For all Daniel Levy’s talents as an administrator, Tottenham are regressing under his leadership and the ongoing system reset after a truly bizarre 2024-25 campaign must touch almost every area of the club.
May’s Europa League triumph, which proved to be Ange Postecoglou’s final hurrah as Spurs boss, has given the club a lifeline as they embark on another rebuild: cold, hard Champions League cash.
With Thomas Frank now installed as manager and a new-look board having been assembled behind the scenes, Tottenham can count on around £60m of income from UEFA before a ball is kicked next season.
That has given ENIC some flexibility when setting the budget for this summer’s transfer market.
If they had no European football in 2025-26, the owners would likely have had to put money into the club. Historically, they have been reluctant to do so, instead asking the club to subsist on its own revenue.
With Champions League income guaranteed, Spurs are courting Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo and have confirmed the permanent capture of Matthys Tel from Bayern Munich after he spent the second half of 2024-25 on loan in North London.
If they do successfully hijack Manchester United’s move for Mbuemo, he and Tel will probably set Spurs back the best part of £90m. Again, that’s with ENIC putting no money into the club and with two-and-a-half months of the transfer window remaining.
Granted, their expenditure will be subsidised by some departures, with Cristian Romero now fully expected to leave Tottenham this summer. However, offsetting that, you have the club’s transfer debt, which was one of the highest in the Premier League at the last count at £337m.
That they are able to balance those commitments with considerable expenditure is thanks to their commercial operation, which is Daniel Levy’s magnum opus in N5.
Tottenham’s annual income from sponsorship, merchandise and events has tripled since their last season at White Hart Lane from £76m to £255m in 2023-24. Significantly, the growth has been largely decoupled from performances on the pitch.
And while Spurs fans understandably roll their eyes at some of the club’s more nakedly commercial moves, it’s that revenue resilience which means they can be competitive in the transfer and wage market even in a fallow year. The problem isn’t how much Spurs have spent, it’s how they’ve spent it.
It’s through a commercial lens that Levy sees everything. The problem is that too often comes at the expense of Spurs on the pitch and the interests of fans, with resources and brain power misallocated.
And news from the football finance sphere provides the latest example.
Daniel Levy wants fewer matches, reducing size of Premier League on the table
Player welfare and workload has long been as much as a divisive issue in Premier League boardrooms as it is among players and fans. Given their abysmal injury record last season, Spurs have often been front and centre of the debate, held up as an example of the dangers of burnout.
Often, the assumption is that more matches equates to more revenue, so shareholders like Levy must be in favour, right? Well, there is in fact a growing push in the other direction.
At Spurs’ annual fan forum last September, Levy said: “We would like to see less games but higher-quality games. So if that means we have to see some changes in some of our competitions, then so be it. I think in the end that’s in the long-term interest of the players.”
On face value, what Levy’s stance chimes with concerns raised by players’ union FIFPro, who late last week released a 12-point plan designed by medical and performance experts to safeguard players.
As quoted by The Mirror, the 12-point plan’s proposals are:
Off season break – minimum of four weeks’ rest between seasons
Black out – break must include two weeks with no contact with club or national team
Pre-season – minimum of four weeks’ training
Monitoring – clubs must give players option of wellness program in break
Rest and recovery – minimum of two days between games
Injury recovery – players must be cleared by doctor before resuming training
Day off – players must have mandatory one day off each week
Mid-season break – one week off mid-season each year
Travel – must be taken into account when scheduling fixtures
Travel rules – recovery after long haul flights
Young player safeguards – workload restrictions on under-18s
Safeguards on under-21 players
But why, when fewer matches equals fewer revenue opportunities, is Levy in favour?
“Daniel Levy would love a smaller Premier League,” says University of Liverpool football finance and Price of Football podcast host Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to TBR Football.
“Although, that might have seen them relegated in 2024-25 if there was an 18-team division.
“They want a smaller Premier League because it increases the opportunities for pre and post-season tours. Spurs are a global brand and they don’t want to be wasting their time playing small clubs when there are more lucrative opportunities.
“We’re moving to an expanded Club World Cup and potentially an even bigger format in the Champions League, wherein rather than having four home and away matches, you could have six very easily.
“It’s all about yield per fan, per match. It’s not about who the opponents are. If the opponents are more glamorous then Bournemouth or Crystal Palace, that’s more money to be made as far as Daniel Levy is concerned.”
Tottenham to push for expanded Club World Cup?
As Maguire mentions, we’re currently in the midst of the first edition of the expanded Club World Cup.
Aside from concerns about the new FIFA competition being a blatant cash grab, the event poses further concerns about player welfare, with participating European clubs’ squads stretched paper-thin.
However, several Premier League clubs are actively lobbying FIFA to expand the event to 48 teams and, in particular, raise the limit of two clubs per nation allowed to compete.
Tottenham are one of the side for whom this would make commercial sense.
If the winner of the inaugural 32-team Club World Cup is from Europe (the distribution mechanism is weighted towards them), they will earn a maximum of £97m, making it the most lucrative event per match in football history.
If, say, four English clubs were allowed to compete in the tournament, it would give Spurs a good chance of qualification in each four-year cycle.
Currently, they are the sixth-highest English club in UEFA’s coefficient rankings, which is how FIFA determine which clubs will qualify for the next tournament in 2029.