. This summer’s trip to Morocco revealed a significantly different situation. The overall impression of the top European clubs’ ‘presence’ […]
Posted in Broadcasting rights, Merchandising, Sponsorship | 3 Comments »
The Big 1, 2, 3 or is it still 4? Or more?
Posted on June 9, 2011
Currently I’m working on a joint research project on various European football leagues with colleagues in Austria. One set of data which we have produced so far casts some light on this perenial debate. The latest version of the date centres of course on whether Liverpool ‘have fallen out of the Top 4′, and/or whether […]
Posted in Governance, History, Premier League, Pyramid movement | 3 Comments »
A day of reckoning
Posted on May 23, 2011
I managed to follow the great play-off between AFC Wimbledon (to whom, many congratulations) and Luton Town (to whom, commiserations) at least live online. Football at its most exciting. I wonder if Andy Burnham chose quite the right words though when he tweeted “Wimbledon back in Football League. Brilliant. A great victory for all football […]
Posted in Broadcasting rights, Costs, Economic impact, Fans, Football Conference, Governance, Merchandising, Premier League, Promotion, Pyramid movement, Relegation, Revenues, Sponsorship | 2 Comments »
The points deduction lottery
Posted on May 13, 2011
As we move towards the end of the season and the state of ‘ups’ and ‘downs’ begins to harden, I am, as usual (here are my earlier findings on this topic), looking more closely at how the deduction of points impacts on the particular clubs who are promoted or, more typically, relegated. The impact (or […]
Posted in Ethics, Governance, Points deduction, Sanctions | 6 Comments »
How utterly, utterly absurd!
Posted on April 20, 2011
There are reports that a Dubai Sheikh is set to buy a La Liga team, possibly Getafe, and add the words ‘Team Dubai’ to the club’s name (1). This is as absurd as Manchester City becoming Manchester City Team Abu Dhabi, for example, or Chelsea becoming Chelsea Team Chukotka, only to be renamed Chelsea Team […]
Posted in Fans, Organisational culture, Ownership | 13 Comments »
The wit and wisdom of Peter Hill-Wood
Posted on April 14, 2011
With the sad loss of Danny Fizman, Peter Hill-Wood was moved, no doubt genuinely, to say: “Danny Fiszman was a visionary Director, a gentleman and a true Arsenal fan. “We are all deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend Danny. His voice, wisdom and presence around the football club he so dearly loved […]
Posted in Ownership, Public relations | 5 Comments »
The scarf your mum knitted and competitive balance
Posted on February 22, 2011
I haven’t been enjoying lunch lately. Nothing to do with the food in the university canteen; it’s my daily read of The Guardian I blame. That Matt Scott in particular had me choking today (1) over my vegetarian shepherds pie, although the oxymoron itself hadn’t put me in the best of moods. I was so […]
Posted in Benefactors, Broadcasting rights, Ethics, Financial doping, Merchandising, Revenues | 1 Comment »
Are our biggest clubs really global brands?
Posted on December 9, 2010
You certainly notice the presence of Premier League clubs in Kenya (where I’ve just been on a somewhat delayed ‘summer’ holiday). Well, of the predictable few. Arsenal are, on the basis of an entirely unsystematic and unscientific survey of shirts and baseball caps and a pretty small sample, the clear number one English club of […]
Posted in Broadcasting rights, Marketing, Merchandising, Sponsorship | 3 Comments »
Groundhog Day for the Trotters?
Posted on November 12, 2010
Reading through my Bolton file certainly makes for consistent reading, although ‘consistently inconsistent’ might be more accurate. “We have to balance the books” he told us as far back as 2003 (1), adding “We can’t afford to spend any money we haven’t got. We’re not going to go down that route.” A fan of Mr […]
Manchester City following in Pompey’s footsteps
Posted on October 2, 2010
Manchester City’s financial results, published earlier this week (1), were generally reported uncritically earlier this week, notwithstanding the key loss of £121m, with the exception at least of The Sun (2), where there was some attempt to look beyond the positive headlining provided by the club. According to the club, the financial highlights could be […]
Posted in Benefactors, Costs, Debts, Ownership | 10 Comments »
The trouble with new stadiums 4 (and final)
Posted on August 10, 2010
[See also The trouble with new stadiums 1, which looked at the argument that "We’re a club with ambition and we need more seats to reflect that ambition", The trouble with new stadiums 2, which looked at the argument that "We’ve got the wrong sort of stadium. We need one better suited to maximising our […]
Posted in Assets, Costs, Debts, Stadium | 13 Comments »
Who loves fans? Who doesn’t?
Posted on July 26, 2010
There’s an interesting pair of stories in the news today. First comes the news (1) that UEFA have introduced a new requirement in their club licensing requirements – the necessity for a club to appoint an operating supporter liaison officer (SLO). The purpose of this rather clumsily named role is to “to ensure a proper […]
Posted in Merchandising, Organisational culture, Premier League, Public relations | Leave a Comment »
