Barcelona sets August target for matchday return to Camp Nou stadium
Barcelona's Raphinha lifts the trophy during celebration of winning the La Liga after the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Villarreal at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona aims to return belatedly to its Camp Nou stadium after two years of reconstruction work for a preseason friendly on Aug. 10.
Club president Joan Laporta set the date for the traditional season-opening Joan Gamper Trophy game when he spoke in a television interview late Monday.
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Barcelona has played in the city's Olympic Stadium for two years — and won La Liga this season — during the massive overhaul to create a 105,000-capacity home that would be the biggest soccer stadium in Europe.
The original target was a November 2024 return to a partially finished venue, then Barcelona said in February it hoped to play games in Camp Nou before the end of this season with 60,000 spectators.
The February update also detailed plans to complete the project by adding a roof at the end of the 2025-26 season.
The Camp Nou is a potential candidate to stage the 2030 World Cup final which Spain will co-host with Portugal and Morocco. The more likely options are Real Madrid's renovated Santiago Bernabéu Stadium and a 115,000-seat venue planned in Casablanca, Morocco.
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Who owns La Liga's 20 clubs: A Wimbledon semi-finalist, Pep Guardiola's brother and a private detective
Toy cars. Bingo halls. Malaysian plantations. Mexican gas stations. The source of wealth for La Liga's club owners is diverse. Year zero for the current era of La Liga ownership was 1992, when the Spanish government ruled almost all clubs should be turned from member-owned clubs into private limited companies — Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao's Athletic Club and Osasuna are still owned by members. Advertisement The other clubs became controlled by wealthy families and, over time, outside investors. Current owners, presidents or big shareholders across the 20 teams now come from countries including the U.S., China, Singapore, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Bolivia and Israel. Many of the setups are complex, and sometimes confusing. The biggest investors can be reclusive — even many Atletico Madrid fans will not know the world's 120th richest person owns a chunk of their club — and many have some unusual qualifications. The below list includes a private detective, Pep Guardiola's brother and a Wimbledon semi-finalist. Here's who owns the 20 top-flight clubs who competed in La Liga in 2024-25… Owner: Josean Querejeta President: Alfonso Fernandez de Troconiz Since: 2013 Seasons in La Liga: 19 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €43.7m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €38.6m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €73m Revenues 2023-24: €69.4m Budget 2024-25: €77.3m 2024-25 final position: 15th Alaves are one of the very few football teams in the world to have been bought by their basketball club neighbours. The club's principal owner is Josean Querejeta, a former pro basketball player for teams including Real Madrid and Saski Baskonia, the club in Alaves' Basque home city of Vitoria-Gasteiz. After retirement, Querejeta made money from a chain of sweet shops called Gretel, and then in real estate. In 1988 he became the majority shareholder of Saski Baskonia, and led them to trophies in Spain and Europe. In April 2011, Querejeta's group was renamed Baskonia Alaves as it took over the football club, who were then struggling in the semi-pro third tier with debts of €21m after a disastrous spell under the presidency of Ukrainian-American businessman Dmitry Piterman. By 2016-17 they had returned to La Liga, where they have played for eight of the last nine seasons, and significantly strengthened their financial position. Advertisement Their 2024-25 budget is a record €77.3m. A poor run of results led to coach Luis Garcia Plaza being replaced in early December by Eduardo Coudet — the 19th coach since Querejeta took charge in 2013. Baskonia Alaves have also invested in the Ondare education campus (where private university EUNEIZ is based) and The Faktory innovation centre (a business development centre for sports and entertainment innovation), while spending €50m on a new training facility for the football and basketball teams. In December 2024, Querejeta presented a new strategic plan for further development off the pitch, including as yet undetailed plans for a new €100m stadium. He suggested he was open to external investors helping to make the team more competitive in La Liga. Baskonia Alaves have also grown outside Spain — in summer 2018 they bought 85 per cent of Croatian top-flight team NK Istra. Owners: 43,649 socio members President: Jon Uriarte Since: 2022 Seasons in La Liga: 94 (all) La Liga titles: Eight (most recently 1983-84) 2023-24 TV revenue: €67.5m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €100.8m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €367m Total Revenue 2023-24: €134.9m Budget 2024-25: €155.8m 2024-25 final position: 4th Member-owned since their foundation in 1898, Athletic have 43,639 devoted owners, mostly drawn from the Basque province of Biscay, of which Bilbao is capital. They are renowned for their policy of only using Basque-born or formed players. Elections at Athletic tend to be by far the most competitive of La Liga's four member-owned clubs. The last vote in 2022 saw Inaki Arechabaleta pledge to return Marcelo Bielsa as coach if elected. But the surprise winner was Jon Uriarte — an entrepreneur who co-founded ticket portal Ticketbis, which was sold in 2016 to eBay for $165million. Uriarte has looked to modernise the club's operations off the pitch, but the power of Athletic's socios was seen at last November's annual members assembly, when a plan to raise some ticket prices at their San Mames stadium was voted down. The ability of Athletic's Lezama youth academy to produce talents coveted elsewhere meant the club's cash reserves reached €186.2m in 2019, after sales of players such as Javi Martinez and Kepa Arrizabalaga. Those reserves now stand at €36.8m, having been hit by factors including the Covid-19 pandemic, bonuses from winning last season's Copa del Rey, and lucrative contracts for current stars Unai Simon, Inaki Williams, Oihan Sancet and Nico Williams. Advertisement Qualification for next season's Champions League by finishing fourth brings a financial boost and in theory should help keep those stars at San Mames. Owners: Atletico HoldCo & Idan Ofer President: Enrique Cerezo (personal shareholding 15 per cent) Since: 2003 Seasons in La Liga: 88 La Liga titles: 11 (most recently 2020-21) 2023-24 TV revenue: €117.9m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €310.7m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €515.8m Total Revenue 2023-24: €395m Budget 2024-25: €459m 2024-25 final position: 3rd Atletico's ownership situation has long been among the most interesting in La Liga. Among the controversies was a 2003 share offering overseen by current club president Enrique Cerezo and former president Jesus Gil. In 2014, Spain's supreme court declared it invalid. But by then, Spain's statute of limitations meant that Miguel Angel Gil Marin (Jesus Gil's son) and Cerezo (a movie producer by profession) could keep the shareholdings. Atletico have come a long way since, especially during Diego Simeone's 13 years and counting as coach. Gil Marin and Cerezo have maintained control while receiving help from partners including Azerbaijan's government, China's Wanda Group and Mexico's richest man, Carlos Slim. In November 2017, Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer's Quantum Pacific bought 15 per cent of Atletico's shares. The following February, Quantum Pacific bought Wanda's 17 per cent share to increase its stake to 32 per cent. Ofer's money comes from his family's shipping business, while he also has interests in chemicals, energy and power. He is listed by Forbes as the 120th richest person in the world. In summer 2021, Atletico's ownership was reorganised with the creation of a new holding company, Atletico HoldCo, which controls around two thirds of the club's shares — Ofer maintains his share. U.S. private equity firm Ares Management Corporation took a 34 per cent stake in the new entity for €220m. Gil Marin held 47 per cent and Cerezo 15.2 per cent. Advertisement Ares' other sports investments include 10 per cent of NFL team the Miami Dolphins, as well as stakes in Inter Miami and the Eagle Football group, which owns Premier League side Crystal Palace, Ligue 1 club Lyon, Brazil's Botafogo, and Belgium's RWD Molenbeek. In a personal capacity, Ares' partners Jim Miller and Mark Affolter are co-owners at Segunda Division side Real Zaragoza, where the ownership group also includes Inter Miami president Jorge Mas. Owners: 133,164 club socios (members) President: Joan Laporta Since: 2003 to 2010 and 2021 to present Seasons in La Liga: 94 (all) La Liga titles won: 28 2023-24 TV revenue: €162.5m 2024-25 La Liga Salary limit: €426.4m Squad value according to Transfermarkt: €1.02bn Revenue 2023-24: €894m Budget 2024-25: €893m 2024-25 final position: 1st Barcelona have always been owned by its socios (members). As of June 2024, they had 133,164 — 50,797 living in the city of Barcelona, 70,201 in the rest of Catalonia, and 12,166 in the rest of the world. Current president Joan Laporta, a lawyer and businessman, is a lifelong Barca fan. After a first term from 2003 to 2010, he had a short spell as a member of the Catalan regional parliament. He was re-elected as president of Barca in March 2021 with 54 per cent of the 55,611 total electorate. On his return, Laporta inherited huge financial problems from his predecessor, Josep Maria Bartomeu. His signature policy has been to pull 'levers' — using future revenues to pay off historic debts and keep investing in the squad. The club's 2023-24 accounts showed a profit of €12m. However, that was before a €141m loss mandated by the club's auditors, due to problems with their Barca Studios/Barca Vision levers. That left the club scrambling to find ways to register last summer's €60m signing Dani Olmo for the second half of the season, before the Spanish government allowed them to play the Spain international and fellow summer arrival Pau Victor. Such lever pulling has raised fears among some socios that they could lose their ultimate control over the club's decision-making. Majority owner: Carlos Mourino/Grupo Corporativo GES President: Marian Mourino Since: 2023 Seasons in La Liga: 59 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €48.3m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €77.6m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €95.1m Total Revenue 2023-24: €73.4m Budget 2024-25: €107m 2024-25 final position: 7th Advertisement Carlos Mourino became Celta Vigo president in 2006 and he and his family have since had firm control. Mourino's Grupo Corporativo GES currently controls about 75 per cent of shares, with the rest divided between local families and supporters. Vigo-born Mourino made his fortune in Mexico — first in his wife's family's hotels business, then other industries including petrol stations, fast food franchises and construction. Mourino has long rowed with Vigo mayor Abel Caballero over the running of its municipally owned Balaidos stadium, including threats to sell the club to Chinese investors if Caballero did not sell the ground to Celta (this never happened). Not coincidentally, the mega Galicia Sports 360 complex that Celta are building lies just beyond the city limits. La Liga's €2bn deal with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is providing about half of the €185m funding. In December 2023, Mourino (born in 1943) stepped down after 17 years as president. He was replaced by his daughter Marian, who has worked for decades in the family business in Mexico. Owner: Rastar Group President: Chen Yansheng Since: 2016 Seasons in La Liga: 88 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €26.3m (in Segunda) 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €8.8m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €90.6m Revenues 2023-24: €39.7m (in Segunda) Budget 2024-25: €66.5m 2024-25 final position: 14th Since their foundation in 1900, Barcelona-based Espanyol had been controlled by local businesspeople, until China's Rastar Group bought over 56 per cent of shares in January 2016. The following August, Rastar Group, whose main business in China is making toy cars and video games, increased its stake to almost 100 per cent. Rastar's majority shareholder, Chen Yansheng, is Espanyol's club president. Including the president's son, Chen Chuang Huang, all its other board members are Chinese, except legendary player Rafa Maranon. Rastar has continued to invest, even as the team have yo-yed between the top-flight and the second division. China's record international goalscorer, Wu Lei, played for Espanyol from January 2019 to August 2022. In November 2024, the club announced a new share issue that will take Rastar's total investment since 2016 to an estimated €163m. But poor decisions in football and business have hurt the team. La Liga set Espanyol's (nominal) salary limit at €8.8m for this season, due to the club having made losses in each of the last four campaigns, even after selling key players such as Cesar Montes and Sergi Darder. Advertisement President Chen spoke via TV link (in Chinese) at the club's most recent AGM last December, saying the club's current strategic plan involved 'adapting to its current realities'. The ownership has often been criticised by fans groups and the remaining few minority shareholders. But Chen has regularly denied any intention to sell and said at the AGM that 'our commitment remains as strong as ever'. Owner: Angel Torres (shareholding of 99.3 per cent) President: Angel Torres Since: 2002 Seasons in La Liga: 20 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €49.8m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €39.2m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €77m Total Revenue 2023-24: Not yet public Budget 2024-25: €56.8m 2024-25 final position: 13th Getafe are the only La Liga club whose owner was invited to take charge by the city's mayor. This happened in 2002, when Getafe were in the third tier with debts of €10m and mayor Pedro Castro Vazquez turned to Torres, who had made millions during a construction boom in the 1980s, then invested in bars and bingo halls. Under Torres' presidency, the club won their first promotion to La Liga in 2004. The team became known as 'Euro-Geta' as they beat Tottenham Hotspur and Benfica on the way to the 2007-08 UEFA Cup quarter-finals. That made Torres a popular figure. A Real Madrid fan as a kid — and still a socio of the Bernabeu club — Torres is the longest-serving club president and owner in La Liga. The only time an exit looked likely was when he announced in April 2011 that Getafe had been sold for €80m, only for the supposed Dubai-based purchasers to turn out to be hoaxers. Despite playing in La Liga for 19 of the last 20 seasons, operating losses in recent seasons have required financial assistance from Torres and a €30m loan from UK-based Rights & Media Funding in 2021. Advertisement The club have been attempting to expand and modernise off-pitch operations. In 2023, a €53m renovation of their municipally owned Coliseum stadium and adjacent training ground was announced, mostly financed by La Liga's CVC deal. Renovation of the Coliseum will begin this summer, and the 73-year-old Torres has repeated various times that 'the stadium will be my final big project as president'. Owners: City Football Group (47 per cent), Marcelo Claure (35 per cent), Pere Guardiola (16 per cent) President: Delfi Geli Takeover: 2017 Seasons in La Liga: 5 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €49.8m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €94.5m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €180.7m Total Revenue 2023-24: €69m Budget 2024-25: €113m 2024-25 final position: 16th For most of their history, Girona were a low-profile, lower-division club whose shareholders were local Catalan fans, until French company TVSE Futbol bought an 80 per cent stake for about €3m in 2015. In August 2017, just after Girona were promoted to La Liga for the first time, TVSE Futbol sold its stake, with Pere Guardiola (brother of Manchester City manager Pep) and the City Football Group (CFG) taking 44.3 per cent stakes. CFG owns or part-owns 12 other clubs worldwide, including Manchester City. Pere Guardiola worked for Nike from 1997 to 2009, then set up the agency Media Base Sports, which was taken over completely by Chinese company DDMC in 2021. Guardiola then joined Netherlands-headquartered agency Sports Entertainment Group (SEG). Bolivian/American businessman Marcelo Claure has owned 35 per cent of Girona's shares since buying part of two thirds of Guardiola's holding in 2020. An investor in companies such as T-Mobile, Claure is also a co-founder of Inter Miami. He was previously chief executive of Japanese investor SoftBank and WeWork. In April 2024, Forbes estimated Claure's individual wealth to be $2billion. Former Girona player Delfi Geli has remained as club president. After qualifying for this season's Champions League, some board members closely connected to Manchester City were replaced, and CFG's shareholding in Girona FC was put into an independent blind trust for 2024-25 to ensure compliance with UEFA rules and regulations. Majority shareholder: Miguel Angel Ramirez Alonso President: Miguel Angel Ramirez Alonso Since: 2011 Seasons in La Liga: 36 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €43.1m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €40.3m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €125.3m Total Revenue 2023-24: Not made public Budget 2024-25: €74.9m 2024-25 final position: 19th Advertisement Las Palmas president Miguel Angel Ramirez is the only La Liga owner with a 600-word resume on the club website, featuring a university qualification as a private detective and status as an 'honorary pilot' in Spain's air force. The profile also says Ramirez is the owner or shareholder in companies that turn over €300m annually and have more than 1,000 employees. His biggest business success was founding Seguridad Integral Canaria in 1995 — a security company that provided guards to clients including El Escorial, the palace where Spain's kings and queens are buried, Madrid's Metro and the public broadcaster Radio Television Espanola. Ramirez became Las Palmas president in 2005, when the team were playing in the third tier and were €76m in debt. After going through a decade-long bankruptcy process, they played in La Liga from 2015-16 to 2017-18 and returned in 2023. Twenty-five first-team coaches have been hired and fired under Ramirez's presidency, with the longest serving being former West Bromwich Albion coach Pepe Mel from 2019-22. Ramirez currently controls a majority of Las Palmas' shares, either personally or through his company Sport Trade Capital (believed to be 65 per cent). In June 2024, he told local radio that 'two American groups' had tried to buy the club but 'we've no intention to sell'. At an awkwardly timed AGM in May 2025, with the team set for relegation, Ramirez was ratified to continue as president until 2030. Owner: Blue Crow Sports Group President: Jeff Luhnow Since: 2022 Seasons in La Liga: 5 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €5.98 (in Segunda Division) 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €37.1m Squad value according to Transfermarkt: €41m Total Revenue 2023-24: Not yet public Budget 2024-25: Not yet public 2024-25 final position: 18th Texas-headquartered Blue Crow Group bought 99 per cent of the shares in then second-division club Leganes in June 2022 for a reported €39m. Blue Crow was formed in 2021 by former Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and Canadian investor Arvind Narayan. Among the company's investors are various Astros shareholders, including part-owner of MLS side Houston Dynamo, Ben Guill. Advertisement Mexican-American Luhnow was a management consultant in tech and finance. After reading the book Moneyball, he transferred to baseball and was general manager when the Astros won their first ever World Series in 2017. Two years later, he was fired after a 'sign stealing' scandal. In 2022, Luhnow told The Athletic that he had learned from that experience, and that 'winning has to be done following the rules'. Blue Crow also owns Mexican second-tier club Cancun FC, Czech second-division side MFK Vyskov and Dubai-based Elite Falcons FC. The company has its own analytics team for scouting, squad building and player development, while each club also has independent local decision makers. Leganes — who are based in suburban Madrid — won the 2023-24 Segunda Division title with a squad whose total wage bill was around €10m. Luhnow told The Athletic last August that 'in five years' time, Blue Crow should have eight clubs, each run on a local basis, with Leganes at the apex'. Leganes' relegation in May 2025 was a blow to those plans, but in May the president of Ligue 1 side Le Havre, Jean-Michel Roussier, told a press conference that Blue Crow was considering adding the club to its group. Owners: 20,000 socio members President: Luis Sabalza Since: 2014 Seasons in La Liga: 43 2023-24 TV revenues: €51m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €51.9m Squad market value per Transfermarkt: €109m Total Revenue 2023-24: €71.2m Budget 2024-25: €80.3m 2024-25 final position: 9th Osasuna (the word means 'health' or 'vigour' in Basque) are the smallest of the four La Liga clubs still 100 per cent owned by their members. The Pamplona-based club's golden era came in the 2000s when they reached a first Copa del Rey final in 2005, then the 2006-07 UEFA Cup semi-finals. But when president Patxi Izco left in 2012, debts of €80m were discovered. The team were relegated in 2013-14, then became embroiled in the 'Caso Osasuna' match-fixing scandal. The only candidate willing to take over as president in 2014 was the club's former 'socios' defender (fans ombudsman) Luis Sabalza. Local businesspeople and former players chipped in to help with the required €1.8m deposit. The club and team were slowly rebuilt, with a big focus on their Tajonar academy, with players including Mikel Merino and Alex Berenguer sold to pay off debts. The backbone of the side that reached the 2023 Copa del Rey final were homegrown players, including 2024 Olympics gold medal-winning attacking midfielder Aimar Oroz. Advertisement A 2023 census showed that 43 per cent of Osasuna's members came from Pamplona, with most others living in its home province of Navarre. Presidential elections are due later in 2025, and it is unclear whether Sabalza, 77, will seek another term. Majority owner: Raul Martin Presa (shareholding of 97.8 per cent) President: Raul Martin Presa Since: 2011 Seasons in La Liga: 22 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €45.4m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €45.4m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €67.9m Total Revenue 2023-24: €55.3m Budget 2024-25: Not public 2024-25 final position: 8th Raul Martin Presa was just 34 and unknown in football when he took control of Rayo Vallecano in 2011. He had run advertising and graphic design businesses before paying a nominal fee of one cent per share to the club's previous owners, the Ruiz-Mateos family. La Liga president Javier Tebas helped broker that deal in his previous role as a bankruptcy expert (Rayo's debts then included €39m in unpaid taxes). The Rayo president is hugely unpopular with most fans, especially the Bukaneros ultras, who often chant for his departure. Strife between the club's left-leaning fanbase and conservative ownership has been constant for decades — former owner Jose Maria Ruiz-Mateos had made his fortune during General Francisco Franco's dictatorship but was jailed for corruption when his companies collapsed after democracy returned. There have also been regular issues between the squad and the club hierarchy through Martin Presa's tenure, such as players protesting when club staff were furloughed during the pandemic. Coaches are often given 'presidential' signings who don't fit their plans — previously Radamel Falcao and this season James Rodriguez. The club's accounts for 2023-24 showed a profit of €4m, but also mentioned ongoing legal proceedings with the Spanish tax authorities over €28m in historical taxes allegedly not paid between 1996 and 2002. The crumbling three-sided Estadio de Vallecas is by far the Spanish top-flight stadium in the worst condition. Meanwhile, Rayo are the only one of the 39 clubs who joined La Liga's CVC investment deal but have yet to spend any of the funds due to them. Qualifying for next season's Europa Conference League was a tremendous achievement by the team, but it means the ground will need significant improvements to meet UEFA standards. Martin Presa said in January 2025 that moving to a new ground was 'vital for survival' of the club but no serious plans have yet been put forward to do this. Advertisement Owners: Local families President: Angel Haro (20 per cent shareholding) Since: 2016 La Liga titles: One (1934-35) Seasons in La Liga: 59 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €68.2m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €109m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €173.1m Total Revenue 2023-24: €138.6m Budget 2024-25: €142.9m 2024-25 final position: 6th During two decades under president Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, Betis broke the world transfer record to buy Brazilian Denilson for 500m pesetas (about €40m) in 1998, played in the Champions League in the mid 2000s, and went into bankruptcy proceedings in 2011 due to debts of almost €80m. After Lopera was forced out by the Spanish courts, the current ownership group headed by Angel Haro and Jose Miguel Lopez Catalan took control in September 2015. Club president Haro owns Seville-based energy and engineering company Wingenia. Lopez Catalan is a technology entrepreneur and club vice-president. Both now own around 20 per cent each of the club shares. Other smaller shareholders include local businessmen, fans and former player Joaquin Sanchez (who owns about three per cent). In September, the club received €125m funding via Goldman Sachs, refinancing previous debts and providing liquidity and solvency going forward. At their December 2024 AGM, a motion to change the club statutes to allow foreign investors to buy shares was passed, while reaching the 2025 Conference League final against Chelsea which they lost has further improved the club's global visibility. Owners: 95,612 club members President: Florentino Perez Since: 2000 to 2006, and 2009 to present Seasons in La Liga: 94 (all) La Liga titles: 36 (most recently 2023-24) 2023-24 TV revenue: €159.6m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €754.9m Squad value according to Transfermarkt: €1.41bn Revenue 2023-24: €1.07bn Budget 2024-25: €1.1bn 2024-25 final position: 2nd 'Real Madrid has no owner, it belongs only to its socios,' Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said in 2016. A democratic ethos is integral to Madrid's self-image, though few doubt Perez is the socio most responsible for setting the club's policies during his spells as president, from 2000 to 2006, and 2009 to present. Advertisement Perez has been going to the Bernabeu since he was a boy during Madrid's first golden age in the 1950s. An engineer by profession, he worked for Madrid's town hall before entering business by taking over a small, bankrupt construction company in 1983. That company has become ACS Group, a global conglomerate whose activities in civil engineering, construction, technology and public services generated sales of €41.6 billion in 2024. Perez is ACS president, with a personal shareholding of 14.5 per cent, worth more than €1bn. Madrid's revenues have rocketed under Perez's stewardship and he proudly said at last November's club assembly that Madrid were the first football team with annual revenue topping €1bn. He also announced a coming referendum on 'the club's corporate reorganisation', prompting fears of Madrid being 'privatised', though Perez has long argued his first priority is to protect its socio model. Although any club member can run for the presidency, Perez has not faced a challenge since his return in 2009. Candidates must be Spanish citizens with 20 years as a Madrid socio who can personally guarantee 15 per cent of the club's annual budget — i.e. over €150m. Last January, Perez, 78, was re-elected unopposed, again, to the position until 2029. Owner: Andy Kohlberg (majority shareholder among US investors) President: Andy Kohlberg Since: 2016 Seasons in La Liga: 32 2023-24 TV revenues: €46.4m La Liga salary cap: €58.8m Squad value according to Transfermarkt: €82.7m Total Revenue 2023-24: €71.2m Budget 2024-25: €64m 2024-25 final position: 10th Real Mallorca were wracked by financial and institutional turmoil for some years, including bitter public battles between competing shareholders, before new U.S. owners arrived in January 2016. That group was led by current president Andy Kohlberg along with his former Phoenix Suns co-owner Robert Sarver, with other smaller shareholders including ex-NBA star Steve Nash and former USMNT player Stu Holden. Kohlberg is a former tennis pro and was a Wimbledon mixed doubles semi-finalist in 1987, who later made millions in senior care in the U.S.. He became Mallorca's majority shareholder in June 2023, when Sarver's connection with the club ended after a racism scandal, which also forced him to sell his Phoenix Suns shares. Advertisement The first years of Mallorca's U.S. ownership brought ups and downs, including dropping to the third tier for a season, while historic debts of €30m were paid off. The team has stabilised in La Liga for four seasons now and reached the 2024 Copa del Rey final. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr became a minority investor in August 2023, during a share offering that raised €14.7m and brought total investment from owners to over €60m. 'We've always taken a long-term perspective,' Kohlberg told The Athletic in April 2024. 'Our objective is to be a top 10 club, competing for Europe.' Owners: Multiple small shareholdings President: Jokin Aperribay Since: 2008 La Liga titles: Two (most recently 1981-82) Seasons in La Liga: 78 2023-24 TV revenues: €70.7m La Liga salary cap: €159.3m Squad value according to Transfermarkt: €383.8m Total Revenue 2023-24: €161m Budget 2024-25: €149m 2024-25 final position: 11th Real Sociedad are unique as the only La Liga club who are a private company in which no one shareholder can have a stake of more than two per cent. Local businessman Jokin Aperribay was elected president in December 2008, with the club facing bankruptcy due to debts of more than €40m and the team in the second division. Aperribay's father, Joaquin, was vice-president in the early 1980s when La Real won two La Liga titles. The family are controlling shareholders of SAPA, a manufacturer of transmission systems for military vehicles, though Jokin Aperribay rarely talks publicly about his family's business activities, which include a SAPA factory in Michigan. Under his presidency the club have grown while keeping their local ethos, with debts wiped out, a Copa del Rey victory in 2019-20, and regular participation in European competition. The club accounts for 2023-24 showed a profit of €1.2m and revenue of €161m, and were approved by 99.8 per cent of voting shareholders at last December's AGM. Advertisement Owner: Ronaldo President: Ronaldo Since: 2022 Seasons in La Liga: 47 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €18.4m (in Segunda) 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €41.8m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €40.4m Revenues 2023-24: not public Budget 2024-25: €58.7m 2024-25 final position: 20th Real Valladolid had always been controlled by wealthy families from the central Spanish city until ex-Brazil star Ronaldo bought a 51 per cent stake from previous club president Carlos Suarez in September 2018. The two-time Ballon d'Or winner, twice World Cup winner and 98-cap former Brazil forward has a wide range of business interests, including in marketing, finance, media and property. In October 2024, the 48-year-old spent €5.6m in a share offering, taking his total investment to more than €35m and total shareholding to 88 per cent. Since 2018, Valladolid have bounced around between the first and second divisions, with three relegations and two promotions. When the team is on the up, Ronaldo is been relatively popular, but when the team struggles, chants of 'Ronaldo go home' often ring around their Jose Zorrilla stadium. There were regular protests and calls for him to sell the club during a disastrous 2024-25 campaign in which they finished bottom. Ronaldo had been open about his investment in Valladolid being a business decision. He bought 90 per cent of Brazilian club Cruzeiro in December 2021, and sold it in April 2024 for an estimated £30m profit. In May 2025, Valladolid announced that Ronaldo had sold the club to a group of North American investors with the backing of a European fund. That deal still requires a green light from the Spanish government. Owners: Local families President: Jose Maria del Nido Carrasco Takeover: 2023 La Liga titles: 1 (1945-46) Seasons in La Liga: 81 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €72.5m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €2.5m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €175m Total Revenue 2023-24: €174.9m Budget 2024-25: €120.9m 2024-25 final position: 17th Advertisement Sevilla are one of the very few La Liga clubs where groups of powerful Spanish families have retained control. The Del Nido family has the largest holding of around 24 per cent, the Sevillistas de Nervion group has 22 per cent, former club president Rafael Carrion has 15 per cent and Sevillistas Unidos 2020 has eight per cent. Unloved Americans 777 Partners — which also invested in Serie A's Genoa, Belgian club Standard Liege and the Bundesliga's Hertha Berlin, and tried unsuccessfully to buy Everton — bought around 13 per cent during an unsuccessful bid for control a few years ago. After 777 hit serious funding and legal problems, control of their shareholding passed to creditors A-Cap, but their Sevilla shareholding has been blocked by a Spanish court for now. Jose Maria del Nido Benavente was Sevilla president from 2002 to 2013, when he was jailed for the misappropriation of public funds. His son, Jose Maria del Nido Carrasco, is now president, allied with current VP Jose Castro, who held the position until December 2023. Del Nido Benavente is currently launching an extremely bitter legal battle to regain control, pitting father against son. Despite the team winning the Europa League in 2020 and 2023, Sevilla's finances have worsened significantly through recent years, and the club's 2023-24 losses were €81.8m. In March 2024 they took a €108m loan, organised by Goldman Sachs. There were angry protests against Del Nido Jr during the 2024-25 season, including fans breaking into the training ground in early May amid relegation fears, and the current president requiring private security at his home and the stadium. Many around Sevilla believe a new investor, whether local or international, will eventually buy out all the feuding parties. But finding such a saviour, and organising a takeover, looks quite difficult given all the financial issues and institutional turmoil. Owner: Peter Lim President: Lay Hoon Chan Since: 2014 La Liga titles: Six (most recent 2003-04) Seasons in La Liga: 90 2023-24 La Liga TV revenues: €59.2m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €74.6m Squad market value according to Transfermarkt: €214.9m Revenues 2023-24: Not public Budget 2024-25: €99.1m 2024-25 final position: 12th Advertisement In October 2014, Peter Lim paid €94m for 70 per cent of Valencia's shares, while pledging to invest another €100m. The club's first foreign owner was mostly welcomed by local fans after years of institutional turmoil left debts of more than €300m. Lim rose from humble origins to become a star stockbroker, becoming one of Singapore's richest men in the early 1990s after investing in Malaysian palm oil plantations. He has since diversified into real estate, healthcare, fashion and sports. From 2014 to 2024 he was a part-owner of English lower-division club Salford City with the former Manchester United players known as the 'Class of 92'. There have been moments of success, such as the 2019 Copa del Rey victory, but budget cuts have seen the team's competitive levels drop significantly. Local fans and pundits have been annoyed by links to Portuguese agent Jorge Mendes and the club hiring Lim's friend (and former Salford co-owner) Gary Neville as coach. Last September, La Liga president Javier Tebas praised Lim's financial management of the club, pointing out he had invested lots of his own money (an estimated €190m, including loans), while previous local owners left behind huge debts. Fan groups and some former Valencia directors have tried to get Lim to sell without success. President Lay Hoon Chan said at a stormy club AGM in December 2024 that 'attractive' offers would be 'studied' by Lim but none had been received. Industry sources say it would take €400m at least to make him consider a sale. The team's revival through the second half of the 2024-25 under new coach Carlos Corberan avoided a financially disastrous relegation. Work restarted on the club's new stadium, which stood half-built for 15 years, in January. That project will cost €325m, including €80m from La Liga's CVC deal and money raised from land sales. Completing the new stadium and selling their current (old) Mestalla home would make sense before any sale occurs. Owner: Fernando Roig (98.79 per cent shares) President: Fernando Roig Since: 1997 Seasons in La Liga: 25 2023-24 TV revenues: €63.3m 2024-25 La Liga salary cap: €135.9m Squad value according to Transfermarkt: €218.6m Total Revenue 2023-24: €162.8m Budget 2024-25: €143.4m 2024-25 final position: 5th Advertisement In May 1997, Fernando Roig became the majority shareholder and president of Villarreal. The following season the team from a town of just 50,000 people achieved their first promotion to the Primera Division. Since then, it has often punched above its weight domestically and in Europe. Roig is owner and president of Spanish ceramics giant Pamesa, the club's long-time shirt sponsor. He also owns nine per cent of the huge Mercadona supermarket chain, which is run by his brother Juan. A third brother, Francisco, was Valencia president from 1994 to 1997. Villarreal's El Madrigal stadium was renamed Estadio La Ceramica in January 2017, in a nod to Roig having invested more than €200m in the club over the previous decades. The stadium has been further remodelled recently using money from the league's CVC deal. The business model continues to centre on developing young talent, from Diego Forlan to Santi Cazorla to Nicolas Jackson, and reinvesting profits when sold. Securing Champions League again for 2025-26 is further reward for Roig's steady stewardship of the club. (Top image, from left to right: Perez, Laporta, Lim; Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Jose Miguel Fernandez/NurPhoto, Florencia Tan Jun, Josep Lago/ AFP via Getty Images)
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Jack Grealish is at a career crossroads. Which club could reignite his best?
Jack Grealish is at a crossroads. Just two years after being one of the main characters in an unforgettable treble-winning season for Manchester City, the 29-year-old started just seven Premier League games in 2024-25. While niggling injury setbacks have not been kind to him this season, it is clear that Grealish has fallen out of Pep Guardiola's plans. The writing was on the wall when he was an unused substitute when City required a goal in their FA Cup final defeat to Crystal Palace. Then for City's final game of the Premier League season away to Fulham, Grealish failed to make the matchday squad. Advertisement 'It's nothing personal with Jack,' Guardiola said after the Fulham match. 'I'm the person who fought for him to come here and the person who fought for him to stay here this season and the next season. I'm the one who said I want Jack Grealish. 'Now he didn't come (on) because he didn't come (on), but not something else. What happens in the future is a job for Txiki (Begiristain, City's director of football), Hugo (Viana, the club's sporting director) and the agents.' However you want to rationalise it, Grealish simply has not played enough football in recent seasons. He has played less than one-third of the available league minutes for two consecutive campaigns. It is worth noting that Grealish's drop-off in minutes has not come at the expense of his creative numbers when he does get on the pitch. A single assist in each of his last two Premier League seasons is a poor return whichever way you look at it, but a closer look at Grealish's expected assists (xA) — which denote the expected goals value of the shot that is assisted — suggest that his underlying output per 90 minutes has remained far more consistent (red dots below). Put simply, you cannot legislate for a team-mate missing an opportunity, whether you put the ball on a plate or not, and Grealish might feel hard done by, given the quality of chances he has created. There is the widely held view that Guardiola's disciplined positional play has been the antithesis of Grealish's off-the-cuff style, which is based on freedom and fluidity. There are countless other examples, but one of Grealish's typical behaviours within Guardiola's possession-dominant style is shown in City's game against Leicester City this season. Grealish receives the ball on the touchline with a stubborn 5-3-2 block facing him. After a few strides forward, he turns back and plays a simple ball backwards for Josko Gvardiol to circulate possession. City's general attacking structure has not helped at times this season, where a reluctance to make off-ball runs in behind has often left wingers isolated and forced to come back inside. Nevertheless, when zooming out, it is clear that Grealish's final season as a No 10 at Aston Villa was drastically different to his subsequent three seasons at City. His pass sonar below — which denotes the direction, frequency and distance of his passes — makes clear how much of Grealish's profile descended into playing a simple pass backwards within a positional Guardiola system. Grealish has had spells as a deeper-lying midfielder this season, most notably in their home victory over Nottingham Forest in December, when Guardiola praised Grealish's ability to control the tempo and accelerate the game. That 'pausa' is a trait highly regarded by Guardiola, but Grealish's free-spirit style sees him thrive in transitional moments — a rare occurrence in east Manchester. Give him space to run into, and he can punish opponents in the blink of an eye during transitional moments, as shown below when driving forward to assist Erling Haaland against West Ham United in 2023. So, if not City, then which club would best suit Grealish across Europe? Ironically, former club Villa would be an ideal location for Grealish to return to — both from a tactical standpoint and with Unai Emery's ability to reignite players' careers. Had things gone differently in the final game of the season, Villa would be boasting consecutive seasons in the Champions League under Emery and be in a far healthier financial situation when considering potential incomings. Advertisement A narrow No 10 role would suit Grealish perfectly if it were not for the fact that Emery's current squad is already stacked with midfielders capable of operating on the left or central attacking areas — with Morgan Rogers, Jacob Ramsey, John McGinn all able to fulfil the role. Elsewhere in the Premier League, it is not financially realistic, but the style profile of Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth would all be an exciting prospect for Grealish to thrive in transition with greater freedom, with two of those teams able to offer European football next season. As the graphic below highlights, that trio were among the highest teams for their share of first passes forward during attacking transitions — the polar opposite to City. Grealish need only look at England international team-mates Morgan Gibbs-White or Eberechi Eze to see how similar profiles of players have thrived in such a style. In a slightly more realistic world, Tottenham's return to the Champions League would provide a good bargaining tool to attract Grealish's attention. Spurs have primarily focused on signing players under the age of 23 under Ange Postecoglou and sporting director Johan Lange, so Grealish's age and wage demands would likely count against him — even if there is tactical value to be indulged. While not as transitional in attack, the declining form and fitness of Son Heung-min means that a spot on the left side of Postecoglou's attack is up for grabs. Spurs are still well-stocked at left wing but Grealish's versatility to operate as a winger or an inside No 8 could act as a mirrored version of Dejan Kulusevski on Spurs' right side. With Grealish's penchant for a dribble, there is a strong case to be made that the 29-year-old would thrive when attempting such take-ons in wide areas, with underlapping runs from full-backs to drag opposition markers away. For context, only Barcelona and Real Madrid have attempted more take-ons than Spurs across Europe's top five leagues this season. Advertisement In continental Europe, there is justification why Grealish has been linked with Serie A champions Napoli this summer. As shown in The Athletic's team playstyle wheel below, Napoli's route to the Scudetto was built on a solid defensive foundation (chance prevention, 97 out of 99) but would benefit from further creative dynamism going forward (chance creation, 62 out of 99). They also have an attacking style that does look to make the most of transitional moments (patient attack, 41 out of 99). While Giacomo Raspadori performed admirably as a left-sided attacker after Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's January move to Paris Saint-Germain, Napoli do remain a little light on their left flank. Grealish's dribbly style aligns with the Georgian's profile. British expatriates have enjoyed successful moves to Italy in recent seasons, most notably Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour's hero status since arriving in Naples — but also Kyle Walker, Fikayo Tomori, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tammy Abraham (Milan), and, to a lesser extent, Dele (Como). The English contingent at Milan would be an attractive prospect to Grealish, but the best tactical option in Italy would surely be the newly crowned Serie A champions. If it were a transitional style that Grealish was looking for, then a glance over at the Bundesliga would certainly be worthwhile. Some might point to a potential Florian Wirtz-shaped hole that could need filling at Bayer Leverkusen, but Eintracht Frankfurt might actually be a more tactically interesting destination for Grealish's skillset. Dino Toppmoller's side finished third in Germany's top division — their highest for more than 30 years — to secure Champions League football next season, with one of the most transitional styles in Europe, as shown below by their volume of direct attacks. Frankfurt might vary their formation used, but the principles have largely remained the same. However, while Toppmoller's side have thrived in open spaces, they have had struggles against opponents who sit in a deep block — meaning Grealish's ability to unlock defences in either phase of the game would be warmly welcomed. Advertisement Grealish need only look at fellow Englishman Jadon Sancho as a player who found solace in Germany after difficulties on and off the pitch, returning to Borussia Dortmund following struggles at Manchester United. With an English contingent of Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Jamie Gittens and Carney Chukwuemeka all having success in Germany this season, Grealish should not turn his nose up at a move to the Bundesliga. Of course, if any club were to take a gamble on Grealish, they would do so knowing that a deal would come with its own caveats. Given his current contract — believed to be £300,000 per week — runs until 2027, a move would require any club to go deep into their pockets. Doing so would also be accepting that Grealish's resale value is rapidly diminishing, given that he turns 30 in September. With his public socialising remaining a bone of contention, many clubs do not have the time to wait for Grealish's fitness and form to return organically. 'Do I want the Jack that won the treble? Yeah, I want it, but I try to be honest with myself,' Guardiola said in January. 'I fought a lot for him, fought a lot to be here. I know that he can do it because I saw him. I saw his level and I want that, every single training session and every single game.' If a prospective manager can tease out that treble-winning version of Grealish, any deal would be well worth making.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Why has there never been a challenger to the Premier League like LIV Golf or the XFL?
The Premier League has established itself as the most popular football league in the world. Billions of pounds flow into its coffers through the sale of international broadcast rights. Its stadiums have become tourist attractions, bringing in visitors from around the world. While some of Europe's other leagues are home to huge clubs and superstars players (Kylian Mbappe at Real Madrid in La Liga, for example), they all fall considerably short of the Premier League when it comes to eyeballs and money. Advertisement There have been attempts to bridge the gap. Some Spanish and Italian clubs tried to disrupt English football's financial dominance with the proposed European Super League (ESL), an alternative to the Champions League, which became public in April 2021. A22 Sports and Florentino Perez, Real Madrid's president, were at the forefront of the plans, with the backing of Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Milan and Inter. Six Premier League clubs — Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur — agreed to join it too, seemingly attracted by the improved financial proposition compared with the Champions League. But condemnation from other clubs and supporters led to their withdrawal within days. That was the only time the Premier League's supremacy has been seriously challenged. Why? The Premier League itself could be described as a model challenger league. At the beginning of the 1990s, English First Division clubs decided to pursue wholesale changes. That led to the 22 top-flight teams resigning from the Football League and seeking independence from the Football Association so they could control their own commercial and broadcast income. They formed the Premier League, which cranked into life on August 15, 1992. The number of clubs was then reduced from 22 to 20 at the end of the 1994-95 season. The wealth of this season's clubs is underlined by the table below, which shows the estimated final earnings of each team But in the eyes of Richard Scudamore, the former chief executive credited with turning the Premier League into the global behemoth it is today, describing the English top flight as a challenger league is wrong. 'Nothing changed, right?' Scudamore tells The Athletic. 'It's not like LIV Golf, the IPL (cricket's Indian Premier League) or the proposed European Super League. The Premier League didn't come along and say they were going to compete head-to-head with the existing structure of English football. Advertisement 'The smartest thing about it was that it was all change, but nothing changed. It was really just a marketing arrangement. When the Premier League season started, 92 teams in England all lined up, so it disrupted only in a governance sense — it didn't disrupt in a footballing sense. But it certainly disrupted the economics of the sport.' Charlie Stillitano disagrees. In the Italian-American executive's eyes, the Premier League certainly is the 'ultimate' challenger league — especially in how it has usurped the other major leagues in Europe, including Spain, Italy, Germany and France. Stillitano is the president of TEG Sport for North America, the former executive chairman of Relevent Sports, and he is known as football's 'Mr Fixer' when organising and promoting games for European sides in the United States. One of the reasons Stillitano doesn't believe a new competitor league to the Premier League is plausible is down to the money that has been poured into England's top flight via broadcast deals, including in the U.S., where NBC pay $450million (£332.4m) a year for exclusive rights. 'That that created, at least in the U.S., a bit of a vacuum for everyone else,' Stillitano tells The Athletic. 'What people forget is we had the economic crisis in 2008 and then financial fair play kicked in, so all those things conspired to make the Premier League, with the money they had, the main league. 'The only league that could really compete was La Liga in Spain. They had the two best teams (Barcelona and Real Madrid) with the two best players (Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo) in the world for 10 years, but a lot of that was when they were on BeIN and there were only eight million viewers over here. 'And when you look at the Premier League now, the economics have gotten so out of whack and they become so incredible in the Premier League relative to the other leagues. Advertisement 'What's changed dramatically is the actual figures involved in the Premier League. They have created the 'super league' in England. 'You would need to create a league as rich as they are, and the only way that can happen is if you try to cobble together all the teams that tried to join the European Super League.' In other sports, challenger leagues are much more common. Major League Soccer (MLS) in the U.S. is about to have a rival on its doorstep, with the United Soccer League (USL) set to launch a new first-division men's professional league in 2027-28. The USL already has two professional leagues, the second-tier USL Championship and the third-tier USL League One. But it has plans to have a 12- or 14-team first division in place for the 2027-28 campaign, which would operate as a direct competitor to MLS. The NFL, America's biggest and most popular sport, has grown massively in recent years and now hosts multiple games abroad every year, but even they have been subject to other leagues trying to muscle their way into the conversation, though ineffectively. In 2001, Vince McMahon, best known for his role as a co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), created the XFL, which operated as a joint venture between the WWE and NBC. The plan was that it would be another American football league that would begin at the end of the NFL season. The first match attracted more than 15 million viewers, but that number quickly plummeted, leading to its demise after only one season. In 2018, McMahon returned and had another crack at entering the American football market by reviving the XFL with new rules to help speed up the game and differentiate it from the NFL. There were eight teams across the U.S. and the season would run from February to May, with each side playing 10 regular-season fixtures before four teams entered a play-off to eventually crown a champion. Advertisement ESPN reported that McMahon expected to spend around $500m on reviving the XFL. It attracted sponsors such as Gatorade and the Anheuser-Busch company, and had more than three million TV viewers, as reported by the LA Times, on the opening weekend. But only months into the 2020 season, its first one back, the Covid-19 pandemic led to the rest of the campaign being cancelled. On April 10, the XFL filed for bankruptcy. 'The challenge for XFL was that the NFL had the billionaires, and there wasn't enough money to dislodge the NFL,' Stillitano says. Marc Trestman, a successful American football coach who most recently worked with the Los Angeles Chargers as a senior offensive assistant in 2024, signed up to coach the Tampa Bay Vipers, one of the now-defunct XFL teams. 'The XFL was an opportunity for me to lead, I was in a great place and I was impressed by Oliver Luck (the XFL's CEO) and his presentation and how the league went about doing things,' Trestman told The Athletic. 'We never approached the XFL as being in competition with the NFL, and we never looked at it that way. From a leadership standpoint, we never tried to say we were going to be the NFL. 'The fact they would take a whole year to ramp up the league, and not jump into it immediately, was a green flag that said they were trying to do it the right way. 'All the flags were positive. We traveled first class, our training facility was first class and we had the resources we needed to do the job. When we left in March 2020, we really felt that we were going to be a good team, but we really felt good about the league — and most of the coaches felt the same way.' Although Trestman said the pay for coaches was 'very, very good', there was a chasm between what players in the NFL were earning compared to those in the XFL. One left tackle in the XFL was being paid 'around $125,000' a year, while 'the best tackles in the NFL may earn $20m' a year, Trestman says. Advertisement Players' earnings were not an issue for LIV Golf, a breakaway golf competition bankrolled by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). It entered the fray in 2021, causing a metaphorical earthquake in a game that the PGA Tour had dominated. The aftershocks are still being felt. Golf's most successful players were targeted, with some accepting nine-figure sums to leave the PGA Tour behind. Dustin Johnson, a former world No 1 who had already amassed more than $70m in career earnings, was reportedly given a $150m signing-on fee to join LIV Golf. Yet while money was never an issue, credibility was — and the PGA Tour remains the dominant organiser of golf events, with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, arguably golf's biggest names, choosing to stay. 'LIV Golf is interesting because golf is made up of individuals,' says Scudamore. 'Individual sports are going to be more vulnerable to somebody coming along and going, 'Right, I'm going to pay you more than you've been paid before as an individual'. 'When that happens, it is only the athlete, their agent and advisors who have to decide whether they want to switch. When someone comes along and asks whether they want to be paid a lot more for doing a lot less, guaranteed for three years, that is going to be attractive. 'When you look across the whole sporting landscape, you can just see sports that are ripe for disruption. But I don't think the Premier League is ripe for disruption.' Scudamore says the Premier League's competition still comes from other leagues, adding that 'the economics of a challenger league being set up to challenge its existence are just so difficult'. 'You would need the money to build appropriate stadiums capable of hosting matches, you then need to buy and pay the players, set up the teams, and build other infrastructure such as a training ground,' he says. 'To do that is so, so hard.' Advertisement The most recent attempt to draw away some of the Premier League's dominance has been the money being poured into the Saudi Pro League (SPL) by the nation's Public Investment Fund. Ronaldo, for example, left Manchester United to join Al Nassr on a money-spinning deal, worth more than £170m ($230m at current rates) a year, in January 2023. Riyad Mahrez, a five-time Premier League winner who was at Manchester City, left for the SPL a few months later, signing for Al Ahli. Two former Liverpool players, Sadio Mane and Jordan Henderson, were signed by SPL clubs (Al Nassr and Al Ettifaq respectively). Last summer, Brentford and England striker Ivan Toney left the Premier League for Al Ahli. Deloitte reported that in 2023, SPL clubs spent more than $950m on new signings. This also coincided with clubs investing in their infrastructure, with projects ongoing. Yet despite the significant investment, including infrastructure, it remains to be seen whether the SPL will become one of the most popular leagues in world football, with many political and environmental hurdles to overcome. Stillitano also points to the power of clubs as brands. 'You can create a new league and say you are going to be big because we have the money to be big, but you have to have the money and the brands,' he says. 'That's why the only league that could have competed with the Premier League was the European Super League.' The company behind the ESL rebranded and created a new concept called the 'Unify League', which would see 96 teams divided into four divisions with 16 teams each in the top two tiers and 32 in the second two. At a Premier League meeting in June 2022, the owners' charter was updated to include the following: 'We will not engage in the creation of new competition formats outside of the Premier League's rules.' Individual players may be tempted but for now, Premier League clubs themselves seem unlikely to take part in any new rival competition. 'The prospect of a challenger league is a pretty nebulous one — in the Premier League, each of the clubs is a single shareholder giving them an equal vote on all matters and a right to the distribution of broadcast and commercial revenues,' says Samuel Cuthbert, a sports and commercial law barrister at 4 New Square Chambers. Advertisement 'The FA has a special share in the Premier League — known as the golden share — which means that certain actions can only be taken with its approval. Any challenger league would likely need ratification from the FA, as the Premier League did, but that may be difficult to acquire given the clear stake the FA has in the Premier League.' Quitting the Premier League is not impossible, though. 'In terms of the mechanics of a club leaving, it's possible under rules B.7 and B.9 of the Premier League handbook for a club to resign from the Premier League, which would take effect at midnight on the last day of the third season following the season in which notice is given,' Cuthbert adds. 'There is an ongoing requirement that at some point in each March of those intervening three seasons, the club giving such notice shall notify the Premier League's company secretary in writing whether such notice is confirmed or withdrawn. If no such notice is given in any year, the notice under Rule B.7 is deemed to have been withdrawn.' Cuthbert's conclusion is that it is 'very difficult to foresee a successful challenger to the Premier League establishing itself at the top of English football'. Playing devil's advocate for a moment, Stillitano doesn't think it's impossible. 'Let's be honest, there are enough billionaires in the world, and they might say, 'Let's scrap this relegation and promotion thing in England',' he says of a rival league. He adds: 'You need to have a country that is really robust. One country that you could do it in is the United States. Players would come here, you can pay them the money and they will have a good life, and it's the biggest media market and commercial market in the world. 'But we also have sports fans who like football. You could get billionaires here together to do it, but you need the courage to do it.' Last week, a new global women's seven-a-side tournament — World Sevens Football (WS7) — took place in Portugal. Bayern Munich beat Manchester United 2-1 in the final, earning $2.5m in prize money. Six other teams, including Manchester City, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, also competed for a combined prize pot worth $5m. As seven-a-side football is not a recognised form of football by FIFA or UEFA, WS7 did not need permission from either governing body to kickstart the new concept and attract players and clubs to participate. Over the past few weeks, the Baller League has been broadcast in the UK. Its founder and chief executive, Felix Starck, described it as 'a new way to consume football'. It includes former professionals and social media influencers to attract a younger audience, and has been successful in Germany. But it wasn't set up to challenge the Premier League. Nor would it be able to. Advertisement At least for now, England's top flight will maintain its position as the most-watched football league in the world, scaring off potential competitors through its sheer popularity and the well-established history of its biggest clubs. The wait for them to be challenged goes on.
