Is it okay that our football clubs have foreign owners?

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  • Two decades at the helm of global entertainment giant Walt Disney might seem a strange apprenticeship for taking over a lower-level English football club, but Michael Eisner insists it is the latest logical move in his high-flying business career.

    The 75-year-old American completed his takeover of historic south coast club Portsmouth in August for £5.67m, buying it from fans who had stepped in with their own money to save the club.

    For those who follow the media industry, the name Michael Eisner is instantly recognisable as the former head of Disney, who took what was once a predominantly American film studio making cartoons and family films into a global media monster.

    He bought the American network ABC, expanded the Disney theme parks around the world to places like Paris and in a very popular move, bought the premium sports network ESPN. But his tenure at Disney was mired with controversy with many people accusing him of turning the company into a cold money machine. There was even a famous campaign against Eisner called "Save Disney."

    It was something of a surprise, therefore, to read that Eisner has bought Portsmouth football club. The article goes on to describe why Eisner bought the club and there is no doubt that with his media experience, especially controlling America's premium sports channel, he knows something about sports, American sports that is.

    With Man Utd and other clubs also in foreign hands, is it about time we said no to this foreign invasion and banned foreign ownership of our precious football clubs?

  • I'm not a footy fan but as a disinterested observer these foreign owners seem to have ploughed a lot of money into (mainly) Premier league clubs so they have bought top quality players and have placed these clubs on a firm commercial footing.

    I doubt any of these clubs would be as successful as they are if the ownership had stayed in the UK. Just my opinion though.

  • The trouble with sports on that level is that they cease to be very sporting and move into the mega entertainment bracket, which attracts super-rich predatory entrepreneurs.

  • In the article, Eisner describes being overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the Portsmouth fans and that's why he bough the club, perhaps.... He is a cold money man, though. If it were Disney buying the club, their intent would be clear, but Eisner's motives are not so clear, unless he's planning to turn them into another Chelsea.

  • Wembley stadium maybe sold to American Football!

    An American billionaire has launched an audacious bid worth more than £500 million to buy Wembley Stadium from the Football Association, the Evening Standard has learned.

    Car parts tycoon Shahid Khan - owner of Fulham FC and the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team - is understood to have struck an outline agreement with FA boss Martin Glenn to transfer the “home of English football” to foreign ownership for the first time.

    After Disney's ex boss getting involved in the "beautiful" game, another American businessmen has set his sights on the big one, buying the home of English football.

    Is this pure short termism on the FA's part here by considering this bid? The FA are still massively in debt after the build of the new Wembley Stadium and have stated that they want to plough money into grass routes football such as building artificial turfs for kids up and down the country. But as other commentators have said, this is a massive asset and Khan would not be interested in it unless he could foresee a long term profit out of buying the stadium. So why can't the FA make better use of the facility?

    As the stadium sits idyll and unused for most of the year and Khan has said that England would still be allowed to play there, I can't really see a problem with this.

  • Seems ok to me. It has to be used as much as possible under FA stewardship or they lose money when ideally semi finals shouldn't be played there and more England friendlies should be played out in the regions.

  • I can see the buyer changing the name, selling the name to raise revenue is popular amongst the business types these days, who knows what it could end up being called if that happens.

  • I'm not really sure what the American thinks he may get out of this. We already have "proper" football, the American version will only ever be of a minority interest to this country, so I don't see the benefit to him of buying Wembley.

    American football is surprisingly popular over here and the NFL are keen to push it outside of the USA. Even so you'd think he'd need more than that to profit from it.

  • I'm not really sure what the American thinks he may get out of this. We already have "proper" football, the American version will only ever be of a minority interest to this country, so I don't see the benefit to him of buying Wembley.

    Dunno why they even call it American Football, it resembles Rugby more than football so should be called American Rugby, also seems to be a very over complicated, loud brash over the top game, more style over substance, but that very much sums up America and Americans in general. :P

  • CHELSEA owner Roman Abramovich has put the club up for sale with a price tag of more than £2billion, it was claimed last night.

    It follows the Russian oligarch’s dispute with the Government in recent months over his visa status.

    I didn't know where to put this story, as the background to it is security related and all about this:

    Russian ex spies attacked on British streets

    And as Fidget said in that thread:

    I am maybe naive, but I can see no reason to keep Russian criminals sweet. The 'powers that be' should get proof of their criminal activity, and then kick them out after seizing their assets.


    The lack of such action leads me to believe they are useful in some way, to somebody, but what it may be, escapes me!

    I think this is the start of the clampdown. The Russian billionaires are all chums of Putin and it's all nicked money from the Russian people, so I'm glad this is happening. But back to football...

    Do we want to encourage other foreign buyers of our clubs, or should we now be searching for home grown investment in them?

    Perhaps I was a bit premature with starting this thread last, if all the foreign club owners depart!

    Will we miss them?

  • I must say domestic football is really starting to bore me , it is so out of touch with reality but still people get into debt to go and pray at the stadiums en-masse, if only people realised that the piss was being taken out of them , it might change .

    As for foreign owners , most clubs seem to be vanity and ego projects for billionaires , I hope they all lose fortunes to be honest.

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