By Paul Nicholson
December 10 – Christmas is coming early for the Premier League clubs in terms of attendances. With more than 400,000 tickets available for the last weekend of Premier League fixtures, just 14,190 seats were left unfilled.
December 4 – Liverpool under new German manager Jurgen Klopp are starting to look sharp. Wednesday night they slammed six goals past Southampton to book a place in the League Cup semi-final against Stoke.
December 3 – A report into the social impact of the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation on the local community has found that its activities contribute a social cost saving of more than £20 million.
By David Owen
December 3 – Stoke City, the Midlands-based Premier League club controlled by bet365, the online gambling company, has reported a second consecutive annual profit. The club, which has become an established top-tier outfit under first Tony Pulis and now Mark Hughes – and which joins Liverpool, Everton and Manchester City in the semi-finals of this season’s Capital One Cup – posted a pre-tax profit of £5.7 million for the year to May 31,
December 2 – Chelsea have formally submitted a planning application for the expansion of their Stamford Bridge stadium to a 60,000 capacity stadium.
By Paul Nicholson
December 1 – West Ham United again topped the table of attendance capacities last weekend with just 103 seats at the Boleyn Ground unfilled out of a total of 35,017. Seven Premier League teams reported more than 95% capacity attendances at their stadiums.
By Paul Nicholson
December 1 – City Football Group (CFG), the Abu Dhabi-owned football investment firm that counts Premier League leaders Manchester City as one of its clubs has announced a $400 million new investment from China, valuing CFG at $3 billion.
By David Owen
November 30 – It looks increasingly likely that matchday revenues generated by Premier League clubs will be found to have fallen in 2014-15. With six English top-tier clubs having already reported, cumulative matchday revenue from all competitions is showing 6% down at just over £290 million.
By Paul Nicholson
November 26 – Swansea topped the stadium capacity chart on the first weekend back after the international break, with Chelsea coming a close second and Spurs third.
By Ben Nicholson
November 25 – Although Southampton FC has yet graced the US shores with any commercial pre-season campaign, the Saints are now preparing to expand across the Atlantic with its soccer philosophy. Chairman Ralph Krueger (pictured) revealed plans to take the club’s coaching initiative to the US, prospecting that it will reach over 100,000 players.
By David Owen
November 24 – Chelsea, the Premier League champions enduring a woeful start to the present league campaign, fell back into the red in their latest title-winning season, although the club known as the Blues underlined that “after relevant adjustments” it was “comfortably” within allowable limits of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.
November 24 – Liverpool’s pre-season tour took in two matches in Australia this summer. Now it is the turn of the official Liverpool FC legends to head down under for a fixture against the Australian Legends at the Sydney ANZ on January 7 next year.
By Paul Nicholson
November 20 – With clubs across Europe returning to their domestic league programmes after the international fixture window, focus will fall on crowd attendances, particularly in the aftermath and uncertainty of the Paris attacks.
By Mark Baber
November 19 – Everton have announced a £4.1 million loss for 2014-15 on a record turnover of £125.6 million, largely due to a deficit on player trading. The results leave the club with an overall net debt of £31.3 million.
November 17 – English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur has expanded its push into Chinese markets with a series of grassroots initiatives that are being supported by club sponsor AIA.