Investors are coming from China. Now it’s Qatar. No, it’s time to Saudi Arabia. For years, sports in Europe have felt the sovereignty of their sport is threatened, as is the case with the rest of the economic strongholds. In this case, the influence reaches the cultural heart, so its influence is more sensitive. However, the country that has revolutionized the foundations of this industry is the United States. The recent purchase by Liberty Media, a fund based in Colorado, of MotoGP is the latest major acquisition by the ‘Yankee’ counterpart, which through the ownership of F1 or large clubs such as Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United o Arsenal are changing the rules of the game.
A few years ago it was unthinkable that some of the most powerful brands in football would be under the power of companies from the country of ‘soccer’, conceived as secondary entertainment, despite the presence of stars such as Skin, Beckembauer o Cruyff. However, the conception of soccer teams as multinational companies activated the interest of actors who had grown franchises in the United States. This form of society is still foreign to the European competitiveness model, but projects such as the Super Leaguewith its closed division model, are seen in the reflection of the major North American leagues such as the NFL o NBA.
50% of the Premier belongs to the US
Currently, there are up to 40 soccer teams in Europe that are American-owned. Of the total of 96 teams that are part of the five major continental leagues (Premier, LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1), 40% have a foreign owner, according to a Football Benchmark report. By far, the ‘Yankee’ investor mobilizes the greatest capital, followed by Chinese, Saudi and Swiss investors.
In the Premier League alone, the US controls half of the teams: Manchester United, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Everton, Fulham, Burnley, Fulham, Bournemouth y Crystal Palace. In Ligue 1 there are five other clubs where the majority shareholder is American: Olympique de Marseille, Olympique de Lyon, Strasbourg, Tolouse and Le Havre. The same figure in Serie A: AC Milan, Roma, Genoa, Atalanta and Fiorentina, while in LaLiga, RCD Mallorca, which plays the Cup final this Saturday, belongs to New York businessman Andy Kohlberg.
To these societies we must add Leeds, Birmingham, Swansea, Millwall, Huddersfield Town, Plymouth Argyle (second English); Porstmouth, Barnsley, Wycombe Wanderers (English third), Crawley Town, Wycombe Wanderers, Gillingham (English fourth), Woking FC (English fifth); Caen (second French), Nancy, Red Star (third French); Parma Calcio, Spezia and Venezia (second Italian). The reasons for getting involved in indoor teams are diverse.
Audiovisual rights, the manna of the ‘Yankee’ investor
From a personal and media interest, as happened with the actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, owners of Wrexham, to the historical nature, as happened with Parma Calcio, heir to the Italian club of the same name (disappeared in 2015), bought by the Krause Group in 2020. Sprinkling capital on a club does not have to be synonymous with success. The spitting image is Chelsea FC, who changed hands in May 2022.
It went from being controlled by the Russian magnate Roman Abrahmovich – sanctioned for the invasion of Ukraine – to being directed by a consortium whose visible head was Todd Boehly, co-owner of baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers. The continuous spending without positive results has led, as reported in the English press this week, to the Clearlake Capital fund, owner of 61.5% of Chelsea, set an expiration date for the businessman. The current president will cease to be president in 2027.
In other clubs like Liverpool or Arsenal, the interventionism of Fenway Sports Group o Kroenke Sports & Entertainment It is reduced to the area of business. Sports management is in the hands of professionals directly related to football, so there is a ‘win-win’. The attraction of the Premier lies in the numbers it mobilizes. According to the ‘Annual Review of Football Finance’ prepared by Deloitte, the English competition had revenues of 6.4 billion euros, 12% morecompared to the previous season.
It is practically double that of LaLiga, with a turnover of 3.3 billion (11% more), behind which is placed the Bundesliga (3.1 billion, 5% more) and Serie A, with 2.4 billion, which represented a drop in 7% due to the depreciation of national and international broadcast contracts. Audiovisual rights continue to be the key to everything. Despite being in fifth place, the French Ligue 1 experienced the greatest increase, 26%, reaching 2,000 million in turnover thanks to Olympique de Marseille and PSG.
Will the rules of the game with the US change?
The other major front that the US now controls is the engine. The announcement of the purchase of MotoGP (86% of the shares from the Canadian Bridgepoint) by Liberty Media will allow the fund to create a motor giant. In addition to the main motorcycle competition, it controls Formula 1. The idea is to create a hybrid that feeds both competitions, whose origin and development have been European.
F1 was for decades treated as a British sport and MotoGP was in the hands of Spain’s Dorna Sports, which will remain an independent company attributed to Liberty Media Formula One Group. As in the case of Chelsea, what is worrying, beyond control, is how it affects one’s own way of feeling and experiencing the competition. In the Premier the weight of the fan is fundamental and In football, the influence of properties affects capital flows more than the game.
However, debates such as those on the duration of the matches are not omitted, which are motivated by the commercial interest of broadcasts. Effective time is another issue that is discussed. The ‘stopped clock’, as happens in basketball, has even reached the assemblies of the International Football Association Board that decides the rules of the most popular sport. In MotoGP and Formula 1, having their own rules, the level of intervention is higher.
Fernando Alonso, in his time at Alpine, in the US GP held at the Texas circuit. / EFE
Pets, ‘shows’ at half-time and ‘all stars’
The Nascar waves IndyCar Series They were the great consumer product in the US. But the arrival of Liberty Media in 2017 to F1 made the ‘Great Circus’ become increasingly interested in the North American market, as well as other emerging ones. In this context, the Miami GP and the Las Vegas GP. In this way, the US went from having one test (it had been held in circuits such as Indianapolis and currently in Austin) to being the country with the most layouts.
In January, the International Automobile Federation that runs the competition stopped what would have been another step towards the Americanization of F1. He rejected the entry of Andretti, a North American team, alleging “lack of competitiveness”. She would have become the second in the country of stars and stripes along with Haas. There is only one American on the grid, Logan Sargeant.
The Spanish Álex Rins celebrates the victory achieved in the 2023 MotoGP of the Americas. / EFE
Because the ‘Yankee’ strategy does not consist so much in colonizing the tournaments – in the Premier there are players from the USA, but not in relevant teams, except Pulisic’s time at Chelsea– but in controlling your business. A global approach that, however, has led, due to its own way of understanding the business, to the implementation of elements of North American culture such as mascots, half-time shows, and ‘all stars’. Resources in favor of the spectacle compared to the result, which continues to be an element of prestige, although increasingly relative.
2024-04-08 10:50:52
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