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Big financial boost for Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur announced on Tuesday afternoon that they have agreed a £150 million capital increase from majority shareholder ENIC. In effect, this is Spurs’ owners putting £150 million into the club’s bank account in what is a major show of strength ahead of the summer transfer window opening. It’s the owners’ first cash injection since 2004, and is being labelled a “statement of intent” by football finance experts. 

This is a huge break from how Tottenham have operated throughout the ENIC era, which started when it bought Alan Sugar’s stake in 2000. Throughout that time, Spurs are proud of the fact they have operated on a strict profit and loss basis — with no big benefactor injections — and always staying within FFP guidelines.

They have had to compete with Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea and Abu Dhabi-backed Manchester City, as well as building their £1.2 billion new stadium, without that level of external help. So this is a serious change in direction in terms of the funding of the club.

This is a huge commitment from ENIC, which has just given Spurs considerably more financial muscle, and with no tax or borrowing implications.

It’s important to note as well that ENIC is able to pump in this money because Spurs have so much headroom when it comes to UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules. Of the Big Six, Tottenham always have the smallest wage bill and they don’t splurge on transfers (often recouping as much as they spend). Most of their spending over the last decade has been on infrastructure, principally the new training ground and stadium, and that doesn’t count towards a club’s outlay under FFP rules.

The last few years have not been easy for Spurs. The hugely expensive stadium build was supposed to propel the club into the realm of Champions League regulars, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit two years ago, they effectively lost their main source of income. In addition to that, a number of poor decisions saw them move further away from Europe’s elite competition and their revenues took a big hit.

“The long-term strategy was to get the stadium up and running, and get it generating lots of revenue,” says football finance guru Kieran Maguire. “Get the infrastructure sorted, get revenue on the back of that, and it looks like they’ve done an assessment that there’s now an opportunity to become a more regular Champions League participant and all the huge benefits that brings.”

If Spurs really can establish themselves as Champions League regulars then that, combined with infrastructure such as the stadium and training ground and their very-well-managed debt, would make them an extremely enticing proposition to potential investors.

 

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