Association football Domestic teams: • Italian media proprietor and politician
Silvio Berlusconi, through his
Fininvest holding, owned
Serie A club
A.C. Milan in 1986 and had 98% of the club's
share until 2017. Berlusconi gained popularity in the country by leveraging his team's success,
strongly supported by his own
mass media, including
Mediaset, to improve
public opinion, which was useful for his
political purposes. Berlusconi founded
Forza Italia, a
centre-right party, and in 1994 became
Prime Minister of Italy. During more than two decades of government, divided into four periods, he was involved in
abuse of office,
bribery,
corruption of public personnel, and
false accounting cases, as well as
sex scandals, which allowed Milan to be
relieved its debt of
€ 242 million, and the decriminalisation of false accounting during the
second Berlusconi government, a charge for which his club and local rival
FC Internazionale Milano were tried and acquitted five years later due that measure; obtaining political support from the Milan fanbase, one of the largest in the country. In 2018, after he sold Milan to Chinese businessman
Li Yonghong, Berlusconi, through Fininvest, owned
AC Monza, a club that then competed in the national
Serie C, with 100% of the club's shares.
Foreign ownership: •
Russian politician and businessman Roman Abramovich's ownership of
Chelsea F.C. (2003–2022), which some have reported was done at the request of Russian President
Vladimir Putin • Russian pro-Kremlin businessman
Alisher Usmanov formally owned partial shares of
Arsenal F.C. Usmanov never had control of the club's day-to-day operation. •
Abu Dhabi has the majority ownership of
City Football Group. In 2015, the
Abu Dhabi United Group announced a consortium with Chinese state-owned
CITIC Group for City Football Group, an entity which in turn owns: •
Manchester City F.C. (since 2008) •
Melbourne City FC •
Montevideo City Torque •
New York City FC •
Yokohama F. Marinos (partially) •
Girona FC •
Shenzhen Peng City F.C. (partially) •
Mumbai City FC (partially) • Saudi prince
Abdullah bin Musaid Al Saud's ownership of
Sheffield United fans celebrate the completed takeover of the team outside
St James' Park on 7 October 2021. • The
purchase of
Newcastle United F.C., 80% financing provided by the Saudi Arabia
Public Investment Fund. This was "a blatant example of Saudi sportswashing", according to
Kate Allen of
Amnesty International UK. • Kingdom of Bahrain 20% stake purchase of French football club
Paris FC. The purchase was condemned by French-based human rights NGOs. •
Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, ruler of
Qatar, purchased
French football club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in 2011 •
Washington Spirit's 2020 cultural exchange with
Qatar Basketball • Russian
businessman Mikhail Prokhorov owned the NBA team
Brooklyn Nets. Prokhorov was known to be a close ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2017, Prokhorov sold the team; this was alleged to have taken place at Putin's request. Consequently, Hong Kong businessman
Joseph Tsai bought the team in 2019. Tsai was previously criticized for his praise of China's restrictions on personal freedoms and for expressing his support of the
Hong Kong national security law.
Cricket • Indian fugitive businessman
Vijay Mallya's ownership of cricket team
Royal Challengers Bangalore, which competed in the
Indian Premier League. Indian
Enforcement Directorate accused Mallya ownership of the team to be part of Mallya's money laundering scheme. • The
South Africa national cricket team held numerous tours dubbed as
South African rebel tours around 1982–1990, defying sporting bodies' sanctions of numerous South African sports teams for participating in international sporting events. The tours have been regarded as part of the apartheid government's sporting propaganda.
Cycling • There have been numerous reports that multiple authoritarian countries and questionable companies abused the
2020 Tour de France to sportswash their tarnished reputation; the following teams have been accused of sportswashing during the event: •
Ineos Grenadiers •
UAE Team Emirates XRG •
Bahrain–McLaren Motorsport • Indian fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya's ownership of the
Force India Formula One team. The Indian Enforcement Directorate accused Mallya's Force India team of being established for money laundering purposes.
Other • The
Al Maktoum family's ownership of
Godolphin and
Essential Quality • The takeover of esports organizations
ESL and
FACEIT by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund == By individuals ==