American investment companies are turning their targets toward some of England's top rugby clubs amid a structural change in the sport that will establish a U.S.-style franchise system where relegation and promotion are scrapped.
Exeter Chiefs — recently an English and European champion — voted to approve a proposed takeover by Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, an investment group that already counts Premier League team Bournemouth in its expanding portfolio.
That development comes days after Cornish Pirates, which plays in English rugby's second tier, announced a deal with Pittsburgh-based firm Stonewood Capital Management that marked, according to the team, “the first known U.S. investment into an English professional rugby club.”
With English billionaire James Dyson securing a 50% stake in Bath Rugby in March and energy drink giant Red Bull taking full ownership of Newcastle Falcons last year, money is starting to flood into English rugby after years of financial uncertainty made worse by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent years, Wasps, Worcester Warriors and London Irish have been banished from England's top league for financial reasons, reducing it to a 10-team competition. The 2023-24 season was the third straight year that no top-tier club made a profit, according to the Leonard Curtis Rugby Finance Report.
However, it was announced in February that automatic promotion and relegation between the top two tiers of English rugby would be scrapped and replaced by a criteria-based expansion and demotion model, with a plan to add up to two more clubs to the Prem — the newly named top league — in the 2029-30 season.
English rugby leaders said this development would “create investable, globally competitive leagues,” saying the previous system “was not delivering financial sustainability (and) discouraging long-term investment.”
There is already huge U.S. investment in English soccer, with Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool among the heavyweight teams with American owners. Wrexham is also co-owned by Hollywood celebrities Rob Mac and Canadian-born Ryan Reynolds.
Big-business investors from the United States have also bought stakes in England's newest cricket competition, The Hundred, over the past year.
Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, which is part of American investment company Cannae Holdings, took full control of Bournemouth in 2022 and the team is currently sixth in the Premier League with a chance of qualifying for next season's Champions League.
The Black Knight consortium, fronted by American businessman Bill Foley, owns the Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL and has other soccer clubs in its portfolio, in Lorient (France), Moreirense FC (Portugal) and Auckland FC (New Zealand).
Exeter's members voted by a majority to permit the sale of the club, which was European champion in 2020 and English champion in 2017 and '20, and are expecting an offer to follow from Black Knight after financial checks.
The Cornish Pirates said they had positioned themselves “at the forefront of rugby’s globalization” by welcoming U.S. investment, at a time when the country is preparing to host the Rugby World Cup in 2031.
Kenn Moritz, one of the investors in Stonewood Capital Management, said the group saw a "compelling opportunity in Cornish Pirates," adding: "Rugby is entering an exciting global phase, and we believe this investment places us at the heart of that journey.”
Pittsburgh is among the U.S. cities bidding to host matches at the Rugby World Cup in 2031.
AP Sports Writer Ken Maguire contributed to this story.
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
FILE - Bill Foley, owner of the Vegas Golden Knights, poses on the red carpet before the NHL Awards, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, file)
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Mohamad Al-Assi ran beneath the concrete wall as the sun rose over Bethlehem. His Nikes pounded the gravel, his breath fogging the air as graffiti and paint splatter blurred past with each stride.
The road along the barrier separating Israel from the occupied West Bank makes up a stretch of a marathon route that Al-Assi and thousands of others ran on Friday. The event is open to people in other parts of the world running in solidarity with the Palestinians and another, shorter race was happening in Gaza.
The race, known as the Palestine Marathon, was held for the first time in three years and was among the first big international events in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Festivals, conferences and holiday festivities that once drew thousands have been scaled back or canceled because of the war in Gaza and heightened Israeli restrictions.
It marked a turning point for Al-Assi, 27, who was released from Israeli detention six months ago. Video from that day shows him gaunt-faced and hollow-eyed, his once muscular legs weakened after more than two and a half years of prison.
He began training in December, gradually upping his mileage every month since. He ran 62 miles (100 kilometers) that first month, and in April reached 135 miles (217 kilometers), according to his account on the tracking app Strava.
He jogs in the morning after his mother wakes him up in their home in Dheisheh, a Palestinian refugee camp made up of graffiti-covered cinderblock homes in tangled alleyways.
“The main difficulties we face are the cars on the roads and the presence of Israeli security forces along the route where I train,” Al-Assi said.
He had to suspend his training several times because of military operations in the camp.
“I would return home feeling hopeless because I couldn't do what I had intended to do,” Al-Assi said.
In the West Bank, runners cannot complete a 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometer) course without hitting a checkpoint or military gate, which is why Friday's marathon route looped around the same circuit twice.
They ran up through the narrow streets of two Palestinian refugee camps and down to a farming town next to Bethlehem where fields are divided by the concrete wall, barbed wire and cameras. The course hooked back to finish at Bethlehem’s Manger Square.
Organizers say the race highlights restrictions facing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where checkpoints can disrupt even routine commutes and where open land for hiking, biking and running is increasingly taken by Israeli settlements and outposts.
“Marathon runners anywhere may ‘hit a wall’ under the physical and emotional strain of completing the 42-kilometer race course," they said on the marathon's website.
But in the West Bank, they added, "runners literally hit the Wall.”
At a time when the West Bank’s economy is struggling and in the shadow of Gaza's fragile ceasefire and stalled rebuilding efforts, the atmosphere in Bethlehem was celebratory. Crowds gathered near the Church of the Nativity to cheer runners at the race's early morning start and finish. Bagpipes blared and drummers pounded out traditional rhythms through streets along the route.
On a beachside road in Nuseirat in central Gaza — which is roughly the length of a marathon — 15 disabled people, including amputees, ran a 2K, and a couple thousand of people ran a 5K. Thirteen years after the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, canceled a 2013 marathon because Hamas forbade women from participating, the women were back.
Haya Alnaji, a 22-year-old woman who ran in the 5K, said the number of people taking part reflected that Palestinians in Gaza were determined to live and persevere despite the devastation wrought by more than two years of war.
“All of Gaza loves sports,” she said.
Al-Assi was arrested in April 2023, and imprisoned under administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold detainees for months without charge. Between 3,000 and 4,000 Palestinians are being held under that system, according to Israeli rights groups and the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
In October 2023, Al-Assi was sentenced for transferring money to suspicious entities, a charge he denies. Israel closely monitors money transfers — particularly to Gaza — for fear that funds could end up in the hands of militants. Palestinians, however, say donations and charitable contributions are often swept up in the dragnet. Israel’s military, Shin Bet and Prison Service did not answer questions about Al-Assi's charges.
In Israeli prisons — where detainees routinely complain of inadequate diets — Al-Assi said nearly everyone goes hungry. The weight he lost eroded the endurance built through 10 years of training.
“I have more muscle mass than fat, so when I lost weight, the loss came from my muscles rather than fat,” he said. “This had a major impact on my physical fitness.”
He also had to regain the mental fortitude to run a marathon.
“I was emotionally shattered after spending such a long period in prison,” he said.
On Friday, he collapsed to his knees, bowing and thanking God after finishing second overall, as supporters and journalists encircled him. He dedicated his run to Palestinians still in Israeli detention.
“After 32 months in prison, Mohamad Al-Assi is first in his class!” he shouted through tears, raising his hands and looking up to the sky.
__ Imad Isseid contributed from Bethlehem, West Bank and Abdel Kareem Hana from Nuseirat, Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian amputee runner takes part in the 2-kilometer Palestine Marathon along the coastal road near Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian runners take part in the 5-kilometer Palestine Marathon along the coastal road near Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Runners participate in the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Runners pass by Israel's separation wall as they compete in the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian Mohamad Al-Assi, who was released from Israeli detention six months ago, runs past Israel's separation wall as he trains ahead of the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Metz)
