Other states, hedge funds and a tax haven also feature in our look at how club owners and partners stack up in the last 16
Gazprom v Abu Dhabi
Schalke 04
Owned by its members.
Value of club £548m, 15th in Forbes: The Business of Soccer (see note on sourcing)
Turnover £210m, 16th in Deloitte Football Money League 2017/18 (see note on sourcing)
Net profit/loss -£9.5m loss (2017)
Partners: The Russian government at one remove. Gas company Gazprom, majority owned by the Russian government, became the club’s shirt sponsor in 2007 in a deal negotiated by Clemens Tönnies, the billionaire club president with close ties to Russia, through his meat business. Gazprom press officer Sergey Kupriyanov sits on the club’s board. In 2011 Vladimir Putin tried to intervene against the sale of Manuel Neuer to Bayern Munich. Fans protested against the club’s visit to the Kremlin.
Manchester City
Owned by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development.
Value of club £1.9bn (5th)
Turnover £503.5m (5th)
Net profit/loss £10.4m profit (2017-18)
Partners: All things Abu Dhabi, including their shirt and stadium sponsor Etihad Airways, plus tourism organisation Visit Abu Dhabi. The city is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, which is taking part in the Saudi-led military action in Yemen, where thousands of civilians have been killed. The country has also faced criticism over multiple human rights and civil liberties issues. The club has refused to give Uefa answers on new questions, based on documents exposed by Der Spiegel magazine, relating to whether it has breached financial fair play regulations relating to transfers and the true market value of Abu Dhabi sponsorship deals, a key component of the club’s £218m in commercial revenue.
Hedge Fund v Third Party Player Ownership
Roma
Owned by an investment vehicle controlled by the American hedge fund billionaire James Pallotta, which owns 60% of the club. Pallotta is the founder of the Raptor Group, a private investment company.
Value of club £479m (16th)
Turnover £219m (15th)
Net profit/loss -£22.3m loss (2017-18)
Partners: Qatar Airways is main sponsor. The airline is owned by the Gulf state, which has been subject to criticism over high volumes of deaths among workers building infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup. Last year Pallotta rebuffed inquiries about a takeover from Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
Porto
Owned by several large individual minority shareholders. Is listed on the Lisbon stock exchange.
Value of club Not listed in Forbes: The Business of Soccer
Turnover £93m, outside top 30 in Deloitte Football Money League
Net profit/loss -£24.9m loss (2017-18)
Methods: A brilliantly-geared machine, taking advantage of the fact third-party ownership is legal in Portugal to source and sell on talent at a huge profit. The club made an estimated €410m in transfer fees in the 15 years to 2017. The relationship with super-agent Jorge Mendes has raised concerns.
State of Qatar v Football Club As Cash Machine
Paris Saint-Germain
Owned by Qatar Sports Investments, an arm of the Qatar government. PSG act as the leading international face of Qatar’s sports operation, chaired by Nasser al-Khelaifi.
Value of club £753m (11th)
Turnover £475m, (6th)
Net profit/loss £27.6m profit (2017-18)
Partners: Qatar. A Qatari bank, a Qatari telecoms group, Qatari sports TV. Also, in a deal that predated the Qatari takeover, Emirates airline. Thereby making PSG’s shirts one place where the two opposing gulf blockade foes can live in self-promoting peace. Involvement in the world’s favourite sport helps burnish the Qatar’s public image amid accusations of exploitation of migrant workers. Fifa has also been urged to put pressure on Qatar over its stance on homosexuality, which is illegal in the country. PSG is a vehicle for promoting the state of Qatar at the centre of European football, thereby helping to build the new leisure economy. Vast player expenditure has inflated the European market. Currently being investigated for alleged irregularities around the deals that brought Neymar and Kylian Mbappé to Paris, which are denied by PSG, centring on the income it derived from a sponsorship deal with the Qatar Tourism Authority.
Manchester United
Owned by the Glazer family, via family trusts that hold ownership of the majority of the club. The PLC is registered in the Cayman Islands tax haven.
Value of club £3.2bn (1st)
Turnover £590m (3rd)
Net profit/loss -£37.3m loss (2018)
Partners: Talk of a Saudi takeover turned out to be Twitter nonsense. But United do have a strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority “to create a sustainable and thriving football sector”. Human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia are well-documented and have been thrown into sharper relief by the Jamal Khashoggi affair. It has a vast number of official club sponsors, including Aeroflot, which is 51% owned by the Russian state. The Glazers have taken about £1bn out of the club, while also delivering record commercial turnover. This is hard capitalism in action: the Glazers bought the club in the same way you might buy a buy-to-let flat, borrowing against its value and funding repayments with its income.
Bahamas Tax Haven v Holier-Than-Thou European Rectitude
Tottenham Hotspur
Owned by Bahamas-registered Enic International Limited owns 85.55%. Joe Lewis owns 70.6% of Enic. The Levy family own the rest. Lewis is the 32nd wealthiest UK citizen according to the Sunday Times Rich List and a tax exile in the Bahamas. Lewis’s first fortune came from the UK leaving the European exchange rate mechanism, which saw Lewis bet heavily against the pound in partnership with speculators including George Soros.
Value of club £960m (10th)
Revenue £379.4m (10th)
Net profit/loss £41.2m profit (2017)
Partners: Three official betting partners, including main sponsor AIA Group, an insurance giant listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Borussia Dortmund
Owned by assorted German companies, the largest Evonik Industries AG at 14.78%. Plus 59.94% free float on the stock exchange.
Value of club £698m (12th)
Turnover £278m (12th)
Net profit/loss £25m profit (2017-18)
Partners: See themselves as a beacon of sporting morality. A while back Dortmund announced they had “rejected several requests for friendlies from countries in which the human rights situation does not align with Borussia Dortmund’s standards”. When Liverpool beat Manchester City the day before Dortmund’s AGM last year, the club’s chairman thanked Jürgen Klopp “for continuing the fight of the classic working man’s club against the sheikhs”. Despite all that, Dortmund have just launched a new Chinese office, toured China and have a Chinese website. China’s one-party authoritarian regime has been tightening its grip on its own people recently, quashing political opposition and dissent.
Steamrollering Global Brand v Socio PLC
Real Madrid
Owned by its members.
Value of club £3.2bn (2nd)
Turnover £658m (1st)
Net profit/loss £27m profit (2017-18)
Partners: Dubai-based airline Emirates is the club’s main sponsor. “Both Real Madrid and Emirates use the power of sport as a vehicle to create moments of inspiration,” they say. The club has an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Prince Salman Foundation to build a sports academy in the kingdom, allying it with the crown prince whose reputation as a moderniser has been tarnished since the Jamal Khashoggi murder. They also have a US$1bn branded resort in Ras al-Khaimah in the UAE, Saudi’s partner in the conflict in Yemen, as well as football academies in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and a football foundation campus in Qatar. Until it was ruled illegal by the EU in 2016, Real and Barcelona received tax breaks from the state due to their “ethnic importance”.
Ajax
Owned by a public company listed on the stock exchange. 73% of the shares are held by Vereniging AFC Ajax, an organisation owned by club members. Also 5% owned by Invesco, an American investment company.
Value of club Not listed in Forbes Business of Soccer
Turnover £81m, outside top 30 in Deloitte Football Money League
Net profit/loss £1.2m profit (2018)
Partners: Have a five-year multimillion-euro partnership with Chinese Super League side Guangzhou R&F to help develop their academy.
Hedge Fund v Friends of Qatar
Liverpool
Owned by Fenway Sports Group, 60% of which is owned by John W Henry, a hedge fund billionaire and former commodities trader.
Value of club £1.5bn (8th)
Turnover £455m (7th)
Net profit/loss £106m profit, a world record (2017-18)
Partners: Style is a great socialist club owned by a US hedge fund. Main sponsor is Standard Chartered Bank. Also sponsored by Malaysia Airlines, national airline of Malaysia, as well as BetVictor.
Bayern Munich
Owned by 75% by members/fans, who control the club, with Adidas, Audi and Allianz owning stakes.
Value of club £2.3bn (4th)
Turnover £551m (4th)
Net profit/loss £25.8m profit (2017-18)
Partners: Sponsored by Qatar Airways as of last year. Ties with Qatar caused a flashpoint before the winter break tour there. Fans held banners that read “Money over human rights” and “Open your eyes when it comes to sponsor choice”. Club has also signed a sponsorship deal with Doha airport. Also runs an FC Bayern company in China.
Quick guide
Amnesty International view of countries involved in the ownership or sponsorship of teams in Champions League last 16
Més Que Un Club v Charismatic Businessman/Chinese Fund
Barcelona
Owned by its members.
Value of club £3.1bn (3rd)
Turnover £605m (2nd)
Net profit/loss £11.4m profit (2017-18)
Partners: As Barcelona president Sandro Rosell famously criticised the ownership of major Premier League clubs, saying Barcelona, will “never, ever be for sale”. But the shirts had been sold, to the Qatar Foundation, which paid £160m over five years for a main sponsor deal. Rosell’s successor, Josep Maria Bartomeu, made a big play of breaking off that relationship. Barcelona have since signed up with Dubai-run Emirates NBD as shirt sponsors. Have become a massive global brand, selling everything from shirt space to Barça wine, Barça financial products and Barça academies across the world. This expansionism can lead to the odd false note. Barça totem Lionel Messi was criticised by the Human Rights Foundation for his trip to Gabon and “enthusiastic support” for the much vilified dictator Ali Bongo.
Lyon
Owned by Jean-Michel Aulas, an outspoken, long-standing, enduringly popular figure. Also 20% owned by a Chinese private equity fund.
Value of club Not listed in Forbes: The Business of Soccer
Turnover £144m (28th)
Net profit/loss £7m profit (2017-18)
Partners: Has a Chinese academy partner, the Chengdu FA. Main sponsor is Hyundai, the South Korean car giant.
Friends of Azerbaijan v Agnelli Business Empire
Atlético Madrid
Owned by Miguel Ángel Gil Marín and Enrique Cerezo are majority shareholders. The Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin sold his 17% stake to an Israeli-owned investment company last year.
Value of club £657m (13th)
Turnover £267m (13th)
Net profit/loss £4.4m profit (2016-17)
Partners: Sponsored by Azerbaijan for several years, the slogan “Land of Fire” appearing on the players’ shirts, promoting a country that has been criticised for political repression. Also maintains its Chinese connections via two commercial offices.
Juventus
Owned by The Agnelli family, the Italian business dynasty behind carmaker Fiat and, by extension, Ferrari.
Value of club £1.1bn (9th)
Turnover £346m (11th)
Net profit/loss £38m (2016-17)
Partners: Impressively large spread of companies including Betfair, whose parent company was fined last year for accepting bets funded by stolen money. Juventus are pressing on with a heavily resourced expansion into China, where they have multiple commercial partners, and recently travelled to Saudi Arabia to play the Super Coppa Italia despite protests about selling the domestic game and condoning human rights abuses.
Sourcing & methodology
Club values and revenue figures have been taken from Forbes: The Business of Soccer and Deloitte Football Money League. Where a club does not feature in either report, this is stated.
Net profit figures have been taken from clubs’ financial accounts or other regulated financial statements.
Revenue figures from Deloitte may differ from revenue figures given in club accounts because Deloitte uses a standardised methodology to even up differences in the way that clubs across Europe report their revenues. Revenue figures do not include income from player sales.
Some figures have been changed from dollars or euros to pounds, using an exchange rate on 11 February 2019.
The Guardian
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