Can Multi-Club Ownership Impact International Football?
The rapid rise of multi-club ownership (MCO) models in football has left us scratching our heads. For many fans, they’re the devil. For faceless private equity firms, they’re little more than a logical business strategy.
We hear a lot about the implications of this global game of Monopoly on our beloved club football. But how about the international game? Does MCO help, hinder or leave it relatively untouched?
For those not in the know, MCO is when a single entity - be it a bored billionaire, a corporate hedge fund or a carbonated energy drink - decides one club just isn’t enough and starts collecting football teams. City Football Group (CFG) and Red Bull immediately spring to mind, with entrepreneur Michele Kang making a name for herself in the women’s game.
The goal of these entities is achieving synergy, global reach and of course, making a tidy profit too. But what happens when their finely-tuned, multinational machines mix with the world of international football?
The example I want to present is Ralf Rangnick’s appointment as Austria’s national team manager. His managerial experience and history of more senior positions are intertwined with the Red Bull empire. He is largely credited with overseeing the MCO’s establishment and development in Europe.
The RB connection runs deep, and it’s no coincidence that his Austrian side started to look suspiciously similar to a Red Bull team - both in notable names and style of play. Rangnick’s influence shows how MCO philosophies can easily seep into the international game. While Austria might benefit from his tactical nous, honed in club football, there’s also the risk that national teams could lose their distinct identity.
As football fans, we want to believe that MCO can’t sully international football. National teams can’t be bought, sold or franchised (at least not yet). This inherent purity means that international football remains one of the last bastions of genuine, unfiltered competition.
But this doesn’t mean MCOs have no impact. Players developed under the wing of these global networks often bring the same ideas and automatisms to their national sides. While this can lead to improvements in fitness and tactical knowledge, it can also result in a homogenous style of play that lacks creativity and variety.
So, do MCO models help or hinder international football? It can be argued that they offer new ideas, tactical innovations and a higher level of professionalism to the game. But they also threaten to dilute the essence of what makes international football special. The Premier League, for example, has arguably lost the unique clash of styles that make international tournaments like the World Cup fascinating.
For now, international football remains largely untouched by the MCO juggernaut - an arena where independent and unbranded football is alive and well.