Organizational Forms: Ownership and Governance

The substantial increase in income available within football and the equity of its distribution have resulted in the debate about the objectives and purposes of clubs becoming more prominent and more contested. While stakeholders in football clubs have never had a unitary objective, the objectives of contemporary clubs’ stakeholders are arguably more diverse than ever before. Awareness of these differing objectives focuses attention on both organizational and behavioural issues, in particular those related to club ownership and governance structures. In this chapter different structures of ownership commonly found among European football clubs are analysed, specifically dominant or concentrated ownership, multi-club ownership, supporter or mutual ownership and hybrid structures such as the 50% plus one model prevalent in Germany. The implications of each of these structures for governance and accountability are discussed and examples of good and less good practice are identified.