Kieran Maguire: Tottenham 'blinded by the cheque' as sponsor goes bust

Kieran Maguire: Tottenham 'blinded by the cheque' as sponsor goes bust

Kieran Maguire

Kieran joined the Football Insider squad in January 2021 and provides clarity for readers on the occasionally bewildering world of football finance. He is an author, university lecturer and all-round spreadsheet boffin. His 2020 book The Price of Football is a seminal work on the economic side of the beautiful game.

Published on

Tottenham should have carried out better background checks on payment solution sponsor Fast but were instead blinded by the cheque.

That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the now-scrapped deal with the US-based company.

Spurs announced a link-up with Fast in January, with an agreement to provide one-click payment solutions at Spurs' stadium and official stores.

But as relayed by The Daily Mail last Sunday (10 April), the company has now gone bust before they paid Spurs a penny.

Fast's branding has been removed from the 'Our Partners' section of the North London club's official website.

Maguire claimed that Spurs should have done their homework before getting into bed with a company whose financial health was dubious.

"You should be doing due diligence," he told Football Insider's Adam Williams.

"By getting into any form of partnership, you are effectively endorsing it.

"Also, from a cash flow point of view, the last thing you want is to have no money coming in.

"Huddersfield Town a couple of years ago had their energy drinks partner go bust.

"Anyone who had done any background research would have seen that it was high-risk. It's just standard business practice.

"Why give somebody the benefit of your name without checking you are going to be financially rewarded for it. They were blinded by the cheque."

Spurs have 15 primary sponsors and generated £136million in commercial income in 2020-21.

Antonio Conte's side remain 4th in the Premier League despite a late defeat at Brighton yesterday (16 April).

www.footballinsider247.com