A trio of investors who believe science can cure the ills of football’s stragglers could be set to put their theories to the test at one of the storied names of the English game.
High-rollers James Bord and Felix Romer have teamed up with Jordanian investor Alsharif Faisal bin Jamil to take control of Sheffield Wednesday. Mr bin Jamil, 38, is a member of the Jordanian royal family and is the consortium’s chief executive.
He holds degrees from the University of Oxford and Imperial College London in Middle Eastern studies and management, respectively.
Serving on the boards of Scottish club Dunfermline Athletic and Spanish team Cordoba, Mr bin Jamil is group chief executive of Short Circuit Science. He is a director and former chief executive of Bahrain-based Infinity Sports Ventures, which invests in and manages sports clubs. He also holds a white belt in jiu-jitsu and competed on the Abu Dhabi Jiu-Jitsu Pro circuit.
Mr Bord wrote to fans at the time of the Dunfermline purchase to promise a technological revolution that now appears to be the blueprint in England. “You may have heard about our backgrounds in data analytics and artificial intelligence and we are big believers in the impact this technology can have across the club,” he said.
It says much about football’s enduring pull, and how it has been transformed, that ownership can be as compelling as the on-pitch tactics. Clubs now adorn the business pages almost as frequently as they do the sports sections. These days, followers of the game are just as happy discussing the ins and outs of club finances as they are analysing what unfolds on the pitch.
There are a host of clubs in England that could appeal to those with the means to buy them: Nottingham Forest, Everton, Portsmouth, Leeds and Wednesday. There are others, but time and again, these clubs resurface. Why? Because they fall into the category of "big clubs" with a trophy-winning heritage, a large stadium and a substantial fanbase.
Simon Jordan, the media pundit and former Crystal Palace owner, believes the club represents a "huge" opportunity for investors. This is despite the fact Wednesday languish at the foot of the EFL Championship, England's second tier, on minus seven points and seemingly destined for relegation.
Fallen giant
Eighteen points were deducted after the club failed to pay its bills. The current owner, Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri, was unwilling to inject further funds – despite being a member of the family that controls Thai Union Group, the world’s largest producer of canned tuna. They are among Thailand’s richest families, with a net worth last estimated by Forbes at $575 million.
Undeterred, and doubtless piqued by the description applied to Wednesday by Mr Jordan, come Mr Bord, Mr Romer and Mr bin Jamil. They have been named as the preferred bidders by insolvency advisers Begbies Traynor. In doing so, they have seen off interest from Mike Ashley, the former Newcastle United owner and retail tycoon, US billionaire John McEvoy and the Chicago-based Storch family.
It is quite a turn-up for the group. Compared with their rivals, they are the least well-known. In his mid-forties, Mr Bord is a former Citi banker turned professional poker player who won £3 million ($4 million) on the circuit, including $1.3 million for victory in the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. Mr Bord went on to work for gambling firms Starlizard and Smartodds, specialising in data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, in San Francisco.
He later founded his own data analytics consultancy, Short Circuit Science, in 2016. Now based in Las Vegas, the company focuses on climate change, pharmaceuticals and sport, where it has advised Wednesday’s arch-rivals, Sheffield United, and Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.
Mr Bord was among a group of US investors who purchased a 37 per cent stake in Cordoba, before acquiring a 25 per cent share in Bulgarian side Septemvri Sofia and taking over at Dunfermline.
“I bought Dunfermline because I love the underdog,” Mr Bord said. “The ambition is to bring back some of their history but also to change the atmosphere at the club. They have a very passionate fanbase that has suffered enough pain and we’d like to bring them some joy.”
Mr Romer is a German-born entrepreneur who lives in Malta and serves as a consultant and shareholder at Short Circuit Science. He also has a background in gambling and experience in financial technology.
“From player recruitment to sports science, we see huge potential to enhance our operations and gain a competitive edge,” Mr Bord added. “Working closely with our highly qualified backroom staff, we’ll be implementing these tools to support smarter decision-making and ultimately help the team perform at its very best.”
Short Circuit Science’s website states it is at the forefront of sports analytics, harnessing the power of AI and computer vision. "Through cutting-edge algorithms, we uncover intricate details about players and teams, offering invaluable insights for performance improvement and strategic decision-making," it says. "Our expertise in this field empowers athletes, coaches and organisations to stay ahead of the game."
Its findings form the foundation for tailored training programmes, effective talent scouting, optimal player development and tactical planning. "We deliver instantaneous in-game insights to coaches and analysts during matches. With our advanced AI algorithms and computer-vision technologies, we track player movements, ball trajectories and tactical patterns, providing real-time analysis of the game’s flow," it adds. "Armed with these immediate insights, teams can make informed decisions on substitutions, formations and strategic adjustments."
Marginal gains
Mr Bord, Mr Romer and Mr bin Jamil are attempting, quite literally, to short-circuit the vagaries of football by applying science. They are using data to extract marginal gains in performance and squad selection in the pursuit of victories, a method popularised by Michael Lewis’s book and the subsequent film Moneyball, which chronicled the success of Major League Baseball’s Oakland A’s.
When Sir Jim Ratcliffe took control of Manchester United, he enlisted Sir Dave Brailsford to use similar data-driven methods to those he used with the Great Britain and Team Sky cycling teams, yielding Olympic gold medals and repeated Tour de France triumphs. “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by one per cent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together,” Mr Brailsford said.
This approach involved the constant measurement and monitoring of key metrics, such as cyclists’ power output, as well as training programmes designed to target specific weaknesses. However, what works in baseball and cycling does not necessarily translate to football.
Mr Brailsford is no longer at United, his methods having failed to make any meaningful impact. The once mighty club is in turmoil, having sacked its latest manager, Ruben Amorim, and, at the weekend, suffering the ignominy of an early FA Cup exit.
Mr Bord and Mr bin Jamil’s Dunfermline side are faring little better. They sit fifth in the 10-team Scottish Championship on 26 points, well adrift of leaders St Johnstone, who have 45. With only one automatic promotion place available, a return to the top flight this season looks increasingly unlikely.
It will therefore be intriguing to see whether Mr Bord, Mr Romer and Mr bin Jamil can succeed at Wednesday. They will need significant funds and considerable patience. Whether supporters are willing to grant them either remains open to question. As Mr Chansiri and Mr Ratcliffe have discovered – and as Chelsea’s owners are also learning – fans can be fickle and unforgiving: content when the team wins, furious when they lose. More than that, many believe the club is rightfully theirs – that those who own it on paper, despite providing the capital, are merely custodians acting on their behalf.
Mr Bord and his partners may yet succeed. As Mr Jordan observed: “If someone gets hold of [Wednesday] who knows what they are doing, it wouldn’t take much to get them up to the Premier League, then flip it and make some money.”
That may sound simple. For now, whatever Mr Jordan suggests, the reality is that the club remain a long way from that destination.
