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How a Billionaire Heiress Cracked the Premier League Boys Club


trousers
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Nothing new to be found in this article as far as I can tell, but it perhaps highlights how the Saints 'brand' is reaching a more global audience and raising our profile...

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-17/heiress-cracks-premier-league-s-boys-club-to-revive-southampton

 

Liebherr was never a football nut. She inherited about $1 billion. The team, now valued by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at about $260 million, was a bonus. Her father, an heir to machinery maker Liebherr-International in Bulle, Switzerland, also designated her as sole shareholder in technology and real estate firm MALI Holding in Horgen. Markus, who’d bought Southampton for a paltry £14 million in 2009, didn’t live to see it return to the EPL in 2012.

 

Katharina, though, “was hungry for the club to go into a new direction,” says Krueger, a former National Hockey League coach. “She loves to speak about being outside of the box,” says Krueger, who, like Liebherr, had no soccer experience. He describes her as “warm and open and honest” with “a more motherly kind of instinct.”

 

Soccer has proved a challenge. “She knows she doesn’t understand everything about football but has learned by watching,” Koeman says. She does know she wants to play in Europe. After vaulting into the UEFA Europa League in May, she’s ultimately chasing the UEFA Champions League, the realm of the Manchesters and Chelsea. “People tell us it’s not possible, with our budget and our infrastructure,” Krueger says. “We believe it is.”

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It starts:

 

"How a Billionaire Heiress Cracked the Premier League Boys Club

 

Katharina Liebherr, the only female owner in the English Premier League, orchestrated the most successful EPL season for once-struggling Southampton."

 

Isn't that a little disrespectful towards Delia Smith?

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It starts:

 

"How a Billionaire Heiress Cracked the Premier League Boys Club

 

Katharina Liebherr, the only female owner in the English Premier League, orchestrated the most successful EPL season for once-struggling Southampton."

 

Isn't that a little disrespectful towards Delia Smith?

Technically Norwich aren't in the Premier League until the first day of next season. Delia also isn't the owner - she's the joint majority shareholder (with her husband) in a plc. So no, it isn't really.

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It starts:

 

"How a Billionaire Heiress Cracked the Premier League Boys Club

 

Katharina Liebherr, the only female owner in the English Premier League, orchestrated the most successful EPL season for once-struggling Southampton."

 

Isn't that a little disrespectful towards Delia Smith?

 

It might be, but can you see Katharina going on the pitch half p155ed and screaming "lets be avin you" I don't think so.

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It starts:

 

"How a Billionaire Heiress Cracked the Premier League Boys Club

 

Katharina Liebherr, the only female owner in the English Premier League, orchestrated the most successful EPL season for once-struggling Southampton."

 

Isn't that a little disrespectful towards Delia Smith?

She's not the sole owner, and not a billionaire, and not (technically in the premier yet, and certainly not cracked the big boys) so nope

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Markus was worth significantly more than was usually quoted. I have that on very trusted authority.

 

I don't doubt you.

 

There are some who like to tell the world how rich they are, which often leads to exaggerations of said wealth, and there are others who try as much as possible to stay under the radar, which leads to people guessing and often getting things wholly wrong.

 

But, last season was a beautiful for the marketing bods. There we were, pillaged and doomed to fail. But then we won lots of games, there was a story that piqued the interest of the world wide press and we got a lot of exposure. The problem now is how to keep the world wide press interest. I still think that the press would love someone like us, WHU etc to break into CL spots, so IF we can threaten, then maybe we will continue with the exposure.

 

As an aside, I am sure an American on here was saying that they watched the PL a lot, and when you first start out, as there is usually no connection with the teams, that choosing one to follow is fairly arbitrary. The big boys are fairly "obvious" (if unoriginal) choices, but now that Saints had such exposure and appeal through adversity, we have a whole new raft of supporters.

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Isn't that a little disrespectful towards Delia Smith?

 

Technically Norwich aren't in the Premier League until the first day of next season. Delia also isn't the owner - she's the joint majority shareholder (with her husband) in a plc. So no, it isn't really.

 

Its only technically not disrespectful then.

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After vaulting into the UEFA Europa League in May, she’s ultimately chasing the UEFA Champions League, the realm of the Manchesters and Chelsea. “People tell us it’s not possible, with our budget and our infrastructure,” Krueger says. “We believe it is.”

 

Gaaawwwwwrrrron Ralphie !!

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