June 21 – John Textor and Eagle Football Holdings is on the verge of acquiring a majority stake in French top club Olympique Lyon. The American already has stakes in Brazil’s Botafogo, Belgium’s RWD Molenbeek and England’s Crystal Palace.
By David Owen
June 20 – A second covid-affected season has produced a second-consecutive financial year spattered with red ink for clubs competing in England’s Premier League, the world’s richest national club football competition.
June 14 – Having just been demoted to the third tier of English football for the first time in 37 years, former two-time English champions Derby County have now discovered that American businessman Chris Kirchner has pulled out of a bid to buy the club.
June 9 – Everton owner Farhad Moshiri has reiterated his commitment to the club and the building of its new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock.
June 7 – Kylian Mbappe has returned to the top of a ranking of the world’s most valuable players by transfer value with a price tag of £206 million.
June 1 – Italian Serie A champions will have a new owner next season after US investors Elliott Management agreed to sell to fellow US investment group RedBird Capital in a €1.2 billion deal.
June 1 – Mouscron has filed for bankruptcy, bringing to an end last-minute rescue attempts by the club and the city to find a new investor.
May 27 – Forget the Champions League final, the most valuable fixture in world football will be played on Sunday between Huddersfield and Nottingham Forest at Wembley.
By Paul Nicholson
May 26 – Chelsea may have been the biggest deal ever done for the sale of a football club, but the club isn’t the most valuable in Europe, Real Madrid are, according to the latest football club valuation report by Football Benchmark.
“Quand on enferme la vérité sous terre, elle s’y amasse, elle y prend une force telle d’explosion, que, le jour où elle éclate, elle fait tout sauter avec elle.” Émile Zola, J’accuse
By Andrew Warshaw and Paul Nicholson
May 17 – The much-publicised £4.25 billion sale of Chelsea to a US-led consortium is reported to be at risk of collapsing because of a dispute between the UK government and owner Roman Abramovich over where the funds might end up.
March 11 – LaLiga’ clubs generated total revenues of €3.818 billion in the covid-impacted 2020/21 season, a 24.1% drop in revenue on the 2019/20 season.
May 10 – UEFA has added a new club competition this season but it is still clubs from the Big 5 leagues that are dominating the final rounds. A report by Football Benchmark links that dominance directly to player and squad values.
May 8 – Chelsea have confirmed that terms for the club’s sale have been agreed with the consortium led by LA Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly, financed by Clearlake Capital, and with US investor Mark Walter and Swiss businessman Hansjoerg Wyss along for the ride.
May 6 – France’s Ligue 1 has reported a mammoth deficit of €645 million for the 2020-2021 financial year because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapse of the transfer market.