Wednesday 15th December 2004
UEFA and its role in European Football
Alex Phillips
Before taking a position within UEFA, Alex Phillips worked in the City and then in Paris, Madrid and Milan before switching careers via the MBA Football Industries at Liverpool. Alex then spent four years at Deloitte Sport as an analyst and consultant. Fluent in French, Italian and Spanish, he created the European financial analysis for Deloitte which is now the lead feature in the Deloitte Annual Review. He has been at UEFA since 2002.
Alex’s role at UEFA encompasses:
-
specific stakeholders such as:
- European professional leagues; and
- player unions; and
-
specific projects such as, for example:
- strategic analysis and planning; and
- “Investing in Local Training of Players”.
Read more about UEFA and its role in European Football
Wednesday 9th December 2004
The Administrative Challenge of Managing a Professional Football League and National Team In a Small European Nation in the 21st Century: The Case of Wales
Alun Evans
The perceived drift in power from national football associations, and their major international associations Uefa and Fifa, to the major clubs has been a staple of press commentary on the football industry over the last ten years. In Europe the most influential clubs have formed their own association – G14 – to assert their influence. Within the English game recent comments by Newcastle chairman Freddie Shepherd (see reading below) regarding the desirability of the Premier League taking over the Football League have provided an insight into the highly commercially-driven agenda of some Premier League chairmen and their very negative attitudes to the conventional competitive and regulatory structures of the game. This raises questions as to the strategic response the game’s traditional custodians and regulators, the national associations, should adopt in the face of this onslaught.
Read more about The Administrative Challenge of Managing a Professional Football League
Wednesday 1st December 2004
Best Practice in the Commercial Utilisation of Sports Assets: Lessons from the United States
Myles Gallagher
While there have been significant improvements in the commercial management of Britain’s football clubs in recent years, many business commentators argue that the application of best practice has been uneven and piecemeal, with most clubs heavily reliant on TV revenues (which can be unstable e.g. witness the impact of the collapse of the ITV Digital broadcasting deal for the Football League) and gate receipts (which are constrained by ground size). Comparisons are frequently drawn with practice in the United States where effective wider commercial exploitation of sports assets, for example through stadium-naming rights, is more advanced.
Read more about Best Practice in the Commercial Utilisation of Sports Assets
Wednesday 24th November 2004
The Realities of the Financial Administration Process: The Case of the Football Industy
Nick Wood
Despite the points penalty introduced for the 2004/2005 season by the Premiership, the Football League, and other divisions for clubs entering administration, the administration process will remain the only way for most clubs in severe financial difficulty to re-structure and survive. However, despite the critical influence of financial administration on the recent re-structuring of English football's finances, much of the public commentary on how the process has been implemented in the industry has been confused and ill-informed. In this seminar Nick Wood explains the realities of the administration process from the viewpoint of the professional insolvency practitioner charged with engineering the rescue of a business in the financial equivalent of the intensive care ward.
Read more about The Realities of the Financial Administration Process
Wednesday 17th November 2004
The Place of the Stadium in the Modern Football Industry
Simon Inglis
Simon Inglis is Britain's leading authority on the place of stadia in the football industry. In this seminar Simon addresses the issues outlined above by chronicling the history of football stadia development in Britain over the last twenty years. Beginning by addressing the reasons for the parlous state of the grounds of the football league in the 1980s, he will then explain the key drivers behind the stadia rebuilding drive of the 1990s, before concluding with some observations on the place of the stadium in the future development of the football industry.
Read more about The Place of the Stadium in the Modern Football Industry
Wednesday 10th November 2004
The Market for Football Broadcasting Rights: Buying and Selling the Game
Alex Fynn
Alex Fynn is a well-known consultant to the football industry who has also written extensively on the subject of the football business. His clients have included Arsenal, Celtic, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur football teams, as well as the Football League and the Football Association. Through his work he has been influential in the formation of both the Premier League and the European Champions League.
- How should they be sold?
- How should the value of TV rights be evaluated?
- How does the evaluation and selling process take place in practice?
Read more about The Market for Football Broadcasting Rights
Wednesday 3rd November
The Football Industry in 2004: How Football's New Commercialism Turned Sour
Dave Conn
Seven years ago David Conn wrote the best-selling The Football Business: Fair Game in the 90s? appearing at the peak of the post-Euro96 euphoria which engulfed English football as the full extraordinary financial fruits of the second BSkyB television deal began to wash over the game. In The Football Business David Conn was almost alone among informed commentators in highlighting that, far from enhancing the long-term future of the English game, this sudden influx of wealth was being misspent and mismanaged. In particular he analysed how the breakaway by the First Division clubs in 1992 to form the Premier League had polarised income to favour only the biggest clubs, and how chairmen and shareholders were cashing in and making fortunes on the Stock Market against the rules and traditions of the governing body, the Football Association. The book also highlighted the clubs’ rush to capitalise on football’s new-found fashionability by increasing ticket prices at the expense of the `traditional’ lower income fans. While football was booming and ‘coming home’, it was alienating and disenfranchising its own grass roots and football’s special place in the cultural life of the country.
Read more about The Football Industry in 2004
Wednesday 27th October 2004
The Battle for Manchester United: A Fight for the Soul of English Football?
Oliver Houston
Manchester United is portrayed by many as the exemplar of how a modern football company should be managed. Under Sir Alex Ferguson over the last decade the football club has enjoyed an unparalleled period of success on the field of play, notably winning the European Champions League in 1999. Off the field it has been virtually the only English football company to behave like a conventional business company, consistently increasing turnover and profit year on year and paying a dividend, whilst maintaining a player wage to turnover ratio of around 50% (whilst many competitors have had ratios of 80%+). It has also expanded stadium capacity whilst also developing one of the few global marketing brands in football, with United playing to sell-out crowds in the Far East every year. This commercial success has attracted the interest of corporate investors. John Magnier, the horse-racing magnate, and JP MacManus, best known for his currency trading operations, hold a 29% share in Manchester United Plc through their Cubic Expression vehicle. More recently the American investor Michael Glazer has taken a stake over 25% in the company and made unofficial overtures to take over the club. However, there continue to be 29,000 small shareholders holding United stock, the vast majority for emotional reasons.
In this seminar Oliver Houston, spokesman for the independent Manchester United supporter shareholder group Shareholders United, argues that whilst Manchester United has enjoyed a period of strong commercial success, the underlying character of the club, that of a social institution beloved by the people that support it, has remained constant.
Read more about The Battle for Manchester United
Wednesday 20th October 2004
Is Football a Unique Industry? Compare and Contrast Football with Other Industries
Jamie MaGraw
Jamie MaGraw joined the FA in 2000 to determine whether the FA could improve financial standards within the game. This resulted in the FA Financial Advisory Unit (FAU) being established in March 2000. To date the FAU, comprising a staff of 5, has visited over 300 Clubs. In August 2002 he became the Finance Director of the FA. He left the FA in September 2003 to establish a number of companies.In his lecture Jamie will provide an overview of the differences between the operation of the football industry in England with other industries.
Read more about Is Football a Unique Industry?
Wednesday 14th October 2004
Addressing Financial Instability in European Soccer: the Case for Restricting the Relegation and Promotion Process
Professor Stefan Szymanski
This paper summarises the discussions of a group of economists from countries representing 11 of the national associations of UEFA.who met at the University of Bologna at Rimini in March 2004. The paper concludes that there are two broad approaches to dealing with financial instability in European football. The first is to impose tighter financial regulation from above, as exemplified by the UEFA club licensing scheme. However, within the current system the authors doubts whether such mechanisms can be credible without the strong legal backing such as is provided in the French system. The alternative to tighter regulation is a restructuring of football competition in Europe in order to create a more sustainable basis for smaller clubs in particular. This would involve adopting greater restrictions on the mobility - relegation and promotion - of the clubs up and down the leagues.
Read more about Addressing Financial Instability in European Soccer
Wednesday 6th October 2004
Collective Selling of Broadcasting Rights: Regulation by the European Commission and National Competition Authorities
Professor Christine Oughton
This paper reviews the evidence and outcomes of recent competition authority cases on the collective selling of broadcasting rights by football leagues. In particular we focus on the recent EC case against the Premier League. Our analysis shows that the collective selling of broadcasting rights by the Premier League (PL) does not represent a restriction of competition on the market in the normal sense and therefore does not breach Article 81. Moreover, we find that collective selling agreements improve the production and distribution of football matches and benefits consumers (football supporters). However, we believe that these benefits would be enhanced by greater solidarity (which has been eroded in recent years) and better corporate governance of football clubs.
Read more about Collective Selling of Broadcasting Rights
Monday 5th July 2004
The Football Industry in 2004: How Football's New Commercialism Turned Sour
Dave Conn
It is now seven years since David Conn's best-selling The Football Business: Fair Game in the 90s? was first published. The book appeared at the peak of the post-Euro96 euphoria which engulfed English football as the full extraordinary financial fruits of the second BSkyB television deal began to wash over the game. In The Football Business David Conn was almost alone among informed commentators in highlighting that, far from enhancing the long-term future of the English game, this sudden influx of wealth was actually destabilising its financial health. In particular he analysed how the breakaway by the First Division clubs in 1992 to form the Premier League had polarised income to favour only the biggest clubs, and how chairmen and shareholders were cashing in and making fortunes on the Stock Market against the rules and traditions of the governing body, the Football Association. The book also highlighted the clubs' rush to capitalise on football's new found fashionability by increasing ticket prices at the expense of the `traditional' lower income fans. While football was booming and 'coming home', it was alienating and disenfranchising its own grass roots and football's special place in the cultural life of the country.
Read more about The Football Industry in 2004
Monday 22nd March 2004
Commitment in the Football Shirt Sponsorship Dyad
Simon Chadwick
Having signed a shirt sponsorship contract, football clubs and sponsors routinely pronounce their commitment to one another. Notions of commitment found in the academic literature indicate that it is characterised by relationship longevity, durability, and loyalty. But evidence from football shirt sponsorships appears to counter such notions, as many deals are often short-term. The presentation therefore sets out to examine the nature of commitment in the football shirt sponsorship dyad, and to identify the implications of this for sponsorship management.
Read more about Commitment in the Football Shirt Sponsorship Dyad
Monday 15th March 2004
Goldfish, Racehorses and the Ownership of English Football?
Simon Banks
Simon Banks is journalist, author and broadcaster who specialises in the political economy of football. His critically acclaimed book Going Down: Football in Crisis examined the roots of football's current financial crisis and concluded that radical reform of the sport's structure and governing bodies was required in order to safeguard the game's future.
With Leeds United on the verge of bankruptcy, Manchester United being used as a bargaining chip in a dispute over a racehorse, a string of clubs in administration and the Football Association slashing costs as it struggles to fund the building of Wembley Stadium, few would disagree that there is something seriously wrong with English football. In this lecture Banks argues that many recent critiques of the game, among them reports by the All Party Football Group and the Independent Football Commission, fail to address the fundamental issue that is the main barrier to reform; the ownership of professional football clubs.
Read more about Goldfish, Racehorses and the Ownership of English Football?
Monday 1st March 2004
The Role of Players' Agents in Football: An Industry Scandal?
Tom Bower
In this lecture Tom Bower, focusing on the particular problem of the role of the players' agents in the facilitation of player transfers, will explain why it does matter; and that financial malpractice does have real and severe consequences for the long-term health and prosperity of the game.
Read more about The Role of Players' Agents in Football
Thursday 15th January 2004
Football: For Love or Money
The Institute for Contemporary Art
A debate jointly organised by the Institute for Contemporary Art and the Economist and chaired by Matthew Bishop, Business Editor of the Economist. It brought together David Lacey from the Guardian Newspaper (Sports Reporter of the Year), Mark Oliver, Managing Director of Oliver and Ohlbaum, Delia Smith, Director, Norwich City Football Club, and Glen Kirton, Chairman of Navigator Sports. The topic of discussion was whether the money in the game has been a power for good, or whether the gap netween the Premier League and the Football League needs re-addressing.