A monthly compilation of interesting business news related to soccer. June 2012.

Euro 2012 yet to sell out – June 6th

UEFA has revealed that tickets for Euro 2012 are yet to sell out as the tournament prepares to get underway in Poland on Friday.

The Associated Press reports that all the remaining tickets are for games in the tournament’s co-host nation, Ukraine. These include a limited number of corporate hospitality packages for the final itself on July 1 in Kiev. Fewer than 10,000 tickets remain out of the 1.4 million placed on the market for the 31 games with UEFA stating that this represents “less than 0.8% of the overall capacity” at the event.

Full Article >> Soccerex

Chelsea’s plan to build a new stadium at Battersea Power Station fails after administrators choose Malaysian bid – June 7th

Last month Chelsea revealed that they had submitted an application to move to the 39-acre site in Wandsworth, but administrators revealed this morning that a joint bid by two Malaysian companies – SP Setia and Sime Darby – had been chosen instead.
Full Article >> Telegraph

PSG faces new stadium issues – June 8th

Monday’s top-of-the-table Barclays Premier League clash between local rivals Manchester City and Manchester United attracted a record-breaking audience of more than four million viewers to UK pay-television broadcaster BSkyB, according to research by SportBusiness Intelligence.

 The match, which was televised live on the Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 1 HD channels, pulled in the highest viewing figures ever for a Sky Sports broadcast, attracting an average audience of 4.049 million viewers (a 16.2% share) for the match itself.

Full Article >> SportBusiness.com

Hefty jail terms for Chinese fixers – June 13th

Two former Chinese football chiefs and several former national team players have been handed lengthy jail sentences for taking bribes or match-fixing, in a move to clean up rampant corruption in the sport.

Nan Yong, the former head of Chinese football, was sentenced to 10 1/2 years for taking bribes worth more than 1.48 million yuan ($232,300), the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Xie Yalong, Nan’s predecessor, received an identical sentence and was fined 200,000 yuan for also taking bribes.

Full Article >> Yahoo! Eurosport

 

Premier League lands £3bn TV rights bonanza from Sky and BT – June 13th

Full Article >> Guardian

Green completes Rangers takeover as Smith enters picture – June 15th

Smith, who won 21 major titles across two spells in charge of Rangers, said he had been joined in the bid by a group of “prominent” Scottish businessmen. The group’s offer is reportedly worth £6 million and Smith called on Green to immediately step aside. Smith said in a statement: “I have been assisted by Jim McColl, Douglas Park and other prominent Scottish businessmen with a shared objective – that Rangers Football Club should be in the hands of Rangers people who will stabilise the club and protect it from future situations like we find ourselves in today.”

Full Article >> SportBusiness.com

Scottish FA to push for league bodies merger – June 16th

The Scottish FA aims to push through a merger of the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League in time for the start of the new season.

The governing body also wants to introduce a fairer system of income distribution and a pyramid system.

One SFA source told BBC Scotland: “We are at a situation of critical mass.

“Someone has to take a lead and sort out the internal bickering and point scoring and also to ensure that the Rangers situation never happens again.”

Full Article >> BBC Sport

Platini defends European Championship expansion for France 2016 – June 19th

UEFA President Michel Platini insists the next European Championship finals in France will not suffer from a drop in quality when the tournament expands to 24 teams – and says Euro 2012 has been one of the best ever, from a footballing standpoint at least.

Platini (pictured above) takes the view – not shared by everybody – that adding eight more teams to the current 16 will enhance the Championships by giving middle-ranked nations a chance rather than weaken the standard of play.

Full Article >> Inside World Football

Bundesliga smashes attendance record – June 21st

The 1.Bundesliga has broken yet another record with the German Football League (DFL) announcing that the 2011-12 season pulled in the highest attendances in its history.

An average of 44,293 tickets were sold for each 1.Bundesliga game last season, which represents a 5.2% increase on the previous year. In the 2.Bundesliga, the crowd average increased by an even greater margin of 18% with an average of 17,196 fans per game.

Full Article >> Soccerex

ESPN reports US viewing boom for Euro 2012 – June 22nd

US sports broadcaster ESPN has reported major increases in its ratings for UEFA Euro 2012 games versus those for the previous edition of the tournament, further demonstrating the growing interest in football in the United States.

Through the 24 matches in the group stage of Euro 2012, ESPN’s live English-language coverage averaged 784,000 households and 1.002 million viewers
Full Article >> Soccerex

 Nou Camp revamp on hold despite Barcelona profits – June 27th

FC Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has announced that planned renovations to the Nou Camp stadium have been put on hold despite the Primera Division club revealing a “historic” operating surplus of Eur40 million for the 2011-12 season.

The operating profit has reduced the club’s total debt to Eur320 million, but Rosell said that a revamp of the world-famous Nou Camp would not be able to happen until the debt is further reduced.
Full Article >> Soccerex