FootBiz newsletter: The 17 end-of-season stories you might have missed

There we go, then. The club football season is over (in every country that uses the European calendar).

A raft of finals and deciders this weekend made or broke the dreams of many clubs. We also — apparently — finalised the 237 teams that will enter UEFA competitions next season while also finding out who would be the champion of this year’s biggest one.

And in the end, it wasn’t even close.

14 years after buying Paris Saint-Germain and saying they would win the Champions League by 2015, Qatar Sports Investments finally got their prize.

The final will go down in history as the most one-sided ever, and the thought of those Inter players having to dust themselves down and train this week ahead of the Club World Cup is fairly soul-destroying after a gruelling season of 60+ games where they lost two finals and a semi-final.

But Saturday night was about PSG and the culmination of a sporting project that — like it or not, and many people don’t — has met its goals. One of those, obviously, was sportswashing (read States of Play for more nuance than we have space for here). Part of achieving those sportswashing goals was building a brand people cared about all over the world and, undeniably, the Paris club is now one of sport’s global mega-brands, seen on the streets of Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Dakar alike. They have done many things well off the pitch but, to mention just one, the Jordan brand tie-up has propelled them to different heights in terms of merchandising. That and a load of Qatari companies pumping money in as partnership revenue.

This was a club that was only founded in 1970, meaning Saturday’s vanquished opponents Inter had won 10 league titles and two European Cups before PSG had even played a game, but as QSI searched for a club to invest billions into they correctly identified PSG as having a stratospherically high ceiling despite its lack of history and modest successes in an unfashionable league.

QSI made many missteps trying to win the Champions League but all they managed to do with their flawed recruitment strategy was make themselves a bigger worldwide brand than they could have ever dreamed, on several occasions buying the most famous footballer in the world (David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi) in a sort of ram-raid attempt to force on-field success… but much more obviously achieving off-field success.

Instead of with superstars, they eventually won that elusive Champions League with a gaggle of Frenchmen, some young players and some misfits. Even cast-offs. Ousmane Dembele, whose own career was unexpectedly set into warpspeed (and a warpspeed that nearly destroyed his career) by PSG’s hostile purchase of Neymar in 2017, two summers ago turned up at PSG on a free transfer and rediscovered what he could do. Lost and aimless at the Barcelona asylum but living to tell the tale, Dembele is now a favourite for the Ballon d’Or and coming good on the immense, world-beating potential that lured Barca into nearly destroying his career in the first place. Funny how things work out.

And while the season is now over, the expanded Club World Cup starts in under two weeks! By which point, the PSG players may have slept off their hangovers and had a short break while the Inter Milan players will have probably trained in dead silence, dreaming of any way possible to end the season now and not spend a month playing Monterrey and Urawa Reds in the United States under an interim head coach - Simone Inzaghi left by mutual consent yesterday.

(Urawa Reds, on the other hand, seem pretty pumped about the Club World Cup)

So there isn’t long until football returns, and there’s international football before that, so we won’t be short of things to talk about this summer.

But let’s finish the 2024/25 season by saying one thing: countries shouldn’t be allowed to own football clubs. What are we doing here?

Here’s your newsletter….

Table of Contents

• Some late-season winners you may have missed

• Club World Cup 2029 taking shape

• Has Mercury/13’s Como bet backfired?

• PL owners to vote on loophole this week

• Palace seek Europa resolution

• Senior exits at Spurs

• UEFA double down on CBS

• Sheffield Wednesday crisis deepens

• Hopkinson in talks over Newcastle role

• Comolli is Juve GM, Milan update

• UEFA prize money updates

• Italian managerial moves

• Rangers’ big reset

• Ronaldo extending Al-Nassr deal?

• USA’s top Premier League markets

• IMG snag WSL deal

• UK govt. faces inquiry over regulator pick

Some late-season winners you may have missed

Platense have become the champions of Argentina for the first time in their 120-year history with a win over Huracan. As finals go, a game between ‘the squids’ and ‘the hot air balloon’ has to be one of the greatest nickname match-ups in a while.

They also went through the playoffs playing all their games away from home and beat three of Argentina’s cinco grandes in their own back yards in the shape of Racing Club, River Plate and then San Lorenzo. Platense deserved their title. Great goal to win it from Guido Mainero too.

Elsewhere, Pyramids FC won the African Champions League for the first time, beating Mamelodi Sundowns over two legs to win the first continental honours in their history.

Cruz Azul won the CONCACAF Champions Cup after hammering the Vancouver Whitecaps 5-0 in Mexico City, though it may not be enough to save Vicente Sanchez’s job as head coach. The Uruguayan was expected to leave regardless of the result of the weekend’s final, in what we might call an “Ange Postecoglou situation”.

A 4-0 win for Elche at Deportivo La Coruña on the final day of the Spanish second tier sees Elche return to La Liga after a couple of seasons while Levante also sealed their return to the top flight. A third team will join via the playoffs which go deep into June.

Also back in the top flight two years after being relegated are Cremonese, who won the playoff final to get back to Serie A. It was especially sweet after they lost last year’s playoff final. In Germany, Heidenheim retained Bundesliga status after beating village team Elversberg in a playoff. Meanwhile Metz returned to France’s Ligue 1 after beating Reims in a playoff, relegating the side from the Champagne region who were playing in the Europa League only a few seasons ago.

Oh, and LAFC beat Club America in the Club World Cup playoff to become the final team in the line-up (replacing León who were expelled for sharing an owner with Pachuca). LAFC kick off their CWC campaign against Chelsea in Atlanta on June 16.

Club World Cup 2029 taking shape

In semi-related news, while the expanded Club World Cup has not yet begun we already have some qualifiers for the 2029 edition, which will likely be held in Australia (commercial reasons) or a combination of Spain, Portugal and Morocco (as a warm-up for the World Cup the following year).

Paris Saint-Germain, Cruz Azul, Pyramids FC and Al-Ahli are all confirmed after winning the top club competitions for Europe, North and Central America, Africa and Asia respectively this season.

We will have to wait until November to find out the next participant, when CONMEBOL will crown a winner in the Copa Libertadores.

Has Mercury/13’s Como bet backfired?

Mercury/13 are one of the most interesting investor groups in any sport, a group looking to rethink football club ownership and focusing on acquiring solely women’s teams.

They have had a lot of press for their stated goal of investing $100m into women’s clubs around the world, with a plan of taking the luxury goods playbook and plugging it into football. Accordingly, their first acquisition was FC Como, a small club unrelated to the Serie A club Como 1907.

Obviously the visuals are sensational, with official photography on the banks of Lake Como and the feeling that George and Amal Clooney could wander through the shot at any moment - probably on the way to watch FC Como in the same way Natalie Portman and other Hollywood royalty attend Angel City games.

However, there was always a risk attached to buying a small independent club that plays its games 30km away (closer to Milan than to Como, as it happens) and that was that Como 1907 would get their act together and start a women’s team of their own.

And now it has happened.

For the uninitiated, Como 1907 is — as the name might suggest — a 118 year-old football club that has played in all four divisions of Italian football and is currently on something of an upswing. In 2019 it was bought by the Hartono brothers, from one of Indonesia’s richest families, in addition to some small stakes for well-known faces like Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas (who is also head coach) and a handful of others.

Como enlisted Jamestown Analytics, the data consultancy behind the rises of Brighton, Union Saint-Gilloise and Ipswich Town to help them return to Serie A and achieved it last season. In their first year back in the top flight, Como finished 10th and one of their signings, Nico Paz, was named the best young player in Serie A.

While the infrastructure of the club is not yet of a top-tier side, they are building things out and that includes women’s football, where they have bought Chievo Women to give them immediate access to women’s Serie B. A World Cup winner with the USWNT, Heather O’Reilly joined Como 1907 as an advisor last year and has overseen their move into the women’s game.

It means two women’s teams in Como (population: 85,000) but only one that actually plays there, with Como 1907 boasting a waterfront stadium and FC Como based miles away in Seregno.

That poses some questions over Mercury/13’s investment and what they do next.

Is this tourist haven big enough to accomodate two clubs?

Could FC Como rebrand as a Milan/Lombardia team without giving up on their luxury aesthetic?

Which club will the group acquire next, and how will this setback affect those plans?

Answers on a picturesque Lake Como postcard please if you have them…

As interesting as Mercury/13 are, Michele Kang is the one turning heads in football circles right now with her no-nonsense approach, eye for a deal and quest for innovation.

Forbes carried a decent interview with her for those interested in digging deeper.

PL owners to vote on loophole this week

Premier League clubs will be asked to close the loophole that permitted Chelsea to register a profit from selling hotels and their women’s team to a sister company at their AGM today. Chelsea sold the women’s team for £198.5m and two hotels at Stamford Bridge for £70.5m, enabling them to comply with the league’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) over the past two seasons.

The Premier League proposed prohibiting the practice 12 months ago, but the motion was defeated amidst concerns from clubs that the rule change would prevent them booking PSR profit from selling property assets to unrelated parties. A redrafted, more focused proposal will be voted on tomorrow with the support of 14 clubs required for it to be passed.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have warned that the government is prepared to go to court to force Roman Abramovich to agree to release £2bn from the sale of Chelsea to help victims of the war in Ukraine.

The money has been frozen in an escrow account belonging to Abramovich's company for over three years since he completed the sale of Chelsea to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.

Abramovich agreed to donate the proceeds of the sale to humanitarian causes as a condition for ensuring it was licensed by the government, but the Russian the money to be used to help all victims of the war, not just Ukrainians. The government are refusing to sanction any money benefiting Russians, however, which has led to a stand-off. 

A statement from Reeves and Lammy said: "The government is determined to see the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine, following Russia's illegal full-scale invasion. We are deeply frustrated that it has not been possible to reach agreement on this with Mr Abramovich so far. While the door for negotiations will remain open, we are fully prepared to pursue this through the courts if required.”

Palace seek Europa resolution

Crystal Palace executives were in Switzerland yesterday as they attempted to find a resolution with UEFA that will allow them to participate in next season’s Europa League.

The FA Cup winners find themselves in an unusual situation where they didn’t expect to be in European competition and thus had not reconfigured their ownership situation to satisfy UEFA regulations by the March deadline.

While there are allowances for this, and UEFA have a history of dealmaking to allow teams to take part in their competitions, Palace’s situation is somewhat complicated by John Textor’s plans for Eagle Football.

While Textor is Palace’s biggest shareholder (~43%) he doesn’t have control at the club. He does, however, at Olympique Lyonnais. Lyon’s qualification for the Europa League means Palace must demonstrate separation or face being bumped down to the Conference League. While Textor has publicly complained about his lack of influence at Palace, with chairman Steve Parish having 25% of the votes as well as a tie-breaking vote, it is yet to be seen whether UEFA will look kindly upon the structure.

Often these issues have been resolved by placing an owner’s stake in a blind trust — as happened at Nice this season, Toulouse previously and Nottingham Forest a month or two ago — but with Textor’s constant financial manoeuvering, including a long-promised IPO that is yet to materialise and attempts to buy control of Palace and/or sell his own stake, such moves are incompatible with the blind trust mechanism.

Further complicating things is that if Palace dropped to the Conference League (as mandated by UEFA because their league finish was lower than Lyon’s) then they would be in the same competition as Brondby. Brondby are majority owned (50.1%) by Palace co-owner David Blitzer and thus the Premier League side would run into the same problem. Perhaps Blitzer would be able to put his Brondby stake into a blind trust in the prescribed period, but Palace would still be missing out on significant revenue by dropping competitions.

The irony being, of course, that unlike many clubs who have skirted UEFA’s regulations before, Palace don’t actually function as part of a multi-club group at all. But they could be punished like one. The best solution would be for Textor to sell his stake, which he is thought to be open to, but the timeline is tight and the amounts involved are significant.

Given the time crunch, it only seems realistic that Blitzer and partner Josh Harris could buy out Textor’s stake unless a new investor has been waiting in the wings (Woody Johnson?) and is ready to go. Even then, two weeks is surely insufficient.

Harris and Blitzer may be Palace’s only path to Europa League football.

Senior exits at Spurs

A week of big decisions at Tottenham began with the surprise departure of one of chairman Daniel Levy’s closest aides, director Donna Cullen, who is leaving the club after 19 years on the Board.

Corporate PR specialist Cullen was used as an advisor by Tottenham for over a decade before joining the Board, but became increasingly influential following the Levy-led ENIC takeover at White Hart Lane in 2000, and was heavily involved in the club’s deliberations over building a new stadium.

Cullen’s departure is a personal decision and comes ahead of the imminent arrival of Vinai Venkatesham as chief executive, the first time Levy has filled such a role.

Venkatesham will find several significant items at the top of his in-tray most notably the need to offer clarification on the future of Ange Postecoglou.

Another move that was expected but finalised this week was the decision not to retain chief football officer Scott Munn, enabling the return of former sporting director Fabio Paratici, whose 30-month ban as a result of financial irregularities at Juventus expires at the end of the month.

Assistant manager Ryan Mason has left Tottenham to become West Bromwich Albion’s head coach. The former Spurs midfielder has previously led the north London club on an interim basis but was keen to step full-time into first-team management and has taken the opportunity to succeed Tony Mowbray with the Baggies. WBA narrowly missed out on the playoffs last season after an injury crisis buckled their late-season form.

UEFA double down on CBS

UEFA have strengthened their relationship with US broadcaster CBS Sports by selling them domestic rights to the women’s Champions League from next season.

The new five-year deal means CBS now hold the broadcast rights to all UEFA competitions in the United States including the men’s Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League, as well as other women’s properties including the NWSL, Concacaf women’s Champions Cup and the Concacaf Women’s Gold Cup.

UEFA have altered their broadcasting model for the women’s Champions League and are now following the established practice in the men’s game, with TV rights sold on a regional basis, a sign of increased demand from broadcasters. The women’s rights were sold globally over the last four-year cycle, with DAZN buying exclusively rights, but the streamer has retreated from the market with Disney+ snapping up European rights for the next five years last week.

As with the European deal, CBS will broadcast all 75 matches in the competition from next season.

Sheffield Wednesday crisis deepens

Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri has been charged by the EFL for multiple breaches of rules regarding payment obligations.

The under-fire owner was trying to borrow money from business associates to pay the players’ wages in recent weeks, according to local newspaper The Star.

Wednesday have failed to pay the wages of players and other staff on time for the second time in three months, and are facing a ban on registering new signings for three transfer windows.

The players had been told to expect their May salaries on Monday after the club missed payroll last week, but the payments were not made. The Star reported that Chansiri, a Thai businessman whose family own the Thai Union Group food empire, has approached a number of business associates with proposals to raise short-term funding.

Chansiri has previously quoted an asking price of £350m to parties interested in buying the club, a preposterous sum that would represent a 13x revenue multiple despite the club losing £10m last year.

An EFL statement yesterday confirmed in a statement that the league would be taking action:

“Sheffield Wednesday Football Club has been charged with multiple breaches of EFL Regulations relating to payment obligations.

“The owner of Sheffield Wednesday, Dejphon Chansiri, has also been charged with causing the Club to be in breach of EFL Regulations despite his commitment to fund the cash requirements of the Club.

“All charges relate to both the Ultimate Beneficial Owner and the Club failing to meet their obligations to pay players’ wages on time and in full in March and May 2025.  

“The Club and Mr Chansiri have 14 days to respond to the charges.”

Hopkinson in talks over Newcastle role

David Hopkinson is expected to become one of the Premier League’s best-paid CEOs if he agrees a deal with Newcastle United to replace Darren Eales.

The Canadian spent decades as Real Madrid’s global partnerships chief before taking one of the biggest jobs in New York sports, becoming president and COO of the MSG management company that runs Madison Square Garden, the Knicks (NBA) and the Rangers (NHL). He quietly left the role just over a year ago.

Hopkinson has already held talks with Newcastle’s owners PIF, according to the Daily Mail, after a months-long search for candidates.

The Magpies also need a sporting director after Paul Mitchell left the club last week.

Comolli is Juve GM, Milan update

Juventus have hired Damien Comolli as they look to rebuild after a turbulent few seasons, seemingly placing him above Director of Football Strategy Giorgio Chiellini and into the role of General Manager, where he will report directly to CEO Maurizio Scanavino.

The Old Lady managed to edge out Roma in pursuit of Champions League football this year, making the move a no-brainer for Comolli who has spent five years as club president of Toulouse.

While the former Arsenal and Tottenham scout enjoyed being the number one figure at TFC, and being back home in the Occitane, he has been on the lookout for a new opportunity since RedBird Capital overlooked him for the big job at AC Milan. Comolli feels RedBird, who also owned Toulouse, reneged on a promise to install him atop the San Siro club.

Comolli is a well-known and respected figure in European football, heading up committees at UEFA and also domestically, where he chaired a group trying to chart the future of French football amid the collapse of consecutive broadcast deals. He was also arrested, however, in a corruption case for which he was charged and fined at a Marseille court. Eyebrows were also raised after he hired his wife to a senior position overseeing “strategy and culture” at Toulouse, a position that she resigned from this week.

RedBird is understood to be actively trying to sell Toulouse and open to cashing in on Milan, a stance on which they find common ground with the club’s ultras who protested their ownership in the final home game of the season.

Limited partners in Gerry Cardinale’s sports and entertainment fund have privately complained about the lack of exits from RedBird investments, though they did sell data company Zelus to Teamworks last year. They are also reportedly seeking a buyer for their stake in the IPL’s Rajasthan Royals, per Bloomberg.

UEFA prize money updates

Just a couple of interesting figures now that UEFA competitions are done for the season:

• 25 of the 36 Champions League clubs earned more prize money than Europa League winners Tottenham Hotspur

• Conference League winners Chelsea won almost exactly the same amount of prize money as Slovan Bratislava, the worst performer in the Champions League

• PSG made the most UEFA prize money this season, just shy of €150m.

Italian managerial moves

Some musical chairs in Serie A begin in Rome, where Gian Piero Gasperini has taken the surprise decision to leave Atalanta for AS Roma after nine years in Bergamo.

Atalanta are arguably the best-run club in Italy, growing sustainably over the last decade from a relegation battler into one of the country’s top sides and a regular in European competition, with next season being their third consecutive year in the Champions League in addition to a Europa League title. They have also turned a profit in each of the past three seasons (though much of that from player trading).

Such has been Atalanta’s improvement that there was surprise in football circles that Gasperini would take this role, which does make you wonder how significant the departure of sporting director Lee Congerton was. The Welshman jumped ship for Saudi Arabia last year.

On the other side of Rome, Maurizio Sarri is returning to Lazio to replace Marco Baroni.

“Maurizio Sarri has returned home. His return is a choice of heart, conviction and vision,” Lazio president Claudio Lotito said in a club statement. “With him, we want to resume a path interrupted too soon, aware that together we can bring back enthusiasm, identity and ambition. Welcome back to your home, commander.”

Sarri made his reputation playing free-flowing football at Empoli and Napoli a decade ago before being poached by Chelsea, where he endured an unhappy spell before returning to Italy. He has been out of work since walking away from his post at Lazio in March 2024, when he reportedly asked the dressing room if they wanted him to stay or go following a defeat to relegation battling Udinese and nobody spoke up, prompting Sarri to hand in his resignation.

In other returns, Massimiliano Allegri is back at AC Milan as head coach, hired by new sporting director Igli Tare as the Rossoneri look to return to European football. Allegri was the top target for Napoli if they could not find agreement for Antonio Conte to remain with the champions but after days of talks, the club announced that notorious firebrand Conte would stay in Naples, a city that seems to match his temperament, and they are considered favourites to sign Jonathan David on a free (one of the value deals of the summer for whoever gets him) as well as Kevin De Bruyne.

Back in Milan, one of the first pieces of business for Allegri to deal with is the sale of Tijani Reijnders to Manchester City, which had all been agreed but Allegri would like to put a stop to. A first test for the new sporting leadership there.

Across town, Simone Inzaghi has accepted an enormous offer to move to Saudi Arabia.

The Inter Milan coach took charge of his second Champions League final in three seasons on Saturday night but his team never got going and were humbled in historic fashion.

Inter are now looking for a new coach with the Club World Cup coming shortly.

Rangers’ big reset

The Cavenagh/49ers Enterprises takeover of Rangers was announced last week, and they will shortly have a new-look management team in place after what the club described as a “summer of change”.

Andrew Cavenagh is the new chairman, Dan Purdy will replace Nils Koppen technical director after leaving Everton, Kevin Thelwell is already sporting director and the new manager will be… decided in the coming days. It sounds like Russell Martin interviewed very well but Davide Ancelotti’s name won’t go away.

Ronaldo extending Al-Nassr deal?

Cristiano Ronaldo said that his “chapter” at Al-Nassr was over. When he turned the page to start his next chapter he found he was signing a two-year extension.

The Portuguese was linked with a number of clubs as his deal with the PIF-owned side expired, and most notably with those playing in next month’s Club World Cup after Gianni Infantino trailed a potential Ronaldo appearance.

However, the 40-year-old is instead renewing his deal.

USA’s top Premier League markets

Where in the USA watches the most Premier League?

Well, according to this graphic it’s Buffalo up on the Canadian border, followed by Washington D.C.

After trying to find a common thread that connects these cities, we are none the wiser.

Let us know if there’s something we’re missing here.

IMG snag WSL deal

IMG has won the race to sell WSL broadcast rights internationally for five years from 2025/26, as reported by Sports Business.

The global media giant will benefit from the synergy of already selling the NWSL rights worldwide, and takes over at a time when WPLL, the newly created body that runs English football’s top league, is making a number of important decisions about its future.

While there were discussions of pausing promotion and relegation to allow clubs to find a more solid financial footing, those proposals never advanced and the WPLL recently announced a rebranding that will see the Championship become WSL2 from next season.

UK govt. faces inquiry over regulator pick

Hold on to your hats.

The UK government are facing a “full inquiry” into the process surrounding the proposed appointment of the new chairman of the Independent Football Regulator, David Kogan.

The Commissioner for Public Appointments, William Shawcross, wrote to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), last week confirming his intention to launch a formal inquiry after initial “spot checks” raised concerns about the process.

Kogan was not on the initial three-person shortlist for the role, but was recommended by role by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. In a separate development Nandy has removed herself from the final decision over the appointment, which will now be made by Sports Minister Stephanie Peacock, after it emerged that Kogan donated to her Labour leadership campaign.

As the Commissioner for Public Appointments Shawcross’s role is to provide independent assurance that public hires are made in accordance with a governance code based on the principles of integrity, merit, openness, diversity and fairness. Kogan’s sudden emergence as preferred candidate has been flagged as a potential concern leading Shawcross to announce an inquiry into the process, which will embarrass the government, although the final outcome is unlikely to change.

“Having now completed an initial assessment of this case, informed by spot checks, I believe that a full inquiry into the campaign is necessary,” Shawcross wrote to DCMS. “This inquiry will be conducted with the object of ensuring that the appointment was made in accordance with the Government Code on Public Appointments. The inquiry will take the time necessary to clarify the procedures and practices followed by the appointing authority.”

Nandy told DCMS that she was stepping aside to “avoid the perception of any bias or lack of independence from government”.