{"id":618135,"date":"2026-04-20T00:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/618135\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T00:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:39:16","slug":"bill-foley-auckland-fc-owner-in-bid-to-buy-exeter-chiefs-rugby-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/618135\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Foley: Auckland FC owner in bid to buy Exeter Chiefs rugby club"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news of Black Knight\u2019s takeover marks an unprecedented development in the Prem\u2019s history, with one of its clubs poised to be owned by a Premier League equivalent. In recent months, several top-flight clubs in English rugby have announced new investment, as the league, financially, recovers from the perils of the 2022-23 season, when three teams \u2013 Wasps, Worcester and London Irish \u2013 all went to the wall.<\/p>\n

Newcastle were taken over by Red Bull at the start of this season. Sir James Dyson has pledged millions into Bath to become joint co-owner alongside Bruce Craig. Earlier last week, Northampton received a multi-million pound cash injection from financier Steve Zander and now the Chiefs are set to be taken over by Foley, who acquired Bournemouth in December 2022.<\/p>\n

As well as the Premier League club, the multi-sport group also own FC Lorient in France, Auckland FC in New Zealand<\/a> and National Hockey League team the Las Vegas Knights<\/a>. It also has majority interest in Moreirense FC in Portugal and a 25% stake in Hibernian FC in Scotland.<\/p>\n

When Foley took over at Bournemouth<\/a>, he outlined his philosophy in a statement: \u201cWe will move forward with an \u2018always advance, never retreat\u2019 approach that has defined all of my endeavours. I am committed to work with the best football and business minds available to enhance player development, facilities and the fan experience to put AFC Bournemouth in the best possible position to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with the Guardian, Rowe urged his fellow Prem owners to \u201cwake up and smell the coffee\u201d regarding the recent move to franchise the top tier of English rugby and attract greater investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will put us in a really good place to take advantage of the future,\u201d Rowe, 77, said. \u201cWhether you like it or not, professional sport is all about money. We need money to survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve effectively run a business for the last 30-odd years for a shareholder who\u2019s got no money. What I\u2019m looking forward to is an investor who\u2019s got some money. That\u2019ll be a massive difference for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The news of Black Knight\u2019s takeover marks an unprecedented development in the Prem\u2019s history, with one of its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,22065,63,158400,13884,39772,11136,5386,10970,5224,77907,244837,299721,78096,4717,2877,8936,7887,299720,268193,26296,760,8856,85,10965,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-618135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-auckland","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-bid","12":"tag-bill","13":"tag-bournemouth","14":"tag-buy","15":"tag-chiefs","16":"tag-club","17":"tag-english","18":"tag-exeter","19":"tag-fc","20":"tag-financiers","21":"tag-foley","22":"tag-in","23":"tag-league","24":"tag-over","25":"tag-owner","26":"tag-owners","27":"tag-poised","28":"tag-premier","29":"tag-rugby","30":"tag-side","31":"tag-sports","32":"tag-take","33":"tag-to"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}