Former Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley is looking for a new investment opportunity in football.
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Former Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley has confirmed she is looking at ‘exciting new ventures’ in football amid links to Tottenham Hotspur.
Staveley remains an adored figure on Tyneside after helping to broker Newcastle’s £305million takeover led by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia in October 2021.
The Ripon-born financer’s role in the takeover saw her handed a 10% stake in the club and put in charge of the day-to-day running alongside husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi. During the pair’s tenure, Newcastle went from battling Premier League relegation to qualifying for the Champions League, as well as reaching their first cup final for 24 years.
It was July 2024 that Staveley and Ghodoussi left the club after PIF and RB Sports & Media acquired PCP Partners’ shareholding at an 85%/ 10% split.
Tottenham Hotspur confirm Amanda Staveley takeover interest
While remaining a ‘forever Geordie’, Staveley has been looking at other business ventures, and has taken a keen interest in Tottenham Hotspur, who last week announced Daniel Levy could be standing down as chairman after 25 years.
Tottenham released a statement on Sunday night confirming that its majority shareholder, ENIC, had rejected two expressions of interest in its stake in the club. One came from Staveley’s PCP International and another from a consortium led by Roger Kennedy and Wing Fai-Ng.
The Spurs board insist the club is not for sale and ENIC, who own an 86.58% majority share, are not interested in selling.
A statement read: “ENIC Sports & Developments Holdings Ltd has received and unequivocally rejected, separate preliminary expressions of interest in relation to proposals to acquire the entire issued, and to be issued, share capital of ENIC”.
The statement added: “The board of the club and ENIC confirm that Tottenham Hotspur is not for sale and ENIC has no intention to accept any such offer to acquire its interest in the club.”
Amanda Staveley issues statement in response to Tottenham Hotspur takeover talk
Following discussions with the UK takeover watchdog, Staveley’s PCP International issued a short statement on Monday confirming it “does not intend to make an offer for Tottenham.”
Takeover rules mean the company cannot return with an offer for the Premier League club in the next six months.
Spurs' ownership is also complicated by the fact that it is subject to the UK Takeover Code - governed by the Takeover Panel.
Under the provisions in the Code, PCP could yet return with a formal takeover bid for Spurs if invited to do so by the board of ENIC, or if a rival bidder announces its intention to make a firm offer.
Amanda Staveley podcast released on Tuesday - interesting timing
Amid the speculation, Staveley has appeared on The High Performance Podcast with the episode released on Tuesday morning, less than 48 hours after Spurs published the above statement.
And during the hour-long chat, Staveley confirmed she was looking to return to football.
“[We are] looking at football again,” Staveley said. We’re looking at lots of other clubs and leagues. We’ve got our new sports and media funds as well as the Reuben family, who we love going back to work with. They’re just a fantastic partner and have been for many years, very similar to PIF.
“So, we’re looking at exciting new ventures across a new fund and then we’re looking at the few assets we want to buy individually. We’re doing all our due diligence and we’ll see.”