In the last 25 years, Daniel Levy has discovered that, despite the financial gulf between the two fields, running Tottenham Hotspur is far more complicated than investment banking.
The ENIC head honcho began his career in private equity, an industry where the average transaction – and there are thousands daily – is worth almost £1bn.
For context, there are only 15 football clubs worldwide who Forbes value higher than that figure. Tottenham, who Daniel Levy thinks can fetch £3.75bn, are one of six in the Premier League.
The football finance industry is split on that valuation, which would be a world-record for a football club.
The consensus is that Todd Boehly, who was once interested in buying Spurs, and Clearlake Capital overpaid when they spent £2.5bn to acquire Chelsea in May 2022.
Chelsea are a far bigger global brand and have won 14 major trophies since Spurs last touched silverware, so how is Levy, 63, justifying his £3.75bn appraisal of the North Londoner club?
Clearly, their biggest asset is the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which yields well over £100m in matchday income every year and has seen commercial income triple since they left White Hart Lane.
As well as the value in the bricks, mortar, glass and grass in N17, the world-class stadium’s gravitational pull for investors with big bank balances and even bigger egos can’t be underestimated.
“The club is in London, so they have the benefits that brings for a variety of stakeholders in the game,” Liverpool University football finance lecturer and industry insider told TBR Football last week.
“A football stadium is a very good place to do business. You have got the football as the backdrop for the deals that are taking place.”
Case in point, since news of Amanda Staveley’s ambitions to invest in Spurs emerged, the ex-Newcastle United supremo and deal broker for the Middle East’s elite, has visited the arena several times.
Most recently, Staveley was a guest of honour at NFL’s London Games, where she watched the Chicago Bears put Jacksonville Jaguars to the sword at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in October.
On that occasion, the 51-year-old met NFL chiefs who had just voted to allow private equity investment in its franchises for the first time, with those talks illustrating the stadium’s status as a high finance hub.
Now, with news that Qatari investors are interested in a phased takeover of Tottenham, could the 62,850-seater stadium in Haringey become a theatre for Gulf state business too?
Staveley has excellent contacts in Qatar and is known to have spoken to investors in the Gulf state as part of her plans to buy a minority stake in Spurs via her PCP Capital Partners firm.
Tottenham fans weary of their club over-indexing commercial income against success on the pitch might may already be seeing petrodollar signs.
And the latest news from Qatar itself will inspire more optimism in a fanbase who have witnessed Ange Postecoglou’s side plummet to 14th in the Premier League and are looking for a glimmer of hope
Qatari threaten to pull out of PSG; door opens for Spurs takeover
According to The Guardian, the Qatari investors who are interested in Spurs are private individuals as opposed to royals or operatives for a sovereign wealth fund.
However, the Venn diagram of the state and the private sector in Qatar is tight.
The government almost always having a hand in high-profile foreign investments, whether through direct ownership, financing, or strategic influence.
If Qatari investors were to acquire an equity stake in Spurs – whether a minority or majority – the state’s ownership of Paris Saint-Germain would ring alarm bells at UEFA headquarters.
Under the governing body’s conflict of interest rules, teams who share a multi-club ownership structure are barred from competing in the same European competition.
However, less than 24 hours after the news broke that Qatar investors remain interest in Spurs, they have also threatened to pull the rug out from under PSG and its other business ventures in France.
The ultimatum is a result of legal action in France against the club’s president, head of Qatar Sports Investment (QSI) and European Club Association chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
Speaking to one French outlet, a source close to the Qatari government said: “The Qataris are fed up with all this abuse. False prosecutions, blackmail, daily criticism, blaming others for their total incompetence, all the problems in France are their fault, every time they try to help, it is apparently for ‘soft power’. This is pure abuse and everyone has had enough,” a source close to the government even declared.”
Incidentally, this latest development also comes just a few days after separate reports in France claimed that the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani, is willing to listen to offers for PSG.
Could the stars be aligning for the oil-rich Gulf state to divest its interests in Ligue 1 and relocate to the Premier League?
Why does Qatar want to buy Tottenham and when might Daniel Levy and ENIC sell?
If you have a few billion pounds lying around, owning a European football club is far from the most efficient use of your money in terms of raw return on investment.
In terms of the capital growth on offer, it would be simpler and far more lucrative to put the money into an index fund or private equity house.
However, the appeal of owning a football club like Tottenham is as much about the rooms that it gets you into as it is about the zeroes it adds to your bank balance.
Levy, who is a close associate of Al-Khelaifi, recognises this appeal, especially to states from the Gulf looking to build their reputations and embed themselves culturally in Western economies.
It will be interesting to see, if an official Qatari bid materialises, whether Levy is given a contract to remain as chairman, as has been suggested is on the table.
As a businessman, his reputation is peerless in football. But his football expertise is lacking. Given that a Qatari bid would likely prioritise results on the pitch ahead of EBITDA, it would be a strange approach.