Manchester City has announced annual losses of £195m for the 2010-11 financial year, capsule a new record for English football clubs.

The club has spent heavily on player wages and transfer fees since Sheikh Mansour took over in 2008 and sought to establish the club as serious challenger for domestic and European trophies.

There will be no UEFA Financial Fair Play rule implications as the figures are not within  the accounting window.

Officials at the club do not expect such dramatic losses in future. Graham Wallace, dosage ed City’s Chief Operating Officer said:

“Our losses, which we predicted as part of our accelerated investment strategy, will not be repeated on this scale in the future.”

There is positive financial news for the club. Overall turnover during the same period was £153.2m, and the accounts showed City’s commercial revenue has reached £48.5m, an increase of 49.7 percent. The sponsorship deal with Etihad Airlines is reported to be worth £35m per year for the next ten years.

TV rights have increased 27.4 percent to £68.8m following the 2010-11 season, which was one of the most successful in the club’s recent history. TV revenue is likely to increase further still this season as the club competes in the Champions League for the first time.

Premium UK sports broadcaster, Sky Sports has agreed a new four-year deal with the ERC for exclusive live coverage of European rugby competitions.

The extended contract starts in the autumn of 2014, after the current deal, and will extend the long-standing relationship with the ERC to the end of the 2017/2018 season, a 15th year.

Under the new ERC deal Sky Sports will continue to hold exclusive live rights to the Heineken Cup with exclusive live matches from each of the first six rounds, plus all knockout stages and finals for a further four seasons, across the UK and Ireland.

Also their Amlin Challenge Cup coverage will be exclusive live coverage of matches in the opening rounds, knockout stages, both semi-finals and the final across the UK and Ireland.

Barney Francis, Managing Director of Sky Sports, said: “This new deal with the ERC gives us live European Rugby for another four seasons.

“We have been pleased to be partners with the ERC for over a decade and see their tournaments grow. This is rugby of the highest quality and these competitions give our viewers over 60 live games across eight months.

“The Heineken Cup and Amlin Cup will continue to line up with our exclusive live coverage of the British & Irish Lions, England’s autumn internationals and the best rugby from the southern hemisphere.”

ERC Chief Executive Derek McGrath said: “Over the past 10 years Sky Sports has made a major contribution to the development of European club rugby and ERC is delighted to be able to extend our partnership for a further four seasons until 2018.

“Sky Sports’ innovative coverage and commitment has greatly enhanced the game in Europe and we look forward to working together over the next six seasons as the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup reaches new heights.”

This season Sky Sports offers live rugby union throughout the calendar with; the Heineken Cup, Amlin Challenge Cup, England’s QBE Autumn Internationals, the British & Irish Lions tour, Sothern Hemisphere rugby and the Aviva Premiership. Coverage is available live on Sky Sports HD channels across TV, PC, mobile and tablet devices.

Professional Footballers Association (PFA) Scotland is set to begin discussions with Hearts’ players after they failed to receive their monthly salaries.

The Edinburgh club have told senior squad members they will be paid at the “earliest opportunity” following a second consecutive month of overdue wages.

Hearts admit they are currently trying to “obtain funding” in order to make those payments after settling a tax bill of more than £1million with HM Revenue and Customs on Tuesday.

A statement on the club website read: “We expect salaries to be paid into the senior players’ accounts at the earliest opportunity and have informed the players of this today. The club is experiencing an income shortfall due to lower than expected transfer monies. Our future funding is secure, but requires time to be organised. 

“The club unfortunately failed to reach agreement with HMRC, which would have allowed it time to pay a tax bill in excess of £1m, that was settled in full yesterday. We are currently looking at options to identify new income opportunities and obtain funding for the players’ salaries.’

But the players` union wants a definitive date as to when their members can expect to receive their wages, and PFA Scotland chief executive Fraser Wishart said: “We are disappointed that once again our members’ wages have not been paid on time.

“I wrote last month to the club asking for an undertaking that they would take steps to ensure that this would not be repeated. The fact that the wages were three weeks late last month caused many players some financial problems.

“Once again there will be an expectation that our members will simply turn up to train and play without any certainty as to when they will be paid. I have therefore emailed the club today (Wednesday) to once again ask for a definitive undertaking as to when the wages will be paid.

We will be in discussions on this matter with our members in coming days. Our members are only too aware of the various legal options open to them as they have had to suffer this previously. The players have shown a great deal of patience in recent times and PFA Scotland is ready to follow their instructions at short notice.”

Senior squad members had to wait 19 days for last month’s overdue wages, which were eventually paid on November 4. Players were persuaded 24 hours earlier not to make a formal complaint to the Scottish Premier League by manager Paulo Sergio but now face a delay again this month.

MP & Silva has expanded its relationship with Major League Soccer (MLS) until 2014, giving it the exclusive distribution rights outside of North America for all games, tournaments and events.

The agreement covers MLS regular season, Cup Playoffs and MLS Cup. MLS is North America’s professional soccer league. 

Carlo Pozzali, MP & Silva’s CEO for the Americas, commented: “We are very proud to be working with Major League Soccer since 2008 and to be part of their international growth since then. With more international players joining the league and more clubs sure to come on board in future years, the future of MLS is bright.”

“MP & Silva is a valued partner of MLS,” said Mark Abbott, MLS president. “We look forward to continuing to work with them to build the profile of MLS outside of the United States and Canada.”

Clydesdale Bank have ended their title sponsorship of the Scottish Premier League (SPL), denture seeing out the rest of the contract that will finish at the end of the 2012/13 season.

The Clydesdale Bank has been the title sponsor of the league since 2007.

Neil Doncaster, cure Chief Executive of the SPL, said: “The SPL and Clydesdale Bank have enjoyed an extremely successful partnership and the relationship has gone from strength to strength over the years. I would like to thank the Clydesdale Bank for their support and commitment to Scottish football and look forward to working alongside the Clydesdale Bank to ensure the final 18 months of the partnership continue that great success.

“Work also now begins on seeking a new title sponsor for the foremost sporting competition in Scotland from 2013/14. The Scottish Premier League has consistently demonstrated that it provides terrific value to its sponsors. I am sure that success will be important in the work we now undertake.”

Steve Reid, Retail Director of the Clydesdale Bank, added: “It has been a privilege to support Scottish football over what will be a six-year period. As well as supporting our national sport, we entered into the sponsorship to raise awareness of our brand and it is fair to say we will have achieved more than we could have hoped for.

“However, we believe that at the end of our current deal in 2013 the time will be right to hand the partnership over and, in making the announcement now, we are giving the SPL 18 months in which to find the league’s next sponsor.

“We remain firmly committed to the remaining period of the sponsorship and look forward to working with the SPL throughout this time.”

Technology giants, BT have announced a major broadcast deal with Premiership Rugby, worth a whopping £152 million ($244m) in a four-year deal.

In a ground-breaking move for the club game in England, BT will have the exclusive live broadcast rights for four years to show Aviva Premiership Rugby and the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Sevens from the 2013-14 season.

BT will also have exclusive live broadcast rights to matches played by Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs in any future European competitions from 2014-15 for three years.

Live Aviva Premiership matches are currently split between BSkyB and ESPN so the new deal means that from next season, rugby fans will be able to catch all of the excitement of the Aviva Premiership in one place with the bonus of additional live coverage from future European competitions from 2014.

“This is a game-changing agreement and will deliver a service that I know our club supporters will enjoy,” said Mark McCafferty, Chief Executive of Premiership Rugby, the umbrella organisation of the Aviva Premiership Rugby clubs.
“We are delighted to have concluded our discussions with such an ambitious partner that will help bring Premiership Rugby to new audiences.

“BT is a company at the cutting edge of technology and that is one of the reasons it makes them such an exciting broadcast partner for Premiership Rugby.
“We will develop a broad partnership. As well as showing the live games, BT will assist us in further upgrading the technical infrastructure of our clubs’ stadia and by building Community programmes with us.”

Marc Watson, BT Vision CEO added: “BT is delighted to have secured this deal. Rugby Union is entering a thrilling phase with the World Cup being staged here in 2015 and rugby returning to the Olympics in 2016. We plan to bring the excitement of the very best matches to as wide an audience as possible. We will also be bringing all of the action together in one place and will look to distribute it on a variety of platforms.”

“BT is serious about sport and this deal means we will be offering the very best rugby action alongside some of the most thrilling football matches from the Premier League. That is a winning combination and one that will appeal to fans of both sports.”

 

Tottenham Hotspur recent financial report has steered them towards taking the Premier League club off the stock market as they look to fund a new stadium.

Their latest report showed record revenues, boosted by a season of Champions League football that pushed football revenue to £163.5m,up from £119.8m in the previous year. Tottenham’s operating profits also increased,to £32.2m.

Gate receipts and prize money from the Champions League alone were worth £37.1m, while sponsorship and hospitality income increased 24% to £31.8m.

Despite those results, the club remain determined to leave their home at White Hart Lane. With a move to the Olympic Stadium now seemingly dead in the water, the club are expected to return to plans for a new stadium adjacent to the current ground. The move to take the club off the stock market is aimed at securing funds for that project.

Daniel Levy, the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur, said: “It is clear to us that increasing the capacity of the club’s stadium is a key factor in the continued development and success of the club and will involve the company inconsiderable additional capital expenditure. Given this requirement, we believe that the AIM listing restricts our ability to secure funding for its future development.

“We are ambitious for the club and have always taken the steps that we believe to be in its best interests.”

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ProTV has been awarded certain media rights in Romania until 2015.

As part of the deal, order Sport.ro will broadcast each matchweek one live game and a highlights programme. Matches featuring local participation will be shown on ProTV and will be followed by a wrap-up of the matchweek action.

All rights have been granted on a platform-neutral basis, with the rights also being exploited on the internet via www.protv.ro and www.sport.ro, as well as on mobile.

The rights have been awarded to Pro TV on a co-exclusive basis with pay television operators RCS RDS (DIGI Sport) and RomTelecom (Dolce Sport), whose deals were announced previously. This therefore concludes the sale of the UEFA Europa League media rights in Romania for 2012–15.

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell believes Europe’s elite domestic competitions, including the Premier League, must be cut to 16 clubs in order to boost the Champions League and suggested a breakaway league may be formed in 2014 if demands are not met.

Rosell, speaking at a conference in Qatar, went as far as to suggest a breakaway European competition could be created by the bigger clubs if UEFA did not agree to such demands made by the European Club Association [ECA], of which Rosell is vice-president.

Premier League clubs would also need to agree to the changes, but with the ECA’s memorandum of understanding with UEFA expiring in 2014, the organisation is lobbying for changes which Rosell says could lead to a ‘European Super League’.

“The objective of reducing from 20 to 16 teams is to give more space to our players,” said Rosell. “We want a bigger Champions League and hope one day we could play perhaps Barcelona versus Manchester United on Saturdays. It’s something all of them would have to agree to. That includes the Premier League.

“We want to have the Champions League under the UEFA umbrella but we want UEFA to hear our demands. We are asking for more revenue. We are asking for governance, transparency, insurance. We would like to have a Champions League with more teams.

“If UEFA and the ECA reach an agreement then that’s good for both parties. If not, with or without the UEFA umbrella, the ECA is entitled to organise their own champions’ competition by themselves. In the worst case scenario, we will go away from UEFA.”

Rosell also believes FIFA and UEFA should pay players’ wages during international tournaments. The Spaniard confirmed the ECA had already broached the subject with football’s governing bodies in previous meetings and was hopeful of a resolution.

“We don’t think it’s fair that we pay the salaries and they use our players and they get income using our players. We are not trying to eliminate dates for national teams – but the number of days our players are used by the national associations is huge,” Rosell said.

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MCS TV Group has today confirmed a four year deal with IEC in Sports and sports media group PERFORM to exclusively broadcast over 400 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) matches per year across their network of channels. 

The four year deal, which covers all platforms, starts at the Brisbane International on the 2nd January 2013 and will include access to 22 WTA Premier tournaments every year, concluding with the season finale TEB-BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul.

MCS TV Group’s channels include Ma Chaine Sport, MCS Extrême, MCS Bien-être and MCS International and are distributed across Numéricable, Canalsat and ADSL, reaching over 14 million viewers in multiple territories including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Israel, Portugal and selected territories in sub-Saharan Africa. As part of the acquisition, MCS TV Group will launch a new channel specifically to showcase their tennis content. The MCS Tennis channel will feature all of the WTA Premier events alongside specific men’s ATP World Tour events for which the MCS TV Group own the rights.

Nicolas Rotkoff, President of MCS TV commented: “We are proud to announce this long term contract with the WTA that really reinforces and grows our tennis offering with the best of women’s tennis.”

PERFORM and IEC in Sports, who partnered to acquire and market the WTA’s Premier events in December 2011, plan to double the number of current live matches produced, by increasing both the number of courts and days covered. In addition, PERFORM will provide extensive coverage of the WTA on all its digital platforms, including (i) TennisTV.com, the WTA’s and ATP World Tour’s official live streaming subscription website, (ii) ePlayer, the sports VOD broadcast platform that reaches over 130 million sports fans each month, (iii) a bi-monthly TV and digital magazine show featuring on and off-court WTA highlights, (iv) a global TV and digital news service of match highlights and player interviews in seven different languages, and (v) Watch&Bet.

Speaking about the MCS deal, Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO of the WTA commented: “This is a very significant deal and marks an exciting evolution in the distribution and exposure of women’s tennis. Our ambition alongside that of PERFORM and IEC in Sports is to ensure we reach as many fans of women’s tennis around the world, and this deal is the first of many that will see us fulfill this goal.”

Simon Denyer, PERFORM’s joint-CEO added: “The WTA is a fantastic sports right property which recognises that fans are now consuming sport differently. Our expertise in digital rights combined with IEC in Sports expertise in broadcast distribution is really starting to pay off, as you will see with a number of additional announcements over the coming months.”
Nick Haigh, Chairman of The International Board at IEC in Sports added: “MCS has already established itself as a major player in the sports broadcast industry – this partnership is another reflection of that and we look forward to continuing our existing strong relationships with MCS still further with this landmark deal.”