• Loading stock data...
Thursday, June 5, 2025

Tottenham Hotspur Chairman Doesn’t Want to Relinquish Control

 Spurs have been the focus of interest from new investors for 18 months. But Daniel Levy is holding up a sale.

Oct 6, 2024; Tottenham, ENG; Tottenham Hotspur Chairman Daniel Levy is pitch side before kick off for the New York Jets against Minnesota Vikings at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Shaun Brooks/Imagn Images
Exclusive

Michelle Beadle on Losing SiriusXM Slot to Stephen A. Smith: ‘I Don’t Respect Him’

Smith will host a weekday show in Beadle's former spot, as well as a weekly show.
Read Now
June 4, 2025 |

Daniel Levy has been the most influential person at Tottenham Hotspur for almost 25 years. The chairman transformed the financial fortunes of the soccer club through increased commercial success, built a $1 billion stadium, and firmly established the North London team as one of the English Premier League’s “big six.” It just doesn’t have the silverware to show for it.

For the past 18 months, Spurs have been the focus of interest from new investors. New York–based MSP Sports Capital was linked with a purchase in late 2023 before stepping back, and Levy held talks with Qatar Sports Investments chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi about a potential minority stake in 2024.

Recent months have also seen former Newcastle United co-owners Amanda Staveley and her husband, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, linked with a takeover move backed by wealthy investors from Qatar.

But Levy doesn’t appear ready to relinquish control of his boyhood club. 

On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported Levy has “stymied” takeover talks. His high valuation of Spurs and his wish to remain in charge of strategy have been major roadblocks. 

As the most visible senior figure at the club, Levy is often a lightning rod for criticism toward majority owners ENIC Sports Inc., the firm helmed by London-born billionaire Joe Lewis. The Lewis family holds 70% of the ENIC Sports Inc. investment, with the rest of the 87% held by Levy, the highest-paid club director in the EPL.

While ENIC owns the controlling stake, Levy wields tremendous power from leading the club’s financial turnaround. (Spurs have eclipsed the $3 billion valuation mark by Forbes’s most recent estimate.) The club is now one of the most valuable and high-profile assets in the Tavistock Group, the holding company of which Levy is a board member and where his son Josh serves as co-CEO. (Lewis’s children, Vivienne and Charles, hold positions as managing directors.)

“Daniel Levy earns well at Spurs. As per the most recent accounts, he was taking home more than £6 million a year as well as the shareholding he possesses in the club,” says U.K. football finance expert Kieran Maguire, author of The Price of Football and host of the eponymous podcast.

“But he wants them to be successful on the pitch, and soccer delivers something that is unique, and that is fame and adulation,” says Maguire. “He was heavily involved in futureproofing the club and building the new stadium, which was done when interest rates were phenomenally low. It really was a masterstroke.” (Around 90% of Spurs’ near $860 million debt is at a fixed rate, with a significant amount of that at interest rates of just under 3%.)

Oct 13, 2024; London, United Kingdom; The 2024 NFL London Games, New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings, Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears logo on the facade at an NFL International Series game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Kirby Lee/Imagn Images

Revenue at Spurs has risen by 170% over the last decade, sitting at a little over $670 million as per the recently published Deloitte Football Money League, good for ninth among world soccer teams.

In the four financial years between 2015 and 2019, Spurs made a pretax profit just short of $400 million, the highest in the EPL. While they have failed to post a profit in the four years since, they have seen revenues rise considerably thanks to the new stadium.

Levy secured a lucrative, multiyear deal with the NFL to host annual regular-season games, part of his plan all along with bespoke locker rooms and a retractable surface that changes from soccer pitch to football field. Music is part of the equation, too: Beyoncé will play a six-night run this summer after the success of her five-night 2023 visit to the stadium. Kendrick Lamar and SZA are also slated to perform in July.

But aside from a 2019 Champions League final appearance and a 2017 second-place league finish, the biggest prizes have proved out of reach for Spurs, while the unrest among supporters—and ire toward Levy—has grown, as evidenced by recent protests before the club’s home match with Manchester United on Feb. 16.

The club has the lowest wages-to-revenue ratio percentage of all 20 EPL teams at 42%, something viewed by fans as focusing more on the bottom line than competitive success, while the squad cost less than the other members of the “big six,” namely Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Manchester United.

But that focus on business performance has afforded them greater room to invest in the coming years, something that will aid Levy’s efforts at achieving the silverware he craves.

Jordan Gardner, a U.S. investor in European soccer and adviser to those seeking to invest in the space, believes that with the desire to stick around to try to secure competitive success, Levy has little motivation to step aside.

“People underestimate emotional attachment,” Gardner tells Front Office Sports. “If I’m Daniel Levy and I played such a key role in building this business and making it viable, I’m looking for someone to support me rather than show me the door. He’s a strong personality and he’s unlikely to want to do a deal with people with whom he is not aligned.”

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

Marc Lasry

Marc Lasry Still Wants to Buy an NWSL Team 

The billionaire tried, and failed, to buy two NWSL clubs last year.
exclusive

Michelle Beadle on Losing SiriusXM Slot to Stephen A. Smith: ‘I Don’t..

Smith will host a weekday show in Beadle’s former spot, as well as a weekly show.
Jordan Ott

Mat Ishbia Goes Back to Michigan State Again in Quest to Fix..

Phoenix has now hired its coach and GM from the MSU tree.
Jun 4, 2025; Paris, FR; Coco Gauff of the United States celebrates winning her match against Madison Keys of the United States on day 11 at Roland Garros Stadium.

Coco Gauff Is Last Hope for U.S. to End French Open Drought

Gauff last made the French Open final in 2022.

Featured Today

May 27, 2015; Paris, France; Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO) knocks the clay off her shoe during her match against Simona Halep (ROU) on day four of the French Open at Roland Garros

Roland-Garros’s Iconic Red-Clay Surface Is a Precise Alchemy

The exact science behind maintaining the French Open’s red clay.
Alex Jensen introductory press conference on Monday, March 17, 2025.
June 3, 2025

Alex Jensen Started Utah Utes HC Job While Still Coaching the Mavs

How Jensen began building an NCAA program while patrolling the Dallas sideline.
May 31, 2025

PSG and the City of Paris Can Join European Soccer’s Elite

What a maiden Champions League title would mean for the French club.
May 30, 2025

How the Champions League Anthem Took on a Life of Its Own

The composer didn’t know he wrote a timeless hit three decades ago.
Thibs

Knicks Fire Tom Thibodeau in Stunner After Deep Playoff Run

Thibodeau led the Knicks to four playoff appearances in five seasons.
June 3, 2025

Aces Players Get Second $100K Bonus As WNBA Probe Drags On

The sponsorship money is about $35,000 more than the minimum annual WNBA salary.
A Chelsea FC banner is waved over the field at Stamford Bridge stadium.
June 3, 2025

U.K. Threatens to Take Former Chelsea Owner to Court for Billions from..

Abramovich sold Chelsea in 2022 for $3.4 billion.
Sponsored

Game On: Portfolio Players Stories, Brought to You by E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley

In Episode 7 of Portfolio Players, go inside the boardroom with Avenue Capital CEO and former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry on Giannis’s future, women’s sports, and upstart leagues like TGL and Unrivaled. 
June 2, 2025

NiJaree Canady’s $1 Million Arm Slays Softball Favorite Oklahoma

NIL star Canady leads Tech to the Finals in her first season.
Dec 23, 2024; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; General view of the Vince Lombardi statue outside of Lambeau Field prior to the game between the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers.
June 2, 2025

Publicly Owned Packers Make a Rare Leadership Change

Ed Policy will lead the NFL’s only publicly owned franchise.
June 2, 2025

Rockies Hit New Low With No Clear Answers in Sight

The club is on pace to become the worst in baseball’s modern era.
May 31, 2025

Pacers-Thunder Is Lowest-Payroll NBA Finals in Years

Neither team is in the luxury tax, despite rosters with multiple All-Stars.