Bournemouth owner Bill Foley is closing in on a takeover of Portuguese club Moreirense, with talks now understood to be at an advanced stage.
Foley’s Black Knight Football Group, which bought Bournemouth for around £120m December 2022, oversees a multi-club model that includes stakes in French side Lorient, Auckland in New Zealand and a minority investment in Hibernian.
The Cherries are the most significant club under Foley’s control and have seen heavy investment since his takeover nearly two years ago. He has targeted European football for the club and will bankroll a new stadium in the next few years.
Black Knight’s multi-club model is also viewed as an integral part of Bournemouth’s development and there has been an ongoing search to find a suitable club in Portugal to add to the stable.
That has been going on for the last 12 months and included talks with Lisbon-based club Casa Pia and Estoril but Moreirense are the group’s preferred choice, with negotiations ongoing. While there is still some work to do on a deal, an agreement is now understood be close.
An agreement on price still needs to be finalised but Black Knight are confident of finding that in the next few weeks and a deal is expected to be closed out before the end of the year.
Portugal has been seen as attractive market for Premier League owners looking to build their own multi-club networks, with Chelsea owners Todd Boelhy and Behdad Eghbali having considered both Moreirense and Rio Ave as possible options for their further expansion into European football.
It is understood that almost all of the clubs in the league outside the big three of Porto, Sporting and Benfica are on the market for the right price. But Foley’s Black Knight have been the most proactive and now hope to get an edge in the competitive Portuguese market.
Moreirense are currently eighth in the Portuguese top flight and, despite dropping out of the top division in 2022, have been an established presence in the top division over the last 20 years. They won the Portuguese Cup in 2017 and have a decent record of producing young players.
Part of the Black Knight vision for Moreirense will be to scout and attract some of the best young players in Africa, Portugal and parts of South America to the club.
The theory is that this will both help the club progress in the Portuguese top flight while also offering a potential route into the Premier League for the best of them.
Further evidence of Bournemouth’s ambitions to expand their global network came earlier this week with the announcement of a “strategic partnership” with Japanese top flight club Kyoto Sanga.
The two clubs will collaborate on youth development and coaching and – crucially – share scouting networks as the Cherries look to the burgeoning Japanese market for potential players. The club hailed it as a “long-term partnership” in a press release on Tuesday.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/wNJkn3Z
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