 Okay, very good afternoon. It's Anthony here at AmphiTrailings, 21st of April. I've been off the desk actually Monday and Tuesday of this week. One of the things that I kept seeing just pushed on my notifications on my phone and my watch was about the football super league or the apparent creation of and now it's obviously changing a little bit. But I've got Sam who's the head of our trade development on and the reason for that is Sam is probably what you'd classify as as a football purist. Having been a player himself and a former life as well. So I thought he'd be a great guy to get on to get us up to speed Sam on like first off what what's going on. But then we can talk about the business side of this proposed deal and then perhaps the investment opportunity as well along with it. So, yeah, what is happening at the moment? What's the latest? Yeah, it's fascinating. And you say football purists. It's the technical term the super league have given us our legacy fans, which we'll talk about in a bit. But yeah, the super league 14 founding members heads by well it's run by Florentino Perez, the main man at Real Madrid, who as a as a club are in financial trouble as have many been over the last year because of COVID struggling to pay wages and need to clean their books. But anyway, this is super league has has come about being in the works for a couple of years and it's shook the football world. I'm sure anyone that's been following it. Certainly the UK has seen Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher lose their rag over it. But yeah, it's basically that these clubs who for participating in, say the Premier League, you get about 100 new a year for the Champions League if you make it 80 100. They're basically being told now that they can get 350 million a year guaranteed to enter this competition where they cannot get relegated. So these are seen as the, the sort of the super league team. So you've got Barca, Real Madrid, Letico Madrid, six from England, Manchester United Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester City, Juventus into AC Milan, some of the teams that are in it. And they've been told they can guarantee to get in this no relegation. And there'll be five extra teams that could have got in qualified each year, but it shook the football world. UEFA have come out and said, well, they're going to expel the teams from their competitions. The fans have had a massive backlash. It's, you know, the UK fans, the ones that go to the game have have lost it. They've turned up at stadiums in their plenties and yeah, really tried to force some of these owners to backtrack. And last night we saw many of those teams do exactly that. I guess one of the things that I've always enjoyed about say Champions League is the opportunity that you can get shocks and surprises and things like that. But I guess from a financial business point of view is that if where you finish in your domestic league or an international tournament, let's say, or UEFA tournament, then how do you financially plan for the future when you don't even know if you lose first round to Monaco in your Man United? It's a bit of a problem there because now you've got a deficient shortfall of what in excess of tens of millions of pounds for the forward-looking season. Absolutely. And chuck a pandemic on that. Right. You know, where no fans are going into the stadium. A lot of these clubs make money on match days for sure. They've got big, big player wage bills. They want to take their clubs to the next level. And if they can't guarantee success, no one can. This potentially was a way to at least guarantee the money which football has proven those who spend the most money generally do the best. Okay. And who's financially backing this? I've heard JP Morgan mentioned. So are they the architect behind this? JP Morgan, yeah, I think they're putting five billion into it. Now, well, he's retired, he's resigning at the end of the season. Ed Woodward, Manchester United chairman. He was a former JP Morgan employee. So he's kind of been forced out. There's rumours he was already stepping down at the end of the season. I'm sure more will come to light on that. But yeah, JP Morgan have crunched the numbers. They proposed this along with Florentino Perez to these clubs who, yeah, they've all obviously come out certainly in the UK and they said they don't want to part of it anymore. And they've all sort of said the same thing. They didn't want to get left behind was their reason for, you know, accepting the invite. But reputations may be ruined short term, potentially for these clubs. I mean Manchester United share price on the announcement was up 10%. We reversed that whole move now following last night. But I guess, I guess, I think you said this before, but the seed is planted now. And so is this not inevitable because you've just mentioned Man United share price. Man United, Juventus, other teams. These are listed companies that are run, even for me, not as a football fan. I know that a lot of them are run at the top on a board level by financial people, businessmen. And so the priority of the loyal legacy fan is probably not at the forefront. And so there's a couple of things here. I just put together a couple of numbers and I was trying to find some market research, you know, being an analyst to kind of like, you know, how do you validate this type of decision making about a super league proposal. So a couple of things to get your thoughts on. Now what this is a bit old, it was 2017. So you have to imagine these numbers have gone up. Yeah, right. So they probably increased. But the Premier League, I don't think this comes to surprise on a global international level, by far as the most followed football league when it comes to China. Yeah, right. So I've got a stat here. 56% of all Chinese fans follow a Premier League team. The second one is the Bundesliga, which is 34%. So it's definitely a Premiership story here. Man United's viewership is 42% significantly outperforms then AC Milan and Bayern Munich, which were down at around 33%. The most popular player, I don't think it goes without much difficulty, Cristiano Ronaldo is still the most popular player. Now interestingly then, culturally, what this survey I was reading found, and I can attest to this as well, I haven't seen it, having family in China and friends Chinese and so on. But the nature of Chinese football fanship, basically culturally, fans are less or likely tied to one club. Like, you know, it's like if you're a if you're a scouser, you're Liverpool, right, or you're Everton, like you cannot deviate, you can't support Arsenal. If you're born in Liverpool, like that's sacrilege doesn't run, but in China, supporting an English football club that that bloodline doesn't cut deep, right. So actually, it's not uncommon for them to support multiple teams. Instead of saying your fan base is X. Now you've potentially got four times your fan base, let's say, because they can support four different teams. So then you get a lift automatically there anyway. Then you start talking about merchandise and products and I was trying to find some facts about what's the proportion of revenue uplift that a lot of these. They're much like ticket sales but then merchandise side. Obviously, that's a massive thing in an 88% of the most avid fans in China bought merchandise. So nearly 100% of them, when committed by, yeah, times four teams. There's a much higher uptick as well, given as well the technological difference about things like amp group and all the different devices and technology with new finance that they have in China. So without the legacy like Barclays Nat West, you can do everything on your phone right. So you go on to just the latest phone software, you can do your private banking your stock trading everything. And actually the numbers way higher where Chinese fans purchase sponsor products. So not just team products but there's also an uplift to the sponsors who are also then willing to put upfront money because they get a better click through down to purchase this goods and services. Real Madrid, this is back in 2017 signed a deal with Alibaba obviously one of the most infamous is this, and that took their potential reach in 2017 to 600 million customs, potentially. Right, and we're talking about what UK population. Bring it back down to the population at Liverpool. There's a lot of fans going down or Manchester, right, the numbers are pretty compelling and actually I was looking at Man United's by far the most biggest team, their fan base again slightly dated figures but it's and it's set to be around 1.1 billion incredible 1.1 billion. The largest increase of that fellowship. Right. And you've got a new emergence of a middle class people who have become more affluent who have disposable income in countries like China, which is only going one way at this point in time. To me, it seems business sense to be having this conversation at this point in time. And as much as I'm absolutely going to really annoy football fans, whoever watches this, I can feel the dislikes coming. I can't see how you can justify from a business point of view, putting fans first, when the prospect of increasing irreverence is so high and then we haven't even talked about the players. So how much does Ronaldo get paid? Well, how accurate this is, you don't know, I think something's still a little secret, but the main reports are suggesting he's on 900,000 pounds a week playing for you. He's definitely him and Messi at number one and two, 31 million euros a year. Okay. You've got to think that, I mean, what was it you saying they're going to put in the kit, kitty already 350 upfront million guarantee plus now you've got the sponsorship, which you're reaching a targeted open marketplace that's like 100 times larger than your existing. Plus now you've not even cut begun to have discussions with online streaming and social media, which is where the main consumption of Chinese football watching comes from. Yeah, so you throw in Netflix throwing round their multi billion new enter the sports. Let's enter the sports streaming market Amazon's already in that space with prime. Yeah, right. You've got to think Ronaldo, then if you turn around to Ronaldo and say, right, do you play football for the fans he's I play football for the fans. And you say, okay, I get paid 900,000 pounds play football for the fans. That's great Christiana. Okay, how about I pay you 9 million a week. How's that sound. How about you complain super league. I mean, could you turn that down. I don't think you could I don't think I mean the argument is, you know, do they need any more money look football is a short career and you know you mentioned earlier that the dislikes are coming they might not be and I'd be interested we get quite a wide ranging ranging audience in the chat guys let us know what you think about this week because it seems certainly in this country in the UK the fans of union football has been taken away from them that that dream of your club battling it through to the very top and competing against the top side is gone potentially even though there was five teams that qualify it's gone that and that competition element is over. They're still competitive games in the NBA NFL when you can't get relegated, but the idea that competition is gone not getting to this top legal merit is gone. But that's the UK that's the people that go to, you know, the 92 clubs that are in in this country business sensual right it the numbers are incredible the reach that they want to get to certainly in the Asia pack region is where to go are amazing the numbers for these clubs and these owners are insane American owners United Liverpool Arsenal they are after one thing or one thing only by running these companies and that's to make money as a business. They don't care about winning the trophies really. So yeah, could a player turn it down. Well you've seen so many players go to China in a less way less competitive league way competitive and people going there in the prime of their career if you look at Oscar. Arasco who's now back at Africa Madrid they've gone in their prime. So to say it's now the most competitive league in terms of players and the most money. Who's turning that down. Yeah, and okay so let's pivot this to then the investment opportunity because some of these come some of these football clubs are listed we've seen you mentioned at the beginning stock price fluctuation. As we know that a lot of stock price comes in the market opportunity. So we don't need to even wait for this league to happen. It could be that just the overall investment opportunity that the fact that this is going to happen or could happen could be enough so from what we've just discussed is man you just the clearest like a clearest play on this for like a long term. Yeah absolutely I mean I can share my chart if you want or should we delete if you want to leave it as this is fine but I'll let you share let me give you. Let me let me bring that in then because you've got to bear in mind when looking at this chart is still there's been a bit of post mark that you can see here but I mean it's pretty much trading where it finished last night it's down maybe maximum of the 10% at the moment so here is his Sunday is 10% higher on the news and the unwind of things have brought us back to where we are so you've seen the possibility of what happened. And if we look at Manchester United on the longer time frames here weekly time frame so the high going back to 2018 so they're off the hyper one, which is always quite an interesting way to look at things because they've got to get back to at some point over time stocks go up man United. You also said that yeah you also said man you at this point in time is you know they're not like the Alex Ferguson hey Dave but no they're not performing well at the moment, which they're going to get back to their football like we said earlier cyclical. They're top three clubs in the world top club in England, most you know highest following numbers like you said in China were a crazy. It's it's for me it's an opportunity in the coming weeks, especially on any downside to get long this market I mean you can see historically where we traded last year multi year low. In the pandemic, like with many stocks it was an opportunity to have a generation to buy but if we can, you know, get back a tiny bit lower. For me it's an opportunity to drive it to the all time high and more the Premier League as well and on this point, you know just as we come back to the main screen, the Premier League. The reason is that they offered the Super League Premier League teams money to actually come back. They know the value of Manchester United and Chelsea and Arsenal and all these clubs. That is how the Premier League is what it is cause of these clubs and the reach they get they need the Premier League teams backing the Super League team so the way football is going with the numbers that could potentially be there. It seems inevitable. And for me man United is about it is something that's going to smash through that all time high over the coming years maybe not months now but you've had a little taste just from that 10% push higher off of this just for you know the short term and if they get good again. And they get these type of players that the money will drive and the wages they'll be able to offer and their competitiveness in the transfer market again and then they start winning the trophies and the titles. It's only going one way for me. Short term maybe different but long term. It's kind of like I mean I'm a more of a basketball fan but if you had like teams that were like all-star teams I mean to bring in you know we're talking about a definable audience of fans but if you had say top players like world-classed household names that would bring in other sports fans. We talked about the broader market. We're almost transferable. You're a basketball fan I'm a football fan but I appreciate basketball like you do football. I don't support a team in basketball. I support players. So if Steph Curry goes to the Lakers I'm looking out for the Lakers as a result. I look out for LeBron James now Brooklyn Nets have got the globe shotters I'm looking out for them because you know they're exciting players they've got big followings and you know why do I follow a team. You know if anyone is New York Knicks they're terrible I'm looking elsewhere and that's absolutely what could happen here in football. I think it's the reaction that the fans have done is amazing by the way to get this pulled back but it seems like it's a bump in the inevitable road especially if the Premier League rumours that they paid these clubs to come back is true as well. There's also a rumour by the way of the New Champions League reform was also going to help these top teams through a coefficient that they're going to qualify anyway as well. So opportunity wise it's a buy for me. How much does that pay you as a loyal Arsenal fan to say that? Well you know what it's like when I bet if I bet on Chelsea to win and they lose it's a win-win so if I go long then it's United and it fails. You know that's usually that's going to be because their business is running poorly as well as their results so I can get over that. Cool alright we'll end it there thanks for that Sam, cheers. Pleasure to be on. And look let us know your comments. Good, bad and the ugly we're happy to engage in the comments section. I'm really intrigued to see what everyone thinks absolutely. Thanks guys. Take care.