How to buy shares in a football club | A how-to guide | Finder UK (2024)

Becoming a footballer is a dream for many, but having the ambition to own a football club is far less common. While football club majority ownership is typically the domain of Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern sheikhs, there is a way for fans to own a piece of the club. It may surprise you to know that you can become a part-owner in your favourite club by investing and buying football club shares.

Can you buy shares in football clubs?

You can, but not for every team. Only those clubs listed as public limited companies (PLCs) are available on the stock market for you to buy shares in.

In the same way that it’s difficult to invest in private equity, you need some deep football connections (or pockets) to buy shares in unlisted clubs. You can see a list of available European football teams in the table below. At the moment, buying Manchester United shares is the only straightforward option for a UK team. Arsenal shares are listed on a specialist exchange and are hard to get.

How to buy shares in a football club

1. Choose a broker or trading platform. Different platforms have different fees and account options, so it’s important you pick the one that best suits your investing needs. You can compare a range of share-trading platforms that let you invest in football clubs below.
2. Open a share-trading account. Once you’ve selected which broker or platform you’d like to use, you need to open an account with a share-trading platform or broker to start investing.
3. Deposit funds. All brokers will let you deposit in pounds, then will either convert your funds into US dollars or leave them as pounds. If your funds are left in pounds, you’ll likely need to pay a foreign exchange fee on each trade, which can end up costing more overall.
4. Buy football club shares. Once your account is set up and funded, you can begin buying and selling shares.

Manchester United (MANU)

Manchester United’s on-the-field success has made it one of the most supported football teams on the planet – and one of the richest. Majority-owned by the Glazer Family and at a value of $3.4 billion (around £2.7 billion), Manchester United is currently ranked fourth in the list of the most valuable football clubs, compiled by Forbes. Recently, British billionaire, Sir Jim Ratcliffe bought 25% of the club for around £1 billion and took over football operations.

Find out how to invest in the Red Devils

Celtic (CCP)

Arch-rivals to Rangers, Celtic is one of the most successful clubs in Scotland, having won the Scottish league championship an impressive 51 times. With a valuation of £94m, Celtic was ranked the 48th most valuable football brand by Brand Finance in July 2020. The largest shareholder is Irish businessman Dermot Desmond, who effectively has control of the club.

Unlike rivals Rangers, because Celtic is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), investing in the famous green and white hoops is much simpler.

Find out more about investing in Celtic

Borussia Dortmund (BVB)

Few clubs in Europe are as recognisable as Borussia Dortmund, Germany’s second-most successful team. It also became the first and only German club to be publicly traded on the stock market in the first year of the millennium.

Find out more on how to invest in the black and yellows

Juventus (JUVE)

Juventus is Italy’s most successful club, having won a record 36 official league titles (Scudetto), 14 Coppa Italia titles and 9 Supercoppa titles. Majority-owned by the Agnelli family, with a value of $1.95 billion, it is currently ranked 11th in the global rich list compiled by Forbes.

The Turin giant is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange.

Learn more about investing in Juventus

Are football club stocks a good investment?

They can be. However, most people choose to invest in a football club as another way of supporting their favourite team, so they’re more a novelty than an investment. While not unheard of, you wouldn’t typically invest in a rival team to the one you support — you’re almost guaranteed a pie in the face if you rock up at a Liverpool game and announce you’ve been buying shares in Manchester United.

There’s no saying how football shares are going to perform, as different clubs have had vastly different results. Like with a company, a club’s performance can vary both on and off the pitch.

As always, past performance doesn’t indicate future results. You should look into the current financials of the football club you want to invest in.

Why can’t I buy shares in other football clubs?

You can only buy shares in football clubs that are publicly traded. If the one you’re a fan of is still privately owned, you won’t be able to buy any stock. You could look into investing in the club’s sponsors, or in the case that a public company owns the club, you could invest in the parent company.

Risks of buying shares in a football club

When it comes to investing, the share price of listed football clubs should, in theory, be driven by the same as any other share – future profit outlook, as well as supply and demand.

While it is also suggested that factors such as player transfers, team financials and sponsorships can also impact a team’s share price, short-term performance on the pitch isn’t necessarily a major concern as an investor.

Similar to the real estate market, football is an industry with some unique challenges and obstacles – but the strength of the underlying company is what investors should concentrate on when weighing up the risks of buying football club shares.

Pros and cons of investing in football clubs

Bottom line

Investing in football clubs can feel like being part of the game – a thrilling venture, yet one not without its risks. Remember, these aren’t novelty items. You’re investing in real companies, and with any investment, there’s potential for both rewards and losses.

It’s not unheard of for football club shares to outpace popular indices like the S&P 500 index, but there’s also a good chance shares miss the mark and lag behind broad market investments. It’s a long game that, unlike 90 minutes of football, requires patience and a cool head for years. So, while it’s a different kind of competitive thrill, the potential rewards of buying football club shares is a more drawn-out affair.

Compare platforms where you can buy football club shares

Frequently asked questions

• No. Liverpool FC is owned by a parent company, which means it is not listed directly on any stock exchange.

• Liverpool’s parent company is the Fenway Sports Group (FSG). FSG also owns US baseball team the Boston Red Sox, along with the grounds where the 2 teams play and several other sporting shares. Given that FSG is a private company, you cannot invested in it either.

• It’s very difficult. Arsenal Football Club is not listed on a public exchange, but its parent company, Arsenal Holdings, is traded on the specialist market NEX Exchange. These shares are very hard to come by, and they are expensive, with the price tag being £30,000 a share in October 2019.

• No, you can’t. A website called Football Index claimed that you could, but “investors” weren’t buying shares in footballers. They were placing bets. The company failed in 2019.

• Manchester United, Rangers FC, Borussia Dortmund, Celtic, AS Roma and Juventus are publicly traded.

• Some football stocks pay dividends. Manchester United paid a dividend of 9p per share on July 9, 2021. Celtic FC pays dividends to convertible cumulative preference shareholders. Borussia Dortmund has paid dividends in the past.

• Over the past decade, football club share performance varied. Manchester United nudged up with a 3% annualised return, Borussia Dortmund only netted 2%, and Juventus outplayed both at 6%. However, Celtic smashed it with 13% – on par with the S&P 500.

  The S&P 500 is a stock index representing 500 of the largest U.S. companies – a go-to benchmark for overall market performance.

  So, while some clubs showed nice gains, they’ve generally struggled to match the broader market.

• Football clubs’ share prices can often change a lot, and quickly. Consider Juventus, valued at €838.23m (as of August 2023). Between 2017 and 2019, its share price jumped from €0.3 to €1.45, an increase of 383%, before falling to €0.61 (a 58% drop) and then even further to €0.34 by 2023 (a 44% drop from €0.61).

  Such dramatic ups and downs can be seen in stocks like Celtic and Borussia Dortmund. They have fewer shares bought and sold (‘thinly traded’) and are of a smaller size (“small-cap”), so their prices can change quickly if people decide to buy or sell. This can make these stocks riskier, as their value can drop quickly.

  Manchester United, on the other hand, stands out with a market value of $3.59B. Larger companies like Man United typically have more shares being bought and sold, and this makes their stock prices generally more stable in theory.

• As of September 14, 2022, you can no longer buy shares in A.S. Roma. The club left the stock market after 22 years, marking the end of public ownership. This was achieved through a takeover bid by main shareholder The Friedkin Group, which paid close to €30m (€0.45 per share) in the summer of 2022 to hoover up the remaining 10% of shares it did not yet own in the Serie A club.