The Political Economy of Football V2

Kyle Krause is stepping back from running his family's petrol and convenience store chain to run Parma,  the club he acquired in September. He thinks it should be possible to get Serie A to the number two league ranking in the world.  Overtaking the Premier League would be tough because of the English language factor. In the 1990s the club won domestic and European trophies, but it went bankrupt after the collapse of then majority owner Parmalat in 2004.  It went bankrupt again in 2015 and had to work its way back from Serie D. Krause also owns a lower tier American team, the Des Moines Menace.  He is of Italian descent and owns wineries in Italy.

The US billionaire Krause family is nearing an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Parma in a move that would make it the latest American investor in Serie A.   A deal valuing the club at more than €100m could be reached by the end of the week. The Krause family would control 60 per cent of the club and existing investors would retain a stake for at least five years.   The new owners outbid a potential Qatari investor. The Krause Group already owns lower tier US football club the Des Moines Menace.   The family built its fortune on the Kum & Go convenience store chain in the US. Last month AS Roma was acquired by Texan billionaire Dan Friedkin for €591m while last year ACF Fiorentina was bought for an undisclosed sum by New York media mogul Rocco Commisso, Under the ownership of dairy company Parmalat the club won three European titles in the 1990s.  After Parmalat collapsed in 2003 following a huge financial fraud the club was reformed under ...