FootBiz newsletter #46: Barcelona's stay of execution, inside Graham Potter's return and Arsenal's new sporting director?

Sometimes when compiling these newsletters there is a ton of really interesting and complex stuff to get stuck into and untangle.

On days like today, it’s more just newsy bits and bobs to catch people up on.

We’ll lead with Barcelona, because that’s clearly the story of the transfer window and the promised twists and turns have begun to arrive.

Indeed, Spain’s highest sports court, the Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD), yesterday ruled in Barcelona’s favour and restored Dani Olmo and Pau Victor’s registrations… for now.

It means the government has suspended the decision reached by Spain’s football authorities - La Liga and the Spanish federation - until a definitive ruling is reached. Until that verdict, the players can play again.

The CSD effectively decided that Barca had grounds to dispute the verdict that had been reached, and then gave them a temporary stay of execution which Joan Laporta celebrated like a trophy (video).

According to their release, the CSD has ruled in Barcelona’s favour because of the unfair effect it would have on the two players, who have a right “to a sporting career in accordance with their potential” as well as some nonsense about how this could damage the Spanish national team.

La Liga have already appealed this ruling, and we expect to have a full resolution before the end of the window but there are also reports of a collection of La Liga clubs uniting against Barca taking a sledgehammer to the rules.

President of Athletic Club, Jon Uriarte, denied that his club are part of any organised resistance but reiterated that ”the regulations are the same for everyone.”

“There are rules in the different competitions, which are the same for everyone and must be complied with,” he said.

We’ll almost certainly have more news on this next week! Stay tuned.

Table of Contents

• Arsenal hold Rosicky talks

• Why VAR is destined to die

• It might just work for us

• West Ham go to court

• Eagle Football close to investment

• Pottering about

• Everton to refinance

Arsenal hold Rosicky talks

Arsenal have held talks with former midfield player Tomas Rosicky about replacing Edu as the club's sporting director, as first reported by The Guardian earlier this week.

The former Czech Republic captain has enjoyed considerable success in the same role at his current club Sparta Prague, who qualified for the group stage of the Champions League for the first time in 19 years this season having won back-to-back domestic titles.

Rosicky moved up into Sparta's technical department immediately after retiring as a player following a second spell in 2018, and took over as sporting director the following year. After six years in the same role the 44-year-old is thought to be open to a new challenge at Arsenal, but would not move until the summer. Rosicky spent 10 years as a player at Arsenal, where he played with manager Mikel Arteta and former Germany defender Per Mertesacker, who manages the club's academy.

Hiring Rosicky would be a typical appointment by Arsenal, who have made a habit of bringing back former players to coaching roles. In addition to senior appointments such as Arteta, Edu and Mertesacker club legends such Thierry Henry, Freddie Ljungberg, Jack Wilshere and Jens Lehmann have all been employed as coaches in the Academy.

Edu has been replaced in the short-term by his former deputy Jason Ayto, who will preside over what is expected to be a quiet January transfer window, but he is not thought to be in contention to get the job permanently.

Other potential candidates include the recent defenestrated Manchester United sporting Dan Ashworth, Paris Saint Germain advisor Luis Campos and Roberto Olabe, who will leave Real Sociedad this summer. Executive vice-chair Tim Lewis is leading Arsenal's recruitment process for an appointment who will report to him directly. The former partner at Clifford Chance has taken an increasingly hands-on approach at the Emirates Stadium since Edu's departure, which some Arsenal expect to continue after a sporting director has been hired.

Why VAR is destined to die

There are several realities we must accept about VAR, and one is that you can’t have common sense refereeing and consistency.

If you want consistency, it will come with infuriating decisions that are precision-bound to the ever-expanding definitions of the laws of football.

If you want common sense and flow of the game, then VAR must go.

Only the latter actually looks like football should, with all its glorious imperfections.

Premium subscribers had Rob’s surgical dismantling of VAR in their inbox yesterday morning but you can read it now on this link. 

If you’re not a premium sub yet, now is your chance.

Also on the site this week - why the macro trends mean a new era is about to begin (or may already have begun) in football club ownership…

It might just work for us

Premier League owners who also operate American sports properties have (anecdotally) struggled to effectively centralise services and deliver the synergies that many had imagined or pitched to investors before their acquisitions.

But it isn’t stopping Stan Kroenke from giving it a go anyway.

Stan and his son Josh have been making a concerted effort to integrate their sports holdings more thoroughly and are launching a new division dedicated to selling sponsorships across its full portfolio.

That would include Arsenal, the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche and the Colorado Rapids.

Whether any advertisers are looking to sign up to a deal that spans those properties is another question entirely, but one that will be answered by Arsenal’s commercial chief Olly Dale and SoFi Stadium’s head of partnerships Chris Sloan.

The two will remain in London and Los Angeles respectively as they lead the new division. KSE president Kevin Demoff and Arsenal managing director Richard Garlick will oversee their progress, and announced the move internally on either side of the Atlantic yesterday.

West Ham go to court

West Ham have filed a legal claim for £3.95million in the High Court against the landlords of the London Stadium, E20 Stadium, a subsidiary of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) which is owned by the UK government.

The claim centres on a penalty fee of £6.5m that West Ham paid to E20 two years ago after Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky bought a 27 per cent stake in the club. West Ham are are seeking to recover £3.95m of that payment on the grounds it was not part of their lease agreement. The legal action has been revealed in E20's annual report published earlier this week, with the accounts showing the fee was paid in March 2023 “following an expert determination in which the expert found in favour of E20.”

The club’s lease agreement contained a ten-year clause that expired in 2023, which stated that LLDC was due a fee for the sale of any stake in the club before that point. The club paid an initial £2.6m fee after Kretinsky bought 27 per cent of their shares in 2021, but LLDC claimed it should have been higher and won an expert determination for an extra £3.95 million.

West Ham challenged that judgement in a High Court hearing that took place last month, with a decision expected in the next few weeks. The E20 accounts reinforce the extraordinary good value West Ham have enjoyed from playing at the London Stadium, and the resultant cost to the UK taxpayer. The Hammers paid rent of £4.4m in 2023 under the terms of a 99-year lease agreement which started at £2.5m-a-year but has been adjusted for inflation, a small figure which was just over half of E20's costs for routine maintenance. As a result E20's loss for the year was £14.3m, with the publicly owned LLDC providing them with funding of £20.9m.

Eagle Football close to investment

John Textor’s plans to float Eagle Football on the New York Stock Exchange are going ahead, and the American hopes his multi-club vehicle will be publicly traded by the end of Q1.

Eagle also appears to be moving ahead with a major investment from Sportsbank.

According to Wednesday’s press release, Sportsbank has “entered a period of exclusivity while due diligence is conducted and relevant commercial and legal agreements are concluded” for its investment into the Eagle Football group. Sportsbank has been advised by veteran financier Keith Harris and describes itself as “a sports investment company led by Crystal Palace supporter Zechariah Janjua.”

The release adds: “Sportsbank intends to make a significant financial and management investment in Eagles with the backing of major international financial and strategic management investors who strongly support Eagles’ multi-club model.

“Eagles currently owns and manages a portfolio of iconic football clubs including Olympique Lyonnais in France, Crystal Palace in the United Kingdom, Botafogo in Brazil, and the Royal Daring Club of Brussels in Belgium.”

Where this leaves the Syed brothers’ bid for Eagle Football’s 45% stake in Palace is unclear. The Athletic reported on Monday that the Syed group had entered exclusivity for that piece of the club - a stake that Sportsbank had also been bidding for - before conversations evolved into a wider Eagle investment.

Sportsbank is understood to want to keep the stake in Palace as part of them investing in the wider group, which is obviously incompatible with the Syed brothers being in exclusivity to buy it.

Much to shake out over the coming weeks, and we’re keeping on eye on Lyon, who have a provisional relegation and transfer ban hanging over their heads for non-compliance with financial rules.

Pottering about

Welcome back, finally, to Graham Potter. Replacing Julen Lopetegui at West Ham.

After his exploits at Ostersunds, Swansea City and then Brighton and Hove Albion Potter was considered one of the elite up-and-coming coaches in European football. He took the leap to Chelsea, only to get tangled up in the early post-Roman era, where Todd Boehly himself acted as interim sporting director with disastrous consequences and Potter was gone within seven months. He has not been seen since.

Potter was somewhat scarred from his time at Chelsea, which included a (non-sporting) executive trying to tell him which players to pick and senior players undermining him by calling him “Harry” behind his back, which ultimately led to Potter magically disappearing.

Sources tell us that Potter has been sounded out for north of 20 jobs (to differing degrees) since he was unceremoniously dumped by the Blues in April 2023, but has been biding his time to wait for the right one. The idea of uprooting his family again has been a big concern.

Such patience is commendable in football, and he’s landed on a club that has a big budget, a sweetheart stadium deal (see above), a yearning for success and a squad with some talent.

Why is it a good bet? Well, if you can get the ninth biggest wage bill in the Premier League (and their budget is closer to Tottenham’s [6th] than it is to Crystal Palace’s in 10th) to overperform by even one league position then you could be qualifying for Europe. That is the most significant revenue jump for the club and where people start paying attention to what you’re doing more broadly. Achieving that while playing good football would make Potter one of European football’s most interesting young coaches once again.

How Potter fits in with Tim Steidten, who has fallen out with both managers he’s worked with at West Ham, will not decide Potter’s future but that of Steidten himself.

The German’s role is under focus after spending €30m on 31-year-old flop Niclas Fullkrug in the summer and even more than that on Max Kilman among a slew of moves that simply have not worked out.

Everton to refinance

Everton have appointed American bank JP Morgan to raise around £300m in borrowing to support the refinancing of their new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock, as per Bloomberg. The new funding will replace the long-standing £225m debt to Cheshire-based group Rights and Media Funding, which was paid off when the Friedkin Group completed their purchase of the club from Farhad Moshiri last month.

In a separate transaction also reported by Bloomberg, JP Morgan is also providing a £130m loan to The Friedkin Group to assist with running costs at Everton.

Everton are confident that JP Morgan will secure a refinancing package that saves them millions of pounds each year. The club were paying annual interest in excess of 10 per cent to RMF, and are targeting a £300m loan at around seven per cent on the new borrowing, which would be long-term senior debt replacing shorter-term loans.

Everton fan and financial analyst The Esk wrote on X this week that the interest saving could be as much as £9m-a-year for the club. The new stadium on the River Mersey will open at the start of next season, with the first test event of an under 18 game played in front of a few thousand fans to be held on 17 February.