By David Owen
January 9 – Surging player costs and one-off items pushed Everton, the club from the blue end of Merseyside, back into the red in 2017-18, in spite of a 34% jump in commercial revenue.
January 8 – Turkish Super Lig clubs have been handed a financial lifeline via a deal brokered between the country’s banks and the football federation to allow clubs to restructure their debts.
January 7 – With the European winter transfer window now open, any club looking to buy at the top end of the player market is going to have to spend over €100 million, and to buy at the very top they would need more than €200 million – if the players were for sale.
January 7 – UEFA’s chief financial investigator has confirmed that reigning Premier League champions Manchester City could be kicked out Europe if alleged irregularities exposed in the Football Leaks scandal prove to be true.
By David Owen
January 4 – Massive gains on player transfers helped Chelsea, the West London club controlled by Roman Abramovich, to run up a record profit for the year ending 30 June 2018. The club said that the after-tax figure reached £62 million. This was after a profit on player sales of £113 million.
January 2 – No sooner has the January transfer window opened than cash-rich Chelsea are the first to strike, landing Borussia Dortmund forward Christian Pulisic for €64 million though loaning him back to the German club until the end of the season.
January 2 – Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has taken control of Spanish lower-league club FC Andorra for an undisclosed sum.
December 21 – Jadon Sancho, Kylian Mbappé and Raheem Sterling head al list of players whose market value increased most in the past four months, according to data from KPMG Football Benchmark.
December 21 – The Chinese FA has slapped a comprehensive set of financial controls on its Super League and professional clubs covering money that can be spent owners on their teams, player salaries and even player bonuses for winning competitions.
December 21 – A US investor has taken a controlling stake in Scottish Championship side Dundee United in a deal estimated to be worth £1 million.
December 19 – Europe’s major leagues have called on UEFA to alter their revenue distribution policy to bring about a more level playing field and prevent the gap between the haves and the have-nots from widening.
December 14 – As if their misfortunes on the field weren’t enough after being eliminated from the Europa League, AC Milan have been slapped with a massive €12 million fine by UEFA and threatened with a one-season ban from European competition for breaking financial fair play rules.
By David Owen
December 13 – Brighton and Hove Albion, the south-coast club who have adapted well to life in the Premier League since their promotion in 2017, have announced a profit for the first time in their recent history.
December 13 – The fractious relationship between Premier League club West Ham and their London Stadium landlords appears to have reached a break in hostilities with the club agreeing to pay about £450,000 extra per season to use London Stadium if the capacity is raised to 66,000 from the current 57,000.
December 12 – The chances of Mike Ashley exiting Newcastle United before the January transfer window opens and Peter Kenyon re-entering Premier League club football are looking slimmer.