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Report: Owner of the Devils and Sixers interested in buying Crystal Palace

Josh Harris, co-founder of Apollo Global Management and owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils, is in discussions to buy the English Premier League team Crystal Palace, Bloomberg reported on Friday afternoon.
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Josh Harris, co-founder of Apollo Global Management and owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils, is in discussions to buy the English Premier League team Crystal Palace, Bloomberg reported on Friday afternoon.

Bloomberg's sources requested anonymity because the contract was still being negotiated. Harris acquired the 76ers in 2011 and bought the Devils, as well as their Prudential Center arena in Newark, in 2013.

He would become the sixth American to own a Premier League club, according to Bloomberg.

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The Guardian suggested the sale was far from certain, saying it was not clear that CPFC 2010, Crystal Palace's current owners, would sell a team that finished in the middle of the league last season and was elevated to the Premier League's first division in 2013.

"[Crystal Palace] co-chairman Steve Parish has previously made it clear that he considers himself  and his three fellow board members "reluctant guardians" of the team they have long supported," the Guardian said.

"They are under no immediate financial pressure to sell, with any chance of a potential takeover apparently in its infancy at best."

Crystal Palace, based in South London, was among the Premier League's founding members in 1992, and has shifted between promotion and relegation in the years since. Twice since 1999 it has required bankruptcy protection.

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According to Bloomberg's sources, Parish would stay with the club and run it for Harris were the American to purchase the team.

Parish and his CPFC 2010 consortium bought the team in 2010 and finished 11th last year, the third-highest finish in club history, for which it received £74.5 million in revenue and prize money.

Led by manager Neil Warnock, the team is 16th in the league going into a matchup against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

- Christopher Woody