拥有足球俱乐部的所有权：是美梦还是噩梦

2016-07-09职业体育Ken Grant

拥有一个足球俱乐部通常是很多人的梦想，但当你真的手握俱乐部所有权时，情况往往与人们的意向有所出入。作为一个企业，每个足球俱乐部雇佣的员工,往往是这个俱乐部的核心,员工们会对俱乐部注入自己的感情与激情，而一旦俱乐部的老板们不顾员工们的意见与想法，往往会激起员工们情感上的反抗，不再认同你。因此，人们常说,一个足球俱乐部的老板只是俱乐部的暂时保管者。

所以，对于那些想要买入一个俱乐部的潜在投资者，在向我寻求建议和帮助时，我总是首先指出投资消极的一方面，以确保这个人或这家公司是真的想要进入此行业的。然后我会问他们,为什么他们想要拥有一个自己的俱乐部,因为这将决定哪一个俱乐部或哪一些俱乐部是最适合这位投资者的。

当然，相对欧洲人来说，在寻求适合的俱乐部时，中国投资者通常有着完全不同的原因。中国投资者总是希望购买一个著名的俱乐部，但尽可能花最少的钱。这在当代足球领域里几乎是不可能的。欧洲各个较大的俱乐部都有着极高的价值,其投资空间也是巨大的。不过许多俱乐部都背负大量债务,新主人在拥有俱乐部的同时也必须承担债务,因此这些俱乐部不再有吸引力,投资者们往往会选择潜力小一点的俱乐部和不那么著名的俱乐部。

说到此,得益于英超的电视转播大合同，英超中的大部分俱乐部将很快在现在或将来实现更大盈利,而这也使得各俱乐部越来越有价值。因此，西班牙、意大利和法国的俱乐部会越来越有吸引力,因为在一般情况下,它们的价值远远低于英超俱乐部,但是他们通常都有较大的债务问题,在未来几年的收入潜力有限。这使得投资者们的选择空间变小。

在俱乐部投资上，投资者们还有另外一个选择,我称之为“项目”。作为一个概念，想要将它卖给中国投资者是有一定困难的，因为中国的投资者注重短期收益，都想要立竿见影的投资,而作为一个项目，顾名思义并不会是一个短期的盈利。英国的俱乐部中不乏具有良好潜力的俱乐部，一旦能够提升实力，球队有可能进入英超。关键在于，找到那些运作良好但缺乏资金购买球员从而提升实力的俱乐部。这些俱乐部也需要一个强大的粉丝群和稳定的现场上座率，因为球迷是每个俱乐部的盈利基础;他们会在球场买票、买球衣、喝啤酒和吃东西。

莱斯特城和伯恩茅斯从低级联赛俱乐部脱离，正式加入英超,这是因为他们有着良好的管理层，球队拥有者愿意为他们的球队谋求发展。相反的，我们所看到的团队，像布莱克本和博尔顿，曾经英超顶级俱乐部的管理层，其球队从联盟没落的原因在于：管理不善和球队拥有者不懂如何运作。钱不能解决所有问题，真正的关键点是要有良好的管理以及球队老板的大力支持，球队才可以实现可持续发展。

关注中国足球近况可知，其市场主要以中国个人资本投入和企业购买为主,有时还会直接购买欧洲足球团队,比如著名的马德里竞技俱乐部，这些投资者们都知道的好的俱乐部。而其他俱乐部却不适用,因为他们的老板在各自的行业也许是非常成功的商人，当他们以不相同的工作方式，将其业务策略应用于足球俱乐部时,不用说，其结果是可想而知的。

最近，由于前任老板的长期缺席，俱乐部处于无运营状态，从而导致球员大量缺失，阿斯顿维拉俱乐部自然而然的易主了。为了止损，球队老板选择廉价出售。新老板是否真的了解这次交易的意义，以及能否让这支曾经的伟大的俱乐部重回英超，都还有待观察，但这是一个大项目，需要老板投入激情。

对于目前中国每一个足球投资者来说，其面临的挑战是要有足够的资本和激情，以及在如何运作俱乐部的问题上，知道什么时候承认自己比别人了解的少。

英文原文

Owning a football club is often a dream many people have especially a famous one, but the reality of ownership is often far from the initial vision. Football clubs are businesses, they employ staff, and are often at the heart of a community that has an immense emotional attachment to the club and that can often be very abusive toward the clubs owners if they think that the owner is ignoring their views. It is often said that the owner of a football club is just the temporary custodian.

So when I am approached to advise and help potential investors buy into a club I always start by pointing out the negatives of an investment to be sure that this person or business really does appreciate what they are getting into. I then raise the question of why they want to own a club, because this will determine which club or clubs might be a suitable match to the investor.

Of course Chinese investors are usually looking for a club for quite different reasons than those of Europeans. The Chinese investor always wants a ‘famous’ club but wants to spend as little money as possible. In the modern world of football ticking both these boxes is almost impossible. The big European clubs are very valuable, so the investment is huge. Many clubs are burdened with large amounts of debt that a new owner must take on, so they stop being attractive and tend to make the choice of potentials smaller and far less famous clubs.

Having said this, the TV money in the EPL is now so large that most of these clubs are now or will be profitable very soon, but this also makes them valuable. So then clubs in countries such as Spain, Italy and France become more attractive because in general, they are worth far less than EPL clubs, but their debt is often significant and earning potential in the coming years limited. The choices get smaller for any investor.

But there is another option, the one I call ‘a project’. This is a difficult concept to sell to a Chinese investor because they all want instant gratification and a project as the name implies isn’t a short-term win. However, if I just look at English clubs for the moment, there are many that have good potential to get promoted to the holy grail of the EPL, the key is to find the ones that are well run but lack the cash to buy in players to move them up the leagues. These clubs also need a strong fan base and consistent regular attendance, because the fans are the foundation of any club; they buy tickets and shirts, drink beer and eat food at the club.

We have seen clubs like Leicester and Bournemouth rise from the lower leagues to join the EPL because they had good management at owners willing to find their development, and we have seen teams like Blackburn and Bolton which were once top EPL clubs slide down the leagues for the opposite reason; poor management and owners who do not and did not understand how to run the club. Money does not solve everything but it helps, what is very important is good management, supported by the owner so that consistency can be delivered week after week, year after year.

The focus on football in China has lead in recent years to Chinese individuals and companies buying into and sometimes buying outright European football teams, some like Athletico Madrid have flourished as the investor leaves the club operation to those who know best, while other clubs have gone nowhere because their owners who maybe very successful businessmen in their industry try to apply their business strategies to a football club which doesn’t work the same way; needless to say the results are predictable.

The recent purchase of Aston Villa was no surprise to many because the previous owner was absent, detached from the club operations and didn’t invest enough in players. He cut his losses and sold it cheaply. Whether the new owner really understands what it will cost to take this once great club back up to the EPL remains to be seen; it's a big project and one that requires passion.

The challenge for any Chinese wishing to invest in a football club is a requirement to have the cash, have the passion and to know when to admit that you know less about running a club than others do.