November 26 – The trend of Chinese investors exiting European club ownership looks set to continue if West Bromwich Albion owner Guochuan Lai (pictured) can complete a reported £150 million deal with a US consortium.
By David Owen
November 24 – Tottenham Hotspur’s reign at the top of the Premier League profits table is over, with chairman Daniel Levy warning that a further £150 million of revenue could be lost irrecoverably in the present financial year if the club’s shiny new stadium remains closed to fans.
By David Owen
November 22 – Rangers, the Glasgow club which has built up an eight-point lead in pursuit of their first Scottish top-flight title in a decade, has posted an increased loss for the year to end-June 2020.
November 20 – After months of twists and turns, Italy’s Serie A has finally agreed a deal to sell a 10% stake in a newly created media and commercial rights holding company to private equity firms CVC and Advent. They will pay a reported €1.7 billion for their position, delivering a much needed cash injection for the debt-laden clubs.
By Paul Nicholson
November 19 – Private equity money looking to make a play in the football business is not being discouraged by the pandemic with investors increasingly looking at opportunities outside the higher priced top tiers of the Big 5 league clubs.
By Samindra Kunti
November 18 – La Liga has acted to keep club spending under control by reduced salary caps across its two leagues by more than €600 million because of the coronavirus pandemic. Clubs are currently on track to overspend their income by €500 million.
By David Owen
November 13 – Higher broadcasting revenue was not enough to prevent inconsistent Manchester United from reporting a pre-tax loss of £27.1 million for the first quarter of 2020-21, as coronavirus continued to exact a heavy toll on football club finances.
November 12 – The annual player demographic census by the CIES Football Observatory shows the immediate impact the coronavirus pandemic has had in slowing down the movement of players and “strengthening” the gaps between the elite clubs and league and the rest.
November 6 – The Swiss government has earmarked loans totalling CHF175 million ($194 million) per year 0 for 2020 and 2021 – for sports clubs in the country to enable them to survive the financial impact of the coronavirus.
November 5 – Scottish Premier League leaders Rangers have announced a second share issue in less than a month, with the second issue set to raise £4 million with the club having last month raised £4 million from an Asia-based investor.
By David Owen
November 5 – Norwich City, the club known as the Canaries, managed to record a small profit in their brief return to the Premier League, in spite of finishing a distant last in the table.
November 4 – With the world in various stages of lockdown and fans in most countries unable to attend matches in stadia, the opportunity of engaging with fans via esports has not been lost on clubs or leagues.
November 3 – At €180 million, Canadian and Bayern Munich starlet Alphonso Davies has the highest transfer values for big-5 league players born in the 2000s. He outranks England and Dortmund star Jadon Sancho (€125 million) and Spain and Barcelona’s Ansu Fati (€123 million). The CIES Football Observatory has ranked the top 100 players by a transfer value calculated using their own proprietary algorithm.
October 29 – KPMG Football Benchmark have updated their player valuation tool that shows since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic the aggregate value of the 500 most valuable football players has decreased by 10.3%. But, there are signs of recovery.
October 29 – A consortium led by lawyer Chris Farnell and Egyptian businessman Mohamed El Kashashy looks to have taken pole position amongst the bids to buy Premier League Burnley.