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Articles on football club takeovers and related issues
American billionaire Michael Eisner, former chief executive of Walt Disney, is reported to be interested in launching a bid for Portsmouth FC.
A statement on the club’s website said that if a bid was made it would be for shareholders to decide whether it was in the club’s best interests. Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust is the largest shareholder.
Manchester City’s owners are assessing a number of locations as they consider expanding their network of clubs. The City Football Group already owns New York City and Melbourne City and has a share in Japanese side Yokohama F Marinos.
The Chinese Super League has been identified as a market with potential, while there have been reports of a possible move into South America. Neither of these locations offers much in the way of gate money, but City may see commercial revenue opportunities.
Following rumours that a sale of Charlton Athletic might be close, a statement from the club has said that it is not for sale ‘at the present time’ which does not mean that it could not be available next week.
Former Liverpool striker and football consultant Ronnie Rosenthal was reported to be advising an interested consortium and is said to have been shown round The Valley.
In August, after nearly three decades at the helm of A.C. Milan, Silvio Berlusconi announced that he had sold his 99.93 per cent stake in the club to a Chinese investment group called Sino Europe for €520m (about £450m).
According to the terms of the deal, Sino Europe made an immediate down payment of about £85m, the rest to be paid in December. This down payment was non-refundable.
The 646-day takeover saga at Carlisle United may be nearing a conclusion. Discussions with a mystery overseas businessman have been going on for the better part of two years, but have gone cold several times.
However, the club are now close to deciding whether to conclude a deal. Significant headway has been made in getting answers to outstanding questions.
The top Beijing team, Beijing Guoan, has been sold to a local property developer at a $800m valuation, suggesting that it is worth more than European giants such as AC Milan and Atlético Madrid.
Sinobo Land is buying 64 per cent of the club from Citic, a state-owned investment group for Rmb3.6bn valuing it at Rmb5.6bn ($807m). This would rank Beijing Guoan alongside the 15 most valuable clubs in Europe, according to KPMG estimates.
The Chinese wave in English football has broken on the shores of the Solent, but Southampton FC consider that the offer they have been made is not big enough. They are also annoyed that news of the bid was broken on the Shenzhen stock exchange that agreement had been reached in principle, breaching the confidentiality of talks.
Middlesbrough FC owner Steve Gibson has rejected a £50m bid from a Chinese consortium to buy half of the club. Gibson has no interest in selling the club he has owned since 1993 and to which he has devoted considerable sums of money.
An amazing £75m price tag has been put on Charlton by its eccentric Belgian owner, according to fanzine Voice of the Valley. An article by fanzine editor Rick Everitt claims that the figure was given by chief executive Katrien Meire in a new year phone conversation with Austrian-based energy drinks Red Bull who have been looking for an English club to add to their portfolio of New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig.
The controversial owner of Leyton Orient, Frsncesco Becchetti, has said that he will consider offers for the club. One has already been made and rejected.
Orient are in real danger of relegation from the Football League. The move of West Ham to the London Stadium has casr a shadow across Orient.
A rather exreaordinary statement from the club’s chief executive can be found here.