Price of Football: Understanding Football Club Finance

This is a great book if you love football AND would like to better understand how your team (and your rivals) makes and looses money (if you're not both, go find another book).The reason I do not give it five stars is due to the first third of the book, which is basically explaining basic accounting concepts (substitute cars for the football examples there and it would change anything), and because it's extremely focused on English football, missing an opportunity to show how much the economics are different in Spain, Germany, Italy and so on (as well as on how newer nouveau riche leagues like US and China could bridge the gap).As mentioned, the first third is very accounting oriented, so if you're familiar with it, you pretty much can jump to +/- 30% of the book. I almost quit by then.But once you reach the second third, it improves a lot, because then it starts to deep dive into what makes football finance different from other industries. Then it will show how the different sources of revenues (broadcasting, players sales, matchdaw) impact the clubs finances. How players acquisition costs are ammortized and how when they are sold they impact the P&L. How clubs limit their season tickets quantities to profit from tourist fans paying much higher prices. How parachute payments to relegated clubs impact the competitiveness of the lower divisions the following year.The book also compares in almost every section the differences across the Big Six clubs (in England). How Manchester United is a boon to the Glazer family financially despite (or because) not winning many titles in recent years. How clubs like Chelsea and Man City work, and how they differ between them (a lot). And how "money saver" clubs like Arsenal and specially the Spurs operate at a much lower cost but at the expense of competitiveness.Finally, the book will end showing how many clubs manipulate the financial statements according to their owners objectives and/or to avoid Fairplay rules, how player sales rarely shows the actual profit or loss due to different rules in how you recognize players costs vs players revenues, how the Fairplay rules in fact exist not to promote FairPlay but to ensure the continued Big Six dominance, how the Big Six aim to increase this dominance by attempting to change the rules and/or broadcasting deals, and so on.Not being from UK, I wished the author would extend this analysis more to other non UK leagues... few examples are cited from elsewhere and most from Juventus in Italy, because they have very detailed statements and it's great to compare to less transparent clubs. But nevertheless, if you're interested in this more financial aspect of football (I am because I believe that good financials is key to long term competitiveness of any team not backed by shady billionaire owners), you'll be able to better understand what your loved club (wherever it is from) should be doing more and what it should be doing less.

I work in accountancy therefore I understood the terms. I learnt something new especially the MMM model of valuing a football club.Well done Kieran on a great book.

World of football finance very well explained, logically laid out with examples from Premier League. Highly recommend to any finance, MBA or inquisitive football fan.

Fascinating read by a superb, knowledgeable expert on football finance.Must read for any footie fan 'trying' to understand the complex finance of football.

O livro descreve, de forma simples, a enorme complexidade do futebol profissional actual.É uma leitura que se aconselha a todos os que se interessam por estas questões.