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FootBiz newsletter #103: Daniel Levy 'removed' by Spurs, WSL special, World Cup tickets
PLUS: a tough week for The FA's lawyers and a player doubling down on labelling pundits 'evil'
Ed Malyon & Matt Hughes
September 05, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes
It was one of those days where we had 4,000 words below the paywall but nothing obvious to use for this morning’s intro.
You were very close to reading something about the inevitable cycle of enshittification in digital products, fresh off the back of the heartbreaking RedZone news and building on the work of two of the all-time great tech blog posts (here and here).
And then news came down that the Premier League’s prince of darkness and arguably its most feared negotiator, Daniel Levy, was leaving Tottenham Hotspur and everything came together rather nicely.
After nearly 25 years atop Spurs, Levy has not only taken the club from being a mid-table team in a run-down part of north London to one of the world’s richest and most valuable sports teams playing in arguably the finest stadium in Europe.
Many of his professional eulogies will praise his business acumen and those (in)famous negotiating skills that saw Spurs break the world record for the biggest ever transfer when they sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid, as well as finance and build a new stadium and still manage to reach a Champions League final and add a Europa League trophy to their existing stash of UEFA Cups.
Others won’t be so kind.
Spurs’ incredible new stadium has been Levy’s greatest achievement
“He is the PERFECT example of why football isn't good now,” wrote one senior club figure.
“He failed constantly yet the club grew immeasurably despite him… just being in the Premier League, in London, the history.
“The tide for those teams just rose.”
But Levy and Spurs managed to ride it better than anyone else, especially given the lack of sporting success. As Jonathan Wilson so expertly put it: “if only it hadn’t been for the football, Daniel Levy would be regarded as one of the great club executives.”
“Negotiating with Daniel was incredibly unpleasant,” says another FootBiz source who had the seemingly miserable experience of doing deals with Levy.
“He never gave up anything, and it really incinerates everything you thought you knew about compromising and deal-making. Awful.”
The most obvious reading of Levy’s departure is quite clearly that it is linked to the potential sale of Spurs. They confirmed that they were in discussions with potential investors in April 2024 but the market chatter for some time has been that Levy did not want to leave his role and it was an obstruction to any deal.
With most club transactions he wouldn’t have had much of a choice but Levy was no ordinary chairman. He had amassed a considerable (albeit minority, at ~30%) stake in the club’s majority shareholder, ENIC, over his near quarter-century on White Hart Lane and while the family of Joe Lewis are keen to offload the club and let the roughly £3bn windfall fund the lives of their kids, grandkids, great-grandkids and so on, there was little movement as potential buyers got spooked.
Tottenham caught the world by surprise with their announcement
“Daniel was definitely an obstacle,” says one market figure. “But this doesn’t mean a deal is close, more likely he’s just finally been convinced to go. Maybe now the real deal process can begin.”
A couple of the journalists who cover the club week in, week out tended to agree with that analysis. This isn’t a sign that Qatari investment will be announced next week, or that an Amanda Staveley takeover is around the corner, but this would appear to be an indication that the sale of ENIC’s ~86% share in Spurs will have a smoother path ahead.
Several hours after the announcement that Levy was “stepping down”, longtime Spurs reporter Jack Pitt-Brooke reported that Levy had been “removed” and a source close to the Lewis family was almost celebratory in describing the chairman’s departure.
“Generations of the Lewis family support this special football club, and they want what the fans want — more wins, more often,” said the source.
“This is why you have seen recent changes, new leadership and a fresh approach. In Vinai [Venkatesham], Thomas [Frank] and Peter Charrington, they believe they are backing the right team to deliver on this. This is a new era.”
“When I’m not here I’m sure I’ll get the credit,” said Levy in a rare media appearance with Gary Neville earlier this year.
Well, I guess we’re about to find out.
And just as Spurs fans have for so long complained about his finance over football approach, they could be about to discover how careful you need to be about what you wish for.
Fun fact: With Levy gone, it means the Premier League’s longest-serving chairman is now… Khaldoon al-Mubarak at Manchester City.
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