Going private: the corporate raiders taking over sport

Financier Donald Mackenzie likes to fly under the radar, but his private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is busily buying up huge stakes in some of the biggest teams and tournaments on the planet, from the Six Nations to La Liga. What will this spending spree mean for the future of world sport?

Donald McKenzie, the low profile head of CVC Capital, which has invested heavily in sports including rugby, football and volleyball

Donald Mackenzie is a quiet, publicity-shy Scottish financier. He is rarely photographed, and even more rarely interviewed. His name will not be familiar to football fans, and perhaps only familiar to a very small number of very attentive rugby fans. And yet Mackenzie and his private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners, will likely be the single most influential force acting upon those two sports in the coming decade.

Many fans will quiver at that prospect. ...