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President Klaus and Newcastle United
Posted on November 3, 2009
Not perhaps a natural pairing – the President of the Czech Republic and a major English football club – but those who read the front pages of the papers as avidly as the back pages may just see where I am going with this. If not, please stick with me. As I write, the only […]
Posted in Benefactors, Governance, Ownership, Stadium | 1 Comment »
The Magic of Football – still there in the Cups?
Posted on January 27, 2012
It’s increasingly difficult to see any magic in the beautiful game other than black magic, especially when you look at it from a financial perspective. You only need to think of the narrow escapes at Plymouth and Wrexham recently, and both Portsmouth and Darlington are standing on the edge of the precipice. The Cups may […]
Posted in Community, Fans | Leave a Comment »
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 »
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 »
The trouble with new stadiums 1
Posted on June 27, 2010
You may have noticed – I am not a fan of the new stadium. At the Supporters Direct Conference I spoke briefly about ‘the myth of the new stadium’, and over a couple of postings I’ll elaborate on why I don’t, in general, rate them. Broadly, there are three lines of argument that are trotted […]
Posted in Stadium | 7 Comments »
The times they are a-changin’ 2
Posted on April 1, 2010
[The second of an intermittent series of reflections on a new and positive zeitgeist in English football which has been developing over the past year. See also the first] A couple of years ago Supporters Trusts seemed destined to be confined to clubs in the lower levels, notwithstanding that they had already proved their worth […]
Posted in Ownership, Trusts | 2 Comments »
Pack Up Pompey?
Posted on December 10, 2009
Well, according to the club itself in a statement issued this morning, “The club is not going into administration. If that were the case it would have happened at the end of September or early October. This week alone, HM Revenue and Customs were paid £2m and other historical arrears are being dealt with on […]
Posted in Insolvency, Marketing, Public relations | 1 Comment »
Liverpool and the Auditors
Posted on June 11, 2009
KPMG, the auditors of Liverpool, have warned of a “material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt upon the group’s ability to continue as a going concern” (1). So, what does the qualification of a company’s accounts by its auditors imply? With a conventional business it would certainly be a cause for concern, and an indicator […]
Posted in Debts | Leave a Comment »
Premier League wages
Posted on June 6, 2009
Deloitte’s Annual Review of Football Finance is eagerly awaited by fans of the football business, and this week’s appearance was no exception (1). Their view that, all in all, the Premier League garden is rosy, was repeated in reports such as that of the BBC, which is headlined “Premier League ‘defies downturn’” (2). Over recent […]
Posted in Costs, Revenues, Wages | Leave a Comment »
Councils & Clubs – Southampton, Darlington, Cheltenham Town and Bury
Posted on April 3, 2009
Historically the link between councils and football clubs has been the ownership of stadiums. Today in the Premier League only Hull City and Newcastle United retain this link, yet another indicator of the post-commercialised game. But are new links emerging? As the precarious future of Southampton is picked over, the Daily Echo reports that the […]
Posted in Community, Insolvency | 1 Comment »
