Financial Services Firm Cantor Fitzgerald Europe Establishes Sports Finance Group

Financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald Europe announced the formation of a Sports Finance Group, which will be led by a team of industry veterans. The team will focus exclusively on football finance deals, including the acquisition of football clubs and player transfer financing. CFE co-CEO Gordon Neilly said, "Sports financing is a logical extension of CFE's established platform in both equity and debt capital markets. We believe there is a real opportunity to bring an alternative source of funding to the sports markets, and I am confident that this will be attractive to a significant number of participants, and will help us to further expand our offering in the U.K. and Europe" (Cantor Fitzgerald). Cantor Fitzgerald Head of Brokerage Shawn Matthews said in an interview on Bloomberg TV, "We think it's an area where we can become a significant player. There's a void there" (BLOOMBERG, 3/10).