• LittleLaw
  • Posts
  • ⚽ Why Snoop Dogg’s bought Swansea City

⚽ Why Snoop Dogg’s bought Swansea City

Author

Idin Sabahipour
July 24, 2025

Together with

Table of Contents

If you take just one thing from this email...

Snoop Dogg’s investment in Swansea City shows how buying into a football club doesn’t only have to be about money — it can be about image, branding, and legacy.

Lawyers played a key role in making the deal happen, handling things like ownership tests, share agreements, commercial image rights, and financial compliance under football’s rules.

EDITOR’S RAMBLE 🗣

I’ve been quietly building something completely new for LittleLaw.

It’s been months of work, testing, adding bits, rewriting others — but it’s finally ready.

It’ll land in your inbox on Monday morning.

- Idin

⚽ Why Snoop Dogg’s bought Swansea City

What’s going on here?

American rapper Snoop Dogg has joined footballer Luka Modrić as a co-owner of Swansea City, a club in the second tier of English football (the Championship).

This is part of a bigger shift in football, where celebrities are buying into lower-league UK clubs — bringing global attention (and cash) with them.

Why are celebrities buying English football clubs?

It’s part passion project, part business strategy.

🤩 For the celebrities: The appeal of clubs in the English lower leagues is because they’re relatively cheap compared to Premier League clubs. Plus, you can build a legacy by improving them fast.

For example, in 2020 the Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham’s football club and got them promoted twice. This has become the blueprint. If the club does well, your investment grows. Plus, the pull of the celebrity means you pick up millions of new fans along the way, making it easier to grow more.

Credit: Sky Sports

Swansea’s new American ownership team explicitly said that celebrity partnerships like this are part of their strategy to boost the club’s global profile.

⚽️ For the clubs: It’s real financial injections, boosted by star power.

Let’s just look at Swansea. Last year, the club posted a £15 million in pre-tax loss on just £21 million in revenue. Under the English Football League’s (EFL) rules, clubs can only lose £41 million over three years — so they are headed towards that limit.

Once the Modrić-Snoop swoop takes place, the club gets a fresh injection of cash. Plus, their combined 137 million social media followers give Swansea the kind of global reach that Championship clubs can only dream of.

That means:

  • more Swansea City shirts being sold, and

  • more eyeballs on the club (globally), which means

  • more sponsorship money coming in.

So, Snoop Dogg and Luka Modrić own the club now?

Not exactly.

In November 2024, American investors Brett Cravatt, Jason Cohen, Andy Coleman, and Nigel Morris acquired 77% of Swansea City from previous owners. So, these guys are the majority owners. They pumped in £20 million, eyeing a long-term rebuild — both financially and in terms of the club’s reputation.

Luka Modrić joined in April this year with a 5% stake. Snoop followed this week, also buying a minority stake. But the investment by the celebs wasn’t just a PR stunt — they put significant money into the club. Plus, their involvement formed part of the owners’ strategy to "globalise" the club and tap into new commercial channels.

Which law firms were involved?

Swansea City were advised by:

  • Bird & Bird in the UK, led by partner Matt Bonass and senior associate Will Holder. They're one of the top UK law firms for sports law.

  • Sheppard Mullin in the US, who helped advise the firm on both the 2024 club acquisition and the 2025 celebrity buy-ins.

As for the celebrity investors, it’s not been publicly confirmed who advised Modrić or Snoop.

What were some of the legal challenges?

📄 The regulatory hurdles: Before Modrić and Snoop could join Swansea’s ownership group, they had to pass the EFL Owners’ and Directors’ Test — it’s like a background check before you can invest in a football club. Lawyers helped them prepare by gathering documents to prove their identity, showing the source of their funds is legitimate, and reviewing their business plans on how they’d support the club.

The club’s lawyers, Bird & Bird, would have supplied all this to the EFL to show them the investors were legit.

Also, from this month, the new Independent Football Regulator (IFR) has been put in place — and financial rules have tightened significantly. That means even minority investors now face tougher scrutiny, with ongoing checks possible after the deal goes through (especially if their stake increases).

🤝 Structuring the investment: The lawyers from both sides would help put the investment in place. Bird & Bird would advise the club on issuing new shares and draft subscription agreements (which set out the price and number of shares being acquired).

The celebrities’ lawyers would consider whether they should use special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to hold their shares. These are companies that are set up that can make tax simpler, limit personal liability, and keep the celebrity’s investment separate from their other business interests.

💬 Setting shareholder rights: When someone becomes a shareholder (as Snoop and Modrić have become), you set out their rights as shareholders. This covers things like who gets to vote on big decisions, who sees the club’s finances, and what happens if someone wants to sell their shares. Both the investors’ lawyers and the club’s lawyers would have negotiated this and updated the Shareholders’ Agreement (which sets out the shareholders’ rights) to reflect their position.

🤔 Why might you give different investors different rights?

It’s actually pretty common for shareholders in a company to be treated differently.

For example, you might give the majority owners full voting rights on financial or sporting decisions, but limit a celebrity investor’s vote only to branding or commercial matters.

That way, they can support the club where it makes sense — without disrupting how it’s run day to day.

How can you use this in your applications?

This story (apart from just being pretty interesting) has so many insights you can use in your law firm applications — especially if you’re interested in sports law.

 🏏 What firms do work like this? 

The table below is especially useful if you’re applying to firms that specialise in sports law.

These firms are among the best in the UK for sports matters:

→ Bird & Bird

→ Lewis Silkin

→ Northridge Law

→ Charles Russell Speechlys

Here are a few points that stand out:

Insight

Explanation

When to use it

Not all investors are equal

Modrić and Snoop brought commercial value, not just money.

Their involvement may also have needed changes like voting rights to be adjusted and image permissions to be agreed.

Imagine you’ve been given a case study where there’s some sort of investment in a company.

Think about whether the investor bring something unique beyond money — like global reach, network, or industry knowledge.

That might justify different voting rights, board access, or commercial roles.

Changing regulation can shape the legal work

With the league’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test plus the recent introduction of the IFR, legal teams have to plan for now as well as future compliance.

Maybe you can discuss this in a written application question where you’re asked about a deal that interested you.

You can say something like: “This deal showed me how lawyers advise not just for today’s rules, but for future changes.

With the IFR being put in place, the client needed forward-looking legal advice. It shows the purpose of commercial law as long-term risk management, not just box-ticking.”

The deal was cross-practice and cross-border

There are tax, corporate, regulatory, commercial, and media issues at play.

Plus UK and US law firms worked together to protect the club and the investors.

You can use this when answering “Why this firm?”

You could explain how you were interested by the deal touching on different areas of law — corporate structuring, image rights, tax, and media strategy — with UK and US firms working together to achieve the aims of both parties.

Perhaps that kind of variety of work and collaboration is what draws you to the firm.

Highlighting insights like these will show you’re thinking like a lawyer: spotting where the risk is, who’s involved, and how the law creates structure that lets deals happen.

TOGETHER WITH BARBRI SQE* 🤝

What kind of lawyer are you, really?

Turns out, your answer could win you a £3,299 SQE prep course.

Take BARBRI’s legal personality quiz to map your legal career, get expert advice and win prizes.

Here’s what’s waiting for you:

  • A chance to win a fully-funded SQE prep course

  • Tailored SQE guidance for your personality type

  • More prizes just for taking part

Your path into law starts here — take the quiz for the chance to win.

* This is sponsored content

IN OTHER NEWS 🗞

  • 💷 Baker McKenzie has bumped its London NQ pay to £145k. The firm’s increase in pay puts it shoulder to shoulder with HSF Kramer at £145k, and a step ahead of Hogan Lovells and Ashurst on £140k, with Norton Rose Fulbright trailing at £135k.

  • 🇦🇪 Simmons & Simmons is reopening its office in Abu Dhabi. It’ll be the firm’s third Middle East base after Dubai (long-standing) and Riyadh (opened last month). They actually shut Abu Dhabi in 2016 when client demand shifted, but investment in the region is back up — Paul Hastings, AG, Bird & Bird and Pinsents have all launched new offices in the region this year.

  • 🧊 The EU General Court has scrapped Iceland Foods’ “Iceland” trade mark. It decided shoppers would think the products came from the country of Iceland — even coffee, chocolate and rice could be processed there. So using a country name as a mark in the EU is now risky. Iceland Foods has one last shot at appeal in the Court of Justice.

  • 📈 Clifford Chance’s revenue rose 9% to £2.4 billion. The firm’s Middle East grew 36% and the US was up 18% after a hiring spree that took US partners to 122. The firm says the record numbers show a balanced global platform. Linklaters also just shared that their profit passed £1 billion.

AROUND THE WEB 🌐

STUFF THAT MIGHT HELP YOU 👌

  • 📹️ Free application help: If you're applying to commercial law firms, check out my YouTube channel for actionable tips and an insight into the lifestyle of a commercial lawyer in London.

How did you find today's newsletter?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.