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Investing the oil billions:
Qatari
Nasser Al-Khelaifi
, President of the investment company Qatar Sports Investments, a subsidiary of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, is apparently considering one or more billion-dollar investments in the British professional football league
Photo: AFP
The World Cup in Qatar was an event worth billions, unthinkable without the generous financial support of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund.
Apparently, the sheikhs didn't lose their desire to invest in the football business after the end.
Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) - which already owns the French first division club Paris Saint Germain, the club of world-class
players Kylian Mbappé
(24),
Lionel Messi
(35) and
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior
(30) - is now apparently considering entering the British premier league.
Avram Glazer
(62) traveled to Qatar
during the World Cup to work on behalf of the Manchester United family that owns the same name
(ManUtd) to hold talks with investors, reported "The Athletic" shortly before Christmas.
ManUtd said in November that they would examine all "strategic alternatives" for the billionaire club, including a sale.
The talks were not confirmed, but QSI is said to have told insiders that it intends to invest in at least one Premier League club.
On the one hand, the subsidiary of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund would thus diversify its sports investments and secure the portfolio.
On the other hand, with this step, QSI President
Nasser Al-Khelaifi
(49) would take account of the growth and increasingly global profile of the English league.
Founded in 2005 and based in Doha, QSI is primarily invested in international sports and entertainment.
In 2011, the investment company took over 70 percent of the shares in the ailing French club PSG for a frugal 50 million euros including debt.
A year later, the sheikhs acquired the rest for an undisclosed price.
Since then, however, the club has not had any great success, such as winning the Champions League – despite enormous investments in new players.
Last autumn, the investment company acquired around 22 percent of the shares in the Portuguese first division soccer club SC Braga for 80 million euros.
The Qatari portfolio also includes "Burrda", a Qatari brand for sports and leisure clothing that is little known in this country, the marketing and events agency NextStep and the "beIN Media Group", which is geared towards sports events.
The fact that one and the same investor owns two top European clubs in full is not prohibited in principle - only then, according to UEFA rules, they cannot both take part in a European competition at the same time.
However, this does not apply to minority holdings.
Paris Saint-Germain was still a bargain
QSI is by no means the first and only investor from the Arab world to put out feelers towards the Premier League.
For example, Manchester City is owned by the Abu Dhabi-based Football Group.
And Newcastle United were recently acquired by a consortium backed by a Saudi wealth fund.
At the same time, several clubs are looking for investors who will finance the billion dollar game on the British Isles.
The owners of Liverpool FC are looking for a possible buyer, and rival Tottenham Hotspor ("Spurs") is also recruiting new financiers.
Al-Khelaifi is said to have recently been involved in the club with "Spurs" boss
Daniel Levy
(60), reports "Bloomberg".
According to Bloomberg, QSI is also considering investing in or even taking over Manchester United or Liverpool FC.
One thing is clear: Should QSI decide to enter the Premier League, the investment company would no longer get off as cheaply as it did with PSG.
Manchester United is currently worth around $3.8 billion on the stock exchange.
At the end of November there was speculation about a possible purchase price of seven billion pounds ($8.5 billion).
Are a billion fans worth more than $8 billion?
Jim O'Neill
(65), former Goldman Sachs chief economist and member of the Red Knights group who, according to the Manchester Evening News, had previously tried to buy Man Utd, cannot understand such high valuations: "I cannot understand why United should be worth a lot more than £3bn given what we know - including the money needed to rebuild," he recently told the Financial Times.
Rival Chelsea FC was sold to a US consortium led by billionaire
Todd Boehly
(49) for £2.5 billion last year.
Boehly is involved with several top teams in US professional sports.
Tottenham, which has built a state-of-the-art new stadium with a capacity of more than 60,000, has been valued at around £1.8bn, according to Football Benchmark, an industry data provider and consultant
The Glazer family and their advisors, on the other hand, appear to be weighing the value of the Manchester United brand, which is said to have one billion fans and followers worldwide, during the investor talks.
At best, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid still had a global reach like the London club.
However, analysts doubt whether this fan base can actually be converted into income and profits to the same extent through merchandising, tailor-made advertising and sponsorship.
It is said that none of the top clubs mentioned have mastered this challenge so far.
Even the ardent ManUtd fan
Jim Ratcliffe
(70), multi-billionaire and owner of the petrochemical company Ineos, should think twice before taking this risk.
He is said to still be interested in joining Manchester United.