November 3 – At €180 million, Canadian and Bayern Munich starlet Alphonso Davies has the highest transfer values for big-5 league players born in the 2000s. He outranks England and Dortmund star Jadon Sancho (€125 million) and Spain and Barcelona’s Ansu Fati (€123 million). The CIES Football Observatory has ranked the top 100 players by a transfer value calculated using their own proprietary algorithm.
October 29 – KPMG Football Benchmark have updated their player valuation tool that shows since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic the aggregate value of the 500 most valuable football players has decreased by 10.3%. But, there are signs of recovery.
October 29 – A consortium led by lawyer Chris Farnell and Egyptian businessman Mohamed El Kashashy looks to have taken pole position amongst the bids to buy Premier League Burnley.
By David Owen
October 27 – Celtic, the perennial Scottish champions who look like facing a run for their money this season from fierce local rivals Rangers, managed to stay narrowly in the black last year, in spite of the impact of Covid-19.
By David Owen
October 21 – Manchester United today fired the first shot in what is set to be an extremely sobering Premier League financial results season, reporting a pre-tax loss of £20.8 million for the year to end-June 2020.
By Andrew Warshaw
October 21 – Yet another audacious challenge to the Champions League is reportedly being plotted behind the scenes involving Europe’s biggest clubs and altering the entire landscape of the game at elite level. It is a repeating narrative in Europe but this time round appears to have FIFA’s encouragement.
October 21 – With the uncertainty surrounding club revenues in domestic leagues, particularly around match day revenue, clubs that have qualified for the UEFA Champions League will be grateful for the relative the financial stability that competition brings.
October 16 – The French League (LFP) has formally demanded that Spanish media rights agency Mediapro pay €172 million due as part of its Ligue 1 broadcast deal.
October 15 – Borussia Dortmund are reporting a 25% decline in revenue for the covid-hit final quarter of the 2019/20 season against the same quarter in 2018/19.
By Paul Nicholson
October 14 – With battle lines being drawn around the ‘Project Big Picture’ proposal that would restructure professional football in England, the FA has said that it would use its veto to kill off any English breakaway league and take away Champions League qualification from those clubs.
October 14 – Serie A clubs are entering exclusive talks with a private equity fund consortium, led by CVC, for the sale of a stake in the league’s broadcasting media business, league officials announced on Tuesday.
October 14 – Liverpool owner Fenway Sports Group looks set to expand its capital base with the sale of 25% of its stock to RedBall Acquisition Corp.
October 14 – At last positive news for Macclesfield Town who were relegated from the EFL’s leagues last season via a points deduction and were yesterday expelled from the fifth tier National League.
By Paul Nicholson
October 13 – The radical ‘big picture’ plan led by Liverpool and Manchester United to restructure leagues, refinance the EFL and take voting control of the Premier League, and in effect the lower three tiers of England’s professional game, have met with mixtures of silence, anger and some optimism from clubs hunting for an immediate cash windfall.
By David Owen
When it comes to the football business, one cannot help but admire John Henry’s timing.