Americans love football. They can’t get enough of it. Not that gridiron game of theirs that intercuts interminable stoppages with brief spasms of choreographed violence – that still draws plenty of spectators to the NFL and consumers to screens, but it isn’t where the real excitement is.
No, US investors – particularly private equity investors – are committing more and more capital to the world’s biggest sport, association football, and are still hoping to acquire bargains that might generate spectacular returns.
And it’s not just the rags-to-riches Hollywood fable of actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds buying non-league Wrexham AFC in 2020 and taking the club back to professional status, or famed quarterback Tom Brady investing this week in Birmingham City, alongside Knighthead Capital Management, the hedge fund of former Goldman Sachs distressed credit trader Thomas Wagner.
In the English Premier League, US investors have long owned what were historically the three most...
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