Premier League 2021/22

[Baddar]

Off the top of my head, it's happened to Lindelof recently, and to Di Maria when he was with us. I could be forgetting one or two others.

[DavidMarrio]

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2022/march/tottenham-hotspur-supports-the-hillsborough-law-now-campaign/

 

Good guys Tottenham 

[METALMAN]

2 hours ago, Colly said:

Doesn't this seem to happen a lot to players in the North West? I might be extrapolating anecdotally, but I'm sure I've seen loads of stories about players burgled on international duty?

I guess it makes sense right? Most people who are outrageously wealthy prefer to be a bit less public about who they are and whereabouts they live and how much money they have but footballers don’t have that option.

Plus they have a bit of a tendency to spend their money on shiny things and fancy cars rather than stick it in an ISA or whatever.

[gunnar hendershow]

I actually vividly remember when I was in Liverpool the host I was staying with drove me around the area and pointed out where one of the Liverpool star players (I think Gerrard) lived.

I'd suspect for a player in London that's less of an occurrence since so many wealthy people live there.

[Colly]

4 hours ago, METALMAN said:

I guess it makes sense right? Most people who are outrageously wealthy prefer to be a bit less public about who they are and whereabouts they live and how much money they have but footballers don’t have that option.

Plus they have a bit of a tendency to spend their money on shiny things and fancy cars rather than stick it in an ISA or whatever.

It just feels very North West contained, I suppose it's linked to the number of big clubs and the fact that several of them are rivals? Closest I can remember up here is the time Shola Ameobi called the police thinking he'd been burgled, but he'd actually just left his house a tip.

https://www.eurosport.com/football/premier-league/2008-2009/ameobi-in-mess_sto1801006/story.shtml

[Benjamin]

Yeah, it almost seems like public knowledge to a lot of people? I guess it's like LA where people go on tours and actually go and see movie stars houses. 

Didn't Rafa Benitez's home get vandalized or something last year when he was appointed as Everton manager? 

[Lineker]

Quote

Chelsea have had the terms of the licence imposed by the government following the sanctioning of Roman Abramovich eased further, with the club now allowed to sell tickets to fans for away fixtures.

The club will not receive any of the money made from these sales, nor from tickets sold at Stamford Bridge for visiting fans, which is now also permitted. Instead the revenue will go to Chelsea’s opponents and competition organisers, including the Premier League, the government said. Chelsea fans will not be able to buy home tickets to watch the men’s team, but the changes ease some of the current uncertainty faced by supporters.

An updated “general licence to stage football matches” was issued by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) on Wednesday night and the sports minister Nigel Huddleston said the changes were made with supporters in mind.

“I would like to thank fans for their patience while we have engaged with the football authorities to make this possible,” he said.

“Since Roman Abramovich was added to the UK’s sanctions list for his links to Vladimir Putin we have worked extensively to ensure the club can continue to play football while ensuring the sanctions regime continues to be enforced.”

The general licence contains eight clauses of “permissions” which include granting the club the right to pay staff, pay off debts and to generate “reasonable” costs in travelling, among other things. The terms of the travel clause have been altered by government already, allowing the club to spend more on transporting their players to matches than was originally determined.

Clause 7 of the licence grants the club the right to sell tickets and clause 8 determines that another club or a “relevant body” may “receive and retain the proceeds of sale of those tickets”. However the precise terms are complicated and vary depending on the competition.

The revenue from all the matches will be given to charity, with the Premier League stating: “Chelsea FC have requested and the Premier League agreed that this revenue will be donated to charity to benefit victims of the war in Ukraine. The beneficiary charities will be announced in due course after consultation with the club.”

The licence changes come as the club continue to go through a sales process during which multibillion‑pound bids have been made by parties from across the globe. The Raine Group, which is in charge of facilitating the sale for Abramovich, is anticipated to announce a shortlist of candidates for the takeover by the end of the week, with the government having the ultimate say in approving the preferred bidder.

 

[stokeriño]

That's all good, but I don't see why home tickets are still exempt. There's literally no reason to deny that other than punishing the fans.

[DavidMarrio]

Surely, there's a way to sell the home tickets with none of the money going near Abramovich? 

[stokeriño]

Of course there is. The frozen/seized assets situation we are now in simply wouldn't function if Abramovich were still able to get his hands on random bits of the club's money.

[Lineker]

Quote

A consortium involving Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly has made the shortlist of bidders to buy Chelsea, a representative of the group has told the BBC.

Around six groups are thought to have lodged a bid for the Premier League club before last Friday's deadline.

The bidders are being whittled down to a shortlist before a preferred bidder is announced.

Yesterday the Saudi Media Group said it had not made the shortlist.

But two frontrunners, the Ricketts family, who own the Chicago Cubs, plus another which includes former Liverpool chairman Sir Martin Broughton and Lord Coe are still awaiting an update on their bids.

US businessman Boehly's bid is part of a consortium that also includes Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss.

Chelsea have been granted a special licence by the UK government to continue operating after owner Roman Abramovich was sanctioned for his alleged links to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Russian billionaire Abramovich is seeking £3bn for the sale, but the proceeds will go to a charitable foundation or a frozen account with approval from the government.

Any sale must be signed off by the Premier League's owners' and directors' test - known as the 'fit and proper persons test'.

It is understood bids are being assessed on their valuation of the club, their working capital commitment, their source of funds, the speed and certainty with which they can close the transaction and their background in sport.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60871968

[Naitch]

The Boehly/Wyss consortium seems like the best bet to me. I don't know much about this Broughton/Coe bid but have heard that Broughton is a Chelsea fan and vaguely recall Coe being too. Glad the SMG bid has been rejected, hopefully the Ricketts family follow them out of the door shortly.

[The Lusophone]

Liverpool are doing NFTs now.

And apparently they've stopped using English spelling, too. 'Centered'. Jesus christ.

[Adam]

Just add it to the long, long list of things that have spoiled football for everyone over the past few years.

[GA!]

12 minutes ago, Adam said:

Just add it to the long, long list of things that have spoiled football for everyone over the past few years.

Liverpool? Agreed

[Hobo]

55 minutes ago, MadJack said:

Liverpool are doing NFTs now.

And apparently they've stopped using English spelling, too. 'Centered'. Jesus christ.

Not really sure this is a great statement from SOS on it either tbh

Amounts to little more than "we raised concerns".

kinda surprised that they're following through on an NFT because AFAIK the bottom had already fallen out of that like 2 months ago?

I'd almost forgotten they were even a thing.

[The Lusophone]

Terry's collection tanked 90%, then one of the bigger market places for them went bust entirely.

Lots of clubs still will jump on that.

[gunnar hendershow]

To my knowledge the maket had a pretty big crash but it's sort of stabilized a bit recently and is probably more in line with the valuations I guess they should have had all along. Not entirely sure but it felt like all those other crypto bubbles that amounted to merely just correcting the prices.

People will still get on board either way.

[Lineker]

Quote

Everton have posted a loss of more than £100m for the third successive year but will not be held in breach of Premier League profit and sustainability rules. Figures released show a £120.9m deficit for the year ending June 2021 after another season hugely affected by Covid.

Independent calculations suggest the global pandemic affected Everton to the tune of £103m in the 12-month trading period, with the full effect on the club since the start of the outbreak estimated at £170m.

Everton’s losses over the last three years amount to £371.8m, with Premier League rules stating a club is in breach of financial regulations if they make an adjusted loss of more than £105m over a three-year period. In the last seven years the club have made a profit just once, in 2016-17.

Budget and transfer restrictions are the first sanctions which can be applied but the PA news agency understands there will be no penalties forthcoming due to the extenuating circumstances associated with Covid.

The Premier League has had access to Everton’s latest accounts since November and with the Goodison Park club continuing to be fully transparent and cooperative, club officials remain confident that Everton are in a good place.

That is based on record turnover of £193m and the continued support from billionaire Farhad Moshiri, who committed £100m through a new share issue during 2020-21 and provided a further injection of £97m after the end of the financial year. But otherwise the figures make for gloomy reading, coming on the back of losses of £111m in 2018-19 and £139.9m in 2019-20.

Gate receipts were just £200,000 – with only three league matches and one Carabao Cup quarter-final tie in front of a small number of fans inside at the ground which otherwise remained empty – while the annual wage bill rose by £16m. Additional costs associated with strict Covid playing protocols and significant contraction in the transfer market all contributed to the loss.

The club have also committed significant funds to getting their new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock from planning stage to construction phase in 2021, the progress of which will not be affected by the latest losses.

The Everton manager, Frank Lampard, will also still have money to spend in the summer transfer window after cost-cutting restricted his predecessor Rafael Benítez.

Having spent £67m on the transfers of Allan, Abdoulaye Doucouré and Ben Godfrey – plus the signing of James Rodríguez on reported wages of £200,000 a week – in 2020-21 while bringing in virtually nothing, Benítez’s transfer spend at the start of this season was a paltry £1.7m on five players, four of whom were free transfers.

Those financial pressures were a consideration in Benítez selling Rodríguez to Qatari club Al Rayyan in September to get the Colombia forward’s salary off the wage bill.

In January, Everton offset the purchases of defenders Vitalii Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson for a combined £30m with the sale of left-back Lucas Digne to Aston Villa for £25m, with Dele Alli arriving on a free transfer and Donny van de Beek and Anwar El Ghazi signed on loan.

 

[DavidMarrio]

Everton really need to stay up. It's worrying the amount of money they've been pissing away in recent years and if they did get relegated then they could be in even more trouble financially. I believe their wage bill makes up like 90 odd percent of their turnover