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Walsall: Mama Weer All Crazee Now
Football, it’s all about money, footballers are a bunch of greedy tossers, all clubs lose a fortune and are bankrolled by overseas millionaires, the game is going to destroy itself etc. But here’s a different club. It lives within its means, makes a profit every year, and that’s without selling a single player for a fee, and has 128 staff who between them earn just over half of what Manchester United pay Jesse Lingard. Perhaps it could make you fall in love with the game again? The club is Walsall, in the Black Country, nice little stadium, shame about the lack of decent pubs nearby, but other than that the…
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Celtic: Inbetween Days
Introduction Celtic’s accounts for 2016/17 arrived in our inbox 24 hours before the club lost its 69 game domestic unbeaten run. We recently reported on the financial situation of Rangers, who were promoted to the Scottish Premiership (SPL) in 2016/7. https://priceoffootball.com/glasgow-rangers-201617-orange-crush/ They highlight the paradox of being in their current position, too rich compared to their peers to make Scottish football competitive (although Hearts fans may now query that), but too poor to be able to challenge in the Champions League, leading to their fans searching through Google Maps as they try to find how easy it is to get to St Petersburg on public transport for the forthcoming Europa…
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Sheffield United: Crushed by the wheels of industry
Introduction We’ve always considered Sheffield United to be a big club. Whether that’s due to Tony Currie being a favourite player when I was a kid, Brian Deane scoring the first ever Premier League goal, or Sean Bean’s very public support of the club, we’ve always been well supported, with a decent stadium, so one would expect them to be in the top two divisions. It’s therefore a surprise to see that it took the Blades six years to return to the Championship, since being relegated in 2011. Key figures for 2016/17 Income £11.4m (up 7.5%). Wages £10.0m (down 11.5%) Losses before player sales £7.7m (down 18.1%) Player signings £3.1…
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Grimsby Town: Seven Seas
Introduction Remember ITV Digital? The board of directors of Grimsby Town certainly do. They are still blaming the demise of the company for the financial woes of the club 15 years after the Monkey advertised channel went kaput in…err…March 2002. For those of you unfamiliar with the company. ITV Digital went bust after signing a £105 million per season TV deal for live broadcast of Football League matches. To give some context, the current Sky deal for the Football League is worth about £60 million. Whoever signed the contract on behalf of the Football League was clearly put on the naughty step, as it ended up losing about £180 million…
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West Ham and the London Stadium: Flares ‘n’ Slippers
Introduction: We don’t particularly like politicians here at Price of Football. Not because we have any left/right leanings, our viewpoint is mid-Atlantic on most issues, but because they repeatedly fail the competence threshold, regardless of their affiliations. Present London mayor Sadiq Khan (Labour) commissioned an investigation into the deal which has resulted in West Ham residing in the former 2012 Olympic (now London) stadium. The deal to give the Hammers the stadium was granted by the former administration, run by foot in mouth former mayor Boris Johnson (Conservative). Herein lies the first point, had the previous mayor been Labour, what would be the chances of this investigation and report taking…
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Blackpool: Season in the sun
Owen Oyston, Blackpool’s controversial owner, has put the club up for sale, http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41944602 following losing a legal case with fellow investor Valeri Belokon. Wealthy they may be, but, after the court ruling, in which Oyston and his son, Karl, were ordered to pay Belokon £31.5 million, both Oystons’ had their assets seized. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/nov/06/oystons-blackpool-ordered-pay-shareholder-high-court-valeri-belokon Establishing reliable information as to the extent of the Oyston family wealth is difficult, as between them as Owen Oyston has at least 40 directorships according to Companies House. Never popular with fans, the Oyston empire has many tentacles, but valuing the sum of all the individual elements is difficult. One approach to unravelling the involvement of…
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Glasgow Rangers 2016/17: Orange Crush
Introduction I’ve only ever seen Rangers play once, which was at the 2008 UEFA Cup final. It’s fair to say that there was a discrepancy between the number of people who came to Manchester for the event and those who had tickets. The following morning I was on a breakfast TV show, and had to walk around and over hundreds, if not thousands, of Rangers fans who had decided to sleep al fresco on the streets following the match. 2016/17 saw a return after four years to the Premiership, Joey Barton scrapping with team mates, lawsuits against former directors and Mike Ashley, three managers, fan groups buying shares in the…
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Stoke City 2016/17 Results: Bring on the dancing horses
Introduction We like Stoke City, owned by a local who has underwritten the club’s rise to the Premier League, free coaches organised for fans to away matches, decent ticket prices, oat cakes (if you’ve not tried them you are missing out), cheap beer…and Peter Crouch, one of the game’s most likeable players. The club’s financial results are similar to the club itself. Nothing too flash, solid, dependable, which begs the question, why on earth have they just been relegated? Summary of key figures Income £136 million (up 30%) Broadcast income £108.7 million (up 37%) Wages £84.9 million (up 3%) Wages to income 62% (79% in 2016) Profit before player sales…
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Manchester City: Some girls are bigger than others
Introduction No trophies, third in the league, and the costs of embedding a new managerial regime may have had some thinking City would struggle financially in 2016/17 The headline figures are mixed, income is up significantly, profit before interest down 80%, but the club claims to have no debt and is self sufficient. Direct comparatives with the previous year’s profit and loss account figures are slightly distorted by City having a 13 month period of account for 2016/17, so bear this in mind when looking at growth compared to 2015/16. There’s nothing sinister in our opinion in changing the year end to 30 June. Income Clubs have three sources of…
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Hull City 2017: Marooned in Flamingoland
Introduction They came, they saw, they went back to the Championship. If ever a club in recent years deserves the ‘Yo-Yo’ label, it is Hull City. In the ten seasons commencing 2007-8 the club has been promoted and relegated three times. Hull were promoted via the playoffs in May 2016, but spent the summer in limbo, with a clear conflict between the owner Assem Allam and manager Steve Bruce, presumably over recruitment. Mike Phelan took over as caretaker, and on the back of a victories in the first two matches the club made the decision to appoint him as manager on a full-time basis. It’s doubtful whether any other £100…