There is a case to be made that Leeds United have one of the most powerful and influential ownership groups in world football.
The San Francisco 49ers and their investment arm, 49ers Enterprises, have an enterprise value of around £5bn, while their membership of the NFL gives them access to sport’s biggest business sphere.
We constantly hear about the extraordinary financial success of the Premier League, but the NFL is in a different universe in terms of revenue, profitability and security.
That is why the 49ers had the resources to go outside their own sport and invest in Leeds United, taking an initial 15 per cent stake in 2018 and increasing it incrementally until the full takeover in 2023
Since that date, the 49ers have, of course, sold an unspecified minority stake to Red Bull in a move that was greeted with some cynicism at Elland Road and beyond.
The Austrian energy drinks titans have promised not to mess with Leeds’ identity as a club – and that means no colour changes or badge rebrands – but their motivations for investing still aren’t entirely clear.
If it was brand exposure alone that Red Bull wanted, it is difficult to see why they would not have just forked out for Leeds’ front-of-shirt sponsorship rights without also taking an equity stake.
Interestingly, Leeds United was Red Bull’s first minority investment in football, with every other club in their network at that point owned fully by the corporation’s sports arm.
However, Red Bull have since acquired another minority stake, again in second-tier club in Paris FC.
That deal, which was part of a full takeover worth £75m, has seen Red Bull link up with one of the world’s wealthiest people: Louis Vuitton owner Bernard Arnault.
World’s fifth-richest man flexes financial muscle after Red Bull investment
Forbes currently rank Arnault as the world’s fifth-richest man.
Previously, his wealth has surpassed that of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg to make him the richest of the lot.
Naturally, pockets that deep give you access to and the ear of the most powerful people on planet.
Football is another vehicle through which these sorts of investors are seeking to increase their influence.
The club Arnault has just bought in Paris FC are looking to rival Paris Saint-Germain, whose owners Qatar Sports Investments’ purpose in sport is to improve Qatar’s brand on the global stage, for instance.
And in recent days, Arnault has shown just how much his investments pay off, both in terms of ROI and ‘soft power’.
The 75-year-old has donated around £165m to the Notre-Dame redevelopment fund, which was set up in with the aim of rebuilding the historic Parisian cathedral following the fire that consumed it in 2019.
Last Friday, Arnault was invited to the grand reopening of Notre-Dame and was pictured sitting alongside the likes of US president elect Donald Trump and French president Emmanuel Macron.
It is a mark of football’s global appeal that the richest and most powerful people in the world are interested in it as a vehicle to support their agendas.
Trump and his family, for example, were recently personally involved in draw for the Club World Cup.
And with their co-owners getting into bed with these sorts of figures, Leeds now have a seat next to that kind of power on the global stage.
Kieran Maguire on how Bernard Arnault link can help Leeds United
A tangential link with an ultra-rich investor is all well and good, but how can Leeds themselves use the connection to further their own ambitions?
Speaking exclusively to LUN, Liverpool University football finance expert and industry Kieran Maguire suggested that Arnault could potentially prove to be a valuable commercial powerbroker.
“It is a good thing for Leeds in the sense that they can only move forward with more partnerships.
“The issue from my point of view is that Arnault is not a young man, so I imagine his focus will be domestic rather than international.
“But there is no downside from Leeds’ point of view. The opportunity to showcase the club is something that they will welcome.
“The relationship with Red Bull is an interesting one but, as with any multi-club relationship, you don’t always get what you want from it.”
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