Blame Brown not Levy for Spurs' decline!

A lot is blamed on Gordon Brown and my latest criticism is that his poor management of the economy and the banking industry has led to numerous cuts in interest rates which in turn have caused the value of sterling to plummet. So what? This is a football blog not an economics one. However, the falling pound has reduced the strength of English clubs within Deloitte’s latest Football Money League.

Many of my Spurs-related observations are similar to last year (you can read my analysis here). However, despite our revenues rising by 11% in absolute terms, when converted to Euro (which is how the boffins at Deloitte measure Europe’s richest clubs) our revenue actually dropped by 5% in 2007-08 compared to the previous season.

Rather than reading the full report, here are a few Spurs highlights for those of you who are interested:

• Once again Real Madrid tops the list, which incidentally is based on revenue excluding player transfers.


• Although Spurs were reported to be 11th last year, following adjustments we were promoted to 10th. Alas, over the previous season we have fallen four places to 14th (just €3.4 million behind Schalke).


• As I explained last year, of the 20 clubs listed, we have the smallest stadium capacity and 30% of the teams have a stadium more than double the size of our current home. Obviously plans are progressing to address that, but we all know it will be some time before that has an effect.


• As a result of playing two fewer home games in 2007-08 compared to 2006-07, our match-day revenues fell by £1.5 million, but compared to other clubs we actually had a relative improvement. Comparing the 20 clubs on match-day revenues alone sees Spurs ranked 7th.


• When it comes to broadcasting and commercial (i.e. merchandising and sponsorship) revenues though we lie in 16th place in each category.


• Other than Bayern Munich and Juventus, we are the highest ranked team out of those that did not participate in last season’s Champions League.

So to reiterate my sentiments from last year, well done Daniel Levy for your clever management of our finances (and for backing all your managers in the transfer market, even though that particular aspect is excluded from the Deloitte study).

And to end on a more sombre thought, we should enjoy being in the top 15 clubs while it lasts. We’re unlikely to climb up the list until we either become a Champions League team and/or our new ground is built… both are possibilities that are pretty distant right now. And although we’re a UEFA Cup team this season, next year could be somewhat bleaker unless we beat ManUre at Wembley next month (or the players behave themselves impeccably and we win the Fair Play League).