Mallorca's Mystery: British Plumber Buys Spanish Club

It seems that it is not just expensive foreign players halting the development of young English talent. Foreign billionaires seem to be having the same effect.

Paul Davidson, a self-made multi-millionaire, found himself wanting to invest in a football club. However, he quickly realised that the presence of Abramovich, Lerner and the Glazers made such a move unlikely.

“Yeah, I did think about a club in England,” he told The Sunday Times, “for all of 30 seconds.”

Wisecracks aside, it provoked a very real problem. With the English market impenetrable, where could he go to buy a decent team?

The answer, it appears, is Spain.

After little more than a weekend’s negotiations, the 55-year-old Lancastrian committed himself to purchasing Real Mallorca, a stalwart of La Liga.

“I saw the Mallorca people on the Friday, and agreed the deal the following Monday”, he admits openly.

At just £40m, it also represents something of a bargain for the former plumber.

Davidson’s investment secures him a 92% stake in the club—and unlike foreign chairman in England, most of the Mallorca fans seem happy with the arrangement:

“I’d say 99% of fans here are really pleased”, said Paco Soto, head of one of the club’s more prominent supporters’ groups. “The club needs money, looked for a local buyer and couldn’t find one.”

Davidson, however, wants to do more than simply provide the money to keep the club running. He has loftier ambitions:

“The problem with the Premier League is that the top four places, and getting into the Champions League, are almost guaranteed. Here, that’s not true.”

Mallorca, for example, have been involved in the Champion’s League more recently than all but six English teams—along with 12 other Spanish sides. European qualification is attainable in Spain, far more so than in England. Soto agrees:

“Okay, when [Davidson] says we’re going to win the Champion’s League, that’s probably just the euphoria of clinching the deal – but we can become competitive in Europe.”

Davidson is already thinking of initiatives to help achieve this aim. Chief amongst them, perhaps surprisingly, is the recruitment of British youngsters.

“Once we identify promising 16 and 17-year-olds in England, we can say to them, ‘Where would you prefer to do your apprenticeship? Here in Mallorca, where you’ll play in La Liga, in the sun and learning Spanish, or in, say, Leeds?”

“There’s also the importation laws for players from South America that are different in Spain than in England, so we can bring them in.”

Such arguments are hard to disagree with. They also demonstrate Davidson’s long-term commitment to the club.

Such a commitment is not completely altruistic, however. The businessman knows how useful owning a football club can be:

“When I’ve a new product to launch, I spend six or seven million on marketing. If I’ve got a football club promoting that product, or my company, I’ll hardly need to do that.”

This is not to say he will be running the club to pursue his own agenda. Former president, Vicente Grande, will stay on at the club to ensure the footballing side of the operation continues to run smoothly. As he says:

“What I do have is the ability to make money very quickly, but what do I know about football?”

Such awareness of his own failings should give Davidson a far greater chance of running a successful club. Looking after the business side, it is sensible to leave the footballing side to the men who know it best.

Inevitably, many other British investors will be watching Mallorca’s experiment with interest. If it works, many more European clubs could find themselves subject to foreign ownership.

Davidson, however, will be more concerned with his team’s results:

“I’ll be in the stands, not even in the posh seats, moaning like everyone else when we lose,” he remarked jokingly.

With foreign investors dominating England’s Top 4, Davidson is out to prove that there is still a place in the Champion’s League for English chairman. He’s also out to prove that Spanish clubs can turn a profit too.

Good luck to him. However, you feel he may not need it.