MO’ MONEY MO’ PROBLEMS
“Long-term growth”, “profit and sustainability’, “investment for the future”, “rising costs of goods and services”: the language of modern football has become interchangeable with the halting guff coughed out by UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt in Wednesday’s budget. Indeed, football finance is such big news that recent years have witnessed the growth of a new subset, the “football finance expert”. It can be a broad church, from Gianni Infantino rolling in Saudi money, to Big Sir Jim’s Manchester United revolution, via more parochial stuff like the running costs of Neasden FC since Buffy Cohen flounced out. It can be a vital service, as spreadsheets, balance sheets and profit and loss accounts strain the eyes of those not blessed with accountant-standard numeracy.
As growth industries go, this season has been something of a bull market (yes, Football Daily watched Trading Places recently), with an understanding of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules becoming a requirement. Everton’s 10-point penalty, reduced to six, was just the dry run. The Ev’s accountants have further explaining to do, and another penalty may ensue. Then there’s Nottingham Forest, awaiting a ruling on a recruitment process best caricatured as Brewster’s Millions on beast mode. Then there’s the Big Daddy, Manchester City’s 115 charges, as long in the making and probably set to be as disappointing as the Roses’ Second Coming. Others are entering the chat. Leicester may be riding high in the Championship, but the EFL’s finance bods have them on course to break financial rules this season. The final Premier League and Championship tables may both yet be wreathed in asterisks, though Leicester, for their part, say the EFL is out of its goddamned jurisdiction because the money was lost when in the Premier League.
Awaiting entry to the chat: Chelsea. There’s a further subset of the subset of football finance experts, the partisan football finance expert twitching curtains while waiting for other clubs’ financial results to show their club is run perfectly sensibly, actually. For them, Chelsea are the mother lode. And they won’t be disappointed: on Wednesday, Chelsea reported a pre-tax loss of £90.1m after £121.4m the previous year. The rules state they are allowed to lose a maximum of £105m over three years, not one. The club “continues to comply with Uefa and Premier League financial regulations”, droned a statement.
Whoops. Hurrah! Arf! And yet: how can clubs stay within the rules? Stop lavishing silly money on rubbish players while enriching Mr and Mrs 15%s? Yes, perhaps, but there are other, more captive revenue streams. Tottenham have announced a six per cent hike in ticket prices, including a change – increase – to the pricing for seniors. “These changes pull the rug out from under the feet of pensioners after years of loyal support,” railed the supporters’ trust. The club meanwhile tooted about increases in “utilities, rates and consumables, along with the need to continue to operate on a sustainable basis”, leaving fans to find words rhyming with the chancellor.
LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE
It’s a big night in Big Vase and John Brewin will have MBM coverage of Roma 2-1 Brighton, while Simon Burnton will cover Sparta Prague 0-3 Liverpool (both 5.45pm GMT), before we mop up the 8pm kick-offs in Will Unwin’s clockwatch.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Many of the women we spoke to shared their passion and love for coaching but also talked about the exhaustion that came from being regularly undermined, questioned and overlooked in the coaching environment” – Kick It Out’s Hollie Varney on the results of its study which found 80% of UK-based female respondents had experienced sexism in a coaching environment.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
As a Jane-come-lately to the world of tribal support, I’m utterly delighted by yesterday’s Football Daily on the Championship. I have no erudite analysis and neither do I want to win a prize, but well done for championing the Championship. Love from a relatively recent Leicester supporter” – Krystyna Findley.
As Sarah Rothwell alluded to in yesterday’s Football Daily letters about the travails of my local team, the Colorado Rapids, they stink now. But they were once good and even won the MLS Cup in 2010 when they were led by free-scoring Jamaican forward, Omar Cummings. Since then, they’ve struggled to win, at altitude or at sea level, and I haven’t been so regularly. For a while, I blamed the club’s failings on Stan Kroenke’s ownership, but then his Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, his Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl and his Denver Nuggets won the NBA title. Then, I started to base my non-attendance on Kroenke’s lack of soccer acumen but, surprisingly, Arsenal became good again and that reason lost relevance. As the new season begins (we have one point through two matches), my current excuse for staying away from the Rapids is, to paraphrase Bajan cricket fans from back in the day: no Cummings, no goings” – R Reisman.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … R Reisman.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
The Football Weekly Extra podcast is here, here, here.
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