Journalist Ben Jacobs has confirmed that some consortiums have been in advanced talks over Tottenham investment, but the club’s lavish summer spending does not mean that a minority takeover has happened.
Many Spurs fans were expecting the club to be frugal in the current transfer window, as reports indicated at the start of the summer that Tottenham had to sell before buying due to their cash flow problems.
However, instead, the Lilywhites have spent big already, bringing three players through the door without any major player sales, with the biggest of the deals being their £55m signing of Mohammed Kudus from West Ham.
Additionally, Spurs have activated Morgan Gibbs-White’s £60m release clause, but that deal is currently held up, with Nottingham Forest threatening legal action against Tottenham for speaking to Gibbs-White without their permission.
American consortium is in advanced talks with Tottenham
Several journalists see these deals as evidence that ENIC might have invested some money into Tottenham, with some even suggesting that the investment could be coming from a third party.
Ben Jacobs has now explained that an American consortium has indeed been holding talks over buying a minority stake in Spurs.
However, he explained that the investment is unlikely to have come from them as Tottenham would have had to disclose that publicly.
The journalist said on the Spurs Related podcast: “With the investment, I think what’s not clear at the moment is how the investment is broken down, but what is obvious is that the investment has come and or is coming.
“You might find it’s ENIC investment, you might find it’s directly Tottenham investment, and then separate to the investment side, where maybe they’re moving money into the football club. You’ve got this longer-term desire from Tottenham’s ownership to sell to a strategic partner, and you’ve got a secondary commercial desire to find a big sponsorship deal, particularly around the [stadium] naming rights.
“Not everything either has happened or will happen imminently, but there’s a lot of concurrent possibilities of future investment that I’m told are not far off. If we kind of break them down, you’ve got the ‘is somebody going to buy 25% or less?’, more likely, 10 to 15% of this football club?
“I don’t think we’re there yet, but there’s definitely an American consortium that have been in quite advanced talks with Daniel Levy and his team. Then, obviously, people are starting to talk about, ‘will Levy stay, will Levy go?’
“Is Donna Cullen’s departure a sign of big change at Spurs? Potentially, but at the moment, Daniel Levy’s role and any investor coming in that part is a bit less clear, all the way back, really, for two years, when I first broke that QSI were also at the table, holding a conversation with Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Daniel Levy present to again, look at this kind of 10 to 15 per cent number.
“If that happens, it will be publicly declared and there would be no suggestion that a strategic partner would be putting down money, spending money in advance of formalising the deal, so the spend seems more likely, therefore, around investment, ahead of a strategic partner, and because of Champions League football.”
Spurs are in advanced talks over a stadium naming rights deal
Some sources have claimed over the last two weeks that Spurs are closer to finalising a naming rights deal for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with a Saudi entity the frontrunner.
This has now been confirmed by Jacobs, who explained that the Saudi entity in question has ties to the country’s government, and they are concerned about the perception of agreeing a sponsorship deal with Tottenham, given PIF’s ownership of Newcastle.
The journalist further suggested that we might be seeing Daniel Levy loosening his purse strings in the anticipation of money coming into the club in the form of sponsorship agreements.
Jacobs added: “Then you have the secondary part, which is the sponsorship side, and I’m told that two companies, one in America and one in Saudi Arabia are in very advanced talks for the stadium naming rights in a lucrative deal, and Saudi are keen to get it over the line.
“It’s not done yet, and it’s unclear within Saudi whether or not the senior and one of them, definitely government related figures, are necessarily going to put a potential sponsorship deal through a Saudi vehicle linked to PIF, because obviously you got the Newcastle factor, and even if it’s a very unrelated subsidiary, the optics of that may not look great.
“So Saudi at the moment are determining, ‘if we go down the stadium naming rights route, one, what will the optics be like, two, is Daniel Levy going to go for it? And three, regardless of the vehicle that actually invests, what are we going to call this?’
“I don’t think you’re going to get a private Saudi company wanting their name, like Noon, which is sort of an Amazon-type company. I think you’re get like, a ‘Visit Saudi’ type messaging, or ‘Riyadh Season’ type messaging, or possibly an airline. We’ve heard some suggestions it’s Riyadh Air. That’s been denied to me by sources, but they are in talks with several clubs, and they are the sponsor of Atletico Madrid.
“Keep an eye on Saudi for the stadium naming rights, but it’s not done yet, and at the moment, I think they know more within Saudi than they do at Spurs, simply because, within Saudi, they’re trying to clarify what’s our best foot forwards, what’s our entity, and regardless of the entity, what kind of name might we actually put on this stadium that would benefit Saudi and its so called Vision 2030, messages around things like health, fitness, tourism.
“Then you’ve got an American company, and they’re also discussing a similar deal as well, and those two are taking place concurrently, and they’re not far off, as far as I’m told. So keep an eye on that.
“I really think this spend is maybe about Tottenham Hotspur pre-empting money coming in, but given none of the deals are done, it would be highly, highly untypical for a business perspective to be spending somebody else’s money before they’re formally in at the club in any of these areas that I’ve referenced.”
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