Private market asset managers with deep links to the UK pensions sector are generating strong returns from European football clubs.
A report from Pitchbook, a Morningstar company, reveals that Nottingham Forest are paying Apollo Global Management an interest rate of 8.75 per cent on a €93m three-year private credit loan secured against its stadium. Apollo has more than 200 pension and fiduciary clients.
The report – Private Capital in European Football highlights how a managers Oaktree Capital Management, Carlyle, Apollo Global Management, Ares Management, and Sixth Street have structured asset-backed loans to clubs including Inter Milan, Atalanta BC, Chelsea FC, Nottingham Forest FC, and Olympique Lyonnais.
These managers have also shown significant interest in the UK pensions and wealth management sector. Oaktree bought Sanlam’s UK wealth business in 2021. Carlyle is involved in a joint venture with Punter Southall for the Pension Safeguard DB derisking solution. Last month Apollo, through its Athora insurance platform, bought the Pensions Insurance Corporation (PIC) for £5.7bn. Sixth Street is a leading investor in Clara-Pensions, the UK’s first pension superfund.
The report says private investments in football are yet to reach the heights of 2022, when Chelsea’s sale for €3bn and AC Milan’s sale for €1.2bn, both involving PE firms, saw total deals approach €5bn. In 2024, deals totalled €2.2bn.
More than half of English Premier League clubs having private market investors of some sort.
The Pitchbook report highlights the ways private capital is reaching European football clubs.
For the biggest clubs, who don’t want to sell completely, minority investments are most common, as is the case at Manchester United, Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Juventus and Chelsea. Barcelona sold 25 per cent of its broadcasting rights to Sixth Street, while Real Madrid also struck a deal with this manager for its stadium operations.
Football clubs have seen the value in private capital investment in boosting revenue – with Tottenham Hotspur increasing their per-fan match-day revenue from £1.50 to £15 since moving to their new stadium.
Private debt has also been seen as attractive, as highlighted by the Nottingham Forest loan from Apollo. Oaktree’s €275m emergency loan to Inter Milan in 2021 saw it become the effective owner of an asset valued at €1bn when the club defaulted on its debt.
Private capital sponsors are also able to make opportunistic deals quickly and flexibly when clubs encounter financial distress.
The report says: “Their ability to deploy capital quickly, structure flexible financing, and absorb short-term risks gives them a distinct advantage over strategic buyers. Since 2023, this pattern has played out at Everton FC, Udinese Calcio, Spezia Calcio, UC Sampdoria and AS Saint-Etienne, where distressed situations led to accelerated takeovers by private investors.”
For smaller clubs, majority deals are a growing area, often with historically significant teams with ‘large loyal fanbases. The report cites Wrexham, Birmingham City, Sunderland, FC Thun, Palermo, Paris FC and Sheffield United as key examples. Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham in 2020 for €2.1m. They are believed to be exploring a minority sale that would value the club at €400m.
But the report highlights the big risks of investing in lower-league clubs, where revenue streams are less stable and the threat of relegation can delay returns.
The English Premier League has a majority of clubs, 11 out of 20, that have PE, VC or private debt participation. Ligue 1 in France has 9 clubs, while Italy’s Serie A has seven. Fan majority ownership and other ownership rules in Germany and Spain mean PE and VC deals are very rare there.
The report highlights the lessons of the collapse of Miami-based PE firm 777 Partners, which had attempted to buy Everton.
Multi-club ownership (MCOs), where entities own multiple clubs, can lead to disqualification from tournaments, as has happened with Crystal Palace being removed from the Europa League because its majority owner at the end of the previous season also controls Olympique Lyonnais, which also qualified for the competition.
