American Ownership Could Encompass All Top Four English Football Tiers

A football investment expert suggests that American investors could own every club in the Premier League and English Football League within the next five to 10 years. Over the past few years, several clubs across English football’s top four divisions have either undergone takeovers or secured investment from American sources. Adam Sommerfeld, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club, indicated his belief that this trend is set to persist. Sommerfeld, a sports investment specialist at the advisory firm Certus Capital Partners, stated, “Fourteen of the 20 Premier League teams are LLP [limited liability partnership] minority-owned [by Americans] and at least a third of the EFL are.” He added, “I can’t see how all of them won’t have American investment in the next five to 10 years.” Sommerfeld further explained, “I know what we have in terms of our trend line and our competitors and I’m not aware of a team that hasn’t had a conversation with an American investor in the past few months. Every team is talking to them.” A notable example occurred in 2021 when the then-National League club Wrexham was acquired by American actor Rob McElhenney and Canadian film star Ryan Reynolds. Subsequently, the pair have guided the team to promotion from the fifth to the third tier of English football, and the club’s global recognition has significantly expanded due to the Welcome to Wrexham TV documentary. Sommerfeld described the relatively modest initial investment of £10-15m required to purchase a League One or Two club, coupled with the potential for substantial improvement in its status, as a “sexy” proposition. He stated, “It gives them the opportunity to prove an investment thesis relatively cost-effectively.” Sommerfeld elaborated, “These are guys who are super smart, well-financed investors with a lot of ego and bravado and they want to prove that they are up to the challenge of picking up a team in League Two or League One and ‘doing a Wrexham’, getting it through to the Championship and, perhaps ultimately, the Premier League.” He also noted, “You’d be stunned how many investors we had during Covid who had seen Welcome to Wrexham and Ted Lasso, and said ‘I want to buy a team’.” Sommerfeld concluded this point by saying, “The romanticism is a huge part of it. It’s something they [US sports] don’t have with the FA Cup and promotion and relegation. It’s quite sexy and it’s very easy to promote.” Subsequent to McElhenney and Reynolds’ acquisition of Wrexham, various other prominent figures from sports and entertainment have invested in EFL clubs. For instance, former NFL defensive end JJ Watt holds a minority ownership stake in Burnley, and legendary quarterback Tom Brady is similarly involved with League One team Birmingham City. Additionally, Hollywood actor Will Ferrell and golfers Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas possess a stake in Championship club Leeds United via its owners, 49ers Enterprises, while rapper A$AP Rocky is reportedly part of an investment group aiming to acquire League Two team Tranmere Rovers. Sommerfeld views American investment as an “extremely good thing” for English football. He commented, “I think these are super-smart investors.” Sommerfeld continued, “The product they produce in the big four sports… If they can bring that entertainment product here, and they have the know-how to commercialise and monetise sports assets, it will be fascinating.” He concluded, “We’ve had questionable investors before and I don’t think you can say that for these guys. I think they’re extremely good for the game from the top down.” American lawyer and businessman Rob Couhig owned League One club Wycombe Wanderers for five years before divesting his stake in the summer. Couhig, 75, whose attempt to take over fellow third-tier club Reading failed in September, presided over Wycombe’s inaugural promotion to the Championship during his ownership. Couhig stated that he “enjoyed” owning the club, but observed that a segment of fans will invariably question the motivations behind foreign investment, regardless of the team’s success. He told BBC Radio 5 Live, “The fans were very kind and welcoming. One of the things that I found with English football fans, though, is there are about 20% who will just think the worst no matter what.” Couhig recounted, “We had to get over 75% of the members of the trust to vote for us to take over and we got 97% after we had operated the club for four months.” He added, “Fan engagement is sort of our deal and it didn’t hurt that we were able to put a first-class team on the pitch, but even up until we sold it there were still people who were like ‘why would he want to do this?'”