Phil Sumbler
A majority stake in Swansea City has been owned now for more than seven years by a multitude of shareholders in Swansea Football LLC and, despite many promises this summer for clarity, none of that has materialised with the latest filings at Companies House which show the total shareholdings in the football club.
The shareholding shows exactly who has direct investment in the club and who has invested by the LLC that was set up when the club first changed hands in 2016 to an ownership that was spearheaded by Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien. Andy Coleman has been at pains several times this summer to talk about his investment in the club but it is another one of those hidden investments as the vehicle for that particular money is the LLC of which nobody knows the make up of it.
Just who makes up the shareholding in the LLC remains a question that nobody seemingly gets answers to and it continues to generate more questions than answers. In the last few months alone we have Coleman claiming he is the decision maker, Jake Silverstein being pretty dismissive of the skills of Russell Martin in his last few weeks at Swansea and some completely unknown claiming the Albermarle have a controlling stake in Swansea City.
It all just adds more questions to an already clouded picture with the investment from Nigel Morris in the summer being the only visible (and clear) investment direct into the football club although his influence has been nowhere to be seen with Coleman determined to tell everyone that he is the man in charge at the moment. As was Chris Pearlman and Jake Silverstein before him!
The shareholding filed this week showed the shareholdings to total just over 2.6m shares in the football club in existence of which the LLC own 1.86m or a 71.6% shareholding in the club.
Other shareholdings show Huw Jenkins to still own 1.82% as do Martin and Louise Morgan between them with their shareholding split equally whilst the Trust shareholding shows their A class shares at 47500 (1.82%) and B class shares at 152499 (5.85%) highlighting the dilution of their shares since the legal action was dropped taking the effect of almost 2/3 of their shareholding.
Nigel Morris investment comes in at 16.67% of the club with other shares of 9500 to Brian Katzen and the original 1 share that was owned by David Morgan when the club changed hands back in 2002.
For many fans it may not matter what makes up that shareholding in LLC but the lack of clarity that has existed since the change in ownership in 2016 just adds to the cynicism that the club’s operation often generates. During that time we have seen a host of people despatched to work closely day to day in the club but each of them have left almost as soon as they arrived and each sent with what appears to be a mission to work closely with the Supporters Trust although that seems to involve nothing more than just adding them to statements (or token seats on fans forums) rather than the clear part that is needed. An organisation formed for good governance should be demanding this clarity on ownership first and foremost.
It was long since said when the ownership first took control that there were 28 investors but there seem to be many more adding their names to the list that nobody gets to see. With the ownership group spending much time over the past two years looking for new investment it seems that much of that time was potentially about getting a return for the LLC as opposed to anything that is the benefit of the football club.
Andy Coleman is said to have moved his family over here to oversee the operation of the club – the reward for doing that will become more obvious when the club’s accounts for this year are generated. The rumours are that his return by way of salary for doing so stretches into the several hundred thousand pounds a year scenario, much of which dampens any inconvenience that he may be feeling for that move across the Atlantic.
It has always been said that the events of the ownership change could have taken a very different turn had it been for clarity and, despite many noises to the positive on this front, we are yet to see any clarity in those seven years since. We know full well at Swansea City that the demand for clarity stretches back way beyond the appointment of Tony Petty and certainly existed in the days of Silver Shield before the arrival of the Australian based cockney. Giving clarity of who actually owns our football club is the minimum expected by supporters hence the questions that get asked with every public filing of company documentation.
It does seem doubtful that we will though ever get that clarity and if that is to remain the case then the likes of Andy Coleman, Jake Silverstein, Jason Levien, Steve Kaplan and anyone else that sits alongside them can always expect to be taken with a large dose of cynicism. It’s the Swansea way…
At the moment things are rumbling on a bit quieter than when Russell Martin tried in vain to sign players in January .But make no mistake the Americans are here to make money .That includes the super confident Coleman .
When he’s made enough money and grown bored of living in beautiful rural Gower he’ll be back to the states .If his predecessors are anything to go by it’ll be in about two to three years