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Super League supremo back in the game

 Andrea Agnelli, one of the architects of European football’s controversial Super League, is launching a comeback as a sports investor. Five years after his failed attempt to upend the continent’s footballing landscape, Agnelli has established Gamma Waves Partners, an investment firm that will target opportunities in innovative sports competitions and formats, as well as teams and athletes.

Based in Amsterdam, where Agnelli now lives, Gamma Waves will manage money invested by the former Juventus boss and co-founders including Rocco Benetton of the eponymous fashion dynasty and former Italian football captain Giorgio Chiellini.

 Agnelli acted as vice-chair of the European Super League, a closed league for the continent’s biggest clubs. The project collapsed in 2021 within days of becoming public knowledge after a backlash from supporters and politicians forced clubs to pull out.

His new venture will take minority stakes in businesses seeking to boost fan engagement with sports. Gamma Waves will also consider investing in companies producing AI-generated content or technology to improve athletic performance.

Under Agnelli’s 12-year presidency, from 2010 until 2022, Juventus won Italy’s Serie A title nine times and twice finished runners-up in the Uefa Champions League. But he left the club in controversial circumstances, with Juventus accused of inflating capital gains from player transfers. In September 2025, Agnelli received a 20-month suspended prison sentence as part of a settlement agreement. There was no admission of guilt under the plea bargain and Agnelli maintains his innocence.

Now he is looking to the future. “I am not trying to prove anything,” Agnelli told the Financial Times. “I have just turned 50 so there is enough space to write another exciting page for the Gamma Waves team.”

Gamma Waves has received €55mn of firm funding commitments out of a target €100mn to date. Agnelli declined to specify his own commitment but said everybody “has significant capital at risk”. The firm’s chief investment officer, Kyang Yung, told the Pink 'Un that it is targeting a 25 per cent internal rate of return, a measure of performance used by the private equity industry.

Target companies will be mature start-ups, he added, and that due diligence is under way on Gamma Waves’ first investment. “We’ve actually designed the firm with owners, operators, athletes, as well as tech investors around the same table,” Yung told the FT. “That’s what we hope will give us an edge.”

Agnelli joins a group of investors seeking opportunities in sports technology and fledgling competitions. Earlier this year, specialist sports investor Bruin Capital raised $1bn from investors to target data and technology providers. Venture capital investor Left Lane Capital has invested in a range of start-up leagues, including Kings League, the small-sided football competition founded by former Barcelona captain Gerard Piqué.
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