I have bought and sold companies, and I have bought and sold football clubs. The deal mechanics are nearly identical: valuation, diligence, structure, closing. What changes is the information available — and the temperament of the asset.
The diligence items that don't exist in a normal deal
- Player contracts — who is locked in, who can walk, and what the release clauses say. A squad is a portfolio of short-dated assets with agents attached.
- The stadium — owned or leased, who controls it, and what happens when the lease comes up. The ground is the asset; the lease is the risk.
- League rules — promotion, relegation, licensing, spending limits. The regulator can change the value of your asset between signing and closing.
- Transfer windows — how many of your best players are out of contract in June, and what it would cost to replace them in one window.
The parts that feel exactly like a company deal
Revenue concentration — one star player, one star sponsor — reads like a company with three customers. Key-person risk reads the same: the manager, the captain, the sporting director. And the same question applies to both: does the asset survive the founder leaving? A club that depends on the owner's personal relationships is a club with a valuation problem.
In M&A you diligence the business. In football you also have to diligence the weather, the referee, and the mood of five thousand people.
What I look for
- Wage discipline — costs set below the worst realistic season, not the best one.
- A stadium the club controls, on terms that outlast the current ownership.
- Contracts aligned with strategy — the players you are building around locked in, the ones you are selling free to move.
- A fanbase that trusts the ownership. It is the only asset a club owns that cannot be bought.
Why this matters if you never touch sport
The same mental model prices any agency or media business: locked-in contracts, a defensible position, disciplined costs, and something people will still care about when you are gone. Price the asset the way you would price the club — on what it is worth to a buyer who has read every line. Because someone will.