Vladimir Osipov – about football franchises

Large corporations have become more active in buying up football clubs. This week, the City Football Group holding, which owns the British Manchester City, acquired another team – this time the Turkish Adana Demirspor. Now the fund, managed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan from the United Arab Emirates, already owns 13 clubs around the world. There are more and more similar organizations that own several football teams at once. Will this be able to change the situation in world football in the future? Kommersant FM sports commentator Vladimir Osipov looked into it.

It would seem that there are no problems: the more money in football, the better, and for everyone. Clubs that are acquired by companies such as the Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation receive unrealistic sums of money. Where was City until 2008, when it was bought? Or who followed the Spanish club Girona until serious financial flows began to flow in their direction? Everything is true, but, as always, there are some nuances.

The fact is that since the late 90s, the UEFA charter has had a clause related to a similar situation. It says in black and white that the owners of such franchises cannot send more than one team to European competition. But in front of an astonished public this happens, and regularly. For example, in 2018, Leipzig and Salzburg, which belong to another powerful Red Bull franchise, played in the same Europa League group. UEFA even conducted investigations, but ultimately stated that “no legal entity or individual has direct influence on both clubs.” The conclusion, of course, is controversial, but football officials definitely won’t follow any rules, former Spartak owner Andrei Chervichenko told Kommersant FM:

“Football rules, pieces of paper, laws, if you can call them such, it’s all nonsense. Money comes, bribes are handed out. Maybe this is why many now have the idea of ​​some kind of alternative competition, where not everything is subordinated to a group of these corrupt football officials who have built a luxurious business.”

But despite the financial flows, UEFA officials have repeatedly expressed concern that large companies are buying up teams like hot cakes. Of course, because at the moment 105 clubs from the highest European football leagues belong to similar holdings. And this, for a moment, is 13% of all elite division teams in Europe. All these figures are not taken out of thin air; they are stated in the UEFA financial report, which was released at the beginning of 2024. And there, by the way, it is written that such franchises can pose a direct danger to European football. For example, clubs with the same owner may deliberately over- or under-value transfers with each other in order to improve their financial fair-play performance. It has recently become a fiction. And, excuse me, no one wants to “crack down” those who openly cheat in this matter. Especially if the team belongs to a large holding and will definitely receive serious protection. Commentator Mikhail Mossakovsky told Kommersant FM about this:

“Small clubs in Europe receive serious punishments for violating the rules of financial fair play – they either cannot stand up for themselves or do not have such serious opportunities as the giants. And people like Manchester City allow themselves to do quite outrageous things, but at the same time, to one degree or another, remain unpunished.”

For teams that bring a lot of money to the UEFA coffers, the organization is increasingly making various kinds of exceptions. In the current European Cup season, for example, three pairs of clubs that have the same owner played with each other: Milan – Toulouse, Aston Villa – Vitoria and Brighton – Union. But everyone was allowed to participate in the tournaments without any problems. This happens until teams of the same owner begin to reach the serious stages of major tournaments. If everything remains as it is, then sooner or later a scandalous precedent will happen, Andrei Chervichenko suggested:

If “Manchester City” meets someone in a serious battle, and it is necessary to upgrade the new team with a lower status, but its players will be much more expensive after this victory, maybe money will win here.”

But to prevent something like this from happening, we need rules that could at least somehow regulate the participation of teams of the same franchise in FIFA and UEFA tournaments. There are no such rules yet. Although the head of European football, Aleksandar Čeferin, has already touched on this topic. Another question is how quickly officials will react, especially considering how much income all these holdings bring to the organization. Political forces are not reacting to what is happening, which means that things will move beyond talk only after some incredible scandal, which all European media will write about.

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