What Are Multi-Club Ownership Models And Are They A Good Thing?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a new form of ownership in football was emerging. The English National Investment Company bought shares in several football clubs across Europe, including Rangers, Slavia Prague, AEK Athens, and Tottenham Hotspur. Other Premier League teams followed suit to a point where multi-club ownership is a fairly common thing.

The City Football Group

The most well known is the City Football Group, which is majority owned by Abu Dhabi United Group, which is headed by Sheikh Mansour, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family. The City Football Group is one of the most successful multi club models in global football and was the first real interconnected group of clubs. The English National Investment Company may have been the first to hold stakes in multiple football clubs, but they were mostly minority shares. In this case, the City Football Group has majority ownership of 12 football clubs, as well as respective women’s and reserve teams.

The City Football Group owns: Manchester City, Girona, New York City FC, Melbourne City, Bahia, Palermo, Troyes, Lommel, Yokohama F. Marinos, Mumbai City, Shenzhen Peng City and Montevideo City Torque.

City Football Group now boast four current reigning champions:
• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Manchester City
• 🇺🇸 #NYCFC
• 🇦🇺 Melbourne City
• 🇮🇳 Mumbai City

City, best team in the land and (literally) all the world. pic.twitter.com/PMYRor6UQ7

— Amos Murphy (@AmosMurphy_) December 11, 2021

There has been quite a lot of controversy surrounding the fairness of the City Football Group’s model, with their financing, transfer policy and conflict of interest. Manchester City themselves are currently facing over 100 charges by the Premier League for breaching profit and sustainability regulations, which could have knock-on effects for their sister clubs if they are found guilty.

Manchester City also faced scrutiny for their signing of Savinho from Troyes last summer. Troyes fans were left dismayed after they never even got to see the Brazilian play for their club. Instead, the side bought him simply to move him on to another team within the group. This sort of transfer policy allows the City Football Group to keep a player at one team, while another team waits to create enough funds to purchase that player, often for a lot less than they are actually worth.

A Recent Surge In Multi-Club Ownership

In the past 10 years, these kinds of models have been taking over the Premier League. The majority of them are small, where the club’s owners only hold shares in one or two other clubs, however there are some that have been growing rapidly.

In December 2022, Bill Foley bought Premier League side AFC Bournemouth, making it his first investment into football. He became chairman of the club and made it his goal to achieve European football for the south coast club within the next five or 10 years. Less than a month later, he expanded his presence in football by acquiring a minority share in Ligue 1 club Lorient. The partnership between the two clubs has been criticised by Lorient fans on multiple occasions. He has since expanded his reach into the A-League with the creation of Auckland FC, and into Scotland with a minority share in Hibernian.

What Problems Does This Cause

Now, there are more partnerships within football than ever, with the likes of Nottingham Forest and Olympiacos, Everton and Roma, and Southampton and Goztepe all sharing owners. Sometimes this leads to success, such as Forest’s return to the Premier League being attributed to the investment made on the pitch by owner Evangelos Marinakis. Unfortunately this can also lead to failure, as Southampton have been left to be relegated this season, while Goztepe are currently sixth in the Turkish Super Lig, having achieved promotion last season.

Goalkeeper Mateusz Lis has joined @Goztepe on a permanent deal.

Wishing you well, Mateusz 😇

— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) August 22, 2024

Another issue was highlighted by Aston Villa’s ownership by V Sports a few seasons ago. V Sports majority owned Aston Villa and Vitoria, however they were forced to sell a lot of their shares in the Portuguese side due to both clubs being part of the 2023/24 UEFA Europa Conference League qualifiers, which breached a UEFA rule regarding a conflict of interest.

This rule became an issue again recently, as both Manchester City and Girona from the City Football Group qualified for the Champions League this season, however UEFA allowed both clubs to participate anyway, drawing anger from Aston Villa, Vitoria, Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise fans, all of whom had had to deal with this rule in the past.