Stephen Pagliuca, a senior adviser at Bain Capital who control an investment fund worth £133bn that failed in an attempt to buy Chelsea, has not ruled out purchasing a stake in Liverpool or Manchester United.
Pagliuca admitted he was “disappointed” after narrowly missing out to a consortium led by Todd Boehly last year.
Boehly’s approach since taking over at the club — splashing record sums in the transfer market on young players on long-term contracts and sticking with manager Graham Potter despite poor performances — has raised eyebrows but Pagliuca believes he would have taken a similar approach.
“We were disappointed with the outcome because we thought it was a fantastic opportunity. It’s a fantastic club. Chelsea is very iconic. Located in one of the best sections in London. If you look at value of clubs, it’s a function of first of all how is the league structured and where does the club sit, where is it located geographically, is it a city that people love does it have a great fan base. Chelsea had all those. I think it’s a wonderful operation.
“We wanted to have enough capital for players in the long term and based on our assessments we paid a very high price and we were beaten. I think it’s a wonderful property that will do well.”
Asked about Boehly’s handling of the club, Pagliuca said: “I think I would’ve followed a similar playbook. We were in the top couple and came very close to winning it.
Pagliuca, co-owner of Serie A side Atalanta and NBA club Boston Celtics, had previously explored buying Liverpool 15 years ago, around the time the club was sold to American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks.
Liverpool owner John Henry recently said his Fenway Sports Group, the company which purchased the club from Gillett and Hicks in 2010, is no longer interested in selling the club, but is expecting some investment.
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The Glazer family has put Manchester United up for sale, hoping to secure £6bn. The known bidders include Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, a Qatari banker, and billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Britain’s richest man.
Asked at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit if Bain Capital were looking at investing in Manchester United or Liverpool, Pagliuca replied: “I can’t talk specifically about any transactions we’re working on because of confidentiality agreements. But we’re aware of those transactions.
“The question on those transactions in general, similar to Chelsea, what price level do we think is sustainable? The Chelsea process which received a record price has probably motivated folks to try to monetise their own clubs for a long time.
“We’re certainly in a period where the values have been driven up. Right now, I think anybody who buys a club has to assess the economic opportunity, how much money we have to put in to keep up the quality and what that will cost you and that’s what we do in everything we’re looking at.”
Pagliuca did confirm that Bain Capital is interested in the possibility of multi-club ownership. “In football it’s a unique opportunity where you can own clubs in multiple markets as long as they don’t compete and there are synergies between those clubs, in terms of player development and player training and coaches and medical staff and all those kinds of things, marketing and ticketing,” he said.
“If we find the right opportunity at a club in a different division in a different market that fits with the Atalanta brand and one we think we can improve we’ll make that investment.”
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