Andrea Radrizzani’s former company MP & Silva appears to be in trouble

It appears that MP & Silva, Andrea Radrizzani’s former media-rights company, is in financial trouble. MP & Silva has reportedly missed payments to number of companies, including FIFA and the Premier League.

MP & Silva had made a lot of money in the sports-rights industry, enough so that Andrea Radrizzani was able to afford to purchase Leeds, for example, and also enough that Riccardo Silva, one of Radrizzani’s former partners, was able to purchase Miami FC in the United States.

MP & Silva sold a majority stake in the company to Chinese firms Baofeng & Everbright Securities in 2016, in a deal that valued MP & Silva at $1 billion. The firms bought a 65% stake in the company, leaving Andrea Radrizzani, Riccardo Silva, and Carlo Pozzali. All of them have had no organization control over MP & Silva since, meaning that they only held an ownership stake and all of the decisions at the company were being handled by Baofeng & Everbright.

MP & Silva lost all rights to Serie A teams in October 2017, which had been one of the company’s biggest sources of income up until that point. The loss has seemed to send the company reeling and the board and employees have been reportedly unsuccessful in getting the owners to commit to any new business plans.

Andrea Radrizzani’s main business, besides Leeds United, is Eleven Sports, and while this will be a blow to his portfolio, it shouldn’t be a crisis event for him or the club. MP & Silva may have been where Radrizzani made his fortune, but it’s not where the vast majority of his income comes from anymore.

So how will this affect Leeds United’s plans this summer and in the future? It’s unknown at this point. It’s worrying, for sure, but to connect this to any current events (like the lack of signings) is premature at this point. However, this is a story worth paying attention to in the future.