Multi-club ownership and sporting success: myth, expectation, and evidence

Abstract

Research objectives: Multi-club ownership (MCO) is often assumed to enhance talent mobility and squad depth, but its impact on on-field success remains under-researched. The current study investigated whether MCO improves affiliated clubs’ sporting outcomes and explored how performance effects vary across ownership models, network structures, and a club’s role within its MCO network. Research methods: We used a difference-in-differences method to analyze a new panel dataset comprising 2,060 club-season observations from 116 MCO-affiliated professional football clubs and 232 independently owned control clubs selected via stratified nearest-neighbor matching. The data analyzed spanned 31 seasons from 1993/1994 to 2023/2024 and covered 348 professional clubs in 46 national leagues in major football markets across six regions. Results and findings: MCO affiliation was not associated with systematic improvements in a club’s league performance. This null result holds across most ownership models (private equity vs. football groups), network structures (vertical vs. horizontal), and hierarchical roles within MCO networks (flagship vs. feeder). Implications: Our findings challenge the prevailing narrative that MCO automatically leads to performance benefits, as ownership type alone does not seem to be a key factor in sporting success. Hence, MCO networks may not necessarily offer a competitive advantage for clubs in the short to medium term, and independently owned clubs could be just as well-positioned to succeed while avoiding threats to their autonomy or identity.