From Gil, Lopera and Paco Roig to the vulture funds: when clubs don't need their city or their fans

• INMA LIDON

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  Valencia

Updated Sunday,October 30,2022-02:23

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Since 1992,

has been taking giant steps to become an industry.

The conversion of clubs into sports corporations in Spain and the creation of the

in England were two examples of support for a business that began to understand that its business growth, and therefore its income, were beyond its territorial borders , of the community that filled their stadiums.

The promotion of television rights opened the door to a global market that has made clubs no longer depend on their closest environment.

In

than in the real estate market and in commerce.

Faced with gentrification and the loss of local identity, football, according to the journalist and publicist Vicent Molins in his book

(Barlin Libros), begins to act "like the canary in the mine": neighborhoods without neighbors and the

.

"The link between the team and the city has been broken because the club is no longer economically nourished by its environment. Just as there were cities that became global, as sociologist Saskia Sassen defined them in 1992, at the service of economic power, whose houses are for tourists or are dominated by real estate funds, with traditional businesses giving up space to franchises, the dynamic in football clubs is similar

", explains Molins. From subscriptions to support the budget in the early 2000s to income that does not depend on location: from television rights to investments almost without control of club-states. A globality to the that only a few reach while the rest try to get on a train that denatures them.

"The phenomenon does not only affect LaLiga.

We saw it first in the Premier and now it is spreading in the Italian Serie A," reflects the journalist.

From the president-mayor to immunosuppression'

There are three key stages in that process.

The first starts in 1992 with the conversion of the clubs into SAD.

All except Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Athletic and Osasuna went on to have owners.

Local businessmen such as

,

,

or

, "who accumulated as much social force as a mayor", explains Molins, and used the clubs as social elevators, in some cases even political, but who ended up falling to the arrival of a more speculative second generation, many in the heat of the very industrialization of football or brick.

Those succumbed in large part in 2014 leaving

.

Half of the SADs that compete in the professional category today have gone through a contest in the last two decades.

Gil chats with Caneda in an act of the newspaper Marca.EM

"The local elites were not at the level either because they took the opportunity to speculate or because they were negligent and left immunosuppressed clubs."

In other words, they were collapsed companies, perfect for investment funds and international conglomerates looking for profit in an emerging business.

, Molins collects in his book.

As happened with

,

,

or

three decades ago, in Spain they fell into the hands of historic foreign businessmen such as

,

,

,

,

or

.

Before there were very negative experiences at Alavés and Racing de Santander, with

and

, who saved their still vigorous local communities.

But it was after the purchase of Valencia in 2014 that everything accelerated.

The Valencian team is the paradigm of club-local community disconnection.

Today,

, and some more, such as Atlético de Madrid, with a high participation of investment funds in their shareholders.

In the

, 95% of the clubs belong to foreign business conglomerates and the list continues to grow.

In

,

is owned by the Chinese appliance store giant Suning, which has just put it up for sale after acquiring it from Indonesian businessman Erick Thohir, also a shareholder of the North American soccer team DC United and the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA.

became part of Elliot, one of the best-known American vulture funds, which has just been sold to RedBird Capital, a minority in Liverpool, for 1,200 million after winning the 'Scudetto'

.

The

It has just been acquired by another fund, Bain Capital, co-owner of the Celtics.

"The problem is not the origin of the property," reflects Molins, "it is the type of relationship with the club that that property has: if it uses it as a support for speculation, with which it generates extractive economies and applies the energy to another part of his holding company; or if the property is really linked to a club and he wants to generate a model".

If you opt for the former, the owner will prefer

.

"You don't need the city or the environment, a digitized space is better, a limbo. It's not surprising that you want to play so much in neutral venues, in Miami or Arabia. For the first time, you can," he says.

"That's why it has a catch: it can only go well for the 6 or 7 clubs that are truly global brands. The rest, in reality, what they do is lie to themselves," warns Molins.

'Alpha' and 'buitreado' teams

Not everyone, even if they want to, can.

This investment in football has given rise to "alpha clubs" such as

, led by the City Football Group, with half a dozen other teams in the world, or

Al-Khelaifi's

Even Abramovich's Chelsea.

Globalized and successful.

That trail of adding football to their sports businesses is followed by companies like

with Leizpig and Salzburg.

But also to "fake clubs", those in which the arrival of new capital does not allow them to get on the elite train, but they do not take care of their local community either, or

.

It happened to Blackburn Rovers, Premier League champions in the 94/95 season with Alan Shearer as a star, but which passed from the hands of a local metal businessman, Jack Walker, to being bought in 2010 by the Indian conglomerate VH, dedicated to the poultry farming.

In 2011 he was relegated after 72 years in the elite and 11 years later he is still fighting to return.

Peter Lim the first day he visited Mestalla.EM

The perfect example in LaLiga is

, whose fans have emptied the field in protest at the management of Peter Lim.

"When that happens

. They're doomed when the owner gets tired, they leave or there's another purchase. Another Russian roulette."

The resistance, Superliga and regularization

The disengagement of the teams with their local communities is not a movement that has not encountered resistance, especially in the face of unsuccessful models.

There was resistance in the 1990s when

fans prevented the club from ending up in the hands of

.

Also in Vitoria and Santander.

Even the

Foundation , the club's largest shareholder, said no to the sale to the investment fund of Robert Sarver, owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns, who ended up acquiring Mallorca.

However, it is becoming more expensive because everyone has joined the dynamic of business relocation, even the teams that have avoided having a maximum shareholder such as Real Madrid and Barcelona.

An example is the failed

attempt .

"Florentino and Agnelli do nothing more than impose a business logic," says Molins.

And given this, the journalist's recipe is the same that he would apply to end the

of cities: "Regulation."

At a time when the Sports Law was under review,

, the federation of associations of fans, partners and minority shareholders, requested that the political groups look at the English example, which reflected after the Superliga attempt.

The commission created by the Government under the mandate of

proposed the creation of an independent regulator, above the Premier and the Federation, which would veto supranational competitions but which also included the right of veto for fans in key club decisions and access of independent directors at the proposal of the fans with a supervisory task.

In Spain, this week we have learned that the new Law does not bring with it any anti-Superliga measure and that the claim of the

of the fans, although accepted, is pending regulation in a subsequent regulation.

FASFE understands that this Law does not improve the 1990 law in which, in its opinion, "

.

That is why it is one of the associations that supports the

Win It On The Pitch to ask the European Commission to legislate to protect the European football model, its social value and the right of fans to participate "in all discussions and decisions on the long-term future of European sport".

Of the million signatures required, 3,483 have been collected, the majority in France, Spain and Germany.

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