Powerleague is a leading operator of small sided football artificial pitches with 42 football centres across the UK, Ireland and Netherlands, based in Fitzrovia, London. It also has a successful league operations arm called Powerplay which runs and manages leagues in over 350 locations across the UK for both football and netball. Powerleague has developed an exclusive football playing surface called “POWERPITCH™” which it claims to be the best artificial playing surface in the industry.
In 1987 Keith Rogers opened the world’s first commercial 5-a-side football centre [1] in Paisley under the brand name of Pitz, [1] . He built a successful business with 11 centres and a site pipeline before selling the profitable business to 3i who rebranded the business as Powerleague.
In 2002, after the business went into decline under new management, 3i approached Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Chief Executive Claude Littner to take over the executive role. [2] In 2003, Littner led a management buyout of the firm, leaving 3i with a minority stake. Having listed on the Alternative Investment Market, in 2008 Powerleague took over the Soccerdome centres from JJB Sports in a £17.4M deal. [3] Powerleague was then acquired by Patron Capital in December 2009. [4]
Patron Capital installed a highly experienced new management team in 2018. The leadership team is led by current CEO Christian Rose. Rose is joined by Mike Evans (CFO) and John Gillespie (COO). Since 2018, Powerleague has seen a sustained period of success and in 2021 recorded revenues of over £24.5m with EBITDA of £3.9m.
In large part, this period of sustained growth has coincided with re-investment in Powerleague's 42 football centres. With a particular focus on brand-new pitches, club house upgrades and re-developed bar areas.
Comber is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies 5 miles (8 km) south of Newtownards, at the northern end of Strangford Lough. It is situated in the townland of Town Parks, the civil parish of Comber and the historic barony of Castlereagh Lower. Comber is part of the Ards and North Down Borough. It is also known for Comber Whiskey which was last distilled in 1953. A notable native was Thomas Andrews, the designer of the RMS Titanic and was among the many who went down with her. Comber had a population of 9,071 people in the 2011 Census.
3i Group plc is a British multinational private equity and venture capital company based in London, England. 3i is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Five-a-side football is a version of minifootball, in which each team fields five players. Other differences from association football include a smaller pitch, smaller goals, and a reduced game duration. Matches are played indoors, or outdoors on artificial grass pitches that may be enclosed within a barrier or "cage" to prevent the ball from leaving the playing area and keep the game constantly flowing.
David Whelan is an English businessman and former footballer. During his football career, he played for Blackburn Rovers and Crewe Alexandra. Whelan is the former owner of club Wigan Athletic, having also been the chairman of the club for twenty years, before passing the position over to his grandson, David Sharpe, who eventually passed the ownership over to International Entertainment Corporation.
Telecity Group plc, was a European carrier-neutral datacentre and colocation centre provider. It specialised in the design, build and management of datacentre space. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Equinix in January 2016.
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Goals Soccer Centres is an operator of dedicated 5-a-side football centres based in Glasgow, with 45 locations in the UK and four in Los Angeles.
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Claude Littner is an American-born British business executive and the former chairman of Viglen, Powerleague, ASCO and Azzuri Communications. He is also the deputy chairman of Blacks Leisure and former chief executive of Tottenham Hotspur. He is also known from his appearances on the British version of The Apprentice, interviewing for his former boss Alan Sugar. Littner was one of Sugar's aides between 2015 and 2019.
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DW Sports Fitness was a British retailing and fitness business, founded as a result of Dave Whelan's purchase of 50 JJB Sports fitness clubs with attached retail stores for £83.4 million in March 2009. The business would later encompass more than 140 sites, which included expansion to stand-alone retail stores and stand-alone fitness clubs. In 2011, the business joined buying group Intersport, and began using its name within its facades, and in 2016 it joint-purchased the Fitness First UK business alongside The Gym Group and Greenwich Leisure Limited.
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