Walsall taken over – another US investor in English football

WALSALL FOOTBALL CLUB have surprisingly been taken over by US investment company Trivela Group LLC of Birmingham, Alabama. The company have acquired 51% of the club’s shares from Leigh Pomlett, who decided to end his three-year tenure as owner. Pomlett took over from Jeff Bonser and is a long-time supporter of Walsall. Only a few days earlier, Pomlett told the local media that he was still proud to be chairman and that the club was “league one and above”. He now believes Trivela are the “right group with the right vision to help take the club forward”. The sum of money involved has not been disclosed.

Not a lot is known about Trivela, although it is common knowledge they were formed in 2021 with the mission of, “creating enduring value through the acquisition and management of association football clubs”. Their team includes Benjamin Boycott, Kenneth Polk and vice president of global football, Matt Jordan. Polk is CEO of Arlington Family Offices, a firm that manages some US$ 12 billion of capital for wealthy families.

Walsall seems to be their first investment, but reports suggest this is the start of the construction of a multi-club model. Their arrival is another example of American investors snapping-up EFL and Premier clubs. US owners are rapidly becoming the most influential segment in English football.

Trivela have, apparently, injected cash into the club for strategic investment. It remains to be seen if they will adopt the date-driven approach which seems to characterise many US football club owners.

Walsall have spent the last three seasons in League Two, finishing 16^th in 2021-22. Despite a mediocre period, the club’s home attendances were over 5,000 which was an improvement on 2019-20 and 2018-19. The club has been prudent compared to many of its rivals, and although this has meant they came through the pandemic relatively unscathed, fans have accused the current regime of lacking ambition.

Nevertheless, Walsall have reported a profit for 16 consecutive seasons, including a pre-tax profit of £ 13,000 in 2020-21 and £ 25,000 in 2019-20. Their turnover was a modest £ 4.2 million, compared to £ 5.6 million in 2019-20 and £ 6.7 million in 2018-19, an understandable development given the affect of the pandemic of gate income. Walsall’s wage bill was £3.1 million, more than 10% lower than the previous season, but 74% of income versus 62% in 2019-20.

With the arrival of Trivela, Walsall fans will be hoping for fresh impetus and more resources to build a better team on the pitch. The first phase of the transaction is taking a 51% stake in the club, followed by a second phase in which a further 25% will be acquired. An important part of Trivela’s takeover will be the purchase of the Bescot stadium freehold from past owner Bonser.

Token gesture – WAGMI and Crawley

CRAWLEY TOWN have entered a hopeful new era, at least that’s what many people believe. On the day they welcomed AFC Barrow to the People’s Pension Stadium, the club was also opening its doors to new ownership in the form of WAGMI United, whose principal figures are a sports gambling analyst and a trader of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

“Hey, what’s up guys?”, said the heavily bearded Preston Johnson, WAGMI’s co-owner, in his introductory and chummy video message on social media. “Go Reds”. This, presumably, is part of the new type of leadership WAGMI (We’re all gonna make it) will bring to English football. “A conventional approach to ownership hasn’t worked,” claimed the new investors in one of the EFL’s most humble clubs. They are not wrong there.

Johnson is also known as Sports Cheetah and is a well known character in the gambling world, while his partner Eben Smith, is a trader of NFTs and was a derivatives expert. There is talk that Belorusian-American businessman Gary Vaynerchuk and YouTube personality Bryce Hall may also be involved. There’s something very “NOW” about this group of individuals.

Crawley struggle to get more than 2,500 people at their neat, functional and ultimately pleasant ground. The town has a population of 107,000 but it was identified as one of the most vulnerable during the height of the pandemic with an astonishing 56% of jobs at some sort of risk. To a certain degree, it is a miracle they have managed to sustain EFL football for 11 seasons, but they have incurred sizeable debts and support has tailed off from their early years in the league.

There’s more than a little unease about the introduction of this type of investment and let’s not forget this is their second attempt at taking over a club, Bradford City were in talks with them a few months ago. They have ticked all the right boxes (doesn’t everyone when they go through the due diligence process?), but NFTS, Crypto, blockchain – these are all part of an unregulated market that has the potential to cause chaos. Furthermore, just 14 years after the financial crisis of 2008, people are starting to dip their toes into murky waters once more. It may be innovative, but reading some of the types of asset being exchanged for NFTs, it does resemble a digital age Emperor’s New Clothes.

With football desperately trying to win credibility in all sorts of ways, attaching itself to good and sometimes debatable causes, virtue signalling at every opportunity, how does a football club really feel about an alignment with gambling and opportunism? And Crawley’s home ground, the People’s Pension Stadium – how comfortable is the sponsor about backing a club owned by NFT advocates when trust, regulation and security are at the very heart of pension management?

The success of this venture does depend on how the public reacts. There’s no firm evidence that NFTs and football are a sure-fire winner. Liverpool, for example, failed to sell the vast majority of their LFC Heroes, and John Terry’s project saw a volatile drop in value. Dozens of clubs are now entering this field, including Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan as well as players like Tony Kroos and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

One question surely has to be the market position of Crawley Town. This is a club with low levels of support (151,000 followers across the three main social media channels) and their attendances rank 91 out of 92. Only Salford City get lower crowds.

That is not to say there are genuine prospects for growth – 107,000 is a sizeable population and being just 28 miles from London and close to Gatwick Airport makes Crawley a significant town. Moreover, they have a relatively young population that may be open to new, untried methods of club ownership. But some fans are wary of their club being used as an experiment that is by no means certain to succeed. Fans will get the chance to purchase NFTs which can be interpreted as giving them some sort of stake in the club. The proceeds can be used to help fund the progress of Crawley Town. That’s a rather simplistic view, of course, but have Crawley got enough fans and enough cachet to make a real difference?

On the evidence of the game with Barrow, there’s a lot of work to be done on the field. Crawley beat a poor visiting side who were desperate for points in their relegation struggle by a single goal. The crowd was just under 2,081 – the new era hasn’t caught the imagination just yet.

Supporter-ownership is a good thing, but will this scheme genuinely lead Crawley down that path? In a market that is generally run inefficiently, there could be a danger Crawley will find their methods will be at a disadvantage compared to the accepted hand-to-mouth system most lower league clubs seem to exist by. WAGMI are looking to challenge the status quo – not a bad thing at all – so it may be a long haul. Have they got the patience given they are looking for promotion in their second season in charge?

It’s a brave move by Crawley Town, but for all the fascination with new forms of finance, there is one big nagging doubt – do we know enough about NFTs and does the football world trust an unregulated product? Football better hope this doesn’t go horribly wrong, the finances of so many clubs are very vulnerable right now and there’s little scope for error.

Stevenage and Oldham live up to their billing

IN THE scheme of things, the battle to stay in the Football League is relatively unimportant compared to other events around the world, but an air of definite tension hung over Stevenage’s Lamex Stadium on the day the 90^th and 91^st-placed teams met in what could only be labelled an elimination bout.

It had reached a crucial stage of 2021-22 for both teams, who seemed hell bent on falling through the trapdoor. Oldham may beaten Leyton Orient a few days earlier and Stevenage might have be hoping for a late boost from the appointment of their third manager of the campaign, but both seemed in freefall. That Oldham – who also changed their coach in January, John Sheridan replacing Keith Curle – were still in with a shout was partly due to the poor form and slump of Stevenage, but the relegation battle had crystallised into any one of three to accompany Scunthorpe United. Barrow, who only returned to the league after a long absence in 2020, have evolved into candidates for a National League return.

Relegation for Stevenage would be a bitter pill to swallow after 12 years in the EFL. They’ve had some great moments in that period, winning promotion to League One in their first season and enjoying cup ties against Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Leicester City, Hull City, Southampton and Swansea City, among others. They ended their non-league life with two FA Trophy victories in 2007 and 2009 and were runners-up in 2010. It’s a town that’s always been tailor-made for league football, but since relegation back to League Two, support looks to have plateaued and in 2021-22, gates had been 5% lower than before the pandemic.

Phil Wallace has owned the club since the late 1990s and provided the impetus to take Stevenage into the league, the most recent improvement to the excellent Lamex Stadium being the North Stand, which offers a superb view for spectators. From time to time there are rumours Wallace wants to sell Stevenage and there were suggestions of a tie-up between the club and a group of cryptocurrency investors in 2021.

Wallace, allegedly the 35^th richest person in Hertfordshire, would surely not want to end his reign at Stevenage with relegation, but the club’s on-pitch performances have declined in recent years and the manager’s role has become one of the least secure in football – they have had 10 full-time appointments in 12 years, hardly a recipe for stability.

Oldham Athletic were in the first Premier League in 1992-93 and spent two seasons at that level before falling into the second (1994) and third (1997) tiers. In 2018, they were relegated to League Two and have finished in 19^th and 18^th in the last seasons respectively. Just ahead of visiting Stevenage, Oldham published their accounts and they didn’t make for good reading. Football finance guru Kieran Maguire of the Price of Football, suggested the latest figures showed the club is “technically insolvent” as it has more liabilities than assets.

However, Maguire added there is no sign of the club going into administration, but the accounts demonstrated a hand-to-mouth existence. Oldham, like many clubs, owe a lot of money, so relegation from the EFL would surely be a blow to their financial position.

Oldham fans turned out in force at Stevenage and their vocal support was very impressive. Conversely, there was an air of despondency among the home fans, who had not seen their team win since a league game the end of January. Their last away victory was recorded on August 14 at Bristol Rovers. Oldham had just ended a run of six consecutive league defeats when they beat Leyton Orient on March 29. Their home form has really been their undoing and their recent run included three successive defeats at Boundary Park.

The general feeling was the losers of the game at the Lamex may well be heading into non-league football. Time was certainly running out for both, but Stevenage appeared to have the easier run-in, with games against Rochdale, Colchester, Scunthorpe and Carlisle. Stevenage’s biggest problem was scoring goals, just 34 in the 38 games before the Oldham clash and just six in the last 10.

With so much at stake, it was no surprise tension got the better of things for long periods. Stevenage had two early efforts, but their finishing explained why they had found scoring such a chore. Luke Norris and Arthur Read should certainly have done better when presented with close range opportunities.

Oldham took the lead after 16 minutes with a nicely taken goal. Jordan Clarke’s cross to the far post was met by a looping header from Jamie Hopcutt, who had been recalled to the team by Sheridan. The Oldham keeper, Danny Rogers, danced with joy as the ball sailed over Christy Pym, his opposite number.

Stevenage nervously pressed, but their lack of firepower was exposed repeatedly, notably in the frenetic finale which almost brought the equaliser. Oldham’s defence held out, frustrating the home team and their unhappy supporters. It was a great rearguard action, although it didn’t make for compelling entertainment. It didn’t really matter to the majority of the fans, the result was the most important aspect of the afternoon, and Oldham got precisely what they came for. While the Latics travelling support enjoyed the moment as if they had won major silverware, the noise from the long Stevenage terrace was akin to mumbled jeering.

It is possible both of these teams will avoid relegation, but at present, Stevenage are in the drop zone. The situation will change game-by-game, but Oldham’s win, however ugly, has given them a three-point lead over Stevenage. They also have a better goal difference, which is worth another point. And then there’s Barrow, who are level with Oldham and have an eight-goal advantage. Stevenage manager Steve Evans, who felt his side were outstanding (!), is calling for the backing of the entire new town. They travel to Colchester United on April 9, who are also far from safe. As Evans said, Stevenage have seven cup finals ahead of them. He’s not wrong.

Remaining fixtures

Barrow (7): Home – Forest Green, Northampton, Sutton United.
Away – Crawley, Exeter, Salford, Swindon.

Oldham (6): Home – Crawley, Northampton, Salford.
Away – Forest Green, Port Vale, Tranmere.

Stevenage (7): Home – Rochdale, Salford, Tranmere.
Away – Carlisle, Colchester, Mansfield, Scunthorpe.