FootBiz newsletter #72: Premier League gains extra Champions League spot, UEFA to stick with format

More than a year ago, when UEFA were already publicly discussing the potential switch to a Swiss model, one Nyon employee mentioned that it had been important to “plant the seeds” early.

Well, after less than a full season they are very happy with the tree they see coming into bloom in front of them (and there are more details on that further down).

The expanded league format was, internally, considered a major success but that would have been irrelevant if the knockout stage disappointed.

Obviously in football you can never say never, but it appears that three of the Champions League quarter-finals may be sewn up after the first leg.

Real Madrid are (outwardly, at least) confident in their ability to mount one of their famed remontadas and overturn Arsenal’s 3-0 lead at the Bernabeu, but the oddsmakers have them around 9% to advance. Aston Villa are similar after PSG’s comeback win at the Parc des Princes, while Dortmund are around 2% after getting whomped by Barcelona.

The only tie with some life left still requires Bayern (18%) to go to Milan (82%) and turn over Inter. A 2-1 defeat in Munich isn’t the end of the world but Simone Inzaghi is one of Europe’s most impressive coaches while Vincent Kompany… looks good in a Bayern tracksuit.

With UEFA drawing the bracket already as part of their new competition format, we know that the winner of Arsenal’s tie will face the winner of PSG’s in a semi-final that should be absolutely blockbuster. Barca will most likely face Inter in a rematch of the infamous Eyjafjallajökull semi-final (not a typo, real ones know.)

While European football’s governing body would probably have hoped for a touch more peril in the second leg of these ties, it is almost impossible for the final to be between anything other than two huge brands. In that respect, it’s an absolute dream for UEFA after a season where they will break all records for revenue and viewership for their premier competition - primarily because of all the extra games they shoehorned in.

Yes, the concerns remain about how the turbocharged Champions League revenues will distort some of the mid-sized leagues across the continent. Club Brugge, for winning one knockout tie, will now receive around €60m total from their participation this season. They already have a wage bill 10x as big as other teams in their league. You will never be able to convince me this is healthy, and this will play out in multiple countries, and the stratification of these leagues is only going to become greater.

But European football is a bit like that tree that’s coming into bloom, people only pay attention to what’s happening at the top. When was the last time someone walked up to a tree and inspected the roots to see how healthy they were?

Anyway, you probably want more football business talk and less conversation about trees, so let’s leaf it there and get on with the newsletter 🌳 

Table of Contents

• Asia tour in May for Man Utd

• Levy is Prem’s top-paid exec

• Extra CL place for PL

• UEFA sticking with CL format

• Finally, a Reading deal?

• RefCams for Club World Cup

• Chelsea’s Vivid payment under scrutiny

• De Bruyne to Miami?

• Blues promoted

• CWC ticket offer

Asia tour in May for Man Utd

Clubs playing in the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup and UEFA competitions understandably complain about their schedules, burnout and a bloated fixture list that is ready to burst.

Those same clubs then usually go on a post-season tour by choice to make a bit of extra money.

And so it was that Manchester United announced their jolly to Malaysia and Hong Kong, departing straight after their final league game.

ProEvents are organising the tour, which United hope will net them more than £10m in revenue as well as the longer-term benefits of deepening their fanbase in Asia. United haven’t been to Malaysia since 2009 or Hong Kong since 2013.

“Importantly, tour fixtures drive significant additional revenue which help make the club stronger, allowing us to keep investing in success on the pitch,” said CEO Omar Berrada.

“They also create unique opportunities for us to collaborate with our valued commercial partners, and to deepen relationships with our fans in regions such as Asia and the US.”

United will take on ASEAN All Stars in the 84,000-capacity Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on the 28 May, before travelling to play Hong Kong in the Hong Kong Stadium, which can hold up to 40,000 fans, two days later.

The club are heading to American in July for the Premier League summer series in three cities across the US.

While post-season tours aren’t good for player burnout, United have been doing their best in the Premier League to ensure they won’t have the burden of European football next year.

Levy is Prem’s top-paid exec

Daniel Levy remains the highest paid executive in English sport, but it will have been a long time since the Tottenham chairman took such a haircut. The club’s accounts published earlier this week showed that their highest-paid director was paid £3.7million during the 2023/24 season, a drop of around £2.9m from the £6.6m package he received 12 months earlier.

Levy’s 2022/23 payment was exceptional in every sense however, as it included a £3m “accrued bonus,” so his overall compensation remained largely unchanged. In 2018/19 Levy was paid £7m, part of which was a bonus related to Tottenham moving into their new stadium.

Extra CL place for PL

Arsenal’s win over Real Madrid on Tuesday night had more far-reaching consequences than just putting the Spanish giants on the cusp of crashing out of the Champions League.

Indeed, the win was enough to give England an unassailable lead in UEFA’s season rankings and secured the Premier League an extra Champions League berth for the 2025/26 campaign.

It means whoever finishes fifth this season will gain access to European football’s premier club competition.

And there’s still a chance of a sixth English club making it, should Manchester United or Tottenham Hotspur manage to win the Europa League (likely according to the bookmakers, unlikely if you’ve watched either team play recently).

UEFA sticking with CL format

Speaking of the Champions League, UEFA are so delighted with the inaugural edition of their new ‘Swiss’ format that they have decided against making any changes for next season.

A proposal to scrap extra time and go straight to penalties was discussed by UEFA's club competitions committee last week as a means of reducing players’ workloads, but it was rejected on the grounds that it could encourage more negative football during the 90 minutes.

Despite complaints that many teams adopt an overly cautious approach during extra-time and effectively play for penalties, most Champions League ties that go into overtime do not result in a shootout.

Since UEFA abolished the away goals rule four years ago, 37 Champions League knockout ties have gone to extra time, with 15 of these ending in penalties. In the Europa League and Conference League, just over half the ties that have gone to extra time have ended in penalties.

The tennis-style seeding system will also remain in place, despite group stage winners Liverpool being knocked out in the first knockout round. Arne Slot’s side were unfortunate in being drawn against Paris Saint Germain, who following a poor start finished 15th in the group stage and only qualified for the last 16 via a play-off against fellow French club Brest, but would have avoided runners-up Barcelona until the final had they continued to progress.

Finally, a Reading deal?

Things may just have come full circle.

In the first edition of FootBiz, we covered how Louisiana-based lawyer Rob Couhig was close to buying Reading. We know how that ended.

Well, Couhig has this week revived his attempt to buy Reading after the club’s exclusivity agreement with another American businessman, Robert Platek, expired last week.

The former Wycombe owner had agreed a deal to buy the League One club last summer, but owner Dai Yongge withdrew in September without explanation. Couhig had been trying to buy the club since but Yongge entered exclusivity with other parties.

Now, though, time is running out.

The EFL have given Dai until 22 April to sell his shares in the club after he was disqualified under the league’s owners’ and directors’ test due to debts and court rulings in China. Reading risk being suspended from the league and potential expulsion if Dai does not sell the club this month.

Couhig obtained security over Reading’s Select Car Leasing Stadium and training ground as part of his previous deal to buy the club, and that has since led to Platek’s proposed purchase collapsing. Reading have been for sale for almost 600 days and a failure to complete the sale to Couhig this month would leave them facing administration. 

RefCams for Club World Cup

FIFA’s struggle to sell TV rights for the Club World Cup before eventually being handed a $1billion life raft by DAZN and Saudi Arabia’s SURJ Sports Investment was a long-running saga which continues to rumble on, as the rights holders are still seeking sub-licensing partners to give the tournament greater exposure and increase commercial returns, but the streaming platform can at least claim to be offering a genuinely innovative product.

For the first time in a major competition, referees will wear bodycams at the Club World Cup giving TV viewers, “a new experience” and “an angle of vision was never offered before,” according to Pierluigi Collina, Chair of FIFA’s refereeing committee.

So-called RefCams were trialled in grassroots matches in England last season as a means of giving greater protection to referees following a spate of attacks and abusive behaviour, although using them to add to the television spectacle at a global event is a new departure. Australian referee Jarred Gillett became the first official to wear a bodycam in a Premier League game for a one-off documentary which involved filming him referee Crystal Palace's 4-0 win over Manchester United last May, while the equipment has also been used in Major League Soccer.

All 63 Club World Cup games will see the referees wear bodycams, although how many people will be watching remains a moot point.

Chelsea’s Vivid payment under scrutiny

Chelsea received a payment of £93,000 last season from Vivid Seats, a secondary ticketing website described as “unauthorised” by the Premier League linked to the club’s co-owner, Todd Boehly.

The payment is listed under “transactions with related parties” in Chelsea’s 2023/24 accounts, which were published on Companies House this weekend, with details of the transaction first reported by The Times.

Boehly has been a director of and investor in Vivid Seats since 2021, the year before he fronted the £2.5billion purchase of Chelsea from Roman Abramovich largely funded by Clearlake Capital.

Vivid Seats is listed by the Premier League as an “unauthorised ticket website”, with the league urging fans to “exercise extreme caution” when dealing with the site. It is a criminal offence for an unauthorised person in the UK to sell a ticket for a designated football match, but it is not a crime in other countries.

Chelsea’s accounts do not disclose what the payment relates to, but Vivid Seats was on of the club’s commercial partners on their pre-season tour of the United States in 2023.

Chelsea fans are unhappy at Boehly’s involvement with an unauthorised ticket selling, with the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust (CST) last month asking Premier League to investigate the matter.

De Bruyne to Miami?

Kevin De Bruyne might be the best player in the world not to win a Ballon d’Or over the past decade, and the signs are that he could end up in Major League Soccer next season.

Publically at least, De Bruyne has also maintained an open stance towards the Saudi Pro League and his agent has visited the country for talks.

A move to the US would likely mean less money but it hasn’t stopped De Bruyne from trying to get the best deal possible. San Diego FC’s sporting director revealed that De Bruyne had priced himself out of a move to southern California with his wage demands, and so the club that is in the driving seat is Inter Miami.

ESPN revealed this week that Inter own the discovery rights to De Bruyne, meaning they have first rights to negotiate with him. David Beckham’s franchise already have three designated players (DPs) whose salaries don’t count against the salary cap, but there are mechanics by which MLS teams can sidestep the league’s peculiar roster restrictions, including targeted allocation money (TAM).

Blues promoted

Birmingham City were the team of hubris last season, sacking coach John Eustace while in playoff contention and then sinking under Wayne Rooney to an improbable relegation.

The club was forced into something of a reset in the summer, unloading a record spend (£26m) for a League One club in order to rebuild for promotion with new coach Chris Davies and set them up for what they anticipate will be a competitive Championship campaign on their return.

Well, on Tuesday night they secured their place back in the second tier with six games to go. Another win could be enough to seal the title itself, though two wins will definitely do it.

At this point we are legally required to mention that Tom Brady is a co-owner, though filings at Companies House show he owns just 330 class B (non-voting) shares worth 0.01 pence each, equating to 3.3% of the club’s holding company Shelby Companies Ltd.

CWC ticket offer

FIFA have also taken an innovative approach to solving the problem of slow ticket sales for the Club World Cup by offering the incentive of a guaranteed option to buy a World Cup final ticket 12 months later to fans who buy 20 CWC tickets this summer. The 2026 World Cup is also being held in the United States, who are co-hosting with Canada and Mexico.

FIFA’s new ticket scheme has been launched at a time when tickets for some CWC matches are now being sold on secondary sites for less than the initial asking price, according to The Times. FIFA have declined to provide any figures on ticket sales or secondary sites selling cut-price tickets.