Skip to main content

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.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...
Post a Comment
Read more

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site.  He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned.  He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long.  What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do
Post a Comment
Read more