FootBiz newsletter #71: FIFA's Trump headache, Chelsea's UEFA talks, Man City

Walking around Chicago on Monday it was easy to tell by the intensity of someone’s frown whether they were (or were not) involved in the stock market.

All three conversations overheard while waiting for coffee were about tariffs, which has also been the only topic of conversation smeared across every TV in Donald Trump’s exhaustingly dramatic version of America.

Now, the president wasn’t a particularly popular man in this city and never has been, but that has now plumbed new depths with the financial markets… erm, also plumbing new depths.

Ultimately the problem with this entire situation is not necessarily the policy (though it’s bad) but the unpredictability of the man signing that policy into existence. Impulsive barely covers it.

So even with as much sucking up as Gianni Infantino has done - and it’s a metric ton - that must be a slight worry at FIFA HQ.

Yes, Donald Trump has promised to be helpful, and as a renowned fan of sycophants he appears to genuinely like Infantino. He certainly has him around a lot.

The most notable public show of affection saw Infantino name-checked in Trump’s inauguration day speech, but their relationship actually goes back to Trump’s first term, when the US was bidding to co-host next summer’s World Cup and Infantino played golf with the president at his course in New Jersey, as well as visiting the White House on multiple occasions in 2019 and 2020.

One of the presidential guarantees Infantino received in those meetings was on access to visas, which was key in advancing the candidacy back then but which now must be a deep concern for world football’s governing body.

Any player being refused a visa as part of America’s newly aggressive border policy would be bad PR but the fear is of refusals and delays happening with many players - and that’s before we get to fans trying to attend.

Infantino is also part of the concerted effort to unlock federal funds for host cities who fear they have no other way to meet the costs of putting on the event. The 11 American cities have requested $625m in funding but there are no guarantees and they have had to spend heavily on lobbying to try and secure the money they need.

And these are only a few of the known knowns, to borrow from Rumsfieldian parlance.

The known unknowns include: there will be failures in government departments that are currently being gutted by DOGE - but where and how severe? What happens when partying football fans meet very potent but also very legal marijuana for the first time at a World Cup? Do fans booking an AirBnb in an unknown city realise that ‘the wrong side of town’ in some American cities is going to put them in actual danger? Related to that last point, there are nearly half a billion guns in the USA. In fact, there have been 1363 mass shootings in America since the last World Cup final. A mass shooting involves 4+ people getting shot, the total number of shootings is way higher and will almost certainly include visiting fans next June. The murder rate (per 100,000 people) is higher than in Pakistan, where England’s cricket team refused to tour for 15 years for ‘security reasons’. Is that a worry?

The unknown unknowns are… unknown, of course. But when you are hosting an event of this magnitude (which nobody has ever done, given this is the biggest World Cup ever) then the one thing you at least want is certainty.

With the current president, FIFA are unlikely to have that.

But on the plus side, Gianni Infantino has a nice friend.

Table of Contents

• PL facing £20m+ legal bill

• Textor vs Al-Khelaifi yet again!

• Saints ready to Röhl the dice

• UEFA Mafia fine overturned

• Super League CEO in Madrid delegation

• Eagle Football IPO delayed again

• Luc again in the summer

• World Cup hosts set for ‘31 and ‘35

• Hooligan banning orders extended to US

• M&A Murmurs

• Shaw thing for FSG

PL facing £20m+ legal bill

The Premier League are facing a potential legal bill of more than £20 million for part one of their Associated Party Transaction dispute with Manchester City, according to The Times. Matt Lawton and Martyn Ziegler reported last night that City will make an application for the Premier League to pay their legal bills – as well as their own – after an independent panel ruled in February that the competition’s APT rules were “void and unenforceable”.

The Premier League had already amended the controversial rules which seek to prevent clubs obtained inflated commercial deals with related parties by that stage, leading City to mount a second legal challenge. Details of that claim were also published by The Times and the Daily Mail last week, with City accusing the Premier League of giving clubs such as Arsenal, Brighton, Leicester and Everton an unfair advantage by treating shareholder loans worth hundreds of millions differently to other sponsorship deals.

The independent panel have yet to apportionment of costs following the first legal hearing, which is likely to lead to another dispute. The Premier League are expected to robustly defend any claims against it for costs on the grounds that the process remains ongoing, and the fact that all the claims have been brought by City.

Textor vs Al-Khelaifi yet again!

The latest round in the ongoing battle between John Textor and Nasser al-Khelaifi involves accusations of censorship and the American taking his clothes off.

It all started rather casually, with Textor recording a video for DAZN from the Botafogo offices detailing his big weekend ahead - with four of his portfolio clubs playing, including Crystal Palace’s big derby with Brighton and Lyon’s crunch clash with Lille in pursuit of Champions League football.

Beginning wearing the shirt of Belgian side RWDM, Textor discussed the matches chronologically and removed a shirt with each until he got to Botafogo.

On introducing the Rio de Janeiro club, Textor called them a “small team in Brazil” and then playfully mentioned they’d be playing “a small team from Paris” in the summer’s Club World Cup.

That (fairly harmless) gag was clearly a red rag to a bull with PSG however, and the video suddenly disappeared fairly swiftly. .

“Unbelievable!” responded Textor on Instagram, also re-posting the full video.

“Apparently censorship is alive and well in French football.

“See the video, with a playful reference to a Paris rival, that was provocative enough (to whom?) that it was forced to be removed from DAZN by PSG. Really, let’s lighten up and start having fun in football!”

Saints ready to Röhl the dice

Southampton are still battling to avoid the stain of being the worst Premier League side in history, needing one point to tie Derby County’s 2007/08 vintage and two points to surpass them.

But with relegation confirmed after defeat to Tottenham this weekend, they will not have manager Ivan Juric guiding them on their road back to the Premier League.

Juric’s departure was confirmed on Monday morning but had been expected internally for a while.

The club are expected to be back in for Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Röhl, who they have previously coveted, as well as a fresher interest in the revived career of Frank Lampard.

Lampard has taken Coventry on a stirring run since replacing fan favourite Mark Robins, including a streak of eight wins in nine games that has found them in playoff contention.

Röhl, however, is the favourite for the post given Southampton’s previous attempts to lure him to St Mary’s and the existing relationship between him and Saints technical director Johannes Spors.

Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri stood in the way of Röhl’s departure earlier this season, demanding his full £5m release clause, but with the south Yorkshire club failing to pay players this month there could be a more pragmatic approach to a deal.

Chelsea not sweating PL ruling

Chelsea are relaxed about the Premier League’s forthcoming evaluation of the sale of the club’s women’s team to sister company Blueco 22, which will be conducted independently by data company Nielsen Sports, as they can afford for their valuation to be downgraded significantly and still comply with the competition’s profit and sustainability rules.

In their 2023/24 accounts which were published on Saturday morning, Chelsea confirmed that their women’s operation was valued at just over £200m, but their annual report also showed that the club only needed to raise around £75m from asset sales to be PSR compliant.

The Premier League downgraded Chelsea’s sale of the two hotels at Stamford Bridge from £76m to £70m following a similar accounting trick last year, but it would require almost two-thirds to be taken off the value of the women’s team for the club to have a PSR problem this season. That said, football finance expert Kieran Maguire set his valuation at £20-30m for a team that lost £8.7m on revenues of £11m last year, so we await the league’s view.

UEFA do not permit asset sales to related parties in their accounting rules and Chelsea are already in discussions with European football’s governing body over a financial settlement. A modest fine of tens rather than hundreds of thousands of pounds is the most likely outcome.

As discussed by FootBiz last week the Premier League have no plans to follow UEFA in closing this loophole due to a lack of demand from the clubs, who failed to back the executive when a ban was proposed at last summer’s AGM. Intriguingly The Times reported last week that Aston Villa could be the next Premier League club to sell their women’s team, which given their well-documented PSR problems would make perfect sense.

UEFA Mafia fine overturned

UEFA had a fine overturned and were forced to pay the costs of a Norwegian club after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favour of Brann SK.

Brann were fined after their supporters chanted “UEFA Mafia” during a match last January, with a subsequent appeal also rejected by European football’s governing body.

The Norwegians took the case to CAS, however, who in turn “ruled by majority that, in view of the facts of this case, there was no breach of the UEFA regulations by the club and that the €5,000 fine issued by UEFA is annulled”, per The Athletic.

Brann revealed that UEFA had been ordered to pay their legal costs, while their chairman Aslak Sverdrup described the verdict as “important and correct” during a time where “freedom of expression is under pressure.”

Super League CEO in Madrid delegation

Bernd Reichart, the CEO of lobby group A22, attended Real Madrid’s pre-match training session at the Emirates Stadium last night ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg in north London.

Reichart has kept a fairly low profile since his group announced the Unify League, which at this point is effectively a colourful powerpoint used to try and strong-arm governing bodies to make further concessions to the richest clubs in Spain and a couple of their friends until we see evidence otherwise.

Eagle Football IPO delayed again

Eagle Football’s planned Q1 IPO never came to pass, and the macro environment is making things look very difficult for John Textor’s long-planned flotation.

In the last few days, a slew of companies hoping to IPO have put those plans on ice indefinitely, including fintech giant Klarna, Chime, eToro, MNTN and StubHub.

Those deals are more traditional IPOs, while Textor has been attempting to take Eagle public via SPAC, now a more controversial method of fundraising after becoming popular during Covid. SPACs have largely provided very poor returns for investors while insiders sold off their shares for profits.

Where the pressure could come for Textor is that at least one investor in the Lyon deal is understood to be due a significant sum should the IPO not occur.

Luc again in the summer

Lucas Paqueta’s spot-fixing trial has been adjourned until June, according to The Guardian. The independent panel presiding over the hearing did not conclude proceedings in the initial allotted three-week slot, that ended last Friday, and will not resume until the end of the season.

The FA are pushing for a life-ban if Paqueta is found guilty of four charges of deliberately being booked in four Premier League games in 2022 and 2023. The delay in concluding the hearing could disrupt another summer transfer window for West Ham, who have already lost out on around £80m due to the case after withdrew from a deal to sign Paqueta two years ago.

There could be a further delay if Paquetá is found guilty and a separate hearing is required to determine the punishment.

World Cup hosts set for ‘31 and ‘35

The hosts of the 2031 and 2035 Women’s World Cups will be the USA and a joint British bid after they were confirmed as the only ‘valid’ bidders by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

"Today I can confirm as part of the bidding process that we received one bid for 2031 and one valid bid for 2035," Infantino said at a Uefa congress in Belgrade.

"The 2031 bid is the United States of America and potentially some other Concacaf members and the 2035 bid is from Europe and the home nations.

"So the path is there for the Women's World Cup in 2031 and 2035 to take place in some great nations and further boost the women's football movement."

Hooligan banning orders extended to US

Donald Trump’s determination to keep foreigners out of his country received some help from the UK government this week, who extended so-called Football Banning Orders to the United States.

Banning orders for convicted hooligans normally only apply to domestic matches, unless crimes relate to England matches, but the Home Office have extended the scope of bans currently held by Chelsea and Manchester City fans ahead of the Club World Cup. As a result around 150 Chelsea and City fans will be unable to travel to the tournament, and will have to hand their passports between 9 June and 13 July.

Failure to comply will lead to a hefty fine and potentially up to six months in prison, plus an extension of their banning order. Given the limited ticket sales for the Club World Cup to date, however, it is unclear if this will be deemed a punishment by the hooligans.

M&A Murmurs

Less of a murmur, more of a fact here:

The EFL Board granted a request for an extension until 22 April for Reading owner Dai Yongge to sell the club. The deadline had previously been last Saturday.

American Robert Platek remains in exclusive negotiations while his compatriot Rob Couhig must release securities held over the club’s property assets for any deal to consummate.

David Blitzer is preparing to sell his controlling stakes in MLS franchise Real Salt Lake and NWSL’s Utah Royals, per Sportico.

The multi-sport investor, who owns stakes in more than a dozen football clubs, will retain a minority holding in both after cashing out a significant profit on the Utah teams.

Taking over will be the Miller family, a renowned investor group in Salt Lake City who previously owned the Utah Jazz NBA franchise. Sportico reports it as a $525m deal but without specifics of how the two teams are valued. Sportico’s own valuations peg Real Salt Lake alone as a $525m valuation, but industry insiders often find their MLS figures to be inflated.

Blitzer bought Real Salt Lake for $400m in 2022 and exercised a $2m option to re-launch the Royals after they had departed for Kansas City and re-branded as the Current. With the Denver expansion team recently selling for $110m, Blitzer will have done well out of his NWSL investment.

The co-founder of Harris Blitzer Sports Entertainment, Blitzer might be the only investor who is publicly known to hold investments in all of America’s five major leagues; NFL via the Washington Commanders, NBA via the Philadelphia 76ers, MLS via Real Salt Lake, NHL via the New Jersey Devils and MLB via the Cleveland Guardians.

Plymouth Argyle are in the final stages of selling a minority stake in the Devon club that could lead to a majority holding.

Owner Simon Hallett saved the club from financial ruin when he took over, and did a terrific job of stabilising the finances before achieving promotion to the Championship.

Hallett has, however, been looking for outside investment as the club continues to invest in infrastructure — most notably the rebuilding of the Mayflower Stand, training facilities and the Brickfields site — with a view to making the club sustainable.

The Argyle owner also confirmed that both he and US-based minority shareholder group Argyle Green would be diluting their stake as part of the transaction.

"If completed as expected, this transaction will inject new capital into the club in several phases.

"The first phase will involve issuing new equity, diluting my stake and those of other shareholders.

"Subsequent funds will be available through sponsorship deals and convertible loans, drawn at the club's discretion.

"These loans will have favourable interest rates and will eventually convert to equity, allowing the new investors to take a majority ownership position."

Even though Argyle look likely to be relegated this season, their strong financial position means that they would go into next season with a larger budget than when they won League One with 101 points in 2022/23.

"Our success off the pitch has enabled us to diversify and grow revenues to record levels," Hallett said.

"Should we be relegated, returns on our investments position us well to remain financially strong in League One with the ability to fund a highly competitive first-team squad.”

SPL makes rule to help Euro campaigns

For the last 20 years elite foreign managers working in England, from Jose Mourinho, through Jurgen Klopp to Pep Guardiola, have bemoaned the Premier League’s refusal to give a helping hand to English clubs competing in Europe by rearranging domestic fixtures.

Klopp’s complaints about Liverpool being given a Saturday lunchtime kick-off following a midweek Champions League tie in particular were legion, so the German may want to consider applying for management jobs in Scotland should he tire of his mysterious role as Red Bull’s Head of Global Soccer.

In a radical move approved by the Scottish Professional Football League Board last week SPL clubs will be permitted to postpone one league game in order to prepare for Champions League and Europa League qualification play-offs in August. Scotland are set to have five clubs in Europe next season and all of them could be involved in a play-off tie so the disruption will be significant.

The Premier League have always refused to make any concessions to clubs in Europe on the grounds that they value the integrity of the competition and competitive balance, with the latter ship having long since sailed in Scotland.

In a similarly skewed competition, Ligue 1 often schedules PSG for a Friday night ahead of key continental clashes. Though it obviously helps that the club’s owner also owns one of the league broadcast partners.

Shaw thing for FSG

City Football Group’s director of football data, Laurie Shaw, is joining Fenway Sports Group in a role working across their broader sports portfolio.

Shaw joined CFG as head of AI in 2021 but was promoted to oversee all football data within two years.

Shaw studied physics at Imperial College London before gaining a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He worked in finance and at Harvard and Yale universities before being headhunted by CFG.

Liverpool majority owner FSG boast a number of major league franchises in the US, including the Boston Red Sox of the MLB, the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL and their most recent addition, Boston Common Golf of the TGL.