Is the English Premiership owned by any English???

[Argentine Futbol]

What is up with all this Foreign Investors in the Prem League, First a Russian with Chelsea, rumour has it that an US American will take over ManU, A Venezuelan is after Ashton Villa and now Leeds?? Is there that much profit to be made??

[Matt Clark]

There is if you get it right.

FWIW, only Chelsea have the foreign sugar daddy model of investment. The Villa story is old and probably nonsense (although Deadly Doug is looking to sell) and this Chinese feller who is apparently thinking of buying in to Leeds is full of hot air. Earlier this year he popped up telling the world he was going to rescue WUSA ... let's all cast our minds back to this September, shall we?

The majority of English clubs have an array of different investors from all over Britain and the world. A large number of them are publicly listed companies whose shares trade on the stock market, so there is bound to be all sorts of investors.

[Garcia]

So, you are saying that Leeds is just as bad an investment as the WUSA? Hmmmm....

The Russian mafia is all action. The rest are all talk.

[Matt Clark]

Well to be fair, I don't know just how bad an investment WUSA actually was, but in theory Leeds is a very good investment. Large club, big catchment area, established brand, loyal fan base and they have permission to build a new ground that will give them a much stronger financial platform in the future. If they could afford to build it in the first place, of course. They also have decent enough facilities up at Thorp Arch and, as the likes of Smudger and Millner show, a reasonable youth set-up.

If someone did an Abramovich with them then they could do big things again. We all know what Leeds United can do WITH money. It's without money they struggle.

People forget just how much of a basket case Chelsea was this summer when Abramovich stepped in. The stories since, of enormous spending and high wages and big names, have obliterated memories of the fact that Chelsea were literally days away from defaulting on a massive loan and going into administration.

Bottom line, if Chelsea are a worthy investment (and nothing suggests they are yet, at least not on the Abramovich scale) then Leeds are too.

Anyhoo .... I'm going to move this thread to the Beautiful Game forum as Bigsoccer World Rivalries rules stipulate a minimum quota of insults per thread and this one hasn't qualified.

[Philip in London]

English football clubs aren't sensible financial investments at all. There is always a chance of making a profit, if you get the timing right, but the whole system is set-up in such a way that it cannot make significant profits overall. There are no restraints on outgoings except the threat of bankruptcy, so if some owners are prepared to run at a loss, only the luckiest of the others will make a profit.

Chelsea is not a sensible investment, and Roman Abramovich has said as much himself. He has paid out over £250 million for a club that is likely to continue to make losses, and there is little chance he could find a buyer willing to take it off his hands for as much as he paid for it.

I don't mind this at all. Owner subsidies are just another source of income for the game as a whole, and the erratic way they are distributed creates drama. Team sports are only likely to be profitable if there is strong central regulation to prevent overspending in pursuit of glory, or indeed of mere survival. It seems to me that such regulations as the franchise system, and salary caps, make for a duller sport, so I prefer football's uneconomic chaos.