The Political Economy of Football V2

John Henry just cashed in. A group of investors backed by Jeff Bezos has put a $7bn valuation on Liverpool Football Club. Amit Bhatia — son-in-law of steel tycoon and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal — a Bezos-backed fund and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin are buying more than 30 per cent of the English Premier League team. It’s a huge return for Henry’s Fenway Sports Group, which bought Liverpool for about £300mn in 2010 when the club was in crisis. Shrewder still, considering Henry bought Liverpool five years after the Glazers took control of Manchester United for £790mn in a leveraged buyout. The new shareholders say something about the future of Liverpool and elite football. They’re globally minded, have deep pools of capital, with insights into key geographies and business trends. Under Fenway, Liverpool’s revenues surged from about £184mn in 2010-11 to north of £700mn in 2024-25. But Premier League clubs aren’t going to grow by fixating on their home market.   Broad...

A brochure detailing the sale of Leicester City and all its assets has been sent to potential investors. Global investment bank Citigroup has drafted the brochure, seen by  The New York Times , titled Project Lineup, which details Leicester’s assets, including its women’s team, academy, King Power Stadium and the £100million Seagrave training base they moved to six years ago.   Belgian sister club OH Leuven is also featured in the list of assets available. A source close to the process has told  The Athletic  that the Srivaddhanaprabha family, Leicester’s owners, are looking for $300m (£222m) for the entire portfolio, but a deal is more likely to be done at closer to $200m (£148m) due to the club’s recent drop into League One — English football’s third tier — and heavy recent losses. Over the last four accounting reports since 2021, Leicester have recorded losses of £92.5m, £89.7m, £19.4m and most recently £71.1m as the club has slipped from the top eight of th...

Bruno Guimaraes’ £75million move from Newcastle United to Arsenal gives more supporting evidence to several recent themes. At 28 years old, the sizeable outlay on the Brazilian midfielder continues Arsenal’s ploy of spending big money on players who can immediately improve their first team. A year ago, their roughly £185million in fees on players aged over 24 was the most ever spent on that cohort by an English club in a single season. A first Premier League title in 22 years comprised proof of concept. In the 12 years to the end of June 2025, Newcastle generated £352million from player sales. A reasonable estimate, even after sell-on clauses and solidarity payments to former clubs, has them matching that figure inside the past 12 months. Such statistics say lots about where Arsenal and Newcastle are as clubs, but the Guimaraes deal also underscores what is fast becoming a Premier League motif: the richest teams are ever more frequently plucking the best players from the rest of ...

  Much interest has been generated by a group of wealthy investors wanting to take a stake in Liverpool FC.   Why would they want such a stake and would the club benefit? Bhatia, a former co-owner of Championship side Queens Park Rangers, is joined by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and co-founder of Facebook Eduardo Saverin as part of the group interested in purchasing a stake in the English Premier League side. Bezos, 62, is one of the richest people in the world, best known as being the founder of the largest e-commerce company, Amazon.    Bezos launched Amazon from his own garage in 1994 after he had left his role at New York Investment Bank D.E. Shaw, where he had risen to senior vice-president. It was initially an online merchant of books before growing into the global technology company it has become today. He stepped down as the company’s chief executive officer in 2021. Bezos is also the owner of the Washington Post and founder of space technology company...

Derby County have been left stunned after Saudi Arabian boxing powerbroker Turki Al-Sheikh backed out of a proposed deal to buy a majority stake in the Championship club at the 11th hour. The Times revealed in May that Al-Sheikh, an adviser in Saudi Arabia’s royal court who serves as the head of the General Entertainment Authority, was in advanced talks to purchase Derby from David Clowes, who saved the club from liquidation in 2022. Al-Sheikh satisfied the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) and the English Football League (EFL) that his wealth was separate to that of the Saudi Public Investment Fund and was cleared to complete the deal last week. However, in an about-face that shocked Derby chiefs, Al-Sheikh abruptly called off the takeover on Monday, five days before the beginning of the season. A statement from Derby read: “The club can confirm discussions with Lion Sport [the group headed by Al-Sheikh] to buy a controlling interest in Derby County will no longer proceed...

Lawyers are increasingly the key actors in football clubs, but defamation actions are rare. Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is suing Crystal Palace for defamation over a banner the London club’s fans held up in August 2025 which depicted him holding a gun to midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White which read: “Mr Marinakis is not involved in blackmail, match-fixing, drug trafficking or corruption.” The FA deemed Palace had not done enough to stop their supporters behaving in an improper, offensive, abusive or provocative way during the 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park. The governing body said in a statement: “The fact that Crystal Palace had a policy to prevent banners being smuggled into the stadium demonstrates that it was aware of the risk.”   The club was fined £50,000. Gibbs-White had come close to leaving Forest to join Tottenham last summer, but instead signed a new contract to stay at Forest. Now Marinakis is seeking damages after filing a defamation claim a...