American consortium interested in Burnley takeover

Two rival American consortiums have reportedly been bidding for ownership of the club, and it is believed ALK Capital - fronted by managing partner Alan Pace - are favourites to strike a deal.

In November, Pace, Citi's global head of securities services sales, left the US bank after 11 years, with hopes of investing in a Premier League club.

Earlier in 2019, Pace set up ALK Capital with US businessman Dave Checketts, with ALK keen on buying Sheffield United.

Pace and Checketts were part of the team that established MLS franchise Real Salt Lake back in 2004 - Pace served as interim president and alongside Checketts helped negotiate links with Real Madrid.

Checketts has also worked with basketball team, the Detroit Pistons, and was involved with another NBA franchise, New York Knicks, as well as ice hockey side New York Rangers, when he served as chief executive of the firm that owned the two.

One of ALK's first investments has been AIScout, a fully automated talent identification platform for professional organisations to scout amateur players worldwide.

​The website states: "Artificial intelligence allows scouts to find, analyse, score, rate, benchmark & scout players technical, athletic, cognitive & psychometric ability."

Talks between ALK and Burnley are believed to be at an advanced stage.