You were a boyhood Spurs fan, when was your first match?
I think I was probably seven or eight-years-old. It was at the stage when you used to go to a game, get a rosette and a hot dog, and rattles, it was very different to what it is today.
Has working in football and the club you support always been a dream of yours?
It wasn't a dream. I got into football purely by accident. When I left university it wasn't something I went into, football, I actually went into investment banking. It was through that that I got into football.
You were told to leave school, how did you go from that to studying here at Cambridge?
I think I was 15, we had a parents' evening and the teacher told my mum and dad: 'He's not going to make it. He should leave school'. It was a bit of a wake-up call and I decided that I had better do some work now. So from that moment on I knuckled down and I did my O-levels. I was at a comprehensive school and then I went to a further education college where I did my A-levels. From there I was determined to get into Oxford or Cambridge. I got into Cambridge and that's where I did my degree.
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Tell us a little bit about Daniel Levy the student, were you more to be found in the library or the student bar?
First of all they were great rooms here, I almost had a suite. My daughter is at college now and she doesn't have as good a room as I had all those years ago. I would say that I was very focused on a means to an end. For me getting into Cambridge was always about getting a good job at the end of it. So as much as I enjoyed my time here I was very focused on doing well.
Talk us through how you worked at the highest levels of business and then thought about purchasing Tottenham Hotspur...
It's a bit of a long story really. When I left university I went into investment banking and I was very interested in investing in private equity, which was investing in private companies, and I helped raise quite a lot of money for different business. Then from there I got involved in actually running quite a lot of different companies.
Then from there I got an opportunity to be involved in buying an interest in a small public company, which was called ENIC. It was an investment trust, worth about £5m at the time. It had nothing in it apart from a portfolio of shares. I became managing director of that company. I came up with the idea at the time of trying to create a sports and media company. So we bought a portfolio of soccer clubs around Europe.
We had six different clubs and one of them happened to be a minority share holding in Tottenham. Then we had a problem with UEFA as they decided all these clubs weren't able to compete in the same European competition. Our share price collapsed and a number of years later we took ENIC private and from that we got rid of all the other clubs, sold them all off, and we had this interest in Tottenham.
We decided to increase our shareholding. I had no intention at that time to become involved in the day to day running of the club. It was purely at the time an investment opportunity. Then I realised that to really maximise the opportunity and have an influence over the success of the club I really had to get involved and this is what happened.
The Guardian did a piece at the time saying you were publicity shy and had no intention of becoming chairman, today you are the longest-serving chairman in the Premier League, what changed?
Firstly, as you know I don't do interviews very often. It's only because I'm coming back to Cambridge that I agreed to do this, particularly when I got an email from Oxford University I thought I'd better come and do this.
The answer is it's been an incredible journey. In the 22 years Tottenham has progressed enormously in that time period. Not as much as a fan (points to himself) we would hope. Hopefully the journey is not over and we're still hoping that we will get that trophy which we need.
In that 22 years, what has been your proudest achievement on the pitch?
We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago with all our, we have about 750 staff in Tottenham, we got everyone together and we put up a big picture with lots of trophies in it. It is about winning, but winning dependent on the moment in time you asked that question to various people means different things.
So when we first came in to Tottenham, winning was making sure we stayed in the Premier League. Then as time goes on and we got more successful it was about getting into the Europa League and then the Champions League. Obviously the ultimate is to win the trophies.
So that is clearly what we are trying to do. It’s easier said than done. Am I happy that we haven't won more than one trophy in the last 15 years? Absolutely not. But I also think we've had some fantastic times, being in the Champions League a number of times. Despite the fact I feel sick that there’s a club in north London that’s a bit higher than us at this moment in time, if I look back in the last five years we've also been higher than them. So that's what happens.
Off the pitch, people might not be aware of how much Tottenham Hotspur does in the community, could you expand on that?
I think because I came from a background where I had to fight to get to where I am today and everyone said I wouldn't make it, I feel I have a huge responsibility with the power of Tottenham and the power of the brand that we can really influence people's lives. So when I see the area of Tottenham it's a very deprived area. It's better now than it was 10 years ago. The London Riots emanated from Tottenham. I want to really make a difference.
My legacy is not, yes of course I want to win, but affecting people's lives and I think what we've done with the college we've created the college using the power of our name. We gave some money, we got a number of private schools involved for the teachers to help, and we've taken some of the best students from the local community and given them an opportunity and I'm immensely proud that some of the them are here today. We've changed their lives.
Obviously there's the new stadium as well. When did you realise that the old White Hart Lane wasn't cutting it anymore?
When we first got involved in Tottenham in 2001 we knew at that time that in order to become a bigger club we had to solve the stadium. The reason the stadium was a problem was that as potential Spurs fans we couldn't get the young kids into games because there were no tickets available.
We knew we had to find a way to build a bigger stadium. It's an immense challenge for a private organisation and it took us maybe 17, 18 years to get there.
How hands-on were you in the process of building the new stadium?
Some would say too hands-on. It was important that we created something that was truly special.
What kind of initiatives did you do to try to keep the spirit of the old White Hart Lane?
The most important thing about the old White Hart Lane was the atmosphere. Every remembers the atmosphere, so we spent a lot of time with the architects and the acoustic experts to try to make sure that even though the stadium was much bigger we could create a fantastic atmosphere. Our south stand, which seats 17,500 people, is an amazing noise. The noise inside that stadium vibrates all around.
The stadium came with a large price and debt for the club, is that something you're concerned about?
Debt isn't really a problem. Anyone that understands finance, providing you can match long-term income streams to long-term debt and it's financed properly it's not a problem. The fact that our debt is basically a 30-year mortgage and it's a very low interest rate, no it's not a problem.
When you took over Spurs it was valued at just over £100m, now it's one of the top 10 most valuable clubs in the world with the latest valuation by Forbes of around £2bn, to what do you attribute this financial success?
When you're building a club and you're building long-term value I would say there's a number of ingredients. One is profitability. Some clubs are valued at a lot of money that aren't profitable so revenue becomes important. Physical assets, success on the pitch, there's no one aspect. You need them all to come together.
You've been described as more painful to deal with than a hip replacement, how would you describe your negotiating style?
Firstly that comment was from Alex Ferguson, who remains a friend. All I was doing was protecting the interests of my club. It shouldn't be seen as a negative the fact that I want to maximize the price for the benefit of the club because all the money goes back into reinvesting.
So do you think you're more painful to deal with than a hip replacement?
Maybe.
Giorgio Chiellini once said when Spurs lost to Juventus that 'it is the history of Tottenham' because of their lack of success, do you think this was a fair comment and are trophies the most important thing to you?
If you go back in history Tottenham was a club that has a lot of history because it has won things. In recent times, it’s not been where it needs to be. We’re on a journey and we need to get better success on the pitch, but we have been in the Champions League a number of times and we almost got there, winning the ultimate, which would have been winning the Champions League.
Do you think that Harry Kane can win a trophy at Spurs or does he need to move on somewhere else?
He can absolutely win a trophy at Spurs, but you know being a legend is also important. The fact that he's the top scorer for Tottenham Hotspur, he's making history. I hope one day there is a statue of Harry Kane outside our stadium.
Looking back at your decisions over hiring and firing managers, how difficult has that been for you?
I think as far as the manager is concerned that when they come in to manage a football club it's just part of the game. It's not personal. We're in the business of winning and if they don't win enough games then they know that their job is on the line. They're paid very well for that so it's just how it is. It's not personal. All the managers that have left Tottenham I'm either still in contact with or they come back to games. it's not personal.
Talking of the long-term, there were reports last month of an imminent £3bn bid for the club from the billionaire Jahm Najafi and meetings with Qatar Sports Investment group, is there any truth in these reports and if a bid did come in would you be tempted to sell the club?
I answer this question in the way I've answered it for the past 22 years. ENIC owns approximately 87 per cent of the club. We have 30,000 shareholders and most of them are fans who own the shares. We have a duty to consider any proposal anyone wants to make. All I would say is we are not in negotiations with anybody, nor have we been in recent months. All the stuff that has been in the newspapers is completely untrue.
(The session is opened up to questions from the floor) I have a very simple question, what do you think of Tottenham?
It's the greatest club in the world.
How do you think that the average Spurs fan perceives you?
I'm not sure what an average Spurs fan is, but I would hope that they would perceive that I am always acting in the best interests of the club. I've given a large proportion of my working life to the club and I think that the club today, hopefully they will perceive it to be in a better place than when I first got involved.
Spurs have some of the most expensive season ticket prices in the world, for young people do you think those prices alienate people and how is it justified?
Ticket pricing is a very complicated subject. Firstly there is a conflict between ticket pricing, having the best stadium in the world and also wanting to win on the pitch and pay high transfer fees and high salaries to get the best talent. In an ideal world you'd like to have very low ticket pricing and to have the best players in the world and the best facilities. Somehow we have to find the right balance.
The way we try to do it, firstly we have concession pricing for a number of areas within the stadium for young adults and kids and the older generation. Also when it comes to cup games we try to price those very competitively so this year there have been lots of games at £20 or £25 and concession pricing on top.
For fans going to away games, there needs to be a new system in place with loyalty points as there are loopholes, have the club considered this? Maybe a partial ballot system?
The answer is we're not working to any change in the system at the moment but the point you're making is valid, although some people would argue that, and I think you would find the official supporters' club would state, that if you've gone to a number of away games you accumulate points and you should have the priority.
I'm a rugby man and I've seen Premiership clubs go out of business, looking at how Tottenham have diversified their income, do you have any comments on how rugby clubs could expand similarly in making a more sustainable long-term business model?
We are trying to help rugby expand its audience. We are holding some rugby games at our stadium and because it's such a great venue it's widening the audience. I think every sporting organisation needs to challenge itself and how they can build a bigger fanbase. In Spain, various football cup competitions are held overseas to try to widen the audience. So I think you need to be innovative.
With the super wealth coming into football from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, we've seen the impact at Manchester City and Newcastle, what implications will this have on clubs like Tottenham?
Firstly there are new laws coming into effect this season, UEFA rules, where sustainability is going to become much more paramount in people's minds so you'll be limited in the amount you can spend on wages and transfer fees, effectively the amortisation element. That's a percentage of your total turnover.
So it's starting off at 90% and over three years it's going down to 70%. The effect of that is effectively some sort of wage of control. So I think that although clubs have been spending very heavily, if you talk about someone like Chelsea, now the new rules come into effect this summer I think you'll find that regardless of who is the owner it's going to have quite a big impact on the financing of football.
What makes you so special in terms of negotiating and can you provide us with some insights into transfers like the Bale and Modric ones?
Firstly I don't consider myself to be a special negotiator or anything like. As I said, I'm just acting in the best interests of my club. I think when it comes to a transfer it depends on the balance of power. If you have a player that you really don't want to sell then you have every right to say no. You own the registration.
So it depends on the character of the player and whether you feel at the end you can keep the player because we're operating in a team sport and it's very important that we keep the team together. So every circumstance is different.
In the next five years do you see Premier League games being played overseas?
I think there may be some pressure for one or two games to be played overseas but I think it will probably be resisted. I expect it's more likely you will see a cup competition played overseas.
On financial fair play do you think a balance has to be struck because there can be benefits in investment in smaller clubs so the same giants don't continue to dominate the game?
The answer to that is absolutely yes. In fact under the financial fair play rules you are able to make investments. I think the most important thing is to not get ourselves in a place where unlimited investment can be made and isn't sustainable when that investment suddenly stops or that owner suddenly goes and then the club disappears. That's why you have to find the right balance.
For the women's team, what's the strategy of getting Tottenham to compete with the major teams out there and are there any parallels to your early years building the men's team?
That's a very good question, women's versus men's football, they're very different at the moment. I think at the moment people look at women's football and think it should be the same as men's football in how it's run and all the rules. Actually it needs to be something that's completely different.
If you look at the economics of women's football at the moment, there isn't the consumer interest compared to the men's, ticket pricing is exceedingly low, TV rights are very low, sponsorship is very limited and as a consequence every single club in the Premier League, their women's club is losing money.
Long term that's not sustainable. So something is going to have to change and that's why currently there's a number of reviews going on about what those changes have to be.
You've said before that every chairman would want a manager there for 10 years, do you still think that's true?
I think every chairman dreams that. I think it's very, very difficult in the competitive nature of football today that you have continuity of a manager over a long period of time.
If you look on the continent, it's so difficult to how it is in England. In England we all dream of having managers for five, six, seven or eight years. In Europe, in other countries, coaches are appointed for two years. They are far less important, the media attention is not on the coach, it's much more about the club. It's a cultural thing we have in England. The manager is almost bigger than the club when in reality he isn't.
With recent appointments like Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte, they are proven winners, but most fans of clubs they've been at will say they have a shelf life of good seasons before they run out of steam, so is that what you were hoping for in making those appointment, those early seasons of winning and then move on?
I think whenever you appoint a coach you're employing someone because you think they're going to make you win. You don't appoint them with the intention that it's only going to be for one year or two years. You hope it will be long term.
All I would make the observation is that in Europe coaches are only appointed for one or two years whereas in this country we're obsessed with when someone is appointed they only have a two year contract, how do you expect him to succeed if he's only got two years.
The Glazers have been criticised for a lack of connection with the fans, what is your stance on owners needing to be fans and engaged in the club they are owning?
I think anyone that buys a football club, they may not fully understand or have the connection with the fans, but they do want the same thing as the fans, which is to win. I think it would be wrong to assume that the Glazers don't want Manchester United to win. I'm sure they do.
You're quite a private person and you never really comment on club matters, have there ever been times you've been frustrated at not being able to justify decisions to the fans? Sometimes as a fan that silence can be quite frustrating for us.
Probably every day. The media often print stories that just aren't true. It's perceptions. An article gets printed, it's a story that then becomes a reality but I've remained dignified and I just won't comment.
What do you think about the 3pm blackout and fans not being able to watch their club on television at that time?
That's a historic rule which is under debate at this very moment in time. I think it's very important that we protect stadiums. One of the reasons English football is so great is because we have in most cases full stadiums. We need to protect that against television. So there has to be a balance between showing all the games on television and still having fans that come and watch live games.
What are your ambitions for the Tottenham Hotspur brand beyond football and how does that then feed into the football club itself?
Everything we’ve been doing in the stadium itself, like the NFL and our recently-announced Formula One partnership, is really to expand the revenue streams for the venue and all that money gets reinvested in the team. The relationship with the NFL and Formula One will over time expand the fanbase of Tottenham Hotspur. At least that's what we hope and if you go to the United States today and you ask people if they've heard of Tottenham Hotspur, compared to say 10 years ago I'm sure as a result of our partnership with the NFL we have a lot bigger following than we otherwise would have had, so that's what the strategy is.
There were plenty of highs then a friend messaged me today, saying the moment things started to go downhill was Mauricio Pochettino's book 'A Brave New World'. Did you sanction that, did he discuss it with you, it was obviously a book by a current manager about current players?
The answer is we did know about it. It was his choice to do it. Some people would say it was a good thing, some people would say it was a bad thing, but it was his choice and we clearly didn't stop it.
What about Spurs before you got involved made you want to step in? What changes did you make and what did you identify as needing to change?
Firstly when you're a fan and you're also an investor I think you have a much more balanced view as to the decisions that need to be take in running the club. It's very easy, trust me, if you're emotionally connected but not financially connected to make some very bad decisions or rash decisions.
As much as we all love our clubs, they are also businesses where you have to make sure the income is sufficient to match the costs and it's very easy to get into trouble. So I realised quite early on that if we wanted to make Tottenham successful that it would be beneficial that if someone who was involved in running the club was not only a fan but also an investor.
Club chairmen get a lot of hate and the people who judge you can be quite fickle a lot of the time, very few owners and chairmen are loved, why then invest in a football club or become a chairman in the first place?
That's perhaps where I'm a bit different because I was a fan first, investor second.
Teams in the Premier League in general can spend more than other sides in Europe, if you were the chairman of a mid-table French side, what would you do to close that gap?
When you look at a club you have to decide where you are in the pecking order. So I accept that there may be certain clubs in Europe that are bigger than us. I have to decide whether we can build our club sufficiently to compete with that club. If I can then let's try to do that. If I can't then I need to be realistic. It's very important therefore, if you're a small club, is your fanbase ever going to be as big as some other clubs. You have to look at perhaps the location where you are.
You have to be careful you don't get carried away because sometimes a small club can have a particularly successful season and that's fantastic, but if you then believe you can always do that and compete with some of the biggest clubs maybe you can't because your fanbase is never going to be big enough.
Spurs are considered to be one of the most sensible clubs financially and how it does its transfer business, however for many fans they see it as coming at the expense of success on the pitch. Do you agree with this?
My starting point is I don't agree with it because if you look at the amount of money Tottenham has spent on new players over the last five or 10 years and you compare it with certain other clubs in the Premier League, not only have we exceeded those clubs but actually some of those clubs may well have been more successful than us on the pitch.
There is not necessarily a direct link between the amount of money you spend and getting success on the pitch. Invariably it is what you spend it on and I could name, I won't name, but we could all name in here a number of players Tottenham has bought that have not been successful and we've lost an awful lot of money.
The FA have come out and charged Manchester City with historic financial breaches, do you see that as any sort of vindication of your own tight control over Tottenham's purse strings?
We have Premier League rules and they should apply to every club, small or big. It is right for the Premier League to enforce those rules. I won't comment on Manchester City. Let's see what happens. The rules are there for a reason.
You mentioned about wanting Harry Kane to have a statue outside the stadium one day, when you took over as chairman your interests were listed as making money and supporting Spurs, with all the work you've done and what you've done in the community over the past two decades, could there also be a Daniel Levy statue and what would you like it to say?
I don't need a statue but what I would love to happen if I look back in time is the area of Tottenham is completely regenerated and the club is responsible, and certainly a major contributing factor, to that regeneration of the area. I think it's a wonderful thing to really change people's lives.
What one piece of advice would you give to current Cambridge students about life, business, sport, passion and education?
I think that when you're in an institution like this it's fantastic. You may not realise the significance of where you are, you may only do later in life. I think Oxford and Cambridge is a calling card, it opens doors and I think don't mess up the opportunity. Work hard, don't just play at college. It's very easy to do that.
Certainly when I was here, believe it or not I actually thought I had failed my finals so when I got a first I was completely gobsmacked. The answer is nothing is impossible. I certainly teach my children to shoot for the stars. You may not get there but if you work hard you'll get quite close.
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