BOURNEMOUTH – A group including American billionaire Bill Foley and Hollywood actor Michael B. Jordan has bought AFC Bournemouth, marking the latest entry of American investment into British football and a rare black stakeholder in the country’s top league.

Former owner Maxim Demin sold his 100 per cent stake in the English Premier League (EPL) team to Black Knight Football Club, of which Mr Foley is managing general partner, Bournemouth said in a statement on its website. 

The deal values Bournemouth at about £120 million (S$198 million), says a spokesman for Mr Foley’s investment vehicle, Cannae Holdings.

Jordan – known for the Creed films (2015 to present) that are part of the Rocky boxing movie franchise (1976 to present), as well as the Marvel universe’s Black Panther movies (2018 to 2022) – led a minority ownership group that partnered Mr Foley.

He will work with Mr Foley – the club’s new chairman – in areas including “global marketing and internationalisation of the club”.

Jordan, who is 35, follows in the footsteps of fellow actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who bought a Welsh football club in February 2021.

Unlike AFC Bournemouth, Wrexham is a non-league team, but Reynolds and McElhenney have said they aim to get it into the EPL, and revive the north-eastern Welsh town it is located in.

“We’d be lying if the dream wasn’t the Premier League. We want to get back in the Football League and continue our way upwards,” Reynolds said at a press conference in October 2021. BLOOMBERG