Football financier Harris spearheads £200m bid for Crystal Palace stake

The shot financier Keith Harris is spearheading a bid to bargain a 45% involvement successful the Premier League shot nine Crystal Palace successful a woody that could beryllium worthy adjacent to £200m.

Sky News has learnt that Mr Harris is advising a radical of businessmen including Zechariah Janjua and Navshir Jaffer connected an connection to get the shareholding from Eagle Football, a conveyance created by American businessman John Textor and proprietor of a fig of large clubs astir the world.

Sources said connected Thursday that the consortium advised by Mr Harris was a starring contender to bargain the involvement successful the Eagles, though they cautioned that astatine slightest one, and perchance two, different parties were besides successful discussions with Mr Textor.

Mr Harris's group, which would astir apt execute its woody done a precocious established firm conveyance called Sportbank, whitethorn besides necessitate financing from different investors arsenic portion of its plans, the sources added.

Eagle Football is said to beryllium hopeful that a woody to offload its Crystal Palace shareholding would worth the club, which recorded its archetypal triumph of the Premier League run against Tottenham Hotspur past weekend, astatine much than £400m.

Stanley Tang, 1 of the founders of the US-based nutrient transportation institution Doordash, is besides understood to person expressed an involvement successful acquiring Eagle Football's involvement successful Crystal Palace.

A spokesperson for Mr Tang denied that helium was successful discussions to bargain Eagle Football's Crystal Palace stake.

Mr Textor, who declined to comment, is keen to ain a controlling involvement successful a nine successful English football's apical flight, and came adjacent to securing a woody to bargain Everton during the summer.

Instead, Everton's long-standing proprietor agreed a transaction with Dan Friedkin, the proprietor of Italian Serie A broadside AS Roma.

Eagle Football's different footballing interests see Olympique Lyonnais successful France, Botafogo, which presently leads Brazil's apical division, and RW Molenbeek successful Belgium.

This week, the holding institution issued a connection confirming that it is preparing to record confidentially with US regulators up of a nationalist listing successful the archetypal 4th of adjacent year.

Sky News revealed successful August that Eagle Football had lined up Stifel and TD Cowen, the concern banks, to enactment connected the archetypal nationalist offering (IPO).

The involvement successful Crystal Palace is being sold by The Raine Group, which has been progressive successful caller deals involving Chelsea and Manchester United.

In its connection this week, Eagle Football said it would question $100m from the merchantability of shares successful the institution up of an IPO, arsenic good arsenic a further $500m arsenic portion of the flotation itself.

It besides wants to rise "up to $500m to discontinue existing elder debt, to beryllium achieved done the merchantability of its involvement successful Crystal Palace Football Club and, possibly, the placement of semipermanent elder notes".

Collectively, these moves are expected to assistance Mr Textor execute an endeavor worth for Eagle Football of astir $2.3bn (£1.74bn), they said.

In the past, Mr Textor has spoken astir his content that nationalist ownership of shot teams provides fans with greater transparency astir the moving of their clubs.

He has described this arsenic the democratisation of ownership - an contented acceptable to look greater scrutiny present that a measure connected shot regularisation has been reintroduced to parliament by the caller Labour government.

Some clubs with listed shares, including Manchester United, have, however, endured a torrid narration with supporters, partially arsenic a effect of their voting rights being controlled by a azygous ascendant shareholder.

Mr Harris declined to remark connected Thursday.