The Qatari investment fund that owns Paris Saint-Germain has bought a stake in a top-tier Portuguese football team, marking its first foray into multi-club ownership championed by Abu Dhabi.
Qatar Sports Investments, a state-backed fund, will pay about €19mn for a 22 per cent stake in SC Braga, who sit third in Portugal’s top division.
Owning stakes in multiple football clubs is increasingly common across Europe, with almost half the English Premier League’s 20 teams now linked to a broader network in some way. There are more than 70 multi-club groups operating, more than double the number from five years ago, according to Deloitte.
The biggest is Abu Dhabi-backed City Football Group, which owns or holds stakes in 12 clubs including English champions Manchester City, Girona FC in Spain and Japanese side Yokohama F Marinos.
Todd Boehly, the new co-owner of Chelsea FC, said recently that he was looking to build a multi-club group, while RedBird Capital, which acquired AC Milan earlier this year, also owns Toulouse FC in the French league.
Portugal has become a particular target for international football investors, attracted by the strong links to South America that have helped several clubs turn strong profits from player trading.
In the past five years, Benfica has netted almost €500mn from transfers, according to figures from Transfermarkt. SC Braga made a profit of almost €180mn from player sales over the same period.
QSI was attracted by what it sees as SC Braga’s potential for growth, according to a person familiar with the process. The club is hoping to break the hold of Portugal’s traditional top three teams, and so secure a place in the lucrative Champions League.
Nasser al-Khelaifi, chair of QSI and president of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), said: “As an investor and partner, we look forward to the club innovating, growing and developing further across the men’s and women’s teams, on the commercial and brand side . . . as SC Braga continues its ambitious path.”
There is also scope for increased television revenue when the Portuguese league begins selling rights centrally rather than on a club-by-club basis, a process that is due to start in the next few years.
Since buying PSG in 2011, Qatar has poured money into the project to help attract top players including Kylian Mbappé, Neymar, and Lionel Messi. The club has won eight of the past 10 French league titles, but the ultimate prize of winning the Champions League has proved elusive.
“We believe that this is the right shareholder to accelerate our growth and expansion, helping us deliver on our amazing potential as a club,” said SC Braga’s president António Salvador.
Qatar, which is due to host the World Cup next month, does have other interests in European football. Belgian club K.A.S. Eupen is owned by the Aspire Zone Foundation, an entity linked to the country’s elite sports academy. Al-Khelaifi is also chair of the European Club Association, a lobby group of elite teams.
