Sports Ticker #159 - "What does the Fox pay?”: King Power puts Leicester City up for sale, Formula E strikes a deal with Disney+ and Pogba goes all in on camels

In a fortnight which saw the return of the Premier League, Amazon become title partner to HYROX London and Scottie Scheffler end Tiger Woods’ 26-year run as PGA Tour’s all-time top earner, we bring you news on King Power’s Leicester City sale, Grand Slam Track’s continued financial woes and a peek at Paul Pogba’s Saudi camel racing adventures.

“What does the Fox pay?”, asks King Power as Leicester City put on sale
After sixteen years in charge, King Power has announced it is looking to sell Leicester City F.C. An eight-page prospectus titled “Project Lineup”, prepared by Citigroup and circulated to potential acquirers, prices the club’s physical assets (including the King Power Stadium and state-of-the-art Seagrave training ground) at £224 million. Although no value has been placed on them, any sale would also include both men’s and women’s teams as well as Leicester’s Belgian sister club, OH Leuven. The sale would mark a striking return on the £35 million then Chairman of King Power Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha paid in 2010, but ultimately follows a tumultuous few years for the club which have seen Srivaddhanaprabha’s tragic passing in a helicopter crash at Leicester’s home ground in 2018 as well as back-to-back relegations for the men’s team in 2025 and 2026, leaving the Foxes in the third tier of English football just over a decade after their historic 2015-16 Premier League victory. Whether Leicester’s historical success draws bidders in or recent troubles scare them off, it is all but assured that the sale’s outcome will shape the club’s trajectory for years to come.

Grand Slam Track athletes still chasing payment
Athletes who competed in Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track (GST) say they still haven’t been paid, despite Johnson suggesting in a recent interview that they had. GST launched in 2024 with grand ambitions. Four marquee events a year, lucrative salaries for athletes and up to $100,000 in prize money apiece. But soon after its debut event in 2025, the league hit financial trouble, leaving millions owed to its roster of competitors and pushing the format into indefinite hiatus (along with Johnson’s BBC punditry role). Representatives for several competitors were quick to dispute Johnson’s recent claims of payment, telling the BBC that no money had reached athletes’ accounts and that league officials had not even been in touch to arrange payment. This has since been confirmed by organisers, with up to £8 million still owed to creditors, including athletes, reportedly being held by a third party ahead of making final payments. A timeline for payment remains to be confirmed. See our previous takes in Sports Tickers #135, #138 and #145.

Par for the course: LIV Golf cancels end of season event
LIV Golf has once again found itself at the centre of significant controversy following the cancellation of its Team Championship season-ending event, which was scheduled to take place from 27 to 30 August in Michigan, United States. The cancellation is the latest in a series of recent disasters for LIV Golf, which has seen its Saudi-backed Private Investment Fund support stripped, as well as being made subject to numerous legal proceedings ranging from unlawful means conspiracy to contractual breach issues. Rumours of the cancellation grew after eagle-eyed fans spotted star players such as Tyrell Hatton and Adrian Meronk enter into alternative tournaments on the same dates, but the decision was not confirmed by LIV Golf itself until just two weeks before the event was due to commence. Former Open champion, Cam Smith, described the decision to cancel the Team Championship as “disappointing”, with fans left unable to watch players compete for the ultimate Championship title. Instead, the season was brought to a premature end by virtue of a stroke-play event in Indianapolis. 

Prime Time: Bezos-backed consortium buys into Liverpool FC
Fenway Sports Group (FSG) has reportedly sold a 38% stake in Liverpool FC to 1892 Holdings, a consortium led by former QPR co-owner Amit Bhatia backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in a deal worth over £2 billion. FSG originally bought the club for £300 million in October 2010, with the new deal marking a striking return on investment. The transaction, which remains subject to regulatory approvals, was announced by FSG on 14 August as a strategic move to “support Liverpool FC’s long-term growth ambitions”. The consortium will also have an option to acquire a controlling stake within the next 12 months if FSG sells further shares. The deal highlights continued appetite to invest in English football, despite falling operating profits for Premier League clubs. Of English men’s clubs, however, Liverpool was the highest earner last year (see Sports Ticker #144 for more). 

A Whole New World (Championship): Formula E teams up with Disney+
Formula E has signed a multi-year agreement with Disney+ to stream the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship across 144 territories, giving Disney+ subscribers access to comprehensive live coverage of every Formula E race, practice session and qualifying session. The agreement does not include any rights to exclusivity, with Formula E keen to keep the World Championship available on more traditional sportscasting platforms. Nonetheless, Formula E views Disney+ as a key opportunity to market the format to a “broader and wider ecosystem” of customers and grow the sport’s budding fanbase as a result. 

Extra time...
…and finally, while Saudi Arabia might have acquired a reputation for attracting top football talent to the country through its Pro League, it is with camel racing team Al Haboob that Paul Pogba hopes to make his impact. Camel racing dates back more than a thousand years and remains popular in the Gulf, with huge prize money regularly matching the £4 million offered for Ascot’s Champions Day. Al Haboob entered the sport just last year with ambitions to reach a global audience. Race sponsors now include the likes of Shell and Gulf national banks, an advancement partly attributed to Pogba’s profile racing involvement with the sport. Organisers now hope to stage a race in Europe, though anti-animal importation rules could prove problematic. Still, they are eyeing new investors, with Shaquille O’Neal a key priority. Whilst Shaq’s involvement and a European event remain in the pipeline, one thing is clear: Pogba is all in.