In their home stadium, Plow Lane, there has been a slogan that has been hanging since the team was founded: WE DON’T BUY HISTORY, WE MAKE IT.

In the final round of the 2002/03 season Premier League , Chelsea faced Liverpool. Sami Hyypia opened the scoring for Liverpool, but within two minutes, Marcel Desailly equalized for Chelsea. In the middle of the first half, Danish Jesper Gronkjaer scored the key goal that helped Chelsea win.

Gancha’s curve ball was described as a 1 billion pound goal. It was also a goal that completely changed European football. After the season, the Russian Roman Abramovich paid 150 million pounds. Debt-ridden Chelsea was acquired for sterling. It is said that Aiba Mojizhi wanted to buy a team that could play Europa League , and it was Gancha's goal that allowed Chelsea to surpass Liverpool with a slight advantage of 2 points and win the Europa League ticket.

When Aiba Moyuji drove a tank filled with rubles into the Stamford Bridge stadium, many players were still on vacation. Gan Cha later recalled: I thought this was a normal acquisition at the time. I knew he had Money, but I didn't expect him to be so rich.

Since 2003, Alba Mochi has generously donated more than 2 billion pounds to Chelsea's signings, and the team has won 21 championship trophies, including two Europa League titles. Facts have proved that Russian oligarch businessmen not only changed the fate of Chechnya, but also changed the map of European football.

Through his continuous investment of personal financial resources into the team, Chelsea has changed the traditional way of building a Premier League team. In the first few years, public opinion scorned this kind of gold-dollar football, but if you look at Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, the upstarts that have risen rapidly in Europe in the past decade, they all rely on the strong financial resources of their major shareholders to spend huge sums of money in the transfer market. . Aibamo Yuzhi was the initiator of this era.

The owner of Liverpool is John Henry, an American futures tycoon worth $2.8 billion. The boss who just took over Chelsea is Todd Burley, a former partner of Guggenheim, an American asset management giant worth $13.4 billion. Todd Boehly), Manchester City is owned by Sheikh Mansour, the brother of the former President of the United Arab Emirates, who is worth $26.2 billion, and behind Paris Saint-Germain is the Qatar Investment Authority, which manages $275 billion.

The investors behind Europe's top teams can be roughly divided into three categories. One is the traditional European business family, with the typical representative being the Agnelli family which has been in charge of Juventus for nearly a century; the other is Pay to Win's There are oil tycoons in the Middle East, such as the Qatar sovereign fund that runs Grand Paris; there is also the American capital group that seems to be inconspicuous, but is actually intricate.

The legendary Italian coach Marcello Lippi once sneered at the latter two: They do not understand our traditions, and these debt-ridden entrepreneurs are looking for opportunities to make money.

But in fact, the arms race stirred by oil and US dollars not only built the top wealth and power in European football, they also completely rewritten the rules of football.

rubles, oil and value investment, it is rumored that Aiba Moyuji's fortune first came from the smuggling of perfume by the flight attendant's ex-girlfriend. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Aiba Moyu and Berezovsky, the father of the Kremlin, each invested 100 million to acquire the Siberian oil fields through illegal auctions. After this battle, Aiba Moyu's personal wealth soon reached 10 billion US dollars, and he was nicknamed the Yeltsin family's cash machine.

In 2003, Chelsea was on the verge of bankruptcy. The extremely wealthy Aiba Moyu repaid the 75 million loan from the former chairman, and with the help of money, Chelsea quickly became a European giant in a short period of time. The then head coach Moreno recalled: That summer was so crazy. Alba Mochizhi and I flew together to look for top players all over the world. Whoever I liked, he wrote the check directly next to me.

That summer, Aiba Moyuji brought Duoba, Essien, Robin and Shizhi to Molino. Molino led the team to win the league championship, breaking Manchester United and Arsenal. The monopoly of slave .Yunga undoubtedly criticized this: "Chelsea has turned the transfer market into two, one belongs to them, and the other belongs to other teams." This kind of investment regardless of cost has completely changed European football. The way the forum is run.

Before Aibamo Yuzhi led the Ruble Army to kill all parties, the more typical and "more European" representative was Zuyundas who was at the helm of the Agnelli family. The Agnelli family operates the famous Fiat Group and acquired Juventus Club in 1923 and manages it to this day.

Before introducing C Cristiano Ronaldo and Matthijs de Ligt at a high price, Juventus' business ideas were directly reflected in their transfer ideas: poach domestic competitors at high prices and sell them at low prices. Overseas Taobao.

For example, in the summer of 2016, Higurn was dug out from Napoli for a sky-high price of 90 million euros, but in Benadia (on loan, 16 million euros buyout/ Bayern ) and Gudadu (on loan) , 20 million buyout/Che Lushi) spent very little money on him. In the summer of 2015, 41 million was spent to introduce Dybala from Palermo, but the spending on signings from other leagues was relatively small (Alex Sindo, 28 million/Porto, Wendisujie, 19 million/ Atletico Madrid). The advantage of

in doing this is that poaching domestic opponents can both strengthen itself and weaken the opponent, and maintain its competitiveness in its home league. At the same time, we do not pursue championships in the European League, but stabilize the bottom line of the top eight, ensure that the team gets a certain share of broadcasting, and ensure financial health.

Football in Europe is rooted in the community, and the vast majority of teams are often invested by large local businesses or families. For example, Naples chairman De Laurentiis runs Filmauro Films, the publisher of ", the killer is not too cold"; Zamparini, the former chairman of Palermo, runs the local Emmezeta department store.

Compared with the competitiveness of the European League, investors are obviously more concerned about supporting local teams in exchange for a good impression of local residents. Therefore, the traditional operating strategy of most teams in Europe is to maintain a certain degree of competitiveness while ensuring financial health, and to allow team investors to gain local influence. But the oil tycoons who came to Europe with Aiba Moyuji obviously didn't think so.

In May 2011, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund acquired 70% of Paris Saint-Germain's shares for 50 million euros. The Qatari consortium spent 84 million euros on signings that year, and won six Ligue 1 championships from 2013 to 2019. Manchester City was acquired by the Arab consortium in 2008 and quickly became the Premier League hegemon with "five titles in 10 years" from Sir Alex Ferguson's noisy neighbor.

Compared with the financial balance of the team, the oil tycoons in Russia and the Middle East obviously value some "intangible assets" in Europe more: Aimovich is acquiring assets in the UK. One of the purposes is to obtain British citizenship and stay away from the Russian oligarchs. Clean. When the Qatar sovereign fund took over Paris, there were also rumors that Qatari politicians used football to gain political influence in Europe, replicating the magic touch of "the small ball turns the big ball".

The most typical example is Dmitry Rybolovlev, the current chairman of Monaco and a Russian tycoon. In December 2011, he acquired Monaco, which was at the bottom of the Ligue 2 league, and promised the Monaco royal family to invest at least 100 million euros in the next four years. But Dmitry's investment has another purpose - Dmitry has a close personal relationship with Prince Alberto II of Monaco, and Alberto II is a fan of Monaco. At the same time, Dmitry has the same troubles in Russia as Alberto Movich thing.

What ordinary fans feel most strongly about is undoubtedly the Fly Emirates sponsorship trademark of Emirates Airlines on the chests of the jerseys of many wealthy clubs. Compared with investing in teams, large-scale sponsorships are undoubtedly part of the national image project.

In addition to his status as an oligarch, Aiba Moyuji may be a football enthusiast. It is difficult for the oil presidents of many other teams to judge whether they are really fans. Regardless, they upended the European tradition of improving competitiveness while maintaining fiscal health.

Compared with the team's own profit and loss, large consortiums obviously care more about some non-commercial value investments. Even some Europeans are not immune to this, such as Berlusconi , who has managed AC Milan for nearly 30 years.

Beyond these overt and covert attacks, those who really regard football as a business are the American consortiums from the authentic capitalist countries . Dollars, vultures and venture capital, Americans may not understand football, but they certainly understand investing. In 2005, Gracha, with total assets of only 1 billion pounds, bought Manchester United worth 790 million pounds by using the unbought Manchester United as a mortgage. He only invested 270 million pounds and relied on JP Morgan and the United States Three. The huge loan obtained by the large hedge fund completed the leveraged buyout of . After the acquisition of

was completed, Grasha thought that the debt repayment could be postponed for a while. He loaned 20 million from the team's account to his sister for turnover, and also transferred 50% of the financing for the re-listing of Manchester United US stock into his own pocket.

Glasa's stinginess (meaning stingy) is well-known in European football. Former Manchester United player Ibachan Movi had one pound deducted from his salary because he drank juice in the hotel room.

Manchester United once banned players from exchanging jerseys with each other after the game, just to save 6.6 million pounds. What's even more exaggerated is that the Ottford Stadium, known as the Theater of Dreams, is already the shabbiest home stadium among the Premier League giants. Not only does it not have a large screen to notify fans or play back VAR, the ceiling even leaks.

Tottenham's Levy, Arsenal's Kroenke and Manchester United's Glasha family have always been the three famous stingy gods in the Premier League, but what makes Glasha different is that their business operation capabilities have always been Online, Manchester United still maintains huge commercial influence despite not having a championship for many years.

In fact, American capital’s presence in European football is no less extensive than that of Middle Eastern oil dads. The reason why it lacks presence among the fan base is largely due to the fact that American capital’s investments are mostly concentrated in the midstream of the five major leagues A team, not a top club.

For example, Serie A team Atlanta , which has produced a lot of talents in recent years, is owned by the American Stephen Pagliuca; the man behind Fiorentina is Rocco Commisso, the boss of the American cable TV provider Mediacom; Roma is in It was sold to American tycoon Dan Friedkin in 2019. When John Henry bought Liverpool, the latter had not been able to play in the Europa League for many years.

For these teams with mediocre long-term performance, ordinary fans see "weak strength", while capital giants see "potential for appreciation." Teams like

are often ranked in the middle. Fans do not have particularly high requirements for the team's performance. They occasionally enter the Europa League for the New Year and there is no risk of being relegated. They are very suitable as a springboard for young players. The team can cultivate young players. players and then sell them for a profit. On the other hand, American bosses will basically use leverage when acquiring teams, and it is difficult to make a larger investment.

Teams under the control of American capital often adopt a VC-style business philosophy - selling star players at their peak in exchange for a truckload of young players, and continuing to bet on future value-added space. Therefore, such teams often have a lineup that is far from luxurious, but they all have a team of top managers. The most typical example of

is the "Martini-Marsala" combination of AC Milan's scouting team. The latter has long been a subordinate of the well-known football director Sabatini, and managed both Sana and Alisson in Rome. A very profitable trade. In 2019, Massara joined AC Milan and completed the transactions of multiple potential players with Madinni.

At that time, the real owner of AC Milan was actually the famous "Wall Street Vulture" Paul Singer. In 2017, China's mysterious rich man Li Yonghong used leverage to buy Milan . Among the 740 million euros in the purchase price were 300 million was loaned to the American hedge fund Elliott Corporation, which bears 11% interest every year, and also signed an overlord clause: if it cannot be repaid within 18 months, Elliott will take away the mortgaged AC Milan.

As a result, Li Yonghong failed to repay as scheduled, and Singer accidentally became the actual controller of AC Milan. After Singer took over, he adopted a very Wall Street way of doing things: hire professional managers, reorganize-operate-sell. He first injected 500 million euros to improve the team's financial situation, and then introduced managers such as Gazidis , Massara, and Madinni. After a series of refined operations, AC Milan won the Serie A championship and its valuation skyrocketed.

Not long ago, Singer sold Milan to Redbird Capital for 1.2 billion. The cost of "500 million euros + Li Yonghong's outstanding loan of 200 million" has nearly doubled the income. In addition, Red Bird was also leveraged and loaned 300 million to Elliott at an interest rate of only 6%.

During the same period, American capital made a big move into European football. In 2021, Chicago 's Peak 6 strategic investment Wolves , Howard Marks' Oak Capital acquired 31% of Inter Milan's equity, and Mike Dell's family capital acquisition history Basiya, Ruisheng Investment bought La Liga giants Atletico Madrid 34% equity.

Due to the restrictions of Bundesliga "50+1" policy and La Liga's unique membership structure, it is difficult for foreign forces to get involved, so Americans focus more on the Premier League, which has the biggest cake. Among the top 6 BIG teams in the Premier League, 4 are controlled by American capital.

In the end, it depends on the fundamentals.

There are two opportunities for Americans to shop in Europe. One is the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent European debt crisis , and the other is the impact of the epidemic on the football market.

The subprime mortgage crisis has left 20 Premier League teams with debts of more than 3 billion pounds. The European debt crisis has dragged the entire Europe into a quagmire. Macroeconomic fluctuations will naturally affect the football market. Compared with the Premier League, which has higher commercial value and healthier club operations, Serie A and completed a collective hard landing after the financial crisis - such as the desolation of the Milan duo, the reorganization of Fiorentina, and the bankruptcy of Parma.

In the Rai Radio program, Milan's meritorious player Costaguda once said: "Milan misses Berlusconi. Back then, he only needed to take a look at the Ballon d'Or list, and then he would directly introduce those players."

The financial crisis, to a certain extent, contributed to the oil tycoons' Normandy landing , and even attracted the entry of Chinese capital.

In 2014, the promulgation of the " Several Opinions of the State Council on Accelerating the Development of the Sports Industry and Promoting Sports Consumption" coincided with the dual bull market in the domestic real estate stock market. Chinese real estate tycoons whose net worth has soared are flocking to football. Wanda invested 45 million euros in Atlético de Madrid, Suning purchased 70% of Inter Milan's shares for 270 million euros, Guo Guangchang joined Wolves, Evergrande He formed the Asian Red Devils and the boss Li of Milan who came and went in a hurry.

The ongoing epidemic in the past two years has undoubtedly caused many European teams to lose their value again. During the epidemic, the team's game-day income dropped sharply, broadcasting revenue shrank, and established powers like Barcelona also encountered crises. American capital is frantically shopping for goods, largely seeing room for appreciation in the team's value.

But on the other hand, investing in football is a very complicated business. Financially-rich companies such as Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain have failed to win in the European League after ten years of investment.

In the past ten years, the most successful investment by an American consortium in Europe was undoubtedly the acquisition of Liverpool by Fenway Group (FSG). In 2010, Fenway Group acquired Liverpool, which was about to be taken over by loan sharks due to the "general environment". The latter is a century-old giant in England, and the former is a consortium specializing in sports assets. In addition to Liverpool, Fenway also owns American Baseball. Team Boston Red Sox, ice hockey team team Pittsburgh Penguins.

Liverpool’s renaissance in the past 10 years is a very American business story: on the one hand, it has greatly strengthened the club’s commercial operation capabilities and used the increase in commercial income to make up for the loss of broadcasting shares due to the club’s absence from the Europa League; on the other hand, it has reduced administrative expenses. , over the past nine years, Liverpool's operating expenses have grown at a compound rate of only 7%, which is half of the revenue growth rate.

Another characteristic of American capital is that it rarely interferes in the team's technical tactics, such as "Aiba Moyuji forced Sesshov to give Morino a really high score", "Berlusconi passed a note to Ancharotti" and so on A classic old joke.

Of course, the most critical thing is undoubtedly the brand value of Liverpool itself. The revival of a century-old giant is obviously a classic value investment from an investment perspective. After all, Maotai is contained in the bottle of Nongfu Spring , which is also Maotai.

Football is a business and an investment, but it is first and foremost a sport rooted in the community. There is a football club in the UK called Wimbledon F.C.. For decades after its establishment in 1889, the team could only participate in amateur regional leagues. In the 1980s, Wimbledon reached its peak, once reaching the First Division, and defeated Liverpool to win the FA Cup championship.

But in 2002, the owners of Wimbledon moved the club to Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire and renamed the team Milton Keynes FC. By the way, they changed the team's badge and theme color. It caused dissatisfaction among local fans at Wimbledon.

In the same year, Wimbledon fans who felt deeply betrayed organized themselves and formed a new team called AFC Wimbledon (AFC Wimbledon). The owner of this team is a trust fund called The Dons Trust, and all its shares are owned by the fans who participated in the establishment of the team. In other words, this is a team that belongs entirely to the fans.

As it was a new team, AFC Wimbledon could only start in the amateur County League (United Counties Football League Premier Division). However, the team was promoted to four levels in a row in the next 7 seasons and once played 78 league games. The undefeated miracle finally passed the play-offs in 2016 and returned to the English League League.

In their home stadium, Plow Lane, there has been a slogan that has been hanging since the team was founded: WE DON’T BUY HISTORY, WE MAKE IT.