Levelling the Playing Field
Nicolas Kartozia, S10, exposes the true impacts of multi-club ownership in football.
Nicolas Kartozia
Senior 10
Artwork by Lavinia Salon
Art Director, 2025
As football has developed more modernised and increasingly investment dependent, we have seen multi-club ownership emerge. Multi-club ownership in football is when one organization or individual owns more than one club and links them together, resulting in unfair advantages in football. Beyond having more money than other clubs, it leads to the sharing finances, data and resources.
Some examples of multi-club ownership are Eagle Football Holding LTD, which contain Lyon, Botafogo, RWD Molenbeek and minority share holds in Crystal Palace. Another example, perhaps the most well-known multi-club ownership in the world, is the City Football Group. The clubs under ownership are Manchester City, Girona FC, Palmero FC and ESTA Troyes in Europe. In South America and North America there are a further 3 clubs including New York City FC, Bahia and Montevideo City Torque (a team in the Uruguayan second division). Overall, there 13 team partnerships over 5 continents, including 4 teams in Asia and Australia - Mumbai City FC, Melbourne City FC, Yokohama F. Marinos and Shenzhen Peng City FC.
One of the major problems of multi-club ownership is apparent with the City Football Group. Sávio Moreira de Oliveira is a right-winger playing for Manchester City who came up through the ranks at Atlético Mineiro. After impressive performances at the Copa Libertadores, he was bought by ESTA Troyes, a team within the City Football Group. After 2 unsuccessful loan spells to both PSV (Philips Sport Vereniging) and their junior team Jong PSV, he was loaned out to Girona, another team in the City Football Group. After an unbelievable year with Girona, they were able to qualify for the Champions League football for the first time in history. This led to Manchester City spending a reported £30.8 million on Sávio. The problem arises in the fee of the transfer, which in this case, was reported to be well under his transfer value of £42 million. This sparked controversy as it demonstrated how multi-club ownership allows for reduced fees between clubs to obtain talent which otherwise would cost much more. Many argue that Sávio would have transferred for much more than his reported £30.8 million if he had gone to another club. This shows that this multi-club ownership can result in unfair benefits between clubs resulting in a one-sided advantage for them.
Another example is the Red Bull multi-club ownership. This case is especially controversial as their business model planned to buy out clubs and rid them of all their history, starting over. They did this by moving stadiums, changing their kit, logo and badge. For example, Red Bull Salzburg bought out SV Austria Salzburg which was a club rich with over 72 years of history and many fans. Red Bull changed the name and history with no consideration for the fans which led to the ultras (association football fans who are eager to show their fanatical support) rebuilding the team. Currently, they are struggling in the 3rd division of Austrian Football.
Arguably the most controversial takeover of them all: RB Leipzig’s. This takeover is so controversial because in the Bundesliga there is a rule called the ‘50 plus 1’. This rule states that no club in the Bundesliga should have over 49% of its stakes owned by a commercial investor. This rule allows for no takeovers to occur and for no club to be able to prioritize the aim for profits over the fans’ desires. Being a multi-billion-euro company, they found a loophole and purchased 5th diversion side SSV Markranstädt. They did this by only having 9 members of their club. Members are very important to German football as it accounts for the other 51% of the club. By having only 9 members, who were all Red Bull employees, they were able to take full control. With their newly founded club, they were able to get promoted to the Bundesliga in 7 years, made possible due to their financial advantage. Finally, they also bought a second division Brazilian team, Clube Atlético Bragantino to help expand their reach in South America. RB Bragantino has seen success like qualifying for the ‘Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores’ in 2022 for the first time in their history. However, the same problem for inter-club transfers is found in the Red Bull multi-club organization. For example, the transfer of Karim Adeyemi from Red Bull Salzberg to RB Leipzig.
On the other hand, multi-club ownership has equally been very successful. This is apparent in the fact that Manchester City has been the most successful team in England since joining the City Football Group, winning 24 trophies since 2008. Girona FC, with the help of the City Football Group funds, were able to qualify for the Champions League. Red Bull Salzberg won 17 Admiral Bundesliga in just 22 years. This is why this model is so popular, as with the right planning and board backing, clubs get results.
But, the kind of dominance provided by multi-club ownership, must be avoided at all costs. We must ban multi-club ownership by leading footballing bodies within the sport like FIFA, UEFA and other organizations to help eradicate the unfair advantage between clubs and return football to its place as the beautiful game, not the battle of the banks.