To keep you on the edge of your seat, we start this roundup of economic news with an article about the lack of news coming from a club whose relationship with the business concept is tense.
For the record, this is week 31 of the 12-week regulatory approval procedure for the acquisition of Everton through US investment company 777 Partners that commenced on September 15, 2023. It’s also been 31 weeks since the interested parties officially said anything.
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Here’s what you didn’t miss.
777 Partners still has to meet the four situations set out through the Premier League to approve the deal: converting £180 million ($225 million) of recent loans to Everton into equity, and getting £60 million in a reserved account to get the club out of there. In the summer, it secured around £100 million in investments for the entire structure of the new stadium and repaid the £158 million that Everton borrowed from MSP Sports Capital, another US-based investment firm, last year.
That specific loan must be repaid by 11:59 p. m. On Monday, but as the clock struck midnight, the club’s proposed purchase plan was still a pumpkin, and fans’ hopes for a best-case replacement were still in tatters.
Everton owner Farhad Moshiri, who shortly returned to the UK from his base in Monaco to meet with lawyers and watch Everton get pummeled through Chelsea, has repaid the loan. Neither does the 777.
On the other hand, MSP has extended the. . . Well, no one says that, but the clues suggest we’re talking about weeks, not months. This is the same time period as the approval of the 777 buyback. Although this message has been constant since Christmas.
The unspecified extension, however, showed that nothing else would happen, i. e. that the MSP would take over Everton. He could have done so if he had wanted to, as he secured his loan for 50 cents plus one of Moshiri’s. shares of the club, as well as of the subsidiary that owns the Bramley-Moore stadium, three-quarters complete.
So, to sum it up, we have an owner who evidently can’t (or doesn’t want to) repay the MSP loan, finance the stadium structure, or meet the club’s monthly coin needs; a potential customer who tried to raise the coins needed to complete the acquisition, but was unsuccessful; and a creditor who once sought to own Everton, but when presented with the opportunity to do so, made the decision to take advantage of the chance to get his coins back once the summer moving window opened.
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Meanwhile, Everton are locked in a third successive relegation battle, still in conflict with the league over their accounts from last season and just one exhaustion away from the league’s spending regulations for the current season.
No news is good news at Goodison.
GO FURTHER
What do the new PSR regulations mean for any and all Premier League clubs and their transfers?
Okay, so some news.
As David Brent has said, there is smart news and bad news about the FA Cup.
The bad news is that replays are removed from the first round, so would-be giant killers from the lower leagues will no longer be able to earn a second chance at making money at a bigger club. I know, exhausted.
The news is that the fifth round of the cup will again take advantage of a long weekend, such as the third and fourth rounds, to fill calendars and dominate the conversation, with the Premier League also giving the Football Association an extra £33 million a year. . to sprinkle over the base.
So, each and every one of the clouds. . . You’re thinking of bad news, right?
To find out more about the good and bad of this decision, The Athletic wrote this article about the end of replays, but some important points are missing in the articulation that could help make sense of what appears to be a bad deal for the FA itself and a sale of league clubs.
Defending the deal with the Premier League, FA chief Mark Bullingham said the FA Cup “is our biggest asset and generates more than 60 per cent of our profits to invest in the game” and that the deal will “ensure a format for the future”. “. .
That area on the calendar is more valuable than the spice in Frank Herbert’s Dune, so freeing up weekends in England for the biggest rounds of the FA Cup, in terms of broadcast inventory, is a win. The Premier League is also taking a Day Off to give the quarter-finals, semi-finals and FA Cup final time to breathe. On the other hand, the final was moved to the penultimate weekend of the season, leaving the elite to bring the curtain down in England.
But what Bullingham didn’t say is that the FA wants the Premier League’s help to exploit all prospects of those three rounds from Wednesday to Sunday. The elite are simply sidetracking, they are actually promoting the foreign media rights to the FA Cup on behalf of the FA in the name of the FA in the UK in the name of the FA in the UK
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Thus, the value that the Premier League has demanded from its help, in terms of scheduling and sales, is the elimination of replays, a disadvantage that the most sensible clubs have never enjoyed, even before UEFA added two extra matches (and four exclusive weekday time slots). to their competitions. And FIFA has expanded all of its summer tournaments.
The missing piece of this puzzle has to do with the English Football League (second, third and fourth tiers) and the rest of the pyramid. The agreement was intended to be part of the “new agreement for football” announced by the Premier League. The League’s shareholders’ meeting last month.
It is not true that the FA has turned its back on the EFL and struck a sneaky deal with the Premier League – it simply implemented its component of what was intended to be a grand agreement between all stakeholders on the calendar, fee control and solidarity payments.
EFL chief executive Trevor Birch explained this in his reaction to the news, stating that the league had been “involved in discussions about the long term of the calendar” but that they were “based on agreeing a new monetary arrangement with the Premier League for EFL clubs that have progressed”.
He called it “frustrating and disappointing” and said it “represents the classic loss of profit for EFL clubs” as the money gap between the most sensible and the most backward continues to widen.
“We will now talk about the implications for EFL clubs and look for appropriate payment arrangements,” he added.
What he didn’t say, however, is that the EFL was intent on ditching the home-and-away semi-finals for its biggest asset, the EFL Cup, or Carabao Cup, as its sponsors would prefer us to call it. With a new deal on the table, the EFL sold the foreign rights to England’s second soccer cup, adding the semifinals to two matches.
Another compromise lurks in that undergrowth, and it’s the EFL’s other cup competition, the EFL Trophy, or Bristol Street Motors Trophy, to use its official title.
The EFL is inviting 16 Premier League under-21 teams and championship clubs to take part in a festival organised to offer more matches to teams from League One and League Two, the third and fourth tiers of English football.
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Many fans of EFL clubs are still dismayed by this move, as it looks like an attempt to introduce B groups into the pyramid, something that is not unusual in European football but is anathema in England. As a result, the matches are poorly attended until the late stages. However, the Premier League, which needs its teenagers to play against older, more difficult players, subsidizes the festival to make it profitable for everyone.
Guess what? The discussions Birch referred to also included expanding the number of matches played in the EFL Trophy organising stages from 3 to five and inviting all 20 Premier League clubs to participate in the near future.
Oh, and then the Premier League is expected to take responsibility for promoting all media rights to English football, with the proceeds going to a single pool of “net media revenue” from which higher sums can be shared with all levels of the game. hoping to provide an annual income. Playback offers for each and every club.
The FA, of course, knows this because they’ve been in the same talks for over a year, which is another explanation for why they felt the replays of the first and second FA Cup were not worth fighting for. cash in today’s game.
Are you still thinking about what’s new?
What is wanted is an independent regulator for football, and it is at a welcome time that a task has been offered to the chairman of the new regulator, the UK government’s website reported on Thursday.
Envy?
The post will be founded in the “North West”, to create some physical distance between the regulator and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and not be close to Preston’s headquarters as well. great supporter, the EFL.
It’s a task that takes place three days a week and will generate £130,000 a year. The term is five years, but it can be renewed.
Wait a minute. If you don’t have “a solid understanding of economic and monetary regulation”, “a credible understanding of the business of football” (reading this article doesn’t count), “proven experience” in business management, and “experience in business management”. with public scrutiny,” save yourself an email.
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Who gets the task – and most likely a football fan who has worked for a regulator in the past or run a company in a heavily regulated industry – will ultimately be a resolution for the Minister of Sport and his boss, the Secretary of State for DCMS.
But there is also a five-member evaluation advisory committee for ministers to make the decision. It is chaired by two senior DCMS officials, with healthcare expert Hedley Finn serving as an independent high-level member. Michael Grade, veteran television executive and lifetime partner, and Robert Sullivan, CEO of the Football Foundation, dispatch the quintet.
As a former director of the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, The Lord Grade of Yarmouth (to give it its full title) is worth consulting on how to resolve an intriguing dispute between the German Football League (DFL) and UK-based sports. DAZN streaming service.
All this as the DFL this week launched a tender for the next four-year cycle of national rights for the Bundesliga and the second Tier 2 Bundesliga.
These rights, as well as the maximum places, have been divided into more or less packages, some reserved for pay-TV companies and others for free-to-air broadcasters.
DAZN, which has been broadcasting Bundesliga matches in Germany and in several countries since 2021, is convinced that it has made the biggest bet on “package B”, a large package that includes important matches on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons.
However, the DFL rejected DAZN’s offer, which prefers that of its only real rival in the pay-TV sector, Sky Deutschland.
We know this because DAZN CEO Shay Segev wrote a letter complaining about the procedure to the 36 clubs in Germany’s top two divisions, as well as the DFL.
Segev also claimed that the DFL had asked DAZN for a formal bank guarantee to back up its offer at the last moment, when it was going to get it, having settled in the past for a “firm letter of convenience” from the streamer’s parent company.
DAZN is majority-owned by Access Industries, the conglomerate created by Ukrainian-born British-American billionaire Len Blavatnik. DAZN has lost billions since its launch in 2016, but those losses are diminishing as its profits grow, and Blavatnik can do just that.
In a statement, DFL The Athletic said it had made “no mistakes” in the ongoing auction.
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“DAZN’s allegations are erroneous and are rejected by the DFL,” he said, before adding that his confidentiality rules, signed by all parties, added that DAZN would not comment further.
That’s fair enough, but the case has been taken to the German Federal Cartel Office and the Bundesliga’s rights auction is on hold until the regulator rules.
A DAZN spokesperson told us that the company “is concerned about some aspects of the process and has raised those issues with the DFL” but “remains committed to delivering value to the Bundesliga, its member clubs and its fans. “I want to say more at this stage.
DAZN’s policy towards German football has drawn some criticism. There have been technical issues, the site has increased its costs 4 times, and there have been complaints about adding classified ads and a product.
But Sky Deutschland hasn’t won many awards in terms of profitability lately either and is widely for sale. Some (more cynical than us) might suggest that it is in the DFL’s interest to help its Sky Deutschland siblings for the time being. , as the last thing a rights holder wants is an auction with a single bidder.
Meanwhile, DAZN is also trying to buy Ligue 1 rights in France but that auction has been completely shelved because nobody bid enough for the packages. That was six months ago.
Perhaps the Premier League deserves to sell the media rights of all the leagues. He’s smart in this area.
Speaking of mishaps abroad, chaos reigns at Vitesse Arnhem, where the acquisition of the Dutch side proves to be a bridge too far for the Common Group, a New York-based investment firm.
Vitesse, one of the oldest clubs in the Netherlands, is proud of its history of player development but is on the verge of being relegated to second place in the Netherlands after a dismal season.
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But the turmoil on the pitch reflects chaos off the pitch, as the sale to Common Group, first discussed two years ago, was rejected by the Dutch FA’s licensing committee in February, leaving the loss-making club in limbo.
If you’re wondering why it took so long for the independent panel to block the takeover, Common Group boss Coley Parry, whose loans have propelled the club over the past two seasons and now stand at €15 million (£12. 8 million; $16 million).
Parry, whose company also owns stakes in Belgian second-division side K Patro Eisden Maasmechelen, League One’s Leyton Orient and sports knowledge firm StatsBomb, believes the licensing committee has put him in a position by asking him to get a negative result – in this case – which is not related to the sanctioned Russian oligarch and former Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich.
Confused? Well, Vitesse is probably best known outside the Netherlands for his friendship with Abramovich-era Chelsea. Between 2010 and 2022, the Premier League side loaned 29 players to the Dutch team, adding Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Dominic Solanke. .
While rivals mocked him as “Chelsea B”, the London connection allowed Vitesse to compete in the most sensitive part of the Eredivisie for a decade, play in Europe and triumph in two Dutch Cup finals, adding one in 2017.
A Dutch FA investigation into the appointments in 2014 cleared Vitesse of any wrongdoing, but the case was reopened last year when British newspaper The Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism exposed links between the club’s parent company registered in the British Virgin Islands and Abramovich. The Dutch Federation has launched another investigation and we are waiting for its publication. Both groups have denied in the past that Abramovich was involved in Vitesse’s investment.
Parry’s deal in 2022 was with Valeriy Oyf, the Russian businessman who bought the club from Abramovich’s best friend, Alexander Chigirinsky, in 2018. Parry told The Athletic that the fact that he accepted the deal was enough for him to be considered suspicious through the licensing committee, he also felt that the licensing committee doesn’t like investors from various clubs and that the dispute with him has become personal.
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When asked about this via The Athletic, the Dutch FA declined to comment on the specifics, but referred us to the February statement that Common Group had not shown who their investors were, how much money they owned, or where it came from. Parry disputes this claim and has lodged a complaint with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Meanwhile, Parry has become the villain of the pantomime in Arnhem, a situation he finds deeply frustrating, as he believes he has done nothing so far to offer Vitesse and the Dutch FA proposals to overcome the impasse.
The irony is that if he had found three friends to make this deal with him, everything would have gone well, as the licensing committee controls shareholders who take more than 25 percent of a club.
This is what Chinese-American businessman Chien Lee and his American partner Paul Conway have just acquired in Den Bosch, where the multi-club investors sold the secondary component to Chinese businessman Eric Li Ying and Dutch investor Eddie Tao. Anonymous Chinese components.
This sale reduced the number of clubs owned or co-owned through Chien Lee and Conway to a modest seven. Meanwhile, the new owners of Den Bosch are keen to expand and have recently been in talks to buy Beerschot, the Belgian team that is from the club organization run by Sheffield United and owned by Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.
Those talks have stalled, however, as Beerschot’s efforts to move up to the more sensible department have led the prince to wonder if they might be worth a little more than he had initially estimated.
So we begin and end with takeover sagas involving mounting debts, regulatory confusion and multi-club investors.
But don’t think that football without fans is nothing. Keep telling you that.
(Top photo: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)