Might Scottish soccer be the following to learn from Hollywood funding?
In a state of affairs paying homage to Ryan Reynolds and Rob McEIhenney’s takeover of Welsh soccer facet Wrexham, former Netflix worldwide originals chief Erik Barmack appears set to accumulate a stake in Motherwell FC.
A report within the Scottish Day by day Mail has named Barmack because the unnamed U.S. investor who’s planning to purchase into the Scottish workforce, which performs within the Scottish Premier League alongside the likes of giants Celtic and Rangers.
Reynolds and McElhenney took over Wrexham for about £2M ($2.5M) in February 2021 when the membership was enjoying exterior the skilled English leagues, however have led a change by investing closely and advertising and marketing the workforce internationally via FX doc collection Welcome to Wrexham. Motherwell at the moment sits third in League Two, three beneath the Premier League, and followers will likely be hoping Barmack can lead their membership to comparable new glories.
Motherwell has been searching for exterior traders and launched a lighthearted video interesting for A-list stars akin to the Wrexham pair to come back forwards. The Scottish Day by day Mail reported this had labored, with events from the U.S. and the Center East signalling curiosity.
Earlier this week, Motherwell’s administration launched a press release, saying that funding discussions with “a U.S.-based household have reached the purpose the place each events want to transfer ahead to the following stage,” and that the pair had reached a non-binding settlement on phrases.
That investor seems to be Barmack, and we perceive additional updates may comply with within the subsequent few days.
Barmack declined to remark when approached for remark this morning. Motherwell had not responded to a request for remark.
Barmack labored at Netflix for eight years between 2011 and 2019, overseeing its push into unique content material exterior the U.S. because the streamer expanded around the globe. He exited his submit as head worldwide originals 5 years in the past and later launched California-based producer and financier Wild Sheep Content material.
Since going it alone, he has engineering quite a few worldwide co-productions, together with Scottish movie KILL. As we revealed again in June 2022, the Rodger Griffiths movie starring the likes of Brian Vernel and Daniel Portman was a co-production with Scottish indie Synchronicity Movies and Mr B. Movies, with CAA Media Finance amongst others connected. The movie debuted on the Edinburgh Movie Competition final 12 months.
Extra just lately, Wild Sheep has been connected to initiatives comparable to survival thriller Searching Ana Bravo with MediaPro Studio; Viaplay unique Jana – Marked for Life; Peacock telenovela adaptation Queen of Movement, which is from Westbrook Studios and Common Tv; and That is AP Dhillon, a doc for Prime Vide Indian concerning the breakout Punjabi hip-hop star.
This isn’t the one time an LA investor has purchased right into a Scottish membership — albeit the final time was in Succession. In season 2 episode ‘Dundee’ Logan Roy’s son Roman mistakenly invests in Scottish soccer workforce Coronary heart of Midlothian, which is the Edinburgh rival of his father’s precise favourite workforce, Hibs.