Southampton in Sport Republic's multi-club network explained

The plans under Sport Republic, which is an entirely independent investment firm that have purchased Saints, suggest that the St Mary’s outfit could become a centre-piece of a group of football clubs across the world.

The ideas are reminiscent of something similar to what Red Bull have achieved, who have successful football clubs based in Leipzig, Salzburg, New York and Sao Paulo.

Red Bull utilise their network to frequently transfer talent between teams for relatively nominal fees, as manager Ralph Hasenhuttl will be familiar with having coached the German side for two years.

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In 2020, Hwang hee-Chan, now of Wolves, moved between Salzburg and Leipzig for under £10million, while Dominik Szoboszlai – who is considered one of Europe’s hottest talents – was discovered by Salburg’s reserve team, FC Liefering, moved to the main Austrian team and then later transferred to Leipzig for a cheap price in 2021.

Red Bull Leipzig were Champions League semi-finalists in 2019-20 (Pic: PA)

Of course, Red Bull began to set up these teams in the mid-2000s and are almost two decades deep into their development, but these ideals are perhaps what Sport Republic and chairman Henrik Kraft are inspired by.

Semmens explains how the takeover could benefit Saints, telling BBC Radio Solent: “What they will bring to us is proprietary technology, data and systems that make us better.

“They will help us build better scouting and player trading, collaboration and models, but I think more importantly than anything, they believe in the player pathway as we do and a multi-club model allows us to take that forward to a new level.

Saints CEO Martin Semmens and managing director Toby Steele

“What that means is, if you build a network of clubs and you build the best people and the best data, and the best insight, it gives you that minor advantage that we can gain without spending huge amounts of money.”

He continued: “I think together we see an opportunity to build a set of clubs that play in the same way from the same playbook.

“To have academies that are similar and develop players in the same way, produce young men and young women to a level that we think fits our level and helps us with that pathway.

“So, the other clubs, it's early in its development this project. We are aware of potential other clubs that might come into the mix, but it's way too early to talk about that.

Sport Republic lead investor Dragan Solak (Pic: United Group)

“But the structure would be they will sit within Sport Republic and we will collaborate with them. But the ownership sits at Sport Republic level.”

The production line of Red Bull’s footballing talent speaks for itself, and it’s a list that many Saints fans will be familiar with one way or another. Sadio Mane, Erling Haaland, Joshua Kimmich, Timo Werner, Takumi Minamino to name but a few.

Former Saint Sadio Mane was picked up by Red Bull Salzburg as a youngster despite an unprolific season with Metz (Image: PA)

However, all the talk of multi-club networks and stuff that sounds reminiscent of football franchising can be daunting, so Semmens was keen to stress that Saints’ board operate unchanged – Sport Republic merely exist as external owners and collaborators.

“First and foremost, all operations are unchanged as they were yesterday,” Semmens insisted. “They are today and the leadership in the operations here at the same.

💬 Semmens adds that #SaintsFC went looking for owners that had these three things:

Good people. ✅
Experience in elite sports (cites Rasmus Ankersen). ✅
Committed to a plan the 'Southampton way', not buying success but creating it and having a development mindset. ✅

— Alfie House (@AlfieHouseEcho) January 4, 2022

“And then I think the second thing to stress is Sport Republic is a business that will build a network of clubs.

“Those gentlemen you mentioned, Dragan (Solak), Henrik (Kraft) and Rasmus (Ankersen) will run that business and they will work with us and support our club and we will work to help and support Sport Republic, but they don't have active roles in the club.

Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl will be working under the same Saints board as before the takeover (Pic: Stuart Martin)

“If you want to go one level more technical than that, we have an ownership group and ownership board that Henrik and Rasmus will sit on alongside Katharina (Liebherr), myself and Toby (Steele).

“We will take care of the club's management at that highest level at that point, but the board of the football club as it stands today is the same.”