{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"MRKT Insights - Football Consultancy Services","provider_url":"https:\/\/mrktinsights.com","title":"Why Multi-Club Ownership doesn't (normally) work - MRKT Insights - Football Consultancy Services","type":"rich","width":600,"height":338,"html":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"EfcnDHbZ4i\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mrktinsights.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/26\/why-multi-club-ownership-doesnt-normally-work\/\">Why Multi-Club Ownership doesn&#8217;t (normally) work<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/mrktinsights.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/26\/why-multi-club-ownership-doesnt-normally-work\/embed\/#?secret=EfcnDHbZ4i\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Why Multi-Club Ownership doesn&#8217;t (normally) work&#8221; &#8212; MRKT Insights - Football Consultancy Services\" data-secret=\"EfcnDHbZ4i\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\/* <![CDATA[ *\/\n\/**\n * WordPress inline HTML embed\n *\n * @since 4.4.0\n * @output wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.js\n *\n * Single line comments should not be used since they will break\n * the script when inlined in get_post_embed_html(), specifically\n * when the comments are not stripped out due to SCRIPT_DEBUG\n * being turned on.\n *\/\n(function ( window, document ) {\n\t'use strict';\n\n\t\/* Abort for ancient browsers. *\/\n\tif ( ! document.querySelector || ! window.addEventListener || typeof URL === 'undefined' ) {\n\t\treturn;\n\t}\n\n\t\/** @namespace wp *\/\n\twindow.wp = window.wp || {};\n\n\t\/* Abort if script was already executed. *\/\n\tif ( !! window.wp.receiveEmbedMessage ) {\n\t\treturn;\n\t}\n\n\t\/**\n\t * Receive embed message.\n\t *\n\t * @param {MessageEvent} e\n\t *\/\n\twindow.wp.receiveEmbedMessage = function( e ) {\n\t\tvar data = e.data;\n\n\t\t\/* Verify shape of message. *\/\n\t\tif (\n\t\t\t! 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Multi-Club Ownership (MCO) is when a single owner owns multiple football clubs in different countries. 5 years ago there were a small number of ownership groups including Red Bull and City Group. Now there are certainly over 70 groups that qualify. In France alone, 12 of the 18 Ligue 1 clubs could be said to be part of a MCO group. We have noticed the increasingly popularity of MCO, having worked closely with several groups and advised others on strategy and footballing due diligence. People are often surprised that, as people who believe the model can work, we are also negative on most deals. The truth is most club deals are really bad value, you are buying something that loses significant money every year, the club normally needs rebuilding from top to bottom, and there is normally no expertise in place to make that happen.&nbsp; Who is interested in MCO? There are probably two distinct groups of MCO investors. Those looking to support the ambitions of a main club, and those financial investors who want to create a MCO worth more than the sum of its parts.&nbsp;&nbsp; In the Premier League at least 10 are in a formal MCO group, and another 5-8 have shareholders who own multiple clubs or have publicly stated they are pursuing a MCO model. So if MCO is so popular it must be working really well? Particularly in England. Let\u2019s examine the typical aims of an English Premier League club led MCO and look for evidence of success in the existing groups. Create player pathways, acquiring talent earlier and playing in a similar system before moving into the higher level club. Before Brexit clubs in England were able to sign any EU qualified passport holder. Players younger than 18 years of age could move into UK clubs, it was common for the best teenage players from France, Spain, and Germany to move into Premier League club academies. This is no longer possible, players are now restricted by FIFA cross-border rules and now cannot join EPL teams before the age of 18. Clubs have tried to counter this by buying a club in the EU to enable them to still compete for these players. There is a major problem though. Players will happily leave major European club academies to play in the youth team of Manchester City, Chelsea, or Arsenal. They won\u2019t leave Barcelona to play at Lommel or Strasbourg, even if it is under the same ownership. The theory is sound but the true elite players have a choice, the likes of Juve U23 offers a more obvious pathway &#8211; training at the same facility with matchdays in Serie C &#8211; into the Juventus first team than being signed to a club hundreds of kilometers from the parent club. It is also true that these player pathways are just theoretical at most clubs. Until clubs can offer evidence that players signed at the MCO partner clubs can progress into the EPL team then I think we are right to be cynical. A Premier League academy player will be in a \u00a3100m training facility and be known to the first team coaches. The same player in a MCO partner club will be playing in a \u00a35m training facility and barely known to anyone at the parent club. It isn\u2019t the same pull for talented players. Brighton have had some success with USG (a partner club rather than a formal MCO) with loans but the players have signed for Brighton and been loaned to USG rather than being signed by the partner club. The MCO partner club has to be playing at a high level and play a similar style of football to the parent club for the loan to work well. Which leads us onto the MAJOR PROBLEM #1 There are probably about 100 players in the world in each position good enough to play on a Premier League team starting XI. The average signing costs about \u00a320m and is paid about \u00a3100k a week.&nbsp; Premier League starting quality players usually are signed from the top divisions of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Brazil and Belgium. For the smaller leagues it is usually only Champions League quality teams (Benfica, Club Brugge, Ajax) who sell directly to the Premier League. This is a classic Goldilocks problem, if the level of football you can offer is too low the player won\u2019t be ready for a transfer to the EPL. However if they need to be playing European football to be good enough to move then that is too high a level. The problem is that you cannot own a club playing in the same European competition as you. This has major consequences. Brighton and USG, who we previously showed as an example of good loans have now effectively been banned from working together. Aston Villa (Vitoria Guimaraes) and AC Milan (Toulouse) have also had a to separate ownership and back office operations from their partners due to the ownership rules. If you buy a club in France, and make them good enough to supply Premier League players, then you also make it likely you will be forced to divest due to that success. MAJOR PROBLEM #2 is that in order to attract EPL quality players you will need to pay significantly higher wages than is sustainable at the club. One of the biggest problems with MCO is that most clubs lose money, a lot of money, each year before player trading. We&nbsp; can be talking \u00a35-10m of underlying losses with their current budgets. Increasing the budgets at clubs could see that annual loss increase into the \u00a310m-\u00a330m range. Different leagues have different financial controls and licensing laws but even if you are allowed to spend that much extra money it makes it very difficult to cover the losses. MCO is not"}