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Never before has it been so important to be informed about the wider issues affecting the beautiful game.
The money behind the game impacts every club, from the Premier League to the National League North, from Chelsea to Chester. Where it comes from, why it’s here, and where it might go in the future are all questions that this newsletter seeks to answer. There is a game behind the game that goes on, and the Bottom Line seeks to not only bring the latest news in a handy digest, but to explain why these things matter, and why fans should care, for better or worse.
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The Bottom Line will bring you all the happenings around of the business of football, interviews with the people who make the big decisions behind the scenes as well as delving into what is happening in the world of technology, media and finance that could have a lasting impact on the game and how we consume it in the future.
By subscribing you will get a weekly newsletter straight to your inbox, chock full with the main talking points of the week and deeper insight into why they matter. You’ll have full access to the newsletter, website, archive and comment section, where you can request a light shone on some elements of the business of football that you want to know more about but that hasn’t been covered yet.
Hopefully you’ll join me in discovering more about the game behind the game.
The huge transfer fees, exorbitant player wages and sky-high valuations of clubs have all arrived thanks to the enormous interest that exists globally for the sport. But it isn’t just the 90 minutes on the pitch any more, now it is a 24-hours a day, 365-days a year operation that consumes billions worldwide from the moment they wake up to when their head hits the pillow at night.
Money, as the old saying goes, makes the world go round. In football it is money that keeps the wheels turning, keeps the interest growing, keeps the numbers going up and sees broadcast companies part with billions to be the ones to have the rights to show the games.
Nowhere in football has money allowed a competition to flourish like it has in the Premier League. For decades English football was something of the poor relation in Europe from the outside looking in, unable to match the glamour and sparkle of the Italian and Spanish leagues. But that hasn’t been the case for a long while now, and the Premier League has an unparalleled global reach and a product that is consumed in every corner of the globe.
The success, particularly of the last decade, has seen the league blow past its rivals and leave them trailing, with the Premier League the most lucrative football league on the planet, one that attracts huge commercial deals, huge broadcast deals and huge sums of investment from far and wide.
Football is changing rapidly. From the heavy influx of private capital from North America to the major play by nation states and sovereign wealth funds to get a foothold in the game to aid other goals, the European game in particular finds itself in uncertain times and uncharted territory. How to satisfy the wants and needs of the biggest clubs, and how to please the commercial entities that pay for much of what underpins it all, have to find a way of meshing with what is good for the pyramid and the wider game across all continents, but most importantly keep fans at the very heart of it all. It is no easy task, with the Premier League in particular threatening to leave the rest trailing so far behind that a futile game of catch up is all they’ll ever be able to take part in.
The business of football matters and this newsletter will seek, through insight provided by industry experts and those at the very sharp end of European football and its future, to try and answer some of the questions of fans, and to make sure supporters are well informed as to why these things matter so very much.
As the Business of Football Writer for the Liverpool ECHO, I’ve covered some of the major stories that have gone on away from the pitch that have affected the Merseyside clubs over the past three years. With exclusive interviews with the likes of Liverpool owner John W. Henry, to breaking exclusive sports business stories for both Everton and Liverpool, from investment to commercial deals, I have been able to bring a different dynamic to what football coverage looks like, and why it is a direction that it should be focused on growing.
I have been fortunate to spend a significant amount of time in the US, connecting with some of the biggest names in sports business, finance and team ownership, and I’m well positioned now to bring what has been achieved with the ECHO to a wider audience, across clubs both home and abroad.