“‘The debt comes from players’ salaries. Nothing else. It doesn’t come from soccer balls,’ Francisco Roca, who runs the Spanish league, told the men who run football. We all have fantasies about discovering the roomful of people who control everything. In football, that is the International Football Arena. The conference’s yearly meeting in Zurich looks like the headquarters of a global conspiracy. Agents, club bosses and lobbyists gather in Swiss suburbia to chart the future of the football business. Earlier this month, sports economists gathered in a dingy Parisian office block. The two gatherings brought one stark realisation: hardly any football clubs will ever make profits. Football is abandoning the fantasy that it is a business.” (FT – Simon Kuper)