Between the back-slaps and self-congratulations, UEFA's financial report for 2023 did sound a word of caution.
European football's governing body may have declared itself 'extraordinarily resilient' but warned that multi-club ownerships had 'the potential to pose a material threat to the integrity of European club competitions'.
As of March 2023, CIES Sports Intelligence found evidence of 254 teams involved in multi-club ownership. Chelsea added their name to that list following the acquisition of Strasbourg in June 2023 but BlueCo has some way to go before they can rub shoulders with the most prolific operators in this murky realm of commercial polygamy.
Here are the biggest multi-club projects in football.
- Why have Chelsea bought Strasbourg?
- The Strasbourg players Chelsea should sign after Blues owners buy stake
David Blitzer
David Blitzer has his finger in a lot of pies. The self-made American billionaire owned stakes in NBA, NFL and NHL franchises before dipping into the world of soccer.
After first investing in Crystal Palace in 2015, Blitzer expanded his reach across Europe underneath the umbrella of Global Football Holdings. The 53-year-old is still trying to stretch his influence, although he was rebuffed by French side Saint-Etienne in the summer of 2022.
John Textor
John Textor and Blitzer are partners at Crystal Palace but own rival sides in the Belgian second division. Textor's RWD Molenbeek were locked in an enthralling title battle with Blitzer's SK Beveren throughout the 2022/23 campaign.
Molenbeek finished top of the league in the regular season but lost their second match of the promotion play-offs against Beveren. However, Textor's side rallied to finish one point ahead of Beveren, securing passage to the top flight while Blitzer's outfit remained in the second tier.
Pacific Media Group
Ever since the explosion of Michael Lewis' book Moneyball, every team in every sport has tried to find their own Billy Beane. Barnsley got the man himself. Beane was the marketable face of Pacific Media Group when they bought a majority stake of Barnsley in 2017.
However, it later emerged that PMG had overstated their investment and only own 7.5% of the English side. The American-Chinese investment group do own a controlling stake in five clubs dotted around Europe but the Tykes may be grateful of PMG's lack of influence.
AS Nancy, Esbjerg fB and KV Oostende have all been relegated under PMG's ownership, with players from the Belgium club threatening to go on strike in April 2023 to protest against the board.
777 Partners
777 Partners co-founder Joshua Wander insisted: "We don’t have a hierarchy of clubs - this is not a pyramid-type model." That is probably for the best considering a purchase from 777 is often swiftly followed by a tumble down the footballing pyramid.
In the same season that 777 Partners invested in Genoa and Hertha Berlin, both clubs were relegated. The airline branch of the business has also come under scrutiny after almost 2,000 passengers were stranded when four of its planes were repossessed.
Red Bull
No multi-club project has exploited the benefits of shared knowledge - something that individuals involved in these corporate transactions would insist on calling 'uniformity of strategy' or 'internal synergy' - better than the Red Bull clubs.
There have been 19 permanent transfers between Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig since the energy drink giant waded into the sport, with the Bundesliga upstarts getting a first refusal on the likes of Naby Keita, Dayot Upamecano and Hwang Hee-chan - all of whom were sold on for a tidy profit.
Leipzig's prefix stands for RasenBallsport - a clunky, concocted translation for Lawn Ball Sports - rather than Red Bull and they somehow convinced UEFA that there was no conflict of interest when they faced Red Bull Salzburg in the Europa League in 2018.
City Football Group
City Football Group is the only multi-club project in the world that has cracked double digits. But with quantity, there is also quality. Eight items on the 'menu of clubs' have won league titles or promotions under the City umbrella.
According to The Athletic, there is a 'centralised database of information' shared between all of the clubs in CFG. Theoretically, Pep Guardiola's training sessions at Manchester City could be replicated in any of the 12 other teams spread across five different continents. No wonder they enjoy so much success.
This article was originally published on 90min as The biggest multi-club projects in football.
