Nick Harris

In elite club football, you get what you pay for, unless the owners are incompetent or geniuses Deloitte's latest 'Football Money League' dropped yesterday, detailing the richest 30 clubs in the world by revenue. Today I'll look at what their wage bills tell us about them

In elite club football, you get what you pay for, unless the owners are incompetent or geniuses
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/in-elite-c...

In elite club football, you get what you pay for, unless the owners are incompetent or geniuses Deloitte's latest 'Football Money League' dropped yesterday, detailing the richest 30 clubs in the world by revenue. Today I'll look at what their wage bills tell us about them

In elite club football, you get what you pay for, unless the owners are incompetent or geniuses
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/in-elite-c...

We don't need to rehash the case against Infantino but he sucked up to warmonger Putin, massively, ignoring obvious state doping; fell in love with human-rights abusing Qatar and Saudi, for cash; and has spent a year and more up the rectum of Trump.

From the company he keeps to his disregard for football, Infantino is worse than Blatter Sepp Blatter oversaw some terrible misconduct and was far from perfect. But he asked world leaders: "What can you do for football?". Infantino asks what HE can do for THEM.

Infantino isn't just a worse FIFA president than Blatter (sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/from-the-c...), he's an abysmal human. His continued obsequious behaviour towards a demented, dangerous clown like Trump is woeful. A "board of peace" with Putin, Orbán and Lukashenko is an utter farce.

I would imagine they would have stopped some of the more egregious stuff, like Mancini's two contracts. Did Pep have two too? City would never answer that question but my hunch is he probably did at the start but doesn't now. We really can't know, and City won't engage to answer.

As "disruptors" Man City try to dismantle PL rules, NEW details of financial chicanery The Premier League's 20 clubs meet in London to vote on sponsorship rules. And we publish documents and contracts that throw new light on some of City's APT deals.

As a one-off gesture in the name of transparency and to perhaps help some City fans see what their club have done, I've un-paywalled this article. Skip to the point where you can download and read a set of documents that tell you what happened.
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/publish/post...

As "disruptors" Man City try to dismantle PL rules, NEW details of financial chicanery The Premier League's 20 clubs meet in London to vote on sponsorship rules. And we publish documents and contracts that throw new light on some of City's APT deals.

As a one-off gesture in the name of transparency and to perhaps help some City fans see what their club have done, I've un-paywalled this article. Skip to the point where you can download and read a set of documents that tell you what happened.
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/publish/post...

Happy birthday for the other day ... I think?

Macclesfield's record FA Cupset and why it was such a phenomenal result No team in the history of the FA Cup since 1871 has beaten a top-division opponent when being as "minor" in the football pyramid as 117 places below the other team.

Macclesfield's record FA Cupset and why it was such a phenomenal result. Plus: the world's best academies; PL attendance record incoming; and WC ticket prices.
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/macclesfie...

One of my sports writing heroes. Read him at the Indy in my student days when I had no inkling I might follow in his footsteps. RIP JR, the best of us

REVEALED: FA targets low-hanging fruit for illegal betting as game drowns in gambling ads An investigation for Sporting Intelligence details the disproportionate number of betting charges against non-league players as the pro game embraces gambling

REVEALED: FA targets low-hanging fruit for illegal betting as game drowns in gambling ads
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/revealed-f...

John Roberts, writer and author, RIP The former journalist had a long career in the heyday of Fleet Street, from covering Manchester United when they were glorious to decades as a tennis correspondent

John Roberts, writer and author, RIP
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/publish/post...

A short piece on JR's life and work, and links to some of his brilliant work.

REVEALED: FA targets low-hanging fruit for illegal betting as game drowns in gambling ads An investigation for Sporting Intelligence details the disproportionate number of betting charges against non-league players as the pro game embraces gambling

More than 200 non league players and staff charged by the FA for betting offences since 2015 - 3/4 of all charges. Why is the FA going after easy targets? On Substack for @sportingintel.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/sporting...

Brilliant piece by Steve Menary for Sporting Intelligence today. Steve knows this world inside out.

REVEALED: FA targets low-hanging fruit for illegal betting as game drowns in gambling ads An investigation for Sporting Intelligence details the disproportionate number of betting charges against non-league players as the pro game embraces gambling

REVEALED: FA targets low-hanging fruit for illegal betting as game drowns in gambling ads
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/revealed-f...

What the insurable value of Scotland's national team says about their 2026 World Cup fate There are many different ways to gauge a football team's chances of success, from rankings to bookmaker odds to form. Here we consider the players' insurable values

What the insurable value of Scotland's national team says about their 2026 World Cup fate
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/what-the-i...

📝Today on Nutmeg FC: Nick uses his method to predict Scotland’s chances in the USA (hint: there’s some good news).

open.substack.com/pub/nutmegfo...

What the insurable value of Scotland's national team says about their 2026 World Cup fate There are many different ways to gauge a football team's chances of success, from rankings to bookmaker odds to form. Here we consider the players' insurable values

What the insurable value of Scotland's national team says about their 2026 World Cup fate
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/what-the-i...

And the Premier League title winners in 2025-26 will be … Todaay we're looking ahead to the major events in global football in 2026, and bringing to your attention some football stories that will garner headlines this year

And the Premier League title winners in 2025-26 will be … sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/and-the-pr...

WWI: The Christmas Truce Podcast Episode · The Rest Is History · 25/12/2025 · 55m

The Christmas Day episode of The Rest is History pod, about the Christmas Day WW1 truce of 1914, is absolutely magnificent.
Just listened to it on dog walk. Informative, extremely moving, thought-provoking, and funny. Here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...
Or wherever you get your pods.

And the team of 2025 is … Manchester City Pep Guardiola's side have won more Premier League points per game in this calendar year than any other team in England's top division. But what does it mean?

And the team of 2025 is … Manchester City
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/and-the-te...

MCFC have been punished, twice, for egregious financial cheating (2014, 2020). They await a verdict on 115+ more counts, on which their lawyers are stalling. There is NO doubt they're a brilliant team with an all-time great manager. But they are cheats.
x.com/sportinginte...

REVEALED: Manchester City legal letters where the main aim was to get me sacked In 2023, I wrote an investigative feature for the Mail on Sunday about the behaviour of multi-club ownership groups, focussing on Man City's owners. They didn't like it!

REVEALED: Manchester City legal letters where the main aim was to get me sacked
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/revealed-m...

REVEALED: Manchester City legal letters where the main aim was to get me sacked In 2023, I wrote an investigative feature for the Mail on Sunday about the behaviour of multi-club ownership groups, focussing on Man City's owners. They didn't like it!

REVEALED: Manchester City legal letters where the main aim was to get me sacked
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/revealed-m...

From the company he keeps to his disregard for football, Infantino is worse than Blatter Sepp Blatter oversaw some terrible misconduct and was far from perfect. But he asked world leaders: "What can you do for football?". Infantino asks what HE do for THEM.

From the company he keeps to his disregard for football, Infantino is worse than Blatter
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/from-the-c...

Sliding doors: the story of my great lost opportunity to be a giant of podcasting When Goalhanger diversified from TV production to podcasting, I was among the first they asked to get involved. What happened next? A huge phenom - not involving me!

Sliding doors: the story of my great lost opportunity to be a giant of podcasting
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/sliding-do...

From the company he keeps to his disregard for football, Infantino is worse than Blatter Sepp Blatter oversaw some terrible misconduct and was far from perfect. But he asked world leaders: "What can you do for football?". Infantino asks what HE do for THEM.

From the company he keeps to his disregard for football, Infantino is worse than Blatter
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/from-the-c...

Sliding doors: the story of my great lost opportunity to be a giant of podcasting When Goalhanger diversified from TV production to podcasting, I was among the first they asked to get involved. What happened next? A huge phenom - not involving me!

Sliding doors: the story of my great lost opportunity to be a giant of podcasting
sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/sliding-do...

REVEALED: the Abramovich and Glazer legal playbooks, from threats to total nonchalance Two stories from 2023 elicited markedly different responses from two massive Premier League football clubs. One was threatening, the other took actual facts into account

Some massively wealthy football club owners are litigious because they think the world revolves around them. Others aren't ... because they accept free and open media is a good thing. Chelsea v MUFC - a case study sportingintelligence832.substack.com/p/revealed-a...

REVEALED: the Abramovich and Glazer legal playbooks, from threats to total nonchalance Two stories from 2023 elicited markedly different responses from two massive Premier League football clubs. One was threatening, the other took actual facts into account

REVEALED: the Abramovich and Glazer legal playbooks, from threats to total nonchalance open.substack.com/pub/sporting...