Premier League
TOTTENHAM BEAT MAN UTD, LIVERPOOL AS PREMIER LEAGUE’S MOST VALUABLE CLUB
According to a Daily Mail report, Tottenham have been named the most valuable football club in the Premier League, according to an in-depth university study.
Despite seemingly losing their way this season following the dizzying heights of last year’s Champions League final, Tottenham have somehow managed to blow away the likes of Manchester City and a resurgent Liverpool with their business model.
Top flight teams have been assessed from a multitude of angles and, despite Spurs being still yet to place silverware into a spacious trophy cabinet, the north London club are out-performing their UK rivals when it comes to monetary value.
In a new body of work compiled by University of Liverpool Management School football finance expert Kieran Maguire, Tottenham have been shown to have gained several yards on competitors with thanks to their highly regimented and generally low wage system, along with a ‘highly commercial’ stadium with continuous earning potential.
The new figures show the rise and falls of the top flight sides, when placed against a comparison model originally conducted in 2018.
Spurs, who now place first with an overall club value of £2.567billion, leap up from their third placed standing in 2018 – then deemed to be worth £1.837bn.
Pep Guardiola’s super rich City, who topped the 2018 table with a value of £2.364bn, drop into second after seeing a decrease in value to the figure of £2.2bn. This comes despite City’s historic quadruple win during the 2018-19 campaign.
Liverpool have risen in overall value thanks to their meteoric success and plentiful broadcast revenue, building upon their 2018 valuation of £1.356bn (which saw them placed sixth) to a total of £1.627bn in the most recent study (fourth).
Manchester United drop from being the second most valuable team in 2018 (at £1.935bn) despite registering financial growth, now at £2.080bn, to sit behind Spurs and City in third.
Maguire explains: ‘Spurs are top of the valuation table because in 2018-19 they delivered a Champions League final and a top four Premier League finish on a wage budget that was £100-150m lower than the rest of the “Big Six”.
‘As such they made more profits, and this was reflected in the final valuation number.
‘These factors led to a 21 per cent increase in income, to £461m for Spurs in 2018-19, against an unbelievably light 39 per cent player wage cost – the lowest ratio in the Premier League.
‘By comparison, top four rivals Leicester City see 84 per cent of their income eaten up by player wages. Tottenham also only spent a net £22m on players – only Watford spent less (£21m) – where Chelsea spent net £290m, Liverpool £223m, Man Utd £135m and Man City £87m.’
Overall, the assessment does not paint a picture of financial security for Premier League clubs, with a collective loss of £384m sustained across the 2018-19 season.
More than half of the division’s clubs (eleven) rely on broadcast income for at least 75 per cent of their revenue. Reaching the top table for promoted clubs is also no longer necessarily a path to profitability.
For example, Bournemouth’s income has increased by £126m since their League One days back in 2012-13 – but player costs have increased by £134m at the same time. Crystal Palace’s profits have also fallen every year since promotion, to reach negative £38.9m in 2018-19.
Money in football is a hot topic right now, with many teams across the country facing the real prospect of going under as the coronavirus pandemic blights the game.
Club values will take a considerable hit during this period, while there are fewer potential buyers in the market and greater uncertainty in terms of clubs’ ability to generate income.
Maguire feels football will continue to feel the fall, which will undoubtedly impact financial studies for years to come.
Smaller sides, naturally, are set to be hit hardest.
‘We have seen the share prices of clubs with shares quoted on the stock exchanges, such as Manchester United and Juventus, fall by 20-30 per cent since the start of the year,’ Maguire adds.
‘This is likely to be greater for smaller clubs who don’t have the marketing and reputational might of the well-known brands.’
Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 1-0 to remain top of the Premier League as Arsenal and Manchester City came from behind to win on Saturday.
City were 3-2 victors over Fulham to stay one point behind Liverpool, alongside Arsenal who saw off Southampton 3-1.
Arne Slot has now won nine of his first 10 games since succeeding Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager, but was frustrated that the visitors invited a late onslaught from the winless Eagles.
Jota prodded the Reds into the lead from Cody Gakpo’s cross on nine minutes.
The Portuguese international was then guilty of missing two big chances to extend Liverpool’s advantage.
Palace failed to make them pay, but victory came at a cost for Slot as goalkeeper Alisson Becker limped off with a hamstring injury.
“If you score the second you break them mentally,” said Slot. “All the fans kept believing in a result because it was only 1-0, even though in my opinion we were the dominant team.”
Fresh from a dominant win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, Arsenal were expected to sweep aside winless Southampton.
But the Saints shocked the Emirates 10 minutes into the second half when Cameron Archer fired in his first Premier League goal since a summer move from Aston Villa.
The lead only lasted three minutes before Kai Havertz scored for the seventh consecutive home game.
Gabriel Martinelli was introduced after an hour and took just eight minutes to make his mark with a finish on the volley from Bukayo Saka’s cross.
Having set up Arsenal’s first two goals, Saka pounced on a loose ball to score the third himself.
Fulham’s outrageous opener
Rodri’s season-long absence due to a serious knee injury is expected to be a major blow to City’s chances of retaining the title for a fifth consecutive season.
But it was the Spaniard’s deputy Mateo Kovacic who scored twice to turn the game around for the champions at the Etihad.
The visitors had not lost since the opening night of the season at Manchester United and led thanks to Andreas Pereira’s finish from an outrageous backheel assist by Raul Jimenez.
Kovacic’s deflected effort quickly brought City level before a cleaner strike less than two minutes into the second half made it 2-1.
Jeremy Doku then smashed into the top corner from outside the box to give City a two-goal cushion, which they needed.
Rodrigo Muniz gave Fulham hope on 88 minutes, but City held out for a 17th consecutive win against the Cottagers.
West Ham eased the pressure on new boss Julen Lopetegui by ending a run of three home defeats to start the new season.
Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta struck for the Hammers in a 4-1 win over Ipswich, who are still waiting for their first Premier League win 22 years.
There were six goals before half-time as Brentford beat Wolves 5-3 to leave the visitors still rooted to the foot of the table.
Leicester secured their first league win of the season as Facundo Buonanotte’s strike beat Bournemouth 1-0.
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag faces a huge match if he is to remain in charge when the Red Devils visit Aston Villa in the pick of Sunday’s action.
-AFP
Premier League
Premier League rejects City request to delay next season’s games after Club World Cup
The Premier League has rejected Manchester City’s request to postpone the first two games of the 2025-26 season to help the players recover after their FIFA Club World Cup campaign in the U.S., the club’s manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday.
City and Chelsea are the two English clubs who have qualified for the expanded month-long Club World Cup set to start on June 15. The Premier League’s season will begin in August.
An increasingly packed soccer calendar has been a concern among a growing number of players and managers. A report by global players’ union FIFPRO said some players get only 12% of the year to rest.
The Premier League did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
City midfielder Rodri said in September that players could be close to strike action over the time they are required to play. A knee ligament injury has since put him out for the season.
“I don’t know if we will play more games than the treble year (2022-23)… maybe we’ll play less games,” Guardiola told reporters.
“The Premier League has not allowed us to postpone the first two games for our recovery. Thank you so much. They don’t postpone these games so that will be the moment of, oh, what do we have to do?”
He said the Club World Cup will make it even more difficult for clubs to manage player workload.
-Reuters
Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said a decision about under-fire manager Erik ten Hag is not his call, and was reticent about whether he still has faith in the team’s boss amid their worst start to the Premier League season since 1986-87.
“I don’t want to answer that question,” Ratcliffe told the BBC. “I like Erik. I think he’s a very good coach but at the end of the day it’s not my call, it’s the management team that’s running Manchester United that have to decide how we best run the team in many different respects.
“That team that’s running Manchester United has only been together since June or July. They weren’t there in January, February, March or April — Omar (Berrada, CEO), (Sporting Director) Dan Ashworth — they only arrived in July.
“They’ve only been there . . . you can count it in weeks almost — they’ve not been there a long time so they need to take stock and make some sensible decisions.”
Ten Hag’s job was the subject of speculation for much of last season en route to the team’s lowest Premier League finish of eighth. After an FA Cup final victory over Manchester City and an end-of-season review, however, Ten Hag signed a new contract to extend his stay at Old Trafford until 2026.
“Our objective is very clear, we want to take Manchester United back to where it should be, and it’s not there yet, obviously, that’s very clear,” Ratcliffe said.
Ten Hag continues to plead for patience from fans with the team languishing 13th in the Premier League table, having lost three of their six opening games. They were headed towards defeat by Porto in the Europa League on Thursday before Harry Maguire scored a last-gasp goal to salvage a 3-3 draw.
-Reuters
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