Keeping possession: Ownership trends in English Premier League football

There is an ever-increasing focus in the football discourse in the UK regarding who currently owns what club and who might come to own that club. Fans are becoming increasingly accustomed to daily reports in the press of rumoured ownership changes. The options for new types of owner grows every year – with film stars and sporting legends now adding a touch of glamour to the lists of shareholders, as if owning a small stake in a football club has become the latest fashion trend for Hollywood superstars. Fans are becoming increasingly aware of the owner’s role, with discussions about good and bad owners being as common as discussions about good and bad players.

It is increasingly clear that we are starting to enter into a new era in UK football, which will be dominated by the tension between an attempt to create independent regulation on the one hand, and on the other hand, the desires of the owners of the Premier League clubs to continue to allow the Premier League to be controlled and run in the way it has been since its inception. The Premier League has taken English football from being an also-ran in the European leagues to the world’s favourite – and richest – sporting competition, and any attempts to interfere with it need to be scrutinised very carefully, not least for the sake of the fans, whose positive engagement is crucial to the Premier League’s continuing success.

In our fourth annual report, we summarise ownership changes that have taken place during the prior season and seek to identify trends and speculate what may come in the season ahead.

Download the report