NBA star Kevin Durrant leads new investment avenue with Ligue 1 winners Paris St-Germain FC

There's no doubt that investors are vital for the consistent running of a successful football club, yet doubts arise along the way when they are of huge public interest.

This type of action isn’t unfamiliar from world famous basketball players as of recent times. Lebron James invested in Liverpool FC for a 2% minority stake of the club in 2011, increasing his fan status alongside support for the club.

The trend of celebrities investing in football clubs is on a gradual increase, becoming ever more popular or ‘trendy.’ Yet, the success and effectiveness of celebrities investing in these clubs is the true topic of debate.

A key example of successful celebrity investment can be seen through Ryan Reynolds' investment into Wrexham AFC investing a supposed £2 million for the third oldest football club in the UK. When taking over, Wrexham were in the national league. Yet, over the coming seasons, and the release of 3 seasons of ‘We are Wrexham’, they rose to the EFL league one.

Another successful show was when Sir Elton John took position as a shareholder and the chairman of Watford FC from 1976 to 1990. As a lifelong fan of Watford, this was an ideal position for him. John gave Graham Taylor the role of manager of the club, leading to numerous promotions and leading to promotion to the first division.

Despite this, there have been numerous examples of investors failing their clubs. A notable example of this can be seen in Sulaiman al-Fahim’ investment into Portsmouth. This deal was instantly off to a bad start, due to confusion among Fahim and other investors about what deals had been accepted. Due to the sheer accumulation of debt, Fahim sold important players, refusing to purchase others to fill the gaps in the team.

After his 41 day stint as Portsmouth owner, and having the club go into administration two times, it was later found that the money he used to purchase the club was stolen from his wife. This led him to be jailed in 2018 for the offence.

Ultimately, investors prove incredibly beneficial to the effectiveness of a club, yet in instances lack support and can lead to demise.