Sterling is on the slide… and we’re not talking about the Chelsea forward’s indifferent form with England during the international break. The British pound has seen its value slip significantly in recent days, briefly reaching its all time lowest level against the US dollar before rallying off its lows. The ructions of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget, the announcement of the new government’s changes to economic policy, are being felt across the economy. In the case of the country’s national sport, the events of recent days may merely serve to accelerate a trend that had long since been established. The sporting gold rush that is American money flying towards English football may only just have begun.
Understanding what this means for football means at least working through the basics of what Kwarteng’s “fiscal event” on Friday caused. There was a swift backlash from financial markets. Sterling plummeted after the chancellor committed to tax cuts at a time of rising inflation. In response, the Bank of England attempted to cool the immediate panic in the market by committing to a £65bn package to buy back government bonds, though that left the pound still hovering at only a little over a dollar. In addition the bank seems bound to raise interest rates to cool the impact of Kwarteng’s tax cuts for top earners, a move that would have a sizeable impact on the nation’s homeowners, while also seemingly putting the central bank at cross purposes with the government. In technical terms, things are a great big giant mess.
Economic uncertainty won’t hurt the Premier League
The UK economy may be on a crisis footing, but as the pound slides so opportunities become available for foreign investment including in that great bastion of British soft power, the Premier League. Joe Ravitch, the banker who helped Roman Abramovich complete his breakneck sale of Chelsea earlier this year, offered a bullish…
Source : cbssports
