Gary Neville opened up on ambitious plans for Salford City and also spoke more on US investors’ interest in English football.
The Salford co-owner, announced AIG as a minority investor to transform the club into a “serious business” on and off the pitch, targeting Championship promotion in five years.
Despite £28 million losses from infrastructure investments, the club aims for sustainability through revenue growth via deals (e.g., Coca-Cola, Dream Set Go in India), a player trading model, and shareholder expertise.
He also predicts continued US investment in English clubs due to perceived value, noting over a third of the 92 professional teams already have US ownership, and global reach compared to US franchises, alongside a mix of local, international, and sovereign wealth investors.
Neville also wanted heritage preserved, dismissing a Super League revival in its prior form, and supported a regulator to bridge financial gaps between leagues for fairer competition and club protection.
More than a third of the 92 professional teams in England’s top four leagues already have some form of US ownership.
Neville said: “No, it’s a really significant moment. Great to be on the show and talk about Salford City, which is a passion of mine, I think to get a Fortune 500 businesslike. And Peter Zaffino, the Chairman, support. It’s a landmark moment for us.
“It’s something that leaves me pinching myself when I think of what the journey of Salford City over the last ten years that we’ve had, and we’ve got into the Football League, which was a sort of momentous occasion.
“I think about this next chapter with even more excitement and the fact the AIG have come on board as a minority investor and as a commercial partner with us as well, means that we’re set up to be able to achieve what we want to do on and off the pitch.
“And, you know, football clubs are passion projects, but we’ve got to turn this into a serious business in the next five years that performs on the pitch but also performs off the pitch.”
Interviewer: “Like most clubs, Salford has struggled financially in the last few years. How is it? I think it’s 28 million or something in the last ten years you’ve lost. How do you change that outlook? I mean, where is the revenue going to come from?”
Neville: “Yeah, I mean, you point towards that number over a ten year period, but we have sort of built stadiums in that period have been big infrastructure projects that obviously go into that. We have invested heavily in the club.
“I think that when you look at the investment of the last ten years, it’s people who are really passionate about football or investing in a local football club. I think what differentiates maybe the next five years, is that one of our key elements and KPIs is for us to achieve sustainability.
“That means that we can have to grow revenues off the pitch. Obviously, deals like this one with AIG are vital to that. We’ve got a deal that we’ve just signed with Coca-Cola. We’re looking at a big deal and have signed a deal already with Dream Set Go in India.
“So we’re looking at big commercial deals to go along with a really fantastic CEO that we’ve just brought in. He’s going to introduce a player trading model.
“And then it’s important that we also offer those fourth and fifth revenue streams and tap into this of all the expertise and intelligence that we have within the shareholder base now.
“So, you know, within five years, yes, we want to get to the Championship, but we very much are looking at sustainability as well.
“You’re right to highlight that. You know, I believe in sustainable football, but what you do have to do is no one with a football club is invested in the club to make sure that the facilities improve, the training ground improves, the matchday experience improves, and then you what you start to build together is a fan base through the success on the pitch that can get us to where we need to be.”
Interviewer: “I mean, in the past few years we’ve also seen a massive rise in American ownership.
“We wrote a piece last year showing that like affairs of football league clubs are now owned by American owners, and some of them have been like Wrexham and Birmingham since the last season was very successful.
“Others have like Carlisle, haven’t been so successful. What do you see as the trends in the next few years? Is it more Americans to come or more sovereign wealth or even some local ownership? What do you think?
Neville: “So yeah, I mean, that’s the great thing about the Salford City ownership that we actually have got a mixture of sort of local ownership.
“Obviously, you know, I’m local, very local to to all of it. But we’ve also got international ownership, including partners from all parts of the world, which I think is really critical.
“I think when you talk about American ownership specifically, I think they see real value in English football clubs because of the cost of buying sort of franchises and sports projects over in the US.
“So I think when they look at actually sort of English football and the reach of English football globally is enormous and they look at the price tags that are associated with clubs and think actually it’s really good value, it presents good growth opportunities in the future.
“You know, when you think of the weights and the calibre of people and the volume of people who come in from the US into English football, you know, they can all be wrong, can they?
“You’ve got some pretty smart people and intelligent people that know how to run sports businesses but also have a passion for the sport as well.
“You know, there is a concern. Obviously, we we want to make sure that we keep the heritage and the traditions of the game in England.
“And we have the Super League, obviously a few years ago, which was obviously very importantly stopped. We’ve just got to make sure that the things that we hold dear in this country are capped.
“But I think we’re you know, we’re on the right side of that now. And I think that the ownership, to be fair, of the Premier League clubs and other clubs in the EFL, very varied local, international, Middle East and Asian sovereign wealth funds, as you said, and obviously U.S.
“So we’ve got a real sort of, you know, attractive base in England and that the game’s in great shape.”
Interviewer: “Gary, you talk about the Super League. If that if that was to rear its head again, how much of a threat would that be to clubs like Salford?”
Neville: “Yeah, it won’t rear its head again in the form that it came last time. That was just completely it was wrong and it was, it was pushed back heavily and I think the clubs that signed up to that will never make that same mistake again.
“It was incredibly damaging for them from a reputational perspective at that time. So I don’t think we’ll ever see the Super League come back.
“But what we will see, like we see with the FIFA Club World Cup, we will see new proposals for elite tournaments and as long as the actual entry and accessibility to those tournament seems fair, then there’s no problem with that.
“The problem with the Super League was it was a closed shop for the top clubs and basically all the clubs were going there really struggle to be able to compete and it would have damaged not just the game in England but the game around Europe.
“So yeah, we won’t see the Super League in anything like the same format that it came for before and the Premier League at this moment in time is a little bit like the Super League in the world in respect of the sort of global nature of it, the money in the game, the fans that watch it every single week and we obviously want to be part of that with Salford City.
“You know, we’re really passionate about our football club, the drive and ambition within the ownership set, including AIG. And so our Peter Zaffino, you know, AIG’s chair and CEO, backing us in the way in which it gives us real confidence that where we can take this project.”
“The game’s in great shape”
Gary Neville pushes back against criticism of foreign investment in English football, describing US investors as “some pretty smart people” https://t.co/jB9fWFjS9k pic.twitter.com/GKmzWWiOQA
— Bloomberg (@business) August 15, 2025
Interviewer: “I was wondering what you think about the regulator coming in. Some people have really been against the regulator, but can the regulator improve the situation that we have seen?
“We’ve got clubs like Sheffield Wednesday struggling sort of to field teams. You know, Macclesfield, Morecambe. What do you think of a regulator? Do you think that would be a benefit to the game?”
Neville: “Look, I really hope so. I’ve been championing the regulator for a number of years now because we do have some blockages within the game. And what the game is, what the game is created in England, which I don’t think was ever the intention. It’s created cliff edges.
“So you’ve got the top six clubs which have huge revenues, but then you’ve got the 14 of the Premier League clubs which are really struggling to compete. And I think we need to make sure we just keep an eye on that.
“You then got the draw up between the Premier League and the Championship, which the revenues for the bottom of the Premier League abroad can stay in commercial hundred million pounds.
“The top of the Championship is about 6 to £8 million. You’ve got this huge gap in revenue between the two leagues and we need to make sure those cliff edges don’t exist. We need to make sure we smooth them out so that there’s a real opportunity for clubs to be able to go up into the Premier League and compete.
“The regulator doing that job properly I think can be good for the Premier League, but also good for the rest of English football and it can set a precedent in terms of how we protect and got the game we need. If you think of when you go bowling, you have those guardrails up that stop the ball going down the edges and falling off. That’s what the regulators should be doing, is making sure that, you know, it’s a we know that football clubs are owned by owners. We know they’re going to run those clubs and drive them forward southwest of their abilities. But we need guardrails.”
Interviewer: “Gary in just 10 seconds, who wins the English Premier League this season?”
Neville: “Arsenal, because I can’t say Liverpool.”
Gary Neville said more and more American owners see real value in English football clubs and will continue to buy in and invest in them.
Back in May, David Beckham and Gary Neville announced they were leading a new ownership group in acquiring Salford City FC, alongside US businessman Declan Kelly and Lord Mervyn Davies as co-chairs, plus other shareholders from finance, tech, and entertainment sectors.
The group commits to significant investments in the team, facilities, and commercial strategies for sustainability and growth.
Beckham spoke of deep personal involvement, drawing from his Salford roots, and aims for promotions to the Championship and eventually the Premier League, inspired by successes at Wrexham and Birmingham.
Neville stresses football-first priorities, community impact, innovative content, and financial balance.The acquisition builds on the Class of ’92’s past efforts (four promotions in five years post-2014), with some members continuing roles, while Peter Lim exits.
The focus is on on-pitch success, infrastructure upgrades, and creating a vibrant fan community.
Read more including lengthy quotes from Becks and Nev below…
David Beckham and Gary Neville complete takeover of Salford City with big plans revealed
You must be logged in to post a comment Login