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Jan 19th

World Cup ticket rethink

By The Isogon Group
The organisers of this year’s football World Cup in South Africa are altering ticket sales procedures in an effort to boost weak local demand.

Reuters reports that tickets have been available to South Africans on the internet or over the counter at selected banks – services which many locals do not have access to. South African football followers are also unaccustomed to buying tickets in advance of matches, usually buying entrance on the day.

The head of the organising committee for the World Cup, Danny Jordaan, said that tickets would be made available for purchase for cash, over the counter, to make them as accessible as possible for local fans.

Jordaan highlighted the scale of the local apathy at this stage, saying that more South Africans had bought tickets to watch England than their national team.
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Jan 18th

Subdued Market hits Club Transfers

By The Isogon Group
A recent report suggests that this could be a particularly subdued transfer window for many footbal clubs of all sizes. For many years Premiership clubs in particular have been turning increasingly to foreign players so that the 'trickle down' effect to clubs in the Football League has diminished. In the past there were even cases where clubs were able to build a new stand from the transfer of a player to the top flight.

Leaving aside the plight of Portsmouth, it is Football League clubs which are in real danger. Many Championship clubs have a tendency to overspend in an effort to reach the Premiership. League 1 and League 2 clubs are very reliant on short-term cash flow like any smaller business. Former Premiership clubs relegated to League 1 have to maintain expensive infrastructures designed for the Premier League.

Sooner or later a club is going to disappear altogether, as has happened in the non-league set up, they don't just go into administration and reappear free of debt. Some think that is the wake up call that football needs, but it would be devastating for the fans of the club involved, even if they formed a 'phoenix' club.
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Jan 15th

Japan proposes 13 World Cup venues

By The Isogon Group
Japan has 13 prospective venues in its bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cups, including nine of the 10 venues from the 2002 World Cup which the country co-hosted with South Korea.

Japan initially said it would only bid to host the events if Tokyo won the vote to stage the 2016 Olympics as the Japan Football Association (JFA) planned to use the proposed 100,000-seater waterfront Olympic stadium.

Tokyo, which did not host matches at the 2002 tournament, has put forward two stadiums.

Osaka is planning to build a new venue following new FIFA rules that World Cup host countries require a stadium with a minimum capacity of 80,000 for the opening game and final.

FIFA will announce the hosts for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in December.
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Jan 14th

France fears Turkey in Euro bidding

By The Isogon Group
The General director of the French Football Federation (FFF) Jacques Lambert says that Turkey is France’s biggest rival in the race to host Football's Euro 2016.

According to AFP, the bid official assessed the Turkish bid as extremely strong and well-known by the UEFA executive committee after two failed attempts by the country to organise the tournament in 2008 and 2012.

“The danger for France is to be seen as favourites. Paris was the favourite to host the 2012 Olympics and we all know the result,” Lambert warned.

The FFF director also said he senses less desire and motivation in the Italian bid, but thinks it has an advantage over France having bid for Euro 2012.
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Jan 11th

Blatter and Jordaan allay security concerns

By The Isogon Group
As the Togo team returns home from the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, 2010 FIFA World Cup organising committee CEO Danny Jordaan and FIFA president Sepp Blatter have played down security fears for this year’s World Cup in South Africa.

On Friday the bus carrying the Togo team came under fire when travelling from their training camp in DR Congo, killing three people. A large proportion of tickets are still to be sold for the World Cup, which begins on June 11, and there with concerns that the attack may persuade fans not to travel to the tournament.

"I think everybody understands [the attack] has nothing to do with South Africa," Jordaan said. "When there was a bomb in London no-one said we should not have 2012 in London so we cannot have double standards."

"The world must be balanced and must not apply different standards when it comes to the African continent. Our World Cup is secure and we are confident because we have employed a lot of resources to safeguard the event in our country."

Blatter wrote to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) president, Isaa Hayatou, saying: “I have faith in Africa, and it is with this faith that together we will organise world football's showcase event in 2010.”

Togo’s squad was ordered to leave Angola by the country’s prime minister, Gilbert Houngbo, but the country’s minister of sport, Christophe Tchao, revealed Togo has asked CAF to find an arrangement for the team to “catch up with the competition later”, according to UK newspaper reports.
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Jan 8th

UEFA to come down on clubs reporting losses

By The Isogon Group
UEFA is in the process of formalising regulations that stipulate that football clubs cannot continue to report losses after getting big financial backers and is said to be thinking in terms of a three and half year time frame for breaking even. Chelsea and Manchester City may well have to worry about being excluded from the Champions League if they do not recoup from the big losses, totaling over GBP 130 million, that they both announced in the last week. The Guardian reports that UEFA is thinking in terms of having the regulations in place for the 2013-2014 season and this is an effort to give the clubs a "soft landing."

UEFA proposed regulations are a direct effect of the remarks made by Michel Platini in August about the financial plans of football clubs. He said, "If a club gets a lot of money or subsidies from a big backer and is still in deficit in two years then it is a problem and we don't want that." The European Club Association (ECA) has approved Platini's proposal and UEFA is basing its financial fair play rules of the same proposal. So, clubs who do not comply with this will not be allowed to participate in major competitions. "There needs to be a business model for breaking even within three and a half years. The deadline is what it is and we will stick to it; we have tremendous support from the clubs."

This will need some big changes in the clubs as Ron Gourlay of Chelsea has spoken of breaking even as an aspiration rather than having a specific deadline for it. UEFA is sounding enthusiastic about enforcing the rules although it will be tough to take action against big revenue-producing clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City.

Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan's move of converting his interest-free loans to the club into equity in this last week may be significant in the face of these proposed regulations. His move has amounted to his writing off almost GBP 400 millon of the club's debts. The announcement yesterday that the club had net losses of GBP 92.6 million in the first year with Mansour was tempered by this announcement of his having turned loans into shares. It has been a strong statement of his commitment.

If the Abu Dhabi owner of Manchester City walks away from the club, the Eastlands organisations is not left responsible for vast sums although there is a GBP 40 million bank facility still in the accounts. But GBP 40 million is debt is likely to look a lot better than a GBP 440 million debt to commercial investors should the club need the investment.

According to the Telegraph, It is important to remember that the club is still very dependent on Mansour in that Manchester City's wage bill made their operating expenses exceed the GBP 87 million turn over last year and without the owner's help this gap could not have been bridged. While Manchester City's overall finances are probably in better place than the Glazer family-owned Manchester United, the latter is able to make wage payments from revenue even though the operating profit is going for loan interest payments. The Glazer family is looking to refinance the GBP 699 million debt through a bond issue.
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Jan 6th

Manchester City post massive loss

By The Isogon Group
Manchester City football club has reported an annual loss of £92.6m ($148m) for the 2008/09 financial year.

The figures reflect the large sums of money spent on top-class players by Sheikh Mansour since he bought the Eastlands club in September 2008.

They include the £32.5m signing of Brazilian star Robinho.

The figures do not take into account the further large outlay since May 2009 on players such as Carlos Tevez, Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor.

'Transformation'

"The financial results reflect a period of rapid change at the club, the result of long-term planning and investment by the board and our owners, to create a sustainable business in the future," said City's chief financial and administration officer, Graham Wallace.

"We have always said that this transformation will take a number of years and these figures reflect that."

Other players bought during the financial period included Craig Bellamy and Shay Given.

Away from player transfer costs, there were some positive signs in other aspects of the business.

Turnover was up 6% to £87m, while average attendances rose slightly, to 42,890 from 42,081 the year before.

A run to the latter stages of the UEFA Cup helped boost ticket revenues by £1.8m, and TV income was up by 12% to £48.3m, also boosted by the European run.
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Jan 5th

Premier League to pay TV money to Portsmouth's creditors

By The Isogon Group
The Premier League will use £7 million in television revenues due to financially-stricken Portsmouth FC to pay debts the club owes to other Premier League teams.

The move is allowed under Premier League rules protecting clubs that are owed money from player transfers. Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Watford are in line for a share of the payment.

Portsmouth only managed to pay its non-playing staff their December wages yesterday, after securing a short-term bank loan. The players are expected to be paid their December wages this week.

Portsmouth remains under an embargo stopping it from signing any new players. Fans are planning protests against the club's owner, Saudi businessman Ali Al Faraj.
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Dec 16th

'Superbrand' status awarded to Real Madrid

By The Isogon Group

Real Madrid has been declared a 'Superbrand' by the independent branding arbiter Superbrands at a gala award ceremony in Madrid.

The status is awarded by a council made up of branding experts, marketing directors from major Spanish companies and the directors of the marketing departments of Spains three biggest business schools. The winners were chosen out of 1,500 brands considered.

Other European football clubs to have received Superbrand awards in their own countries include Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Liverpool, Juventus and Benfica.

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Dec 11th

F1 posts strong TV audiences in 2009

By The Isogon Group

Formula One posted strong audiences on European television in 2009, particularly in Eastern Europe, according to the Yearly Sport Key Facts report by Eurodata TV Worldwide.

“Formula One remains among the top audience-pulling sport competitions thanks to continuous innovations and a permanently renewed suspense that boost audiences,” said Eurodata TV Worldwide sport sales manager Florent Simon.

In Spain and the United Kingdom, football competitions occupied the top two positions with Formula One in third. In Italy, Rai 1 and Rai 2 attracted an average season-long audience of 5.5 million, second-best only to Italian 2010 World Cup football qualifiers, with 8.3 million viewers. Around 61 per cent of the Formula One audience in Italy were men, compared to 78 per cent in the Netherlands and 67 per cent in France.

Eurodata TV Worldwide’s Yearly Sport Key Facts covers September 2008 to August 2009 with a special motorsport update in December. It reviews the television audiences of international competitions such as the UEFA Champions League, Six Nations rugby union, World Championships athletics, in addition to a number of major national competitions.

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