Dhe Premier League is considered by many to be the best league in the world. Most of the money is definitely in circulation here – and at the moment there is a lot going on away from the football field. In addition to the British Jim Ratcliffe, founder of the chemical company Ineos and already involved in the football clubs OGC Nice and Lausanne and Mercedes in Formula 1 and cycling, a consortium from Qatar is said to be interested in buying record champions Manchester United.
A price of up to 8 billion dollars is in the room. The bids are being collected by US investment bank Raine Group, which recently oversaw the forced sale of Chelsea FC, long owned by Russian-Israeli billionaire Roman Abramovich.
Meanwhile, with Jahm Najafi, another billionaire is apparently targeting the next top club: Tottenham Hotspur. The American-Iranian Najafi is chairman of MSP Sports Capital, which holds shares in the McLaren Formula 1 racing team and the Phoenix Suns basketball team, among other things. As reported by the Financial Times and Reuters, Najafi is said to be preparing a bid totaling around $3.75 billion with other investors. The majority of Tottenham is currently held by a company owned by the British Joe Lewis.
Chelsea on a spending spree under new ownership
It is possible that all eyes will soon turn to Liverpool FC, coached by Jürgen Klopp. The club’s majority owner, the Fenway Sports Group, is said to at least play through a stake sale in view of the great interest in clubs from the booming league. Meanwhile, the owners of current leaders Arsenal have rejected a sale in 2021. Spotify boss Daniel Ek had targeted a takeover of his favorite club after the hustle and bustle about the planned Super League.
Foreign investors come in many leagues. For example, Qatar Sports Investments owns Paris Saint-Germain. But in hardly any league are they as present as in the Premier League. Manchester City, for example, is majority-owned by a sheikh from Abu Dhabi, and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF only acquired Newcastle United a year and a half ago.
Chelsea’s new owner is a group led by American businessman Todd Boehly, who, among other things, co-owns the Los Angeles Dogders baseball team. Recently, Chelsea have caused a stir with a series of expensive transfers. Among other things, the club paid around 120 million euros to Benfica Lisbon for the Argentine world champion Enzo Fernández, no new signing in the Premier League has been more expensive. Mychajlo Mudryk, who came from the Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk, is said to have cost more than 100 million euros.