Originally Posted by
Monaco_Totty
3.The spectre of relegation, and the realisation that it was probably coming this time, prompted 49ers Enterprises to initiate fresh discussions with Radrizzani about buying the club regardless of league status. Those negotiations have been ongoing for the past few weeks, urgent and tense. As time went on, the relationship between the two sides became more and more delicate and the US group is now clear on two things: that it will only buy at what it considers to be a fair price and that it wants Radrizzani to exit the building, as opposed to him continuing in an active, operational role as a minority stakeholder.
Additional challenges for 49ers Enterprises remain, even at this late stage. Not all of the investors behind its project are enthusiastic about buying an EFL side. The fund was put together on the basis of Leeds being a Premier League entity. A major call with the investment group took place this Thursday gone, with 49ers Enterprises still determined to bring a takeover to fruition in the worst-case scenario of relegation. But Radrizzani holds many of the cards, with the prerogative to stick to the price he wants or to plough on and try to get Leeds promoted again.
All the same, there is clear evidence of him looking for an exit plan. For a long time, he has had eyes on purchasing a team in Italy. Inter Milan are available to buy and Radrizzani has looked at their books, although the bank managing bids for Inter value the club at around £1billion and were not sure how he would fund that. In the past week, Radrizzani has openly declared his involvement in an attempt to acquire Sampdoria, a club who have bombed out of Serie A with horrible debts but, as a result, are more within his price range.
Radrizzani was videoed driving into Sampdoria’s training ground on Monday, indicating to local media that he was hopeful of completing a buy-out. On Thursday it emerged that Qatari Sports Investments (QSI) had involved itself in the process, offering to support a buy-out in Genoa. Radrizzani is close to QSI’s chairman, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and at points in the past, QSI was vaguely credited with an interest in acquiring shares at Elland Road, without ever doing so.
A takeover of Sampdoria appears to hinge on Radrizzani selling Leeds, though, and progress on that front might be the tipping point for him and 49ers Enterprises to resolve and close out their own discussions. Yesterday, Sampdoria issued a statement announcing that the bid Radrizzani is part of had secured exclusivity to complete a deal. There was no sign of him or any of 49ers Enterprises’ representatives at Elland Road today.
There are other things in Radrizzani’s life beyond football — other assets he owns, like his investment firm Aser. Eleven Sports, the broadcast business he established, was recently sold to DAZN and he runs the Play for Change charity, an organisation which supports the underprivileged through sports and education projects. For a while he was a director of the football agency Football Capital but resigned from that position before investing at Elland Road.
But Leeds, by a distance, have been the biggest fish in his portfolio, the project which turned an unfamiliar media man into a recognisable face in the football world. And, six years on, it has taught him a lesson: that much like coaching and management, ownership often ends in disappointment, frustration and recrimination. Consolidating in the Premier League has been beyond him.
Leeds were never intended to be forever for Radrizzani and it easy to imagine him asking himself if he hung on too long; to imagine 49ers Enterprises thinking it waited too long to take the club from him; that through two very troubled campaigns, relegation has been coming. The city waits now to see how movement in the boardroom plays out because, for all that Leeds are without a long-term head coach, a director of football and a squad which is demonstrably ready for the Championship, nothing is sure to affect them more than the ownership structure from here on.
Three years ago, Radrizzani told Forbes that in future years he wanted to devote less of his life to business. “Let’s say that out of 100, the time I currently dedicate to work is 80 per cent,” he said. “I hope that in 10 years, it will be approximately 30 per cent family, 30 per cent for me, 30 per cent social projects.” A dabble with Sampdoria would make that very difficult, but as rising dissent rang around Elland Road for the final time this season, he must have been asking himself if the game at Leeds is up.
In football club ownership, that question comes to them all.