The Chinese owners of Grasshopper Club Zurich are in early-stage talks to sell the Swiss football team to Los Angeles FC, according to people familiar with the conversations.
A deal isn’t guaranteed, and since LAFC has shown interest, the owners of Grasshopper have tried to attract rival bidders, a person familiar with the matter said.
Representatives for LAFC and Grasshopper Zurich both declined to comment.
Jenny Wang, the wife of billionaire Fosun International founder Guo Guangchang, first put the Swiss team up for sale in April, Bloomberg News reported. Any deal would mark the latest pullback of Chinese owners from overseas sports. A sale to LAFC would continue to expand a growing influence of US owners and investors in European sports.
LAFC is owned by Brandon Beck, Larry Berg and Bennett Rosenthal. Beck is co-founder of Riot Games. Berg is a senior partner at 26 North, while Rosenthal is a co-founder of Ares Management Corp. Other owners include Peter Guber, chief executive officer of Mandalay Entertainment Group and co-executive chairman of the Golden State Warriors. The actor Will Ferrell also has a stake.
While more Americans have bought stakes in European football clubs in recent years, it’s unusual for US teams to buy European ones. Michele Kang’s Washington Spirit, a National Women’s Soccer League team, is in talks to buy a shareholding interest in the French Olympique Lyonnais. The LAFC board members have experience investing in Europe.
Grasshopper Club Zurich, one of the country’s oldest football teams, was founded in 1886. It currently ranks 9th in Switzerland’s Super League, averaging crowds of under 6,000 at a stadium it shares with FC Zurich, according to data provider Transfermarkt.com. The team has won the Swiss Championship 27 times, most recently in 2003.
Plans to build a new stadium in the city of Zurich have been complicated by the UBS takeover of Credit Suisse, originally the project’s lead financier and adviser.
LAFC stands in second place in the MLS western conference. Earlier this year it launched a joint venture with Bayern Munich to develop talent. In April this year LAFC invested in Austria’s FC Wacker Innsbruck.