A new UEFA club benchmarking report has landed, studded with new illustrations of the still widening chasm between the wealthiest members of the European – and world – financial club football elite and the rest of the continent’s more than 700 top-flight teams.
January 18 – Europe’s 710 top-division clubs earned a record €20.11 billion in revenues between them in the 2017 financial year although almost half of that amount was accrued by just 30 of them, according to UEFA’s annual Club Licensing Benchmarking report.
January 17 – AS Monaco’s Russian president Dmitry Rybolovlev has committed to the long term future of the club with a spend of €55 million on key infrastructure projects, the centerpiece of which will be Center for Sporting Excellence at La Turbie FC.
January 18 – Germany’s FC Köln has bought into esports team SK Gaming alongside sponsor Mercedes-Benz. No value was given for the investment.
January 16 – Manchester City have so far declined to provide UEFA with any comment over allegations that they breached financial fair play regulations since the club argues the claims were based on “hacked or stolen” emails.
By David Owen
January 14 – West Ham United, whose star striker Marko Arnautovic is being linked with a big-money move to China, have reported a halving of profits after a “difficult” year.
By David Owen
January 12 – Chelsea’s landmark 2017-18 financial year appears to have seen big increases in remuneration paid to the club’s directors.
January 10 – Chelsea will report Bayern Munich to FIFA if they find evidence of an illegal approach for their rising star Callum Hudson-Odoi according to British media reports.
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.