The Political Economy of Football V2

David Moyes has admitted that he has never spoken to the Everton owner Dan Friedkin in the 20 months since he bought the club, as the veteran manager prepares to pick up the pieces of a shambolic transfer window. Friedkin, the 61-year-old American, purchased Everton in December 2024 but claims emerged this week that they are looking for new investment after a transfer window that ended with a chaotic deadline day on Tuesday, in which they sold fans’ favourite Iliman Ndiaye to Manchester City for £65million and the USA international Folarin Balogun pulled out of a late move from Monaco, to leave Moyes with only 18 outfield players in his senior squad. With Moyes in the final year of his contract, the manager insists the transfer debacle will have no bearing on his future, although he did make the shock admission that he had never spoken to his American employer, with his contact coming via the owner’s representative, Rishi Majithia, and the club’s chief execu...

Daniel Kretinsky has reached an agreement with David Sullivan to become the largest single shareholder at West Ham United, in a major blow to Amanda Staveley in her pursuit of a stake in the Championship club. Staveley was at the London Stadium this week as a guest of the club’s co-chairwoman Vanessa Gold, who in July had agreed to sell her family’s 25.1 per cent shareholding, valued at £150million, to a consortium led by the British businesswoman and former Newcastle United director. But The Times understands that Kretinsky, Sullivan and the other shareholders have exercised their pre-emption rights ahead of Thursday’s 5.30pm deadline to purchase the Gold family stake, with Kretinsky and Sullivan believed to have reached a separate agreement that certainly makes it difficult for Staveley to maintain an interest in West Ham. The deal is due to be completed by the end of this month. Gold has now issued a completion notice on the £150million share sale, which includes a fi...

Three words dominate the mind of Abdullah Ashraf: English Football League.   To be more specific, it is the EFL’s League Two, the fourth tier of English football, that preoccupies the daily thoughts of this 24-year-old American businessman. Currently, 20 of the EFL’s 72 clubs, from the second tier through to the fourth tier, either have Americans as owners or prominent investors. Oklahoma real estate investor Ashraf plans to add to that number after taking over at Tamworth FC, a club in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football pyramid. Ashraf, the founder and chief executive of Dawn Group International (DGI) and owner of Oklahoma United FC in his home city, made some bold pledges after being unveiled as Tamworth’s new owner earlier this summer. He vowed to turn the club fully professional, buy and redevelop the Lamb Ground, Tamworth’s home since their foundation in 1933, and build a new training facility once the premises were purchased from the l...

American celebrities cannot get enough of English soccer clubs including those outside the top flight. Award-winning actor Hugh Jackman is in talks to purchase a stake in English second-tier club Norwich City.   While there have been no official moves to arrange any investment so far, the 57-year-old has held discussions with the Championship club’s ownership over a potential deal, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Jackman grew up in Australia but is a fan of Norwich, who have spent the majority of the last half-decade in the English top and second divisions, and was asked about potentially becoming the latest celebrity to invest in English football and the possibility of being pitted against his Deadpool & Wolverine co-star, Ryan Reynolds, who co-owns fellow Championship side Wrexham. Jackman is best known for playing the superhero Wolverine in Marvel’s X-Men series, having also appeared in The Greatest Showman an...

The bar of the Tooting & Mitcham United football club looks like a relic from the 1930s. Black-and-white photographs of past players line the walls as fans queue to buy £5 ($6.80) pre-match pints—a bargain by south London’s standards. But instead of accompanying their beers with pies like fans of yore, today’s supporters are tucking into perfectly seasoned jerk chicken and plantains served on rice. “The food is what gets me here,” says Terry, a Chelsea supporter turned season-ticket holder at semi-professional Tooting. Lower-tier football clubs are having a culinary moment. Footy Scran, an Instagram account documenting football-stadium food around the world, has singled out several clubs outside the Premier League for praise. Supporters of Whitehawk, a non-league club in Brighton, can tackle a gravity-defying burger combining chicken, beef and hash browns, topped with onion fries. Forest Green Rovers, in the Cotswolds [Forest of Dean?], another non-league club, has decid...

Everton Football Club’s billionaire owners are seeking new investors less than two years after buying the club, following a summer transfer window in which Premier League rivals drove spending to new records in an arms race for talent. The Friedkin Group, the US conglomerate that also owns Italian football club AS Roma, is working with advisers on the Everton stake sale process, according to three people familiar with the matter. The process, which is still at an early stage, could result in new investors buying a significant stake in the Premier League club, though it is possible that a deal does not materialise. The Friedkin Group and Everton declined to comment. Any deal would follow John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group selling more than a third of crosstown rival Liverpool Football Club to a consortium including Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of steel tycoon and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at a $7bn valuation. The Friedkin Group paid about £330mn to tak...