I Am a Nobleman in England

Because of the Southampton club, Arthur temporarily changed his itinerary after lunch, and returned to the "Southern Daily Echo" newspaper with Jerry Fuller.

In the editor-in-chief's office, Jerry, Arthur, and the housekeeper Paul respectively took the coffee brought in by the secretary. While drinking the coffee, Arthur listened to Jerry, a senior media person, introduce the entire English football league and the club to him. for details.

For Saints Southampton, this violation was fined and downgraded to League One. As a fan of the Saints, Jerry can be said to have deeply felt all kinds of tastes in the world.

From the perennial teams in the Premier League, to the underdogs in the British Championship, and then to the League One team next season, the tragic experience of the Saints Southampton may have just begun. All Saints fans, like Jerry, feel sorry and sad for the Saints from the bottom of their hearts.

Although it is understood that the shareholders of the club want to sell the club, the current Saints are undoubtedly a hot potato. Whether it is debt or poor operating conditions and records, they are all stumbling blocks that will discourage buyers.

If there is no manpower to turn the tide and regroup, the Saints' prospects in League One next season will also become doubtful. The biggest wish of all Saints fans is that the club will not sink in the League One for too long, and return to the stage that should belong to the Saints as soon as possible.

Therefore, Jerry was very excited when he heard that his boss was interested in Southampton Club. Can lead this team to regain its glory and regain its glory.

But you must not confuse your boss to make wrong judgments and decisions because of your own selfishness. Therefore, Jerry upholds professional ethics and a fair attitude, and begins to share some of the information he knows and masters with the real status quo of British football. , Tell your boss without reservation and without any personal opinions.

And Arthur, through Jerry's detailed introduction, has a deeper understanding of British football. Although he was a senior fan before, he only cares about the club's record and rarely pays attention to the league from the perspective of a fan. other aspects.

And Jerry's introduction, like a concise popular science article, gave Arthur a very clear understanding and judgment on the Premier League, the British Championship, and the League One.

The motivation of entrepreneurs who come to invest in the Premier League is between the success of football competition and the success of economic benefits, and the two cannot be separated from each other. From the Glazer family behind Manchester United to the desert tycoons behind Manchester City, people in the business world have seen that by helping a club to improve, or simply enjoying the crazy rising income brought by TV broadcasting, the value of a club can be increased.

From Abramovich to Chelsea, the pattern of the Premier League was completely broken by Jinyuan Football.

The rise of Manchester City and Chelsea under the huge acquisitions has gradually driven the former giants such as Manchester United and Arsenal from the championship. Subsequently, Manchester City and Chelsea, all the way to Liverpool, are on the road to acquire players with a lot of money.

This also allows the Premier League to present a pattern of diversified competition. It can be said that in the future, the Premier League will always be in a situation where these teams compete for four Champions League qualifications.

"...the new economy of football has two key features. First, it pools the power of everyone to generate income, and then distributes it to clubs in an unequal way. In this regard, it is extraordinary.

But at the same time, it has no ability to control operating costs at all. Money comes in at one end and immediately flows out at the other end. The total annual revenue of the Premier League currently exceeds 2.3 billion pounds, ranking first among the football leagues in the world, but there are few clubs that are really profitable.

Moreover, professional football has always been an unfair competition, and there is a huge income gap between leagues at all levels and within the league. The income of the top clubs in the Premier League is now 4 to 5 times that of the lower reaches of the Premier League.

In 2008, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal each had revenues in excess of £220m, while Blackpool, Birmingham and Blackburn only had a quarter of that figure. But even the annual revenue of these lower-tier clubs in the Premier League is more than three times the average budget of the Championship club.

Clubs in League One and League Two earn an average of around £5m in revenue. As for the revenue of the bottom two leagues, each of which is only 3.5 million pounds, the overall industry scale is smaller than the single clubs of Manchester United and Arsenal.

Fair or not, the outside world may guess that these floods of income must have brought handsome profits under the strategizing of club owners and boards.

But perhaps the most surprising aspect of this so-called new football economy is that it makes so little money. Using the most generous calculations, the Premier League as a whole has a small profit in most seasons, but even this profit is minimal.

If you include capital accounts, such as debt payments. The depreciation of assets such as player values, losses in the player transfer market, and taxes, so whether it is the Premier League or other leagues, there is no profit at all.

For example, in 2008, the pre-tax losses of the Premier League clubs amounted to more than one billion pounds, and the total losses of the Championship clubs in the same year exceeded 100 million pounds. The operating losses of League One and League Two were tens of millions of pounds and millions of pounds, respectively.

At least in terms of spending money like water, the new football economy can be regarded as everyone has a share. Because no matter how much or how little, all leagues lose money equally. Also this year, League One clubs are expected to generate an average annual revenue of £5 million, with a loss of at least half. League Two is slightly better, with an average annual revenue of more than two million pounds and a loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds. "

Well, after hearing this, Arthur was a little speechless. He originally thought that if he bought the Saints club, he would manage it well, do a good job in youth training, play games, earn some broadcasting revenue, and sell players. He could earn at least several million pounds a year. Yes, now it seems that I think too much.

"How can such a business model be created with increasing revenue and increasing losses?"

Facing his boss's frowning question, Jerry shook his head and said with a wry smile: "The problem doesn't lie in the capital account. The problem lies in the operating account. Because the amount of money flowing into the game is astonishing, but it's just the 'sour plum juice effect'. It flows in and immediately flows out. Now it's the broker's world.

Seventy percent of the club's income has been divided up by the players. Championship players receive an even higher share, accounting for around 90% of club revenue in 2011. At least six of those clubs spend more on player wages alone than their total revenues. The league level goes from low to high, and the income level jumps up, and the salary of the players is the same.

As for why players get such a big chunk of football's new money boom? Why do clubs not hesitate to pay sky-high wages even if they are losing money for a long time? The core reason is that in English football, salary and winning percentage are directly related. The higher the salary paid, the more points you can win, and the higher the league ranking at the end of the season.

The competition in the British Championship is the fiercest, not only because of the large number of teams in the league and the dense schedule, but also the fact that the strength gap between the teams is not large. The relegation of the Premier League team to the British Championship means that they have to wait until the year of the ox to return to the top league stage.

What goes along with the fierce competition is its valuable prize money. Teams that break through the 3-6 play-offs and get promoted to the Premier League, as far as I know, they can get at least 170 million pounds in prize money. For some small teams that have been in the British Championship for many years, this bonus can solve many financial problems of the club! "

After listening to this, Arthur was silent for a moment, took a sip from the coffee cup and put it down, looked at Jerry with sharp eyes and asked: "Since the current situation is like this and the probability of loss is so high, why would you So support me to take over Southampton?"

Jerry did not dodge the sharpness in the eyes of the young boss, but said very frankly: "Because Southampton is definitely the most affordable and value-for-money club at the moment."

"Why!" Arthur asked calmly.

"First of all, although the Saints will play in the League One this year, it is not caused by lack of power, but they were punished and deducted points before they were relegated. Since their relegation to the British Championship in 2005, the Saints have been working hard to return to the Premier League. Work hard, that is to say, its current lineup is capable of impacting the Premier League.

It's just that there is a problem with the club's internal management, and the team has a lot of people, but they can't use it. To put it bluntly, the overall style of play cannot be integrated, you kick yours, I run mines, the team has never been integrated into a whole, just lack of a good coach. Next year will definitely be able to easily return to the British Championship.

Now that the club is relegated to League One, the price of the club will be very low. If it is bought at this time, even if it returns to the English Championship next year, it can make a steady profit if it is sold again.

Furthermore, although Saints Southampton is not considered a wealthy team, it is very well-known and has the support of a huge fan group. This club established in 1885, the greatness of its diehard fans lies in their unswerving support for their beloved team. Although this player's record is not good, it will not shake the loyalty of the fans in the slightest. If the acquisition is really successful, the box office revenue of the team's games will also be a lot of money. "