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Bill Foley, owner of AFC Bournemouth, is poised to take control of Exeter Chiefs in a multimillion-pound deal that will bring Premier League and Hollywood glamour to English club rugby.
The Guardian revealed this week that Exeter’s chair, Tony Rowe, had agreed to sell the club to a wealthy American investor, and can now disclose the club’s new owner will be Foley’s multisport investment company, Black Knight Sports and Entertainment.
The Black Knight Football Club that owns Bournemouth includes the Hollywood actor Michael B Jordan, who won this year’s best actor Oscar for his role in Sinners, as a minority shareholder.
Foley’s investment vehicle, Cannae Holdings, provides most of the multi-club group’s funding, however, and is understood to be behind the bid for Exeter. Cannae’s chief executive, Ryan Caswell, was captured by TNT Sport’s cameras sitting next to Rowe at Sandy Park during Saturday’s 35-28 home defeat by Northampton.
It follows months of negotiations, with Exeter having previously been in touch with at least 80 would-be suitors. The 77-year-old Rowe, after more than 30 years’ involvement with Exeter, has acknowledged he cannot personally continue to fund the Chiefs’ ambitions. “I’ve put in an extraordinary amount of money to keep the club alive but it’s not fair on my family,” he told the Guardian. “The time has come where we’ve got to be very sensible about our futures.”
Rowe also believes English clubs need to “wake up and smell the coffee” financially to ensure the successful launch of a mooted franchise league in 2029-30. Red Bull has invested in Newcastle while James Dyson acquired a 50% stake in Bath last month and Northampton have just welcomed a new minority investor in Steve Zander.
The sale of Exeter, a 155-year-old members’ club, still needs to be formally ratified at an extraordinary general meeting on 7 May. It is understood the support of 75% of the club’s approximately 700 members, who will be permitted to vote by proxy, is required. Exeter’s trustees are set to meet early next week to be presented with further details.
Foley is estimated to have made more than $2bn (£1.47bn) in the insurance industry through Fidelity National Finance before investing in sport over the last decade. After an initial foray into outdoor sports and mountain pursuits, Black Knight was awarded an expansion franchise in the National Hockey League in 2016, with the Vegas Golden Knights entering the competition the following year and winning the hallowed Stanley Cup for the first time in 2023.
The previous year Foley set up Black Knight Football Club and completed the 100% purchase of AFC Bournemouth for £100m, the first part of a growing empire. Black Knight have gone on to buy the French club Lorient, New Zealand’s Auckland FC and Moreirense in Portugal, as well as briefly owning 25% of the Scottish club Hibernian, which has since been sold, making them one of the biggest multi-club groups in football.
Bournemouth have been hugely successful under Foley’s ownership and have comfortably established themselves in the Premier League, despite having one of the smallest budgets in the division and a stadium that holds just 11,000.
Under the Spanish manager Andoni Iraola Bournemouth secured a club-record finish of ninth in the Premier League last season and arenow eighth, with a chance of qualifying for European competition for the first time. Black Knight’s intelligent use of data and shrewd transfer dealings has been instrumental to Bournemouth’s success and they will look to use similar tools when they take over at Exeter.
