A football Club is essentially a combination of two entities and this is where it differs from a usual business.

• The Club as a functioning business.

• The Club as a Sporting Entity.

As a functioning business there is normally a standard approach. Like any business a football club will be structured to accrue revenues, increase turnover and hopefully make a profit. Like no other business the motivation for owning and operating a football club is variable. Normally an owner operates a football club for one or a combination of reasons:

• Ego, fun or legacy

• To make money and ROI

• To compete and Win

If we combine all three as is generally the case we quickly understand that there is no fun in making money and losing it and nobody enjoys losing so it shouldn’t be surprising that a large number of football clubs are potentially for sale at the right price.

A normal acquisition will focus on a company as a functioning business and the focus during due diligence will be on the company’s performance as a business. Using past performance in the market as a metric and comparisons with similar companies and competitors.

Using market intelligence an acquisition team will look at the current financial position and assess the possibilities for growth and the investment needs to arrive at a value for the business. They will recommend investment based on their assessment of potential increase revenues, create greater value and realise a profit in the short , medium or long term.

They will use a variety of toolkits for this process in the main based on accountancy and financial auditing and will undertake a forensic look into the companies current standing as a going concern, examining current and future income streams and liabilities as well as business performance.

This is a simplification but this work is usually carried out by a bank or financial services agency or firm of accountants.