The landscape of English professional football is poised for its most radical structural realignment since the formation of the Premier League in 1992. The enactment of the Football Governance Act 2025 […]
The Analysis Series: The new “squad cost ratio” rules for the Premier League
The Premier League is undergoing a fundamental financial regulatory change, the impact of which will require considerable thought in the coming months. Who will the net winners be? What impact do […]
The Analysis Series: The Glazer business empire
The business empire controlled by the Glazer family is a highly sophisticated, complex, and leveraged conglomerate in the global sports and real estate sectors. Originating from the commercial real estate activities […]
The Analysis Series: The Friedkin Group
The Friedkin Group (TFG), a privately held consortium headquartered in Houston, Texas, stands as one of the most structurally complex and financially potent business empires in the United States. As of […]
The Analysis Series: Audit of gambling’s commercial dominance in English professional football
An overview of the 2025/26 season English football in the 2025/26 season stands at a crossroads in terms of its relationship with the gambling industry. As the final campaign before the Premier […]
The Analysis Series: Financial analysis and balance sheet assessment of EFL Championship clubs: 2025-26 Season
The English Football League (EFL) Championship is the wealthiest non-top-flight football division in the world, yet it operates with structural insolvency, extreme financial volatility, and continuous reliance on external liquidity. As the […]
The Analysis Series:Post Diarra (part II), further analysis of the football transfer system (Jan 2025 – present day)
Post-Diarra: A legal, economic, and governance analysis of the football transfer system (January 2025 – January 2026) The governance of global football has historically operated under a unified, vertical command structure centered […]
The Analysis Series – Diarra Judgment Case C-650/22 (Part I)
On October 4, 2024, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment in FIFA v. Lassana Diarra (Case C-650/22), a ruling that has essentially […]
The Analysis Series: The Independent Football Regulator’s Owners, Directors & Senior Executives regime (ODSE)
The Independent Football Regulator has published its response to the their consultation on the new Owners, Directors and Senior Executives regime (ODSE). The regime sets clear standards for those who own and […]
The Analysis Series: Analysis of dividend regulation in English professional football, rule 34, and capital distributions
Financial regulation in English professional football has evolved from a Victorian-era ethos of community custodianship to a system defined by global capital markets, private equity, and institutional shareholder supremacy. At the beginning […]
The Analysis Series: Analysis of financial regulation in European professional football
The financial regulation of European professional football has evolved from a nascent, disparate collection of national bookkeeping rules into a more sophisticated, multi-layered architecture of economic control. This transformation has been […]
The Analysis Series: Value extraction in the global sports economy:
The evolution of asset stripping Historically viewed as community assets or the vanity projects of local benefactors, sports franchises and leagues have increasingly been reclassified as an alternative asset class within the […]
The Analysis Series: The erosion of the traditional football calendar: Commercial cynicism and broadcast imperatives in the Premier League 2025–2029 cycle
The commercial evolution of the Premier League has reached a juncture where the preservation of sporting tradition is increasingly subordinated to the exigencies of broadcast revenue and inventory management. In my […]
The Analysis Series: Broadcast rights, solidarity mechanisms, and financial redistribution in the English Football League
The structural transformation of the English football pyramid The 2024/25 football season represented the most significant restructuring of broadcast rights and financial distribution mechanisms in the modern era. For decades, the economic […]
The Analysis Series: Systemic Risk in the European Football Economy: A comparative analysis with the 2008 banking crisis and frameworks for prudential mitigation
Summary The global financials of professional football, particularly within England and Europe, have undergone a radical transformation over the last two decades. No longer merely a collection of civic sporting institutions operating […]
The Analysis Series: Analysis of the 2025 IOPC Hillsborough Report
The publication of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and Operation Resolve report in December 2025 represents a watershed moment in the modern history of British policing and state accountability. Concluding […]
The Analysis Series: Analysis of the Premier League’s New Financial Regulations: Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) and Sustainability and Systemic Resilience (SSR) Rules
The Premier League clubs have voted to implement the new Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) and Sustainability and Systemic Resilience (SSR) rules from the start of the 2026/27 season. This overhaul is […]
Analysis Series: Governance Structure of Association Football: Integrity, Financial Regulation, and Strategic Failure
I have written for many years about the relationship between governance and the fundamental wellbeing of an industry and its key participants, customers, owners, operators (companies) and suppliers. By almost any metric […]
The Analysis Series: An Analysis of Rights and Media Funding Limited (R&MF)
The Opaque Architecture of Football Finance: Rights and Media Funding Limited (R&MF) has established itself as one of the most significant, yet least transparent, financial institutions operating within European football, specialising in […]
The Analysis Series: The role of US banks in financing Premier League clubs
JPMorgan JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) occupies a highly influential position within the financial architecture of the English Premier League (PL). The bank’s involvement extends beyond traditional corporate lending, including M&A advisory, […]