Who Lends to Football Clubs? The 10 Biggest Football Lenders in 2026
From Apollo and Ares to Fasanara and JPMorgan, these are the 10 lenders financing European football clubs, with the deals, rates and risks behind each.
Finance Follow the Debt: The 10 Lenders Financing European Football
Behind most big club deals in Europe sits a lender. Private credit funds, specialist sports financiers, investment banks and even an insurance group now fund stadiums, transfers and takeovers. These are the 10 lenders that matter most, with the deals, prices and risks attached to each.
The shift is recent. Banks still write most European football loans, but the riskier end of the market has moved to private capital. English clubs are also borrowing more. The Independent Football Regulator's first State of the Game report found 94% of clubs in the top five tiers are losing money, and many rely on outside funding to get through a season. That funding gap is the market these lenders are competing for.
1. Apollo Sports Capital
Apollo moved into football through debt before it bought a club. Its first Premier League deal was an £80 million loan to Nottingham Forest, a three-year facility at 8.75% secured on club assets including the City Ground. Around £55 million of it refinanced earlier debt from Rights and Media Funding. Apollo also lent £40 million to Kia Joorabchian's Sports Invest Holdings at 10.25%.
Its dedicated sports vehicle, reported at $5 billion, then made its biggest move: a majority stake in Atlético de Madrid in November 2025. Apollo has also lent to Sporting CP and taken a minority stake in Wrexham.
2. Ares Management
Ares lends at the holding company level, above the club. In 2023 it provided £500 million of subordinated debt to Chelsea's owners, structured as a payment-in-kind note, where interest is added to the principal rather than paid in cash.
Its most cautionary deal is Eagle Football, John Textor's group that owned Lyon. Ares lent a reported €400 million to €425 million. According to analysis by Paul Quinn on The Esk, Eagle's UK bidco entered administration in March 2026 after defaulting on that debt, and proceeds from the Crystal Palace stake sale had to go to Ares.
3. Sixth Street
Sixth Street does not lend in the usual sense. It buys revenue. Its best-known football deal paid Barcelona €667.5 million for 25% of the club's LaLiga TV rights for 25 years. That gave Barça cash upfront but commits roughly €40 million a year of future income to the fund.
4. Oaktree Capital Management
Oaktree shows what happens when a football loan is not repaid. It lent to Suning, Inter's former owner, and took control of the club after a reported $428 million repayment was missed. Oaktree has since cut Inter's debt and turned the club profitable, making it one of the few cases where a lender-turned-owner improved the business.
5. JPMorgan
JPMorgan is the main bank behind football's long-dated stadium debt. In 2025 it placed £350 million of senior secured notes for Everton's new stadium, replacing expensive short-term loans taken on under Farhad Moshiri. The notes run for 30 years to 2055 and are secured on the stadium. Bloomberg also reported a separate £130 million loan to the Friedkin Group for the takeover.
Not all club debt carries the same risk. A 30-year private placement secured on a stadium matches debt to a long-lived asset. A 12-month loan sized against player values has to be repaid or refinanced within one or two transfer windows. The second kind is where clubs run into trouble.
6. MSD Partners
MSD, the investment firm linked to Michael Dell, is one of the most active secured lenders in English football. It has lent to Burnley, Derby County, Southampton, Sunderland and West Ham. Its Burnley loans helped finance ALK Capital's 2020 leveraged takeover and were secured on Turf Moor.
7. Fasanara Capital and Tifosy
This London pair runs a joint fund focused on sports receivables. Tifosy, co-founded by the late Gianluca Vialli, sources deals and values squads. Fasanara manages the money. Fasanara says it has deployed about $400 million across more than 35 sports deals, with loans usually running six to 24 months.
Its borrowers include Levante, Royal Antwerp, KAA Gent, Genoa, Swansea City and Burnley. Fasanara is also the pioneer of squad-value financing, loans sized at around a quarter of a club's estimated squad value, which private credit is now pitching to English clubs.
8. 23 Capital
Before 2020, 23 Capital built a reported $1 billion loan book. It financed some of the biggest transfers in Europe, including funding linked to Antoine Griezmann's move to Barcelona and João Félix's move to Atlético. Covid stopped transfer repayments and the firm wound down. It has now reportedly relaunched with squad-value lending as a core product.
9. Rights and Media Funding
Rights and Media Funding is a specialist UK lender that has kept Premier League clubs liquid. It lent Everton more than £200 million, priced at base rate plus 5%, before the debt was repaid in 2024. Its £55 million facility to Nottingham Forest was refinanced by Apollo. Its deals show how specialist lenders bridge clubs until larger, cheaper capital arrives.
10. A-CAP
A-CAP is a US insurance group, not a sports lender. It funded 777 Partners, the Miami firm that tried to buy Everton and lent the club money while its takeover was pending. The first £40 million reportedly reached Everton at 12.75%. When the Friedkin Group took over, the 777/A-CAP debt was settled at a discount. The case showed how policyholder money can end up financing a Premier League club through an intermediary that later collapsed.
What this list tells owners
The cheapest football debt goes to clubs with strong owners and hard assets, such as a new stadium. The most expensive goes to clubs that need cash fast. For most Premier League and EFL clubs, the realistic choice sits somewhere between those two, and the price of that choice is rising as private credit moves in.