Independent Football Regulator will use statutory powers to open club books Sport Business The Independent Football Regulator says it will use statutory powers to open the books and assess the balance sheets of clubs across the English pyramid. The government quango, which has been up and running in its own right since November, has today published the proposed scope of its first in-depth analysis of men’s professional football [...]
UK ready to mirror US with female athletes becoming investors Sport Business For three consecutive years, not a single female athlete has appeared among the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes. The bar keeps rising. In 2025, the threshold jumped to $53.6m, up 19 per cent year on year. Coco Gauff, the highest-earning female athlete in the world, made $34.4m and still fell nearly $20m short. Meanwhile the global [...]
Exclusive: Brits don’t trust football and rugby team owners to run clubs properly Sport Business Less than a third of British adults trust football and rugby team owners to “run their clubs in a financially sustainable manner” amid intensifying scrutiny on those who buy sporting institutions. Exclusive Ipsos polling for City AM shows that just 32 per cent of adults trust the owner of their football or rugby club. It [...]
Manchester City asked to give up FA Cup revenue to opponents Exeter January 7, 2026 Cash-strapped Exeter City have asked Manchester City to ease their financial struggles by donating some of their share of the proceeds from this weekend’s FA Cup tie. Exeter and City are both due 45 per cent of the gate receipts from Saturday’s third-round match at the Etihad Stadium, which will bank the visitors between £250,000 [...]
Why Squad Cost Ratio rules can’t afford to ruin joy of Premier League January 2, 2026 Trevor Watkins, global head of sport at Pinsent Masons and Former director and chairman of AFC Bournemouth, discusses why changes in Premier League football’s financing rules cannot afford to ruin the sport With the Christmas period behind us, the traditional festive season of football fixtures – once a full list on Boxing Day but now [...]
Sheffield Wednesday: Chansiri gets three-year ban as tuna tycoon canned December 1, 2025 Sheffield Wednesday’s former owner Dejphon Chansiri has been banned from football for three years for his role in the club’s ongoing financial crisis. Wednesday, one of England’s most historic clubs, are in administration and look destined for relegation to the third tier after a further six-point deduction today left them 23 points adrift at the [...]
Budget crackdown on football image rights ‘incredible’, say tax experts November 27, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been accused of disproportionately targeting football for tax rises after the Budget laid out plans for a raid on image rights earnings. Top footballers benefit from setting up image rights companies which are taxed at a lower rate than their salaries, but the government says it will legislate “to ensure that [...]
Mercury13: Mata-backed women’s football group lines up Spanish club November 26, 2025 Juan Mata-backed investment group Mercury13 is in advanced negotiations about buying a stake in Spanish top-flight women’s club Levante Badalona. Mercury13, which bought FC Como Women in 2024 before investing in WSL2 club Bristol earlier this year, has pledged $100m to build a global portfolio of clubs, with Badalona earmarked to be its next investment. [...]
Premier League clubs to pay levy on overspend after approving new rules November 21, 2025 Big-spending Premier League clubs will pay a levy on any overspend as part of new Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) financial rules voted in for next season. At a shareholders meeting today in London, a vote to introduce SCR in place of the controversial Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) achieved the required majority. They rejected proposals [...]
Most valuable teenage footballers ranking shows Chelsea approach is paying off November 6, 2025 Chelsea’s investment in young talent is bearing fruit, with the club now boasting three of the 11 most valuable teenage footballers in the world, according to a new academic study. Barcelona and Spain superstar Lamine Yamal, 18, is streets ahead at the top of the list compiled by the CIES Football Observatory, with a valuation [...]