Dundee United are currently flying high in the 2023/24 Scottish Championship campaign and after 29 games have now been played, they occupy top spot in the division, tied on 58 points and an identical win, draw, lose record with Raith Rovers.
Their advantage is in currently holding a far betting goal difference over their rivals, with a 36 to 13 count, and it is set to be an interesting run in to the end of the season now given how close and tightly poised their battle now is. Naturally the eyes of fans will closely be following that in the coming months, but for fans of the Tannadice Park outfit this week has seen an interesting piece of news come out for the them, and it could prove to be a very interesting distraction despite the on pitch entertainment and the potential for future winning football bets.
Following on from the Scottish Football Association's decision to greenlight Bill Foley's minority stake investment in Premiership side Hibernian, as there were some hoops that needed to be jumped through owing to the fact that he is also the co-owner of English Premier League side AFC Bournemouth. With that deal passing all of the relevant tests, it may well have opened up further opportunities in Scottish football for fresh investment, as this week reports have come out claiming that the Tangerines are now in active talks with two Premier League clubs themselves that could well see minority investment allied to a partnership, of sorts, between the sides.
Whilst both sets of talks are obviously at a very early stage, the clubs with an interest have been named as Brighton and Hove Albion and Brentford. The owners of both sides already have existing, alternative, investments in football.
Brighton owner Tony Bloom has a stake in Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise, whilst Brentford's owner Matthew Benham has recently now sold his majority holding in Danish club Midtjylland and is obviously looking for a new opportunity, and the clubs' technical director Lee Dykes has already been seen at Tannadice in more recent weeks as discussions continued.
Mark Ogren, Dundee United's chairman, has significantly invested in the club during his time in charge, but they are obviously still looking to recover the blow of suffering relegation last campaign, so they will naturally be very pleased with their form so far this season as they look to return at the first time of asking. Of course, if there is potential investment in the offing in the future, returning to the Premiership would be an important box to tick to make them look like an even more enticing option and a far more attractive proposition for investors.
Specifically given the claimed interest from both Brighton and Brentford, from their point of view if the deal went the sister club route and include loans as a possibility, it is an educated guess to think that Dundee United may send a couple of youngsters in their direction to broaden their experience during their development, and that either club may loan youngsters looking for game time back in the opposite direction and there would be a more mutual benefit if they regained their top flight status.
As a result of Brexit, the Scottish club also have a thriving Academy set up and naturally that becomes an important aspect from the English point of view as they no longer have the ability to attract overseas players in the way that they used to have freedom to do after exiting the European Union.
Scottish football as a whole is also attracting more interest from Europe, and with existing American interest in a full takeover of St Johnstone and Dundee United, the SFA's decision to relax multi-club ownership rules should only encourage further interest.
