Amanda Staveley, who has stepped down from the board of Newcastle United, is searching for her next football investment, with stakes in Tottenham Hotspur among the possible targets she’s exploring.

Staveley has recently raised about £500 million through her investment fund PCP Capital Partners and has been looking at a number of football clubs to deploy the cash, according to a person familiar with the matter. It’s unclear who the backers are. Staveley is well-connected in the Gulf region.

Tottenham Hotspur, which came fifth in the last Premier League season, is one of the clubs on Staveley’s radar. She has held initial discussions to buy a minority stake with Rothschild & Co, an adviser to Tottenham, the person said. A deal, if any, is likely to involve convertible preference shares, the person said. Other potential targets being studied include AS Monaco, which compete in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, the person said, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

Considerations are at an early stage and may not lead to any transaction. Representatives for Rothschild and Tottenham declined to comment. A representative for AS Monaco didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tottenham is seen by some as among the country’s top teams even though it failed to qualify for the lucrative UEFA Champions League in the last season and hasn’t won Premier League title since 1961. 

Under the stewardship of chairman Daniel Levy, the club has built itself a state-of-the art stadium in north London, which regularly stages music concerts, NFL games and boxing competitions. Tottenham has a valuation of about €3.5 billion including debt, according to the consultancy group Football Benchmark.

Tottenham is majority-owned by the ENIC Sports Inc, in which Joe Lewis’s family own just over 70%. Levy and members of his family own the rest of ENIC. Lewis, the founder of The Tavistock Group, was sentenced to three years’ probation and fined US$5 million after pleading guilty to fraud charges in January.

In an interview with Bloomberg News last year, Levy said that Tottenham was open to selling a stake in the club. “I’ve got no real interest to leave Tottenham, but I have a duty to consider anything that anyone may want to propose.” he said at that time.

Staveley was first appointed as director of Newcastle United in October 2021, following a Saudi-led £305 million takeover of the club from the British retail magnate Mike Ashley. She was granted a 10% shareholding in the team.

Under her tenure at Newcastle United, the team qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in 20 years and reached the finals of the Carabao Cup at Wembley Stadium. Last season it disappointed by missing out on European qualification after finishing seventh in the Premier League.

  - Bloomberg