Firms may be on same team

Rival Scottish five-a-side football venue operators Goals Soccer Centres and Powerleague are in talks over a potential tie-up, it emerged yesterday.

East Kilbride-based Goals confirmed preliminary discussions were taking place. But it also said the possibility of combining the two businesses was just one of the “strategic opportunities” being assessed by its senior management.

Goals added: “At this stage, no commercial or financial terms have been agreed and no decision on any course of action has been made by the board.

“There is, therefore, no certainty that any transaction will proceed.”

Paisley-based Powerleague is owned by private equity firm Patron Capital. It describes itself as the UK’s largest provider of small-sided league football, organising five and sevena-side leagues for 30,000 players across 200 locations every week.

It arranges the fixtures, the trophies, the balls and qualified referees, making it easy for players of all ages and levels to play regular competitive football.

Goals was at the heart of a takeover battle which came to nothing about five years ago. Powerleague’s owner was already mulling a bid for the business when Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), one of the world’s biggest pension funds, tabled a £73.1million offer. Goals’ shareholders later voted down proposals for their company to be taken over by OTPP.

Last year, Goals appointed former casino boss Mark Jones as its new chief executive as it sought to turn around flagging UK sales.

Mr Jones replaced Keith Rogers, who is now in charge of the firm’s growing US business.

Goals and Powerleague share a link through Mr Rogers, who co-founded a five-a-side business, Anchor International, in 1987 and later collected £28million from its sale to privateequity firm 3i.

Anchor and 3i’s existing five-as-side business, Powerplay, were merged to form Powerleague, which floated on the stock market in May 2005, while Mr Rogers went on to develop and acquire a business which eventually became Goals.