Celebrity Football Investors . . . Why?

There has been a trend in the last few years where celebrities and former athletes are buying into football clubs (not American football). It begs the question: why?

The reasons are more strategic and thought-out than you may imagine.

For starters, the price. Buying into a Premier League club is (usually) cheaper than an NBA or NFL team. The average NFL franchise is over $4B, while European soccer clubs can be around $2.6B. Obviously, clubs like Liverpool and Manchester City are quite expensive to buy into, but the lower you go on the pyramid, the more affordable a stake in the club is.

For some investors, it's a passion project, or side quest if you will, that they know may not go anywhere. Similar to a car enthusiast building an old car in their garage. It may not run (though they hope it would), they enjoy investing in and building it.

Other investors look to increase the value of both the club and their own brand. Clubs are valuable but replaceable. These types of investors are looking at the long-term capital growth rather than the immediate operating return. They're willing to absorb the operational losses in order to build value. For example, Liverpool was worth around £300M in 2010 and has been estimated to be worth around £3.6B as of 2025. This model of accepting short-term losses for long-term appreciation is known as an asset-building model.

Then there are those investors who only do it for the prestige of saying they own a football club. In some of these cases, they put enough money into it to say they own a stake but have very little to do with the day-to-day activities. While some owners want to be immersed in the day to day, these types of owners are in it for the prestige and don't have much power in the decision making process, which is not ideal for the club's upward table movement.

Why do these celebrities choose the clubs they do?

For some, the reasons are more personal. Rapper Stormzy, Danny Young, and Wilfried Zaha all invested in AFC Croydon Athletic because of their shared roots in Croydon. Elton John has been a supporter of Watford FC since he was a child, so he bought the club (twice).

Then there are the investors who are truly interested in making a difference. Natalie Portman co-founded Angel City FC because she wanted to see the women's game as big as the men's. She saw the inequality between women's football and men's and felt moved to do something about it.

Sometimes the situation is more urgent. Drake was friends with one of the co-owners of Venezia FC, who called to inform him of their urgent financial situation. Drake stepped in to help them avoid filing for bankruptcy.

What do the clubs get out of it?

Bringing in a famous owner means the club gets immediate global exposure. People who never would have heard of the club are suddenly following them, buying into the merchandise and the club's success, simply because of who one of the owners is. For example, someone may really enjoy Ed Sheeran's music then they find out he has a minority stake in Ipswich Town FC. Suddenly, the club gains a new fan. That celebrity connection reached someone who could have been considered unreachable.

It also increases their brand value, which helps to open doors for new opportunities and new markets that otherwise would not have been available to them.

This celebrity investor trend is great, especially for smaller clubs. For the owners, it's still a gamble that may or may not pay off. We can only hope they don't decide to pull out once the newness wears off.