Real Madrid midfielder Jude Bellingham has bought a 1.2 per cent stake in Birmingham Phoenix, the Hundred franchise co-owned by Warwickshire and US fund Knighthead Capital. The deal, completed in January and now awaiting formal confirmation from Warwickshire, is worth about £1 million.
Key numbers first. Warwickshire’s latest annual report puts the “fair value” of its 51 per cent share at £48 million, a figure, the report notes, reached after “an appropriate control premium applied to the majority holding”. By selling 0.6 per cent of their own stock and a matching slice from Knighthead, the county still holds a narrow majority of 50.4 per cent; Knighthead sit on 48.4 per cent.
Bellingham’s Birmingham roots are well known. Born in Stourbridge, schooled in Edgbaston and a product of Birmingham City’s academy, he made his Championship debut at 16 and moved on to Borussia Dortmund for £22.75 million before joining Real Madrid for around £88 million in 2023. Few remember that as a teenager he also turned out for Hagley CC. Asked earlier this year which athlete’s job he would swap with for a day, he picked Ben Stokes – a nod to a lingering affection for cricket.
Neither Phoenix side made last year’s Hundred play-offs – they remain one of three franchises without silverware – yet there is optimism about 2026. Jacob Bethell will captain the men, with Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry leading the women. “We’re not far away,” Bethell said last month. “A couple of tight games go our way and the table looks very different.” Perry struck a similar note: “The talent is here; consistency is the next step.”
Knighthead, whose co-founder Tom Wagner also owns a controlling interest in Birmingham City FC, paid for 49 per cent of Phoenix last year as part of a wider “Sports Quarter” concept. That project includes plans for a 62,000-seat football ground and improved transport links. Wagner, now a Phoenix director alongside colleagues Andrew Shannahan and Kyle Kneisly, told local MPs in December that the Hundred “underlines our long-term commitment to Birmingham”.
The franchise board tilts towards Warwickshire – four of seven seats – with chair Mark McCafferty joined by chief executive Stuart Cain, strategy director Craig Flindall and commercial director Adam Lowe. County insiders insist that majority control was non-negotiable when outside investors were courted.
Where, then, does Bellingham fit? In simple terms his holding is small, but observers see symbolic value. “An elite footballer putting his own money into cricket is an endorsement you can’t buy,” one county official said. Another pointed to broader crossover appeal: “If Jude turns up at Edgbaston once or twice a summer, the club shop will sell plenty of Phoenix shirts with 22 on the back.”
For Bellingham the investment is equally straightforward. He maintains close links with Knighthead through Birmingham City and still follows the club whose No. 22 shirt was retired in his honour. A minority slice in Phoenix allows him to back another Birmingham team without stretching his commitments in Spain.
Warwickshire have declined public comment until the paperwork is rubber-stamped, but no hitches are expected. The ECB’s approval should be a formality; the governing body has encouraged external funding since opening the Hundred to private capital.
There are, of course, risks. Franchise valuations remain largely theoretical, dependent on the Hundred’s broadcast deals and the competition’s long-term place in the English calendar. Yet Ben Flack, a sports finance analyst at Sheffield Hallam University, feels the price is sensible. “A million pounds for one per cent of a central-Birmingham sporting asset with TV exposure is not outrageous. It’s a calculated punt rather than a vanity purchase.”
So the Phoenix gain a high-profile shareholder and, potentially, a powerful ambassador. Bellingham gains a foot back on home turf. And Birmingham’s plan to call itself a multi-sport city takes another step, modest but noticeable, forward.
