Football has sold almost everything. The shirt. The stadium. The television rights. Even tomorrow’s income. Now finance has found something else. The club itself. On 17 September 2026, Amplify filed preliminary paperwork in America for a new investment fund called the Amplify Pro Sports Private & Public Ownership ETF. PROS. It has not launched. The…
xG He missed. Overperformed xG He scored. Underperformed xG He cannot finish his dinner. Pivot The lad who stands in the middle and passes it sideways. Double pivot Two of them. Six Defensive midfielder. We managed for decades without a number for “the one who doesn’t go past the halfway line.” Eight Midfielder who runs…
There is a phrase sitting on page 20 of Manchester United plc’s 2004 annual report that deserves another look. “Treating fans as customers.” It was one of the club’s commercial priorities. United explained that it had collected more than 2.5 million fan records into a customer-relationship database, segmented supporters into groups and used that information…
Paul Heckingbottom was dismissed by Preston North End on 13 September 2026 after six defeats in the opening seven Championship matches left the club 23rd. One phrase in the club’s reasoning matters far beyond the manager. There had been “significant investment in the playing squad.” That should make everybody interested in Preston stop for a…
There is a reason I continue to believe in the project. It is not because building a professional football club in Los Angeles is easy. It isn’t. It is because the opportunity has never really been about putting 22 players on a pitch and building some seats around them. The bigger opportunity is to work…
THE ARGUMENT IN 20 SECONDS Football clubs should be allowed to borrow money to build themselves. They should not be required to carry financial risk because somebody wants to buy them. Manchester United showed the long-term cost. Liverpool showed how badly it can unravel. Burnley shows why the question still matters. The owner should finance…
I met Nigel Benn and his son Conor in Australia in 2013. Conor was still a teenager. No controversy. No press-conference character. No social-media trial. Just a young lad with his dad. And thirteen years later, the thing I remember most is remarkably simple. They were a lovely family. That memory has stayed with me….
Shortly before the Premier League season started, I published my predictions for all twenty clubs. Liverpool champions. Brentford sixth. Aston Villa fifth. Everton seventh. Manchester United tenth. Tottenham eleventh. Newcastle thirteenth. Some of those predictions looked ridiculous to people. Good. They were supposed to challenge the market. Because my original article was never really about…
There is an arrogance in football recruitment that nobody talks about enough. Too many clubs approach the transfer market like ordering a takeaway. Open the menu. Pick the striker. Ring the club. Agree a fee. Wait for him to arrive. Maybe throw in a winger while you’re there. Football does not work like that. The…
For three years, I worked in a strange corner of football. I was an FA-registered intermediary. Most days were less glamorous than people imagine. Motorways. Training grounds. Service-station coffee. Calls from the car. Meetings that went somewhere and meetings that went nowhere. I spoke to players, agents, managers, coaches, owners, recruitment teams and sporting directors….