Former Milan coach and sporting director Leonardo was critical of the way American funds run football clubs as he believes the management they put in charge is not ‘top level’.
A growing number of funds from the USA are buying clubs in Europe, with Italy’s Serie A having proved an attractive target for them in recent years, but Leonardo pointed out some issues related to how they manage such businesses, which are often considered the ‘cheaper’ investments.
The Brazilian also blamed American funds for relying on executives with no experience in football, underlining that running a club is something ‘very specific’ and not ‘like selling chocolate’.
Leonardo slams American funds’ management: ‘Not top level’
“There are two problems, I think, I don’t want to enter any specific thing because I’m not technical about business, but we can see that the American funds, not only the Americans but a lot of them are investing in Europe,” Leonardo said during an event organised by La Gazzetta dello Sport, called Festival dello Sport.
“They invest in Europe for two things. Because football is important, but football in Europe for them is cheaper than in the USA.
“So, if you consider your investment the cheaper one of your group, I think the kind of management you can put in, perhaps is not the top level you have. We can see a lot of American funds investing in football but not putting the top-level management, and not even football management.
“So, if you don’t know football, if you don’t know the context, the city you arrive in, the culture, the tradition and even the history of a club, it’s not easy to manage, to interact, to make people believe in your project.”
Leonardo went on to make a comparison with his experience at PSG, where he worked as a sporting director between 2011 and 2013 and witnessed the club owner’s intention to build ‘something strong’.
“The truth is that I worked for Paris Saint-Germain,” he added.
“They started in 2011 and in 13 years they constructed a club, a brand, a sports centre, they want to do a stadium, not just to speculate and sell the club, but to create something strong to remain there.
“In the same period of 13 years, Milan for example had four owners. It’s very complicated to do a project with four owners in 13 years.
“I don’t want to be polemic but the president of the fund is not the owner of the club. The owners are the investors.
“So you have someone in the middle to manage a club, which he never did before. A club of football is not like selling chocolate, you have 25 guys, one coach, the supporters, the press, it’s very specific.”
Milan, Inter and Atalanta are among the Serie A teams which are currently under American ownership. An investor from the USA was also recently linked with the purchase of a minority stake of Monza, while Genoa owner 777 Partners was declared bankruptcy.
