The US billionaire owners of Crystal Palace are exploring a sale of the south London football club, in what would make it the latest Premier League side to change hands in English football’s top flight. According to people with direct knowledge of the matter, speaking to the Financial Times, the club is working with bankers at Raine Group to handle the process and is open to a variety of options including a full sale. T
The people added that other options for securing new capital
were also on the table. The club’s current ownership group includes Apollo
co-founder Josh Harris, former Blackstone executive David Blitzer and Woody
Johnson, a member of the family behind the Johnson & Johnson healthcare
empire.
The trio are designated as “significant shareholders”
alongside British businessman Steve Parish, who has been executive chair of the
club since 2010 and is a life-long Palace fan. Harris and Blitzer together
control 30 per cent, while Parish has 10 per cent.
Johnson, who owns the New York Jets NFL team and was the US
ambassador to the UK during the first Trump administration, is the biggest
shareholder after acquiring a 43 per cent stake last year at a valuation of
£550mn. A person familiar with the matter told the Pibk ‘Un that the sale of a
controlling stake could help to secure a superior price.
Palace, as the club is known, has become a Premier League
mainstay since being promoted in 2013 and is enjoying its most successful
period on the pitch. The team won the FA Cup in 2025 after beating Manchester
City in the final — the first major trophy in the club’s history. In May, the
side beat Spain’s Rayo Vallecano to win the Europa Conference League. Both
victories came under Austrian coach Oliver Glasner, who left the club last
month at the end of his contract.
On Monday Palace confirmed the appointment of Pierre Sage as
Glasner’s replacement. Last season Sage led French club Lens to a second-place
finish in the league and victory in the Coupe de France.
The potential sale comes as Palace pushes to modernise its
creaking Selhurst Park stadium, parts of which date back to the 1920s. The club
has been working on a plan to rebuild one stand, which would expand overall
capacity by 8,000 to more than 34,000 people.
However, the project has dragged on for several years, in
part due to surging cost projections. One person familiar with the matter said
the club was exploring its financing options related to the stadium
redevelopment and ahead of a second season of European football.
Palace, which made a pre-tax profit of £8.3mn on revenues of
£196.6mn in 2024-25, was 25th in Deloitte’s ranking of the richest clubs in
football last year. Harris and Blitzer previously explored the purchase of
Chelsea FC from tycoon Roman Abramovich in 2022, but lost out to private
capital group Clearlake Capital and US financier Todd Boehly. The duo have a
long history of investing in sports teams together, including the Philadelphia
76ers basketball team and the New Jersey Devils ice hockey franchise. Harris
also led the $6bn acquisition of the Washington Commanders NFL franchise in
2023, and has since announced plans for a new stadium expected to cost close to
$4bn.
While the market for selling football clubs has cooled since
several record-breaking deals in 2022, Premier League teams have continued to
attract interest from investors. Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský agreed on
Saturday to increase his stake in West Ham United. In March, Brentford
attracted further investment from minority shareholders filmmaker Sir Matthew
Vaughn and South African businessman Gary Lubner.
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