Celebrity owners are ruining football

Tom Brady must get bored easily. After America’s superstar quarterback retired (for a second time) in March, he invested in a Las Vegas women’s basketball team, sorted out his divorce, bought a racing boat team with Rafael Nadal and, this summer, became a minority owner of Birmingham City. A few weeks ago, it was announced that he’d had a meaningful chat with Wayne Rooney, the club’s new manager. ‘It’s important for the players to see Tom Brady have an involvement. It’s very clear that Tom is fully involved in the club’ said Rooney, clearly aware that fans might be sceptical.

Brady is just one of several American celebrities who have invested in British football over the past few years. Although the celebs may be serious converts to football, most are too poor to buy a top club outright. Instead they are lured into partnerships with American hedge funds with promises of being able to do good deeds in the ‘local community’ and, ultimately, indulging their saviour complexes in vowing to save a struggling club.