Arsenal are meeting all the financial rules at the moment, but still need to be clever with the cash
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By Tony Attwood
There was one passing story that I caught via the emails this morning – a map that showed that in over half the states in the USA, the most viewed football team on American TV stations is Arsenal.
And that caught my eye because of my thoughts expressed here of late as to what the owners of Arsenal are getting out of Arsenal, especially as the club is losing so much money year on year.
But now by pure chance, I think I have found an answer, even when I wasn’t looking for it. That map noted above suggests that indeed Arsenal are the most popular English football team in the USA, which means that there will be a lot of sales of Arsenal “product” as it is known in the USA, ranging from the rights to show matches to the sale of shirts.
Now, presumably that marketing process is under the control of the club’s owners, who are, of course, American and based in America. I don’t know the details of course, but I imagine a company in the States is licensed to make and sell Arsenal related product, such as shirts, and either to sell the rights to Arsenal games on TV or at least sell the resultant advertising. That would all, I imagine, be run by the owners of the club in America. And that map cited above suggests it is very successful as a commercial operation.
Throw all this together, and the benefit of having an American owner is obvious. They are making money out of the retail operation of Arsenal in the USA, which is licensed to them by Aresnal UK which they own. As a result, the owners are not that worried for their own money in terms of losses made by Arsenal in the UK because of the money they are making in the USA from the retail side of things. (And let us not forget that when we think of shirt sales, that will come on the back of TV rights sales, the sale of advertising within games etc.
In short, Iam speculating that the American operation makes money out of Arsenal, without affecting the way Arsenal is run as a loss-making club in the UK. (Although obviously only loss-making up to a limit because of the ever-changing FFP rules).
Now it is quite likely that everyone else has worked all this out before, and I have just been hyper slow, but just in case you haven’t previously picked up on the notion (as I haven’t), I thought I’d run through it, as I was getting a bit worried about all these losses.
To summarise, I am proposing the notion that Arsenal in the UK have a deal with a company in the US owned by the same family that owns Arsenal, to sell Arsenal merchandise. Arsenal UK makes a modest profit on this, and Arsenal US makes quite a good profit. As a result, Arsenal in the US is not too worried financially about Arsenal in the UK..
As I say, quite probably everyone else already knew this, but I’ve only just worked it out. Ah well, that’s what happens when one gets old.
Meanwhile, we have a fun VAR story emerging in Switzerland. Nothing to do with AFC, but still fun. And it runs like this.VAR allows the referee to erase an error of judgment by his assistant, but in one recent case, it was used for something that it was not supposed to rejudge.
In the 63rd minute between Lausanne and Lugano, with the score 1-1 Renato Steffen headed for goal. He was held back by Karim Sow and fell to the ground. The ref (Mr. Schnyder) issued a second yellow card to the player already booked in the 22nd minute.
The video referee Michèle Schmölzer calls her colleague to review the situation on VAR as it was a goal-scoring opportunity, and the player could be sent off. But the ref went to see the video screen, the ref could only see the player’s offside position just before being fouled. And infractions can only be corrected electronically in the event of a goal, penalty or direct red card – which didn’t apply here.
Referees do not have the right to consult VAR about yellow cards. But the referee did in this case, and the player was sent off for the second yellow offence after VAR.
Now, as we know, in cases of embarrassment and difficulty, referee authorities like to cover up with media help. Which is why I am mentioning it here. In England, there would be no story because the media would not touch it. In Switzerlan,d it is a big story.
Of course, the ref could be sent for retraining and the card cancelled. But the card affected the game, so surely the game needs to be replayed. These are areas where the Uefa Fudge Group usually get involved by saying nothing for two years and then issuing an incomprehensible finding. But in Switzerland, where the notion of a free press saying what it wants in relation to football is still extant, it is now a story, and it won’t go away.
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Arsenal are meeting all the financial rules at the moment, but still need to be clever with the cash
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