A guide to the legal due diligence process when buying a football club
Sales of football clubs, particularly Premier League clubs, is always headline news. Fans often get frustrated by the amount of time it takes to complete a sale process. For instance, the Everton FC sale was only finalised in December 2024 after the old owners had first agreed to sell the club back in May 2023[1].
One important element of the sale process, which usually takes a few weeks, is the due diligence undertaken by the bidders on the target club.
So what is due diligence? How long should it take? And how might it impact on a potential sale?
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- Tags: Commercial Law | Corporate Law | Due Diligence | Football | Premier League | Takeover Code | The FA | United Kingdom (UK)
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Written by
Richard Barham
Richard heads both the London Corporate practice, and Sports practice, of Dentons.
Richard's focus is on M&A and corporate work. He is particularly interested in corporate governance issues, and regularly advises companies and other organisations on how they best operate to achieve good and effective governance standards.
