The entrance of the Velocity Sport Limited group (VSL), of English matrix and participated by North American shareholders, to trace, of Chinese capital and maximum shareholder of the RCD Espanyol, consolidates the last strategic ‘holding company so far of the Spanish league.
A competition that has US investments, Mexico, Argentina, Israel, Mexico, or Singapore in the First Division and that arouses identical interest of foreign funds in the Hypermotion League.
Only Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Athletic Club and Ca Osasuna are not a sports corporation (SAD) and continue under the property of their partners.
However, foreign business groups try to consolidate with projects that sometimes become multipropities with a presence in the shareholding of equipment from other leagues and countries. The last to join this formula has been Espanyol.
In the absence of an official transfer due to the lack of some administrative details, the businessman Alan Pace has led the integration into the Espanyol de Velocity Sport Limited, which already had the English Burnley FC in his portfolio.
The Girona has in its majority shareholder, with 47%, to the City Group, a business group that also owns the property of clubs such as Manchester City, the New York City, the Melbourne City, the Yokohama Marino Yokohama or the Montevideo City, since August 23, 2017.
The Bolivian-American businessman Marcelo Claure acquired 35% of the shares in August 2020, while Pere Guardiola, brother of the current Manchester City coach, Pep Guardiola, is the president of the Board of Directors and has 16% of the club’s actions.
Girona’s relationship with Manchester City had to cool the last year for the coincidence in the Champions League due to UEFA regulations, but the Catalan club trusts that this season can already once again have players given from the English club and to benefit from a network with more than ten clubs around the world.
For example, the main sponsor of the team is, since this season, Etihad Airways, as in the case of the City.
The ‘presence’ of Mexico in Spain
The third ascended and last to reach First, Real Oviedo, currently belongs to the Pachuca group, a Mexican conglomerate that is also in command of the Tuzos de Pachucay and the León Club, in Mexico, and the Everton de Viña del Mar, in Chile.
Pachuca landed in the capital of the Principality in July 2022, when the group chaired by Jesús Martínez bought more than half of the actions of the Carso group of Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, maximum shareholder of the Carbayona entity since 2012.
In this way, and after several capital extensions carried out throughout these years, the Pachuca group currently has 60% of Real Oviedo’s shares, while the Carso group maintains 15% and the rest is distributed among minority shareholders.
The varied map of investors in Spanish clubs
In the Valencian Community, Valencia CF, since 2014 owned by the company Meriton Holdings, under the command of the Singapurese entrepreneur Peter Lim, who took the majority share after a complex and questioned purchase process in which he ended up awarding him the shareholding package of the VCF Foundation, which was 70.06% of the total, for 94 million, plus another six for the aforementioned foundation.
Since then, various financial operations have led Lim to be made with about 92% of the club’s shareholding and, for the first time, last December, then President Layhoon Chan said that, if an attractive offer arrived, Lim would study it, although he pointed out that he had no hurry to sell.
In April he placed his son Kiat Lim as president of the Board of Directors. The passing of the years and the bad sports and economic results have significantly increased the social opposition to the management of Lim, with massive demonstrations against them and even several ’emptying’ of the Mestalla stadium.
The Villarreal, another of the teams that have become one of the Spanish football classics in recent years, is located in an action stability since 1997, the year in which the Valencian businessman Fernando Roig bought the club’s majority of the club, when he was in the First Division.
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In these almost thirty years and through its sporting successes, the Castellón team has managed to maintain a stable economic model, with the novelty of the inclusion of Fernando Roig Negueroles, one of Roig’s children, who also participates in the direction of the club.
One of the newly promoted, Elche CF, is owned by Argentine businessman Christian Bragarnik, who bought the entity from former president José Sepulcre, in December 2019, after taking 70% of the values for a disbursement close to 20 million euros. Since then, this owner and football agent has been increasing the shareholder majority, next to 99%, as well as their involvement in the team.
In Levante UD, current CEO, Pepe Danvila, is the reference shareholder in the entity, owner of approximately 38% of them. Danvila, who assumed the direction in September 2023, given the lack of liquidity of the club, has since invested 31 million euros in the team, being also the third major creditor of the club, since the Levante owes about 17 million euros to his society, capital bizas.
The Foundation of Levante, composed of different employers and in which the peñistas and the veterans are represented, among others, it brings together just over 30% of the titles, leaving the rest of the participation in the hands of small shareholders.
Atlético de Madrid has its share capital among several shareholders, although the majority, with 70.39% of the property is Atlético Holdco, a financial company formed by Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, CEO of the Club; Enrique Cerezo, president; and the American company Ares Management Corporation, which in 2021 took 33.96% of Atlético Holdco, around 20% of the club.
Another outstanding shareholder is the Israeli businessman Idan Offer, who through his investment group Quantum Pacific, has 27.81% of the club’s actions, according to official data of the entity, while the remaining is in the hands of small shareholders, including former partners, companies and individuals.
Rayo Vallecano is owned by the Spanish businessman Raúl Martín Presa, owner of 97.82% of the club’s actions, since his arrival in May 2011, when he bought the participations of the Ruiz-Mateos family. Thus, the remaining 2.18% of the property is distributed between minority shareholders.
In the Getafe CF, its president since 2022, Ángel Torres, has bought in 2025 the participation of the majority shareholders to have control of more than 99.5% of the club, in a year marked by rumors about a possible purchase by the American group Fenway Sports Group (FSG), owners of the English Liverpool or the Boston Red Sox of Baseball.
The RCD Mallorca, since 2023, is owned by American ex -diet Andy Kolhberg, who bought the majority of the club owner for seven years, Robert Sarver.
His shareholding group is also composed of figures related to sports during his career, such as former Canadian player of the NBA Steve Nash or former Scottish soccer player Stuart Holden, although the daily operations of the club are carried out by Alfonso Díaz and Pablo Ortells, CEOs of the business and sports areas, respectively.
The Sevilla FC, which is currently in a sports, institutional and corporate crisis, has the majority of its capital in the hands of different Sevillista families who signed a governance pact in 2019, in force until the end of 2027, and from which its greatest individual shareholder was separated shortly after, former president José María del Nido Benavente, faced with his first and current president, José María del Nido.
However, in the Hispanic team it has also entered the capital of the US Fund 777 Partners, which have more than 14% of the shareholders and that, despite the alleged agreement they seemed to have with the Benavente nest, voted in favor of the continuity of the current Council at the last general meeting. The fund, plunged into different judicial problems, currently have their titles by the A-CAP insurer.
In Real Betis, the shareholding situation seems more stable, since its president, Ángel Haro, and its vice president, José Miguel López Catalán, have between both 39% of the social capital of the club and also have a large majority thanks to the support of other shareholders such as Joaquín Caro Ledesma or former soccer player Joaquín Sánchez, without participation of any foreign fund.
In the Real Club Celta, most of the shareholders are from the GES Corporate Group, of which its president, Marian Mouriño, is a single administrator since the late 2021, with the control of 76% of the actions of the Celeste Club. The inclusion of the Mouriño family dates back to 2006, when at that time, the vice president of Celta, the Galician businessman, based in Mexico, Carlos Mouriño, bought the shareholding titles of the president, the Galician businessman Horacio Gómez.
Since then, the participation of the Mouriño and the GES Group has been increasing, after being done in 2014, worth 5.5 million euros, with 24% of the actions of the Abanca banking entity, which had converted the club’s debt into shares and, subsequently, reaching 75 percent of the Celta shareholding package after carrying out a capital expansion.
The Royal Company has the legal form of SAD, but by agreement of its partners, none of the shareholders have more than 2% of the property, a limit that allows to be able to vote in the presidential elections of the club, but preventing the concentration of power in the property.
Deportivo Alavés, chaired by Alfonso Fernández de Trocóniz, has its majority owner at Baskonia, basketball team of the city of Vitoria, whose maximum shareholder is Josean Querejeta, which in 2011 was made with the corporate majority of ‘The Glorious’ for 2.5 million euros.
With Reuters information
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