In 1998, the income of English football clubs was in the region of £700 million. Since 1990, clubs have spent £600 million in upgrading grounds. The net asset value of the 92 clubs is around £200 million, rising to over £1 billion if the players in whose contracts the clubs invest are regarded as assets. The current Premier League TV deal alone is worth £670 million over five years (Szymanski and Kuypers, 2000, p 1). The first football club to be listed on the stock market was Tottenham Hotspur, back in 1983, when Irving Scholar was chairman
