By David Owen
April 23 – The 2017-18 season will go down as the one in which not one but two Premier League teams – Liverpool and then Tottenham Hotspur – set world records for football club profitability. Yet overall, this was only the second-best season ever in profit terms for the 20 clubs who competed in English football’s top flight.
By David Owen
April 22 – Swansea City have reported a pre-tax loss of £3.2 million for the year to 31 July 2018, the club’s relegation season.
By David Owen
April 19 – Newcastle United, the north-east club seemingly assured now of retaining its place in the Premier League for at least one more season, has repaid £33 million of the debt owed to owner Mike Ashley (pictured).
April 18 – Spanish club Valencia will restart their efforts to complete the construction of their new stadium after they accepted a $128 million offer for the Mestalla stadium plot from local co-operative ADU Mediterráneo.
April 16 – Cardiff City have submitted evidence to FIFA in their dispute with Nantes over the £15 million transfer fee for the late Emiliano Sala.
By David Owen
April 14 – An eventful 2017-18 season resulted in the English Football Association lifting turnover by £24.3 million while only managing to invest an additional £919,000, compared with 2016-17 levels, back into the game.
April 11 – Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), the owners of French club Paris Saint-Germain, is rumoured to be in discussion over a potential acquisition of Italian club AS Roma to build a portfolio of European top clubs.
April 10 – AC Milan face fresh sanctions for breaching Financial Fair Play rules after being referred to UEFA’s financial regulator for failing to meet the break-even requirement for the second year in a row.
April 9 – The eight UEFA Champions League quarter finalists generated a total of generated total revenue of €3.5 billion in 2017/18. The FC Barcelona versus Manchester United will be the richest tie in the history of UEFA competition – the clubs generated a combined €1.4 billion.
By David Owen
April 9 – Crystal Palace, the Premier League’s penalty kings, have reported a substantial 2017-18 loss, as the cost of last season’s successful survival push under former England boss Roy Hodgson took its toll on financial performance.
By David Owen
April 8 – City Football Group Limited (CFG), the Abu Dhabi- and Chinese-owned entity that holds investments in various football clubs including Premier League giants Manchester City, has posted a £44.8 million loss from continuing operations for the year to 30 June 2018.
April 8 – British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe is in talks to buy French Ligue 1 side via his chemicals company, Ineos. Reports are that he has already bid $100 million.
By Andrew Warshaw
April 5 – Amid the constant debate over the role of agents, new figures reveal that Premier League clubs paid out an eye-watering £260 million to them during 2018-19 – an increase of £49 million on the previous 12 months.
By David Owen
The newly-published Spurs accounts make fascinating reading. Given the world record profit for a football club of almost £139 million at the pre-tax level, this scarcely needs to be said. But there is more to it than that. In one word, you could call it balance.
April 5 – Digitally driven sports innovators have another tech fund to tap for development finance. Hype Sports Innovation has unveiled plans for a $75 million capital fund with Uli Becker, ex-president of Reebok and Bernd Wahler, former president of VfB Stuttgart.