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Fascinating insight into those people.

I work in M&A transactions on a daily basis and cannot imagine the kind of due diligence procedure that these guys must be undergoing before they even take on a club (or indeed have to undergo if approached by a potential investor on the club when identified).

I wonder how many staff Inner Circle has in China at this point. *Mischeivous grin*

remember the band inner cycle?

~ i've been watching you, a la la la long. ah good times.

anyway, if not a huge fan of these american investors. instead of lowering the debts, its getting more and more.

plus, i'm just scared that they might english football like most of the sports in america. was a huge fan of american football back when i was younger, but nowadays i can't stand to watch it and limit myself to just the superbowl. there's just too much commercial and a whole lot of circus-ation to it now.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

You put the paragraph about the effects of the global financial crisis meaning a shift to Asia in twice, does that mean its significant? ;)

I cannot fathom how come all the rich people who want to own football clubs are not British? Surely there must be an even share of wealthy individuals on these shores, so why don't they want to invest in the clubs?

Comment no.2 - The band was actually called Inner Circle, so your pun is closer than you thought!
I suppose my club, Stoke, can be counted in the archaic band. Our chairman Peter Coates is a local businessman who has been at the club for decades. He did sell up to an Icelandic consortium approx. 10 years ago but then returned after they were found out as a bunch of chancers who knew nothing about football.
So far so good, but as Mr. Coates is not a young man anymore and his offspring have no apparent interest in taking over the club in their fathers absence it's slightly worrying to think about who possibly might be the person/s to take the wheel and for what end.

"the Football Association's unwelcome response to the idea of the 39th game of foreign soil".

----------------

Not just the FA.

FIFA, politicians, foreign FA's, potential host cities and every right thinking fan is opposed to this obscene idea as well!

Its sad really that clubs in the premiership being seen as community assets has long gone, as the very communities that have created and feed the club to their statures today have been slowly priced out to create these new 'revenue streams' which consist of yuppies and tourists to continue to buy the 'complusory cup tickets' and row of tat that excretes from the club shop.
How can these people when suggesting football can expand with more investment see it as sustainable? When the pockets run dry (which they will) the big clubs that have shun the communities they once depended on may will get a big shock when they try crawling back. They must think we are all idiots.

In response to 'anger_onthe_terraces', Lee Strafford at Wednesday has the community at the very heart of the club again. We have 'The Sheffield Children's Hospital Charity' emblazoned on our shirts, who have recieved donations from shirt sales, collections at the club and prize money when Wednesday won an award from Yorkshire Forward for the club's partnership with the hospital.
Lee Strafford himself is an accessible chairman as well and listen's to the fans . Hillsborough stadium will be redeveloped into a community stadium with classrooms for use of local schools and the University of Sheffield. The club also has cheaper tickets and family tickets for those on low income and the unemployed.

I'm afraid with bad management at Wednesday previously, we still do need investment to get back to the Premiership, but with Lee Strafford on board he wants the right investor who has the same community strategy and values. The community is a big part of Wednesday's future and rightly so.

I am saddened by the overall commercialisation of football but it's no different to most other areas in society that should be public/community owned. Given the thirst of fans for success and the money it requires collectivley we can hardly start getting morally indignent at the thought the people who actually put their hands in their pocket and risk their necks and financial well being want a return! If we as supporters want to protect out clubs there's nothing stopping a supporter base raising the funds to take ownership of their own paticular clubs... the recent failure of the Liverpool FC supporters to raise the capital to buy their own club (as well as the attempt by Utd supporters to raise the capital to buy a blocking stake during the Glazer takeover) just highlights the hypocasy of fans and the antipathy when direct action is actually required. We complain vociferously and at length but at the end of the day do nothing to excersise our power as supporters (consumers) and actually take back our clubs. Why...because we want the money and are greedy for the success. Common sense would suggest the right thing to do would be what several leagues do in and mandate that the club 51% cannot be sold and as such the club will always ultimately be controlled by the fans.

Wasn't it another American firm, Dornoch Capital, that decided that the best way to assist a takeover of Tranmere Rovers would be to stick it on ebay for £10m and see if anyone takes a punt? I don't mean to tar all such companies with the same brush, but it doesn't take much imagination to see why people are wary.

In response to 'AltyOwl1867' of course I wasn’t painting every 'big' club with the same brush and there are clubs doing good things either within the community for charity or for the good of the game, one top flight club for example would be Burnley assisting Accy Stanley. Some of the things you mention there about what Wednesday are doing are exactly what all clubs should be doing in tough economic times for both punters and the clubs to get bums on seats. My comments were aimed at Man Utds compulsory purchase of cup games for season ticket holders and Leeds Utd charging £28 for visiting Stockport fans in league one.

Bronco3114, there has been examples of fans purchasing majority stakes at clubs and running them into the ground. I take for example my club Stockport and how the fans lack of any real business noose and investment drove the club into administration, another example are Notts County where incessant in-fighting and bickering had an affect on the pitch performance until they were recently bought out. The trust run/fans run club is a dream for a lot of fans but there are very few clubs that make it work, in English football Exeter are the highest profile, and talking from experience being an ex-member of such a trust that ran my club, even then people don’t listen to you.
I think in an ideal world every club should be run by a few local business men who are passionate about their clubs and have the necessary business skills and who liaise with the fans and have the councils backing and support. Fat chance of that happening.

Finances in Football are a very complex issue. The trend of "foreign" owners only really tells half the story. There seems to be two kinds of owners at the moment. On the one hand you have people like the Glaziers who bought Manchester United by borrowing money and purchasing shares. After the share purchase they promptly put the debts on to the clubs books and the club pays the interest out of its operating cash flows. In the case of United this works at the moment because United generates enough cash flow to pay that interest and to pay its operating expenses.

The other kind of transaction is that of Chelsea and Manchester City. Bought by super rich owners who then pump hundreds of millions of pounds into transfers and wages in an attempt to get the club a higher profile and increased revenues.

The danger in these kinds of transactions is that the clubs are suddenly set up to live vastly beyond their means. Fans like to think that having super rich owners makes their club super rich. It doesn't. Companies can't simply "Give" other companies vast sums of money. The 150 million pounds spend at City, weather city fans lie to acknowledge it or not, is sat on Manchester City's books as debt. This debt increases every month as the owners subsidize the club so it can meet its wage and other financial obligations that are not covered by the turnover.

That is fine as long as the super rich owners are prepared to sink millions of pounds into the club each month. But sooner or later there has to be an accounting. Manchester City went from a solvent club to one entirely dependent on hand outs from a rich owner. That, in the long run, is unsustainable.

Foreign ownership if fine but ultimately any club needs to be self sustaining.

'anger_onthe_terraces' totally agree with your comments about Man Utd and Leeds. Leeds is somewhat more daft, as they're a league one team and those ticket prices will put more fans off and reduce revenue surely? Man Utd has priced out hardcore fans now, a lot of my friends from Manchester are big Man Utd fans, but they can't justify paying for a season ticket, let alone the cup matches as well. Full of corporate types at Old trafford, who like to be 'seen'.

As an American, cant see why youre not pleased for the investment? Moaning constantly and watching football in cow sheds is not the american way : you should be grateful for a country that constantly has to bail you guys out, brought you decent burgers and thousands of tv channels

corporate customers bring a lot of much needed revenue into football, such as myself. It is not a cse of being seen, but of supporting your club and inviting others who may not have the chance to go. Corporate boxes are a way of attracting customers to your company who would otherwise think you were someone to be avoided

'As an American, cant see why youre not pleased for the investment? Moaning constantly and watching football in cow sheds is not the american way : you should be grateful for a country that constantly has to bail you guys out, brought you decent burgers and thousands of tv channels'

Please tell me your a wind up looking for a rise. Football is not and never has been a 'franchise' as you eloquently describe your sports teams. Standing on the terraces I imagine beats sitting courtside anyday of the week, you wouldnt understand the passion.

What a sad state English football has become where it is seen that Americanising the game is the way forward, what do they hope to achieve? Hot dogs, nacho hats and idiots with letters scrawled on their chest to spell out a player’s name? Or as the beer advert had it with clubs moving all the time and changing names like in Rugby? It will kill lower league football, with kids wanting to see the Manchester steelbacks instead of their local club. This has been happening for years already, and is in a bad enough state already. I said it at the time if a game 39 ever came into the game it would be the death of the game as we know it....

But what is the answer? Wage caps? Limits on what clubs are allowed to spend on players? I fear neither of these would be accepted, and to think people thought it was bad back when Tottenham floated on the stockmarket.... That may have been the catalyst for it but its got a whole lot worse since then!

This interview was a good opportunity to pose some tricky questions about foreign ownership, but the blog has ended up as a press release.

Surely phrases like the following:
"It is an interesting social phenomenon," added Tilliss. "Foreigners showing up to own British clubs is pretty destabilising."

and

"What US investors in particular are looking at is how to create a win-win experience," added Tilliss. "Of how to create a better matchday experience and grow revenue streams out of the supporter base. "They see people standing in long queues to pick up tickets or carrying one coupon book for the whole season"

should have been challenged by you on the supporters' behalf?

At least you have a competitive league. Even as a Rangers fan, I can see how the Old Firm is destroying Scottish football. Whenever one of the other SPL clubs have a promising player, they snap him up and then 9 times out of ten will spend the rest of his old firm career on the bench.

Also, the youngsters up here only care about supporting Rangers & Celtic and have no interest in their local team. This can be seen by the fact that due to lack of funds many clubs are going part time due to lack of local interest.

I am a die hard rangers fan but am a fan of Scottish football first and us such wish for the day that the Old Firm start playing down south. On that day, I will bin my season ticket and go my support my local team in Partick Thistle