Bill Foley’s budding football network is in expansion mode. The US billionaire made his first move into the sport in December, buying English Premier League club AFC Bournemouth for £120mn. Less than a month later, he added a stake in French team FC Lorient, a decision he said would help turn his new venture, Black Knight Football Entertainment, into a “leading multi-club football operator”.
Foley is just one among a host of US investors seeking to tap into the football boom by snapping up stakes in several clubs. The model was pioneered more than 15 years ago by energy drinks maker Red Bull but has recently become a mainstream investment play, with half the clubs in the Premier League now linked to counterparts elsewhere through their owners.
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