The Monocle Minute

Second-division Red Star FC is a historic French football club with a die-hard fanbase. When Miami-based investment firm 777 Partners acquired the Parisian team in 2022, fans launched smoke bombs onto the pitch in protest. That reflects some of the disquiet felt on football terraces across the continent about the increasing amounts of US money in the European game. But Todd Interests, a family-owned property developer headquartered in Dallas, believes that it can help to change the narrative: it has entered into an exclusive agreement to acquire Red Star, together with former French international footballer Peguy Luyindula. “The team has always had a fanbase that was for the people, by the people,” Todd Interests’ founder and chairman, Shawn Todd, tells The Monocle Minute. “They deserve to have an ownership that respects and shares their passion for their team.” Todd believes the team and a revitalised stadium can be vehicles to spur investment and jobs in the surrounding community of Saint-Ouen.

It’s hard to overstate the volume of money flowing from across the pond in recent years; almost half of all the teams in the English Premier League now have some US ownership. But there can be a culture clash. From Millwall to AC Milan, teams are named after places and are rooted in the city around them. While the passion of US fans can’t be doubted, their teams, by contrast, operate on a franchise model with fewer geographical ties.

Understanding the hyper-local nature of European football requires an effort from any prospective owners – something that Todd acknowledges. “Around the world today we’re striving for real transparency, for authenticity,” he says. “We’re a family business. In everything that we have done and every enterprise that we have been involved in, it has been about people.”

Delivering success, on and off the field, requires a genuine commitment to the community, including upgrading the stadium and improving the surrounding neighbourhood. Most importantly, perhaps, it’s about convincing fans that the new ownership wants to win games – and not just burnish a brand.

Christopher Lord is Monocle’s US editor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Claudia Sheinbaum is showing that she will very much be the continuity president when she becomes Mexico’s first female president in October, especially when it comes to militarising the country. She recently announced that she wants to consolidate the National Guard – which the incumbent president, Andres Manuel Lopéz Obrador, created as a civil body in 2019 to help tackle organised crime – as part of the Secretariat of National Defence.

Obrador has long made no secret of wanting to militarise the body, despite facing opposition from the courts. Critics today say that Sheinbaum’s plan would hand too much power to the military. With the recent presidential campaign marked by violence and assassinations, it’s clear that law and order will dominate the next administration.

The Great Green Wall, an African initiative that aims to restore native vegetation in 11 Sahel countries, has received a significant funding boost. Last week the World Bank’s Global Environment Facility approved $736.4m (€687m) for projects around the world, including those in the Sahel. The volatile region has seen a spate of coups in recent years and backers of the initiative hope to tackle some of the root causes of its instability.

Increasing the availability of arable land might reduce conflicts between farmers and herders that can escalate into larger skirmishes. But the connection between climate change and geopolitical developments is not clear cut. “Environmental threats such as desertification undoubtedly have security implications,” Ed Carr, the US director of the Stockholm Environment Institute, tells The Monocle Minute. “But you can’t chart a direct path between climate change and political instability. It’s not as simple as saying that increasing aridity results in conflict.”

Dumi Oburota is the founder of the UK-based Severan wines, a modern, high-end sparkling wine brand that uses traditional methods to bring a fresh, distinctive taste to a classic tipple. He is also the founder of independent record label Disturbing London. He spoke to Monocle Radio about finding success as a newcomer to the winemaking industry.

Where did the name Severan come from?
It emerged from a conversation that I had with a colleague. We agreed that a luxury brand always needs a protagonist. Lucius Septimius Severus, Rome’s first African emperor, of the Severan dynasty, seemed like a good fit. The Romans even used to make wine in Britain, so the two ideas tied together nicely.

How do you maintain such a specific vision for your brand?
They say that success has many owners. Fundamentally, it takes the right idea and the right team. When you have the right manager, the right designers and the right marketing team who all share the vision, it’s like polishing a rough diamond. You’re just making something that is already good better.

You have found success getting ahead of trends. How do you predict the next big thing?
It’s a combination of things. When I was younger, my family had a shop in my community. You would see certain characters with specific needs and I learnt to work out what they were and how to deliver them. That can be combined with a healthy entrepreneurial drive and a degree of obsession with trends to deliver what people actually want.

You can listen to our full interview with Dumi Oburota on this week’s episode of ‘The Entrepreneurs’ on Monocle Radio.

Florian Siebeck visits a late-brutalist building that looms over the Frankfurt skyline to assess what’s next for this cultural monument.