Bank of England expected to hold rates at 4.25 per cent
Most economists think the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will opt to keep rates on hold when it meets on Thursday.
The MPC has voted to cut rates at every other meeting since it started easing borrowing costs last August, from a peak of 5.25 per cent.
This has been possible while the rate of UK inflation has been steadily falling from the highs reached in 2023, at the peak of the cost-of-living crisis.
However, inflation jumped to its highest level for more than a year in April, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation hit 3.5 per cent in April, up from 2.6 per cent in March.
Since releasing the data, the ONS said that an error in vehicle tax data collected meant the April figure should have been 3.4 per cent.
Ellie Henderson, an economist for Investec, said monetary policy 'seems to be in a good position, allowing the Bank of England to wait and see how economic conditions and the international political backdrop evolve'.
'Ultimately, this is a highly uncertain time that requires a potentially nimble response from central banks, limiting any great foresight,' she said.
'Although the June decision might seem clear cut, how the MPC responds to the evolving economic backdrop thereafter much depends on the details of the world in which we find ourselves.'
On Friday, oil prices were soaring after Israel launched an attack on Iran's nuclear programme, raising anxieties about possible disruption to the supply of the commodity in the Middle East.
And ongoing uncertainty over US President Donald Trump's tariffs, which surveys suggest have dampened business confidence and reduced exports, also remains in focus for policymakers.
Meanwhile, new official figures showed wage growth for UK workers eased sharply in the three months to April and the unemployment rate increased, as employers feel the effects of higher costs.
Rob Wood and Elliott Jordan-Doak, economists for Pantheon Macroeconomics, said a weaker jobs market 'will reassure the MPC that it can plan on further rate cuts', but added that 'one month's data is far from enough to allow the MPC to bin its 'gradual and careful' approach to easing monetary policy.'
Bank chief economist Huw Pill, who is also an MPC member, said last month that he thought rates had been cut too quickly partly due to the risk of 'stubbornly strong' pay growth on overall inflation.
New UK inflation figures for May will be released on Wednesday, while the US central bank is also widely expected to keep its interest rates on hold.Sign in to access your portfolio
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New York Times
25 minutes ago
- New York Times
How Sheffield Wednesday descended into chaos under Dejphon Chansiri's ownership
It is nine weeks since Sheffield Wednesday last played a home game but the flyposting around Hillsborough helps to illustrate a long summer of rancour. 'Chansiri out' is the simple, scrawled message, set against a collage of cult heroes and trophy lifts. Wednesday's happiest recent times in the early 1990s, when they were regulars in the upper echelons of the top flight and frequent travellers to Wembley in cup competitions, seem a long time ago. It is 25 years since they were last in the Premier League and Wednesday now resemble a decaying club under the ownership of Dejphon Chansiri, a 57-year-old businessman whose family own the Thai Union Group (TUG), the world's largest producer of canned tuna. The money has dried up and so, too, has hope. Advertisement The summer has brought no respite to the anxiety. The majority of Wednesday's first-team players have gone through June without pay, prompting the English Football League (EFL) to impose a transfer ban that will run until 2027. Another payday came and went on Monday of this week, again with the bulk of staff going unpaid. Last Thursday was supposedly the first day of pre-season for the Wednesday squad, but talented head coach Danny Rohl was not there to greet players: he had signalled his intent to move on as far back as April. Most of his support staff, too, formally saw their contracts expire on June 30. No friendly games have been announced, nor any pre-season tour. With the new season beginning in six weeks, it feels unlikely that Wednesday will be in any fit state to tackle it. Not with two EFL transfer embargoes now in place. One for the non-payment of players, the other for taxes owed to HM Revenue and Customs. The latter liability, as per the league's regulations, was self-reported last week and made public on Friday. It promises to make it a summer rebuild with two hands tied. This is a club crying out for a fresh start but Chansiri has refused to grant it. A rare public statement, issued last week, reiterated his willingness to sell but negotiations with two consortiums in the last month have failed to reach an agreement at a time when there is no money left to meet the wage obligations. Chansiri said one group, led by Sheffield-born businessman Adam Shaw and American real estate investor John Flanagan, had offered £40million ($55m) and 'limited future Premier League promotion payments' but had deemed that short of his expectations. There were apologies, too, for the financial strain but weary fans no longer wish to hear them. 'I do think there's a genuine concern about the future,' says James Silverwood of the Sheffield Wednesday Supporters Trust. 'Look at other clubs who have found themselves in similar situations with this type of owner, and it's not a happy story. Advertisement 'The manager, the lack of preparation, the transfer window bans… They're all concerns but they speak to a deeper concern about what the future is going to bring.' The Athletic has spoken to numerous members of staff, past and present, as well as agents and associates, to tell the story of Chansiri's turbulent reign, all on the condition of anonymity to protect working relationships. One of English football's oldest clubs is in distress and nobody can be sure where the suffering might end. Wednesday have become the EFL's greatest headache this summer. Dai Yongge's inglorious and overdue exit from Reading, selling up to U.S. businessman Rob Couhig in May, has shifted focus to Hillsborough, where the reserves have seemingly run dry. The EFL's chief executive Trevor Birch and chief operating officer Nick Craig were among representatives of the governing body to host a meeting with Wednesday fans on June 6, vowing to help 'facilitate a sustainable outcome'. The late payment of wages has been a common thread of Chansiri's reign but never to this extent. Salaries for March came late, repeating a scenario from 2021, when the club failed to meet its obligations in four consecutive months to incur another EFL charge. Only the Covid-19 pandemic brought leniency on that occasion and a suspended six-point penalty. Wages for May were late across the board and, at the time of writing, were still overdue to the majority of the first team. The Athletic has been told that only a small number of first-team players have at least been paid in full for May, with preference given to those considered assets. There would be a good reason for that. FIFA rules stipulate that any player failing to receive two monthly salaries on their due date can serve a 15-day notice to their club for payments to be settled. If the cash is not forthcoming, they are able to leave as a free agent. Those with a reasonable market value seem to have been denied that opportunity but others will be free to do so after another payday was missed for the first-team squad on Monday. Advertisement The Professional Footballers Association has taken a dim view, calling Wednesday's actions 'unacceptable'. Only 16 senior players have contracts running into next season at this stage but the EFL sanction, one that Wednesday have appealed, will not allow fees to be paid for any new permanent or loan signings in the next three transfer windows. The non-playing staff eventually got their salaries in full 12 days late into June after being given the option of accessing emergency funds through their line manager or department head. 'Unforeseen delays' was the only explanation given to staff in emails sent by the club's HR department and seen by The Athletic. 'He (Chansiri) would want to save face if he possibly could,' says one former staff member. 'We were paid late four or five times and it was never a conversation he would relish someone having to do on his behalf. 'He always tried to ensure he looked after the lower earners. They'd be the ones he paid. That's what has made me think, 'There must be a problem here' now because even those weren't being paid on time.' Some people who have worked with Chansiri call him 'well-intentioned', but finding advocates of his management is increasingly difficult. 'He doesn't listen to anyone,' feels one person familiar with Chansiri's methods. 'He doesn't want or take advice.' Chansiri does not operate a board of directors and is the only shareholder in the club he has owned for over a decade. According to documents filed at the UK's Companies House, no other figure has held a position of authority at Wednesday since Katrien Meire stepped down as chief executive in February 2019 after a brief spell in the post. Chansiri has effectively sailed this ship alone. Few staff members are in direct contact with Chansiri, who has preferred to use Line — a messaging and social networking app, similar to WhatsApp — to send and receive messages. UK staff would typically have to download it to speak with him. Advertisement 'He has the final say on everything, not just football,' says one former associate, who believes Amadeu Paixao, the Portuguese agent unofficially employed as a club advisor, was one of the few with the potential to shape Chansiri's thinking. One former employee calls him a 'control freak', someone compelled to involve himself in even the smallest of decisions. They said that Chansiri would want to see evidence of three quotes having been sourced on even basic equipment or supplies, proving the cheapest available option had been sought. That image jars with the excess of Chansiri's opening years in charge. Of the £167million he is estimated to have invested in Wednesday since 2015, including the purchase price of £37.5m, the bulk was injected during the years where promotion to the Premier League came agonisingly close. Wednesday finished in the play-offs in consecutive seasons in 2016 and 2017 but lost in the final against Hull City and semi-finals to Huddersfield Town, respectively. With parallels to the recent demises of Derby County and Reading, aiming for the stars resulted in a breach of the EFL's profit and sustainability rules. Chansiri had attempted to circumvent the limitations by selling Hillsborough for £60m to a company he owned — Sheffield 3 Limited — but it could not be included in the accounting year that needed profit recorded. An initial 12-point deduction from the EFL was reduced to six in 2020 but proved decisive in their relegation to League One. Chansiri's investment has been minimal since but it has not prevented cash flow issues. A £2m bill owed to His Majesty's Revenue and Customs brought an EFL registration embargo in 2023; Chansiri said in an interview with the Sheffield Star newspaper that 20,000 fans could solve the problem by each contributing £100. Chansiri paid off that HMRC bill days later but it has been seen as the point his relations with supporters began to plummet. Chansiri has gradually built up an unflattering image as being awkward, combustible and intransigent. Advertisement Silverwood, a founding member of the Supporters Trust, met Chansiri three times during the 2021-22 season in the hope of forming stronger relations. The Trust would be left disappointed, with lines of communication now cut. Their latest step, with a 'heavy heart', was to call for an immediate boycott of all official club merchandise and retail yesterday. Silverwood's impressions of Chansiri, unsurprisingly, are far from positive. 'He quite obviously holds fans in disdain,' he says. 'He's someone who's not used to being challenged and also temperamentally incapable of taking criticism in any form. 'He's a prickly character. He's difficult to talk with because you're not really having a dialogue. The way he likes to converse is that you fire a short question at him and he responds with a monologue. You're not having a conversation back and forth. You're being talked at.' Chansiri has said little during this turbulent summer but it is not true to say that he has shied away from direct contact with supporters. A fans' forum held in January spanned five hours, with the owner eager to deliver his messaging in the middle of a transfer window that undermined any hope of gatecrashing the Championship's top six. A working relationship with Rohl unravelled, with January additions failing to meet the head coach's requirements to secure a play-off position. Wednesday would eventually finish 12th, their highest standing since 2018-19, but Rohl indicated his wish to find a new challenge for 2025-26. The last weeks have been emblematic of a chaotic summer. Rohl was informed that he should return to work on June 12, two weeks before his players. This was ignored, with Rohl's representatives eventually beginning negotiations over his exit last week. Chansiri can now look forward to working with his 10th manager since taking over, a turnover rate that has added to the sense of instability. Advertisement Even when Wednesday did generate positive momentum in 2023, when they won promotion back to the Championship after a remarkable play-off campaign which included coming back from 4-0 down against Peterborough United in the semi-finals, manager Darren Moore left 21 days later by mutual consent. The replacement, Xisco Munoz, failed to even reach the October international break after failing to win any of Wednesday's opening 10 Championship games. 'Chansiri burst the bubble as soon as it was blown up,' says one former member of staff. Those who worked with Chansiri saw that point as a wasted opportunity. A wage bill that climbed as high as £42.4m in 2017-18 had been cut, ensuring the two seasons in League One bucked the dangerous five-year trend of wages exceeding turnover. Any time spent in the third tier would be considered ignominious for a club of Wednesday's size but it had at least acted as a financial reset. The 2023-24 season in the Championship, the most recent for which accounting figures are known, was another season of moderation. Chansiri, though, chose to roll the dice again. Ike Ugbo was signed for £2.5m from Troyes last summer in a deal that bucked the trend of frugality. The former Celtic and Southampton midfielder Stuart Armstrong, signed from Vancouver Whitecaps in January, was another to join the club's highest earners. That short-term deal expired this week and it is thought Armstrong will be among those waiting on overdue wages. 'He's not stupid but he's probably a gambler,' says one former staff member. 'It's that chance to get back into the Premier League, isn't it? The clever thing to do would've been to get back to the Championship and sell it because it had reset. But he can't let go of it because it's that chance to get to the Premier League.' Hillsborough, Sheffield Wednesday's home since 1899, has come to symbolise the Chansiri era. Weeds sprout from the top of walls and there are panels missing from the facade of the club's megastore on Penistone Road. Shirts carrying the name and number of Barry Bannan, who does not have a contract for the coming season but has continued to train in the last week, are displayed opposite the entrance. It will be the largest venue by capacity in the Championship next season, at 34,835, but Hillsborough is tired and, in places, scruffy. The only visible upgrade in the week that pre-season was scheduled to begin was a coat of blue paint being applied to the exit gates of the West Stand, once known as the Leppings Lane End, where 97 Liverpool fans lost their lives in 1989. The Athletic reported last August on the safety concerns raised in the 2023-24 season. Advertisement Wednesday have pointed more proudly to the upgrades on the training facility at nearby Middlewood Road. This summer, they say, has brought 'significant investment' in facilities that had irritated Rohl but even that has come with complications. Renovation work is expected to leave training pitches unplayable until the start of next week at the earliest, a point when the first-team squad will begin a week St George's Park, the training home of the England national teams. Players returned to pre-season testing on Thursday, taking on individual programmes amid the disruption, but this is expected to be a build-up beset by distractions. Chansiri's long statement last week offered no clarity on wage delays, transfer bans or managerial changes, choosing instead to focus on the prospects of a takeover. As far back as 2018, when the EFL's spending limits began to bite, Chansiri says he has been open to a sale but no suitors have come close to ending an increasingly toxic chapter. The North American group, including Flanagan and Shaw, twice tabled bids in the hope of buying out Chansiri. In an interview with The Athletic last month, their stated aims included increasing Hillsborough's capacity to 55,000. Chansiri, though, claims that a failure to proceed with negotiations was not on him. He says a £5m downpayment failed to materialise ahead of advanced talks in Thailand before a pre-arranged Zoom meeting saw Chansiri's invite go unaccepted. Conjecture swirls around where the strained story goes from here. Chansiri's family wealth is significant (Forbes estimated it at $585m in 2020) but there is little to suggest the club has access to it. A London-based lawyer has been appointed by TUG to engage with any potential bidders. Milan Mandaric, who sold Wednesday to Chansiri in 2015 in what he last week described as a 'healthy condition', will not be among them. Mandaric, 86, had raised the prospect of returning to Hillsborough during an interview with BBC Radio Sheffield but has since accepted others must not be hindered if a sale process is to be smooth. Advertisement For now, Chansiri fights on. Analysis of Wednesday's accounts indicates that in the region of £115m is now owed to the owner in the form of loans. Administration, should it come to that, would hurt Chansiri more than anyone. 'I take full responsibility for being unable to fulfil my current obligations,' he said in the statement last week. 'But a further obligation I have is to ensure that if the club is sold, it is sold to the right people with the right credentials who can sustain Sheffield Wednesday and take the club forward.' That leaves fans braced for more strife and worry ahead of a season that suggests Wednesday will be among the Championship's weaker teams. 'There are two ways it could go,' says Silverwood. 'Either the economic realities of the situation — the fact that he can't fund the club — make him realise he has to sell. Or, alternatively, he's going to somehow be able to cling on and things get potentially even worse.' Silverwood is convinced the end is nigh for the Chansiri era. 'His position is unrecoverable,' believes Silverwood. 'But it's a question of how long it takes and how bad it gets before the end actually comes. That's the open question at the moment.' And the greatest fear. (Design: Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic; Getty Images)
New York Times
25 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why are Premier League clubs selling their women's teams? And which club could do it next?
Last year, Chelsea entered into a hefty deal with two days of their 2023-24 accounting period remaining. For £200million ($274m), Chelsea FC Holdings, the company which houses the club's operations, sold Chelsea Football Club Women Limited (CFCW) to Blueco 22 Midco Limited, a fellow subsidiary of Blueco 22 Limited, the club's parent company. Advertisement In doing so, Chelsea recorded £198.7m in profit in their 2023-24 accounts; the net assets of CFWC were just £1.3m, so anything above that value comprised profit for the club. As a result, Chelsea's pre-tax result last year swung significantly into the black. The club recorded a £128.4m profit in 2024, a £218.5m improvement on the season before. Fast forward a year, and where Chelsea led, Aston Villa followed. With the clock ticking on their 2024-25 accounting period, Villa agreed to the sale of Aston Villa Women's Football Club Limited (AVWFC) to V Sports, the club's parent company, domiciled in Luxembourg. In doing so, they booked a profit on the transaction into their men's team's accounts. The exact proceeds from Villa's sale are unknown. Reports have put the figure at around £55m. AVWFC's liabilities outweighed its assets at last check in June 2024. Based on the reported proceeds and AVWFC's balance sheet a year ago, Villa would book £56.7m in profit on the sale, though the actual figure is likely to differ slightly. A crucial difference between Villa and Chelsea lies in the presence of third parties: Villa have sold the women's team to V Sports but, separately, a minority stake in the women's team's operations has been acquired by new investors from the U.S. Chelsea's deal a year ago was entirely internal, though the valuation was recently given support by Alexis Ohanian buying a stake in CFWC that valued the business even higher than the internal sales price, at around £245m. So, how and why are teams doing this? Which team could be next? And what effect could this have on women's football? Chelsea and Villa have been able to undertake these transactions by virtue of how their women's teams fit into the wider legal structures surrounding each club. CFCW sat beneath the Chelsea men's team; selling CFCW to a related entity that sat above the men's team business meant the latter could record the profit on the sale. Advertisement At Villa, the women's team actually sat alongside Aston Villa FC Limited, which houses the men's team. Villa's group structure, as is increasingly the case in football these days, has multiple layers. Above both the men's and women's team entities sits Aston Villa Limited, incorporated way back in 1896 but now a holding company, and two levels above that sits NSWE UK Limited, the entity which reports the UK-based group numbers and, we believe, from which Villa's PSR calculations are derived. In another example of Villa boosting their bottom line through internal sales, Villa Park was sold to NSWE Stadium Limited in 2019 for £56.7m, a business which sits adjacent to Aston Villa Limited but below NSWE UK. The precise destination of AVWFC isn't yet known, only that a majority stake has been sold to V Sports. V Sports S.C.S. is a Luxembourg-based business that sits atop NSWE UK. As a result, NSWE UK, which is effectively just the whole of Villa's operations under a different name, is able to record the profit on selling AVWFC to a company that sits above it. And if all that hasn't caused your eyes to glaze over completely, well done, pour yourself a drink. It depends on who you talk to. Or perhaps your level of cynicism. Per Chelsea's announcement last year, the 'respositioning' of CFCW arose from 'a once-in-a-generation opportunity to support the acceleration' in the growth of women's football in England ahead of the formation of a new company to run the Women's Super League (WSL) from 2024-25. Missing from Chelsea's statement then was any suggestion the move would have the additional benefit of boosting the bottom line — which of course it did. The intra-group sale helped Chelsea out of a purported profit and sustainability (PSR) hole. Without the £198.7m profit on the deal, Chelsea would have lost £70.3m in 2023-24, and would have breached the Premier League's financial rules. The benefit from the sale isn't restricted to a single year. Chelsea's £128.4m pre-tax profit last year stays within their three-year PSR calculation up to the end of the 2025-26 season. The same points broadly apply to Villa. Through selling the women's team on June 30, the proceeds and profit can be booked into their 2024-25 figures. Advertisement Villa, as The Athletic detailed recently, were the Premier League club most at risk of a PSR breach this year; the sale of the women's team ensured no such breach occurred. They'll enjoy the positive impact of the transaction in each of the coming two seasons. Upon news of the women's team sale, Villa stated they had 'no issues' with PSR compliance, though how true that was without this transaction is unclear. The club can point to the introduction of new investors as a sign of growing interest in women's football, as well as the operational points highlighted by Chelsea a year ago. But, just like the London club before them, it's impossible to deny that the sale has enhanced profitability and improved Villa's ability to remain within Premier League rules. It's both entirely legal and allowed under Premier League PSR. By the time a club nears its financial period end date, the ability to quickly book income is limited. Sales of assets, be they players, infrastructure or women's teams, offer one such recourse. At a recent Premier League meeting, a motion was tabled to restrict clubs from recording intra-group asset sales within their PSR calculations. Had the motion passed, the only profit Villa could have booked on their deal would have been the element arising from the minority holding sold to new investors. Support for the motion was so thin that the matter didn't even make it to a formal vote. Premier League rules require related party transactions to be subject to a fair market value assessment but, given the presence of external investors in AVWFC, that should not be a problem. Their arrival provides a steer on where the market values the asset. It's a different story overseas, where UEFA's stricter financial rules expressly seek to deter clubs from intra-group asset sales. As a result, Chelsea's sale of the women's team was excluded from their 2023-24 figures submitted to UEFA. The same will be the case for Villa in 2024-25. Of the 18 Premier League clubs who have not sold their women's teams to themselves, 14 could feasibly do so within their current legal structures. At those clubs, the legal entity of the affiliated women's team sits either beneath the entity that has long housed the wider football club, or alongside the latter but beneath the entity the club files its group accounts — and its PSR calculations — through. Advertisement Two of those clubs have been active on Companies House recently. On June 19, Bournemouth's parent company, Black Knight Football Club UK Limited, set up 'AFC Bournemouth Women Limited', registered to the club's Vitality Stadium address. Bournemouth's women's team currently operates under the broader club structure, so this setting up of a new legal entity gives Bournemouth scope to change how the women's team is managed. The new entity has been set up alongside AFC Bournemouth Limited, rather than beneath it. On the face of it, that limits the scope for booking any profit on a women's team sale, and The Athletic understands there are no current plans to explore such a sale anyway. On May 29, an 'EFCW Holding Company Limited' was registered at Goodison Park, Everton men's former home and, from next season, their women's team's venue. EFCW is wholly owned by Roundhouse Capital Holdings Limited, the UK-based holding company through which The Friedkin Group completed its purchase of Everton last December. Everton's women's team is operated out of an entity that sits below the men's team; feasibly, the women's team could be sold to EFCW with relative ease. Other than activity on Companies House, there's no suggestion that such an internal sale is being readied. The Athletic understands that the potential for investment in Everton's women's team, like at other clubs, has been explored. Moving the women's team into a standalone entity registered at Goodison Park would, in theory, make it easier to keep their operations separate from the men's. One caveat among the 14 is Burnley: Burnley FC Women Limited sits below the wider football club entity but is dormant, so the women's team operations are currently housed within the wider club. There is, of course, little to stop them from carving it out in the future. At three other Premier League clubs — Brentford, Fulham and Wolves — no separate legal entity exists for their respective women's teams. Again, these could be created, but for those clubs to sell off the women's team would require an extra layer of activity compared to the rest. Advertisement The only place, other than perhaps Bournemouth, where there looks to be a clear barrier to replicating Chelsea and Villa's tactic is at Manchester City. Their women's team sits apart from the men's legal entity. So while they're both within the same wider group, the club wouldn't be able to record any proceeds from a sale of the women's team within the men's team's accounts. Separate from the clubs' various group structures is the point that not all women's teams are at the same level, either on or off the pitch. Of those 18 clubs yet to sell their teams internally, only 10 will have an affiliated women's side in the WSL this coming season. Those clubs with teams outside of the WSL would find it more difficult to justify punch valuations if they opted to go down that route. The immediate reaction has tended to be cynical, not helped by the timing. Yet that's not a universal view. Maggie Murphy, former chief executive officer of Lewes FC, the first club to pay male and female players the same, told The Athletic it's the substance that follows the sales which will determine whether or not this is a mere PSR swerve or something likely to help the women's game. 'The are some key ingredients you need, regardless of the (legal) structure,' Murphy said. 'Authority, autonomy, and accountability. There are still far too many women's teams that have very limited levels of authority within a club structure. 'Even if they do have commercial leads for the women's side, they don't always have autonomy to strike a deal, because they are just housed within a larger department. And there's also accountability, and that depends on how much the senior execs in the club actually care about the women's team.' If those three ingredients arise from these sales, Murphy contends, the impact on women's football will be positive. 'If an internal sale creates those conditions, then I actually think it's a positive for the women's side.' Advertisement Christina Philippou, an Associate Professor in Accounting and Sport Finance at the University of Portsmouth, concurred on the nuances. 'There are cynical aspects to these moves, and then there are more standard business aspects,' Philippou told The Athletic. 'There's the move being done for PSR and general regulations. On the business-related side, they're restructuring their women's teams to be under the holding company rather than the men's team, which makes sense with the increased commercialism of women's football, and how quickly it's growing.' It's easy to see these moves as profit grabs, and there's the risk these deals come with none of the 'key ingredients' Murphy mentioned. But even if PSR considerations are primary in clubs' thoughts, it doesn't mean there won't be wider positives. One key improvement which could stem from these deals would have a sizeable impact on the ability of women's teams to become viable businesses in their own right: owning infrastructure. 'If a women's team owns (its own ground), it means you've completely ramped up their ability to generate revenue,' says Murphy. The point is an important one. With Everton Women set to move into Goodison Park, there's scope for the women's team to utilise a significant asset. It's easy, in that respect, to see why a club might be keen to separate women's team operations, regardless of whether there's an ancillary boost to PSR calculations. As Philippou says: 'There's a whole different demographic out there. We are seeing it with things like Sunderland's deal with Nuby (a baby brand), for example. Manchester City recently partnered with a 'period pants' brand (snuggs). These are businesses that would not be interested in men's football.' Will these changes prove transformative to how women's teams are run? Or just serve as a quick fix to a wider problem? Time will tell. (Top photos: Getty Images)
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
North East tech companies with hundreds of jobs available as industry booms
North East tech companies are hiring as the sector continues to grow in the face of a critical skills shortage. Major employers including Sage, Tombola, Atom Bank and Bede Gaming are currently advertising a wide range of roles across the region, from entry-level positions to specialist technical jobs. The North East tech sector is now valued at more than £2 billion and supports over 35,000 jobs. Atom Bank, Sage and Tombola are among the global names headquartered in the region, while companies such as Just Eat and Accenture have also invested in the area. (Image: Supplied) However, the industry is facing a critical skills shortage, with many employers struggling to fill vacancies. One issue is that many people outside the sector are unaware that their existing skills and experience could transfer to tech roles. There is also a lack of awareness about entry-level opportunities and training schemes that could help individuals start a career in technology. Sage, based in Newcastle and employing more than 1,200 people at its Cobalt headquarters, is currently recruiting for a range of roles. The company offers software and services that support small and medium-sized businesses with accounting, finance, HR and payroll. Current vacancies include positions in administration, customer service, app development and technical Tombola, which began as the Edward Thompson stationery shop and now runs the world's largest online bingo site, is also hiring. Based at its Sunderland campus on Wylam Wharf, the company is recruiting for roles including Cloud Security Engineers, Test Leads, Information Security Analysts, a Head of Game Studio and various developer Atom Bank, the UK's first app-based bank and winner of multiple employer awards, is looking to fill roles in testing, engineering, DevOps, change management, service management and Bede Gaming, which supplies gambling platforms and software to regulated online casinos, bingo operators and lotteries, is advertising vacancies for a Principal Data Engineer and a Staff Software LM Global specialies in providing communications and business technology systems and is now actively recruiting for app developers, engineers, sales executives and solutions Tharsus, which supplies cutting-edge robotic and strategic machine engineering, is recruiting for several software engineering-based positions at its Blyth Accenture has invested heavily in its Newcastle office at Cobalt Business Park over recent years. Roles currently available at the headquarters include data engineers and technical Headquartered in Newcastle, Partnerize is a leader in Partnership Automation for some of the world's largest and most innovative brands. The company is currently recruiting across several roles, including customer support and systems Kromek Group is a leading developer of radiation detection solutions and is currently recruiting for several technical positions at its global headquarters based in Sedgefield, County
