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Who gains from multi-club ownership?

The Swiss Ramble was invited to give a presentation at the FT Football Business Summit on the increasingly popular model of multi-club ownership.   For some reason this contribution was not publicised by the Pink 'Un.

It is the most thorough data-based treatment I have seen of the motivations for multi-club ownership and the advantages and drawbacks of the model.   Of itself it is a reason for subscribing to the Zurich-based football finance guru's Substack page.

My only additional comment would be don't forget the wood for the trees.  I would argue that globalisation is alive and well in football and one thing that a globalisation model encourages is holding assets in different countries, albeit that the junior subsidiaries lose out.

The Swiss Ramble states: 'One of the best known examples of multi-club ownership is City Football Group, largely owned by Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG). They first acquired Manchester City in 2008, but have significantly expanded their empire since then with investments in another 11 clubs all around the world.

As a result, CFG now owns clubs in Europe (City, Girona, Lommel SK, ES Troyes AC and Palermo), North America (New York City), South America (Montevideo City Torque, Club Bolivar and EC Bahia), Asia (Yokohama F. Marinos and Sichuan Jiuniu) and Australia (Melbourne City). They divested their holding in Mumbai City last December.'

He notes: 'There is little doubt that multi-club ownership is one of the most important trends in the world of football. According to UEFA’s latest club investment report, at the end of 2025 there were more than 345 clubs worldwide that were part of a multi-club investment structure, compared with fewer than 60 ten years ago.

UEFA said that multi-club ownership is now “firmly established in the Big Five leagues, while more than a third of the top division clubs are part of an MCO network in Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Scotland and Switzerland.

In fact, no fewer than 122 top division clubs in Europe (16% of the total) have at least one cross-investment relationship with another club.

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