Sports Big Business No. 2682, welcome to pay attention to the leading sports industry information platform
Wen | Zhang Tan
Sports big business reporter
On the evening of October 7, the Premier League's Newcastle United officially announced that the acquisition of Newcastle by a consortium led by saudi sovereign wealth funds (PIF) was officially completed, with a total value of 300 million pounds. The acquisition, which was more than a year late, had Magpies fans gather outside the home st. James stadium to celebrate wildly.
Although Newcastle currently has only 3 points after seven rounds, ranking in the relegation zone, it is widely considered to be a bright future. PIF is a Saudi sovereign fund with 320 billion pounds (about 2.8 trillion yuan), and the boss behind the scenes is Saudi Crown Prince Salman Jr., Newcastle has never been short of money since then, and has become the richest man in the Premier League!
Kryptonite Ultimate! The new Newcastle boss is far more net worth than the rest of the Premier League combined
In recent years, fans have become more and more accustomed to the "oil trench" in European football, the most typical representatives are Manchester City and Greater Paris. The reason why the Newcastle deal has shaken the whole Premier League and even the entire European football world is because the strong capital strength of the gold owners behind it is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. In the foreign social media last night, there was such a picture circulating:
Comparison of the main assets behind the Premier League 20 teams
With £320 billion in total assets, even "trenches" such as Manchester City boss Mansour are difficult to reach one-tenth of it. After the completion of the transaction, the capital behind only one club in Newcastle is several times the sum of the capital behind the other 19 Premier League clubs.
The Daily Mail compiled a list of the richest football clubs behind investors
The upper limit of losses for clubs within the Premier League is set at 105 million pounds in 3 years, and UEFA has relaxed the limits of FFP in the context of the epidemic. Newcastle's previous year's revenue was around £153 million, which is not too bad, but it is far from the current premier league teams. It is estimated that the money that Newcastle can burn in the short term is "only" about 200 million pounds. However, it is not ruled out that the Saudi consortium may bypass relevant supervision and spend thousands of dollars through various means.
Along with PIF in the acquisition of Newcastle are Two companies, PCP Capital Partners in Staffelli and RB Sports & Media by Ruben Brothers, with the majority shareholder PIF accounting for 80% of the shares and the other two 10% each.
In an interview with British media, PCP consortium CEO Stavelli said that although he did not want to set a specific time limit, Newcastle would become a top team, with long-term goals for the Premier League and the Champions League. In addition, Staffery also revealed that Newcastle's goal is not only the results of the first team, but also the youth training, women's football, infrastructure and other aspects. What awaits Newcastle is likely to be a solid and all-round "big upgrade".
Newcastle has a good fan base
The total purchase price of 300 million pounds also made Newcastle's former boss Ashley leave the market satisfactorily, not only recovering the original acquisition costs and operating costs for 14 years, but also a small profit, not to mention the exposure effect brought by 14 years of ownership of Newcastle. During his 14 years at Newcastle, Ashley was criticized for "slamming the door". But it is also because of Ashley's "door-knocking" that Newcastle's financial situation is still relatively healthy.
Newcastle former boss Ashley
Founded in 1881, Newcastle United have won the English top flight four times, but the most recent one is as far away as 1927. As a port city in the northeast of England, Newcastle is also one of the eight largest cities in England, with one city and one team, perfect infrastructure and good fan base, which are the reasons why Saudis look up to Newcastle.
The power of the nation! Saudi Arabia's crown prince takes advantage of the Premier League to launch "Vision 2030"
Recently, the actual controller of PIF, Saudi Crown Prince Salman Jr. finally appeared on the major media pages again, although sitting on a huge wealth, but little Salman into the Premier League, all the way to the very difficult.
At first, little Salman looked at Manchester United, but the Glazer family was not willing to easily give up the "rocking tree" that could create value, and after more than a year of repeated ridicule, little Salman chose to quit and become the "mancha" in the football capital world. Subsequently, Newcastle became the target of Little Salman. Although negotiations with Newcastle were far smoother than with Manchester United, the acquisition was once stuck in the Premier League's review.
To this day, there are still some English media and Newcastle fans who oppose and criticize the entry of Little Salman, believing that Little Salman's acquisition of Newcastle is a "sports whitewash". The reason for this is the various "bad deeds" of little Salman's previous experience.
The younger Salman (Muhamud bin Salman) is the child of the current Saudi King Salman and his third wife. In 2017, Salman Jr. was made crown prince, breaking the previous tradition of "brother to brother" to the Saudi throne. In addition to his status as crown prince, Salman Jr. also held a lot of real power in Saudi Arabia, becoming deputy prime minister, defense minister, and implementing a series of reforms, including related reforms for women, such as allowing women to drive and allowing female spectators to enter football matches.
Vision 2030 pursued by Little Salman
At the economic level, Salman Jr. is also Chairman of the Committee on Economic and Development Affairs. Little Salman, who has a good international perspective, realized that Saudi Arabia's development cannot be long-term by relying only on oil resources, and he proposed a "Vision 2030" plan that covers multi-faceted reforms, including the development of tertiary industries such as technology industry, entertainment and culture, and sports. Saudi Arabia hosted the Super Cups in Spain and Italy, and the country's football league is developing well.
The Saudi National Investment Fund (PIF) was established in 1971 and initially invested primarily in Saudi National Strategic Projects. Since 2015, the jurisdiction of the PIF has changed from the Saudi Treasury Ministry to the Economic and Development Commission, and Salman Jr. has become the de facto controller of the PIF. Since then, PIF has become active in the global capital market and has invested in many well-known companies such as Boeing, Facebook, Twitter, Uber, SoftBank, Disney and so on.
A partial list of companies that PIF invests in
But such an economic "reformer" is very skillful in political struggle. Before Salman Jr. was made crown prince, the Saudi king deposed two crown princes, and Salman Jr. purged and arrested a number of uncles and royals who opposed centralization. In addition, aggressive foreign policies and the suppression of protests have exposed Little Salman to criticism in the Western media.
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia has previously had a long dispute with BeIN Sports, the Premier League's broadcaster in the Middle East. Since 2017, BeIN Sports, which is controlled by the Qatari consortium, has had difficulty doing business in Saudi Arabia for a long time, and piracy is rife in Saudi Arabia.
In 2017, it was under the leadership of Little Salman that Saudi Arabia joined forces with the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and other countries to break diplomatic relations with Qatar on the grounds that Qatar supported terrorist activities. The local sports consumer market has become cannon fodder for the political struggle. The months-long approval of The 2020 Salerman Jr.'s acquisition of Newcastle is directly related to copyright disputes.
Newcastle fans celebrate the club's change of ownership
Fortunately, on October 6, many parties have reached an agreement on the broadcast of the Premier League in Saudi Arabia, and Saudi Arabia will crack down on piracy and protect the entry of copyright broadcasters, which also clears the last obstacle for Little Salman to enter Newcastle. In the official statement of the Premier League last night, it was mentioned that the acquisition application was approved after receiving legally binding assurances that the Saudi state would not directly participate in the operation of Newcastle.
After 3 years of eye-catching with the Premier League, The Saudi Arabian giant rich finally got its wish. The UK is a strategic partner of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and an important trading partner of Saudi Arabia. Entering the Premier League, each foreign investor has a different purpose, and for Little Salman, the deal is likely to be just one part of a huge national plan. Just as Saudi Arabia's neighbor, the Uae, did in Manchester City and Qatar in Paris.
The Premier League favored by capital is the real "European Super League"
In the past decade, European football has become increasingly international – not only the internationalization of the composition of players, but also the diversification of investors and the globalization of audience markets. After the change of ownership in Newcastle, only 6 clubs in the Premier League were still local investors. In the choice of acquiring clubs, Premier League clubs have been riding the dust in the past 10 years and have become the first choice for many capitals.
First, looking at the data of the 18/19 season (the last full season before the epidemic), the revenue level of the Premier League has been significantly pulled apart by other leagues, especially the broadcast revenue, which alone can exceed the total revenue of other leagues.
Comparison of the revenue of the five major leagues in the 18/19 season, picture from Deloitte's annual report
The continuous revenue capacity of the Premier League has increased, which makes it difficult for other leagues to match. With the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi, La Liga has lost the two largest IPs that attract global traffic. Under the influence of the epidemic, although the Premier League's 19/20 season revenue fell by 13%, the loss was close to 1 billion pounds. According to Premier League chairman Masters in March, the overall loss of the Premier League in the 20/21 season is expected to be around 2 billion pounds. But the situation in other leagues is even worse.
Comparison of the revenue capacity of the five major leagues in the 2009-2019 ten seasons, picture from Deloitte's annual report
In Serie A, Juventus and Inter Milan announced the financial report figures for the 20/21 season in late September, breaking the single-season loss record of Serie A teams with losses of 209.9 million euros and losses of 245 million euros, respectively. Losing C Ronaldo and losing 210 million euros, what happened to Serie A overlord Juventus, and the situation of Roma and other teams is also not optimistic. Although Milan's losses have decreased significantly, they are still in a state of huge losses for consecutive years.
In La Liga, Barca lost 481 million euros in a single season, the club suffered unprecedented financial difficulties, and the sharp reduction in revenue forced the club to be limited by the salary cap and forced to let go of legendary Lionel Messi. Last month, the Salary Cap given by La Liga was less than 1/7 of that of the sworn enemy Real Madrid, and the economic embarrassment has seriously affected the results of the game.
In the summer window this year, with the other major leagues tightening their silver roots, only the Premier League teams and the greater Paris are still spending thousands of dollars. In the Premier League, seven teams broke the record transfer fee in team history: Manchester City introduced Glalis for £100 million, Chelsea introduced Lukaku for £98m, Aston Villa introduced Buendia for £38m, Leeds United introduced Daniel James for £30m, Brentford introduced Argen for £17.5 million, Burnley introduced Corne for £15m, and Norwich introduced Tesolis for £10m.
Glalish joined Manchester City this summer
It can make money and continue to increase value. Investors with heavy money in hand have a more obvious trend of favoring the Premier League. In the "not bad money" Premier League, in terms of salary expenditure and transfer expenses, the gap with the economically poor European leagues is widening.
In April this year, the "European Super League" plan to withdraw in the name of the Premier League "Big6" as a node, towards the collapse. However, since then, the development of European football has not gone to gold, but the gap between rich and poor has further widened. In the original idea of Real Madrid president Florentino and others, the "European Super League" would occupy the top of the global club competition and replace the Champions League.
However, with the widening gap between rich and poor in various leagues, the Premier League is getting closer and closer to the ecological niche of the envisaged "European Super League".
"Kryptonian players" like Salman Jr. enter the Premier League, and it is likely that they will not be the last. In the case of increasingly fierce competition within the Premier League, the entry of new capital is still hot. As some Premier League fans on overseas social media complained: "The next step, perhaps UEFA should be asked to increase the Number of Champions League places in the Premier League to 6." ”
Note: The images used in this article are from the Internet