At last Leeds United fans can breathe a huge sigh of relief this evening, with the news that we have been waiting for. Andrea Radrizzani has finally sold his share in the club and we are now in the hands of the group that run the San Fransisco 49ers.
The official Leeds United website seems to have got so excited by the news that it immediately passed out, but the club has still managed to issue a statement via other means. "Leeds United can confirm an agreement has been reached between Aser Ventures and 49ers Enterprises for the purchase of the club.”
"Both parties continue to work through the details, and further updates will be provided soon. All of our focus remains on a quick return to the Premier League. Thank you for your continued support. Marching on Together.” The deal will still have to be ratified by the EFL as the 49ers will have to pass their fit and proper owners test, but that should just be a formality.
We can be deeply thankful that the Americans are still interested in taking over despite the huge setback of relegation, and that was of course the issue that complicated the issue and led to all the haggling that has taken place over the last fortnight. The figure widely quoted in the media is that the 49ers now value the club at £170m, though it’s not been confirmed that this is the final amount the two sides agreed on.
The actual amount that will be changing hands now is 56% of the agreed valuation, which is the portion of the shares the 49ers will acquire to complete their takeover. So Radz is taking a big hit compared to the £400m the club would have been worth if we had stayed up, but presumably he needed to recoup some cash to complete his purchase of Sampdoria back in his native Italy.
But we needn’t weep for him too much, as he is still making a big profit on the £45m he paid to buy Leeds United from Massimo Cellino in 2017. Even when we take account of the subsequent amounts he had to invest in the club, amounting to about £1m a month to keep us going before we got promoted. In fact we only made a profit during one of his seasons in charge of the club.
And it looks like Radz has now gone away entirely, as according to Phil Hay’s article tonight the deal also includes 71% of the shares he owned in Elland Road Limited, the company which owns our beloved stadium. The news that the stadium had been put forward as collateral for a loan Radz needed for his Sampdoria must have complicated the negotiations with the 49ers as much as it further soured his reputation amongst the Leeds fanbase.
But no documents have been lodged to show that there is now a charge over Elland Road, and I’ve also seen a suggestion that he had only been thinking of using his own share in Elland Road Limited as collateral, not the whole lot. Presumably this issue has now been resolved to the 49ers satisfaction, as they have plans to increase the size of Elland Road to an eventual 60,000.
So now we wait with bated breath for the further updates that the club’s statement promised. As you will undoubtedly have noticed, currently we don’t have a head coach or director of football at the club, and we need to make appointments soon, before the best candidates get snapped up by other clubs who are also seeking new leadership (Palace, Leicester and Celtic, to name just three).
We also need to make a start on the overhaul of the squad as soon as we can. The 49ers must still be optimistic about the future of the club, as they were under no obligation to complete their takeover, but it will be vitally important to get us back into the Premier League before the parachute payments run out in three years' time.
These will amount to approximately £44 million in 2023-24, £36 million in 2024-25 but only £16 million in 2025-26, though the exact amounts will depend on the TV deals struck by the Premier League in the meantime. These figures are a big drop from the £115 million we got from the Premier League in 2021-22, but still enough to give us a big advantage over those clubs in the Championship who haven’t been in the top division in recent years.
According to a recent article in The Athletic, the total worth of 49ers enterprises is £4.75bn, which makes them the 10th richest owners out of the 20 clubs who were in the Premier League in the season that has just finished. And surely the richest in the Championship next season, as they are above the owners of Leicester and Southampton in that list.
Now the deal is complete the 49ers will provide an immediate injection of capital which will allow the club to be a little bit more adventurous in the transfer window that is about to start than we would have been if Radz had still been in charge. The Americans have already shown that they know how to develop a big sports club over time, so it might just be that exciting times lie ahead after all.