Aside from the specific sectors of European markets, some investors manage to find opportunities in the world of football itself.
Luis Garcia Alvarez, the fund manager of the MAPFRE AM Behavioral fund, said he allocates 10% of the strategy to listed European football clubs.
These include Borussia Dortmund in Germany, that makes up 5.5% of the portfolio, as well as AFC Ajax in the Netherlands at 2.5% and Olympique Lyonnais in France at 2.0%.
‘Spain would be a fantastic place for football investments due to the financial control mechanisms designed by La Liga, but there are no listed Spanish clubs for the time being,’ Garcia Alvarez said.
The fund manager added that football is in a very solid financial position even after a demanding stress test of the pandemic.
‘The noise that is always around in the industry is stopping most investors from studying and understanding the underlying trends in the sector.’
‘In 2011, the combined loss of European football clubs was close to €1.7bn. That year the Uefa ‘Financial Fair Play’ rules were implemented and six years later the combined net profit was some €100m,’ the fund manager said.