Which country has the most football club owners from top-five European leagues?

Almost every developed nation around the world boasts of housing a person calling the shots at a reputed team.

With the commercialization of football to a whole new level in the 21st century, the sport has seen increased involvement of affluent billionaires, looking to acquire stakes in the clubs and get their feet in the game. Moreover, it is no longer restricted to wealthy local personnel buying stakes in their favourite clubs with individuals from different parts of the globe now owning top sides. There are also different patterns that have emerged in terms of the football club owners existing in the prominent European leagues.

So without any further ado, let us find out the nationality of the football club owners in each of the top-five leagues and examine the differences between the leagues in terms of the ownership profiles.

England – Premier League

The Premier League is the richest and the best-marketed league in the world, which explains its popularity and ubiquity. Hence, it comes as no surprise that the cash-flux league also boasts a diverse range of club owners. The majority of owners though are from the United States of America with top English clubs like Manchester United (the Glazer Family), Liverpool (Fenway Sports Group), and Arsenal (Stan Kroenke) all being run by American owners.

Additionally, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Fulham too possess owners from the same nationality. Villa are co-owned by billionaire businessmen Wesley Edens (American) and Nassef Sawiris (Egyptian), both acquiring a 27.5 % stake each in the club. While Palace are controlled by the duo of Joshua Harris and David Blitzer with Steve Parish owning a minority stake, Fulham are led by Pakistani-American businessman Shahid Rafiq Khan.

Moving ahead, five Premier League sides have British ownership. Successful entrepreneur Anthony Bloom holds a majority stake in Brighton whilst British-Iranian billionaire Ardavan Farhad Moshiri completed the takeover of Everton in 2016.  Newcastle United (Mike Ashley), Tottenham Hotspur (Joe Lewis), and Burnley (Mike Garlick) are the other clubs under the management of local tycoons.

There is also a growing presence of Chinese owners, who are looking to invest in clubs in England. In 2016, Wolverhampton Wanderers were taken over by the Fosun Group, led by the chairman Guo Guangchang. Similarly, Southampton FC and newly-promoted West Bromwich Albion are also run by Chinese owners in Gao Jisheng and Guochuan Lai respectively.

As mentioned earlier, the highest division in English football is replete with owners from varied parts of the world. Andrea Radrizzani (Italy) is the majority owner of Leeds United, Roman Abramovich (Russia) has changed the fortunes of Chelsea ever since he took over the club, whilst David Sullivan (Wales) owns a majority stake in London rivals West Ham United.

The transformation of Manchester City since the investment of the Abu Dhabi Sports Group led by Sheikh Mansour is pretty well-documented. Similarly, Sheffield United are under the ownership of Saudi Arabian prince Abdullah bin Musa'ed. Lastly, Leicester City is led by Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha (Thailand) who is the chairman of the English club.

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France – Ligue 1

In total contrast to the teams in the Premier League, a majority of the clubs in France are owned by French owners itself. Nimes Olympique (Rani Assaf), FC Lorient (Loic Ferry), Angers SCO (Said Chabane), Reims FC (Jean-Pierre Caillot), Rennes FC (Francois Pinault), FC Metz (Bernard Serin), Montpellier (Laurent Nicollin), Olympique Lyonnais (Jean-Michel Aulas), Saint Etienne (Roland Romeyer & Bernard Caizzo), Dijon FCO (Oliveir Delcourt), Strasbourg (Marc Keller) and Stade Brestois 29 (Denis le Saint) all are under French football club owners.

On the other hand, it is a bit interesting that some of the league’s more prominent clubs in recent years have foreign owners. Qatar Sports Investments’ takeover of Paris Saint-Germain is one such case with the footballing world being witness to the subsequent heavy financial backing that has propelled the French club’s rise to the top in the last decade. Meanwhile, a Russian businessman and investor Dmitry Rybolovlev has acquired a majority stake in their rivals AS Monaco.

LOSC Lille (Gerard Lopez, Luxemborg), Lens (Hafiz Mammadov, Azerbaijan), OGC Nice (Jim Ratcliffe, England), Nantes (Waldemar Kita, Poland), Bordeaux (Joseph DaGrosa, USA), and Olympique Marseille (Frank McCourt, USA) are the rest of the Ligue 1 clubs that are under the ownership of a foreign entity.

Italy – Serie A

Similar to the French league, an overwhelming majority of the clubs in the Serie A are under the management of Italian owners. Atlanta (Antonio Percassi), Juventus (Agnelli Family), Lazio (Claudio Lotito), Napoli (Aurelio De Laurentiis), Sassuolo (Giorgio Squinzi), Hellas Verona (Maurizio Setti), Benevento (Oreste Vigorito), Fiorentina (Rocco Commisso, Italian-American), Parma (Nuovo Inizio), Crotone (Gianni Vrenna), Udinese (Giampaolo Pozzo), Spezia Calcio (Gabriele Volpi, Italian-Nigerian), Cagliari (Tommaso Giulini), Sampdoria (Massimo Ferrero), Torino (Urbano Cairo) and Genoa (Enrico Preziosi) are the sides that are run by local football club owners.

Only four clubs – Inter Milan (Jindong Zhang, China), AC Milan (Elliott Management Corporation, USA), Bologna (Joey Saputto, Canada), and Roma (Dan Friedkin, USA) are a few selective Italian outfits that are owned by foreign businessmen/organizations.  

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Germany - Bundesliga

The Bundesliga is quite a unique league when it comes to the rules governing ownership in comparison to its counterparts. It prioritizes its fans and their connection with their respective clubs by putting a system in place that protects the teams from foreign commercial investors that have their own interests entirely different from those of the club.

Accordingly, they have the 50+1 rule that requires the members of the club must hold a majority stake in the team to ensure their participation in the highest division of German football. This means that the club will have to retain 51% of shares in the side, hence preventing the takeover of the German sides by wealthy foreign investors.

Spain - LaLiga

Akin to the Bundesliga, LaLiga too has regulations designed to encourage the active involvement of fans in their clubs. Moreover, there are certain rules that prohibit the purchasing of shares in a number of clubs, but rather only allowing membership. In any case, the situation is slowly changing in recent years with Spanish clubs such as RCD Espanyol, Granada, and Valencia being acquired by foreign businessmen.

However, the disastrous running of Valencia by Singaporean businessman Peter Lim and the ensuing financial troubles is a reminder of the perils of having wealthy overseas owners that lack proper knowledge of football and have completely different agendas.

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