The transfer of coach Liam Rosenior from Racing Strasbourg, in France, to Chelsea, in England, reignited the controversy in European football regarding the multi-ownership of clubs.
Strasbourg and Chelsea belong to the same consortium of companies, the North American group BlueCo. There is, however, a clear hierarchy: the priority is the English club, one of the most powerful in the world, winner of the Club World Cup played in the United States last year.
When he fired coach Enzo Maresca due to a series of poor results in the English league, Chelsea quickly looked for his successor on the other side of the English Channel. He will also take three members of Rosenior’s technical committee to London.
The episode caused outrage in French football. A left-wing deputy, Éric Coquerel, proposed a law prohibiting multi-ownership of teams. “The clubs have become speculative objects,” the congressman told the French newspaper Le Parisien.
An association of organized Strasbourg fans protested. “Liam’s transfer marks a humiliating stage in Racing’s servitude to Chelsea. It is the future of French football that is at stake”, published the entity.
“I will love this club for the rest of my life, but I can’t refuse Chelsea,” said Englishman Rosenior, 41, in his emotional farewell to Strasbourg.
One of the rare black coaches at high-level clubs in Europe, Rosenior was a defender for small teams in his country. He stopped playing in 2018 and gradually climbed the ladder in his coaching career, standing out at Hull City, in the English second division.
In July 2024, the BlueCo consortium placed Rosenior at Strasbourg, where he came to be seen as one of the most promising names in the new generation of coaches. The team is currently seventh in the French league, the same position it finished in last season.
Founded in 1906, Racing Strasbourg is a traditional club from eastern France. It became national champion in 1979. A financial crisis, however, led it to bankruptcy in 2011. Refounded as an amateur club in the fifth division, it managed to return to the first in 2017.
But the big turning point came in 2023, with the purchase by the BlueCo group.
Led by American businessman Todd Boehly – one of the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a baseball team that is currently two-time champion of the United States –, BlueCo acquired Chelsea in 2022. At the time, sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine led Russian businessman Roman Abramovich to get rid of the club he had owned since 2003.
Thanks to the reinforcement of players not used by Chelsea, such as Brazilian midfielder Andrey Santos and Serbian goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic, Strasbourg took off. It was the sensation of the last French Championship, even defeating the hegemonic Paris Saint-Germain, current national, European and intercontinental champion.
The price of this comeback, however, is the status of a satellite club, ready to provide talent when the parent company needs it.
An example is right-back Angelo Candido, 17 years old, revealed by São Paulo. BlueCo should use Strasbourg to give the young Brazilian some experience until he is ready for Chelsea. Angelo Candido was withdrawn from this year’s São Paulo Junior Cup and will go to Strasbourg for an acclimatization period this month.
No matter how much managers adopt the discourse of rigor against multi-ownership, a constant source of possible conflicts of interest, in practice the control mechanisms have been ineffective. In France, Strasbourg is not an isolated case.
In 2022, Lyon was acquired by North American businessman John Textor, who also controls Botafogo (and, at the time, also Crystal Palace, in England). The management of these different teams generated several controversies, which led to the French league relegating Lyon last year. The club appealed and managed to remain in the first division.
In 2023, Toulouse was prevented by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) from competing in the Europa League, the second most important club competition on the continent. The club belongs to another North American group, RedBird Capital Partners, which also owns Milan, from Italy.
In theory, UEFA prohibits two clubs with the same owner from competing in European competitions, and Milan was qualified for the Champions League. But the entity ended up authorizing Toulouse to participate, under the condition of not giving players to Milan, and vice versa.
