US Billionaire Brings His Golden Touch to English Football
AFC Bournemouth’s owner has his eye on European competition as the small club from the south coast punches above its weight.
Bill Foley on the pitch before the Premier League match between Bournemouth and Crystal Palace at the Vitality Stadium in December 2022.
Photographer: Graham Hunt/ProSports/Shutterstock
When Bill Foley first looked into buying AFC Bournemouth in 2019, the football club on the south coast of England was a Premier League struggler. It had another distinction, though: It was owned by a Russian.
Foley, the 79-year-old billionaire owner of the National Hockey League’s Las Vegas Golden Knights, saw an opportunity. Russian expats who had parked assets in the UK suddenly found themselves under the threat of sanctions following the poisoning of a former Russian intelligence officer, and spy for the British, in Salisbury in 2018.