The ‘boom’ of foreign capital in Spanish football

Gone are the times of economic boom. Thousands of families are well aware of this, being hit hard by inflation. But not only homes are being affected. Spanish football has not been able to dodge the recession. The loss of purchasing power has allowed the irruption of large foreign investors in a football game in which business is becoming more and more important, with the consequent risk of losing part of its identity. The story that Dimitri Piterman began to write in January 2003, an American businessman of Ukrainian origin who entered the ownership of Racing, has a new chapter with the landing of the Mexican Grupo Orlegi in Sporting.

Almost twenty years have passed since Piterman took control of the Cantabrian club, after taking his first steps in Palamós. He was the pioneer in these conflicts. The man who, aside from his eccentricities, paved the way. And it is that, although for posterity there are images that are unthinkable today, he officiated as a precursor of this movement.

Of unpleasant memory still on the shores of the Cantabrian Sea, his comics still fly over the memory of Spanish football. Capable of accrediting himself as a photographer, wearing a bib, or looking for any other ruse in order to position himself a few meters from the sidewalk amid endless shrillness. It was not enough for Piterman to be the owner, first at Racing and later at Alavés. He had to be the bride at the wedding, the child at the christening, and the dead man at the funeral.

Wrapped in a thousand and one controversies, his shadow continues to haunt Spanish football. Even two decades later his name is still rigorously topical. Recently accused by Alavés of continued crime of “misappropriation, false accounting and corporate crime”, the figure of him, even today, continues to give something to talk about.

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But now everything has changed. What before seemed like an isolated case is already a ‘boom’ in Spain. The United States, Mexico, Brazil, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or China are just some of the foreign countries represented in the upper echelons of Spanish football. It’s not strange anymore, it’s the new times. A long list to which, this year, Zaragoza, Leganés and the aforementioned Sporting, with Alejandro Irarragorri at the head, have been the last to join.

Nearly four decades in which the entry of foreign capital, in a hyperglobalized world, is already the order of the day. Up to eight First Division teams and half a dozen Second Division teams, although one, in the case of Malaga, is subject to judicial intervention, are owned by a natural representative from another country in a clearly upward trend. Or, what is the same, up to a third of the clubs attached to the body chaired by Javier Tebas, so critical of Manchester City and PSG, whom he has accused, on more than one occasion, of “cheating.”

In recent years, Spanish football has seen the landing of sheikhs, tycoons, big businessmen, investment groups, etc., from beyond its borders. The Peter Lim, Ronaldo Nazário, Christian Bragarnik, Chen Yansheng or Turki Al-Sheikh are just some of the protagonists of this new era. The path that not so long ago Piterman premiered and that now these, among others, continue. A fervent sample of the change of panorama.

If twenty years ago Piterman monopolized much of the spotlight, now it is the figure of Peter Lim, possibly the most mediatized. The one who was acclaimed upon his arrival in Valencia, already beset by debts, and who, eight years later, has his prestige in question in the city of the Turia, where the “Lim go home” sounds more and more strongly, already a classic at the foot of Mestalla.

Times in which Spanish football has also witnessed the arrival of its first sheikh. Twelve years have passed since Al-Thani, today separated from the management of Malaga while being investigated by the Spanish justice, took the witness of Fernando Sanz. From leading the Boquerón team to making history in the Champions League -blue and white fans will hardly forget that controversial quarter-final match at Signal Iduna Park against Borussia Dortmund-, to experiencing one of his most critical moments.

not everything is negative

It’s not all bad news though. The three clubs recently promoted to LaLiga Santander start with a common point: they all have a foreign owner. Turki’s Almería, Ronaldo’s Valladolid and Girona from the City Group have returned to the highest category, in which teams such as Mallorca, Espanyol and Elche are consolidating, also dependent on investment from beyond borders Spanish.

But, in a football that has more and more to do with business, that path was not going to revolve only around personal projects. There are not a few business groups that are committed to the football industry, with the City Football Group, owner of Manchester City, among others, as its main reference. With the tutelage of more than a dozen clubs, with the Italian Palermo being its latest acquisition, Spain does not escape its networks with Girona, which returns to LaLiga Santander this coming year, in its hands since 2017.

Gone are those times when the clubs depended on their partners, a matrix that only Barcelona, ​​Athletic, Real Madrid and Osasuna retain in the First Division. Only these four entities managed to avoid the Sports Law of 1990, which at that time forced dozens to become a Sports Limited Company. New times for a new football.