A buyer was found for Tottenham – Newspaper Kommersant No. 29 (7474) dated February 16, 2023

Another top English club has been in the spotlight due to plans to buy it by new owners. The Financial Times has reported that a group of entrepreneurs led by Jam Najafi, chairman of the board of directors of the American investment fund MSP Sports Capital, is going to carry out a deal to acquire London’s Tottenham Hotspur. Its estimated value of $3.75bn is not that much less than the total value of last year’s deal, which saw Chelsea go from Roman Abramovich to the Todd Boehley consortium, but significantly more than the London club’s own shares were worth.

The upcoming “blockbuster deal” for the purchase of Tottenham Hotspur was reported by the publication Financial Times. According to him, Jam Najafi, together with a consortium of co-investors, is currently developing its structure. She will be introduced to club co-owners Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy over the “coming weeks”. Mr. Najafi estimates it at $3 billion, while another $750 billion will be spent to cover the current debts of Londoners. According to the Financial Times, Jam Najafi’s MSP Sports Capital fund will pay 70% of the amount. He invests in various sports projects, acquiring, as a rule, minority stakes. The Fund is a co-owner of the McLaren Formula 1 team, the Phoenix Suns NBA team, and a number of European football clubs of not the highest level. A 30 percent share is given to Mr. Najafi’s partners, who, according to the Financial Times, represent the countries of the Persian Gulf. The management of Tottenham refused to comment on this information to the BBC.

The London club is included in the so-called big six giants of the English Premier League (EPL) along with Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. True, while demonstrating stability, Tottenham are characterized by extremely low sports efficiency compared to them. Since 2008, after winning the English League Cup, he has not won a more or less prestigious trophy. At the same time, Tottenham are often quite well equipped (for example, now superstars Harry Kane and Hong Seung Min play on the attacking line), and top specialists such as current coach Antonio Conte become its coaches. With him, the team currently ranks fifth in the national championship and plays in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League (in the first match of the round, it lost away to Milan – 0: 1). Among the factors that increase the attractiveness of the club, the same BBC attributed the 63,000th stadium put into operation at the end of the last decade, one of the best in the Premier League. In the latest release of the Deloitte Money League, a classification that ranks football teams by revenue, Tottenham are in tenth position with revenues of €523 million over the past season.

However, in any case, the figures named by the Financial Times look amazing.

The fact is that the projected amount of the Tottenham deal is not so radically lower than the total amount of last year’s deal, as a result of which Roman Abramovich sold Chelsea to a consortium led by Todd Boehley. The total cost to buyers is estimated at £4.25 billion ($5.16 billion). But of this amount, £2.5 billion ($3 billion) went directly to the acquisition of shares in Chelsea, a brand that is still much more visible than Tottenham. The remaining funds Mr. Böli undertook to invest in the development of the club.

Tottenham are not the only English club to find themselves in the spotlight this winter due to interest in buying him. Since the autumn of last year, the owners of Manchester United, the Glaser family, have been looking for a contender for their asset. So far, only the head and main owner of INEOS, Jim Ratcliffe, has officially announced participation in the competition. But Daily Mail reported that a consortium of Qatari entrepreneurs would soon join it.

Alexey Dospekhov