The billionaire takeover of European football | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
June 12, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2025
The billionaire takeover of European football

Analysis

Chris Hughes, Bloomberg
20 April, 2021, 08:55 pm
Last modified: 20 April, 2021, 09:03 pm

Related News

  • US and Europe trade negotiators discuss tariffs in Paris
  • European Union accuses TikTok of breaching digital rules its ad database falls short
  • Direct cargo flights from Sylhet to Europe begin Sunday
  • Why Bangladesh migration to Europe drops 52% in 2024
  • European shares tumble as US reciprocal tariffs kick in

The billionaire takeover of European football

Florentino Perez and the Agnellis want football clubs to get a bigger share of the games’ value. You can see why they’re eager for change

Chris Hughes, Bloomberg
20 April, 2021, 08:55 pm
Last modified: 20 April, 2021, 09:03 pm
Unconditional love. Photographer: Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images/Bloomberg
Unconditional love. Photographer: Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images/Bloomberg

Real Madrid President Florentino Perez and the billionaire Agnelli family are united by a frustration with the economics of European soccer. Their attempt to overhaul Europe's top football league appears to be based on the principle that the top clubs should thrive commercially like the other businesses they oversee.

Both Perez's and the Agnellis' business acumen can only get them so far in football. Perez built up construction groups Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA and Hochtief AG through cleverly structured acquisitions that made a little equity go a long way. In 2017, he was the underdog challenging Atlantia SpA's plan to buy Spanish toll-road operator Abertis outright with the backing of the billionaire Benetton family. Perez later succeeded in forcing the Italian infrastructure group to bring him in as a partner to thwart an auction.

The Agnellis are active managers of their assets and skilled M&A practitioners. Exor NV, their listed investment vehicle, has comfortably outperformed European stocks over the last decade.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

But success in soccer depends heavily on brute financial muscle and outspending the competition. Spanish clubs like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are owned by their supporters and can only take on so much debt to invest in players and facilities. Juventus Football Club SpA, 64% owned by the Agnellis and chaired by Andrea Agnelli, has already posted losses matching the 300 million euros ($362 million) it raised in a capital increase in 2019.

Given Barcelona's status as one of the world's top clubs, it seems strange it's not more successful as a business, but its revenues are sucked up by its wage bill. Debt-laden FC Internazionale Milano SpA has been in talks with private equity to raise capital. Covid is clearly a factor in all this, but the tricky economics of football, where player costs elbow aside most other claims on resources, were already clear before the pandemic hit.

Perez's European Super League is a blatant attempt to shift the economics back in favor of the top clubs, who draw the biggest audiences, and away not only from the smaller teams but also the players and their agents. The 15 perpetual members would be guaranteed to play each other, increasing the number of big-name contests that attract large audiences. Without the worry of relegation, the pressure to pay up for star talent who might help secure qualification for next year's competition might ease — perhaps.

Clubs would get a stable revenue stream and a higher valuation. It's therefore hard to avoid the suspicion that some of the clubs with commercial owners may have an eye on exiting their investments at least in part.

The obvious response to this would be for UEFA, host of the current Champions League competition, to be more aggressive in curbing overspending on players and exploring other ways for the top clubs to face each other more regularly. So far it's responded with threats to disqualify any participating players from national and international tournaments, and it's mulling a revamp of the league with U.K.-based asset manager Centricus, Bloomberg News reported. 

Business is about providing something that's good value for the people who pay for it, offering fairly remunerated work and leaving the community better off. It shouldn't be hard to run football clubs and competitions with a similar ethos. But while European fans might well want to watch the top teams play each other more often, they may not wish for this to involve a closed-shop competition that harms other clubs.

Perez and the Agnellis may be right that competitions should have a "sustainable financial foundation" and that the current system needs to change to deliver that. But if they see supporters as customers and clubs as corporations, that means giving fans what they want and being responsible corporate citizens.


Chris Hughes is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals. He previously worked for Reuters Breakingviews, as well as the Financial Times and the Independent newspaper.

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on bloomberg.com, and is published by special syndication arrangement.

Top News / World+Biz

Europe / billionaire

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. Photo: Collected
    UK crime agency now freezes assets of ex-land minister Saifuzzaman: AJ
  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus speaks at the Chatham House in London on 11 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    No desire to be part of next elected govt: CA Yunus
  • File photo of BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury. Photo: Collected
    Khasru flies to London ahead of Yunus-Tarique meeting

MOST VIEWED

  • Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS
    Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon
  • A file photo of Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur. Photo: Collected
    'I have no relation with this': Ahsan Mansur debunks Joy’s allegations over daughter’s Dubai flat
  • Faiz Ahmad Tayeb. Photo: BSS
    Import duty on raw materials for e-bikes, lithium batteries reduced from 80% to 1% in some cases: Faiz Taiyeb
  • File photo of ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Photo: Collected
    Joy spends Eid with Hasina in India: Indian media
  • Mercantile Bank withholds dividend amid Tk1,700cr provision shortfall
    Mercantile Bank withholds dividend amid Tk1,700cr provision shortfall
  • Shakil Ahmed. Photo: Collected
    DU student allegedly hangs himself following threats over old derogatory comment about Prophet on Facebook

Related News

  • US and Europe trade negotiators discuss tariffs in Paris
  • European Union accuses TikTok of breaching digital rules its ad database falls short
  • Direct cargo flights from Sylhet to Europe begin Sunday
  • Why Bangladesh migration to Europe drops 52% in 2024
  • European shares tumble as US reciprocal tariffs kick in

Features

Among pet birds in the country, lovebirds are the most common, and they are also the most numerous in the haat. Photo: Junayet Rashel

Where feathers meet fortune: How a small pigeon stall became Dhaka’s premiere bird market

11h | Panorama
Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS

Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon

1d | Features
File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

2d | Features
Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal

From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

4d | Bangladesh

More Videos from TBS

Why is Omicron XBB more contagious?

Why is Omicron XBB more contagious?

7h | TBS Stories
What did Dr. Yunus say at the Chatham House Dialogue in London?

What did Dr. Yunus say at the Chatham House Dialogue in London?

8h | TBS Today
News of The Day, 11 JUNE 2025

News of The Day, 11 JUNE 2025

9h | TBS News of the day
WB predicts worst decade for global growth since 60s

WB predicts worst decade for global growth since 60s

11h | TBS Stories
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net