Stock Exchange - LSE listing scores for football.
Football clubs who list on the Stock Exchange tend to fair better than those who don’t, according to Deloitte & Touche’s ninth Annual Review of Football Finance.
The news will come as reassurance to Liverpool and Swansea who plan to follow the example of Manchester United and Aston Villa when they issue shares later this year.
Gerry Boon, head of Deloittes’ football industry team, said chairmen at clubs had been given a ‘golden opportunity’ after the sale of television rights, but said: ‘It remains to be seen whether the money will go straight into players pockets or into building a sound business infra-structure.’
The survey reveals that pretax profits reduced to a combined total of #13.6m for the Premier League in the 98-99 season, while the rest of the Football League saw its profits shrink by 45% to £75m.
Manchester Utd remains the most profitable club with £22.4m pretax profit.
Explaining why clubs listed on the LSE faired better, Boon said their expenditure was less, they were under closer scrutiny and tended to have better discipline to please shareholders.
However, the Deloittes football expert said pressure from fans forced club chairmen into ‘unrealistic’ spending.