Huge transfer fees ensure the continent’s elite competition remains a closed shop only a handful are capable of winningBarcelona, with their Johan Cruyff-influenced idea of the game, were once more than just a club. Today, despite high debts, they operate like all the rest. They invest on a scale that very few can afford. Barça officials know that the market will grow for years. So the annual balance sheet doesn’t count for them; they calculate in decades.Barça bought Robert Lewandowski, among others, for €45m from Bayern Munich this summer. He is 34 and does not represent the continuation of tiki-taka. But he has been top scorer in the Bundesliga seven times. Continue reading...
Without some cap on spending, the rest can only look on in awe as England’s super-clubs disappear into the distanceRemember the pandemic? Remember when we thought nothing would be the same again? Remember when we thought the damage done to football’s finances was so severe that transfer fees might never recover? We were part right. This summer, Premier League clubs have spent €2.25bn (£1.94bn), more than La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 combined.The net spend is even more remarkable: €1.35bn for Premier League clubs, with La Liga a distant second on €52.44m (and then only because of Barcelona’s lever-driven splurge). Continue reading...
England’s Euro 2022 triumph opened up an image of what is possible when excellence and team cohesion are the driversIf there is one phrase that we keep hearing when talking to other people in the game, it is that “football is different to other businesses”. Granted, you never see employees kissing the logo of their company shirts, but it seems to be used as an excuse for unsustainable business models, concentrating power in a small group of individuals, ignoring broader stakeholders and propping up outdated, often sexist cultures. Throughout my career, I’ve witnessed signals that indicate an opportunity for disruption in other industries; travel in the late 1990s, dating and financial services in the last 15 years. I think those...
Mbappé staying in Paris has angered Real Madrid and La Liga but PSG argue the eye-watering numbers add up in their favourSo whose side are you on in the fallout following Kylian Mbappé’s decision to stay with Paris Saint-Germain? Watching the extraordinary outrage in Spain, with the press accusing the Frenchman of lacking class and La Liga branding the deal as “scandalous”, has raised eyebrows. But not as many as PSG being able to stump up a €200m-plus package for the world’s best player – despite making a €224m loss last year.There are no good guys here, only a gnawing unease that the laws of economic gravity are being defied to the further detriment of the game we love. As...
The contents mulls over the same glaring issues and structural dysfunctions as previous reports with one huge differenceFor the many lovers of football who have long campaigned for reforms to the game’s modern mega-commercialisation, the contents of Tracey Crouch’s “fan-led review” are so familiar it manages to be simultaneously agonising and strangely reassuring. It mulls over the same glaring issues and structural dysfunctions as all the previous earnest reports that have piled up since the Football League’s First Division clubs broke away to form the Premier League 29 years ago, and reaches essentially the same conclusions.But there is a huge difference this time, making it a genuine landmark. The review shows politicians have had enough of being fobbed off, and...