How Spurs scores over PSG for Qatar

Qatar Sports Investment has set its sights on the English Premier League. The state-backed fund, which owns Paris Saint-Germain and a slice of Portuguese title challengers SC Braga, wants to get a piece of the richest league in football, and has been eyeing up a potential investment in Tottenham Hotspur. QSI is also talking to outside investors about selling a stake in PSG itself, with a mooted valuation of over €4bn.

Which is the better bet, PSG or Spurs? According to Football Benchmark, the two clubs should garner a similar valuation — it gave the French club a roughly 10 per cent premium over the London side in its annual enterprise value estimates last year.

Spurs have a few important attributes that PSG lacks. For one, the club owns its new state of the art stadium, which is already bringing in extra revenue through other events, such as hosting some of the NFL’s international fixtures, boxing matches, and some big music acts including Lady Gaga. PSG, meanwhile, rents from the Paris government, and is threatening to leave the Parc des Princes unless it can buy the ground and expand it.

Premier League broadcast revenues are far higher than those in the French league too. Anyone looking to build long-term football investments will want exposure to that income stream. From a soft power perspective, Qatar will want to keep pace with its neighbours Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, who both have teams in English football.

Recent experience suggests that Spurs is also a pretty tightly run ship. The club’s wages to revenue ratio in 2020/21 was 57 per cent, according to Football Benchmark, putting it on a par with clubs in Germany and Portugal, and well below the levels typically seen in the Premier League.

That same year, PSG’s wages to revenue ratio was 88 per cent, one of the highest in football. Since then, the number has shot up. Last season, with the arrival of Lionel Messi and contract renewal of Kylian Mbappe, wage costs soared 45 per cent, taking the wages/revenue ratio to 109 per cent and pushing the club to a post-tax loss of €369mn.

But PSG has its own advantages too. It has a captive market in one of the world’s most desirable cities — while Spurs has to compete with a long list of London rivals. PSG’s near total dominance of the French league in recent years effectively guarantees Champions League qualification, something most English clubs battle hard to achieve every season in an increasingly competitive league.

Thanks to its long-term partnerships with retailer Fanatics and Nike’s Jordan subsidiary, PSG has also morphed into a global luxury sportswear brand rather than just a football club. How many other European teams could justify a flagship clothing store on New York’s Fifth Avenue?

It’s easy to see why Qatar would want to buy into the Premier League, perhaps the bigger question is why it has taken so long. With the World Cup now out of the way, and a number of EPL assets on the block, it looks to be only a matter of time before Qatar gets its foothold.

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion. Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs. An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

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Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned. He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long. What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do

The Political Economy of Football V2

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