The UEFA Quarter Finals Europa League 2020-2021 They start next Thursday and will do so with a peculiarity that, while not directly related to what is happening on the field, is a vital part of the operation of the clubs and the formation of their teams.
These are the companies behind the eight teams that came to this body, as there are five foreign ones, three of them United States and two more of China, two of the countries that have invested money in sports facilities outside their borders in recent years.
United States, England and Italy
Manchester United: Between 2003 and 2005, American businessman Malcolm Irving Glazer took over all the shares of the Red Devils and paid more than $ 1,160 million. Glazer died in 2014, but his family is still in charge of the England team and they own it too Tampa Bay Buccaneers de la NFL, the recent Super Bowl champions of 2021.
Arsenal: The Gunners are owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment of Denver, Colorado. The owner is the businessman Stan Kroeken, which, in addition to the London framework, is the majority shareholder of the NFL Angels Rams, MLS Colorado Rapids, NBA Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche.
Roma: Dan Friedkin, originally from San Diego, California, owns the company Friedkin Group who owns the Italian box since 2020. In addition to being a filmmaker and owner of a film and entertainment production company, Dan Friedkin He is CEO of one of Toyota’s largest car dealers.
China, in Spain and the Czech Republic
Granada CF: The Spanish team has belonged to the Daxian 2009 SL company, founded in Spain, since 2009, but in 2016 the company passed into the hands of Chinese businessman Jian Lizhang, who also invested to acquire the majority of the shares of the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA and the Parma football club of Italy.
Slavia PragueIn 2015, the Chinese company CEFC China Energy landed in the Czech Republic, and among the investments it made, it acquired 60 percent of the shares of the Czech team. Three years later, in 2018, it was announced that another Chinese company, Sinobo, was the new majority shareholder of the club, who, along with Manchester, are the only ones to have won this competition.
The three clubs that are in the quarter-finals and that have local investments are the Villarreal from Spain, Ajax from the Netherlands and Dinamo Zagreb, which is currently in administrative trouble, as the president, Zoran Mamic, was accused of misuse of funds and corruption on March 15 last.