The Political Economy of Football V2

I am rather sceptical of this list of Nigerian billionaires who might buy Leicester City.  They might find better uses for their money away from football:  https://www.afrik-foot.com/en-ng/leicester-city-nigeria-billion-epl-dangote Nigeria as a country has had quite serious issues with corruption, but there is genuine interest in football. Nevertheless, it does seem increasing likely that the Foxes will have new owners.   This is certainly the thinking in Thailand:  thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2026/07/24/king-power-in-tentative-talks-with-citigroup-about-leicester-city-sale-after-freefall-to-uks-third-tier/

This week we learnt that Liverpool FC is in talks over a potential stake sale with a consortium backed by money from the Mittal family, but likely to include some US investors. A valuation of more than $6 bn would suggest the bullish thesis — that football clubs remain a good asset appreciation play — is still intact. Meanwhile Leicester City’s Thai owners also see now as a good time to attempt a sale. The club, which won the Premier League a decade ago, dropped into English football’s third tier last season. There are other clubs, including Crystal Palace, looking for investors — or potentially new owners. Is this a sign that the market is heating up again? Does the World Cup alter the equation? To some extent, nothing much has changed. Lots of clubs have been quietly open to offers for some time, but the bids haven’t come. Liverpool itself was in the market not so long ago, and ended up selling a very small stake to a fund with close ties to the existing owners. If any invest...

What is the real story behind the acquisition of a minority stake in Liverpool by wealthy Indian investors?  The steer from Fenway Sports Group (FSG), the Boston-based syndicate which has owned Liverpool since 2010, was that Bhatia’s group was in talks for a similar deal to the one FSG struck with Dynasty Equity in 2023, when that American investment firm bought about three per cent of the club for just under £150million ($200m). However, it would appear that a 30 per cent stake is at the top end of what the group is discussing with FSG, although the consensus number among analysts has been more like eight to 10 per cent, on an overall valuation for the club of £4.5billion ($6bn). A significant amount of money, then. But there is a big difference between these stakes in terms of cost and intention. At 10 per cent, most investors are saying they like the sector, and the place of the business concerned in that sector; but they are also saying they trust the majority own...

Nottingham Forest received a further £38million ($51m) in shareholder funding across April, May and June of this year, taking total owner funding at the City Ground in 2025-26 beyond £100m. Forest, whose accounting year runs from July to June, received share injections in each of the final three months of that period: £11.5million in April, £15m in May and another £11.5m in June. In conjunction with £48.23m in September 2025 and £15.04m the following December, it means the club received £101.3m in a single year from above; Forest are 80 per cent owned by Evangelos Marinakis, who bought the club nine years ago and is its main benefactor. The latest injections, which appeared in filings at UK Companies House on Wednesday, lay bare the cost of running Forest, even in a season where they progressed to the Europa League semi-finals. Per  The Athletic’s  estimate, that run garnered around £21million in prize money, though that was mostly offset by reduced takings at home. A fall...

A consortium of investors led by Amit Bhatia and backed by the Mittal family is in talks to buy a significant minority stake in Liverpool Football Club, in a deal that would value the English Premier League side at more than $6bn.   Owners Fenway Sports Group are interested in capital investment rather than a complete takeover. The investor group headed by Bhatia, the son-in-law of steel tycoon and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, has hired advisers to work on the offer and is in active talks with Liverpool’s current US owners Fenway Sports Group, according to people familiar with the matter. The football club was expected to be valued at more than $6bn in any transaction, three people said, one of the highest in football history. The attempted deal underlines the continued appeal of England’s top-tier football clubs and the global reach of the Premier League. People familiar with the talks stressed to th Financial Times   that no deal had yet been struck and there was n...

The governance arrangements in the Bundesliga have long drawn rather uncritical admiration from fan groups in the UK, but I take a more sceptical view of the German Sonderweg in my book Political Football.  (The publisher has now gone out of business but cheap pre loved – or not – copies are relatively available, or I can send an electronic copy free). Looking at Bayern Munich, the authoritative Swiss Ramble notes that Bundesliga clubs are actually less transparent than their counterparts elsewhere.    Polite requests from his Zurich fastness for more information have produced little response. What follows are the main points from the Swiss Ramble’s analysis of Bayern, much more analysis is available on his Substack page. Unlike many other clubs, which rack up enormous losses in the pursuit of sporting success, Bayern have also performed very well off the pitch, so this article will delve into their finances to try to understand what drives their “Bavarian model”. ...