By David Owen
April 9 – The near 20-fold increase in broadcasting revenue associated with the club’s brief return to the Premier League helped Middlesbrough rebound into profit for the year to 30 June 2017.
April 4 – English Premier League clubs paid agents a record £211 million in the past year, an increase of £37 million, latest figures reveal, rekindling the debate over whether they take too much money out of the game.
April 5 – The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has allocated more than £23.7million in total prize money to its 42 member clubs for the 2017/18 season. This is an increase of £800,000 on last season’s prize fund of £22.9million.
By David Owen
April 3 – Tottenham Hotspur, the north London club in the process of building a new stadium adjacent to their now-demolished traditional White Hart Lane ground, have revealed details of a strong year for profits – and an eye-popping one for directors’ remuneration.
By David Owen
April 2 – Burnley, the Lancashire outfit whose incisive style, backed by a strong defence, looks like landing them a top-half finish in this season’s Premier League, have become the latest English side to unveil strong 2016-17 profits.
By David Owen
March 29 – Newly-published accounts for West Bromwich Albion, the Midlands club marooned at the foot of the Premier League table, reveal a sharp drop in directors’ remuneration since it was taken under Chinese control in September 2016.
By David Owen
March 29 – Premier League Southampton have posted a hefty profit for the year to end-June 2017, its last under the control of Katharina Liebherr. In August, Liebherr’s vehicle, St Mary’s Football Group, sold out to Lander Sports (UK), bringing the club under the control of Jisheng Gao, a Chinese property magnate.
By David Owen
March 27 – AFC Bournemouth, the Russian-controlled south coast minnows getting used to life in the Premier League under their bright young manager Eddie Howe, more than quadrupled pre-tax profits to £14.6 million in the period to 30 June 2017.
March 27 – With West Brom set to announce a predicted year end financial return of about £40 million in profit, the club’s chief executive Mark Jenkins has said that the finances are actually in a poor state and that the club is going to need an overdraft facility, its first for 1o years.
March 26 – City Football Group (CFG), owners of Premier League Manchester City and New York City FC in the MLS, has again indicated that further club acquisitions are likely and that China will likely be the next market.
March 23 – Regarded as the root of everything morally correct about the German club structure, the Bundesliga has voted to retain the 50+1 rule which has been held up as a bastion of commercial fair play.
March 22 – Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into last year’s sale of AC Milan by Silvio Berlusconi’s holding company to a Chinese consortium, according to Reuters quoting a judicial source.
March 21 – English Championship club Brentford are targeting a December 2019 move into their new West London stadium, according to club chairman Cliff Crown. Ground breaking has just begun on the site for the 17,250 capacity venue, with building work starting next month in what is expected to be an 18-month construction timeline.
March 21 – If Tottenham Hotspur were to sell Harry Kane they would see a return on investment of €198 million, making him the biggest and best potential piece of player business in the world. Lionel Messi, of Barcelona were to sell him, could net €197 million for the club.
By Paul Nicholson
March 19 – Runaway English Championship leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers look certain to be headed back to the Premier League but they will need to head off growing concerns about their ownership and the influence of super agent Jorge Mendes in the club’s signings, an influence that will concern Premier League club owners, many of whom rely on Mendes for key foreign players.