Finances in football

In a time when finance at football clubs is coming under scrutiny we take a brief look at what is happening in England now that the transfer window has slammed shut for the season and how clubs are facing a difficult time with money troubles.

This January’s transfer window saw Premier League clubs spend just £30 million, some £140 million short of last year’s £170 million figure. Granted most of the £170 million last year was spent by Manchester City but this is still a dramatic decrease and is a seven year low.
The majority of this month’s deals were loan deals. The feeling is that many clubs didn’t want to panic buy during this window and commit financially during this window and are now waiting until the summer to do the majority of their business.
The biggest deals of the window were Adam Johnson’s move from Middlesbrough for £7 million, Asmir Begovic moving from Portsmouth to Stoke for £3.25 million and Robbie Keane’s sensational loan move from Spurs to Celtic.

Club finances.

Cardiff issued a ‘Golden Ticket’ promotion and said that the advanced season ticket sales for the 2010/2011 season would go towards funding transfers during the January transfer window. The club were hoping to sell 10,000 advanced season tickets so that it would raise around £3 million for Dave Jones to spend during this month and if Cardiff were to be promoted at the end of the season the fans would be refunded the money as a thank you for their help.



Unfortunately with a £2.7 million tax bill hanging around their necks and a winding up order brought by HM Revenue and Customs due in court on 10th February over the unpaid sums. Chairman Peter Ridsdale has since come out and admitted that this money will now be used to pay the taxman and has insisted fans that he did not deliberately mislead them and the money was genuinely for the transfer kitty. Fans have angrily rejected Ridsdale’s apology and are now seeking a public meeting with him. All this comes at the same time that it’s been revealed that Cardiff have paid Ridsdale and his consultancy company a total of £1.5 in wages and fees over the last two years.

During the course of the last two seasons we have seen a number of teams fall into administration due to the increasingly difficult time lower league clubs are having keeping up with their financial commitments. A few clubs include Bournemouth, Rotherham, Luton, Darlington, Southampton and more recently Crystal Palace are some of the clubs that have been hit hard over the last few years.
A number of clubs have been close to going into administration and are fighting for their lives as the taxman circles around the poor clubs that are unable to pay HM Revenue and Customs and threaten to take some of the clubs that are at the heart and soul of English football and put them out of business.
Portsmouth is the highest profile club in the spotlight over the last few months. They have repeatedly been late in paying wages to their playing staff and coaches, instalments on transfer deals have been unpaid and a winding up order has also been put on the club. All this is despite Portsmouth being taken over twice in the last 12 months, firstly by rich Arab business man Sulaiman Al-Fahim and then 40 days later he sold a 90% stake to Saudi Arabian rich man Ali al-Faraj, but despite both promising to transfer funds into the club this has never happened and the club are plunging further into financial insecurity and close to administration.

Club debt seems to be soaring as England’s top clubs are falling further into debt.
Manchester United are £716 million in debt, Liverpool are over £500 million in debt and both clubs are finding the interest payments alone on these debts a huge burden on them. Despite these massive debts the clubs are still doing business as usual whereas the smaller clubs that are probably the most important teams in the English leagues are coming close to extinction.

Clubs must now realise how much the countries recession has affected the average football fan as there were very few ticket price decreases at the start of the season and this has resulted in lower season ticket sales amongst some clubs.

One club full of disillusioned fans is QPR.



Having been taken over by a consortium of 3men, Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal, the club became the richest club in English football (before Manchester City then became the richest following their takeover). The fans were told of a four year plan that would see the club rise into the Premiership and being established there before pushing for a Champions League place.
In the new owners first full season in charge season ticket prices rose from £450 up to £599 in many areas of the ground whereas the most expensive seat in the stadium went from £510 up to £699.
Following nine manager changes, an inflated wage bill and a few licks of paint around the stadium, the club are no nearer to realising the dream that was envisioned and now the supporters and Flavio Briatore are at logger heads over the direction of the club. The Chairman is quoted to of said the following: "People forget very quickly what I did for this club. Some fans, because they pay £20, they want to criticise.
"It's very easy for me to walk away. I don't have any problem with that. We want to keep the club but somebody needs to remember QPR three years ago and look at it now. Some people are jealous. There's a lot of jealousy.”
This caused uproar amongst the fans and a protest after Saturdays game against Scunthorpe was held outside the directors entrance as songs like “You can shove you’re £20 up you’re a#$e” were aimed towards the Chairman.

One club that have got things right over the past few years is Aston Villa.



Randy Lerner has come into the club and has begun to run the business side of things professionally by giving Martin O’Neill funds to buy players which are mainly of English heritage. Along with this Lerner has given his shirt sponsorship to local charity Acorns, rather than sell the space to a big money sponsor. Acorns is a children’s hospice trust that offers support to life-limited children and helps families across the West Midlands.
This coupled with consistently low season ticket prices over the past few years (from £295 upwards) has seen the club become one of the most respected clubs amongst football fans.

Another club that seem to have the right idea about how to do business with the fans is Mansfield Town.
For Saturday’s home fixture against Gateshead the clubs owners are giving both sets of fans the chance to pay whatever they want to watch the game in an attempt to fill their 10,000 capacity Field Mill stadium.
With the club averaging an attendance of under 3,000 fans, the owner want to use this opportunity to thank the town for the support they have given them since their takeover in 2008 and want to give them something back as well as trying to attract supporters from within the town and outlying districts.

It’s nice to see two clubs reach its arm out to its community and want to share the passion that it brings to everyone.