Skip to main content

Blades issue sales prospectus

Relegated from the Premier League last season, Sheffield United have been on the market for at least two years, during which time they have twice got into talks with guys who were all mouth and no money, convicted fraudster Henry Mauriss and Dozy Mmobuosi, who was last seen on the run from American justice in his native Nigeria.

With those embarrassing experiences in mind, Sheffield United owner Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad Al Saud asked financial services firm Lazard to find someone who might be able to write a cheque that does not bounce.

As Sheffield United are known as “the Blades”, a nod to the city’s status as a steel-making centre, Lazard has dubbed its search Project Saif, the Arabic word for blade. The 25-slide sales brochure leans heavily on the club’s long history, recent visits to the Premier League and “six critical, wholly-owned real estate assets”: the stadium, two training grounds, a hotel, an office block and a community sports centre.

Among the other assets listed are “£90million (in) guaranteed parachute payments”, the money guaranteed to clubs relegated from the Premier League and a source of revenue which continues to make a mockery of the Championship’s competitive balance, and what was a 28-man first-team squad at the end of last season.

Since then, the club have sold Cameron Archer, Jayden Bogle and Benie Traore for more than £20million, as well as saying goodbye to a dozen more players on free transfers, retirements and expired loans. Half a dozen players have arrived, including Harrison Burrows and Kieffer Moore for small fees, but manager Chris Wilder’s options look a little light with the season now just two weeks off.

The ownership situation remains uncertain, too, as a potential bid from a group led by two U.S.-based Englishmen, Tom Page and Dominic Hughes, has started the English Football League’s owners’ and directors’ test (OADT) but is still a long way from completing it.

Their fund, Vertex Albion Capital, is registered to a small commercial property next to a barbershop in Menlo Park, the so-called “capital of venture capital” in California’s Silicon Valley, but it has only made three filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission and none since 2022. It has no working website and there is very little public information about any investments it has made.

A 2014 blog post from Page does provide a few biographical details — born in Wolverhampton, educated in the U.S., a stint as a professional poker player — but we do not know how wealthy he and Hughes are, whether they are working alone or why they want to buy Sheffield United. Attempts to ask these questions have so far failed.

In the meantime, the EFL has had to remind the club that only officials who have passed the OADT, or are currently employed by the club, can engage in negotiations with players, and there is also the small handicap of having to start the season on minus two points because of unpaid payments to other clubs during the 2022-23 season.

Four Four Two magazine in its season preview says ;a swift response to relegation seems unlikely’ and forecasts a 12th place finish.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s

Gold standard ground boosts Tottenham's income

The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a £1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club’s finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than £2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about £16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club’s previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000.  The new stadium — built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane — has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from €117mn in 2018 to €215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyoncé for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts.  Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day income is

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to depl