Officially, Tottenham – like all of their co-conspirators from three years ago – have distanced themselves from the European Super League. Privately, things aren’t as clear cut.
In April 2021, the rhetoric from clubs like Spurs who backed out of the botched Super League plot with their tails between their legs was that they had to join because their rivals were.
The six Premier League clubs – Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs – would surely trot out the same reasoning this time around.
That European Super League 2.0 is in the works is far from a conspiracy.
The organisations backers, A22 Sports Management, are actively working to relaunch the project, with the blessing of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
The imminent introduction of an independent football regulator with the potential power to block owners from signing up breakaway leagues was presumed by many to preclude English clubs.
However, new reports suggest that the A22 have not given up hope of getting the Big Six to sign up and, far from being rebuffed, the Premier League are actively courting their advances.
With Tottenham seeking new investment – a process during which Daniel Levy has valued the club at £3.75bn – the issue s more pressing for the North Londoners than most.
Super League would supercharge Tottenham’s value amid investment talks, says finance expert
Amanda Staveley is known to be interested in investing in Spurs, while several other names have been tentatively linked with a minority deal.
As Liverpool University football finance lecturer Kieran Maguire tells TBR Football, participation in a revamped European Super League would be transformative in terms of the price Levy and ENIC could get.
“From an investment perspective, the one thing you don’t want in any business is uncertainty.
“What we have at Spurs is uncertainty in terms of whether they will qualify for the Champions League.
“Qualification for the Champions League is going to be worth – if you combine broadcast money, matchday revenue and commercial bonuses – is going to be worth £150-200m to any side that wins it.
“You are going to get a quarter of that in the Europa League and maybe a sixth of that in the Conference League.
“With a revamped Super League, participation is not guaranteed indefinitely, but it may as well be for the elite clubs.
“When you take a look at the structure that A22 are proposing, there is effectively only one up, one down.
“If you qualified domestically via winning the league – if we had another Leicester, for example – it could take them three years to get to the top division of the new setup.
“During that period, all of their best players would be poached by bigger clubs who can afford to pay more.
“It is locking up a bigger product for those top teams. There is no doubt those conversations are taking place behind closed doors.
“We have seen the mealy-mouthed responses to the Super League at the time, those comments were made through gritted teeth.
“There is nothing more that those owners want than to have guaranteed revenues. That would be fantastic for enterprise value [takeover value].
“On a discounted cash flow basis, the more uncertainty, the lower guaranteed future revenues were be, you add those all together, work out your terminal value and that gives you your enterprise value.
“With Super League, you are reducing the risk by two or three percentage points, which would have a massive impact on the value of clubs like Spurs.”
What is the latest with Amanda Staveley plans to buy into Tottenham?
Since it was reported in June that Staveley wanted to acquire a minority stake in Tottenham through her PCP Capital Partners investment vehicle, there have been relatively few clear updates.
However, the Middle East-focused financier has made some changes to a number of her sports investment companies on Companies House, the UK business registrar.
She has also chosen not to deny the reports linking her with Spurs and was a guest at the NFL’s London Games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium a few weeks ago.