Andrea Radrizzani

Andrea Radrizzani (born 10 September 1974) is an Italian businessman.

He is the chairman and founder of the sports broadcasting group Eleven Sports, a past owner and chairman of English football club Leeds United, and current owner of Italian club UC Sampdoria.

Radrizzani was born in Rho, a metropolitan area of Milan.

He graduated with a degree in public relations from IULM University in 1996.

Growing up passionate about football, he supported Juventus in his childhood and adolescence.

A self-made businessman, Radrizzani began his career in sports media in 1999 with digital sports content distributor Media Partners and founded Media Partners’ China business.

He co-founded MP & Silva in 2004 from Singapore, which went on to become an international sports rights company with 20 offices around the world, working in partnership with rights holders, including the Premier League, UEFA, F1, La Liga, NBA and WSBC.

Radrizzani led media rights distribution agreements with selected Serie A teams in 2004, before acquiring the rights for the majority of Serie A teams in 2006.

MP & Silva went on to build out its European football rights portfolio in Asia.

In 2010, Radrizzani negotiated a new media rights partnership with Arsenal.

The following year, he helped MP & Silva acquire pan-European rights for the French Open.

In 2013, Radrizzani led MP & Silva's negotiations to secure the Premier League's broadcast rights in 51 territories, including the Middle East.

The agency also bought Formula One rights in MENA and some selected European countries.

Radrizzani was also responsible for leading rights distribution deals with Roland Garros, Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 among others.

In 2014, Radrizzani stepped back from day-to-day MP & Silva operations.

On 26 June, Radrizzani brought back Leeds Ladies to Leeds United ownership to become Leeds United Ladies again after the club had previously become its own entity after previous owner Massimo Cellino decided to stop Leeds United funding in 2014.

In May 2016, following the $1 billion sale of MP & Silva to a Chinese investment group, Radrizzani was appointed vice chairman of MP & Silva.

In January 2017, through Aser, Radrizzani made an investment for 50 per cent of the share capital of Leeds United, making him co-owner of the club.

On 23 May 2017, Radrizzani announced the 100% buyout of Leeds United, buying the remaining 50% shares from previous co-owner Massimo Cellino, with Radrizzani taking full ownership of the club.

Radrizzani's ownership of the club got off to a dramatic start; on 25 May, only two days after the takeover, and the day before Leeds were set to activate the option to extend head coach Garry Monk's contract, Monk resigned as Leeds United head coach, with new owner Radrizzani saying that Monk's decision to quit the club had been a 'shock'.

After taking over the club he made changes to Leeds' backroom staff, including appointing Victor Orta as director of football, Ivan Bravo as director of strategy and Angus Kinnear as chief executive.

On 15 June 2017, Radrizzani appointed his first head coach when APOEL manager Thomas Christiansen was announced as the new head coach of Leeds United to replace Monk, with the club announcing that they "wanted to appoint someone who can help us create a winning culture at the club and unite everyone connected with Leeds United, from the players to the supporters".

On 28 June 2017, Radrizzani completed the purchase of Elland Road, making the stadium the property of Leeds United for the first time since 2004.

In Radrizzani’s first season as sole owner (2017–18), having been top of the League for the first quarter of the season, and dropping to fifth at the halfway point, Leeds missed out on playoffs completely after a disappointing run of form in the second half of the season, finishing thirteenth in the table.

On 17 October 2018, the High Court ordered the winding-up of MP & Silva.

On 3 January 2018, Radrizzani announced an official partnership for Leeds with Aspire Academy in Qatar.

Aspire own Spanish team Cultural Leonesa who have seen Leeds players Yosuke Ideguchi and Ouasim Bouy both join them on loan as part of the unique partnership.

On 24 January 2018, Radrizzani introduced a new Leeds United badge which would be worn for the 2018/19 season onwards depicting the "Leeds Salute".

However, the design of the new badge attracted criticism from huge numbers of fans, resulting in an online petition over 77,000 signatures strong against the design's introduction.

Radrizzani and the club decided to "re-open the consultation process" in light of the poor reception the new crest engendered.

On 4 February 2018, head coach Thomas Christiansen was dismissed by Radrizzani, despite a promising start to his reign, after a poor run of results and with the team tenth in the table.

On 6 February 2018, Radrizzani appointed Barnsley manager Paul Heckingbottom as the new head coach of Leeds United on an 18-month contract to replace Christiansen.

On 7 March, towards the end of Leeds' 0–3 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers, just before the final whistle, Radrizzani in a series of Twitter posts, questioned the legality and fairness of the competition.

On 12 March, Radrizzani made public his decision to seek clarity from the Football League regarding league leaders Wolverhampton Wanderers, to seek clarification of the link with Wolves and 'super agent' Jorge Mendes.

In March 2018, Radrizzani announced that Leeds United would be going on a post-season tour of Myanmar in May 2018 to play two friendlies.

However, the tour announcement drew criticism nationally and from MP's and Amnesty International due to the political situation in the country.

Radrizzani defended the choice of location, declaring that 'This is about people not governments'.

On 24 May 2018, Radrizzani and Leeds United announced that 49ers Enterprises had bought shares in the club to become a minority investor (49ers Enterprises is the business arm of the NFL side San Francisco 49ers owned by Denise DeBartolo York, Jed York and John York).

Head coach Heckingbottom was sacked by Radrizzani on 1 June 2018, having been at the club for just four months.

Argentine manager Marcelo Bielsa was named by Radrizzani as the club's new head coach on 15 June, signing a two-year contract with option of a third year, after two weeks of negotiations with the club.