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Tottenham are preparing for a crucial north London derby at home against rivals Arsenal under new boss Igor Tudor, as they sit close to the relegation places
Tottenham sit dangerously close to the relegation places with a clash against Arsenal next on the agenda. And a football finance expert has theorised what may happen should they unfathomably go down.
After finishing 17th in the Premier League last season, Spurs have suffered more domestic agony this campaign. Under the now-sacked Thomas Frank, they slipped close to the foot of the table and are yet to win a top-flight game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2026.
Igor Tudor now takes over as they prepare to contest a North London derby in home territory. But the prospect of being relegated, while inconceivable, still lingers.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has delivered his verdict on what may happen to the club should their poor run continue and the Championship beckon. He also points out that an absurd set of circumstances could develop regarding European football.
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Maguire told football.london: "We could be in a farcical situation where they win the Champions League this year and they qualify for next year's competition and are in the second tier of English football."
He continued: "But if we ignore that, the good news for Spurs is that it's now an entertainment complex with a football club as a sideline. So the other side of the business, the events, those would be protected. Those would just go on as before if they went down.
"I think the amount of ticket income would be impacted and there would be some big impacts in terms of a loss of revenue. They made around about £600million of revenue last season.
"So the chances of being able to repeat that, I think, would be fairly unlikely, if at all possible. There are other things that could sort of fly under the radar. Spurs do have an awful lot of debt. One season in the Championship, clearly not ideal. Based on my figures, they owe over £300m in unpaid transfer fees to other clubs. So that would need to come out of somebody's pocket.
"I think there would be constraints. They'd get parachute payments. But, again, looking at my numbers here, last season, they made around about £190m in TV money. In the Championship, even with parachute payments, that £190m drops to around about £45m. So there could be some big hits for the club. Less money coming in.
"You've still got the issues that they've made legacy transfers, which haven't worked. But not only have they bought the players, they've still got to go and pay for those instalments on players. So it won't be great."
Maguire does believe that if Spurs were to go down, one aspect of their finances could act as a saving grace. He added: "What Spurs do have in their favour is their wage bill. They pay, on average, around £100,000 a week.
"By the standards of the remainder of the Big Six, that is far, far lower. That would act in their favour. That is also highly incentivised to get into better positions than they are at present and so on. So they've got that sort of historic benefit. But even then, what the owners would have to do, the owners would have to go and provide some funding."
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