The Political Economy of Football V2

Leeds United is increasingly establishing itself as the club from a vibrant regional capital able to overtake failing clubs like Manchester United.   It is showing increasing sophistication in raising the necessary funds. Leeds United’s owners have appointed a secretive New York investment bank to value the club and test the waters on fresh investment for the next phase of its growth.Allen & Company has no website and shies away from publicity, but does business with some of the world’s wealthiest people. Jed York, the billionaire American at the head of 49ers Enterprises, has led the dialogue with Allen & Co on behalf of United’s ownership group. The bank’s valuation of the club and search for potential new investment is one of several avenues being assessed in the quest for fresh capital. An injection of new funds will be needed to propel the club into its next phase under Enterprises, which includes Elland Road’s expansion and ongoing player recruitment. The que...

The new director of football, Brad Friedel, says that the Miami-based consortium that took over Shrewsbury Town on Monday are the ideal fit for the club after they conducted a Europe wide search:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cm894wegv3lno The Shrews had been in the same ownership for 30 years.

Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion, has left his role at Birmingham City. Brady’s involvement at Birmingham followed a trend of high-profile north American celebrities investing in English Football League (EFL) clubs, most notably Hollywood duo Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac at fellow Championship side Wrexham.Brady, 49, had been a minority investor in the club since the summer of 2023, but Birmingham confirmed his exit in a statement on Monday. The former New England Patriots quarterback’s departure comes with Birmingham top of the Championship, English football’s second tier, as the club aims to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2011. On the one hand, news that a minority shareholder who effectively paid nothing for his stake, had no previous attachment to the club or city, has not been to a game for a long time and is really busy with another sport, thousands of miles away, would not be a news at all. But this is Tom Brady, the NFL legend who provid...

The Swiss Ramble applies his usual forensic analysis to the accounts of Burnley.  Much more in depth analysis is available on his Substack page. Life has certainly been a roller coaster for Clarets fans since Alan Pace took over the club in December 2020, when his company ALK Capital purchased an 84% majority shareholding. This led to a change in approach for Burnley, as the new owners made the acquisition via a leveraged buy-out, putting in very little of their own money, instead placing debt on the club for the first time in years, while also making use of the club’s own cash reserves. So, following the arrival of the new owners, Burnley’s debt shot up, rising to a high of £142m in 2025.   Incredibly, looking at external debt, this was the fourth highest in England, only behind two clubs that have heavily invested in a new stadium (Tottenham £852m and Everton £469m) plus Manchester United £637m, whose leveraged buy-out by the Glazers might have acted as the template fo...

Newcastle United’s owners injected a further £95 million ($127.8m) into the club as equity in October, filings at UK Companies House show. The cash injection, Newcastle’s 11th since the club was taken over by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), takes owner funding at the club to almost £600m since that deal was struck in October 2021. The latest equity raise is the first at St James’ Park since the announcement, in April, that the PIF was ceasing its funding of LIV Golf, a rebel league which failed to turn masses of PIF funding into anything resembling a viable business. That had raised the idea PIF would seek to scale back other sporting investments too, and the fund sold a 70 per cent stake in Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal around the same time. With Newcastle having been heavily reliant on owner funding in the past half-decade, there were concerns purse strings may be tightened on Tyneside. The Athletic reported then that club figures were expecti...

Now is the era of the sports lawyer in football   Northridge have just 41 lawyers and a turnover of £16.5m. but they are increasingly movers and shakers. Founded in 2017, Northridge has grown into one of the largest dedicated sports practices in Europe. Its lawyers advise athletes, clubs, governing bodies, investors and sponsors across the commercial, regulatory and contentious sides of sport. Some of the world’s richest investors, including the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, paid more than £2bn for a 38 per cent stake in Liverpool Football Club in August, amid speculation over the club’s future. Northridge advised K5 Sports, a fund backed by Bezos, on its part in the acquisition by 1892 Holdings, a consortium led by the former Queens Park Rangers chairman Amit Bhatia which also includes the Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. The deal valued the club at £5.5bn. It could ultimately pave the way for a change of control at Anfield, with the consortium given first refusal to a...