English clubs face credit crisis risk

Debt-laden English Premier League clubs could be hardest hit by the global credit crunch, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Saturday.

• “Touched by the crisis could above all be English Premier League clubs with investors who today have no more money,” Blatter told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.
• English soccer has amassed debts of around three billion pounds at all levels, its football association said last year, with nearly a third of that owed by the top four clubs Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.
• Several other teams have struggled to find sponsors this season.
• “Soccer will be touched by the crisis. With sponsoring affected before broadcasting contracts,” said Blatter.
• He added the credit crunch though would not impact viewer numbers and spectators nor preparations for next year’s World Cup in South Africa.
• “The 2010 World Cup has no financial problem because our partners stayed loyal,” said the head of soccer’s governing body.
• “In a way we are coming back to the Romans who said ‘Bread and Games’ when the people had a hard time. The modern games are sport and above all soccer.
• “People are coming to soccer, the stadiums are in most cases full.”