FootBiz Newsletter No. 208: Real Madrid’s Private-Capital Plans, a big Italian stadium naming rights deal, United’s Transfer Losses and More

Good morning.

Florentino Pérez’s proposed ownership reforms return to the spotlight ahead of Real Madrid’s November assembly, while Milan and Inter unveil a reported €650 million naming-rights agreement with Generali. Plus Manchester United’s €405 million transfer-value decline, Ligue 1’s early television rights tender and the latest developments in club ownership and investment.

Photo: Barcex · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized; uncropped.

Pérez’s Advisers Are Preparing Real Madrid for Private Capital

According to The Athletic, Real Madrid are planning their ordinary assembly for 21 November although delegate members have yet to be told the date or the agenda. It remains unclear whether Florentino Pérez will use the occasion to ask them to approve a new ownership model.

El Gol Digital reported on Thursday that Anas Laghrari, Eduardo Pérez and Bernd Reichart are preparing a proposal for members to transfer the entire football business into a company that private investors could buy. Laghrari, founder of Key Capital and co-founder of Super League promoter A22, holds no position at the club but has gained influence since helping to finance the Bernabéu rebuild. Reichart, A22’s chief executive, has himself been linked with a move to Real Madrid.

When Pérez proposed a members-owned subsidiary last November, he limited any strategic investor to 5%. Members have now been told that whoever buys in will have no say in how the club is run, a condition Sixth Street accepted in 2022 when it paid €360 million for a share of the Bernabéu’s future commercial income. Under the structure described last year by Spanish business site Vozpópuli, the shares would carry economic rights but no votes or dividends, so any investor’s return would rest largely on the price at which the club can buy them back.

Pérez beat Enrique Riquelme with 65% of the vote in June, yet a new ownership model would be far harder to pass. Transforming the club requires the approval of an absolute majority of the whole electoral roll, an estimated 40,000 members, whereas just over 33,000 turned out for an election that came close to the club’s record. Vozpópuli reported before the vote that a big win could lead Pérez to ask delegates to lower the bar to a majority of votes cast. Riquelme, who has since turned his campaign office into a platform demanding transparency over the ownership plans, will be watching 21 November closely.

Photo: MottaW · CC BY 4.0 · Resized; uncropped.

Inter and Milan Sell the New San Siro’s Name for a Reported €650m

Inter and Milan have sold the naming rights to their new stadium two years before construction is due to begin. The clubs revealed the design at Milan’s Castello Sforzesco on Thursday under its new name, the Generali Stadium, and described the deal with the Italian insurer as one of the largest stadium naming-rights agreements in global sport.

Neither club has disclosed the fee, although ESPN and Il Sole 24 Ore both put it at €650 million. The two differ only on the length of the deal, with ESPN reporting 20 years and Il Sole 25, so Generali will pay somewhere between €26 million and €32.5 million a season.

By Il Sole 24 Ore’s reckoning, even the lower figure would put Generali ahead of Spotify, which pays about €20 million a year to name Barcelona’s Camp Nou, and well clear of the roughly €15 million Allianz pays Juventus. The Turin club also shows what owning a stadium can be worth, with Calcio e Finanza estimating that its ground, which cost about €155 million, has generated at least €845 million in revenue since it opened in 2011.

Milan chairman Paolo Scaroni, who said work on the new stadium had been under way “since 2017”, joined Inter president Giuseppe Marotta, RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale and Oaktree’s Katherine Ralph at the launch. Architects Norman Foster and David Manica, whose firms worked together on Wembley, presented a 71,500-seat ground due to host its first match in the 2031/32 season, subject to approvals. The clubs bought the site from the city for €197 million last November but have yet to say what the stadium will cost.

Manchester United’s £334m Transfer Losses Are the Worst in Europe

Having survived a week in which he was widely expected to be sacked, Michael Carrick will take Manchester United to Chelsea on Saturday with the backing of the club’s hierarchy. On Thursday, as Carrick insisted he needed no assurances about his future, the Daily Mail highlighted CIES Football Observatory research ranking United last in Europe for transfer business.

CIES compared what clubs paid for players signed over the past five years with what they later sold them for or, for those still at the club, what they are worth now. United are £334 million down on that measure, the worst figure in Europe and behind only Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal worldwide, while Tottenham are fourth from bottom. INEOS took control of the club’s football operations in 2024, since when Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox have run the department.

United finished third last season, earning Carrick a two-year contract after his spell as caretaker. Eight matches without a win have followed, with supporters turning on INEOS during Sunday’s 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth. The Glazers remain the largest shareholders and control any sale, with the right to drag Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s stake into a takeover.

Gary Neville used his podcast on Thursday to tell the Glazers it is time to sell. Managers have come and gone over those five years while the owners who presided over the losses are all still in place.

Photo: Fp0119 · CC BY 4.0 · Resized; uncropped.

Juventus Will Offer Shareholders the Rights Issue Tether Was Refused Last Year

Juventus will ask shareholders at the Allianz Stadium on Tuesday to authorise a capital increase of up to €250 million, offered to existing investors in proportion to their holdings and completed before the end of the year. The board lists stadium upgrades among the proposed uses for the money.

A year ago the stablecoin company Tether, then the club’s second-largest shareholder with 11.5%, asked for the same structure on the 2025 increase so that its stake could not be diluted. The board opposed the motion and shareholders rejected it with 91.7% of the vote, although the €97.8 million eventually raised was still split between Exor and Tether in proportion to their stakes. Exor then turned down Tether’s bid for its controlling stake in December.

Exor’s voting control makes Tuesday’s approval a formality for Giovanni Carnevali, Damien Comolli’s successor as chief executive. Tether’s appetite to take more of the club will only become clear once the offer opens.

Ligue 1 Goes Back to the TV Market on Monday, Two Years Early

On Monday the LFP opens bidding for Ligue 1’s domestic rights for the period from 2027/28 to 2031/32, two seasons before the current cycle was due to end. The league is going back to market early because Ligue 1+, the in-house platform launched after DAZN pulled out, is not bringing in enough money for its clubs. Offers are due by 7 December.

Bidders can buy the rights outright or become the exclusive distributor of Ligue 1+, with every match now available to a single broadcaster. Clubs have also lost beIN Sports’ €78.5 million a year since it declined to renew its deal, while the €85 million DAZN paid to end its contract was a one-off. The league planned to soften the blow with its reserve fund, which is nowhere near big enough to cover the shortfall.

Canal+ chief executive Maxime Saada has said the broadcaster would consider returning if the numbers make commercial sense. Domestic rights were worth almost €600 million a year before the league broke with Canal+ in 2018. Mediapro’s €1 billion-a-year deal then collapsed shortly after it started in 2020.

Pierre Maes, author of a book on the business of football TV rights, calls the early tender an admission that Ligue 1+ is not working. He estimates that the platform took €80 million to €90 million in 2025/26, against running costs of about €65 million a year, leaving a surplus of just €15 million to €25 million.

De Laurentiis Hosts Bidder After Turning Down €2.2bn for Napoli

Last week Matt Rizzetta watched Napoli play Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League as Aurelio De Laurentiis’s guest at the Maradona. The two met again the next day at a hotel in Chiaia. A group of US investors led by Rizzetta’s Underdog Global Partners offered about €2.2 billion for the club earlier this year and was turned down.

The offer was reportedly split into two payments of €1.1 billion each, while De Laurentiis is said to have wanted €2 billion in a single payment, stadium project included. In effect he would have taken €200 million less in exchange for being paid in full at completion.

De Laurentiis said on 22 October that Napoli is not for sale and that he wants to build a stadium. The club is working on a former refinery site at San Giovanni a Teduccio while Rizzetta, who owns Campobasso and is president of Napoli Basket, would refurbish the Maradona. Some reports describe last week’s meetings as a resumption of talks, although others say it is unclear whether any real negotiation has begun. If they do talk again, the gap to close is €1.1 billion of credit rather than any disagreement over what Napoli is worth.

Photo: Calciopedia · CC0 · Resized; uncropped.

Frankfurt Hand Krösche’s Department to the Man Milan Also Wanted

Eintracht Frankfurt has put sporting director Timmo Hardung in charge of every sporting unit in its men’s football operation “until further notice”, while Sebastian Rode moves into the team environment from 1 November. The changes come eleven days after the supervisory board unanimously agreed to Markus Krösche’s request to be released with immediate effect.

Krösche leaves with the best trading record in Europe by one measure. The CIES study that put United bottom in Europe ranked Frankfurt first, with €527 million added to the value of its signings over the past five years, a million ahead of Real Madrid. His tenure also brought the 2022 Europa League. At the members’ meeting after his release, he told supporters the job demanded full power and he no longer had it at 100%.

His contract runs to June 2028 on reduced terms, so Frankfurt hope to collect a fee if another club hires him. Milan tried to hire both Krösche and Hardung in June and Krösche has been linked with them again since leaving.

A.GAIN Clears the Last Hurdle to Take Over Real Zaragoza

Spain’s National Sports Council approved A.GAIN’s purchase of Real Zaragoza on Monday, clearing the last regulatory obstacle to a deal announced in July. The investment platform, led by Guatemalan businessman Bobby Aitkenhead, is buying 36.3 million shares, about 75% of the club. It will also put €8 million into a €22 million capital increase, after which Sport Aragón expects its holding to settle at about 60%.

The approval needed close scrutiny because the group already has interests in other Spanish clubs, Atlético de Madrid among them according to Aragón Digital. A.GAIN has in practice run the club since July. The share transfer still has to be signed before a shareholders’ meeting elects a new president.

The new owners inherit a club in the third-tier Primera Federación, playing at the temporary Ibercaja Estadio while the new Romareda is built. A.GAIN’s first job is to get Zaragoza back into professional football.

The Corrados Cash Out of Pisa as Knaster Hands the Club to Comolli

Alexander Knaster has ended the partnership that took Pisa back to Serie A. Giuseppe Corrado and his son Giovanni are leaving after a decade, with their 25% shareholding to be bought out. No new investor will join for now, according to Tuttomercatoweb. Damien Comolli replaces the Corrados as president and chief executive on a three-year contract.

Giuseppe Corrado owned his quarter of the club from 2016 and stayed on as executive president after Knaster bought the other 75% in January 2021. La Nazione reported at the time that the deal had been worth about €12 million. Pisa reached Serie A in 2025 after a 34-year absence but went straight back down.

Comolli returns to Italy four months after resigning as Juventus chief executive. His time at Toulouse, where he became president after RedBird’s takeover in 2020, brought promotion to Ligue 1, a French Cup win and a reputation for analytical recruitment and profitable sales. He brings no executives of his own and will sit above Knaster’s sporting director, Leonardo Gabbanini.

Porto Will Pay Its Bondholders More if It Wins Trophies

FC Porto has launched what finance director José Pereira da Costa calls the first bond linked to sporting success. The €40 million issue pays a fixed 5.25% a year, rising 0.15 percentage points each time the team reaches the Champions League league phase and 0.10 points for each Portuguese title won between 2026/27 and 2028/29. The increases are cumulative and permanent up to a ceiling of 6%.

Were Porto, the reigning champions, to win three titles and qualify for the Champions League in all three seasons, the annual interest bill would rise from €2.1 million to €2.4 million. That is hardly punitive for a club of Porto’s size, provided the results also bring substantial European income. Retail investors must put in at least €2,500 for bonds that carry no special security over the club’s assets.

The money is mainly meant to repay a €55 million bond that matures on 7 December, whose holders can swap into the new issue. Even if investors fill it between 2 and 13 November, the new bond would not cover all of the debt falling due. Neither the global coordinator nor the placing banks have guaranteed to take up any bonds.

The football company’s own accounts showed negative equity of €164.7 million at 30 June, against a group deficit of €29.7 million after a €21.1 million loss in 2025/26. Its auditor flagged a material uncertainty over its ability to continue as a going concern, while the board expects results to improve. The subscription closes three weeks before the old debt matures, leaving André Villas-Boas a narrow window to refinance it.

Union Saint-Gilloise Made a Record €42m and Rented Anderlecht’s Stadium to Do It

Union Saint-Gilloise made €42 million after tax in 2025/26 by its own figures, or €40.9 million according to Het Laatste Nieuws. Either way it is the largest profit any Belgian club has recorded, beating Genk’s €29.17 million from 2019/20 and dwarfing the €4.2 million Union made the year before. Revenue more than doubled to €123 million.

Union sold Franjo Ivanović to Benfica for €22.8 million and Noah Sadiki to Sunderland for €16.5 million, while Wolfsburg exercised its €14.5 million option on Mohammed Amoura. Its first Champions League league phase, earned by winning the 2024/25 title, brought in about €32 million. Costs rose from just over €56 million to almost €72 million, driven by higher agent commissions, bigger bonuses and the rent of Anderlecht’s Lotto Park for European home games. The profit has wiped out accumulated losses and lifted equity to €64 million, up from about €22 million a year earlier.

Chief executive Philippe Bormans says the result also shows the limits of Union’s model, arguing that the club needs a stadium that matches its ambitions if it wants to keep growing. It may now have the balance sheet to start building one.

Photo: Sidney.Cortez · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized; uncropped.

The Listed Football Investor That Sold Juve Stabia for €1 Is Now Officially Solmate

Brera Holdings went public on Nasdaq in 2023, billing itself as the world’s first listed multi-club sports owner. Ireland’s companies registrar formally changed its name to Solmate Infrastructure on 27 October, completing a pivot to Solana staking and treasury that began with a $300 million private placement in September 2025 led by Abu Dhabi’s Pulsar Group and backed by ARK Invest.

Brera sold its 49% of volleyball club UYBA for €1 in June 2025, the same month it completed the purchase of 52% of Juve Stabia. It bought the remaining 48% in December, then sold the whole Serie B club to Stabia Capital for €1 on 17 April, with the buyer taking on all its debts and liabilities.

As recently as March the company appointed Avram Grant as head of football operations. Its annual report says it is weighing the sale of its remaining clubs, FK Akademija Pandev in North Macedonia among them.

Everton’s Asking Price Looks Cheap Next to Valencia

The Friedkin Group is sounding out “serious” buyers for Everton, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday, three weeks after it put the club up for sale with Moelis running the process. Michael Dell, whose family office reportedly backed a 2024 bid for the club, dismissed reports linking him with this one.

The BBC has put the target for a full sale at £750 million to £800 million, with debts of around £468 million to be accounted for. Including that debt, the price works out at a little over six times Everton’s 2024/25 revenue of £196.7 million, against the almost tenfold multiple implied when Pitchwise agreed to buy 42% of Valencia last week.