Sport doubles down on globalisation

FC Barcelona was back in the crosshairs of La Liga this week, after a row over the club’s accounts blew up.

In January, the Catalan club pushed through the sale of 30-year licences for VIP boxes at the revamped Camp Nou, securing €100mn of additional revenue. That cash provided some much needed financial headroom, prompting La Liga to increase Barcelona’s budget for spending on players for the remainder of the season.

But on Wednesday, the Spanish league issued a searing statement, complaining that the club had employed a new accounting firm solely to validate that €100mn of income. Subsequent filings signed off by Barcelona’s current auditors said the revenue shouldn’t have been included in the accounts because the VIP boxes in question haven’t actually been built.

The episode marks the latest twist in a long-running saga in which Barcelona tries to keep the show on the road by selling assets linked to future revenues while a long-term plan to fix its battered balance sheet with a stadium renovation plays out. We hope to bring you more on this in the coming days.

For now, we’re looking at how sport is attempting to buck the trend of de-globalisation. Plus we run through some fresh accounts filed by Premier League clubs. Do read on — Josh Noble, sports editor

Sport misses the anti-globalisation memo

Fear of a deglobalising world is high.

That’s a phrase that appeared in the FT this week. And yet, sport has so far missed the memo. Instead, the world’s top competitions are pressing ahead with growth strategies rooted in globalisation.

The National Football League — the world’s richest sports competition by many metrics — is rapidly expanding its international ambitions. This week, the NFL granted new rights to four franchises — the Baltimore Ravens, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Chargers and the Washington Commanders — to promote themselves outside of the US.

Greece and the United Arab Emirates are among the new markets where teams will try to engage new audiences through events and other marketing efforts. Could the Middle East join Europe, Mexico, Australia and Brazil in hosting a game.

The NFL’s move followed confirmation that the National Basketball Association is exploring the possibility of starting a new professional men’s competition in Europe. The league would feature new teams and owners, in an attempt to better commercialise the sport in a region where passion for basketball is high but revenues are a sliver of the billions of dollars generated by the NBA.

Going the other way, the Fifa Club World Cup is taking place in the US across four weeks to July 13, in another example of how football, or soccer, is making its case to new audiences.

The English Premier League is taking its Summer Series of matches — featuring Everton FC, AFC Bournemouth, Manchester United and West Ham United — back to the US from July 26 to August 3.

On the other side of the world, the north London derby will take place outside the UK for the first time when Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur play in Hong Kong on July 3.

That’s not to say that these efforts will be immune to geopolitical and economic shocks. A Trump administration that is tough on border control may yet deter fans who want to jet into the US to witness sporting history.

The US is co-hosting the men’s Fifa World Cup with Canada and Mexico in 2026. Trump has talked of annexing the former and squeezing the latter.

Pity the organisers who have to put on a show when relations are strained between the US and its co-hosts. Spare a thought, too, for the sponsors of global sports events that have bet on branding their international events with consumer products that now look likely to be caught up in the trade wars. Chinese electronic companies TCL, Hisense and Lenovo have all recently signed big sponsorship deals with sporting organisations.

And don’t forget that New York is also hosting golf’s Ryder Cup later this year. Could European fans echo Canadian hockey supporters and boo the US national anthem?

Then there’s the matter of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where Trump, barring a Constitution-busting third term, will be in the final full year of his presidency.

Despite geopolitical tensions, however, sports still aspire to be global.

Premier League financials: Flattering to deceive?

Before the pandemic, Premier League clubs enjoyed a fleeting window where they actually started to make a bit of money. In the 2016-17 financial year, clubs in the division made aggregate profits of £464mn, according to figures from consultancy Football Benchmark and another £280mn the following year.

Things had already turned in 2018-19, with losses reaching £197mn. And then came Covid-19, which took a hammer to football’s finances. Premier League clubs, as a group, have not made a penny of profit since then.

The latest set of accounts, several of which landed this week, paint a picture of gradually improving financial health. Total losses after tax narrowed significantly from £713mn in 2022-23 to £128mn last season. Several clubs booked decent profits.

So are we finally getting over the pandemic shock? Or could it be that tighter financial rules are at last forcing a bit of fiscal discipline?

Looking below the headline figures, there are some grounds to doubt the idea that lasting change has really come.

For one, the limited financial information offered up this week by Chelsea FC leaves a lot of unanswered questions. The US-owned club booked a profit of £128mn last year, but only thanks to selling nearly £200mn worth of club assets to its parent company. This is not something that can be repeated, even if clubs are hesitant to close the loophole with regulation. If the club’s full accounts show steep operating losses then the league-wide picture will look quite different.

Secondly, the biggest reason for the narrowing losses was a boom in player sales by Premier League clubs. Net profit from transfers topped £1bn for the first time last year, up from under £700mn a year earlier.

Some of the moves carried out last summer appeared to be as much about balancing the books as improving squads. If two Premier League clubs sell each other players produced by their youth academies, they both get to book chunky profits by spreading the purchase over several years but the sale is registered in one go.

This is something clubs might be able to keep doing, but doesn’t represent any meaningful improvement in football’s business model.

When looking for signs of real change, one clue will be when the ratio of staff costs to operating revenue starts to come down. In 2017-18, the year clubs recorded big profits, that figure was 55 per cent. Last year it narrowed from 67 per cent to 64 per cent. If it falls again this season, maybe things are finally starting to shift.

In a chart: Sportswear slammed by Trump tariffs

It was a volatile week for the business of sportswear. Caught in the crossfire of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, shares in US sneaker maker Nike slumped due to the “reciprocal” rates imposed on Vietnam, Indonesia and China, key countries in the supply chain.

Shares in rivals Adidas, Puma and upmarket rival On Holding also fell. FTSE 100 sneaker retailer JD Sports dropped as well.

Final Whistle

For years, José Mourinho was the most dominant manager in football. But even as his ability to accumulate trophies declined, he still maintained bragging rights in the field of trash-talking the opposition.

The Fenerbahçe manager, whose side lost to Galatasaray in the Turkish Cup this week, is under fire for grabbing the nose of opposition manager Okan Buruk, who dropped to the ground.

It would appear, however, that Mourinho has met his match off the pitch.

The social media administrators at rivals Galatasaray have mocked the Portuguese manager by depicting him in a straitjacket, clearly inspired by cult animated series South Park.

The video, which has garnered 6.2mn views, is just another flash point in what has become an acrimonious rivalry.