By Osasu Obayiuwana
December 11 – Suketu Patel, a former leading official of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), who was at the centre of negotiations for the 12-year $1 billion marketing deal with French company Lagardere Sports (LS), is predicting that the contract’s recent cancellation will lead to “a very difficult period” for CAF.
December 11 – With the winter transfer window looming, KPMG Football Benchmark has updated its players’ value estimates and ranked players by most increased value since the start of the season.
By David Owen
December 8 – Struggling Arsenal have slumped into the red after the bumper profits on player sales that substantially boosted the bottom line in 2017-18 were not replicated in the most recent season.
By David Owen
December 5 – Brighton and Hove Albion, the south coast club winning plaudits for their adventurous style under new head coach Graham Potter, slipped back into loss in their second season in the Premier League.
December 4 – Juventus fans are being given the opportunity to vote on the new goal celebration song that will be played when their team score at the Allianz Stadium in Turin.
Life has certainly not been peaches and cream for former CAF finance director Mohamed El Sherei over the last seven months. In a one-hour exclusive conversation, at the Heliopolis Sports Club in Cairo in November, El Sherei, who has been without an income for several months, spoke frankly, to Insideworldfootball’s Osasu Obayiuwana, on what he says has been a tumultuous period, for him and the organisation to which he once belonged.
City Football Group (CFG)’s business strategy always seemed rather baffling. Yes, OK, assemble a collection of similar businesses – in this case football clubs – inside the same tent and you can shave back-office costs. You might be able to engineer a less wasteful talent development pipeline than one-legged rivals. And if the real aim is soft power, well, the Abu Dhabi flag has been well and truly planted in outposts of the beautiful game from Melbourne to Mumbai.
By David Owen
November 29 – Nearly two years after he put the club up for sale, the Roland Duchâtelet era at Charlton Athletic finally looks to be over.
By David Owen
November 28 – City Football Group (CFG) may step up its hunt for new football investments around the world, following agreement of a $500 million equity investment in the business by Silver Lake, a US private equity firm.
By David Owen
November 28 – City Football Group (CFG) has made its long-awaited move into India, today unveiling a deal to buy 65% of Indian Super League (ISL) club Mumbai City.
By David Owen
November 19 – Manchester City, which last week lost an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to halt UEFA’s investigation into alleged financial fair play irregularities, have reported a flat pre-tax profit of £10.1 million for the year to end-June 2019.
By David Owen
November 15 – The English Football League (EFL) has issued a number of charges against second-tier Sheffield Wednesday relating to alleged breaches of its financial rules.
November 14 – Hertha Berlin investor Lars Windhorst has exercised his option to increase his stake in the Bundesliga club to 49.9%, spending another $109 million on top of the $138 million he spent in June to acquire 37.5%.
November 12 – A ranking of the value of loan players in Big 5 league teams has put former Liverpool striker and Barcelona misfit Philippe Coutinho at the top with a value of €96.5 million – €23.5 million less than the option to buy negotiated between Bayern and Barcelona of €120 million.
November 7 – Premier League fans are paying 31% more in England to follow their teams and the league than they were in 2014/15 season despite the cost of tickets having risen by just 1% over the same period.