“If you know the
NFL, you know you don’t choose them they choose you,” the Jaguars and Fulham owner told the Guardian on Thursday.
He was speaking about the elite society of 32 NFL team owners who form one of the most exclusive clubs in sport, overseeing a $14bn operation. Their selectivity in who they allow to buy a franchise is legendary, as evidenced by their famous refusal of Donald Trump’s bid to buy the Buffalo Bills. Each owner must add something to their group – many of whom are part of families that have owned their teams for years. Khan’s, it seems, is in the dual lives he has planted in the US and UK.
For more than a decade the NFL has been serious about expanding globally, fearing that while it is the most lucrative league in the world its popularity does not stretch much beyond the US. Several league executives and team owners have told the Guardian in recent years they are committed to seeing whether a franchise could be placed in London full‑time.
Given that Khan – who was raised in Pakistan and the US and spends considerable time in London – also owns a precarious NFL franchise with limited resources, he has been viewed as an obvious link to make the NFL’s aspirations come true. The fact he has embraced London, committing the Jags to an annual game at Wembley, has only raised that perception.
The announcement of his £500m-plus proposal to buy
Wembley stadiumimmediately sounded alarm bells that he may be looking to move the Jaguars to London, which has become a regular host of NFL games.