- Clubs are being dealt with under PSR rules, but 1 year on ManC are still untouched
- The ineptitude of the FA in running football is overwhelming
By Tony Attwood
The big news doing the rounds is that there is serious discussion going on in relation to some Premier League matches being moved to the United States, in a way that would mean each club would (initially at least) play two of its 38 league games outside of England. As far as I know, no one has asked English supporters what they think of this idea.
According to a piece in the Guardian, this move is almost inevitable and follows the introduction of the Club World Cup – a competition which, as far as I could see, was not welcomed by fans. And of course, it is is not the only thing many people in the game don’t like – we would also note State ownership of clubs led by Manchester City and Newcastle United, which takes us into territory ever further removed from the wishes and wants of the actual supporters who go and watch the matches. But they are, of course, now a minority – a background – so they seem to matter less and less.
Of course, we have already travelled a very long distance from football at 3pm on Saturdays and 7.30 pm or 7.45 pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from time to time, but the move seems inexorable. All that is wanted is the money. Certainly, Tottenham need some – and they are getting it, at least according to headlines like Tottenham on course to receive over £100m to kick-start new era
But much of this is predicated on the notion that football fans will put up with anything at any price. Yet the very low crowd at Villa Park for the England game yesterday suggests, maybe, that is not quite the case. Maybe it proves that you can fool some of the fans some of the time, but not all of the fans all of the time.
Ultimately, the dash for more and more money will have to come to an end – although I thought it was interesting to read a comment on Untold this week which suggested Arsenal did not make a loss in its last financial year. And this level of denial of facts (without supporting evidence or sources) seems to be on the increase.
The fact is, however, no club is ever going to put out figures that are worse than reality – everyone wants to look good, and so there is no reason not to believe that the legally required and legally audited figures put out by the club are not accurate. What’s more, why would any club actually be putting out figures that are far worse than reality? If Arsenal are making a profit, as our correspondent said, why would the club’s official figures show the opposite?
But the official figures show that Arsenal made a pre-tax loss of £52.1m in 2022/23 and £17.7m in 2023/24, Obviously the figures for 2024/25 are not in yet, but looking at that year (and subsequently) we can see that Arsenal have continued to spend considerably on players and it is hard to see how both those years will not show a further loss.
Transfermarkt shows an Arsenal expenditure on new players in the 2025 summer window as being €293.50m, which at today’s exchange rate is £254.91m. That was quite a drop in terms of loss from the previous year, but it was still a loss.
The fact is that turnover is going up and up, but the loss is still being made each year, not least because of the drive to constantly improve the squad in order to win the league. If you want to know more, there is something further on this at How much longer can Arsenal go on losing this much money?
My point here is, however, that the owners of Arsenal are not stupid – they know that this cannot go on forever, and indeed, why would they want it to? It is, after all, their money.
So they clearly have schemes in mind that will rescue Arsenal from its dire financial position, and I would be surprised if, being American themselves and being brought up on America’s tradition of commercialisation and eternally exploring the possible, they are not looking with considerable interest at the option of some Arsenal games being played in America.
I’ve mentioned before that on occasions when travelling from the Midlands to an Arsenal home match, I have ended up at the ground an hour or more before kick-off, I have had interesting conversations with people who have travelled from the USA for a three-day trip to London to see some tourist attractions and watch an Arsenal game. It is something I understand is organised by the owners of the club.
So the next step of Arsenal returning the favour and playing a home game in the USA seems logical. It would boost both the sales of TV rights and of advertising around games enormously in the USA. That is not to say I am in favour of such a move, but it just seems inevitable to me.
————————-
Details of our other recent articles and series can be found on the home page. Meanwhile, the Arsenal History Society website continues its series on Arsenal’s unique achievement of 100 consecutive seasons in the top division.
KSE own a number of American sport teams including the Las Angeles Rams. The owners of the 32 teams that play in the American football leagues agreed some time ago to play a certain number of games outside of the USA. Countries such as the UK, Germany, Mexico, Brazil now allow such games to be played in their countries. Such a movement seems to be financially successful for the owners of the American franchises and presumably for the countries participating. Although I have not got any actual evidence that this is the case, other than this movement has increased with more games being played outside of the USA.
A number of American billionaires now own different UK football teams. The leaders of FIFA seem to be well liked by the current American president who himself has received millions of dollars from the American billionaire owners of sporting enterprises,( including the owners of UK sporting enterprises) in helping him become president in both his first term and now his second term. The point I am suggesting from this is that I have no doubts as to where the future lies for British football, as well as for other European football. Loss making cannot continue for many clubs with a way out perhaps is the movement of some games outside of the European domain. In the current Western climate, what seems to work for the current American billionaires and millionaires and the American public in general seem to be a model to be tried within Europe and especially the UK. Hope my vision is groundless but Tony has also indicated that something similar could begin in the UK
Keep an eye on what happens in Tirana on Thursday when UEFA’s ExCo meet to discuss requests for La Liga and Serie A matches to be played in the USA in the next four months.
If UEFA approve this, the floodgates will open. There was an article in the Independent yesterday which discusses this in more depth.