Leeds United board member speaks out about Radrizzani ownership after ‘press speculation’
Leeds United board member Massimo Marinelli says Andrea Radrizzani is “here to stay” despite the San Francisco 49ers increasing their stake at the club within the last six months.
In early November, the NFL franchise upped their stake at Leeds to 44 per cent and on 6 December, The Athletic reported that the 49ers have a “deal in place” to buy the Whites for £400million.
It was reported by Phil Hay and David Ornstein that “an option exists for 100 per cent control of Leeds to pass to 49ers Enterprises by January 2024”.
However, Marinelli, who works with Radrizzani at Leeds and Aser, says that he and his Italian colleague are not going anywhere despite the increasing American influence at Elland Road.
“The 49ers are a strong partner of ours and they have been investing and increasing their stake, as is public, over a certain period of time,” Marinelli told the Financial Times’ Business of Football Summit, as quoted by LeedsLive.
“Aser is 100 per cent committed to Leeds United and is here to stay. There was some press speculation around what may or may not happen, but at the moment the focus is on what it is the club needs.
“The 49ers relationship is very, very open and is also about what sort of things you can bring to the club in terms of additional commercial opportunities and commercial knowledge.
“They have a strong team behind them and our relationship with them, Paraag [Marathe], Jed [York] and the team is ongoing daily, we have daily conversations with them on what we can do to improve the club.
“They have gone through the process of developing a stadium, they have a very strong business and analytics team that will be very useful when we think about growing revenues, so there is a lot of opportunities to do more, which is also at the core of when you hear about multi-club strategies.”
Major moves
We’d be shocked if Radrizzani is still the controlling owner of Leeds United in a couple of years’ time.
Of course, that outlook could change if we’re relegated from the Premier League this season but we’ve seen three or four other teams in this division who are far worse than the Whites.
Marcelo Bielsa’s sacking and Jesse Marsch’s arrival not only oversees a major change right now, it also suggests that there may be an increasing American presence at Elland Road.
Marathe boosted his shares at Leeds in November, there were reports about a 100 per cent takeover in December, USA international Brenden Aaronson was strongly linked in January and in February, Marsch was coming in as the new manager.
All the signs are suggesting that current vice-chairman Marathe will be the Leeds chairman and controlling owner in the not-too-distant future.
In other Leeds United news, a Leeds chief has hit back at a fan in a two-word tweet after an update on Tyler Roberts.