Leeds United's on-field success is key to everything else says San Francisco 49ers investor Paraag Marathe

But he also moved to reassure traditionalists that his attempts to "minimise risk" at Elland Road will not extend to lobbying against Premier League relegation or trying to undermine the "meritocracy" he sees as English football's biggest strengths.

49er Enterprises, a wing of the NFL club, are minority shareholders in Leeds, but significant ones, with a 44 per cent holding and the option to buy current owner Andrea Radrizzani out in 2024. Marathe's position at Elland Road underlines that heft.

At times in recent years the clubs have been criticised for not investing heavily enough in the first team but Marathe insists producing a winning team is the best way to get a good financial return.

"I think about winning and losing," he said. "I think about building a group of players on the pitch that play for their city and their supporters. Doing that and building something that is is bigger than the sum of its pieces? In time and indirectly, an investment will come around.

"At the 49ers we think about what do we need to do to build ourselves a Super Bowl winner? If you can do that, everything else follows.

"Obviously I want to build something which is financially sustainable but I want to win. That's what it comes down to."

Marathe explained his and the 49ers' role in the Premier League club was to help "figure out how to maximise every pound of investment and how to get the most bang for that, how to maximise return and minimise risk given the resources we have.

"FFP (financial fair play – rules to limit how far clubs spend beyond their means) and all these other things come into play so the name of the game is all about financial optimisation. That's something I think I have expertise in."

Marathe was talking to a BBC podcast about the influence of American owners on the English game, and taken at face value, mention of "minimising risk" will have alarmed some who are suspicious of it. American sporting culture tends to be about the security of closed shops, balanced out by drafts and salary caps to share talent more broadly and some critics see many of the 11 Premier League club owners' actions as moving in the direction of the former, just not the rest.

"I think a lot of us American sports owners and executives live for the competition, live for the winning and losing of it, and you see it in English football," he said.

"The emotions, the jeopardy and the intensity are magnified. It's probably not good for any of the heart counts – mine included – but it's fabulous, it's fascinating, it's energy.

"What works in the NFL, MLB or NBA, I don't even think about if it works in the Premier League because it's apples and oranges.

"The jeopardy involved in each match and the meritocracy that is part of the English football pyramid, that's woven into the fabric and culture of what English football's all about. You don't want to change that, that's what makes it special.

"I didn't enjoy living on the edge of my seat and (nearly) having a heart attack at Brentford last season (when Leeds travelled to west London on the final day of the season unsure even if victory would keep them in the division) but the exhilaration and sense of relief that came after that win? That's what it's all about.

"The Premier League is perfect the way it is.

"Cherry-picking little things that maybe work in one league or another to apply here, if it changes the sanctity of what (the Premier League) is, I'm not a fan of it. If it improves upon it, or clarifies, makes it more transparent or better, I'm a fan of it, I'm supportive of it. But I don't want to change what it is because it's a very unique thing no one else has."

You can listen to the podcast in full here.