Brentford owner Benham weighs up minority investment in Bees
Brentford have received multiple offers of minority investment from American groups who value the club at around £400m.
Owner Matthew Benham has been seeking additional investment for over a year. Rothschild was appointed to oversee the sales process but Morning Wire understands that the merchant bank is no longer working on the Brentford deal.
The interested parties are all believed to have proposed buying differing stakes, leaving Benham with a range of options over which partnership to pursue.
Benham wants to retain control at Brentford having transformed their fortunes since buying the club 13 years ago.
The 56-year-old data and betting guru has overseen Brentford’s move to the GTech Community Stadium and established them as a Premier League club under manager Thomas Frank.
Brentford are currently 11th in the table with European qualification a possibility, and they will begin their fifth successive season in the Premier League in August.
Burnham to lobby for Ratcliffe?
Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has already begun the process of lobbying government contacts for public money to secure land required to facilitate the building of Manchester United’s proposed new £2bn stadium.
Burnham is a member of the Old Trafford Stadium Task Force created by United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, along with Lord Coe and Gary Neville, and is seen as the key to securing government backing for the project.
The former Health Secretary was already working closely with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner on plans to close the 35 per cent growth gap between Greater Manchester and London, and will argue that United’s stadium project could help.
Ratcliffe’s decision to announce United’s stadium plans last week was timed to attract government attention ahead of Reeves’ Spring Statement next week, which is expected to be a gloomy affair featuring cuts to public spending, tax rises or additional borrowing.
All aboard the Euros train to… Cardiff
The Home Nations‘ preparations for hosting the 2028 European Championship will begin in earnest later this month with the appointment of the board that will run the tournament.
The first board meeting has been scheduled to take place in Cardiff on 28 March, with the venue chosen to reflect the fact that the opening game of Euro 2028 will take place at the Principality Stadium.
Wembley will stage the final and both semi-finals, but the rest of the games have yet to be allocated. The five matches that were due to take place at Casement Park in Belfast also have to be reassigned among the seven other venues, although that is a decision for Uefa.
RFU/Championship stand-off
The RFU’s Men’s Professional Rugby Board (MPRB), which yesterday announced that Championship clubs Ealing Trailfinders and Coventry Rugby will be denied the chance of going up to the Premiership due to failing their minimum standards audit, had not been formed when the promotion criteria were established by the RFU Council last summer.
The new Board was only set up in September with its main remit being to manage the four-year funding agreement between the RFU and Premiership clubs.
The MPRB was also charged with reviewing an independent audit of the three Championship clubs who applied to be assessed for promotion against the Premiership’s criteria.
Ealing and Coventry both failed as they do not have planning permission for the phased development of a 10,001-capacity stadium, and while Doncaster Knights passed they are currently eighth in the Championship and have no chance of winning the second tier.
The RFU Council has approved a two-legged promotion play-off between the bottom Premiership club and winners of the Championship from next season, assuming they meet the minimum standards criteria.
Ealing’s application for next season did not include any plans for stadium improvements however, and as they are on course to win the Championship for the third time in four years their stand-off with the RFU appears set to continue.
Middlesex in the black, again
Middlesex recorded a modest profit of £75,000 for 2024 in accounts released to members this week, the second successive year they have been profitable.
This notable achievement for a small county who are tenants of the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) at Lord’s would have been even more impressive had they not incurred £70,000 of legal fees, the majority of which are down to successfully defending themselves in a misconduct charge brought by the Cricket Regulator.
Race for chief into final furlong
Chester Racecourse chief executive Louise Stewart has emerged as a contender to take over at the Jockey Club, who have been without a permanent chief executive since the departure of Nevin Truesdale last December.
Former Jockey Club chief commercial officer Charlie Boss has been appointed interim group chief executive, and presided over last week’s successful Cheltenham Festival, but is not in the running for the permanent job and is expected to leave following the July Festival at Newmarket, the Jockey Club’s last big event of the summer.
Stewart has been at Chester for three years having previously been chief executive at Alexandra Palace, where she oversaw a £30m restoration project at the iconic London venue.
The recruitment process is ultimately being run by Baroness Dido Harding, who took over as senior steward of the Jockey Club last July.
The British Horseracing Authority is also in the process of appointing a new chief executive after Julie Harrington left in December, with Brant Dunshea currently in charge at the governing body on an interim basis.
Ironically Harrington was last month appointed as an independent non-executive director at Chester, so is well placed to give Stewart the inside track on the corridors of power if needed.