David Beckham and Gary Neville, who have been inspired by Ryan Reynolds and Tom Brady, have completed a takeover of Salford City.
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Other Class of '92 stars have stepped asideFurther investors are still being soughtAiming to emulate other famous ownership groupsFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱GettyWHAT HAPPENED?
The former Manchester United and England team-mates had been working with the League Two outfit as part of the fabled Class of ‘92 ownership group. Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes have now relinquished their respective stakes, with Beckham and Gary Neville having spent several months finding suitable investment partners.
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They have joined forces with Declan Kelly, founder of US-based advisory firm Consello, and Lord Mervyn Davies, chairman of the Lawn Tennis Association. It is claimed that around $15-20 million (£15m) has been raised, with each member holding a five or 10 per cent stake – totalling 80 per cent of the club. The remaining 20 per cent has been earmarked for future partners.
GettyWHAT DAVID BECKHAM SAID
Beckham and Neville will not be involved in the day-to-day running of Salford, but are fully committed. Inter Miami co-owner Becks, who works with Lionel Messi in Florida, told : “I will be over every big decision that’s made and every little decision that’s made. That’s what my commitment is to Gary. It’s what my commitment is to the club.
“We’re definitely not doing it for a laugh and it’s also not for the romantic side of things. Yes, we care about the club — but we’re doing it to win. We want Salford to be successful and we have had success, but then we want it to go on to the next level.
“I always dream big so I’m always going to want us to get to the pinnacle of football and be in the Premier League. But there’s a lot of hard work and a lot of investment to be done up until that point. The Championship is a league that we want to get in but it’s step by step. We want success very quickly but these things take time.
“There’s a reason why we’re not going to be going up this year. So what is that reason? How do we solve it? And what do we need to put around the team, the manager and the club to ensure we have that success? But if we can do that, fast forward it and be up in the Championship, that’s what the dream would be.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Beckham added on taking inspiration from close friend and NFL legend Brady, along with Wrexham’s Hollywood superstar co-owner Reynolds: “We’ve all been inspired by what Ryan Reynolds has been doing at Wrexham and I’m not saying this is why we’re doing it because it’s not. But I’ve spoken to Ryan about it so many times now and he said the feeling around the city, the feeling around the club, is so exceptional. That’s the kind of thing that we want to create.
“Tom Wagner and Tom Brady have done an incredible job with Birmingham. I went to a game a few months back and the atmosphere in the stadium was one of the best I’ve seen for a long time. That’s what we want to create. We want to create that community, add to the community and fan base we’ve already got — and then lift it.
“When you see what the Toms are doing, there is investment, there is a plan and it would be the dream to talk about the growth of Salford City. It’s not only growth on the field, which is what we care most about, but we want success. Because if we’re having success then we’re also having the opportunity to say: ‘Now we we’re going to invest, now we’re going to get a bigger stadium, now we’re going to get a bigger training facility and then it will go on. That is what we’re aiming for.
“We’re not going to turn around and say: ‘OK, there’s a bunch of money, we have no plan but we have the money and now we’ll go and get the players’. That’s not how we work in business. It has to be sustainable.
“It has to be a real plan around the club because we want to be taken seriously on the field, firstly, and then on the business side. We don’t want to look stupid or make the mistakes that others have in the past.”
