By David Owen
May 24 – For years, cost control has proved elusive in football. While revenue growth was the envy of most other industries, the issue was manageable. But with the covid crisis coinciding with pressure on the broadcasting rights valuations that have been football’s gold-mine for so long, the reckoning has arrived.
May 21 – The MLS’s Houston Dynamo and NWSL’s Houston Dash are being sold to New York businessman and real estate mogul Ted Segal for about $400 million.
May 20 – Embattled Spanish giants FC Barcelona have secured a €500 million loan from US bank Goldman Sachs to ensure the club’s operations can run stably in the next two years.
May 19 – Bundesliga clubs have turned down interest from private equity investors expressing an interest in investing in a minority stake in the newly created entities that will sell the league’s international rights.
May 17 – The German Football League’s (DFL) raising of €500 million from venture capital markets will move into the next phase on Wednesday when club vote on plans that effectively move second round bidders into a final negotiation for a stake in the Bundesliga’s overseas rights.
May 14 – Socios.com have expanded their blockchain driven Fan Token cryptocurrency platform from clubs to national federations, with The Argentine Football Association (AFA) being the first to sign on for the launch of the national team’s Official $ARG token.
May 14 – A joint project between FIFA and FIFPro to help players whose salaries were not paid has sent $2 million to more than 400 applicants from Greek and Turkish clubs.
May 13 – A re-evaluation of player market values (an indicator of potential transfer fees) by the KPMG Football Benchmark has found that “player values have been stagnant over the past six months, and most players have still not regained their ‘pre-pandemic’ market value.”
May 11 – MLS club Orlando City SC is close to changing hands with reports that majority owner Flávio Augusto da Silva is completing a deal with the Wilf family, owners of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.
May 10 – Newly crowned Italian champions Inter Milan have asked their players to freeze two months of wages to head off a financial crisis.
By Paul Nicholson
May 7 – The English Championship finishes its season tomorrow with focus not on promotion but on the relegation battle between two of England’s former club giants turned financial horror stories.
May 7 – Italy’s Serie A has become the first football league to embrace the potential of cryptocurrency, unveiling Crypto.com as a partner and launching the collaboration at the Atalanta vs Juventus Coppa Italia final (May 19) with a special NFT collection, including the official trophy and match highlights.
May 7 – RedBird Capital Partners have invested in plagued Spanish club Malaga, building a football club portfolio alongside Fenway Sports Group (FSG).
By David Owen
May 4 – The Football Association managed to report a small profit and to invest nearly £150 million in the sport in 2019-20, in spite of being hard hit by the early months of the covid pandemic.
By David Owen
April 28 – The value of long-term bank loans on Liverpool’s balance-sheet almost quadrupled in size in 2019-20 to stand at just under £197 million on May 31. But year-end cash was up by a similar proportion at £149.3 million.