1
Risk
The squeeze is on: just how shaky the finances of Europe’s leading clubs actually are has been laid bare by the pandemic, with enormous income offset by extraordinary spending. With revenue streams now unexpectedly disrupted, the losses are piling up.
The pandemic impact will pass, eventually. But other commercial revenues are also biting: the trajectory of sponsorship growth seems to be slowing, regulators across Europe are cutting down on lucrative gambling partnerships, and perhaps most significantly, there’s real risk broadcast rights may have plateaued (though this has been said before!). Provocatively, Phil Carling of Octagon is cited in this SportsProMedia piece suggesting an entirely new commercial era could be about to dawn:
2
Unacceptable
The rapid progress in women’s football in recent years shouldn’t make us forget how far we still need to go.
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Equity
The rapid expansion of NISA has been one of the surprises of the pandemic-era in American soccer: the lower league pyramid continues to grow rapidly, and a new partnership with United Women’s Soccer takes that further. It’s positioned in NISA’s release as a move to increase opportunity and access for the women’s game, growing a “pathway to pro,” improving facilities and development opportunities:
UWS focuses on professionally run operations, requiring teams to adhere to minimum standards that are overlooked by other pro-am leagues. Female players deserve the same facilities and amenities as their male counterparts, and fans deserve the best game day experience possible.
"This is a game changer for women’s professional soccer, and I’m thrilled for young players and aspiring pros,” said UWS Executive Director Stephanie Cleaves. “Two professional women’s soccer leagues have never co-existed before in the United States. More professional opportunities will lead to the advancement of the women’s game for organizations, players, their communities and supporters.”
NISA has always been more than just a league, but an association of leagues linked together with a common cause. With its recent expansion, there also is an overlap of clubs having a team in both NISA and UWS, including NISA professional sides Detroit City FC and Michigan Stars FC.
4
Absence makes the heart go colder
The experiment in football without fans is yielding some insights:
Researchers from the University of Salzburg studied 20 Salzburg matches, 10 before lockdown and 10 after, to observe the “emotional behaviour and interactions” between players and with officials.
On average, the study found that there were 19.5% fewer “emotional” incidents, such as arguments or altercations, in matches without fans. The results also showed a stark decline in interactions involving the referee. In the pre-pandemic half of the study, the official was dragged into 39.4% of emotional incidents, but with no incitement from the stands, that number fell to just over a quarter, 25.2%.
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Impact
6
Elephant not in the room
7
Unanticipated consequences
What does Brexit mean for British football? Ed Aarons digs in what leaving the EU means at the development level:
Alan Redmond, who is head of football for Roc Nation – an American agency that represents Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha and Chris Richards of Bayern Munich among others – sees one positive. “It’s possibly the only thing I’m grateful for from the whole Brexit process – that for a brief window young English players will be given more time to play and develop. But it’s still going to be an uphill battle and they will still be faced with the same competition when they get to 18.
“The European players will now have to qualify via the points system when they are 18 but the new rules also mean players from outside the EU can also enter the market. So they are open to competition from a greater number of countries.”
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If you’re gonna go for it, go for it
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Pause
The pandemic + Brexit has predictably led to much lower volume in this year’s transfer window, as the FT explains:
“It’s hard to tease apart the Covid effect from Brexit [on reduced transfer activity this month],” said Omar Chaudhuri from 21st Club, a consultancy that advises football clubs on player acquisitions. “There has been a double whammy.”
10
Bloom
File this under ideas I wish I’d had: coffee + soccer in the United States. Kickoff Coffee is “coffee for soccer people, by coffee people,” playing off the fact so many of us soccer fans get up far too early to watch the beautiful game accompanied by a brew. You can feel good about it here too, with 10% of the proceeds from each bag benefiting a couple of soccer for social development organizations. I can’t vouch for the quality of the coffee yet, so let’s hope it’s as good as the branding.
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Pioneer
Before Wenger, there was Jozef Vengloš. Four Four Two reminds us of the revolutionary approach the Slovak manager, who passed away this week at the age of 84, brought to the English game back in 1990.
When Arsene Wenger arrived at Arsenal in October 1996, the bespectacled Frenchman was hailed as a revolutionary – a man whose methods would not only shake up the English game but ultimately shape its future, too. Aston Villa’s players and fans, though, were probably wondering what all the fuss was about. After all, they’d seen it all before, during the brief and somewhat calamitous reign of the top flight’s first foreign manager.