AMERICAN DREAM
Stateside investors keep targeting Scottish clubs and the big question is... WHY?
PHIL RAWLINS beat none other than David Beckham to set up Orlando City as America’s 21st Major League Soccer club.
After introducing the Beautiful Game to the Beautiful City, he posed with Kaka by his side in Florida in 2014 having made the Brazilian megastar a marquee summer signing from AC Milan.
Next season, Rawlins, and wife Carrie, may be spotted in the less glamorous surroundings of Station Park in Forfar and Peterhead’s Balmoor after agreeing to join the board of League One side Falkirk.
The investment of £250,000 is an undoubted boost for the Bairns, given Rawlins’ solid past track record.
Handed a life presidency after his success in establishing and growing Orlando City, his earlier time on the board at Stoke City coincided with the club’s rise to the English Premier League.
He and Carrie, formerly a consultant with Deloitte & Touche, have spent the past few years working with clubs around the world through their firm Sleeping Giant Consulting before choosing to try to help the fallen Bairns back to the top flight for the first time since 2010.
The Rawlins are now on course to join fellow US investors in Scottish football like Ron Gordon at Hibs, Tim Keyes at Dundee and Mark Ogren at Dundee United.
And earlier this month, Dunfermline Athletic announced a group of ambitious German businessmen, led by former St Pauli sporting director Thomas Meggle, ex-Davis Cup tennis player Damir Keretic and Nick Teller, a director of Commerzbank, had purchased a 30-per-cent stake in the second-tier side, with an option to acquire another 45.1 per cent by May, 2022.
Yet, if accepting an injection of cash from a credible source is a no-brainer for the clubs involved, one question remains. What exactly is in it for the foreign owners and backers?
‘It is a relatively cheap investment,’ leading football finance expert Kieran Maguire told ‘There is no money in the Championship. Falkirk’s accounts show they lost over £650,000 in 2019 when they were relegated to League One.
‘But there is money to be made if a team can get up to the Premiership.
‘And, if you look at Scottish football, the UEFA co-efficient is creeping up and there is the opportunity to get into Europe — and that, too, can be lucrative.
‘If you look at TNS, who normally win the Welsh league, they make more money from the preliminary qualifiers than they do from the whole of the Welsh league season — although that’s not televised and not got sponsors and so on.
‘But, if you can get to the group stage and you find yourself up against the third best side in Albania, it’s still live on television and that makes a big difference financially.
‘You just have to look at Rangers’ accounts. Revenues increased from £32.7million to £53.2million in their first season under Steven Gerrard.
‘Of course, Gerrard is useful because he’s iconic but he’s not made that financial difference all by himself.
‘The main difference was Rangers getting back to the group stage of European football. That’s effectively a 60-per-cent increase in revenue in a single year.
‘If you are a smaller club, that sum sets you up for two or three years. And, if you are in Europe, the owner could now sell the club for a bit more if that’s what they want to do.
‘So the upsides of investing in Scottish football are quite good especially when you compare the cost of investing elsewhere.
‘To buy a Premier League club in England, you are realistically talking £200m but the chance of getting into Europe will be relatively slim unless you add another zero to the end (by investing in players).’
The success of Andy Robertson at Liverpool and Kieran Tierney at Arsenal has given the market for Scotland-based players more credibility in England than it had enjoyed in recent years.
But Maguire does not believe any potential owner should hang his hat on unearthing unpolished gems and selling them on at a profit to bigger clubs down south.
‘That’s a bit like panning for gold,’ he said. ‘Transfers can definitely be lucrative but there is an element of fortune involved. Like having the right scout in the right place at the right time to find a player.
‘Celtic clearly have a development model where they look to move on a player a year and it seems to work for them. But the smaller clubs are more likely to move players on within Scotland (for more modest sums).’
While cash is king in the business world, Maguire, who is author of the successful book The
Price of Football, stresses that the rewards of investing in a Scottish club are not merely financial.
‘There are other benefits,’ he said. ‘It is a great way of increasing your profile. It gives you kudos. There’s not many people can say: “I own a football club”. It gives you a unique position in respect of your other existing businesses.
‘There is also an affection for Scotland in the United States in particular and there is a novelty value to being involved in a Scottish football club.
‘And, if you are very wealthy then a sum like £250,000 to get involved in Falkirk is a drop in the ocean.
‘So getting involved with Scottish football makes sense for foreign investors for many reasons.’