Exploring new trends of sport business: Japanese companies’ investment in ownership of foreign football clubs

ABSTRACT

This study seeks to understand the reasons for Japanese companies acquiring foreign football clubs and the perceived returns on this investment. There has been, in the last decade, a process of ‘Asianisation’ of football. Japan, one of the most mature football markets in Asia, has been a big contributor to this process. Asian investment in foreign football club ownership has been increasing, however there seems to be a gap in the knowledge regarding Japanese investment. Put simply, the reason for running a conventional business is to make a profit. However, according to the literature, acquiring a football club is likely to produce limited return. Owning football clubs can, for instance, be a way of expanding a brand and gaining brand value and recognition; creating a bridge to connect to overseas markets; giving the owner notoriety and celebrity-status; attending to political, business or personal interests. The data for this research was obtained by document analysis and semi-structured interviews, involving five high-level decision-makers in five companies which own foreign football clubs. This study finds the reasons for Japanese investment were: nurturing players to sell at a profit, developing Japanese football, developing local football and community, internationalising a brand, personal ambitions and personal and business connections. In addition, all except one company had low or no returns.

KEYWORDS:

• Football club
• foreign ownership
• Japan
• investment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Big five European leagues: English Premier League, German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1.

2 Congo, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Burkina Faso (Dejonghe 2006, 29).

3 ASEAN: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and observing members Papua New Guinea and East Timor.