The majority of football clubs are owned by individuals, and with the amount of money in the game now, it should come as no surprise that teams at the highest level are owned by some of the wealthiest individuals in the world.
A link between football clubs and companies is nothing new though. A number of prominent football clubs were started as works teams formed by a large company with a team made up of employees of said company. Whilst the vast majority are no longer owned by the original company, and very few still only accept players from a specific company, there are a few that remain.
More common these days though are enormous multinational corporations or holding companies. For the purposes of this seven, we’ve tried to go for clubs that aren’t owned by companies whose sole purpose is to manage those clubs and to act as a screen for the individuals who are really behind them.
Here are 7 football clubs owned by companies:
7. Inter Milan – Suning Holdings Group
One of the traditional ‘big three’ in Italian football, having won 39 trophies including a historic treble in 2010, Inter Milan are titans of the European game. That hasn’t been the case since that brilliant treble winning campaign though, they haven’t won a trophy or finished in Serie A’s top three since 2011, in a near-decade long decline alongside rivals AC Milan.
Chinese company Suning Holdings Group acquired a controlling stake of over 68% of shares in Inter Milan in the summer of 2016. Following a chaotic debut campaign, improvements have been made under Suning’s ownership. Inter played in the Champions League for the first time in seven seasons last term, and will have even loftier ambitions next season following the arrival of Antonio Conte.
Suning Holdings Group own just over 3% of Suning.com, which is one of the three biggest retailers in China. They also have investments in the technology, media, online streaming and finance sectors. Suning Holdings Group are not to be confused with Suning Appliance Group, another company that owns a 100% stake in Chinese Super League side Jiangsu Suning.
6. Leicester City – King Power International Group
Leicester City’s Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel applauds as he leaves the pitch at the end of the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Leicester City at…
Leicester City are one of only six clubs to have won English football’s top flight since the division was rebranded as the Premier League back in 1992, and that success came under the ownership of the King Power group. In fact, the Foxes were in the Championship when King Power acquired the club from Milan Mandaric, and had only recently won promotion from League One.
Initially the club went backwards following the takeover. Some big name and big money signings along with a big name managerial appointment in the form of Sven-Goran Erikssen didn’t bring results on the pitch, and the club hierarchy went back to the drawing board. A more pragmatic approach was taken with the return of Nigel Pearson, who the club entrusted to win promotion and keep the club in the Premier League, before Claudio Ranieri did the unthinkable.
King Power International Group was founded by the man Leicester City fans affectionately knew as Khun Vichai, who served as the company’s CEO and as Leicester City chairman up until his death in October 2018. Following a draw between Leicester and West Ham at the King Power Stadium, Vichai and all four other occupants were killed after the helicopter crashed in the stadium’s car park. Vichai’s son Aiyawatt subsequently took over as King Power’s CEO and as Leicester City’s chairman.
5. Wolfsburg – Volkswagen
A works team like those we alluded to in the introduction, Vfl Wolfsburg were founded by workers of the Volkswagen automaker company in the aftermath of the Second World War. A multi-sport club, they became best known for their football team. Not traditionally a big club in Germany, Wolfsburg won promotion to the Bundesliga for the first time in 1997, but they haven’t been relegated since.
By far the club’s greatest achievement came in 2008-09, when they won their first and only Bundesliga title, but they did finish as Bundesliga runners-up and won the DFB-Pokal in the 2014-15 season. Volkswagen are one of the biggest car manufacturers on Earth, owning obviously the VW brand, but also the likes of Audi, Bentley, Porsche, Bugatti and Lamborghini.
Volkswagen were founded in 1937 on the orders of Adolf Hitler who wanted to create a car for the masses, at a time when only 1 in 50 Germans owned a car due to the prohibitive entry level price. When it became clear the plan wasn’t financially sound and that private industry couldn’t do it, Hitler made it a state project. That car was the VW Beetle, and although Volkswagen faced a precarious future following the end of the war – they, like Wolfsburg – survived and flourished.
4. RB Leipzig – Red Bull
Image has been digitally enhanced.) The Corner flag with the logo of RB Leipzig is seen prior to the Bundesliga match between RB Leipzig and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim at Red Bull Arena on April…
We have picked RB Leipzig, but we could just as easily have gone for Red Bull Salzburg, New York Red Bulls or Red Bull Bragantino. Red Bull have invested heavily and deeply unpopularly into the world of association football, and they have enjoyed immediate success for the most part. Taking the example of RB Leipzig, the biggest Red Bull owned football club, they were founded just ten years ago after Red Bull purchased the playing rights of fifth tier side SSV Markranstadt.
Four promotions in seven seasons saw them make a rapid ascent into the Bundesliga, and they finished second to Bayern Munich in their debut campaign at that level. From an average attendance of 2,150 in their inaugural season to almost 40,000 now, it has been a very quick and not at all organic rise.
The success of RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg are less a fairytale, and more a fight football faces to retain its sole in the face of corporate bombardment. Whilst it is great to see footballing success in the east of Germany, RB Leipzig don’t leave a nice taste in the mouth for a lot of German football fans.
3. Wolves – Fosun International
Unlike the Red Bull franchises, Wolverhampton Wanderers are a club steeped in history. At their most successful in the 1950’s, a decade in which they won three First Division titles, Wolves’ ‘floodlit friendlies’ were the talk of the English game, and games like their 3-2 defeat of Budapest Honved were said to be the inspiration for the creation of the European Cup.
Fittingly then, European football will return to Wolverhampton next season for the first time in 39 years. It’s been a fantastic first few years in English football for Fosun International, who bought Wolves in the summer of 2016, won promotion in 2018 and finished seventh in the Premier League in 2019.
Fosun International is a large Chinese conglomerate headquartered in Shanghai, with business interests ranging from real estate and asset management to tourism and private hospitals. Billionaire Guo Guangchang is the chairman of Fosun International, and it’s his relationship with the world’s most powerful football agent Jorge Mendes that has been integral to much of the club’s success. The backbone of the Wolves team arrived in the West Midlands from Portugal, and the club are now one of the best teams in English football outside the established top six.
2. Yokohama F. Marinos – Nissan
(EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Teruhito Nakagawa of YoKohama F.Marinos looks on during the J.League J1 match between Yokohama F.Marinos and Matsumoto Yamaga at Nissan Stadium on June 22, 2019 in…
The second club owned by a car manufacturer to feature in this seven, it’s much more common for Asian football clubs to be owned by companies than it is in Europe. We could have picked any, but we’ve chosen to focus on Yokohama F. Marinos. Three-time J-League title winners in 1995, 2003 and 2004, the club had a disappointing 12th placed finish in 2018, and they’re back up in fourth this season at the time of recording.
Founded in 1972 as the company team of Nissan Motors and inventively named Nissan Motors FC, the team went on to become Yokohama Marinos and eventually Yokohama F. Marinos following a merger. Nissan sold 19.95% of the club to the City Football Group in 2014, and there have been suggestions that CFG could look to acquire a controlling stake in the club at some point.
Nissan are among the biggest car manufacturers in the world and reportedly lead the way in sales of electric vehicles. Since 1999, Nissan has formed part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, and together they sell 1 in 9 of all cars sold in the world.
0. Honourable Mentions
I won’t go into enormous detail with regards to teams we didn’t mention here, as there are plenty of clubs owned by companies. I will point out that the reason we didn’t mention Manchester City or New York City FC and the City Football Group ownership situation is because although all those clubs are owned by CFG the company, the company itself was created solely to own football clubs, meaning it isn’t a traditional company like the others in this seven.
I will give quick honourable mentions to Italian trio Juventus, Napoli and Sassuolo, who are owned by the companies Exor, Filmauro and Mapei respectively.
Right, clearly this seven is in no particular order, but for the sake of a little bit of heightened drama and anticipation let’s pretend it is…. Here is your top spot!
1. Bayer Leverkusen – Bayer AG
Flag with logo of Bayer Leverkusen during the Bundesliga match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and SV Werder Bremen at BayArena on March 17, 2019 in Leverkusen, Germany.
The third German side to feature in this seven, Bayer Leverkusen finished just one place below RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga last season, but how the two clubs came to be owned by individual companies have little in common. Like Wolfsburg and Yokohama, Bayer Leverkusen were founded as a works team, unsurprisingly for the pharmaceutical company Bayer in their case.
That was way back in 1904, and 114 years on, the club is still owned by Bayer. Leverkusen have played in the Bundesliga every season since 1979, but despite having finished as runners-up on five occasions, they are yet to win the top flight of German football. They won the UEFA Cup in 1988, and were only denied a Champions League in 2002 due to a quite incredible volley by Zinedine Zidane.
Their owners, Bayer AG, are one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Bayer were the company who named and brought Aspirin to the market, and it remains one of their marquee products today.
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