Prem loophole crackdown

GM football fans. Route One here, and we’re covering the ‘Chelsea hotel’ loophole, rolling over kits from previous seasons, and much more.

STATS

Olympic women’s semi-final: USA 1 - 0 Germany

→ The USWNT has reached the final/Gold Medal Match in 11 of the 17 all-time major women's tournaments (Olympics + World Cup).

→ Germany has been eliminated in the knockout rounds of a major tournament 10 times with half of those coming at the hands of the USWNT.

Olympic women’s semi-final: Brazil 4 - 2 Spain

→ Brazil will play USWNT in a major tournament final for the third time, equaling the U.S. vs. Japan for the most played major tournament final in women's soccer.

→ Brazil’s Marta has 200 appearances for her country and never won a major international trophy, so she’ll hope to break that in the final game of her career.

Plus…

• Manchester City agree £81.5mn fee for Julian Alvarez with Atletico Madrid (More)

• André Onana vows to ‘take a lot of risks’ at Manchester United this season (More)

• Fixture amendment for October’s Premier League matches (More)

PREMIER LEAGUE

Premier League aims to close ‘Chelsea hotel’ loophole

The Premier League is considering closing the loophole that allowed Chelsea to ‘sell’ two hotels to itself as a way of complying with financial rules, per The Times.

In June, 11 of the 20 Premier League clubs voted in favour of removing the loophole which fell short of the two-thirds majority needed. 

The loophole explained

First of all, Chelsea aren’t the only club in the top flight to exploit loopholes. But, in April, The Blues sold two hotels and their car parking to its parent company BlueCo in order to reduce its losses and comply with the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR). 

Chelsea’s losses would’ve been £166.4mn for the year - but the ‘sale’ of the hotels reduced the club’s losses to £89.9mn. But there are a few issues with this:

• It’s difficult to judge whether the club is selling the asset at “fair market value”, a requirement under the League’s associated party rules - and it’s believed that the Premier League are yet to sign off Chelsea’s sale of the hotels for this reason.

• And then there’s the moral issue as clubs with more assets can inflate revenues and push the boundary of PSR rules.

So, what’s next?

Well, the English Football League has already voted to stop using ‘artificial windfall profits’ on property sales in 2021 after dozens of clubs sold their stadiums and training grounds to themselves to comply with PSR.

Whether the Premier League follows suit is a matter of whether the League can convince the newly promoted sides, who were part of the EFL last season, to support the motion.

The bigger picture: The Premier League will want to close any loopholes before the new financial rules are set to be introduced in the 2025-6 season.

HEAD START

🛑 Polish VAR officials dismissed for stealing road sign. Two Polish referees have been stood down from Tuesday’s Champions League match between Rangers and Dynamo Kyiv after they were reportedly arrested for drunkenly stealing a road sign. The Polish Football Association has vowed to terminate the contracts of the two officials if the reports in the Polish media are confirmed to be true.

🤖 Liverpool are using AI to become better at corners. Liverpool have teamed up with Google DeepMind, using artificial intelligence (AI) to determine strategies for corner kicks. The project used data from 9,693 corner kicks collected from the 2020–21, 2021–22, and 2022–23 (up to January 2023) Premier League seasons, feeding information on each player’s height, weight, starting location, and movement throughout the corner routine. Expect to see more corner routines like this in the upcoming season.

🤔 Rule changes are needed to protect academy players. Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has called on the Premier League to change their financial rules so that clubs do not feel “compelled” to sell academy players. Top-flight clubs have been selling academy players to navigate strict profit and sustainability rules as the transfer fee for graduates goes down as ‘pure profit’ in their accounts.

PREMIER LEAGUE

Can clubs afford to roll over kits like Luton?

Luton Town has said it will keep the same home shirt for the new season. And the Championship side has committed to change its home shirt every other season.

Aside from the shirt being their “best-selling and most popular”, Luton wants to save supporters money, as well as help retain continuity.

The news has received praise as fans have questioned the new price of football shirts:

• The average cost of a Premier League replica shirt has passed £70 for the first time this season - with nine of the 20 clubs charging more than £80 for an adult shirt.

• It’s no wonder that sales for Arsenal and Chelsea shirts are down by around 15%, and Liverpool shirts have seen a dip in sales despite being the most popular in the English top flight.

Brentford have previously rolled over their shirt… the Bees were the only team in the Premier League that didn’t change their kit in the 2022-23 season. 

But it might not make financial sense for clubs

Talking on TalkSport, Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony said that Luton can afford to roll over their shirts because they’ve received “£200mn in parachute payments”, broadcast revenue given by the Premier League to newly relegated clubs.

There is some truth to this: While clubs only receive on average around 7.5% of profits from shirt sales (lower league clubs receive even less), it still counts as a relatively lucrative income stream.

Luton have committed to rolling over their shirts every other year, but they’ll be riding the Premier League cash wave for some time - a privilege many Championship sides will not.

POLL

AROUND THE FOOTBALL WORLD

🇪🇸 La Liga: Barcelona have reached an agreement in principle with RB Leipzig to sign Dani Olmo on a six-year deal worth €60mn (More)

🇪🇸 La Liga: Kylian Mbappé is set to become Real Madrid’s main free-kick taker this season, despite never scoring a direct free-kick for club or country, while Vini Jr will remain the penalty taker (More)

🇫🇷 Ligue 1: Paris Saint-Germain have held initial talks with Manchester United over the signing of forward Jadon Sancho (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Championship: Former Newcastle and Bournemouth player Matt Richie returns to his boyhood club Portsmouth 13 years after leaving (More)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 League One: PFA League One Player of the Year nominees have been announced: Colby Bishop, Harrison Burrows, Ephron Mason-Clark, Alfie May and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing on the shortlist (More)

OFF THE PITCH

🏗️ New study claims the Pyramid of Djoser was built using long-lost hydraulic technology (More)

🎨 Banksy reveals second animal artwork within 24 hours in London (More)

💻 Google illegally maintains monopoly over internet search, judge rules (More)

🥤 A new study reveals that people can reverse type 2 diabetes by going on a strict 900-calorie-a-day liquid diet offered by the NHS (More)

🚰 Three water firms face a record £168mn fine after sewage investigation (More)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

On fire. Crystal Palace forward Jean-Philippe Mateta scored twice as France fought to beat 10-man Egypt 3-1 after extra time and reach the final of the men’s Olympic football. The Frenchman has now scored four goals in five games in the competition.

ROUTER’S VOICE

Yesterday, we asked you: Do you think TV broadcast deals will impact attendance at lower league clubs?

Routers vote that TV broadcast deals won’t impact lower league attendance.

🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 📺 Nope, it's only a good thing... (59%)

🟨 🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ 📉 Absolutely, it's not good for attendance... (41%)

Your punditry takes:

• 📺 G Worth voted ‘Nope’: “Fans want to watch their teams for so many legitimate reasons. Many support from afar and many can't attend due to financial, logistical, or medical reasons. Those who want to attend will still do so.”

• 📺 B McCarroll voted ‘Nope’: “The more showing of live matches will give the game a wider audience, it will encourage people to attend a game who have not been before.”

• 📉 David B voted ‘Absolutely’: “I know many people who will not be able to attend matches at odd times such as Thursday evening or Sunday noon. So they will impact on attendance.”

EXTRA TIME

92 football fans from the Premier League and EFL share their hopes for the 2024-25 season.

This week in 1974, George Best signed for Dunstable Town FC.

Can you tell why this free-kick assist was outlawed?

Emile Smith Rowe scores his first goal for Fulham.

A Leeds fan unknowingly wears a ‘I love Man United’ shirt in Italian.

Thierry Henry celebrating France’s semi-final win in style.

Who does Thomas Muller support in the UK?

Premier League net spend history table 1992-present.

Podcast: Stick to Football pre-season special.

GAME FACE ON

Question: Which player won consecutive trebles in 2009 and 2010?

Clue: He has won the joint most African Footballer of the year awards.

Scroll below for the answer.

ON TODAY

FOOTBALL

Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round - see latest results here.

• Slavia vs R. Union SG (18:00 BST)

• Slovan vs APOEL (19:30 BST)

• Jagiellonia vs Bodo/Glimt (19:45 BST)

English FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round Replays

• Full fixture list can be found here.

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

Answer

Samuel Eto’o with Barcelona and Inter Milan. Zlatan Ibrahimovic swapped Inter in 2009 for Barcelona in 2010 as part of Eto’o clearly getting the better end of the deal.