Beckham joins his former teammates Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, The Neville brothers, Gary and Phil, and Nicky Butt in taking part-ownership of the club.
Miami, FL (Monday, January 29, 2019) – by Kenneth Russo –
Not many outside of the United Kingdom have likely heard of Salford City Football Club. But when a former world football icon decides to invest in your club, things change, and quickly. Such was the case last week when David Beckham purchased a ten percent ownership interest in Salford City FC. With this purchase, the star matches his ten percent ownership stake in Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami, which is celebrating its one-year birthday today.
“It’s a proud moment for me to join Peter Lim and the Class of ’92 lads as an owner of Salford City FC,” Beckham said. “It’s a really special club and a special group of people. My early years in Manchester were all spent in Salford. I grew up there in many ways so to be able to finally join the lads and the club today is a great feeling.”
Beckham, 43, is the final member of the famed “Class of ’92” to take a stake in the club as the group of former Manchester United players, Nicholas Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Philip Neville & Paul Scholes, becomes the majority shareholders with 60% combined, while Peter Lim remains the single largest shareholder with 40%. The ownership entity in which the club is wholly-owned is known as Project 92 Limited. The transaction is subject to FA approval and regulations, and the club expects a further announcement to follow.
Lim will continue to offer financial stability to the club and is an essential figure in moving the club forward, while Beckham’s arrival strengthens the ownership profile.
Never a person with small ambitions, Beckham offered this: “We all have ambitions and we all have goals, and you have to have big ones and reach for the sky.”
Beckham’s investment comes nearly five years after his ex-teammates made their investment into the club. That influx of talent has been obvious.
Since 2014, Salford City has won three promotions in four seasons, Moor Lane has been redeveloped into the 5,000-plus capacity Peninsula Stadium, and the club is playing at the highest level in its history. Away from the first team, other areas of football operations have been developed, including Academy 92, Salford City Lionesses and independent charity Foundation 92 all established since 2017.
At the time that the Class of 92 bought the club in 2014, Salford City FC was playing in the Northern Premier League, Division One North. It became full-time in 2017 and currently plays in the National League following the string of promotions. As of January 23, 2019, they sits three point off top spot, with the division’s winners earning automatic promotion to League Two, the fourth division of English Football.
https://salfordcityfc.co.uk/league-table/
For their part, the former United stars say they were pleased David Beckham was joining them: “From the very beginning we wanted David to be involved and be with us on this incredible journey, however circumstances and commitments didn’t allow that. Now the time is right and is another exciting time in Salford City’s history.”
“It is important to emphasise that nothing will change in the day to day operations of the club but to have us all together was always the vision. We grew up in Salford, carved our careers here and that’s why we are doing what we are doing at Salford City.”
“We have grown to love this club and the fans and we would like to welcome David to the club and to becoming part of the Salford City family.”
Club officials were equally excited. “It’s really exciting I feel like it’s a new era for the club. I think the interest that we had at the beginning when the Class of 92 first came in will reinvigorate,” said Chairman Karen Baird. “I expect we’ll see more people come through the gates to see if they can see David Beckham, and going forward it will help raise the profile of the club around the world.”
Links to The Guardian, Sky News, and Salford City FC appear below.
© 2019 Russo Law & Soccer
