Money, Money, Money

Money is a tool. Used properly it makes something beautiful; used wrong, it makes a mess!

?— Bradley Vinson

I think it’s fair to say Bradley was not talking about football when he said this, yet this couldn’t be more exemplified in the game today. Recently, I feel like every article I read this past week speaks about the 德勤 Money League study and I am sure there are many more to follow. It would be silly for me to now break down the study further than the great job journalists and other football enthusiasts have already done but what I want to talk about is while money is coming in, which is fantastic, a lot more is going out.?

Currently there are no Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations in women’s football. So in theory, clubs could be going wild buying up top players and dominating leagues. The clubs who do have the finances to do this seem to only be dipping their toe in the proverbial water compared to their lavish spending in men’s football. People always say that women’s football doesn’t make money for the club. But does men’s really? Yes millions come in but if millions +1 go out, how is that sustainable??

Yes millions come in but if millions +1 go out, how is that sustainable??

A London club was recently bought for 10x its yearly revenue and then the owner went on a crazy player shopping spree. He did also set the world record transfer fee for a women’s player so I guess that’s a positive!? But is increasing the cost of female player’s really the best utilization of resources?

We have seen NWSL club franchises being sold for over $50 million and that’s anywhere from 6x to 12x valuation. Unfortunately these teams were not featured in the Deloitte Money League as they did not share their data. This non disclosure could be for many reasons and I will not go into them but if we can’t really see what is happening in the game, how do we improve it??

The increasing debt hanging over the whole ecosystem of the game is daunting to say the least and is not sustainable without regulation. If the women’s game follows the example of its male counterpart, it will be impossible for the commercial engine to catch up to the player spend.?

An interesting paper out of University of Portsmouth and the 英国谢菲尔德大学 entitled “Money troubles and problems ahead? The financial health of professional women’s football clubs in England” sees stringent regulation starting now as the best solution. To paraphrase, they believe a licensing system rewarding financial sustainability could help reduce the financial gap between dominant and smaller clubs. This system should be combined with holistic cost control measures, such as hard salary caps, real-time reporting, and wage clauses linked to relegation/promotion. Despite governance challenges, such measures could shape the game sustainably for the future.

What if women’s football took a page from the NBA and implemented a ‘Luxury Tax’?? The league has a team salary cap and any expenditure over that, that team incurs a Luxury Tax. The luxury tax promotes parity in the league by ensuring small market teams are not disadvantaged compared to big market teams. It also encourages mindful spending on player salaries, as the tax bill increases each year for teams that repeatedly pay it, thus providing teams with a realistic chance for a title for a few years at most. Clearly the NBA is a different beast as it is a closed league and gives owners much more security than in football but I think there could be something here. This would allow the top teams to continue work as usual but also help the smaller clubs keep competitive.

For those of you who follow me on LinkedIn, you are aware that I have switched gears and moved on from N3XT Sports to Mercury/13 , a highly publicized new venture that wants to invert the sport fly-wheel by focusing on supercharging the commercial trajectory of women’s football clubs through a multi-club ownership model. In short, I want to practice what I preach! Implementing the ideas and thoughts I’ve shared over the last years into a new concept for women’s football that can be built into a best practices football playbook and reutilized for different clubs in different markets. My incredible team and I are ready to take off on this new adventure, this is our Moonshot and I hope you will follow along for the ride.?