So, I looks as if Blackburn Rovers are set to become the latest Premier League club to get foreign owners, with Indian farming company Venkey’s Group all but ready to complete a takeover from the Jack Walker Trust.
They will join 8 of the other 19 premiership clubs who are owned outright by foreign nationals, with a further 3 being part owned abroad. That will leave only eight clubs wholly in the hands of British owners.
In other words, there will be more clubs in England’s top division owned by people from outside this country than within it.
And they call it England’s national game.
I for one am glad that when Jack Hayward put Wolves up for sale, he held out for a British buyer. Everything points to Steve Morgan being in this for the long haul and not as a play thing. I fear for the likes of Birmingham, Chelsea et al for when their foreign sugar-daddies get bored and ship out, leaving the clubs in the kind of mess Pompey currently find themselves.
For the record, the wholly foreign owned clubs are (from wikipedia) :
- Aston Villa (USA)
- Birmingham City (Hong Kong)
- Chelsea (Russia)
- Fulham (Egypt)
- Liverpool (USA)
- Man City (UEA)
- Man Utd (USA)
- Sunderland (USA)
And the part foreign owned clubs are :
- Arsenal (USA 29.9% & Russia 26%)
- Blackpool (Latvia 20%)
- West Ham (Iceland 40%)
Leaving Bolton, Everton, Newcastle, Stoke, Spurs, Wigan, Wolves & Albion in British only hands.
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