Alex Webb, Columnist

Who Would Spend Billions to Buy Manchester United and Arsenal?

Without a European Super League, owners are left with teams whose value can only be realized by selling up.

April 30, 2021 at 6:00 AM UTC

Alex Webb is a correspondent for Bloomberg Quicktake. He previously covered the technology, telecoms and media industries in London, San Francisco and Munich.

Time to score.
Photographer: Ash Donelon/Manchester United

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Soccer is not a very good business. That’s why the billionaire owners of Manchester United Plc. and Arsenal F.C. wanted to join the ill-fated European Super League. Now that those plans have combusted, the owners are left with teams whose value can only be realized by selling up. The problem is, there are no rational buyers for clubs with a sticker price in the billions of dollars.

United fans perennially complain about how much money the Florida-based Glazer family has taken out of the club since buying it in 2005. From a combination of dividends, consulting fees, proceeds from the 2012 initial public offering and a $96 million stake sale just last month, the Glazers have received, by my calculations, about $375 million in cash from Man Utd since 2005.