Daniel Levy and Joe Lewis are the principal owners of Tottenham Hotspur through ENIC International Limited, with Lewis owning 70.6% and Levy 29.4%. It is actually a little bit more convoluted but for the purposes of this article, they are the owners.
They are indeed a wealthy pair of individuals, with Lewis a multi-billionaire and Levy worth hundreds of millions, however, compared with some other owners of football clubs in Europe, they are relatively small fry.
Most football fans would probably love their club to have a Man City, Newcastle United or PSG type owner, one that pumps unlimited funds into the club in search of unearned glory but it is not actually necessary, not if you have competence at the top.
Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Man Utd are not owned by entities worth 100’s of billions, neither is Leicester City, Atletico Madrid or Borussia Dortmund. You can also add Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus to that list.
Yes, they all have rich owners but not ones worth insane money that funds City, Newcastle and PSG and yet they have all tasted success in recent years.
The reason is simple, competence.
Barcelona and the Italian clubs are in a financial mess right now but because they generate so much income they will come out the other side, they can still drop serious money into the transfer market and remain competitive despite their dire financial circumstances.
Juventus just splashed out £70m on Dusan Vlahovic, Barcelona is still spending significantly, Real Madrid offered £200m for Kylian Mbappe and United spend money like it is water and none of them is state-owned.
The point is that you do not need to be worth silly money but you do need to know what you are doing when it comes to running a football club.
The Glazer family is worth $4.7 billion, according to Forbes, Joe Lews is worth $4.9 billion yet United have spent £1 billion-plus over the last ten years, Tottenham a hell of a lot less. The reason is simple, United generate far more money and have owners, despite being hated in Manchester, that are prepared to spend huge amounts of money.
Of course, the Red Devils have not won the title in a decade but under the Glazers and David Gill they did win titles and European competitions and of course, there is Chelsea, whose owner Roman Abramovich is worth $12 billion, a drop in the ocean compared to City’s owners and yet they are European champions and now, world club champions.
You have to spend, but if you spend badly then it really does not matter how rich you are. United over the last few years are proving that but at least they do spend.
Daniel Levy and Lewis do not invest anywhere near enough into the club and when they do actually drop a pretty penny, they do it badly and therein lies the difference.
Spurs will soon be generating as much money as any club on the planet and they will have the funds to compete with almost any club but unless they get it right at the top, nothing will ever change.
ENIC, Daniel Levy and Joe Lewis have run Spurs for two decades now, surely there is enough evidence that they are not fit for purpose when it comes to running a football team, it really does not matter how much they spend, they could spend £300 million in the summer but their track record says that it will be spent badly.
Nothing will change at Tottenham until there is change at the top.
