2 December 2024 - 6:46 PM
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IMAGO | Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Chairman of Newcastle United representing the club's majority owner, Saudi Arabia’s PIF, greets Avram Glazer, co-owner of Man United.
The boiling frog syndrome: Has club ownership simmered out of control?
- The past five years has seen the greatest transfer of ownership in football history - possibly even sport - to a vast array of business models.
- Two new books ask if the game has sleep-walked into a situation where it has lost control over who controls its most important assets - its clubs? Its authors tell Off The Pitch what they think.
- Why it matters: The rise of multi-club ownership, private equity and state-backed investments has concentrated power in the hands of a few, with long-term implications for fairness and competition in the sport.
- The perspective: Authors argue that football’s obsession with growth has created an environment where profit and influence trump the traditional values of community and fair competition.
When it comes to who controls football, and whether the game’s governing bodies have entirely lost control over who owns its most important assets, namely its clubs, Miguel Delaney, author of States of Play, one of two new books published on the subject, believes “the apologue of the boiling frog is apt.”
“It feels like the last 40 years of foo
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