Friday, 30 August 2013

Programme, Pie and Pint...The Triple P Index

On a typically cold and windy British Saturday afternoon, football fans like you and I will be tucking into a toasty, crisp pie at our respective fixture to help warm our insides, but the question is - are we getting ripped off by our teams?

Well the obvious answer is YES. Pies on average at a Premier League fixture cost £3.06 - you wouldn't usually pay this much for a low-quality pie when popping down to your local Tesco's. 

But it isn't just Pies that we're looking at. A survey has gone out in the 2012/13 season to find the 'Triple P Index' at all 20 clubs in the League, comparing prices of Pie (of course!), a Pint and the match-day programme. 


TeamProgrammePiePintTotal
Arsenal£3.00£3.30£3.50£9.80
Aston Villa£3.00£3.10£3.50£9.60
Chelsea£3.00£3.60£3.50£10.10
Everton£3.00£2.80£3.50£9.30
Fulham£3.50£3.90£4.20£11.60
Liverpool£3.00£3.20£3.60£9.80
Manchester City£3.00£3.50£3.40£9.90
Manchester United£3.00£3.10£3.30£9.40
Newcastle£2.50£2.80£4.00£9.30
Norwich£3.50£2.50£3.50£9.50
QPR£3.00£2.90£3.80£9.70
Reading£3.00£3.20£3.90£10.10
Southampton£3.00£3.20£3.60£9.80
Stoke£3.50£2.70£3.70£9.90
Sunderland£3.00£2.90£3.60£9.50
Swansea£3.00£3.00£3.45£9.45
Tottenham£3.00£3.70£4.00£10.70
West Brom£3.00£2.40£3.10£8.50
West Ham United£3.50£3.00£4.00£10.50
Wigan£3.00£2.30£3.20£8.50
Average£3.07£3.06£3.62£9.75


As can be clearly seen, on average of the 3 P's, the pint is the most expensive, with Fulham charging an extortionate £4.20 for 1 pint!!! Fulham also claim the gong for the most expensive Pie at £3.90. They then have to share the award for the most expensive match-day programme with Norwich, Stoke and Wesh Ham at £3.50. 

These results may be perceived as quite surprising as you wouldn't associate Fulham or any of the other clubs mentioned above as the most successful clubs, raising the question to why do Fulham charge the most out of all the Premier League clubs. 

A correlation that is evident to see is that, as you get closer to London, the deeper the pockets required, with Chelsea, Fulham, Tottenham and West Ham being 4 out of the 5 clubs with a 'Triple P Index' above a tenner. 

So seeing as London is the capital, it may be understandable why there are more extortionate prices there than elsewhere, but what is still is not explainable is that fact that Fulham can charge £4.20 for a pint!


And if you're wondering, like I know you are, Ipswich are at the top of the football 'pie league', with their pies being voted the most mouth-watering pies around. 

Tuesday, 20 August 2013

Tax in Football: Why are Monaco attractive to the best players?

Over the past few days, AS Monaco's tax avoiding activities have been the subject of much media attention given that the French League authorities want to move Monaco's headquarters into France to bring equality to all the clubs in the league. 

Currently Monaco levies no income tax upon individuals, meaning that all the money earned by footballers and the general public alike is received by the earners. This absence of income tax has attracted a large number of 'tax refugees' with the incentive of larger 'after tax' (not that tax applies) pay packets.  

The advantage to a football club such as Monaco in this instance, is that they can now attract the biggest and best players to their club as they have done so recently with the surprise acquisition of star players such as Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho, to name a few. 





The problem with this is that other French clubs, including Lille and Lyon are unable to compete financially with the tax advantages experienced by Monaco. To rub salt even further into the other French clubs faces, the owner of Monaco is Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian billionaire, who is #119 on the Forbes' list of richest billionaires in the world. 

The plan by the French football association is to order a hearing to take place to force Monaco to relocate their headquarters to France by June 2014 or face possible suspension from the league.

If Monaco were to relocate, then their players and staff would have to abide with the proposed 75% income tax rate which is to be set for individuals who earn more than 1m euros a year. This plan would allow other clubs to compete on a more level playing field with Monaco and would bring equality overall to the league. 

In comparison to the recently proposed tax rate in France of 75%, the tax rate in England for top earners is 50%, with Spain's top earners having to pay 56% income tax, both of which are staggeringly lower than the rate in France which would seem to make it more appealing to play in the Premier League or La Liga, which reflects the pattern in reality to where the top quality players are found in Europe. 

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Transfers: the biggest and the best


  1. Cristiano Ronaldo    - £80 m
  2. Zinedine Zidane       - £64 m
  3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic   - £59 m
  4. Kaka                       - £56 m
  5. Edinson Cavani        - £55 m
  6. Luis Figo                  - £53 m
  7. Radamel Falcao        - £51 m
  8. Fernando Torres       - £50 m
  9. Neymar                    - £48.6 m
  10. Hernan Crespo         - £ 48 m

For football fans all around the world, the transfer window is the pinnacle of the season, where clubs they support are linked and often purchase players from other clubs. This 'transfer window' occurs twice a year in each country - in the UK it runs from 1st July - 31st August and then again in mid-season from 1st-31st January. 

Outrageous fees are paid for the players who are considered as the world's best; the top 10 highest transfer fees paid to date are:


This list however may change very soon due to 'player inflation' which is very similar to inflation. Willie Groves who in 1893 moved from West Bromwich Albion to Aston Villa, was the first player in history to be transferred for a sum of over £100. 


This has very much changed as you will well know nowadays, with the transfer fee having been broken on numerous occasions in past; and it may well be broken again very soon with the impending transfer of Tottenham's Gareth Bale who is being courted by the European giants Real Madrid, with the transfer looking ever more likely to occur. 



And don't just think it's the player's who are sought after and have big transfer fees paid for them. The managers also have had ludicrous sums paid for their services with Chelsea paying FC Porto a massive £13.3 Million to secure Andre Villa Boas as their new manager - however Chelsea sacked Villa Boas in March in that same season, making the amount paid for him seem even more ridiculous!

Monday, 12 August 2013

Most valuable football teams in the world

To start things of with, I thought we'd go for something simple. So I went with the most valuable football teams in the world. In recent years, the main gong of most valuable team has been contested fiercely between Manchester United and Real Madrid, which isn't too surprising considering their dominance in their respective leagues. In 2013, Real Madrid pipped Man Utd to the crown of most valuable team.

Rank
Team
Value ($M)
Revenue ($M)
1
3,300
650
2
3,165
502
3
2,600
613
4
1,326
368
5
1,309
468
6
945
326
7
901
409
8
694
248
9
689
362
10
651
296
11
520
226
12
498
221
13
436
240
14
401
236
15
368
167
16
358
119
17
330
188
18
300
154
19
285
167
20
263
146

Well why are Real Madrid the most valuable team in 2013?

The answer doesn't lie because of its recent successes but its ability to achieve success over a substantial amount of time. In the past century, Real Madrid have racked an impressive 32 La Liga titles as well as 9 UEFA Champions League trophies. These successes come with very rewarding prizes, with La Liga earning the club $4m. The Champions League is much more rewarding than La Liga as when a team reaches each stage in the tournament, it receives the following amount: 

  • Playoffs: €2,100,000
  • Base fee for group stage: €8,600,000
  • Group match victory: €1,000,000
  • Group match draw: €500,000
  • Round of 16: €3,500,000
  • Quarter-finals: €3,900,000
  • Semi-finals: €4,900,000
  • Losing finalist: €6,500,000
  • Winning the Final: €10,500,000

Typically the winner of the competition will receive over €30,000,000 which is of course a lot of money in comparison to a team that goes out in the Playoffs or simply does not qualify in the first place. 

However, a large part of the distributed revenue from the UEFA Champions League is linked to the 'market pool', the distribution of which is determined by the value of the television market in each country. So as Real Madrid are a popular team for supporters, this means that more of their games are streamed live to the public which enables them to get a larger proportion of the television money from UEFA. 

Another reason for its placing in the table is down to the outrageous kit deal it has struck with Adidas which generates $42 million a year. The sponsorship deal isn't too bad either, with Emirates airline paying Madrid $39 Million a year for 5 years. 

And lastly, the main reason for its outstanding revenue figures is because of the tickets they sell each game. With a maximum capacity of 85,454, the match tickets will generate a massive revenue for the club which can only be matched notably by very few clubs in European football.