Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, be it in football, in business, or the business of football. That counts especially when you've done what, with the benefit of hindsight, was a quite bad deal; selling a stake in your club to an investment group that would go on to be accused of fraud, extortion, predatory lending and racketeering, with provisos in said sale giving them a pathway to take on a majority stake on highly favourable terms. Just ask Melbourne Victory.
Victory's ill-fated relationship with Miami-based investment group 777 Partners officially came to an end last week, agreeing with 777's creditors A-Cap to divest the group's 19.9% stake with scant fuss and no money exchanged. It formally closed the book on a relationship that was spruiked as setting them up to "supercharge its growth trajectory," but ultimately lasted less than three years. And while the departure of an investor due to bankruptcy and collapse would normally be considered a bad thing, this would have to be considered an exception even before one accounts for Thursday's announcement that Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom has purchased a 19.1% stake in the club, with provisions to take on a greater share in the future.
Across the past week, Victory has gone from an entanglement with a group that -- accounting for the state of the A-League and its fraught financial position -- could have very easily dragged them to extinction, and welcomed with someone widely regarded as being of the best owners in world football into the fold. It should be noted Bloom won't have a hands-on role at Victory with his minority stake, nor is he infallible. But at least his presence has generally correlated with good things for his clubs, which is more than can be said for 777.
Really, it's fitting that Bloom made his fortune through poker and sports betting, as saying that Victory had the cards fall their way feels like understatement. After taking an initial minority stake in Victory for AU$8.7 million, 777 collapsed into bankruptcy before they could make good on their ability to take on up to a 70% stake in exchange for investments totalling up to AU $30 million -- with a proviso that if they opted to depart, they would be refunded any investment made beyond their initial stake at a compounding interest rate of 10%. The agreement with 777-owned Bonza Airlines to serve as a front-of-shirt sponsor, meanwhile, was cut short just before the budget carrier's collapse, allowing Victory to secure a new, upgraded agreement with Turkish Airlines. This effectively means that the club's lone remaining ties to 777 were the 19.9% that A-CAP walked away from.
Bloom's stake, in contrast, is in the form of "ordinary shares," the sort that any Victory supporter could, in theory, purchase. In reality, owning a fifth of a club imbues one with an elevated status, but it's a lot different to 777's priority status, one that saw them entitled to rights and privileges that saw football academic Kieran Maguire label them a "vampire lender" on The Price of Football podcast. And while 777's claims on a global network proved deceptive, Bloom's arrival will also see Victory partner with his analytics company Jamestown Analytics, gaining access to the same proven tools that have helped establish Brighton as one of Europe's shrewdest recruiters and sellers.
Somehow, Victory managed to get into bed with a group whose involvement in multiple leagues around the world makes a mockery of the notion of "fit and proper persons tests" and emerged from it not entirely unscathed -- it experienced significant redundancies and staff departures last year amid losses of AU$9.87 million -- but in a position wherein they can look towards the future without a fifth of their club being controlled by, pejoratively, cowboys.
They're able to do so not particularly because of anything they did to extricate themselves of 777 but because the group collapsed under the weight of its duplicity before it had a chance to sink its talons in deeper. Additionally, Victory have shed their burden at a time when one of the most well-regarded owners going around, whose wife was born in Melbourne and who regularly spends time in Australia, was in a position to invest in another football team and willing to do so.
Without question, plenty of work would have been required to manage the transition away from 777 lest it spiral out of control. And Bloom's arrival, like Turkish Airlines before it, didn't materialise out of thin air. Credit where it's due. But when one examines the challenges that have been faced by the clubs in which 777 possessed a controlling stake, it's plain to see just how fortunate Victory were that their would-be owners weren't in a position to take their further.
Serie A side Genoa, for instance, don't know who owns them and won't for some months yet amid an ongoing legal battle between A-CAP and would-be buyer Dan Şucu. Standard Liege in Belgium and French side Red Star continue to exist in a state of purgatory waiting for new ownership while in Brazil, Vasco da Gama has been placed under the charge of administrators after seeking bankruptcy protection. Josimar has reported that A-CAP is facing lawsuits and investigation from the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission regarding their involvement with 777.
Perhaps the most optimistic way to look at it is that Victory has been given a second chance. Entering into a partnership with 777 against the backdrop of financial uncertainty after major shareholder Mario Biasin's passing and legal battles between existing investors, at a time when their City Football Group-owned rivals Melbourne City were amid a dynasty, their attempts to propel themselves into a new, globalised era almost led them to disaster. This was only exacerbated by the 2023 Christmas Derby riot that cost the club "millions".
The past week offers a potential demarcation point, a chance at a mulligan as they seek to arrest a growing sense of frustration and malaise amongst their supporter base and re-establish themselves materially and spiritually.
As in its 20th season, Victory doesn't feel like the Victory that it once was, nor does it feel like it's where it needs to be for a modern era. There's a gap that needs to be filled by something more than rhetoric. Despite coming off a Grand Final appearance in 2023-24 and making the final of the Australia Cup this season, its men's team is averaging attendances of 13,224 in 2024-25, just a 1% increase on last campaign and significantly below the 20,298 they averaged in the pre-COVID 2018-19 season. Certainly, bringing on board new fans and capturing new generations of hearts and minds would be nice but this trend is emblematic of Victory's most pressing challenge, of the thousands of once rusted ons have fallen by the wayside, if not fallen out of love with the club and the league.
And while some of this has been out of Victory's control -- the disastrous Destination NSW deal, for example -- what was once an unimpeachable identity has wavered, with connections and needing repair while those who remain grow increasingly, vocally, disillusioned.
Bloom's arrival will be welcomed and lead to optimism. But after fortune gives those entrusted with guiding Victory a second-chance, they will not be given the grace to squander it by the faithful.