American’s investing into European football

Jordan Gardner on American’s investing into European football and his plan to grow young American players on a foreign field

In an interview with Premier Sports Network, US investor Jordan Gardner speaks about his investments into European football, the development of young North American players and the impact of COVID-19.

While Denmark might not be the first country that comes to mind when discussing European football, it’s worth noting that they are ex-European Championship winners and the Danish Superliga is increasingly yielding teams such as Midtjylland and FC Copenhagen that are starting to make a splash in UEFA competitions on a more regular basis.

However, for American investor Jordan Gardner, Chairman and co-owner of FC Helsingør, the opportunity lies elsewhere. Formed in 2005 from a merger of the five Elsinore clubs, it was initially named Elite 3000 Fodbold, before rebranding to FC Helsingør in 2012. Jordan led a group of investors which bought the second division side in May 2019. Just over a year later, the club was promoted to the Danish Superliga for only the second time in the club’s history.

Gardner started making investments at English Championship side Swansea City and Irish club Dundalk FC as a minor investor with both teams, before deciding that he wanted to become the majority owner at a club and opted for Helsingør. But while he remains an investor at the other two clubs, Gardner stressed that there is no connection between the clubs other than his investments.

Gardner turned to football after he owned and then sold a sports and entertainment ticketing company in 2015. He then worked as Vice President of Investment and Business Strategy at the digital media company JUGOtv which was later acquired by Relevent Sports.

With ambitious plans for growth, that directly tie into the fates of future development for players from one of the most expecting nations in the world, there is a massive potential to create a new powerhouse in Denmark relying on a unique strategy to acquire top players and a business model that tantalises young stars with the prospect of regular first team football, so they can move onto the upper echelons of European football when the time is right.

What were your motivations behind investing into European football?

“European football offers a unique

“The sport is just looked at in a very different way in Europe versus the United States, and it takes time, energy and humility to understand how to be successful in European Football.”

opportunity for someone like myself who has a strong background in the business world, and entrepreneurship. You can buy a lower division club and use your expertise to get that club promoted, you can create a sophisticated player development and talent identification system to sell players, or can just simply buy one of the many poorly run clubs and run it in a more efficient manner.”

What have been the biggest challenges for you as an overseas investor?

“The cultural and language differences are challenging as a foreign investment group. The sport is just looked at in a very different way in Europe versus the United States, and it takes time, energy and humility to understand how to be successful in European Football.”

What are the most important lessons you have learnt?

“I learned very quickly that it was important to bring leadership and stability to the club. The club we purchased in Denmark had been promoted or relegated every season for the last five, so it was vital for our long-term success to bring a sense of calm to the organisation. Strong, stable leadership at the top is essential for success at any football club, as is hiring good, smart people both on and off the pitch.”

In recent years, there has been an increase in American investors entering European football, why do you think this is?

“European football has become more attractive for American investment as the price points in North America have skyrocketed over the last few years. The entry point for Major League Soccer right now is US$300 million and up, USL (the 2nd tier) in the U.S. is US$10 million and up, and those are at the low end of compared to other sports like the NBA, MLB and the NFL. European football offers an opportunity to commercialise the sport, capture significant media rights and sell players in a way that simply does not exist right now in North America.”

How do the challenges of investing into a European club differ to that of a franchise in the US?

“The franchise model in the U.S. is very different from Europe. You have league wide oversight on everything from social media, marketing, player signings, etc. The league even takes a cut of all transfer fees and can approve or reject any incoming or outgoing player movement. We enjoy the freedom of owning a club in Europe and the ability to make decisions as we see fit. However, there are times that leadership at the league level (such as during a global pandemic) can be beneficial.”

Given your minority stakes in Swansea City and Dundalk, what motivated you to become the majority owner of second-tier Danish side Helsingør and how have your experiences with other clubs influenced your business strategy and approach with Helsingør?

“After making strategic minority investments in European Football and

spending several years learning, I felt the timing was right to buy a controlling interest of a club. It was important that we could have control over decision making and bring a new level of sophistication to a club via majority ownership. In general, I learned that in order to be successful, foreign ownership needed to be present and engage with the local community, and receptive to the unique differences in each European market.

“We spent a lot of time engaging with our supporters and sponsors even before we finalised our purchase of FC Helsingør. It was important as a foreign ownership group to understand why they had been supportive of the club in the past, and what we could do to build off that moving into the future. In my mind, local community engagement is not complicated, it just required humility and being honest and transparent with the people who are most important to the club.”

How did the idea of owning a European club to develop young American players come about?

“I’ve been dialled into the American soccer landscape for a while now, and I saw an increasing trend of young Americans heading to Europe, but into difficult environments. Whether it was language, or culture, or playing style, many Americans would get lost in Europe and not develop properly. I never understood why there wasn’t an American owned club that could be a landing spot for young talent, in the right country, with the right environment. We identified Denmark as the perfect location, as everyone speaks English, there is a culture of playing young players and very limited foreign player restrictions.”

How do you plan to build relationships with agents and others to get young American prospects into the club?

“Based on my previous time working in and around American soccer, I had many of those existing relationships already. We’ve also gotten significant positive feedback across the soccer landscape in the U.S., from youth clubs, to agents to influential people in American soccer media which has made recruitment easier.”

With young American players being so far away from ‘home’ (family and friends) as well as the cultural differences they face when moving to Denmark, how important is it and how have you created a strong support network around players, with an emphasis on their welfare, so that they are settled and able to perform to the highest standard?

“Creating a good environment for young players to grow and develop is very

Gardner hopes he can attract other young US stars to Denmark for a spell, to follow in the footsteps of stars like Reggie Cannon.

important to their success. The cultural differences in Denmark for young players are pretty limited, as everyone speaks English. We have good infrastructure in Denmark and an American CEO on the ground, so the players have everything they need to be successful.

“We specifically identified FC Helsingør as a good fit for our project because it had very good infrastructure in terms of stadium facilities and it was in close proximity to a major European hub in Copenhagen. Both factors are important when it comes to success with young foreign players coming to Denmark.

“We needed to ensure the players were given all the tools to be happy and successful off the pitch, which would translate to success on the pitch. We have American staff, and an American CEO that understand the needs of those players and can relate and address any issues that arise. We’ve created an excellent culture at the club, and that makes it much easier for young players to integrate and be successful in that type of environment.”

How has coronavirus impacted your operations in Europe?

“Like many clubs in Europe, we’ve lost significant amounts of revenue playing games without fans. Ultimately, the biggest impact has been on our foreign recruitment, as the borders in the European Union have been closed to Americans for quite some time. We’ve had to refocus our recruitment strategy for now and are pleased with the domestic talent we’ve brought in for the upcoming season.”

Jordan is amongst those trying to strengthen the national infrastructure of football in America. The short-term goal is to produce a ‘Golden Generation’ akin to the likes of Belgium and Portugal. In the longer term, the USA wants to be competing at the top level for international competitions every single year.

U.S. men’s soccer is currently in a transition period after failing to quality for the 2018 World Cup and is undergoing a number of major leadership changes at Federation level. There is no doubt that the U.S. is producing some top young talent, both in Europe with talent such as Christian Pulisic at Chelsea, Weston McKennie at Schalke 04 and also through academies in Major League Soccer, such as Julian Araujo, Reggie Cannon and Jesús Ferreira.

Jordan admits that the U.S. are still years away from producing a critical mass of talent that can elevate them to top levels in international competitions, where more players need to be in European academies, and more MLS clubs to replicate the success of a youth-focused model like at FC Dallas, which developed McKennie, Cannon and Ferreira in their academy.