March 25 – In one of the most savage penalties ever handed down in English football for financial mismanagement, second-tier Birmingham City have been hit with a nine-point deduction for excessive spending and have been plunged into the relegation dogfight as a result.
March 15 – The South American Football Confederation Conmebol has reported a record revenue of $227 million for 2018 after an increase in sponsorship for the continent’s flagship club competition the Copa Libertadores, but overall the organisation’s net profit fell.
By David Owen
March 7 – Wolverhampton Wanderers, the famous old Midlands club, now Chinese owned, which is enjoying a successful return to the English top flight, ran up an eye-watering £55 million loss in its promotion season.
By David Owen
March 7 – Leicester City’s financial fairy tale came to an abrupt end in the year to end-May 2018 after their on-pitch exploits of recent seasons. Bereft of European football, the Foxes, as was foreseeable, suffered a severe reverse in both turnover and profitability, while managing to remain narrowly in the black at the pre-tax level.
February 22 – The first round of Champions League knock-out fixtures once again re- inforced the dominance of Europe’s Big 5 leagues with 14 out of the 16 teams qualified coming from those leagues.
February 19 – City Football Group (CFG), the multi-club holding company that owns Manchester City, New York City FC and Girona, among others, looks set to add to its club portfolio with a third tier team in China.
February 19 – Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is not planning a £3.8bn takeover of Manchester United according to his media minister.
February 15 – Ligue 1 side Olympique Lyonnais have announced plans to build a second 15,000-capacity stadium next to its Groupama Stadium which was completed in 2016 in time for the France 2016 European Championships.
By David Owen
February 14 – Manchester United appear to have paid José Mourinho and his team close to £20 million in compensation after they left the club in December.
By David Owen
February 8 – Liverpool have confirmed that they have become the first football club in history to report an annual pre-tax profit of more than £100 million.
January 30 – Russian businessman Maxim Demin has regained full ownership of Premier League club Bournemouth after acquiring the 25% stake held by Chicago-based private equity firm Peak6 Investments.
January 29 – Sapphire Ventures has raised $115 million for a new sport venture capital fund and has Manchester City owners, City Football Group (CFG) as one of its cornerstone backers.
By David Owen
January 24 – Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona have taken over at the top of this year’s Deloitte Football Money League, relegating Manchester United to third place.
January 22 – US investors Russell Platt and Clifton Onolfo have taken over financially troubled Spanish second-division club CF Reus that was under threat of closure.
January 18 – Europe’s 710 top-division clubs earned a record €20.11 billion in revenues between them in the 2017 financial year although almost half of that amount was accrued by just 30 of them, according to UEFA’s annual Club Licensing Benchmarking report.