The Price of Football: Understanding Football Club Finance

by Kieran Maguire

The first edition of The Price of Football quickly established itself as the go-to guide to understanding football club finance for the serious fan. Kieran Maguire, one of the UK's top football finance analysts, shows how professional clubs operate as businesses and explains, in non-technical language, how to read, understand and interrogate club accounts.


As a clear-headed analysis and presentation of the financial imperatives and challenges facing football clubs across the English and Scottish Leagues, it has become a welcome resource not only for students of the industry, but by a wider constituency of supporters looking to understand their club's latest transfer deal, or season ticket price.


This fully revised and updated third edition includes analysis of the most recent club accounts, the latest rulings on club governance, as well as coverage of recent regulation breaches, changes of ownership, bankruptcies and financial irregularities.

Genres: Football, Sports, Nonfiction, Economics, Soccer

256 pages, Paperback

Expected publication December 31, 2026

Reviews

[frankrj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arguably the official offspring of accounting, financial analysis and football!

Definitely a recommended read for any accounting/finance professional with a love for the beautiful game.

Accounting jargon is defined in layman’s terms, with specific examples from the footballing world so it all makes sense.

[Amr Fahmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still can't believe I read a book about finance, even if it is football finance.

[Iain Cargill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Accounting principles are basic stuff, but getting into the football business side of things enlightened me

[Adam Murfet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the second edition of this and it’s incredible. It’s very niche but if you want to understand finances in football this is the Bible. Brilliantly explained and great case studies to bring it all to life. Excellent book

[Matt Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite being the son of an accountant, I have always shied away from football’s numbers ( unlike Kevin Day’s agent ‘Bobby Numbers.’) but when someone like Kieran Maguire enters ‘spreadsheet heaven’ I just had to explore this book.
I won’t pretend to be confident in this new lexicon of chapter headings ranging from ‘The Balance Sheet’ or ‘The Cash Flow Statement’ but passion is, wherever you find it, a particularly beguiling trait. Maguire walks us through the intricacies that often underpin some of football’s outrageous financial decisions with scenarios for us numerically challenged readers to illustrate his accounting points. With my ‘art shite, eat lard’ (kindly sprayed outside my former English course building in Manchester) background I found some of the chapters intimidating. ‘Trend Analysis’ and ‘Ratio Analysis’ fired up synapses normally safely dormant, but the bizarre emotional ownership trilogy is also explored as ‘Love, Vanity and Insanity.’
For accounting heathens like me, the reward for exploring this new landscape was a new set of tools to (try to) understand football’s surreal landscape. Royalties also went to support the heart-breaking results of Putin’s attack on Ukraine. Those are some numbers I can definitely understand…

[Hzz15743 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kieran Maguire - The Price of Football-Agenda Publishing (2020).epub
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[Kurt Lewin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won't lie, some of it went over my head, but that was a very small %. The vast majority presented financial concepts in easy to understand ways using real club examples using real submitted accounts which made it even more interesting to read but also quite an alarming one.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and comprehensive look at the sometimes murky world of football finance

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Very readable book. Great explanation of accounting terms as they relate to football. Can’t believe I enjoyed such a geeky book!

[Glenn Entwistle · Rating 5 out of 5]

What Kieran Maguire doesn't know about football finance probably isn't important. If you want to understand football behind the scenes, especially during the covid-19 pandemic, this is a must read.

[Hanson Ho · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's like redoing my college accounting courses, but through the lens of football. If that sounds fascinating, this is the book for you. Otherwise, you might want to pass.

[Kieran Lancaster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a very good introduction to the world of accounts and football finance, starting off at the basics and building from there to show why & how various aspects of the accounts are important, and some analysis/context which still hold up despite Covid happening since then & the various changes which have occurred in football.

Obviously a bit technical if you’re not into that, it’s not exactly easy to make financial statements flow from the page, but this book does a very good job of making it as easy to read as possible.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

finished 18/10/2024

[Henry Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good info, more of a text book than a book but a really good intro to football accounting

[Adam Causer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. If you’re interested in the finance behind football then this is a must read - it provided more colour to the events happening in football. A basic understanding of accounting does help but this breaks it down very well that you’ll be fine without

[Peter K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative book from an author who has been writing and broadcasting on the subject of football finance for some time.

The mechanics of a balance sheet and profit and loss account are of significant interest to me professionally so this was not a subject in which I was starting from scratch but Kieran Maguire does a good job in explaining why such things should matter to the football fan with an attachment to their club to provide some insight into whether the club is being run on a sound footing or not.

Detailed and insightful, one to keep on the shelf and to return to when my own club hits the headlines again for the wrong resons.

[Gemma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super comprehensive and really well explained. It's obviously detailed, but if you are interested in the subject it's relatively accessible. I enjoyed and understood it with no background. Great subject for fans to understand.

[Books, Brews, and Tunes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant look at the other side of football

[JD Wallen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this via the podcast by the author and this book is an excellent look at the money behind the game and the questionable ways that owners muddy the waters in their finances.