After multiple bankruptcies and a 21-year absence from Italy’s uppermost football league, Serie A, Como 1907 now finds itself near the top of the ranks as the season closes. Just two years after it rejoined the league, a lucrative Champions League place lies within reach.
Yet for some, the most striking part of Como’s recent
turnaround lies beyond goals on the pitch. Club executives have been
positioning it less as a conventional football team dependent on match-day
successes and more as a global lifestyle brand that has Lake Como — and fashion
— at its heart.
Under the club’s
chief brand officer Rhuigi Villaseñor, a seasoned fashion industry creative
director and club shareholder appointed in 2024, Como works with four
high-profile brands on lines for fans, including Brioni for formalwear, Rhude
on casual and streetwear, Hublot on luxury timepieces and Adidas on its
technical kits, including a sailing collection called Lago di Como. The team
also offers luxury lake experiences and has launched a private members’ club called,
well, Club on the Lake.
“We are investing in the foundation of the club but not only
for survival in Serie A,” Como 1907’s president Mirwan Suwarso told the Financial
Times, in the neoclassical lakefront Villa Carminati Resta, which the club
rents. “Our priority is to identify where we can create commercially
sustainable businesses that are not affected by on-field performance.”
Investment heavy model of owners
Como’s majority owner is the Djarum Group, a cigarette
conglomerate founded by two billionaire Indonesian brothers, Robert and the
late Michael Hartono, who died in March. They acquired the club in 2019 through
the group’s London-based media vehicle, Sent Entertainment, with a clear plan:
to leverage Como’s location in one of Italy’s most recognisable destinations
beyond football into other revenue streams such as fashion, entertainment,
hospitality and tourism.
The model is investment-heavy: accounts to June 2025 show
revenues of €62 mn against a net loss of €132 mn, funded by shareholders. Should
Como gain a place in the Champions League, it could face fresh pressure to meet
the league’s financial criteria. But it has also gained some admirers for its
successes to date on — and off — the pitch.
“They have lots of
money to spend, but money alone doesn’t always do a great job. Como is not just
a sports case study, but a lifestyle one,” Domenico Maffei, founder of
Beautiful Business, a weekly podcast and newsletter that analyses sports trends
told the Pink ‘Un.
Under head coach Cesc Fàbregas, Como has prioritised younger
players with resale potential. And the club’s broader strategy reflects a wider
shift in how football teams are building lasting relationships with fans — and
enticing them to open their wallets. France’s best-known club Paris
Saint-Germain has long blurred the line between football and fashion, while
Liverpool FC’s recent tie-up with Tommy Hilfiger underscores the growing appeal
of such partnerships. Other high-profile investors, such as Ryan Reynolds at
Wrexham AFC, have used media exposure to build global followings for dormant
clubs.
But those strategies ultimately still feel anchored in
results, rather than the destination-led broader model pursued at Como. Just
steps from Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, the club’s ground built in 1927, the
Villa Carminati Resta serves as a hospitality venue on match days, hosting
A-listers such as Hugh Grant, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley.
The objective? Como as an extension of Lake Como’s brand of
dolce vita. Events such as the Como Cup, a five-day programme in late July
combining football, music and food, extend the club’s reach beyond traditional
fans and generate revenue during peak tourism months.
Despite its lofty ambitions and stunning geography, Como
1907 has physical limits. The lakeside stadium has just over 12,000 seats,
though a refurbishment and expansion are scheduled for 2028; the club cannot
compete with Europe’s largest names (Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu can host
about 83,000 fans; Juventus’s Allianz Stadium accommodates roughly 41,500) on
match-day income.
With domestic broadcast rights markets in Europe levelling
off, the most significant trend noted by Deloitte Money Leagues has been the
increasing importance of commercial revenue for clubs beyond on-field
performance.
'Everyone knows Lake Como'
“The idea came from seeing T-shirts with St Moritz or Aspen
on them,” Suwarso told the FT, sitting by the mountain-ringed lake as
waiters bring platters of Italian salami and cheese. “We thought, globally,
maybe few people know a third-division football team, but everyone knows Lake
Como.”
Their strategy reimagines club merchandise: it’s less about
team shirts and more about destination-led retail for anyone who has dreamt of
Lake Como. According to the club, products are made in Italy and distributed
through nearly 500 points of sale including hotels and local shops around Lake
Como.
Meanwhile Villaseñor’s other project, Rhude 4 Fans, creates
cross-team streetwear capsules, from Pisa and Como to Tottenham Hotspur,
Everton and Los Angeles FC. In effect, Como is not just dressing its own fans;
it is getting ready to dress all fans.
The timing may prove advantageous. With the 2026 Fifa World
Cup approaching in North America, Como is well positioned to tap into a growing
US audience. According to the club’s latest accounts, commercial revenue for
2025 was just over €4mn, a 10-fold increase on €411,000 the previous year.
Still, FC Barcelona generated €277mn in kit and merchandise sales in 2025,
according to Uefa. There is a long way to go.
Kit economics favours the larger clubs
But Suwarso argues that traditional kit economics favour
only the largest clubs. “The royalty from the sale of a shirt is about $7.50,”
he told the leading business paper. “If you’re Liverpool or Barcelona, it’s a
no-brainer. For a smaller club like Como, that formula doesn’t work.” Indeed,
big clubs have long used fashion to extend their reach, but Como is pursuing a
fusion of football, fashion and tourism.
That is what makes Como’s model so distinctive. Most clubs
sell football and hope that success brings financial gain. Como is flipping the
script: creating a commercial ecosystem strong enough to support the team.
Whether this approach
can be sustained at the Serie A level and even more so across Europe remains
uncertain. However, on the shores of Lake Como, football is used not just as a
sport but also to develop infrastructure for a luxury destination brand. And in
a game where nearly every club claims it aims to think differently, few
actually do.
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