Arsenal and Liverpool ‘join Chelsea in hoping to mimic Man City and become multi-club networks’
Arsenal and Liverpool‘s owners have reportedly joined Chelsea‘s Todd Boehly in looking to establish a ‘multi-club network’ much like the one created by Manchester City’s owners, City Football Group.
It comes weeks after Chelsea’s co-controlling owner Boehly revealed his desire to have a ‘multi-club modal’ and is understood to have held initial discussions with buying a Portuguese team earlier this month.
It now appears that Arsenal’s Stan Kroenke and his Liverpool counterpart John W Henry are exploring the option of expanding their football club portfolio in the near future, according to the Guardian.
Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke (right) and Liverpool owner John W Henry (left) have reportedly joined Chelsea in wanting to establish a ‘multi-club network’ like Manchester City’s
It comes weeks after Chelsea owner Todd Boehly (pictured) revealed his desire to expand
City Football Group, which was formed in 2013 as City owner Sheikh Mansour, own 11 football clubs worldwide with their most recent addition coming in July when they acquired a majority stake in Serie A side Palermo.
Palermo joined City, New York City, Melbourne City, Yokohama F Marinos, Montevideo City Torque, Girona, Sichuan Jiuniu, Mumbai City, Lommel SK and Troyes under the CFG banner and now Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal are looking to do the same.
Kroenke, who already owns MLS outfit Colorado Rapids along with NFL side LA Rams among others, is said to have already looked at purchasing clubs in Brazil, Belgium and Portugal.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, which owns baseball side the Boston Red Sox as well as NHL team Pittsburgh Penguins, is also looking to expand it’s portfolio further into football.
Boehly made it no secret that he wanted to start a new multi-club network while he praised Red Bull football group and CFG for pioneering the idea.
The City Football Group, led by Sheikh Mansour (right), own 11 football clubs worldwide
‘We’re going to be continuously adding resources’ Boehly told the Salt Conference earlier this month. ‘We’ve talked about having a multi-club model. I would love to continue to build out the footprint. There’s different countries where there’s advantages to having a club.
‘Red Bull does a really good job at Leipzig and at Salzburg, both of which are playing in the Champions League, so they’ve figured out how to make that work. You have Man City that has a very big network of clubs.’
He added: ‘I think the challenge that Chelsea has now, or one of them, is that when you have 18-, 19-, 20-year-old superstars, you can loan them out to other clubs but you put their development in someone else’s hands.
‘I think that our goal is to make sure we can show pathways for our young superstars to get on to the Chelsea pitch while getting them real game time. To me the way to do that is through another club somewhere in a really competitive league in Europe.’
Having held talks with a Portuguese club over acquiring a majority stake, Boehly is understood to have held initial discussions with the club’s academy manager Neil Bath and high-profile agent Jorge Mendes, who is Portuguese, earlier this summer.
During the talks it is believed the concept of purchasing a Portuguese club was discussed.
Such a move would enable the Stamford Bridge club to send their most promising young talent out to secure valuable first-team football but continue under the Chelsea umbrella.
Boehly held initial discussions over Chelsea purchasing a Portuguese club in the summer
Bath is understood to have been working on identifying which club would be most suitable for the club to recruit as a sister team.
Mendes’ connections in Portugal would make the intermediary a suitable conduit to facilitate a deal should Chelsea decide to make a formal approach a club.
Boehly believes Portugal represents a good opportunity to extend Chelsea’s global footprint given its position as one of the best outside Europe’s recognised top five divisions.