22 EFL clubs have been invested in by Americans – this is how they are getting on

The Americans are here.

From Cumbria to Crawley and Suffolk to Swansea, investors from the United States are putting their cash into EFL clubs like never before. Twenty-two of the 72 teams in the Championship, League One and League Two are now either wholly owned by or have minority investors hailing from across the pond, with 14 of them experiencing new investment since Wrexham’s high-profile takeover in February 2021.

We have seen waves of investment in English football from locations such as China and the Middle East before, but no region has fallen as hard for the football pyramid as the Americans have in the past few years.

The are many reasons for this, but one of the most important factors is the growing trend of U.S. investors choosing to put their money into sports.

With American sports team franchises off limits for everyone apart from the very wealthiest, English Football League clubs present a more affordable point of entry to this particular world of investment.

But has it been a success? Each club — from Millwall, who received the earliest investment, to Carlisle United, who have seen the latest — has its own story. And while a handful are living the American dream, some have not had it easy at all.

The Athletic analyses the situation at each club that has seen American investment by placing them in different categories.

Living the American dream

Let’s get them out of the way nice and early — nobody can ignore Wrexham (Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, February 2021) when we talk about American investors in the lower leagues (Canada-born Reynolds became an American citizen in 2018).

The Welsh side’s loss to Grimsby in the National League play-offs in 2022 aside, everything has been rosy at the Racecourse Ground since Hollywood rolled into town, with promotion to League Two and entertaining football mixing with good fan engagement and increased all-round investment in the club.

Who knows how long McElhenney and Reynolds will hang around for? But what they have built so far is special and they have turned the club (from a city with a population of just under 45,000) into a global entity.

Also flying high near the top of their respective league are Ipswich Town (Gamechanger 20, April 2021) who were promoted to the Championship last summer and haven’t looked back since.

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna (George Wood/Getty Images)

Things could hardly have gone better at Portman Road since their takeover and the subsequent decisions to appoint Mark Ashton as the CEO and Kieran McKenna as manager. There have been improvements to the stadium, marquee signings and positive engagement with the club’s most famous fan, Ed Sheeran. Promotion to the Premier League now looks a real possibility.

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Both Wrexham and Ipswich will be looking to emulate another EFL club with U.S. investors who have managed two promotions in a short space of time — Leyton Orient (Nigel Travis and Kent Teague, June 2018).

The London club had a tough period before the takeover — dropping out of the Football League at the end of the 2016-17 season – but since the investment of lifelong fan Travis and Texas-based businessman Teague, Orient have been promoted from the National League (2018-19) and then from League Two (last season), all while playing some great football. They are making a good go of things in the third tier this season, too.

Still in the honeymoon period

For a few clubs who have undergone recent takeovers, we will need more time to draw a fair assessment of how they are performing. For example, Leeds United (49ers Enterprises, July 2023) are barely six months into their spell under U.S. owners.

However, The Athletic’s Phil Hay, who covers Leeds, has these thoughts on the situation: ”49ers Enterprises’ decisions in the relatively short period since their full takeover have set the right tone.

”Daniel Farke was a sensible appointment as manager, their recruitment for the Championship was intelligent and there was a meaningful amount of money spent. Leeds have also had a pleasing, and frankly overdue, period without any PR disasters.

”The bottom line is that 49ers Enterprises will likely be a positive ownership model long term. The question is what their ceiling will be and when will Leeds get back to the Premier League?”

Charlton Athletic (SE7 Partners and Joshua Friedman, June 2023), Gillingham (Brad and Shannon Galinson, December 2022) and Carlisle United (The Piatak Family, November 2023) have all been taken over recently, so it is hard to make a full assessment of their situations, but there have been no warning signs of trouble ahead yet.

As for Norwich City (Mark Attanasio, September 2022), The Athletic’s Michael Bailey, who covers the club, has this to say: “Mark Attanasio only became involved in Norwich as a minority stakeholder and director in September 2022, but that was still a significant change for a club that had been led solely by its longstanding joint majority shareholders and supporters, celebrity chef Delia Smith and her publisher husband, Michael Wynn-Jones.

”Since then it’s been a waiting game. It is hard to be definitive at this stage, but Attanasio has been helping the club find new areas to make progress in through his baseball experience (he owns the Milwaukee Brewers). He also provides better access to financial capital, but it does come at a cost.

Attanasio at a baseball game (Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“He was asked for more money by Norwich’s owners last season and offered £33million ($41.8m) on top of his original £10m investment — but only in exchange for more shares. That deal is yet to be completed but will take Attanasio to the same share percentage as Smith and Wynn-Jones, with the view that he will have sole control over the coming years.

“Norwich fans want the switch sooner. They think the club will be more financially powerful if the American businessman has sole control.

”It’s been a difficult time since their Premier League relegation in 2022 and the optimism of the fans predominantly revolves around hope of a future under Attanasio.”

The ‘going steady’ group

Millwall (Berylson family, March 2007) were ahead of the trend when their American owner John Berylson invested in them in 2007. The club were promoted to the Championship in 2010 and stayed in the second tier for five seasons before being relegated in 2015. They came back up at the second time of asking and have come close to making the play-offs for a place in the Premier League since then, but have fallen short.

Tragically, Berylson died in a car accident in July this year.

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Overall, Millwall’s time under American ownership has been positive and the club has seen steady growth with some exciting players brought in over the past few years.

In a similar vein, Cambridge United (Paul Barry and Mark Green, September 2020) and Lincoln City (WMA Sports Ventures, February 2023) have been League One clubs since their respective promotions to the third tier in 2021 and 2019.

Both clubs are well run and the investors forged a good relationship with their respective fans, with Cambridge securing ownership of the Abbey Stadium in September 2022 and Lincoln investing in a new training ground in recent seasons.

A rough patch of form has seen both clubs change manager this season, with Mark Kennedy replaced by Michael Skubala at Lincoln and long-term head coach Mark Bonner let go for the experienced Neil Harris at Cambridge in December.

It has been a mixed bag

Given Birmingham City (Knighthead Capital and Tom Wagner, July 2023) were also in the most recent batch of clubs boosted by U.S. investment, it would be easy to say the jury is still out, but a lot has happened in a short space of time at St Andrew’s.

Chaos has never been far from the club in recent years, so some stability off the pitch has been welcomed — along with a sprinkling of star power with the minority investment from NFL star Tom Brady.

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However, sacking John Eustace and hiring former England captain Wayne Rooney, which has led to a big downturn in results, was not the smartest move and has left a lot of people scratching their heads. 

Ex-Birmingham manager Eustace (Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)

Plymouth Argyle (Argyle Green, August 2022) also fall under this category after the U.S. investment group reduced their shareholding in the summer. Winning League One last season was a superb achievement, but surviving in the Championship was always going to be tricky based on the budgets of the other teams in the league — hence their place in this group.

Plymouth are 17th in the table and seven points clear of the relegation places. If they are to survive, then that would suggest the American investment has been largely positive.

Meanwhile, both Wycombe Wanderers (Rob Couhig, February 2020) and Walsall (Trivela Group, June 2022) are in similar situations to Plymouth.

Wycombe’s American owners joined when the club were promoted to the Championship in 2020, but the team have since been relegated back to League One and more money has been spent than some fans are comfortable with.

As for Walsall, they remain where they were when Trivela came in (League Two) despite the group’s ambitions. Trivela have, however, been involved with the club only for a year and a half.

Barnsley (NewCity Capital and Pacific Media Group, December 2017) and Portsmouth (Michael Eisner, August 2017), who are both battling for promotion in League One, were among the earlier clubs to be invested in by Americans. 

Portsmouth, who are top of the third tier, are very much in the ascendancy after appointing John Mousinho as their manager in January. They will be hoping to finally get back to the Championship for the first time since 2012 having been in League One since the Eisner takeover.

Portsmouth manager Mousinho (Pete Norton/Getty Images)

Barnsley, meanwhile, have had a chastening few weeks after being ejected from the FA Cup for fielding an ineligible player.

Most of the goodwill towards the owners that came about thanks to the club reaching the League One play-offs last season has now worn off, but they are still in the mix for promotion back to the second tier as we head into the new year.

Things can only get better

Crawley Town (WAGMI United, April 2022) have not had the best time since their takeover. They sold Tom Nichols, their top scorer, to relegation rivals Gillingham and the relationship between the fans and owners has been strained ever since. The Sussex club remain in the bottom half of League Two.

Sutton United (Gary Otto and ACV Sports Ventures, March 2021), who had performed well since securing promotion from the National League in 2021, are now battling the drop.

After parting with manager Matt Gray in December, they will be hoping their fortunes turn around and that they retain their EFL status.

A trio of Championship clubs who have experienced U.S. investment are also struggling. Huddersfield Town (Kevin Nagle, June 2023), Queens Park Rangers (Richard Reilly, February 2022) and Swansea City (Steve Kaplan, Jason Levien and Jake Silverstein, June 2016) are all near the bottom of the table, with Swansea fans in particular growing increasingly frustrated.

It is still early days for new U.S. owner Nagle at Huddersfield, but it looks like it could be a long season. And while QPR are enjoying a bounce under their new manager Marti Cifuentes, their situation is still perilous.

There is no hard and fast rule on whether new owners — particularly those from the U.S. — will bring success, but what unites them all is a desire to bring their experience of North American sport to the EFL and to be involved in the magic of the English pyramid.

Not everyone can be a winner and some clubs will go backwards under American investment. Then again, the uncertainty of promotion and relegation is one of the things that makes British clubs so appealing to the U.S. market in the first place.

(Top photos: Getty Images)