One is not enough: the growth in football’s multi-club ownership model

“One lesson from all of this is that it’s difficult to be at two clubs,” reflected the Nancy president, Gauthier Ganaye, after their relegation to France’s third tier last month. Feted as English football’s youngest chief executive after joining Barnsley for a short spell in 2018 at the age of 30, Ganaye spent last season juggling his role at Nancy with his job as executive president of the Belgian club KV Oostende.

Barnsley, who were relegated from the Championship in April despite reaching the playoffs last year, are, like Nancy and Oostende, part-owned by New City Capital – an investment group that also includes American investors, the Pacific Media Group. “The starting brief was never that I’d be there 100% of the time,” said Ganaye of his dual roles. “Discussions are under way in order to define a structure that can allow all of the clubs in the group to function.”

Things weren’t much better on the pitch for the rest of New City Capital’s steadily growing portfolio of clubs. Thun – who won the domestic title as recently as 2010 – laboured to a mid-table finish in Switzerland’s second tier, fans of Esbjerg endured another season of frustration in Denmark’s second division and FC Den Bosch remain marooned in the Dutch second tier.

At least the investors had something to celebrate at the end of May when Kaiserslautern – the four-times German champions who sold a 10% stake to a US consortium consisting of New City Capital’s Chien Lee and Pacific Media Group’s Paul Conway in March – beat Dynamo Dresden in the promotion playoffs to return to Germany’s second tier for the first time since 2018.

From New City Capital and 777 Partners LLC to City Football Group (CFG), Bolt Football Holdings, Redbird Capital and Red Bull,