Post by Rags on Mar 22, 2022 18:25:52 GMT
Actually, that thread title is a bit of a misnomer as I wanted to talk about Sutton United here. However, it was while looking at foreign owners of football clubs that I stumbled upon the situation at Sutton.
Initially, I was trying to establish why Bournemouth had escaped any sanctions with their Russian owner, Maxim Denim, surely unable to make millions of dollars in petrochemicals without the explicit approval of Putin. I noticed that only six Premier League clubs are under British ownership with Crystal Palace hading closer and closer to American ownership, and a further eight in the Championship although I presume Derby County will soon not be British owned (or not in the Championship).
It gets interesting as you move down the EFL: Ipswich are owned by an American pension fund, Wigan By a Bahrain investment group, Bristol Rovers by a Jordanian Chelsea fan, Forest Green's second-largest shareholder is Spanish international Héctor Bellerín. But my eye rested on Sutton United who appear to be owned by a South African, Gary Otto, and a Sadi Arabian, Nawaf Al Shammari. I'd shared the felling of plucky underdog makes it to the EFL when they went up at our expense but now I wondered if they have serious funding that we don't.
The quick answer is no: as Jon has detailed elsewhere, RSL has invested £3.4m in Torquay United whereas Sutton's shareholding isn't anywhere near that. But it's getting bigger quite quickly. Using Companies House (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00519334/filing-history), I discovered that the two main shareholders are MBUZZSPORT LLC, registered in UAE and presumably owned by Nawaf Al Shammari, with 30% shareholding, then AVC SPORTS VENTURES LLC registered in Delaware and presumably owned by Gary Otto.
Here's the thing though: between 20th May 2020 and 30 Nov 2021, just over 16,400 shares at £50 each were issued, raising £820k. MBUZZSPORT's holding rose from 3600 to 9500 and AVC Sports holding went from 0 to 8172. I make that £704k invested by both Otto and Al Shammari in 18 months.
I'm not criticising Riviera Stadiums Ltd for only ploughing just under half of that amount in the same period, but of you want to know how Sutton beat us to the EFL this is a god place to start. I'll be watching to see how much more money is put into Sutton United over the next 12 months.
Initially, I was trying to establish why Bournemouth had escaped any sanctions with their Russian owner, Maxim Denim, surely unable to make millions of dollars in petrochemicals without the explicit approval of Putin. I noticed that only six Premier League clubs are under British ownership with Crystal Palace hading closer and closer to American ownership, and a further eight in the Championship although I presume Derby County will soon not be British owned (or not in the Championship).
It gets interesting as you move down the EFL: Ipswich are owned by an American pension fund, Wigan By a Bahrain investment group, Bristol Rovers by a Jordanian Chelsea fan, Forest Green's second-largest shareholder is Spanish international Héctor Bellerín. But my eye rested on Sutton United who appear to be owned by a South African, Gary Otto, and a Sadi Arabian, Nawaf Al Shammari. I'd shared the felling of plucky underdog makes it to the EFL when they went up at our expense but now I wondered if they have serious funding that we don't.
The quick answer is no: as Jon has detailed elsewhere, RSL has invested £3.4m in Torquay United whereas Sutton's shareholding isn't anywhere near that. But it's getting bigger quite quickly. Using Companies House (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00519334/filing-history), I discovered that the two main shareholders are MBUZZSPORT LLC, registered in UAE and presumably owned by Nawaf Al Shammari, with 30% shareholding, then AVC SPORTS VENTURES LLC registered in Delaware and presumably owned by Gary Otto.
Here's the thing though: between 20th May 2020 and 30 Nov 2021, just over 16,400 shares at £50 each were issued, raising £820k. MBUZZSPORT's holding rose from 3600 to 9500 and AVC Sports holding went from 0 to 8172. I make that £704k invested by both Otto and Al Shammari in 18 months.
I'm not criticising Riviera Stadiums Ltd for only ploughing just under half of that amount in the same period, but of you want to know how Sutton beat us to the EFL this is a god place to start. I'll be watching to see how much more money is put into Sutton United over the next 12 months.
