FootBiz Newsletter No. 210: Fenway Eyes Cadillac as Liverpool’s Investors Gain a Path to Control

Good morning.

John Henry’s group is in talks for a slice of the Cadillac F1 team at a $3bn valuation on the day The Athletic reported that Liverpool’s new investors have options to take 69% of the club or buy it outright. Apollo disclosed a $7bn figure for its sports arm and a $1bn price on its Abu Dhabi stake. Milan are reported to have agreed a €500m Adidas deal, Daniel Levy’s exit from Tottenham has stalled and Burnley’s parent repaid £77.7m days before a strike-off notice landed on its own doormat.

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Fenway Explores Cadillac as Liverpool’s Investors Acquire Takeover Options

Fenway Sports Group is negotiating for a stake in the Cadillac Formula One team, a property that would sit beside the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool and half of NASCAR’s RFK Racing in John Henry’s portfolio. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that FSG is one of several parties in talks with Mark Walter’s TWG Global about buying part of its holding. The Guardian described it as a majority stake worth more than £2bn and Sportico reported that Walter is marketing his interest at a valuation of at least $3bn. TWG said no sale was imminent. Up to six other parties are said to be interested and nothing about the size of the stake or the ownership structure has been announced.

Cadillac is in its first season as the grid’s eleventh team, with TWG Motorsports holding the majority and General Motors a minority shareholder. Walter has spent the year reshaping his sports holdings, selling control of the Los Angeles Lakers and a 12.8% stake in Chelsea during the summer.

1892 Holdings has options to raise its Liverpool stake from 38% to about 69% or to buy the club outright, The Athletic’s Simon Hughes reported on Thursday. The Guardian reported a right of first refusal when the consortium’s initial purchase was agreed in August. Thursday’s report is the first to attach figures to it. The options become live once the Independent Football Regulator has ratified the group as a part-owner. A source familiar with FSG’s plans told The Athletic that the group is looking at other sporting investments after selling the 38%.

Amit Bhatia leads the consortium, which combines his own investment and the Mittal family trusts with K5 Sports and EE Capital, the family office of Elaine and Eduardo Saverin. Liverpool’s announcement was careful to name Jeff Bezos as the lead investor in the K5 fund rather than a direct purchaser. The 38% was valued at more than £2bn, pricing the club at about £5.5bn. The options now give Bhatia’s group a route to control at a point of its choosing rather than an obligation to take it.

Apollo’s $7bn Sports Business Deepens Its Abu Dhabi Ties

Apollo disclosed in Tuesday’s third-quarter results that its sports investment business managed $7bn at the end of September. The figure measures assets under management rather than money raised or a budget for buying clubs. Apollo Sports Capital completed its acquisition of a majority of Atlético de Madrid in March, with Miguel Ángel Gil and Enrique Cerezo keeping their senior roles.

The disclosure came a week after Apollo agreed to buy a minority stake in Mubadala Capital, the alternative asset manager controlled by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company. Mubadala Capital announced the deal on 26 October without a price or a stake size. Apollo chief executive Marc Rowan told The National the same day that the holding was about 10% and the investment a little over $1bn.

Apollo and other incoming strategic investors are expected to commit a combined $5bn to Mubadala Capital’s funds at the initial closing, money that is separate from the equity purchase. Mubadala Investment Company will keep the majority ownership, Hani Barhoush’s management team will keep control of investment decisions and completion is targeted for the fourth quarter. Apollo joins the founders of Silver Rock Financial, who took 42% of Mubadala Capital in October 2025, as outside equity holders.

Mark Walter, the man selling Fenway its Formula One stake, tried to make the same investment. In April 2025 his TWG Global announced a strategic minority stake in Mubadala Capital alongside a $2.5bn commitment to its products. The Financial Times reported last month that the equity stake never completed. Apollo is taking a position Walter’s group once intended to take rather than buying one from it.

Khaldoon Al-Mubarak chairs Mubadala Capital and City Football Group but the two are separate businesses. Manchester City’s parent belongs to Sheikh Mansour through Newton Investment and Development and Mubadala Capital owns none of it. Apollo has bought into Abu Dhabi’s asset manager, not Manchester City.

Milan Prepare a €500m Return to Adidas

Milan have agreed a ten-year partnership with Adidas worth €50m a season from 2028/29, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. The €500m deal would end the club’s relationship with Puma, which runs to 30 June 2028, and bring back the supplier that dressed the teams of 1998 to 2018, three scudetti and two Champions League wins among them. Calcio e Finanza had reported Adidas as the frontrunner for the post-Puma contract. Neither Milan nor Adidas has confirmed any terms.

Puma renewed in 2022 at a little over €25m a year, the figure Milan’s 2024/25 accounts support. The reported Adidas terms would roughly double the kit income.

Juventus is the obvious benchmark, though the two deals are not yet comparable like for like. Juve’s Adidas extension guarantees €408m over ten seasons from 2027/28, or €40.8m a year, before certain royalties and performance payments. Milan’s reported €50m is higher than the Juventus fixed sum but the split between guaranteed money, bonuses and royalties has not been disclosed.

Milan’s sponsorship income passed €100m for the first time in 2025/26, a year in which the club still lost €24m without European football. An extra €25m from the kit supplier would cover that loss on its own. RedBird has to wait two seasons for it.

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Levy’s Tottenham Sale Stalls as the Lewis Family Increases Its Holding

Daniel Levy’s attempt to sell his family’s interest in Tottenham’s parent company has stalled and his position is shrinking while he waits, City AM reported on Wednesday. The Lewis family has made successive equity injections since Levy was removed as executive chairman in September 2025. Levy had the right to match them but chose not to. City AM says that has diluted his family’s holding in ENIC from almost 30% to about 25% and estimates the Lewis family’s cumulative funding since his departure at roughly £320m.

The prospective buyer is Eight Sports Capital, a British Virgin Islands vehicle fronted by Brooklyn Earick. The group had already tried to buy Tottenham outright and been turned down. Bloomberg has since named Hong Kong businessman Ng Wing Fai as the man behind it, with backing from Fubon Financial chairman Richard Tsai. Eight Sports announced in June that it had agreed to buy 24.99% of ENIC from Levy’s family trust in a deal Inside World Football valued at about £1bn. ENIC said at the time that neither it nor the club was aware of any sale. By September, according to Bloomberg, the payment had not arrived, the group had considered walking away after a mid-September deadline and Levy was seeking interest on the unpaid sum.

Discretionary trusts with Levy and his family among their potential beneficiaries own 25% of ENIC and a Lewis family trust owns the remaining 75%. A buyer of Levy’s interest would hold a minority position in a holding company, not a direct stake in the club.

City AM also identifies Levy as part of a consortium with Liberty Global and MSP Sports Capital that is the frontrunner for the London franchise in the NBA’s planned European league, due to launch next October. The Lewis family is said to be in a rival bid.

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Newcastle’s Owners Provide £95m as Wilson Reshapes Recruitment

Newcastle United have received another £95m in equity from their owners, according to a Companies House filing published on Wednesday. The money came in on 19 October through the issue of a single ordinary share with a nominal value of 50p, the method the owners have used for every injection since the takeover. The Shields Gazette reports that £6.3m of it went into Newcastle United Women and that the club committed about £30m to its facilities in 2026. The Mag calculates the owners’ total outlay, including the £305m paid to Mike Ashley, at £904.4m.

It follows a summer in which Matthias Jaissle replaced Eddie Howe as head coach and Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimarães and Kieran Trippier all left. The Gazette estimates that Newcastle spent more than £250m on players but sold enough to hold net transfer spending to about £20m. The club also paid Al-Ahli compensation for Jaissle. Nothing in the filing earmarks the new equity for January.

Sporting director Ross Wilson has meanwhile split recruitment into two lines that both report to him. Tomás Amaral, whose appointment was announced on 27 October, leads first-team recruitment and senior scouting. The former Benfica scouting executive and Spartak Moscow sporting director will manage Newcastle’s relationships across the transfer market. Paul Midgley oversees academy recruitment and the worldwide search for emerging players. Wilson described Amaral’s arrival as part of a broader reshaping of a department that had to replace much of the team’s established core in one window.

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Bordeaux’s Investors Reaffirm €25m as the Restructuring Returns to Court

Park Bench reaffirmed a €25m funding commitment to Bordeaux at Tuesday’s commercial court hearing on the club’s revised restructuring plan. The investors bought the club from Gérard Lopez for a symbolic euro in October and the court’s approval of the plan is the step that completes the sale. President Dominique Delport told TV7 after the hearing that the club carries more than €20m of debt, exposure to employment claims and a pledge over its brand. The investors also proposed converting €1.2m already advanced as a loan into equity. The decision is expected on 13 November.

The revised plan would cut the debt under consideration from €18.6m to €14.5m and allow repayment over twelve years. Nine of the fourteen creditor classes hold 70% of the debt between them and voted in favour while sporting creditors, suppliers, the City of Bordeaux and Bordeaux Métropole all voted against. The court can impose the plan on them anyway, which is what the club is asking it to do.

Nothing confirms that the full €25m has been deposited. Sud Ouest reporting relayed by WebGirondins identifies British businessman James Twining alongside Jeremy Green, James Bord and Evan Sofer in the investor group. Twining is a director of Dunfermline Athletic, which Park Bench bought in January 2025. His individual contribution has not been disclosed.

Burnley’s Parent Repays £77.7m as the Regulator Asks About Its Accounts

Burnley’s latest accounts show the club’s parent company repaying £77.7m net during the year to 31 July 2026, cutting the amount it owed the football group from about £81m to £3.3m. The club says the repayment was funded by new investment from the ownership group. Gross borrowings fell from £142.4m to £86.2m and net debt from £129.5m to £62.9m.

The parent is Velocity Capital (UK) Holdings, the ALK Capital vehicle that controls Burnley FC Holdings. It was incorporated in March 2023 and has never filed accounts. Companies House has issued it a compulsory strike-off notice dated 3 November over filings that are almost two years overdue. The Independent Football Regulator has told the Burnley Express it is aware of the notice. A first notice in February 2025 was withdrawn within a month and the ownership group says the missing accounts will be filed in the coming weeks. Last year’s audit report cited receipts from the parent as a critical assumption behind the club’s going-concern basis. The £77.7m clears most of that intercompany balance just as the regulator starts asking questions about the company that owed it.

The repayment strengthens the balance sheet without touching the trading result. Revenue reached £144.5m, double the previous year’s £71.7m, on the return of Premier League broadcasting income. Burnley still lost £9m. Staff costs were £123.1m, about 85% of revenue, before amortisation and other operating expenses. The year benefited from £36.2m of profit on player sales and a £38.8m compensation award that includes £12.8m classified as interest. The award is under appeal, with outcomes ranging from no repayment to repayment in full.

Two facilities of £24.3m and £21.6m expire in January and August 2027 and replacement arrangements were still under negotiation when the accounts were signed. The directors recorded continued support from the parent and wider investors and concluded that the group could meet its obligations.

Bayern Pay to Keep Kane as Barcelona Lock In Raphinha

Bayern Munich announced on Thursday that Harry Kane has signed to 30 June 2029, two years beyond his previous deal. He signed on Wednesday and said he had made the decision “quite a long time ago”. The extension keeps the newly crowned Ballon d’Or winner at the club until the summer before his 36th birthday. Bayern credit him with 156 goals and 41 assists in 161 competitive appearances since his arrival from Tottenham in 2023.

Sky Germany reports a base salary of at least €25m gross a year and The Athletic calls it the most lucrative contract in Bayern’s history. Sky Germany also reports that the full package can exceed €30m with bonuses for domestic titles, Champions League success, individual output and another Ballon d’Or and that the contract contains neither a release clause nor an option to extend. Bayern have not published those terms. Sporting director Christoph Freund called Kane “the best all-round striker in the world”. Chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen admitted Bayern had stretched to keep him and said the player had earned it.

Barcelona’s own retention was settled earlier. Deco announced an agreement in principle at the September general assembly and Raphinha signed the extension to 30 June 2030 in early October, two years beyond the deal he had renewed in May 2025. The Brazilian has 94 goals in 190 appearances since joining in 2022, including 19 already this season.

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Hearts Record a £7.3m Loss After Their Recruitment Push

Hearts spent £7.8m on player acquisitions in 2025/26 and recorded a £7.3m net loss, according to accounts released on Wednesday. The club’s announcement led with a £2.4m operating loss, a figure that includes £1.8m of player-trading gains and comes before depreciation, amortisation and finance costs. Amortisation of player registrations more than doubled to £2.9m as the summer signings went onto the books, accounting for most of the gap between the two numbers. The spending followed Tony Bloom’s investment towards the end of the previous financial year.

Revenue fell from £24.4m to £23.1m as the absence of European competition cut UEFA distributions. The commercial side grew, with sponsorship and advertising up 37% and retail and hospitality up 17%. Hearts report 20% revenue growth on a like-for-like basis excluding European participation.

Support from benefactors and the Foundation of Hearts came to just under £6m, with £4m of it from a single director. The benefactor loan, carried at about £6m in the accounts, took a further £1m drawdown during the year and has no repayment due before 2036. The accounts list James Penrice’s sale to AEK Athens as undisclosed, though Edinburgh News reports a £2m fee that would account for most of the £1.8m trading gain. Cash fell from £10.3m to £4.9m over the year and net assets stood at £20.3m.

The next set of accounts will capture this season’s Conference League income and the player-trading gains realised in July and August. Hearts expect a significantly better result and say talks on further investment are progressing well, without naming an investor or announcing an agreement.

Madrid Set a Nadal Vote Without an Ownership Resolution

Real Madrid’s representative members will be asked to ratify Rafael Nadal’s appointment to the board at an extraordinary assembly on 21 November. The club published the notice on Wednesday with Nadal’s appointment as the sole item. An ordinary assembly the same morning covers the president’s report, the 2025/26 accounts, the 2026/27 budget and subscription rates for 2027/28.

Neither agenda contains a vote on admitting private capital or changing the ownership model, the question that had hung over the meeting since the date first leaked. Pérez can say what he likes in his presidential report about the plans Anas Laghrari and Bernd Reichart are preparing without asking members to approve anything. The only resolution on the extraordinary agenda is Nadal’s appointment under article 46 of the statutes, which the board recommended unanimously.

Dortmund Commit to Sportfive Until 2034

Borussia Dortmund have extended their commercial partnership with Sportfive to 30 June 2034. The agreement, announced on Thursday, continues a relationship that began in 1999 and keeps the agency responsible for acquiring and managing sponsors, selling hospitality at Signal Iduna Park and developing further commercial opportunities.

Dortmund presented it as an early renewal that reflects the partnership’s results and the club’s financial trajectory, with new business areas, engagement strategies and international positioning the stated priorities. The release went out three hours before the club’s preliminary first-quarter figures. By the end of the term Sportfive will have worked with Dortmund for 35 years.