Explained

Why choose one football club when you could have many?

All team owners are welcome Premier LeagueThe English Football League (EFL), continental Europe and beyond have been asking themselves that question for several years — and there has now been a seismic shift in strategy.

Todd Boehly Chelsea’s new American co-owner who last week caused a stir when discussing the possibility of a money-spinning Premier League ‘All-Star’ game,Already, the importance of having a sports portfolio has been highlighted by countless others.

Boehly already had stakes in basketball’s Los Angeles Lakers and major league baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, so is no stranger to owning multiple teams.

However, this approach is not new. If Chelsea’s new owners were to expand their portfolio, the west London side would become the 10th of the Premier League’s current 20 teams to be part of a multi-club model.

Arsenal, Brentford, Brighton, Crystal Palace, Leicester, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest, Southampton West HamAlready have connections to 25 clubs across Europe and further afield.

One division less in the Championship Cardiff, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Sunderland, Swansea WatfordYou can also be linked to other clubs League One’s Barnsley are part of NewCity Capital group’s stable of seven teams.

In the third tier there is also an option. Ipswich’s ownership also operates Phoenix Rising in the United States’ second division, while Salford, playing in League Two, are co-owned by Peter Lim, the majority shareholder of Valencia in Spain’s La Liga.

Other leagues across Europe are already masters of the trick.

A combined 20 clubs from Italy’s Serie ALigue 1 and La Liga in France are both part of multiclub models. The former is replete with American investment and leading the way. The US has owned the following: AC MilanBologna and Genoa, Fiorentina, all have stakes in other clubs.

Owners can operate multiple clubs in Italy. However, this is prohibited in other countries.

Claudio Lotito, owner of Lazio, was forced to sell Salernitana after his club reached Serie A. With the newly-promoted side, expulsion from the top flight is possible otherwise. A similar prospect would face his Napoli counterpart Aurelio De Laurentiis should Bari, playing in Serie B for 2022-23, repeat last season’s success in the third tier.

Aurelio De Laurentiis is Napoli’s owner. (Photo: Marco Cantile/LightRocket via Getty Images).

Even the German BundesligaFamously resistive to outside investment and home Model 50+1 Ownership has three clubs with links to others — Augsburg, Kaiserslautern and RB Leipzig.

Across Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues, 32.7 per cent of sides are part of multi-club models, linked to a total network of 91 other teams.

This business model was ignited in the UK by the 2016 vote to leave EU. Multi-club ownership will continue to grow rather than shrink.

The club sees the strategy as a way to circumvent post Brexit. Governing Body Endorsement (GBE) rules,It can also be used to develop academy players who otherwise would not be able play first-team football.

Brexit has made it difficult for players in Europe to obtain work permits. The GBE system grades leagues based on quality and status. La Liga, for example is in Band One which is worth more GBE points, while the Danish Superliga is at Band Five which is worth less points.

There is a reason why UK-based clubs are looking for teams in Belgium, Portugal, Turkey and the Netherlands — and it is to do with their position in the GBE system.

City Football Group (CFG).The Abu Dhabi United Group owns the umbrella organization, of which Manchester City is the head. There are 11 clubs around the world, including in India, Australia, and the United States.

New York City FC was established in 2008 after Manchester City FC purchased the club. Major League SoccerCFG acquired an 80 per cent stake, which was its second acquisition in 2013. Following the acquisition of Melbourne City (100% stake), and Yokohama F Marinos (20%), CFG made its second acquisition in 2013.

Thiago andrade from New York City are the current MLS Champions (Photo: Andrew Katsampes/ISI Photos/Getty Images).

CFG has purchased shares in Mumbai City (65%), Sichuan Jiuniu (29.7%), Lommel (99%), Troyes (100%), Palermo (80%), and Lommel (99%) since 2019.

CFG is by far the biggest — most successful in terms of silverware if not necessarily revenue — when it comes to multi-club ownership and the model is paying dividends closer to home, too.

In the summer transfer window just ended, CFG waited until Southampton had sanctioned Oriol Romeu’s departure to Girona, a club in which it has a 47 per cent stake, before Manchester City sent Samuel Edozie and Juan Larios to St Mary’s. Southampton also loaned goalkeeper Mateusz LisCFG club Troyes

Brentford’s owner Matthew Benham cottoned on to the benefits of having more than one club in your portfolio and obtained a 75 per cent majority shareholding in Danish side Midtjylland in 2014; but perhaps Tony Fernandes, co-owner at west London neighbours Queens Park Rangers, was ahead of the curve.

Fernandes founded Petaling Jaya Rangers Selangor, Malaysia in 2011 the same year he bought QPR. In 2016, the two clubs formed a partnership, with QPR creating an academy in Malaysia and lending their expertise to coaches and players.

League One team Fleetwood Town did something very similar last year. Andy Pilley, the owner of the club, established new clubs in South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and South Africa to help develop players there. The UAE team is called Fleetwood United Football Club. In South Africa, it’s called Western Cape Fleetwood Football Club.

“We are experts at building football clubs and developing players and that’s something we are really excited to do in UAE and South Africa,” Pilley said. “We’re a forward-thinking club. It’s one thing Manchester City having a network of clubs, but who would have thought little old Fleetwood would go down the same route?”

Southampton are the most recent English team to enter the multi-club world, with new owners Sport Republic — their majority shareholders after a takeover last January — buying a 70 per cent stake in Turkish side Goztepe in August. Sport Republic is a group co-owned and managed by Rasmus Ankersen (ex-Brentford director of football operations, Benham employee), who hopes to make several more acquisitions.

Several of the Premier League’s American investors already had stakes in sports franchises back home before trying their hand at English football.

Stan Kroenke, Arsenal’s owner, has a portfolio that includes MLS team Colorado Rapids, NFLThe Los Angeles Rams, Denver Nuggets, and Milwaukee Bucks are champions NBAThe reigning NHLColorado Avalanche wins ice hockey.

Los Angeles Rams’ Andrew Whitworth and Von Miller with the Super Bowl trophy in February (Photo: Frederic J Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Kroenke’s impressive stable is closely followed by that of Dave Blitzer, an American with an 18 per cent stake in Palace. Blitzer is able to count the New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), and Cleveland Guardians as his players.MLBAs teams in his portfolio.

You can also own a property Manchester United, completing a controversial leveraged takeover in 2005, the Glazer family are in charge of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Liverpool’s Fenway Sports Group, headed by John W Henry, also have the Boston Red Sox (MLB) and Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL) under their umbrella of clubs.

BournemouthAmerican businessman is now interested in the Premier League club, which was promoted last season. Maxim Demin and Bill Foley are in exclusive talks, the club’s Russian owner, over a proposed takeover. Foley already has experience in sport as owner of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights.

It will get more difficult as there are fewer clubs on the market, and the multi-club model will continue to be copied throughout football.

Despite this rapid growth, there are no signs that the strategy will slow down.

It is not important if the majority or minority shareholding is held.

Owning a stake in a team opens up possibilities that are not possible for single-club owners.

(Top Photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images