Moneyball Can't Guarantee Brentford a Ticket to Soccer's Elite

Foreign interest in European football clubs remains resilient even though the market for broadcasting rights has cooled. US private equity firm Arctos Partners LP bought a minority stake in France’s Paris Saint-Germain this month at an eye-watering valuation of more than six times revenue. Across the English Channel, in the world’s richest soccer division, the next potential sale of a Premier League club may struggle to match that excitement.

Brentford FC has become the latest top-flight team to signal that it’s open to investment, with owner Matthew Benham considering possible offers for a stake and the club set to appoint a bank to advise on the sale, Bloomberg News reported last week, citing a person familiar with the deal. Applying a revenue multiple of four times — well below ratios for the Premier League’s leading teams — would indicate a valuation in excess of £500 million ($628 million). Manchester United Plc’s owners, the US Glazer family, are currently negotiating to sell a stake to British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe in a deal that values the club at more than £5 billion, or close to eight times revenue.