Waterford have become part of a multi-club network, and Dundalk could be next. The42 analyses the system's benefits and the dangers it raises at the very top of the game. gcooney93
“The match in Dubai – yes Dubai – between Waterford FC and Fleetwood United has been abandoned due to a waterlogged pitch.”
All of the clubs have a relationship with Fleetwood Town’s International Football Academy, which recruits players from across the world to train alongside Fleetwood Town’s first-team. “When the relationship first developed there were question marks as to how it would develop. Is it going to just be Fleetwood Town taking players? Andy [Pilley] wants to win the league, and he wants to get into Europe. That doesn’t work if you strip the club of its assets. The investment we have put into the squad is a clear sign it’s not all about Fleetwood Town, it’s about the bigger picture and that is ultimately about Waterford being a European club.
More than 180 teams across the world were part of a multi-club group at the end of last year, which is a rise of more than 400% in the space of 10 years. “The numbers we are seeing now for player sales are so exorbitant, people say, ‘Well if I could own my own club in Portugal then I can find the next Enzo Fernandez myself and I don’t have to pay €120 million for him.’”
“Brexit is forcing these clubs in the UK to say, ‘Hey it’s not as easy to get in players outside the UK, how can we get landing spots for the players at another club’”, says Gardner. “So that’s encouraging multi-club almost out of necessity.” “Let’s be realistic: at the end of the day, every club is a feeder club – to Chelsea at the moment. What’s the difference between your club selling players to Chelsea and moving players to a club in your own portfolio? There isn’t. It’s just about articulating your strategy and your motivations, so people don’t think, ‘Hey this is an American group coming in, they don’t care about results and are just going to raid the roster.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport set the tone for these issues back in 1999, when Slavia Prague and AEK Athens were controlled by Joe Lewis’ ENIC, now the owner of Tottenham. When both Slavia and AEK qualified for the 98/99 Uefa Cup, Uefa ruled that the lower-ranked AEK would not be allowed to play in the competition given a potential conflict with Slavia. CAS ultimately sided with Uefa, pointing out the potential for collusion if both were drawn in the same group together.
Initially Uefa recommended that Leipzig be forbidden from participation as they found Red Bull had a decisive influence at both clubs, but the decision was reversed when it reached Uefa’s adjudication stage. “On Salzburg and Leipzig, you are limited in what you can do. What we did was to try and make a distinction between the boards, the owner, the sponsor, and the club. I think until now it has worked quite well. We agreed there would not be too many mid-season [player] exchanges, and they would not merge their training centres.
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