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Minority owners ready to exit Chelsea

US financiers Todd Boehly and Mark Walter are in talks to sell their stakes in Chelsea Football Club to majority owner Clearlake Capital, according to the Financial Times.  Any deal would potentially help to resolve long-running tensions among the Premier League club’s ownership group, which acquired it for £2.5bn in 2022 when Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was forced to sell in the wake of sanctions imposed on him following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since buying Chelsea, Boehly and Walter’s side of the consortium has clashed with Clearlake over strategy. While Clearlake owns more than 60 per cent of Chelsea, it shares joint control and equal governance of Chelsea FC with Boehly, who chairs the club. The talks come after years of on-and-off negotiations between the two sides, but it was not yet certain that a deal would be struck, the people said. The revived negotiations also come as Walter has sought to sell other high-profile assets as his business empire f...
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Sheffield United at risk of points deduction

Sheffield United’s former owner United World has warned current owners Helmy Eltoukhy and Steven Rosen that they will lose control of the team if they fail to pay the £35million ($47million) it is claimed they still owe for the Championship club.   United World also claimed there is also a “real prospect” of a points deduction for Sheffield United this season. The warning comes in a statement issued on Monday, two days before United World’s petition to wind up COH Sports Bidco Ltd (CSBL) — the company Eltoukhy and Rosen set up in 2024 to buy Sheffield United — is heard in a London business court on Wednesday. United World, owned by Saudi royal Prince Abdullah Bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz bin Al Saud, filed the winding-up petition in early July, two weeks after a “board update” appeared on the club website that said the South Yorkshire-based team had a new “parent company”, 1919 Partners LLC. The club announcement continued by saying the Delaware-based 1919 Partners “sits at ...
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Crisis at Greenock Morton

Greenock Morton have sought to reassure supporters that although they face financial challenges they will not forfeit matches:  https://gmfc.net/club-update-16-08-26/ The club has been winless since March and has been reliant on teenagers brought in from school to fill the benches. East Kilbride's manager who own the Black Rooster chicken chain has offered to sponsor some shirts for the Championship side at £200 a go. One of Scotland's oldest clubs, Greenock Morton went into administration early in the current century and were relegated to the 3rd division/
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Optimism in the air at Swansea (Abertawe)

Optimistiaeth yn yr awyr yn Abertawe I was surprised when one of my granddaughters announced that she had discovered her inner Welsh woman despite not speaking a word of Cymraeg.   I was even more surprised when she applied for a job at Swansea City given that she has no interest in football.   She didn’t get it, but she soon landed a similar backroom finance role at a firm of solicitors.   She is now completing on an immaculate three-bedroom property with garden and parking for a figure in the low £100ks.  Meanwhile her cousin has moved Into a two bedroom property in Oxford costing over £300k. What follows draws on analysis by the Swiss Ramble and far more detail is available on his Substack page. There’s been little for Swansea City fans to get excited about in recent seasons, but there is just a hint of optimism in the air this summer.   The initial 2-1 win away at Stoke should boost morale.   Perhaps most excitingly, Swansea have part...
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Arsenal evolves as a global super club

The Sunday Times magazine carried a long article yesterday on Arsenal including a rare interview with manager Arteta and other key figures at the club.  It was clearly a public relations exercise designed to put the club in the best possible light ahead of the new season, fair enough.   However, it did contain some interesting statistics and comments for the neutral (I should mention that my stepdaughter and her husband are Gooners). 'Following last season's triumphs, analysts expect a 15 per cent bump [in revenue] for Arsenal, pushing the club beyond £790m.  That would place them firmly in the global financial elite ...it would make Arsenal third in the world behind the mighty Real Madrid and Barcelona.'  [The actual placing would depend on how much PSG grew their revenue]. The article points out that there are now four Basque managers in the Premier League: Arteta, Emery at Aston Villa, Iraola at Liverpool and Alonso at Chelsea.  The Basque population is ...
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Liverpool takeover consortium has full control option

The consortium including U.S. billionaire Jeff Bezos that has purchased a minority shareholding of Liverpool will hold the option of buying a controlling stake in the club per the terms of the agreement with current owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG). And sources on both sides of the deal have confirmed to The New York Times there is a mechanism that could see the consortium purchase a controlling stake in the club in the next 12 months. Those sources stress, however, that the language around this element of the transaction does not constitute a commitment, so it is merely an option that could lead to further investment as opposed to something that is set in stone. As part of the deal, FSG will continue to be majority shareholders in Liverpool and are retaining operational control of the club, with sources telling  The Athletic  on Friday that there will be no change to the leadership or day-to-day running of the Merseyside club.
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Reading bidder barred and fined

The UK’s financial watchdog has fined and banned a British financier over bids he made to buy a bank and Reading Football Club, during which he falsely claimed to own a €200mn bond portfolio.  Paul Taylor, who has been involved in several large deals over the past three decades, “acted dishonestly and with a lack of integrity” during both sets of negotiations, the Financial Conduct Authority said on Friday, fining him £489,000.  Taylor, a former bricklayer turned financier who has previously been linked to the Qatar royal family, made “false and misleading statements” while he was chief executive of the London-based firm Blue Horizon Asset Management, according to the FCA. He has also been barred from working in financial services. In December 2023, during negotiations over the £37mn purchase of a UK bank, Taylor supported his position with documents claiming he was the ultimate beneficial owner of a €200mn bond portfolio, the FCA said. The claims triggered an exclusivity ...
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