Why Don't Billionaires Buy Non-League Football Teams?

Almost every Premier League team is now owned by a billionaire, or a company controlled by a billionaire, and the influx of the super-rich into football is not a phenomenon that is unique to the English game.

Yet, whether it be Manchester City, Chelsea, or Newcastle United, billionaires always seem to buy fairly established clubs, rather than taking on the challenge of building a club up from their ground in their own image.

In this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at why that is the case, why billionaires buy football clubs at all, and whether it would be a good or bad thing if they were to start buying non-league teams.

[JohnSmith-rwyn]

If I was a billionaire, I'd buy the local team who are conference North, it would literally be real life video game. Ground upgrades, staff hiring, budgets for sqauds. Love it.

[steelo]

Just a cool fact from a lesser known competition : In Bulgaria, the richest man billionaire Kiril Domuschiev bought a 3rd flight team for just 25.000 euros worth of investment. In their debut season in the Bulgarian first league, achieved after back to back promotions, they won the championship. They have still not been dethroned, having won it 11 times in a row. 4 more and they break the European record, though Bayern are on their heels with 10 in a row for now. Check Ludogorets Razgrad FC for more info.

[BALHAM]

a documentary on the afc Wimbledon on the nine promotions in eleven years, how they’re a fan own club and how they have a stadium in plough lane now.
The story of they lost the club, how the F A allowed that and won’t allow that anymore.
How they were very close to moving to ireland
How they went up the English football leagues.
It would be a good documentary video if you can do this. #thepeopleschannel

[mdmthd]

I think that the lower leagues as a whole needs more revenue-generating options aside from the attendances nowadays. That would go a long way in helping them operate. Maybe some sort of YouTube or Twitch or Facebook subscription model would the clubs grow without relying on sugardaddies to bail them out.

[keighlancoe]

Gloucester City would be great candidates. They're the largest city in England to have never had an EFL team and play in the National League North; it has a population of about 160.000 so its larger than some Premier League clubs home towns.

[sidosh]

Day 37: Considering that the last player who played in the miracle of Bern died about 6 months ago, I would really like to see a video about the whole story between Germany and Hungary, especially because it meant so much to at least the German population

[MrDavidFitzgerald]

One blocker would be stadium I suspect. You're never going to get planning permission to build a premier league stadium in Chipping Sodbury or anywhere nearby. At least buying an already established team usually brings with it a decent stadium, often in a well-populated area.

[GenialHarryGrout]

Three millionaires that come to mind in the UK are Dale Vince at Forest Green Rovers, the late Brooks Mileson who took Gretna from non-league football to the Scottish Premiership and Granham White who tried to buy Colne Dynamoes into the EFL.

[pjkerrigan]

Dammit Alfie that’s Rob McElhenny!
Tbh I would’ve expected Alfie to be an Always Sunny fan. Legit a little surprised he’s not.

[adamlennard]

As a Havant and Waterlooville fan I approve of Alfie using the Hawks as an example. Though to be fair I’ve always respected the Hawks owners as they’ve never spent beyond their means putting the club at risk.

[thegloriouspyrocheems]

Day 12 - The Fall and Rise of FK Velež Mostar

From a Club that has beaten Borussia Dortmund, Twente, Derby County and many others to a club that was forced from their own stadium, reduced to nothing during the Bosnian War, becoming a mediocre top-level team in the 00s to nearly being forced into folding in 2016 to its amazing rise back to the top-level football which culminated in return to Europe after 33 years which has seen elimination of Coleraine before a suprising win over AEK Athens before exiting 3rd Round against Elfsborg IF and recently continuing in the Cup win this season which has ensured another European summer next season

[vitbot]

I'm from chipping sodbury and I am absolutely stunned that I've heard you say chipping sodbury more than 5 times, fantastic stuff ❤️

[jonathonbrooks]

Alfie's football knowledge and research eclipses all in this space he is unmatched

[ally_crawford]

Alfie I reckon you'd enjoy the work of the other Wrexham owner...It's Always Sunny if you gave it a chance... it is almost as satirical as you can be!

[razvanmazilu]

In Romania there was an interesting case of a guy who was a billionaire at one point - Ioan Niculae - though his fortunes have decreased, who took over a club with a pretty long history, but very little in the way of support or achievements: Astra Ploiești, a club very much in the shadow of former Romanian champions Petrolul Ploiești who dominate the town.

Despite establishing the club as a pretty consistent top league team, this did little to boost local support, as the locals continued their support of (a struggling) Petrolul rather than change allegiance. I think there was even a short lived merger between the clubs that didn't work out.

He eventually moved Astra about 120km South to Giurgiu, on the banks of the Danube. Giurgiu is much smaller than Ploiești (220, 000+ vs about 60, 000), has virtually no footballing tradition and, at the time, had no club with even a remote chance of getting to the top league or with any level of support from the locals. He set about expanding and modernizing the local stadium so that it would be able to host European cup matches. Eventually Astra won the title in 2016. It also won the cup once and the (largely irrelevant) supercup twice. They also reached three more cup finals (ironically all hosted at the ground of former neighbor Petrolul).

Despite this success and the much improved stadium, Astra didn't receive much backing from the Giurgiu locals and even their biggest matches would usually fail to fill the roughly 8500 seat stadium. Eventually Mr. Niculae's fortunes started taking a turn for the worse and he even landed in prison for corruption and tax evasion. With dwindling financial support, Astra got relegated in 2021. A doping scandal that same year also didn't help matters. They were docked points for both financial irregularities and for the doping incident. This meant they would start the season with a large points penalty and a transfer embargo. They got relegated again. I have no idea if they'll compete in the third league, though their owner is back out of prison on parole. I haven't really kept track of the story.

[abgy]

I'm frankly still amazed that MK Franchise have not become MK Red Bull

[benedictjephcote]

I've been waiting for someone to do the perfectly natural, here's how financial football could well play out if legislation to prevent this madness isn't put into place sometime reasonably soon - which is beautifully illustrated at 25:40 - 26:50 - thank you, that was wonderfully cathartic

[johankrausse]

The ending is classic
Thanks Alfie!!!

[PingoUTFG]

Chipping Sodbury is just what people from Yate say they are from when they inevitably leave the disgusting place

[ijataizat]

Well, I remember playing Championship Manager those days and brought Charlton Athletic becoming Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League, Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup in the matter of 10 season..