They’re the real Ted Lasso – but there’s more to Hampton and Richmond Borough’s story
They share a locale with the fictional AFC Richmond from hit TV series Ted Lasso, but the most interesting thing about Hampton and Richmond Borough FC is their heavyweight backing and part in testing out the ‘VCFC playbook’.
The hand-written sign proclaiming “BELIEVE” in the directors’ box is a clue. So are the framed cartoons of players like Dani Rojas and, of course, the main man himself. We are in Ted Lasso country and this is the closest thing to a real-life AFC Richmond.
It is a world away, though, from the glamorous end of English football depicted in the Golden Globe and Emmy award winning TV sensation, created by and starring Hollywood actor Jason Sudeikis as the eponymous hokey American coach.
Hampton and Richmond Borough play not in the Premier League but in the National League South, their players have day jobs – including in the City – to make ends meet, and the only filming being done on this chilly midweek night is by a teenager from their in-house team.
The Ted Lasso connections don’t begin and end with the club’s location. Coincidentally, Paul Tisdale, the former Exeter manager who is now an advisor and part-owner of the club, spent time with the show’s producers and is said to have inspired aspects of Sudeikis’s character.
But the Tinseltown parallels aren’t even the most interesting thing about this 103-year-old club’s story. That, instead, is that renowned US financiers have been persuaded by two charismatic Italian-Argentinian brothers to back their attempt to take the Beavers into the big time.
Rafa Petruzzo, 44, is a former executive at Barclays, Tesco and Arcadia with a background in technology and the customer experience, while younger brother Stefano, 38, previously worked in strategy at Liverpool FC. The dapper co-executive directors have also worked in fashion.
Their investors include the co-founder of cosmetics brand Bobbi Brown, Ken Landis; early Uber and Roblox backer Chris Fralic; private equity veteran Tom Christopoul; and former Rightmove chairman Scott Forbes. They are not, it is fair to say, your typical non-league ownership.
“Myself and Stefano are not wealthy, don’t have capital. But we’re very good at building a story that makes sense for people to bring capital into, because they believe in our skill set and our playbook,” says co-executive director Rafa Petruzzo.
Stefano adds: “It does bring with it a certain amount of pressure. That pressure is internally driven from knowing you have very successful, demanding people in their own businesses that are watching. And they want to feel that they’ve backed a winning team.”
“They’re all in it for different reasons. Some of them may be looking at it because the sports industry has now become an accepted asset class. The other way to look at it is very successful people that are looking for ways to have fun and be fulfilled.”
How Ted Lasso and Wrexham ‘opened doors’ for Hampton and Richmond
The Ted Lasso angle helps, of course. As does the success of Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in catapulting AFC Wrexham out of non-league, which has shown the infinite potential of brands even way down the English football pyramid.
“Unapologetically, we’ve always said Ted Lasso has actually done a lot for this club,” says Rafa.
Adds Stefano: “It’s opened many doors, it started many conversations, then what you do with those conversations is what really matters.”
Stefano is “very thankful” to Reynolds and pals. “We started looking at the lower reaches of English football before the Wrexham thing happened. So it wasn’t the spark but it was certainly confirmation that there was a different way to do National League football.
“If you don’t have that huge celebrity involvement then you have to find your own competitive advantages. Ours is the quality of operators that we brought on board.”
The Petruzzos took over the club in December 2022 and have overseen more than £1m of investment since. Unlike Wrexham, the money hasn’t gone on expensive signings but on basics like improving their 3,500-capacity stadium The Beveree.
It has borne fruit. On the field, the club have gone from 17th place last season to fourth so far this year, while attendances are up 80 per cent and matchday revenue has doubled. Their stated ambition is to reach the English Football League in five years.
There have been smart steps elsewhere, too: a badge redesign, a shirt sponsorship with Movember which amplifies both brands, investment in youth and a women’s team. The club’s backers converted £1.4m of loans into equity, it was announced last week.
But Hampton and Richmond is no one-hit wonder. Before arriving in leafy south-west London, the Petruzzos helped to revive Uruguay’s oldest football Club, Albion FC, taking them back into the top flight for the first time in 113 years.
Why the club can prove the Petruzzos’ playbook and VCFC concept
And this is just the beginning, they hope. Borrowing from their corporate backgrounds, the brothers speak of having drawn up a “playbook” which they believe could be enacted in any underperforming club in the world.
It’s a concept that the Petruzzos like to call “VCFC” (Venture Capital FC). Explains Rafa: “This is a team that you can literally lift and drop in any club. This team will transform, grow and elevate the club.”
Says Stefano: “The starting point was we develop our playbook. Now let’s find a platform to put our money where our mouth is – instead of doing it as consultants actually get into the cap table, and seek support from other people that believe in us. And then go for it.
“That’s how we got to Hampton and Richmond. But it’s a theory, and it’s a way of doing things that lives beyond Hampton and Richmond that we hope that as [the club] evolves, maybe we can bring our expertise to other clubs that need this kind of support.”
They have been upfront with fans about their long-term plans from the start, they say. “It’s not necessarily been what everyone’s wanted,” says managing director Will King, who admits some would prefer to stay non-league forever. “But then there’s been other fans who have really embraced it.”
To their credit, they have resisted the financial incentive to lean even harder into the Ted Lasso stuff. “We are Hampton and Richmond, we’ve been here for more than 100 years, before Apple TV and Ted Lasso,” says Rafa. “We will never change the name of the club [or] sell out the real significance of this club because there’s a commercial opportunity.”
The Petruzzos are great company and will entertain talk of reaching the top flight, even Europe, no matter how fanciful at present. More realistic is making the EFL for the first time, although if all goes well they may have taken their playbook elsewhere by then.
“I don’t know if there will be our current investors and ourselves taking the club to the Premier League, if that ever happens,” says Stefano. “But so long as we leave it in a stage where the next group of people that can go on that journey are able to do that, then we will have succeeded.”