LONDON (Reuters) – A group of wealthy supporters looking to put a bid together for English soccer club Manchester United have approached Nomura to see if it will act as financial adviser, a person familiar with the situation said.

Japanese investment bank Nomura would not comment.

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LONDON (Reuters) – Scottish soccer club Rangers <RFC.PZ> has received takeover interest, including from property developer Andrew Ellis, it said on Monday.

Rangers, 10 points clear at the top of the Scottish league with a game in hand, said it had been notified that Murray International Holdings (MIH) had entered into discussions with others about MIH’s stake in Rangers.

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LONDON (Reuters) – A group of wealthy supporters looking into a possible bid for English soccer club Manchester United said they would not overpay, and dismissed financial numbers circulating in the media as purely speculative.

The Times newspaper reported on Friday that 60 investors have pledged up to 1.5 billion pounds ($2.26 billion) in their bid to seize control of the club. A spokesman for the group said they had received a very good level of interest.

The “Red Knights”, a collection of City figures including former Football League chairman Keith Harris and Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jim O’Neill, have said they are looking at the feasibility of putting together a bid for the world’s third-richest soccer club.

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The debts of English football clubs are racking up, with teams both big and small in deep trouble. John Davidson explains how the debt issue in England is spiraling out of control and what the dire consequences could be.

It makes for alarming reading. The total of 18 clubs in the English Premier League are responsible for 56% of the money owed by all of the clubs licensed by UEFA, which is 732 clubs in total. This does not include debt-stricken West Ham, who was recently sold to new owners, or the more damaged Portsmouth. English clubs have a combined debt of GB$3.5 billion pounds, which is four times higher than the combined debt owned by clubs from the Spanish La Liga.

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LONDON (Reuters) – Organisers of the 2012 Olympics will be hoping to emulate the street-party atmosphere of Vancouver now that the curtain has come down on the Winter Games and all eyes turn to London.

London organisers have always promised a “compact and atmospheric” Summer Games, largely as an antidote to the glitz of Beijing which is estimated to have spent 40 billion pounds ($59.58 billion) on staging the 2008 Olympics.

London also pledged it would provide efficiency, with the added commitment of delivering a legacy which would avoid the white elephants of some previous Games such as Athens.

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UEFA has today announced at a signing ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, an agreement with Hyundai Motor Company to appoint Hyundai-Kia as the official automotive partner for both UEFA EURO 2012™ and UEFA EURO 2016™.

This agreement means that Hyundai-Kia will become the exclusive supplier of official vehicles for the next two final tournaments of UEFA’s flagship national team competition.

In addition to the two above-mentioned EUROs, as a member of the UEFA EUROTOP commercial programme, Hyundai-Kia will also be the official automotive partner for all UEFA EUROTOP competitions until 2017 including; the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (editions 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017), the UEFA Women’s European Football Championship (editions 2013 & 2017) and the UEFA European Futsal Championship (editions 2012, 2014 and 2016).
As part of its sponsorship agreement, which includes integrated broadcast sponsorship rights in Europe, Hyundai-Kia will activate various marketing and promotional campaigns.

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BEIJING (Reuters) – Guangzhou’s relegation from China’s top flight for match-fixing has not deterred new owners from buying the soccer club for 100 million yuan ($14.65 million), local media reported on Wednesday.

Guangzhou and Chengdu, who are owned by English club Sheffield United, were demoted from the Chinese Super League (CSL) last week for their part in China’s match-fixing scandal.

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MILAN (Reuters) – Real Madrid became the first team in any sport to post revenues in excess of 400 million euros ($540.9 million) in a single year, according to the annual survey of the richest soccer clubs by accountancy firm Deloitte.

In its survey released on Tuesday, Deloitte said the figure of 401.4 million had been helped by high broadcast revenue. Real topped the “Football Money League” report, which ranks the 20 biggest clubs by revenue, for the fifth consecutive year.

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MADRID (Reuters) – Lionel Messi and Barcelona are the soccer world’s most valuable media brands while Real Madrid’s unprecedented spending on players has lifted them to second from fifth, according to a new study by a Spanish university.

The University of Navarra’s Economics, Sport and Intangibles Research Group calculated “media value” by monitoring internet presence and the volume of press articles and gave Argentina forward Messi the top ranking for players of 21.6 points.

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