Americans Invade English Premier League Soccer. Football
The English Premier League seems to be welcoming an American invasion that is strengthening its own foundation but weakening its fan base. Americans call the game soccer. The English call it football.
Premiership giants Liverpool have agreed to an offer from American tycoons George Gillette and Tom Hicks to buy the football club.
A statement was made to the Stock Exchange stating they have agreed the terms “of a recommended cash offer” to be made by Kop Football Limited, the American pair’s bid vehicle. The statement read: “The offer is £5,000 in cash for each Liverpool Share, valuing the issued share capital of Liverpool at approximately £174.1million.”
The takeover means Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa will all be in American hands. Malcolm Glazer, owner of American football’s (NFL) 
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, owns United and Randy Lerner, owner of NFL’s Cleveland Browns, bought Aston Villa last year.
A seemingly unnoticed contingent of American club owners is slowly but surely forming a solid foundation in the EPL. Real standouts, blockbuster buyouts, and plenty of European media recognition. They now exist; and are growing stronger.
In Liverpool, there are probably a lot of people asking this question: “If we’re going to be bought by a Yank, why can’t it be the owner of the Yankees?”
Gillette and Hicks could scarcely have set their sights much higher, but delivering their promise of world domination may take some doing for Liverpool’s new owners.
I had a tear in my ear when I first read this. Liverpool’s proud tradition and heritage has been sold off to a couple of cowboys who have no clue about football and are only interested in getting richer at the expence of Liverpool FC. Today I feel the club ‘walks alone’ for the first time in its history.
If there is one thing we all should have learned by now it is that when Americans get hold of something it is ruined! They no nothing of the game and are bound to commercialize it and use all the money they have in the wrong ways. They call football “soccer “and they put padding on their rugby players and call it football…
There is nothing worse for British football than Americans taking over. I guess in time we should expect the introduction of cheerleaders at EPL matches so the Americans can really put their mark on it!
It’s just awful news for British Football.
The UEFA Champions League action continues as the last 16 clubs compete for the European Cup trophy. With the Red Devils sitting top of the Premiership, Alex Ferguson will hope his team can keep up their scoring ways. Get your Champions League odds and lines at Sports Interaction.
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December 30th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
this is pretty pointless mate. united still dominant, villa maybe into champions league, liverpool are leaders. wouldn’t mind the cheerleaders though. actually mate i think all of the big four have non-english owners. maybe a french takeover is actually the worst thing.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:13 am
the only one walking alone is the author of this article.
Man U., Liverpool, and Villa are all at the top of the EPL and will more than likely all play in Champions League. Bitch about Americans all you want, they know how to build impressive sports franchises. What other country has such popular professional leagues in so many sports? Europeans have big-time soccer, but Americans pay their footballers (American), basketballers, baseballers, and hockey players all the same as Europeans pay their soccer players. The point being, you can only pay players big bucks if the team makes big bucks, and the team only makes big bucks if it is good, and puts the fans in the seat. American owners gets fans in the seats for all sports.
“Liverpool’s proud tradition and heritage has been sold off to a couple of cowboys who have no clue about football and are only interested in getting richer at the expence of Liverpool FC.”
Well, again, they only make money if Liverpool is successful, right? So it doesn’t make sense to say that they are here to make money “at the expense” of Liverpool.
Maybe the Americans can pass on could dental hygiene while they’re over there, too.
Oh, and 98.7 million people watched the Super Bowl this year (that’s in America, another 50 million or so if you add international audiences). That’s about 1 1/2 times to 2 times (depending on which number you use) the entire population of the United Kingdom. How many people watch even the most important rugby match?