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Official statement direct from Qatar as Daniel Levy wants £3.75bn Tottenham takeover

Adam Williams

Thu 13 February 2025 18:45, UK

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 pr﷽ivate equity, an industry where the average transaction – and there ꩲare thousands daily – is worth almost £1bn.

For context, there are only 15 football clubs worldwide who Forbes value higher than that figure. 𝄹Totten🌞ham, who Daniel Levy thinks can fetch £3.75bn, are one of six in the Premier League.

The football finance industry is spl♕it on that valuation, which would be a world-record for a football club.

The consensus is that Todd Boehly, who was once interest𒀰ed🌳 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 Lon♎doner club?

Clearly, their biggest asset is the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which𒊎 yields well over £100m in matchday inco🧜me every year and has seen cꦜommercial 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 b🔯ank 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 foꦡr the Middle E⛦ast’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 Tott𝔍enham Hotspur Stadium in October.

On that occasion, the 51-year-old met NFL chiefs wh🌸o 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 intereste💧d in a phased takeover of Tottenham, could the ও62,850-seater stadium i♓n 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 sigജns.

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 t🐎he Premier League and are l🦂ooking for a glimmer of hope

• READ MORE: ‘Nike Arena’ mooted as fin꧙ance insider shares update on Daniel Levy signing £200m Tottenham stadium deal

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 priv🐎✅ate 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 U🔯EFA headquarters.

Under the g𝔍overning 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 t🍸otal 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, Sheℱikh Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani🌜, is willing to listen to offers for PSG.

Could the stars be aligning for the oil-rich𒉰 Gulf state to divest its interests in Ligue 1 and relocate to the Premier League?

• READ MORE: The manager who Tottenham now want to appo🐓int more than anyone else if Ange Postecoglou geꦯts sacked

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 foo🔥tball 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 fo🍰otball club like Tottenham is as much about the rooms that it gets you in﷽to 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 them🉐selves culturally in Western economies.

It w𒊎ill be interest🐼ing 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 li🌊ꦿkely prioritise results on the pitch ahead of EBITDA, it would be a strange approach.