On 5 June 2026 a buyer-side press release from Eight Sports Capital Limited announced the signing of a sale and purchase agreement to acquire a 24.99% interest in ENIC Sports and Developments Holdings Limited, the parent company of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, from the trustee of Daniel Levy’s family trust.
Within hours, ENIC issued a statement denying any awareness of the transaction, and it is understood that the company had had no contact with the prospective buyers.
| Transaction type | Sale and purchase agreement: ENIC minority stake |
| Seller | Oakchester Limited (Whitmill Trust Company, Gibraltar, trustee of The Levy Children’s Trust and The Walburg Discretionary Trust) |
| Buyer | Eight Sports Capital Limited |
| Stake in ENIC | 24.99% of ENIC Sports and Developments Holdings Limited |
| Indirect club stake | c.21.7% economic interest in Tottenham Hotspur Ltd (24.99% × c.86.9% ENIC club stake) |
| Levy’s residual | c.4.89% of ENIC (from 29.88% pre-transaction) |
| Price disclosed | Not disclosed. Implied club valuation c.£3bn–£3.85bn per press reports |
| ENIC response | Denied awareness; ‘not aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s family trust of its minority stake’ |
| Status (5 Jun 2026) | Disputed by ENIC. |
Three headline findings:
The sale does not change control of Tottenham Hotspur. The Lewis family trust retains 70.12% of ENIC and ENIC retains approximately 86.9% of the club. Levy’s minority ENIC stake carries no board seat, no club-level voting rights, and no pre-emption rights. The strategic impact is minimal unless undisclosed governance rights have been agreed.
The buyers carry acute credibility and funding risk. Eight Sports Capital is linked to Triller Group Inc., which was delisted from Nasdaq effective 30 December 2025 following failure to file mandatory periodic reports and disclosed substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. The lead deal maker, Brooklyn Earick, has a record of high-profile sports’ investment collapses including an aborted £4.5bn Spurs bid in September 2025 and a failed Formula E team acquisition in 2024.
The 24.99% figure is structurally significant. However, suggestions of deliberate regulatory engineering, are wide of the mark in the sense that the 24.99% figure represents the size of holdings in ENIC of Walburg Holdings Limited and Larkin Ltd via Oakchester Limited.
What was announced…..Eight Sports Capital
The story broke on the afternoon of Friday 5 June 2026 via a press release from Eight Sports Capital Limited headlined: ‘Trustee of Daniel Levy’s Family Trust Agrees Sale of 24.99% Stake in Tottenham Hotspur Parent Company.’
The release stated:
Eight Sports Capital Limited today announces the signing of a sale and purchase agreement to acquire a 24.99% interest in ENIC Sports and Development Holdings Limited, the parent company of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. A spokesperson added: ‘We are delighted to have signed this agreement to acquire a significant stake in ENIC. We look forward to working with the Club’s shareholders, management, staff, players and fans to support Tottenham Hotspur’s continued growth and success.’
The parties stated no further comment would be made on commercial terms. No price was disclosed. Per The Independent (5 June 2026), the deal ‘would make [Levy] hundreds of millions of pounds, with Tottenham valued at around £3bn.’
The acquisition is not a direct purchase from Daniel Levy personally. It is structured as the acquisition from Oakchester Limited of the entire issued share capital of two holding vehicles, Walburg Holdings Limited and Larkin Ltd, which together beneficially hold 24.99% of the issued ordinary share capital of ENIC.
The seller, Oakchester Limited, is owned by Whitmill Trust Company (Gibraltar) Limited acting as trustee of two discretionary family trusts: The Levy Children’s Trust and The Walburg Discretionary Trust.
This layered trust structure is a standard structure used by wealthy UK individuals to hold significant assets for the benefit of family members in a tax-efficient and succession-planning framework. Gibraltar-based trustees are common for such arrangements. Levy is understood to have held 29.88% of ENIC; the sale of 24.99% would reduce the family’s residual to approximately 4.89%.
ENIC’s Denial
ENIC stated publicly that the company and the club were not aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s family trust of its minority stake in ENIC. It is understood ENIC had had no contact with the prospective buyers.
Eight Sports Capital & Associates – Eight Sports Capital Limited
| Entity name | Eight Sports Capital Limited |
| Domicile | British Virgin Islands |
| Founded | 2020 |
| Self-description | Private credit and investment firm providing global financing to football clubs and sports organisations, revenue anticipation, M&A, liquidity |
| Reported parent | Triller Group Inc. (ILLR, Nasdaq delisted effective 30 December 2025) |
| Key principals | Brooklyn Earick (CEO), Wing-Fai Ng, Richard Tsai (Fubon Financial) |
Brooklyn Earick, lead principal
| Nationality | American |
| Base | Singapore |
| Background | Former DJ; electrical-engineering intern at NASA; blockchain/NFT entrepreneur; founder of Redacted RnD; partner at Algorith Capital |
| Spurs history | Led September 2025 12-person consortium tabling reported £4.5bn bid (£3.3bn purchase + £1.2bn transfers + £250m stadium naming rights). Deal collapsed: Earick filed LSE statement ‘does not intend to make a firm offer.’ Tottenham confirmed club ‘no longer in an offer period under the City Code.’ |
| Formula E | Led 2024 agreed takeover of Maserati MSG Formula E team. Also collapsed after conditions not met. |
| Credibility | Track record of announced sports deals that do not close. Funding capacity questioned by independent analysts and journalists. |
The September 2025 Spurs bid from Earick’s consortium was met with deep scepticism from football finance analysts and the Lewis family directly. Following its collapse, the Lewis family issued a statement: ‘We are not selling the club. We are all in, we are investing in it.. The rebuild the club needs, and you deserve, has begun.’ That statement is now tested again by this new approach via Levy’s trust.
Wing-Fai Ng
| Background | Hong Kong businessman |
| Current role | Group CEO of Triller Group (formerly Group President/CEO of AGBA Group Holding, which merged with Triller in an approximately $4bn all-stock deal completing October 2024) |
| Prior link | Previously associated with Firehawk Holdings, a consortium that expressed interest in Tottenham |
| Note | His role at Triller, the group’s parent, is central to the funding-credibility concern |
Richard Tsai, Credible money?
| Full name | Richard Ming-Tsai Tsai |
| Nationality | Taiwanese |
| Primary vehicle | Fubon Financial Holding Co. Ltd, one of Taiwan’s largest financial conglomerates |
| Stake / Role | Vice-chairman of Fubon Financial; c.13% stake alongside brother Daniel Tsai |
| Net worth | c.$7.81bn; ranked approximately #464 globally and 6th in Taiwan (real-time billionaires index) |
| Forbes 2025 | Topped Forbes’ 2025 Taiwan Top 50 Richest alongside Daniel Tsai |
| Relevance | The substantive financial backer if the deal is genuine; Tsai’s involvement provides the only meaningful credibility from a balance-sheet perspective |
| Caveat | Tsai’s exact financial commitment to this transaction, and whether he has been misrepresented by the buyer-side release, has not been independently confirmed |
Triller Group: Parent’s financial distress
Triller Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ILLR) was delisted from Nasdaq effective 30 December 2025. The company had failed to file two required periodic reports by a 24 December 2025 deadline set by a Nasdaq Hearings Panel (SEC Release No. 104531). Shares plunged 61.5% on de-listing. Triller disclosed substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern, with large net losses and a significant working-capital deficit. Its current ratio stood at approximately 0.04, meaning current liabilities are roughly 25x current assets. It had not filed a periodic report since its Q3 2024 Form 10-Q in November 2024.
This financial profile makes the funding of a stake worth several hundred million pounds, implied by the £3bn club valuation reported, structurally implausible unless Tsai or other undisclosed third-party capital provides the entirety of the purchase price. The absence of any proof-of-funds statement or escrow confirmation is a red flag.
Tottenham Hotspur: Ownership Structure
Current Pre-transaction structure
| Club entity | Tottenham Hotspur Limited (private limited company) |
| Parent holding entity | ENIC Sports and Developments Holdings Limited (Bahamas-registered) |
| ENIC stake in club | c.86.9% of Tottenham Hotspur Limited |
| Minority shareholders | c.13% held by approximately 30,000 minority shareholders outside ENIC structure |
| ENIC ownership (pre-deal) | Joe Lewis family trust: 70.12% | Daniel Levy family trusts: 29.88% |
| Lewis trust structure | Discretionary family trust (established October 2022, successor to Lewis’s direct holding; move coincided with his US criminal proceedings) |
| Club AIM de-listing | Tottenham Hotspur plc delisted from AIM in January 20212 restructuring the company back to a private limited company |
Post-transaction structure (if completed)
| Party | ENIC Stake | Indirect Club Stake (approx.) |
| Joe Lewis family trust | 70.12% of ENIC | c.60.9% indirect club economic interest |
| Eight Sports Capital | 24.99% of ENIC | c.21.7% indirect club economic interest |
| Daniel Levy family trusts | c.4.89% of ENIC | c.4.25% indirect club economic interest |
| Minority shareholders (direct) | c.13.1% of club | c.13.1% direct club economic interest |
Note: These figures assume ENIC’s club stake remains approximately 86.9% and no further share issuances occur. The Lewis family remains the decisive controlling shareholder under any scenario described in the announcement.
ENIC: History and background
ENIC was originally incorporated as English National Investment Company, floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1997 under the stewardship of Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy as a vehicle for multi-club football investment. It was moved to AIM in 2001, then taken private in 2003 via a £40m offer through Kondar Ltd, before being renamed and restructured as ENIC Group, ultimately concentrating all resources on Tottenham after the disposal of its other football investments.
ENIC’s football portfolio at its peak included stakes in Rangers, Slavia Prague, AEK Athens, Vicenza (Italy) and Basel. These were progressively sold to fund the Tottenham acquisition and development. ENIC first invested in Tottenham in 2000-01, purchasing a controlling stake from Sir Alan Sugar. Levy became executive chairman in February 2001. The stake was built to approximately 85% by 2007 following the purchase of Sugar’s remaining shares.
In October 2025, as the failed Earick bid collapsed, ENIC acquired a further block of approximately 13.5 million minority shares in Tottenham Hotspur plc from the open market, consolidating its position and signalling confidence in its ownership.
Joe Lewis
| Full name | Joseph C. Lewis |
| Born | 5 February 1937, London |
| Nationality / Residency | British; Bahamas tax resident (since 1980s) |
| Primary vehicle | Tavistock Group, global investment conglomerate founded 1975 |
| Net worth | c.$6–7.6bn (various estimates); principally Tavistock real estate, hospitality and life sciences |
| Business origin | Started in family East End catering business; made early fortunes in currency speculation (reputed to have made c.$1.5bn in 1997 Asian currency crisis) |
| Criminal matter | July 2023: US federal charges of insider trading (securities fraud); January 2024: pleaded guilty in SDNY; April 2024: sentenced to 3 years’ probation and $5m fine (no imprisonment, health/age grounds); his entity Broad Bay Ltd pleaded guilty and agreed $50m fine |
| Tottenham involvement | Silent controlling shareholder; rarely comments publicly; delegates to professional management |
| Current family roles | Children Vivienne Lewis and Charles Lewis serve as senior managing directors at Tavistock; son-in-law Nick Beucher is co-CEO of Tavistock and took a more active Spurs oversight role from late 2025 |
| Trust timing | Lewis transferred his ENIC stake to a discretionary family trust in October 2022, concurrent with the escalation of US criminal proceedings; this insulated Spurs from direct attachment risk |
Lewis has never attended Tottenham board meetings in a public-facing capacity and has historically left all operational and strategic decisions to the management structure. His guilty plea to insider trading charges, described by the judge as a serious breach, generated significant reputational coverage but had no direct impact on his fitness to hold an indirect ownership position under Premier League rules, as the conviction post-dated the relevant OT procedures applicable at the time and his holding is trust-based rather than personal.
Daniel Levy
Daniel Levy served as Tottenham Hotspur’s executive chairman from February 2001 to September 2025, a tenure of 24 years, the longest of any major Premier League club chairman in the modern era. His departure followed an external sporting review commissioned by the Lewis family owners (whose younger generation had taken a more active ownership role from mid-2025) which concluded that structural and cultural change was required.
His successor structure comprised: Peter Charrington (former Citi CEO for 26 years, including six years as global CEO) as non-executive chairman; Vinai Venkatesham as club CEO; Thomas Frank as men’s head coach. This was the most comprehensive board and leadership reset in the club’s modern history.
Lewis-Levy dispute
Bloomberg reported that following his departure, Levy hired law firm Proskauer to evaluate suing his former ENIC partners. The dispute centres on intertwined trust structures and a possible additional c.10% ENIC shareholding claim not acknowledged in public documentation. Journalists described it as a ‘civil war’ within ENIC’s shareholding structure.
In that context, Levy’s decision to sell his trust’s 24.99% ENIC stake to a third party rather than to the Lewis family is consistent with, and amplified by, the reported breakdown in relations between the two principals. A sale to a third party, regardless of who they are, is the most disruptive action available to a minority ENIC shareholder who lacks the power to force a full club sale. It introduces an unknown party into the ownership structure and removes the probability of an internal, Lewis-controlled resolution.
The Lewis family’s 2025 statement, ‘We are not selling the club. We are all in’, and their refusal to engage with either the Earick bid or, apparently, the current transaction reflects the same posture: the Lewis family intends to retain full control and views Levy’s residual stake as ultimately irrelevant to club strategy.
It is understood that ENIC and the Lewis family do not hold first-refusal or pre-emption rights over Levy’s ENIC stake. Levy was structurally free to sell his minority position to any willing buyer without seeking Lewis family consent, subject only to the acquirer’s ability to satisfy any applicable regulatory approvals and the transaction’s legal completion. This is consistent with standard shareholder arrangements in private holding companies where a minority has no special protections imposed on the majority.
Tottenham Hotspur: Financial profile
Revenue and Profitability
| Revenue FY2024/25 | £565.3m (club record; up 7% from £528.2m in FY2023/24) |
| Match receipts | £126.5m |
| UEFA prize money (EL) | £34.7m (Europa League 2025 winners) |
| Projected 2025/26 revenue | c.£600m+ (Champions League qualification premium) |
| EBITDA FY2024/25 | £112.3m (down from £144.9m – FY2023/24) |
| Pre-tax loss FY2024/25 | £120.6m (record loss; 2nd highest in PL behind Chelsea’s £262m) |
| Post-tax loss FY2024/25 | £94.7m |
| Context | Losses principally reflect stadium debt service, amortisation and a lack of player trading profit |
Debt and Balance Sheet
| Net debt (30 Jun 2025) | £831.2m (up from £772.5m, highest in Premier League) |
| Total borrowings | £851.7m |
| Proportion at fixed rates | >90%, average rate 3.07% |
| Average debt maturity | 17.6 years; some tranches to 2051 |
| Near-term maturities | Over £100m due within 2–5 years (per Supporters’ Trust analysis) |
| ENIC equity injection (Oct 2025) | £100m, direct shareholder support to address liquidity |
| Stadium context | c.£1.2bn total stadium development cost; financed primarily via long-dated fixed-rate bonds |
Implied club valuation
| Metric | Figure |
| Source / Method | Implied Value |
| Revenue multiple (5x) | c.£2.8bn enterprise value |
| Revenue multiple (6x) | c.£3.4bn enterprise value |
| The Independent (deal price reports) | c.£3bn |
| £1bn for Levy’s 29.88% ENIC stake | c.£3.85bn (whole-club equivalent) |
| Net of debt (£831m) at £3bn EV | c.£2.17bn equity value |
| CNBC 2025 global valuations | Top 10; total revenue c.$665m, EBITDA c.$184m |
City and football-finance sources were sceptical that Levy could realise anywhere near £1bn for a powerless minority stake in a holding company. A more realistic range is £600–800m for the 24.99% ENIC interest, depending on any control premium negotiated and the stage of ENIC/club debt refinancing.
Sporting context
Tottenham won the 2024/25 Europa League, the club’s first major European trophy since 1984, under Thomas Frank, who joined in January 2025 following the sacking of Ange Postecoglou. However, the club finished 17th in the Premier League in consecutive seasons 2023/24 and 2024/25, narrowly avoiding relegation. On-pitch performance, off-pitch financial fragility and leadership transition make this one of the most complex periods in the club’s modern history. Champions League qualification for 2025/26, secured via the Europa League win, is financially transformative, adding estimated £80–100m in UEFA distributions and commercial uplift.
Shareholder agreements and pre-emption rights
ENIC is a private holding company and its shareholder agreements are not publicly filed. Based on reporting from The Telegraph and football-finance sources, the following positions can be stated with reasonable confidence:
| Issue | Position |
| Pre-emption / first refusal (Lewis over Levy stake) | NOT present. Levy was free to sell to any buyer without offering the Lewis family first refusal. |
| Tag-along rights (Levy can join a Lewis sale) | Unknown / not reported as relevant; would only matter if Lewis were selling, which they have denied. |
| Drag-along rights (Lewis can force Levy to sell) | Unknown; could theoretically be exercised if Lewis pursued a full club sale, but no indication this is under consideration. |
| Voting rights at ENIC level | Lewis 70.12% bloc means Lewis family has de facto control over all ENIC resolutions. Levy’s 29.88% (or successor’s 24.99%) is insufficient to block or compel any action unilaterally. |
| Club-level governance rights for ENIC minority | None reported. ENIC minority does not carry rights to Tottenham board seats or voting at club level. |
The absence of pre-emption rights means Levy is legally entitled to place 24.99% of ENIC with any willing and (eventually) PL-approved buyer. This is both the enabling mechanism for the transaction and the source of the Lewis family’s apparent frustration.
Regulatory implications
The 24.99% ENIC stake acquired by Eight Sports Capital would translate to approximately 21.7% economic interest in Tottenham Hotspur Ltd , below both the ENIC-level and club-level 25% thresholds.
Independent Football Regulator (IFR)
The new Independent Football Regulator, established under the Football Governance Act 2024 and operational from 2025/26, uses a statutory threshold of ‘more than 25%’ of shares or voting rights, or the ability to appoint/remove officers or exercise ‘significant influence or control.’
However, the IFR’s ‘significant influence’ test is broader than a pure percentage threshold. If Eight Sports Capital were to secure board representation, commercial veto rights, or any governance mechanism at ENIC or club level, the regulator could determine that statutory scrutiny is warranted regardless of the nominal shareholding. All such arrangements should be proactively disclosed.
Squad Cost Rules (SCR) and Systemic Resilience (SSR), from 2026/27
PSR is replaced by Squad Cost Ratio and Systemic and Sustainability Resilience rules from 2026/27. Under SCR, clubs will be permitted squad cost expenditure of up to 85% of revenue; Spurs’ £565m revenue base would imply a squad cost cap of approximately £480m. The club’s current wage and amortisation position is within range but leaves limited headroom. Any incoming investor claiming to inject fresh capital would need to demonstrate that funding meets IFR criteria for legitimate owner investment versus disguised loans. Given Triller’s balance sheet, this scrutiny would be intense.
Implications for ENIC and Tottenham Hotspur
In the base case, that the deal completes as described, ENIC’s ownership structure changes cosmetically but not substantively. The Lewis family trust’s 70.12% is entirely sufficient to direct the company, approve accounts, elect directors, and determine any strategic decisions including a future full club sale. Eight Sports Capital would hold a minority interest with no decision-making power unless private side agreements grant rights not disclosed in the announcement.
The more substantive implication for ENIC is potentially reputational and relational. The Lewis family will be aware, and apparently was not informed in advance, that Levy’s trust has sold to a party with a contested history in Spurs deal-making. This is likely to intensify the inter-shareholder tensions already being litigated through legal advisers, and may accelerate either a buyout of the minority or a full club sale by the Lewis family on their own terms.
The operational impact on the club is, in the short term, negligible. The new leadership structure was designed to be independent of Levy. The club’s financial challenges, £831m net debt, near-term maturities, SCR headroom constraints, are structural and are not resolved or exacerbated by a change in the beneficial ownership of a minority ENIC stake.
The potential medium-term risk is destabilisation of the ownership narrative. A year in which: (a) the club twice entered City Code offer periods following Earick bids; (b) its long-serving chairman departed in acrimony; (c) his residual stake was placed with a financially distressed party; and (d) ENIC publicly denied awareness of its own ownership change, is not a narrative that builds commercial partner confidence, attracts premium sponsorship or reassures UEFA as Spurs re-enters the Champions League.
The key medium-term watch point is whether the Lewis family moves to buy out the minority shareholders entirely, both at club level (the c.13% minority small shareholdings) and by acquiring back the Levy/Eight Sports Capital ENIC stake, to achieve a clean, privately-controlled ownership structure with no contested minority. This has been discussed in football-finance circles since 2023 and the current situation strengthens the logic of doing so.
Scenario analysis
| Scenario | Probability | Key Implication |
| Scenario | Probability | Key Implication |
| Deal fails to complete (funding gap / ENIC resistance) | High | Status quo; Levy’s trust retains 24.99% of ENIC; Lewis-Levy dispute continues |
| Deal completes as announced; Eight Sports Capital passive | Low–Medium | Minimal governance impact; new minority shareholder; Lewis retains full control |
| Deal completes; Eight Sports Capital seeks governance rights | Low | Regulatory scrutiny; potential IFR ‘significant influence’ test triggered; Lewis likely to resist |
| Lewis family acquires Eight Sports Capital stake / buys back minority | Medium (12–24 months) | Clean ownership; removes minority friction; facilitates future sale on Lewis’s terms |
| Full club sale process initiated by Lewis family | Medium-low (2–4 year horizon) | Transformative; would likely value club at £3.5–4.5bn; would require City Code process |
Media, market and stakeholder reaction
| Outlet | Coverage Assessment |
| The Independent (Richard Jolly) | Framed as ‘claimed sale’; flagged ENIC denial; noted the buyers were linked to the failed September 2025 bid |
| The Telegraph | Reported ‘scepticism in some quarters’; confirmed no pre-emption rights held by Lewis family |
| Daily Mail (Mike Keegan) | Noted group ‘claims it has reached an agreement’; flagged Earick’s history of collapsed deals |
| Sky Sports | Reported deal claims; noted ENIC denial |
| BBC Sport | Did not independently confirm completion |
| Financial Times / Times / Reuters / Bloomberg | No independent confirmation published by 5 June 2026 |
Supporter Reaction
Initial fan reaction was polarised. Some supporters expressed relief that Levy’s residual connection to the club was being severed. Others expressed alarm at the identity of the buyers, particularly Earick’s involvement, with social media commentary describing the situation as ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire.’ The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust has previously flagged concerns about the club’s debt trajectory and had no statement at publication time.
This report is based on information available as of 5 June 2026. The following limitations are material:
| Issue | Assessment |
| Primary source dependence | The transaction is known almost entirely from Eight Sports Capital’s own press release. ENIC has denied awareness. Levy has not commented. Journalistic reporting is almost entirely buyer-side sourced. |
| Unverified buyer claims | Descriptions of Earick having ‘raised £25bn including from sovereign wealth funds,’ characterisations as ‘tech billionaire,’ and the NASA internship’s promotional framing are buyer-sourced and unverified by independent research. |
| Richard Tsai’s role | His financial commitment and whether he has been accurately or fairly characterised in the buyer’s release has not been independently confirmed. If Tsai’s involvement is genuine, the funding picture changes materially. |
| Conflicting percentages | Sources vary: ENIC’s club stake is cited as 86.58%, 86.91% or 87.62%. The 70.12/29.88 ENIC split and c.86.9% club stake are the most consistent. The indirect economic interest figure of c.21.7% follows from 24.99% × 86.9%. |
| Valuations are inferred | No price was disclosed. The £3bn and £3.85bn figures are extrapolations from press reports, not disclosed contractual figures. |
| Trust/legal structure | The Gibraltar trust mechanics (Whitmill / Oakchester / Walburg Holdings / Larkin Ltd) are as reported |
| Source quality | Top-tier outlets (FT, Bloomberg, The Athletic) had not independently confirmed the deal. |
Report prepared 5 June 2026. Based on information available at time of publication. All figures sourced from published financial records, regulatory filings and verified press reporting