The latest study by the American analytical company Pitchbook has looked at the investor relationships of top European clubs. After the old revenue pots were exhausted in the meantime—through tickets, merchandising, or even catering—many old investors would have sought new sources of money. They were found at Private Equity (PE), for which football has offered attractive conditions: many clubs are heavily indebted, the players’ salaries are crazy high, and many managers are ex-professional but inexperienced in business. On the contrary, if you put the clubs in a more professional position on these points, they could get high returns.
The overview of deals between 2018 and 2022 speaks clearly. While the acquisition volume in 2018 was still EUR 66.7 million, in 2022 it was already EUR 4.9 billion. This year, it could reach up to EUR 10.6 billion if all the acquisitions were actually completed. The biggest deal of all time was FC Chelsea, which last year went from sanctioned oligarch Roman Abramovich to a consortium of several private equities from the US for 3 billion euros.
Pure Investing
According to Pitchbook, entering Private Equity can have a healthy effect. Because unlike the super-rich, who don’t care about money, these investors want to multiply their investment over a period of seven to ten years. This also means that the clubs will be more professional and the cadres will be put together more efficiently.
The best example is Newcastle United. After the new owners—the Saudi state fund together with PEs Capital Partners and Reuben Brothers—acquired the club in the winter of 2021 for 350 million euros, twelve players were committed, eleven sold, and the management changed. Expenditures amounted to EUR 130 million compared to revenue of EUR 52 million. However, the new players, including no real superstars, fit well into the club, initially preventing the departure and qualifying the club for the Champions League the following year. It now guarantees minimum revenues of 35 million euros in the current season.
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At least 35.7% of all teams in the top 5 leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France) have sold their shares in full or in part. The actual number is likely to be much higher because many ownership relationships are opaque. With just under 60%, the investors come especially often from the US, where hype about football has broken out in the face of the 2026 World Cup in their own country.
German Bundesliga is still waiting
As the German magazine Capital notes, in the German league, sports funds are active in this field, such as, for example, 777 Partners, which invested in the second-league Hertha BSC. In addition to Hertha, only FC Augsburg has another classic investor, the US fund MSP Sports Capital. Bayern Munich has sold minority shares to Adidas, Allianz, and Audi; VfB Stuttgart has sold them to Daimler. Borussia Dortmund is listed on the stock exchange, and clubs such as Leipzig, Wolfsburg, Leverkusen, and Hoffenheim are or were in the past heavily dependent on individual sponsors.
Compared to the other top-5 leagues, the two investors in Berlin and Augsburg are rather the exception, especially compared to England and France. There are at least ten comparable investors in England and at least seven in France. Only Spain moves with three investors in a similar order of size as Germany. Acquisitions are tied to the five-year profitability of the club, making deals difficult.
