From the Archive: Burnley - Here come the Americans

Okay, so this piece is from the 11th January 2021 is on the takeover of Burnley by an American investment group led by Dave Pace. Let's see what I got right, and let's see what I got wrong.

After the events of the last few days, the phrase “here come the Americans” has taken on a slightly dark air around the globe, but on New Year’s Eve Burnley supporters found themselves thrust into English football’s latest craze, a buyout from American investors who already have their fingers in several other pies.

But with the news having emerged that this is a leveraged buyout (LBO) – in which the club itself ends up carrying a considerable burden for the cost of the takeover itself, questions now have to be raised over whether this sort of purchase should be allowed in a game in which debt levels are fairly horrifying without clubs being lumped with even more debt than they held before.

English football’s most infamous LBO, of course, came at Old Trafford a little over a decade and a half ago. Since the Glazer family carried out its own highly successful coup in taking over Manchester United, there has been considerable criticism of this sort of purchase, but buying Manchester United through an LBO is a very different beast to buying Burnley by the same means. Manchester United found themselves up to their necks in a debt which hadn’t benefitted the club in any way whatsoever, and with the owners funnelling money out of the club in the form of dividends at an eye-watering rate.