Internazionale Milano (Inter Milan) were crowned champions of this year’s Serie A, the top flight of Italian football, on April 22. A month later, they were back in the news having been taken over by US investment firm Oaktree Capital Management.
This is not the first nor is it likely to be the last we see of US investment in European club football. Inter became the seventh Serie A club under American ownership, while US investors now own nine of the English Premier League’s 20 clubs. What is driving this interest? And will it last?
There are many reasons why US investors have been flocking to European football in recent years, but the one main driver is money. This has come in many forms. For example, the acquisition of Inter happened because Oaktree “assumed ownership” after the club’s Chinese owners, Suning, missed the deadline to repay the €395 million (£336.5 million) that Oaktree had loaned them in 2021.
