The Celebrity Takeover of Football Clubs in the EPL

Real Madrid leyenda Luka Modric hit the news last week. This time, though, for moves he made off the pitch. Modric acquired a share in Welsh side Swansea City FC, as announced on the Swansea social media on April 14.

Modric joins a host of celebrities: Ryan Reynolds (Wrexham AFC), David Beckham (Inter Miami FC), Tom Brady (Birmingham City FC), Lebron James (Liverpool FC), and most recently Carolina Panthers quarterback Andy Dalton (Leeds United FC)–dipping their toes into football club ownership.

Why are they doing this? And what’s the deal with football club ownership anyways? 

Different types of ownership

Football clubs are businesses, and they follow the same outlines of ownership that any other business does. Some of the most common models of ownership are: the private property model, the membership model, the public ownership model, and the mixed ownership model. 

Private property model

A private entity, like an investing group, individual, or even a state, owns a football club. 

Examples: Paris Saint German, Chelsea FC, Arsenal FC

Membership model

Also known as the partner ownership model, this is when a club’s members are its owners, allowing members to participate in decision making.

Examples: Real Madrid, River Plate

Public ownership model

A club is listed on the stock exchange, which means that the public may buy shares and gain partial ownership. 

Examples: Manchester United, Juventus

Mixed membership model

Corporate investors share ownership of a club with members of the club retaining the majority. The 50+1 rule is standard in the Bundesliga. This rule requires that members hold at least 50% of the club, plus one vote, ensuring the involvement of members in the club.

Examples: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund

Recently, controversy has emerged over multi-club ownership. Multi-club ownership is when one group owns multiple clubs across countries. Some major players are Red Bull, City Football Group, and Red Bird Capital. Critics argue that multi-club ownership ruins the competitiveness of the game while centering profit. 

How ownership has changed over time

The landscape of club ownership has changed vastly over the history of the sport. Association football, or soccer, is a fundamentally working-class sport. It began as a place for the Victorian British working class to let off steam and come together in their free time, at a time where industrialization and urbanization made leisure and community increasingly hard to come by. Football clubs came to represent more than just the game; clubs were a display of local pride and togetherness. 

However, as football has changed and grown, so too has the business landscape. With expanding audiences, investors, and ballooning standards of player salaries, it has become an increasingly laborious task to bankroll a football club. In fact, more often than not, it’s a risky business venture. More and more, the ultra-rich are the only ones who can afford to fund a large, successful club at scale, introducing a host of complexities in football club ownership. 

Celebrity owners

The past couple of years have seen an influx of celebrities into the footballing world. It’s become more and more common to see big-name celebrities scoop up shares in smaller-name clubs. More often than not, it’s not for a fierce love of the club or passion for the sport. Looking at Andy Dalton’s purchase of a share in Leeds FC, one may assume just the opposite. 

The quarterback admitted that he had not yet visited Leeds, nor attended a match. Dalton told the Carolina Panthers official website, “I had no idea how any of that stuff [promotion and relegation] works, and so I needed to know as a sports fan, I should understand how soccer works.”

“As an investor, it’s great,” Dalton added, referring to his decision to invest. “Buy low.”

Dalton’s flippant comments reveal what may be the real driver behind all these celeb acquisitions: money.

There are a myriad of reasons to buy into a club. It is, as Dalton described, a “fun thing to have money in,” and can diversify an investment portfolio. It’s also mutually beneficial for both the buyer and the club; the former expanding their personal brand and the latter gaining exposure from celebrity star power. Due to its inherent risk, owning a club can be a sign of financial status. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is a significant tax incentive to invest in sports teams. A 2021 ProPublica investigation dives into the ways that sports owners rake in money from tax deductions while avoiding taxation.

But sometimes it’s unexpectedly wholesome–take Ed Sheeran, who bought a minority share in his boyhood club, Ipswich Town FC. He’s since been a major cheerleader for the team, which was promoted back to the Premier League in the 2024-25 season after a 22-year drought in the English lower leagues.

What the future might look like

Examining what seems like a frivolous, exciting trend in football club ownership unfortunately reveals an ugly underbelly. Celebrity owners act as a glamorous front to the corrupt business of football, while club supporters feel divorced from the heart of their clubs.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the ultra-rich are steering the future of football club ownership in a darker direction. The schism between clubs and their locality is wide and grows wider, a far cry from the working-class roots of organized football clubs. There are a host of issues; local fans priced out of matches, the impossible tangle of streaming services, and ever-present stain of human rights issues around the top clubs in football. And there’s not much supporters can do about it. 

But there can be glimmers of hope in stories of fans coming together to take collective action. Take the group Arsenal Supporters Against Sexual Violence, who have been demonstrating outside Arsenal games to raise awareness to the culture of silence around sexual violence in football. Celtic FC ultra group The Green Brigade have been outspoken in their support for Palestinian liberation, raising money, awareness, and solidarity for the Palestinian people. Another group of Gunners are raising awareness with a tongue-in-cheek slogan “Visit Tottenham,” protesting the club’s partnership with the tourist board of Rwanda. The Rwandan government continues to provide financial support for the M23 rebel group in The Democratic Republic of Congo, exacerbating violence that has been described by the UN as a humanitarian crisis.

Amid the glitz and glamor of celebrity football club ownership attached to your favorite club, it’s important to remember what football clubs are really about: a collective of real people, coming together to enjoy the beautiful game.