Right To Dream Announces €100m Investment From Man Capital

Right To Dream, the global ecosystem of football academies, professional football clubs and partnering colleges and universities, founded by British social entrepreneur, Tom Vernon, has formed a new €100 million partnership with Man Capital, the UK-based investment arm of the Egyptian Mansour Group.

The investment will be made through Man Sports, a new entity established for the partnership, which will focus on establishing a Right To Dream academy in Egypt, as well as exploring new opportunities with UK football clubs, as well as FC Nordsjælland in Denmark. 

It will also expand the organisation’s women’s and girl’s programmes as well as furthering the reach of its original Right to Dream academy in Ghana.

Under the terms of the partnership, Man Sports will assume majority control of Right to Dream but Tom Vernon will remain the other significant shareholder and continue as CEO. Mohamed Mansour, Founder and Chairman of Man Capital, will become Chairman of the Board, while his son, Loutfy Mansour, the CEO of Man Capital, becomes a Board member. 

Meanwhile, Pippa Grange, former Head of People and Team Development at The FA, will join Right to Dream as Group Chief Culture Officer as part of the new venture.

“For 20 years Right To Dream has been using football as a vehicle for social change, bringing life-changing opportunities through sport and education for children and their communities” said Vernon. 

“This partnership helps Right To Dream accelerate global expansion plans to provide more opportunities for more children around the world, continuing to put people and purpose at the centre of football. With the support of the Mansour family, we continue to aspire to the creation of a new standard of purpose-driven sports for clubs academies and players.”

“We believe there can be a greater purpose-driven model in football where clubs take an active role in social change, rather than leaning on individual athlete-driven social consciousness. Our academies do exactly that and once Egypt is firmly established, we’ll set our sights on the UK. With our partners and our strong experienced team, we are hungry to do more for the growing elite sporting talent and educational achievements of children coming through our academies, to help them achieve their dreams”, concluded Vernon. 

Speaking about the investment, Mohamed Mansour, Chairman and Founder of Man Capital, said: “I could not be prouder to be investing in and partnering with Tom and his team at Right To Dream, who are inspirational for the life-changing work they undertake with talented boys and girls across Africa, Europe and the Americas. We have long taken a close interest in the work they are doing and are delighted to be announcing our partnership today. Not only are we a family of football fans, indeed my uncle Mostafa Kamel Mansour even represented Egypt in the 1934 World Cup, but we are committed to supporting communities across Africa, through our foundations and other philanthropic activities.”