Outside investment in British football looks set to increase but the wave of takeovers from China has probably peaked, analysts say.
Out of 20 English Premier League clubs, 13 are owned or controlled by companies from outside the United Kingdom and that wave of investment has rippled down the leagues to the lower levels, such as Bristol Rovers, which was acquired last year by Jordanian Wael Al Qadi.
“If you look at the income, money from TV rights is increasing in value. That will attract people from around the world to English clubs,” says Mr Al Qadi, a co-founder of the Arab Jordan Investment Bank, who was speaking at the Soccerex Global Convention in Manchester, England, as part of a panel on international ownership of sport.
Trevor Watkins, the global head of sports at the legal practice Pinsent Masons, was moderating the session and said he had received “five or six” enquiries about buying English clubs in the last 36 hours. “I don’t think there is a lack of interest in people looking to buy [English] clubs,” said Mr Watkins.
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However, the influx of money into English football from China, which has seen Aston Villa, Birmingham West Bromwich Albion (WBA) and Wolverhampton Wanderers taken over by Chinese investors looks likely to stop.
“Deals are a lot more difficult to do now,” says Marcus Shabolt, a managing partner at Vermilion Partners, an investment banking group that specialises in cross-border Chinese investment and advised the consortium from China led by the entrepreneur Guochuan Lai, which acquired the English Premier League Club West Bromwich Albion in September 2016.
“China is still a developing economy. I can see it might be difficult spending a lot of money on a player or a club when there is a lot of work to be done raising the average lot of people in China," adds Mr Shabolt.
“There might be individuals with offshore funds but I doubt that companies in China will buy clubs outside of China in the immediate future.”
Those English clubs acquired by overseas investors are instead looking to make money overseas with Mr Al Qadi citing his attempts to generate interest in the Middle East in Bristol Rovers through the live streaming of matches over the internet.
“We are working to a strategy to make people in the Mena region to be interested in Rovers and to generate subscriptions,” he says.
China and the United States are the key markets for English clubs to boost their income.
Mr Shabolt adds: “It’s the national plan to take national income from sport from £40 billion [Dh191.21bn] to £500bn. Football is expected to be a large part of that. Owning a club from what is arguably the best league in the world is part.
“The accretion of rights value must stop at some point, but there are still some areas where it can grow.
“There is a lot of growth to be had in the USA; certainly, that’s in the mind of our owners.
“If a club gets the strategy right, they could double their commercial income in a place like China,” Mr Shabolt says.
With money coming in and clubs looking for global expansion, English football remains a money hub for the game.
Third Test
Day 3, stumps
India 443-7 (d) & 54-5 (27 ov)
Australia 151
India lead by 346 runs with 5 wickets remaining
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Rocketman
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Starring: Taron Egerton, Richard Madden, Jamie Bell
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
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Pathaan
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The bio
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite travel destination: Maldives and south of France
Favourite pastime: Family and friends, meditation, discovering new cuisines
Favourite Movie: Joker (2019). I didn’t like it while I was watching it but then afterwards I loved it. I loved the psychology behind it.
Favourite Author: My father for sure
Favourite Artist: Damien Hurst
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder MHEV
Power: 360bhp
Torque: 500Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh282,870
On sale: now
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