Is owning multiple football clubs damaging the game?
Over 300 football clubs worldwide are now part of a 'multi-club' system. What does this mean, and how is it affecting the game?
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00:00Ownership of football clubs is becoming increasingly controversial.
00:04Billionaires, investment funds and even celebrities are joining forces to own several teams at once.
00:11Does this create a conflict of interest or does it encourage the development of young players in an efficient way?
00:22Hello and welcome to Football Now.
00:25As the money required to invest in football continues to grow exponentially, in the modern era we're seeing a new kind of football ownership.
00:35Companies investing in or controlling more than one club is the new trend and it's splitting opinion in the football world.
00:43It's become a bit of a phenomenon in European football, particularly over the last five years.
00:50Especially when one ownership group has controlling ownership stakes in more than one football club.
00:55Now you can't have controlling ownership stakes in more than one football club that exist in the same league,
00:59so what that does means these things are spread out over, whether it's a continent, whether it be Europe,
01:04some multi-club groups stretching to South America, Asia, Australasia, North America, everywhere.
01:10So what has caused this sudden boom of organisations wanting to enter every market possible?
01:15Well, the world's top clubs want to identify talent earlier in order to save money in the long run.
01:21Let's use a hypothetical example.
01:23Club A are an elite club competing at the pinnacle of European football.
01:28They have a squad full of world-class players and because of this some of their younger players may not get as much time on the pitch as the manager would like them to.
01:36To solve this issue, the wealthy owners of Club A acquire another club, now known as the feeder club for Club A.
01:43Typically the feeder club is a smaller-sized team in a different league, who are not competing in the same elite competitions as Club A.
01:51Now Club A can use their feeder club to send younger talent on loan to further their developments.
01:57Or they can even help to finance transfers for the feeder club to acquire young players from around the globe,
02:03with a view to one day completing a permanent transfer to Club A in the long run or be sold elsewhere for a healthy profit.
02:11I've seen a few people kind of talk around how there are synergies that can be created between having numerous clubs under your control,
02:18but largely it is down to player trading.
02:20So the ability to spot talent in different countries that can have it play in the same way that your biggest asset.
02:27So Liverpool presently are looking at acquiring a second team.
02:30Fenway Sports Group are looking at acquiring a second team, which will be for the ultimate benefit of Liverpool, which is their most valuable asset.
02:36The idea being, identify players at an earlier stage in their process, house them, allow their talent development,
02:43and get them ready for either a move to Liverpool's first team or to be sold on for a profit.
02:49Now we understand the motives, let's take a look at some real-world examples,
02:54and why not everybody agrees with the concept of using feeder clubs to develop young players.
03:00There are some famous examples of multi-club models that are causing debate in the football world.
03:05Manchester City were the inaugural club in the group now known as the City Football Group,
03:10which includes teams such as New York City, Melbourne City, FC Girona, Yokohama F Marinos and others.
03:18Manchester City are a success in their own right, but now have a support network of other clubs who contribute to their revenue
03:25and help develop young players in the scouting system.
03:28A similar set-up has been implemented by energy drink company Red Bull.
03:32They have clubs in Salzburg, Leipzig, New York and Brasilia.
03:36Players such as Sadio Mane, Naby Keita and Erling Haaland are all products of the Red Bull system.
03:42Despite this, how are these teams viewed by rival fans in their respective countries?
03:48Basically as a plastic club, they've been created solely for brand marketing and the promotion of the Red Bull energy drink.
03:57In Germany we have the 50 plus 1 ownership rule, which requires clubs to be a majority owned by their members rather than external investors.
04:06By having basically Red Bull employees as those voters, they've bypassed that 50 plus 1 rule.
04:13It lacks a genuine feeling, so long-standing fan culture, long-standing tradition,
04:19and that is very highly valued as German football from the fans.
04:24However, these examples are the tip of the iceberg.
04:27At the end of 2023, Sport Business in collaboration with CIES Sport Intelligence,
04:34estimated that 301 clubs around the world are now part of a multi-club ownership structure.
04:40The issue this presents is when clubs owned by the same people end up competing in the same competition,
04:46potentially creating a conflict of interest.
04:49UEFA have recently relaxed their rules slightly on this matter.
04:53Before, clubs could be blocked from playing in UEFA's elite competitions and simply replaced by the next team in their domestic league.
05:01But now Article 5.04 says a club that is replaced in one competition may still be admitted to another UEFA club competition,
05:10to which the relevant national association has access.
05:14To my mind, there should be no crossover.
05:16Again, clubs should be fully individual entities.
05:18UEFA's rules should be on that basis, and it should be quite hardline on this.
05:23But of course, it's too late for that.
05:25So UEFA can't impose this sort of rule, or feel they can't, because if they did, it would potentially create chaos.
05:31All they can do now is adapt around the rules, and I think that's why we're seeing relaxation of them,
05:36rather than actual proper consideration of what this means.
05:38Because this happens so much in football, it's essentially almost too late to do that on property.
05:42They haven't been proactive enough.
05:44Multiclub ownership is one of the hottest topics in football at the moment, but the phenomenon shows no sign of slowing down.
05:52Let us know your thoughts using the hashtag footballnowmulticlubs.
05:56That's all we have time for from our studio here in Doha.
05:59We'll see you next time. Bye for now.