Top ownership changes in European football reveal risky trends
The ever-greater gulf between sport’s haves and have-nots means that a takeover by a super-wealthy owner who can spend their way to glory has become one of the prevailing dreams of 21st century football fans. But recent data suggests that supporters should be careful what they wish for – with off-field changes often leading to turbulent performances on the pitch.
In June 2003, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich became the owner of the companies that control Chelsea Football Club. It was a move which would send shockwaves throughout the footballing world – at every layer of the sport’s pyramid. After arriving, Abramovich embarked on an unprecedented spending spree, aiming to transform the West London club into a global brand to rival dynasties such as Manchester United and Real Madrid.
On the pitch, it would be hard to argue that Abramovich did not succeed on this front during his tenure as owner. In the 19 years following the takeover, Chelsea won 19 major trophies – including two UEFA Champions League titles, two UEFA Europa League crowns, two UEFA Supercups, five Premier League titles, five FA Cups, three League Cups, and a World Club Cup. That record makes Chelsea England’s most prolific trophy-winning team in the time of Abramovich's ownership.
In the two intervening decades, the purchase has been a defining moment for ‘new money’ in football – with fans of perennial also-rans around the world suddenly filled with hope that one day, a billionaire sugar-daddy might purchase their team, and do what Abramovich did for Chelsea. And in many cases, this has happened. Most recently, Newcastle United has been taken from lean times under the ownership of retail tycoon Mike Ashley, to the Champions League, under the ownership of PIF.
Manchester City has meanwhile been transformed from a yo-yo side, bouncing between the Premier League and Championship, into a treble-winning machine – and World Champion in waiting, presuming the Sky Blues are not the first European champions in 11 seasons to lose the World Club Cup. At the same time, in the lower leagues, Wrexham has become an international household name, after winning promotion to League Two, backed by owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
But supporters hoping to reach these heady heights have more often than not been subjected to underwhelming, if not cataclysmic results. The likes of Bury FC, Bolton Wanderers, Blackpool FC, Derby County and many more clubs have been pushed to the point of collapse after new owners failed to deliver on promises of financial stability – spending unsustainably to reach the promised land of the Premier League and its huge broadcasting revenues, before folding when that gamble did not pay off.
These risks are further outlined by new research from Football Benchmark. Looking at the 10 largest majority stake transactions for control of a club across Europe’s five most successful national leagues (England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain), only three clubs have won their leagues after the takeover. Each of those comes with a noted caveat, too.
Following John W. Henry’s majority purchase of Liverpool FC for €342 million, Liverpool clinched the Premier League title in 2020. However, the club has since struggled, with Henry flirting with selling, and previously pushed for it to join the ill-fated Super League project. Meanwhile, AC Milan claimed a first Scudetto in a decade in 2022, after being purchased by Elliott Capital in 2018 – but the club was sold to Redbird Capital Partners just months later, and the club only qualified for the Champions League the next season due to a points deduction which hit Juventus. Finally, Manchester United was a dominant force in football before the Glazer family purchased it for €1.1 billion in 2005. It last won a Premier League title in 2013.
Perhaps the most worthy of note in its takeover is AS Roma. The Italian team was taken over by the Friedkin Group in 2020 for €549 million – and while its league form remains uninspired, Roma has reached consecutive European finals under Jose Mourinho, including winning the 2022 Europa Conference League; the first continental honour in its history.
Risky business
Beyond those examples of success, though, results are a much further cry from emulating the likes of Roman Abramovich. In particular, Olympique Lyonnais is a club in crisis since its €327 million takeover by John Textor in 2022. Having finished an underwhelming seventh in the previous campaign, the club now finds itself rooted to the foot of the Ligue 1 table.
Worse still, though, the club finds itself in financial turmoil off the pitch. With reported debt of around €400 million, the club recently struck a deal to refinance €320 million of debt relating to its stadium, and a number of government backed loans. With Textor also controlling Brazil-based Botafogo and Belgian side RWD Molenbeek, and owning 40% of Premier League club Crystal Palace, there is an increasing fear that his resources are overstretched.
None of this will make pleasant reading for Everton fans, either. The Merseyside club is also noted in Football Benchmark’s analysis, despite the €754 million deal with 777 Partners having not received clearance from English football’s authorities. The American private equity firm signed a deal in September to acquire Toffees owner Farhad Moshiri’s controlling stake in the club – but reports from Forbes also suggest the firm is still scrambling to raise the funds needed to complete its takeover.
Everton has just been stung with a 10-point deduction from the Premier League, having been found to have breached financial rules relating to losses over consecutive seasons. Among the reasons behind the club’s poor financial form were the pandemic – though that impacted every club – and sanctions relating to an alleged oligarch investor.
But even if the deal with 777 does go through, whether the club would then be out of the woods remains unclear. Particularly because 777 also owns a wider portfolio of clubs, and several of them are also struggling to keep up with debt obligations, while underinvestment is holding back progress on the pitch. Genoa, Red Star, Hertha Berlin and Vasco da Gama have all suffered relegation within the last six seasons. All of this suggests that a change in ownership is far from the silver-bullet many fans view it as.
Part of this is because, for all the success Chelsea enjoyed after the club was purchased by Abramovich, the Blues were hardly enduring lean times beforehand. Chelsea had won a succession of trophies in the years before, including the 1998 Cup Winners Cup, and the 2000 FA Cup, while also reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League that season. Pushing the club upwards from there was expensive, but a far cry from the kind of work that turning Notts County into world beaters.
At the same time, Abramovich’s exit – after alleged ties to the Vladimir Putin government in Russian led to his property being sanctioned in Europe – left Chelsea in disarray. While Newcastle United and Manchester City fans might have largely made peace with the human rights records of their owners, as long as they bring success on the pitch, this might serve as a warning sign of things to come if another geo-political shift occurs in the coming years. In the case of Chelsea, if Todd Boehly’s Blueco had not stepped in to purchase the club for €2.9 billion, it is unclear what might have happened to the club, especially if it had been left unable to meet its debt obligations.
