Club values change

GM football fans. Route One here, delivering your daily football updates with more punch than Prime Mike Tyson. First time reading? Sign up here.

All feedback read at [email protected].

Head Start

The new land of opportunity? 

A new report finds that European football has reached an all-time commercial high. 

The top 32 clubs in Europe have an aggregate Enterprise Value (EV) of EUR 59.1bn - that’s a 124% increase since 2016 and a 14% increase from last year. 

So… major stuff.

What’s causing the growth? There are a few reasons:

• Clubs are getting better at making more money… hosting Beyoncé concerts, ziplining fans from one end to the other, and encouraging people to hang around before and after matches. 

• Costs are going down… sustainability regulations have bolstered clubs’ financial resilience.

• Inflated valuations… the football industry is being looked at positively by investors so its EV has shot up.

Interestingly, the report shows the Premier League takes up 44.2% of the share of EV as six of the top 10 clubs are from the English top-flight. 

(Spain’s La Liga is around 20.9%, while Italy’s Serie A and Germany’s Bundesliga take up around 11.8% and 11.7% respectively). 

It’s no wonder American sports stars are flocking to buy up English football clubs. 

Yes… they’re buying an asset that’s rocketing up but US athletes and stars have a much harder time buying sports assets domestically. 

For the likes of Lebron James, who owns a piece of Liverpool, he can’t invest in the NBA until he finishes playing. 

More problematic, though, is the lack of available sports assets in the US. 

As The Athletic points out, the franchise structure makes investment in U.S. teams far costlier and less available than European football teams.

But maybe the most important reason is… the boost in Instagram followers that stars get from investing in European clubs. Because that’s what really matters, right?

Plus…

Newcastle, Chelsea and Everton have been named in backing Manchester City’s legal clash against the Premier League (More)

Manchester City’s Premier League legal action puts the £900m EFL deal at risk (More)

The Premier League has admitted to clubs that VAR delays grew more than 50% last season (More)

Organisers of Africa’s men’s and women’s international tournaments have admitted they face a “scheduling nightmare” (More)

Stats Zone

Golden Oldies

→ Cristiano Ronaldo will become the oldest outfielder in European Championship history at 39 years and 135 days old if his teammate Pepe doesn’t play. He will overtake the current holder Lothar Matthäus, who was 39 years and 91 days when Germany faced Portugal at Euro 2000.

→ There is a chance of at least six over-38s featuring at Euro 2024. Only 12 have done so in all previous editions of the European Championship combined.

Scotland

→ Scotland began the Euro 2024 qualifiers with a five-match winning streak, their best-winning run in a single European Championship qualifying campaign since 1995.

→ Goals have also been scored in abundance, with 17 in eight games in the Euro 2024 qualifying group stage (2.1 per game on average) their second-best ratio in a European Championship qualifying group.

→ In his last five games, Scott McTominay netted six goals from seven shots on target and scored braces in back-to-back games against Cyprus and Spain.

Pundit Insights

The masseuse dilemma

It’s easy to forget that football clubs aren’t made up of just managers and players.

Turns out there’s someone more important than we first thought: the masseuse. You know, the person that gets rid of any knots or cramps in players’ muscles.

Gary Neville on The Overlap claims that one manager (let’s be honest, it’s probably Sir Alex) told him that a masseur is the most important employee recruitment decision a club can make. 

Not because of the benefits to players’ physical well-being… 

… but because of the benefits (or lack of) to their mental well-being.

Why? Because they spend the most amount of time with players than anyone else at the club.

So… if a masseur is disgruntled - and apparently it’s quite common - they can “fill players’ heads” with whatever they wish.

It sounds obvious but it’s interesting how present this issue is at top clubs. 

And Roy Keane doesn’t hold back on the masseuses who he says… 

• Become “too cocky”. 

• Demand a bonus after big wins. 

• Try to look for a sweet deal on players’ cars. 

Hmm.

Morale of the story: if you’re ever in charge of a top football club, make sure you have good people in the masseuse room.

Off The Pitch

🍔 Small Irish takeaway chain Supermac’s has won a 17-year legal battle with McDonald’s over the use of the Big Mac trademark (More)

💵 King Charles banknotes have now entered circulation but shoppers can still use notes with the portrait of the late Queen (More)

📺 Netflix has officially given the green light on a Peaky Blinders movie (More)

😬 Amanda Knox loses her bid to overturn slander conviction in Italy (More)

🍪 Packs of Choco Leibniz biscuits shrink - with one less biscuit in each pack - but the shelf price remains the same (More)

📢 Instagram is testing ads that you can’t skip (More)

Yesterday’s Poll

Few topics bring out emotion more in football fans than Financial Fair Play. And yesterday we saw that in abundance. 

We asked you: Do you think City have been discriminated against by the League? 

👍 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ Yes... (10.1%)

❌ 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 Nope... (89.9%)

The large majority of you voted ‘Nope’.

Your punditry takes:

• ❌ Adrian L voted ‘Nope’: “Absolute deflection from the 115 charges. May as well shout “Look over there!!” And scarper round the corner. Can -> road.”

• ❌ Laraine voted ‘Nope’: “Financial Fair Play serves to make football a fairer playing ground for all the teams and all of the leagues. Football, as an industry, would become absolutely ridiculous with only the Clubs having the most financial success winning big competitions and bankrolling to succeed further with other teams potentially struggling just to keep afloat. It would become boring as a sport that is already spiralling out of control when it comes to player values and wages.”

• ❌ Chris M voted ‘Nope’: “This is just another ploy, which City know they'll lose, to string out the length of time until they are found guilty and sanctioned. If anything, using lawyers who have probably cost millions to this stage, is symptomatic of the charges against them, they are using their unlimited wealth to keep their unfairly gained advantage for as long as possible.”

• 👍 J. G. C voted ‘Yes’: “Just can’t believe all those years that Man Utd and Liverpool were so successful nothing was ever said or done.....but City are forever been subjected to various illegal charges ???????”

Food for thought.

Around The Football World

🇮🇹 Antonio Conte has been appointed Napoli's head coach on a three-year contract (More)

🇹🇷 Giovanni van Bronckhorst has been appointed the new manager of Beşiktaş (More)

🇸🇦 Real Madrid legend Fernando Hierro has joined Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr as sporting director (More)

🇪🇸 Barcelona president Joan Laporta doubted whether Xavi genuinely believed in the current squad (More)

🇺🇾 A racist slur used in a Uruguayan football match has ignited a national debate on race and racism (More)

🇩🇪 The German government will provide free sunscreen for fans during Euro 2024 (More)

Extra Time

Real Madrid release their 2024/25 season home jersey.

Paul Gascoigne’s hilarious response when being asked if he regrets not moving to Manchester United.

The best quotes from the 2023/24 Premier League season.

Some players are rewarding themselves with stripped titles… in a parody.

A thread of the best disallowed goals in history.

ESPN ranks the top 100 players in every position.

Game Face On

Question: Who has scored the most weak-footed goals in the Premier League over the past 15 years?

Hint: We’re not sure he has a weak foot.

Scroll below for the answer.

On Today

FOOTBALL

Friendlies: Gibraltar vs Wales (17:00 BST)

Friendlies: Netherlands vs Canada (19:45 BST)

TENNIS

French Open: Mixed Doubles Final (11:00 / 18:00 BST, Eurosports 1 & Discovery+)

French Open: Day 12 (13:30 BST, Eurosports 1 & Discovery+)

French Open: Womens Singles Semi-Final 1 (14:00 BST, Eurosports 1 & Discovery+)

French Open: Womens Singles Semi-Final 2 (16:00 BST, Eurosports 1 & Discovery+)

CRICKET

ICC T20 World Cup: USA vs Pakistan (16:00 BST, Sky Sports Cricket)

*EST -5. PST -8. CET +1. CST +8. JST +9.

Answer: Son Heung-Min with 46 weak-footed goals. 

Hottest Take of the Day

Today’s Hottest Take of the Day is: Real Madrid will be worse without Kross, even with Mbappe joining. Thanks to Marvin from Leicester, for the suggestions. Submit another Hot Take of the Day here.