March 5 – Barcelona, Real Madrid and two other Spanish clubs have been dealt a significant financial blow after being forced to pay back millions of euros in illegal state aid following a ruling by the EU’s highest court.
March 4 – Belgian champions Club Brugge having released plans for a public flotation on the Euronext market in Brussels.
March 3 – Spain’s LaLiga has released an economic impact report detailing lost income across its top two divisions and the cuts that clubs have made, in particular with player wages and expenses, as they battle with the financial fall out from the pandemic.
March 3 – US private equity investor King Street has put French Ligue 1 side Girondins de Bordeaux up for sale as the club’s finances come under increasing strain due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
March 3 – Blockchain business Chiliz is ploughing $50 million into the launch of its Fan Token cryptocurrency business into the US market, targeting clubs in America’s major leagues.
March 2 – Italian top-flight soccer club AS Roma have abandoned plans for a new stadium, after suffering a net loss of €74.8 million for the last six-month financial period ending at the end of December 2020.
March 1 – Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG) are reportedly on the verge of agreeing the sale of 10% in the holding company for a reported $750 million.
February 26 – Juventus’s plummeting revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a loss of €113 million for the first six months of the 2020-21 season.
February 26 – Blockchain-driven Fan Tokens – football’s version of cryptocurrency – saw AC Milan the latest club to launch with their $ACM Fan Token debuting on Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, and raising more than $6 million in new digital revenue in a matter of hours.
February 25 – The German Football League (DFL) is to invite investment bids for a minority stake in its overseas media rights business, according Bloomberg.
February 24 – On Merseyside, Everton are flying high. Following their first derby win in 22 years at Anfield against arch rivals Liverpool, the club’s plans for a 52,000-seat stadium were unanimously approved by the local city council.
February 23 – Kylian Mbappé may still be worth €185 million and Harry Kane alongside Raheem Sterling may still be the world’s second most valuable players at €125 million, but overall the values of players have dropped more than 10% during the pandemic, according to the latest data from KPMG Football Benchmark.
February 23 – Poland’s Legia Warsaw has become the latest football club to join Socios.com’s blockchain-based fan token platform with the launch of the $LEG Fan Token.
February 19 – At the age of just 23, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus is the new chairman of English League One club Sunderland – a hugely supported club which in recent years has punched well below its weight – after his takeover was approved by the English Football League.
By Paul Nicholson
February 18 – FIFA has released an international ‘Transfer Market Snapshot’ report that shows the impact of the pandemic on player movement is “even more severe” than it 2020 Global Transfer report.