FootBiz newsletter #200: The dealmakers are busy again

A.GAIN is days away from buying Real Zaragoza

Real Zaragoza should have a new majority owner within days.

A.GAIN, an international investment platform led by Guatemalan businessman Bobby Aitkenhead, has agreed to acquire 75% of the Spanish club. The transaction had been expected to close by September 30 but has been delayed by several days while the final notarial documentation is completed.

There is no suggestion that the deal itself is in difficulty. A.GAIN has effectively been running Zaragoza since July, when Guido Baroli arrived as chief executive. Completion will formalise an arrangement which has already produced significant changes inside the club.

The ownership percentages will change again almost immediately. Zaragoza is carrying out a €22 million capital increase in which A.GAIN will contribute another €8 million. Existing shareholders Juan Forcén and Jorge Mas have each already committed €7 million.

Once that process is completed, A.GAIN is expected to own around 60% of the club, with the Forcén and Mas group holding approximately 39%.

There could also be another significant name in the final investment vehicle. American investor Jim Miller, a longstanding Ares Management executive, has been mentioned in Spain as a potential participant.

Zaragoza has spent the past 13 seasons outside La Liga despite remaining one of the better-supported clubs in Spanish football. A.GAIN will be acquiring a club with six Copa del Rey titles, a European trophy and a substantial fanbase, albeit one currently playing in Spain's third tier.

Real Zaragoza and SD Huesca at La Romareda in April 2025. A.GAIN is close to completing its acquisition of a majority stake in Zaragoza.

Photo: WikiUsuario46 · CC0 1.0

The United-Lausanne player pathway is starting to take shape

Manchester United's latest accounts contain an interesting detail about how the club's relationship with INEOS-owned Lausanne-Sport is developing.

United disclosed that during the year to June 30 it temporarily transferred the registrations of two academy players to Lausanne for no consideration. Since the end of the financial year, another academy player has moved to the Swiss club temporarily and one player has joined permanently, again with no fixed fee.

The latter two are easier to identify. Centre-back Tyler Fredricson joined Lausanne permanently this summer, signing until 2029 after making four senior appearances for United. Sekou Koné, the 20-year-old Malian midfielder United signed from Guidars FC in 2024, followed him to Switzerland on loan.

The financial terms of Fredricson's move are particularly interesting. United's annual report records the permanent transfer as being for "nil fixed consideration", while reports around the deal said United retained a substantial sell-on percentage and a buy-back clause. Rather than taking a transfer fee now, United has therefore retained exposure to Fredricson's future value if his development continues in Switzerland.

The transactions are significant enough that United lists them as related-party dealings. INEOS owns Lausanne and Nice and holds approximately 29% of Manchester United, where Sir Jim Ratcliffe's group has responsibility for football operations.

Lausanne gives United a European first-team environment where its young players can accumulate senior minutes before United has to make a final decision on them.

Fredricson and Koné are the clearest examples so far. One has been transferred permanently without a fixed fee but with United retaining an economic route back into the player; the other remains a United player while developing in Switzerland.

The relationship is appearing in United's accounts in other ways too. The club disclosed £600,000 of sponsorship services provided to INEOS Automotive during the year and several hundred thousand pounds of costs recharged by other INEOS companies.

All of those transactions are relatively small alongside United's overall revenues. The player movements are more interesting because they offer an early indication of how INEOS could use its football holdings together.

There is also the question of United's ownership. Some members of the Glazer family have been considering selling part or all of their Manchester United holdings, according to reports earlier this year. The family still controls the majority of the club's voting power, while INEOS owns roughly 29%.

More than two years after Ratcliffe's investment, the structure around Manchester United therefore continues to evolve. INEOS is already running the football operation and Lausanne is beginning to appear as part of its player-development system. If members of the Glazer family eventually decide to sell, the next question will be whether Ratcliffe is content to remain a minority shareholder or wants to go further.

Lausanne-Sport's Stade de la Tuiliere in April 2021. INEOS is beginning to use the Swiss club as a senior-development route for Manchester United players.

Photo: Vincenzo.togni · CC BY-SA 4.0

Newcastle and Aston Villa are finding out how expensive the elite is

Newcastle United and Aston Villa have both shown that they can break into the Champions League places but staying there is proving more difficult.

Both have wealthy owners. Newcastle is controlled by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, while Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens have put substantial money into Villa. Their constraint is the amount of revenue the clubs themselves generate compared with the established Premier League elite.

Newcastle reported revenue of £335.3 million for 2024/25, despite a 44% increase in commercial income. Villa generated £378 million in the same period, helped by playing in the Champions League.

Those are large numbers, but there is still a considerable gap to the clubs they are trying to displace. Arsenal's latest revenue was £691 million and Manchester United has just reported £678 million. Liverpool and Manchester City are also above £690 million.

That difference increasingly determines what can be spent on the pitch. The Premier League's new Squad Cost Ratio rules, introduced for 2026/27, set the basic spending limit at 85% of football revenue and net profit or loss on player sales. Clubs have a multi-year allowance which permits spending above that level subject to a levy, but once it is exhausted they must return to 85% or risk a sporting sanction.

UEFA's rules are tighter still, with clubs in European competition required to keep squad costs within 70% of revenue.

Newcastle and Villa have already discovered the consequences. UEFA sanctioned both clubs this summer for breaching its squad-cost rule during 2025. Newcastle was fined €3 million for its squad-cost breach, while Villa was fined €22.5 million, although €15 million of the Villa sanction is conditional.

Villa's accounts show how quickly the numbers can become difficult even when revenue is rising. Turnover jumped from £276 million to £378 million in 2024/25, but wages reached £273 million and player amortisation was almost £100 million. The club recorded a £96.7 million pre-tax loss.

Newcastle's revenue base is smaller. Its £335.3 million turnover represented another club record, but it remains hundreds of millions below some of the clubs it is trying to compete with every season.

Newcastle chief executive David Hopkinson put the financial challenge more bluntly, admitting the club had been “living beyond our means” and that eventually “you’ve got to pay the credit card bill.” The job of building the next version of Newcastle now falls partly to sporting director Ross Wilson and technical director Sudarshan “Suds” Gopaladesikan, who joined from Atalanta to lead the club's football data operation. With PIF unable simply to spend its way through the revenue gap, Wilson and Gopaladesikan will have to find more value in recruitment and player trading if Newcastle is to compete regularly with clubs generating hundreds of millions of pounds more each year.

Villa's president of business operations Francesco Calvo has been similarly open about the problem. He has described football's financial regulations as “a limiter” and acknowledged that Villa remain commercially behind the traditional Big Six, despite the progress made on the pitch. Calvo's job mirrors the one facing Roberto Olabe on the football side – Villa need to increase the revenues available to support the squad while Olabe has to keep the team competitive within those financial constraints.

Newcastle has one of the wealthiest owners in world football, but PIF's wealth does not automatically translate into spending capacity for the football club. Villa faces a similar issue. Sawiris and Edens can provide capital, but financial regulations increasingly link squad expenditure to the revenue produced by Aston Villa rather than the resources of its shareholders.

Player sales are as important as recruitment. Selling a player at a substantial accounting profit does more than generate cash. Under the Premier League's new system, net profit on player sales is included alongside football revenue when calculating the amount a club can spend on its squad.

Newcastle and Villa therefore need to grow commercial, matchday and broadcasting income while continuing to create value in the transfer market. European qualification helps enormously, but missing the Champions League can also slow the revenue growth needed to compete for it again.

The established elite begins with a considerable advantage. Decades of Champions League participation, larger commercial operations and, in several cases, significantly greater matchday income have produced revenue bases which allow much larger squads to be carried within the same percentage-based rules.

St James' Park in August 2023. Newcastle's ownership resources are substantial, but squad spending is increasingly tied to the revenue the club itself produces.

Photo: Arne Mueseler / arne-mueseler.com · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

France's player-trading deals keep paying out

Some of the most valuable player-trading deals in French football this summer involve players who left their former clubs years ago.

Marseille is in line to collect close to €8 million from two transfers in which it is not the selling club.

Iliman Ndiaye's move from Everton to Manchester City should generate around €5 million for OM through the sell-on terms negotiated when the forward moved to Everton. Marseille retained a 10% interest in the profit Everton subsequently made on the player, in addition to its entitlement to solidarity payments.

Jonathan Rowe is the other. Marseille sold the English winger to Bologna but retained an interest in his future value. Rowe has since joined Atalanta on loan with an option to buy which becomes an obligation if certain conditions are met. If the permanent transfer is triggered, Marseille should receive at least another €2.65 million through its sell-on percentage, with a further €1 million conditional payment potentially due under the original Bologna deal.

Lyon has an even larger example – Bradley Barcola's €140 million move from PSG to Liverpool should generate around €4.9 million for his former club. Lyon did not retain a sell-on clause when it sold Barcola to PSG, but is entitled to approximately 3.5% of the transfer through FIFA's solidarity mechanism because it developed the player.

The numbers involved show how much value can remain in a player long after he has disappeared from the balance sheet.

For French clubs operating in a difficult domestic broadcasting market, these fees are crucial. Player trading has long been an important source of income, but the best deals increasingly contain a second potential payday if the player continues climbing the market.

An American investor is circling Bari

Bari could have found a potential solution to the ownership problem that has been hanging over the club for several years.

American property investor Alexander Gregory Vaughn has already completed due diligence on Bari after approaching the De Laurentiis family in 2025 and subsequently holding discussions with Aurelio and Luigi De Laurentiis.

One structure discussed would see Vaughn initially acquire between 30% and 40%, move into majority ownership within a year and eventually buy the remainder by June 30, 2028.

The De Laurentiis family also owns Napoli and cannot retain both clubs indefinitely under Italian rules governing multi-club ownership.

Vaughn's interest in Bari also extends well beyond the football club. His company Stadio&Co has submitted a proposal to the city for the redevelopment of the San Nicola and Stadio della Vittoria, with around €250 million earmarked for the two stadiums. The wider plan could eventually involve approximately €600 million of investment in the stadiums and surrounding area, with Stadio&Co seeking a 99-year concession.

Bari's financial position adds another element to the negotiations. Prosecutors had sought to place the company into judicial liquidation before Filmauro, the De Laurentiis family's holding company, committed to provide €11.1 million of financial support during the 2026/27 season. The court has since closed the liquidation proceedings, although a criminal investigation relating to alleged false accounting remains ongoing.

There has also been interest from at least one other foreign party.

Bari's Stadio San Nicola in June 2023. Alexander Gregory Vaughn's interest in the club sits alongside a much larger stadium and property proposal.

Photo: Cianciola Fabio · CC BY-SA 4.0

Juma Bah transfer has created another problem for Valladolid

Real Valladolid's messy Juma Bah transfer has ended up at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with his former club in Sierra Leone chasing more than €800,000. AIK Freetong sent Bah to Valladolid on loan in July 2024 before the Spanish club bought him for €150,000, with AIK retaining a 15% share of the profit on his next move.

Manchester City wanted Bah in January 2025 but Valladolid did not want to sell. The defender instead terminated his contract after €6.048 million was deposited with the Spanish football federation. City provided the money and subsequently registered him before sending him on loan to Lens. Valladolid was furious, saying it had rejected bigger offers for Bah and accusing City of encouraging the player to break his contract rather than negotiating a transfer.

AIK Freetong then wanted its cut of the €6.048 million. Valladolid argued that the sell-on clause did not apply because it had never actually sold Bah: the money it received was compensation following the termination of his contract rather than a transfer fee.

FIFA disagreed and ordered Valladolid to pay AIK €837,615 plus 5% annual interest. Valladolid appealed the decision to CAS, where the argument centres on whether the circumstances of Bah's departure were enough to trigger the clause.

The wording of the original agreement could prove important. AIK's entitlement was based on 15% of the profit Valladolid made from Bah's subsequent move, rather than simply 15% of a conventional transfer fee. For a club which initially sold the player for €150,000, another €837,615 is a significant amount of money.

Bah has still never played for Manchester City. He spent time on loan at Lens and Nice before joining Stuttgart on another loan this summer.

Bergkamp, Koeman and Kuyt are still looking for an English club

A group containing some of the biggest names in Dutch football is still trying to buy a club in England.

Agent Rob Jansen is behind the project alongside Dennis Bergkamp, Phillip Cocu, Dirk Kuyt and Henrik Larsson, with Ronald Koeman also involved as an adviser.

This has been going on for several years. The group came close to buying Wycombe Wanderers in 2019 and has subsequently examined another Championship club before deciding that the finances did not work.

Jansen says another English target has now been identified.

The former players would not simply provide names and capital. The intention is for them to work inside the club and take responsibility for the football operation.

An American investment group has discussed participating alongside them, although negotiations have run into questions over who would have control. Jansen's group wants the former players to make the football decisions rather than leaving recruitment and transfers in the hands of financial investors.

England remains the preferred market, but the group has so far been disciplined enough to walk away when the numbers have not worked.

After missing out on Wycombe and another Championship opportunity, it is now looking at a third target.

Elsewhere…

There are other ownership deals moving around Europe. Big League Advance, the American investment group run by former MLB player Michael Schwimer, has an agreement in principle to acquire Granada, although the transaction has been complicated by problems further up the club's Chinese ownership structure. In Italy, Singaporean investor Joseph Tey is moving into control of Sampdoria, where the ownership change has triggered change-of-control provisions with the club's lenders.