Contents
List of fan-owned sports teams
This list of fan-owned sports teams includes professional and semi-professional teams solely owned by fans/supporters, either via a collective organisation or where the assumption of majority ownership by a small group is prohibited by the club's constitution or governing documents. In some cases, the line is blurry between these teams and teams whose ownership is publicly traded. Teams playing at every level in each country are shown, and are sorted by home country.
Association football
Argentina
All association football clubs in Argentina are owned by their members. Every club is organised as not-for-profit organization according to Argentinian law (asociación civil sin fines de lucro). There are a few privately owned teams such as Crucero del Norte.
Australia
Austria
Protest Clubs
Phoenix Clubs
Clubs controlled by their members
Belarus
Belgium
Bosnia and Herzegovina
All football clubs in Bosnia and Herzegovina are registered as not-for-profit associations of citizens. However, in practice, only one club allows its members to democratically participate and vote in its General Assembly.
Brazil
Although since 1993 Brazilian law allows for privately owned sport clubs, most of the hundreds of professional association football clubs in Brazil are owned by their members as not-for-profit organizations. These include many of the traditionally considered 12 major clubs in the country:
Canada
Chile
Costa Rica
Colombia
Croatia
Protest clubs
Cyprus
Protest clubs & clubs controlled by their members
Czech Republic
Ecuador
England and Crown dependencies
Community created
Supporter Buyout/Takeover
Phoenix clubs
Protest Clubs
Minority supporter owned
Former supporter owned
Finland
France
Acteurs économiques (22 %) Supporters (20 %) Collectivités (10 %) Salariés et anciens salariés (10 %).
Germany
In Germany, majority control by a single entity (person or company) is not permitted by the Deutsche Fußball Liga, and this is consistent with German law. The law requires a registered club shall have at least seven members when it is founded. The German Football Association requires in its statutes that either a club, or a limited company which is controlled by a club with 50% + 1 vote, can get a licence to participate in the German first or second league. In the lower leagues, it is required to be a club. An exception to the 50+1 rule allows a company or individual investor that has substantially funded a club for at least 20 years to gain a controlling stake in that club. This exception most notably applies to Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg. Both were founded as sports clubs for employees of major corporations (respectively Bayer and Volkswagen) long before the 50+1 rule was established. More recently, SAP co-founder Dietmar Hopp has gained control of 1899 Hoffenheim—where he had been a youth player—after having funded the club's rise from the lowest reaches of German football to the Bundesliga. RB Leipzig have been accused of bypassing the law through legal loopholes, essentially not being fan-owned and undermining the system. Shares of Borussia Dortmund, a German Bundesliga Club, are traded on the German stock market and are largely held by fans. TC Freisenbruch, a club which was founded in Essen in 1902, is managed completely by the fans. The team currently plays in the ninth division of the German football league. Since July 2016, the club is managed via a webpage, where the fans can make their decisions about, for example, the starting line-up or the prices for the jersey.
Greece
India
Ireland
Israel
Protest Clubs
Phoenix Clubs
Italy
Japan
Mali
Nigeria
Northern Ireland
Fan-Owned
Minority Fan-Owned
Norway
All association football clubs in Norway are owned by their members.
Poland
Portugal
Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting CP football teams are also fan owned through a SAD for football as far as the club remains the owner of a majority of the SAD's stock. Some legal provisions are made to guarantee that in any case, the club have the last word on any major changes in the club and its SAD.
Romania
Russia
Scotland
Majority fan-owned
Minority fan-owned
Formerly Fan-Owned
South Korea
Spain
In Spain, most professional clubs in the top two tiers have been converted to public limited sports companies (sociedad anónima deportiva, or SAD). However, four clubs have thus far resisted such a legal restructuring: Many teams in the third tier and below are structured as members' clubs. However, a movement known as "popular football" (fútbol popular) began in 2007, consisting of clubs "that want to return to the democratic, social and community roots of the sport." As of February 2021, there are 19 such clubs:
Sweden
All sports clubs in Sweden are owned by its members. The Swedish Sports Confederation allows clubs to create limited companies together with investors as long as the club controls a majority of the votes.
Switzerland
FC Luzern - Established in 1901. In 2023, a group of fans founded the association "FCL-Basis" and this association, which is open to all fans for membership, acquired 10% of the shares of FC Luzern-Innerschweiz AG for the amount of CHF 1 million. Just a few months after its foundation, "FCL-Basis" already has more than 1,300 members, all of whom now effectively own part of the club. In addition to various veto rights, "FCL-Basis" is also guaranteed a seat on the Board of Directors of FC Luzern-Innerschweiz AG.
Ukraine
United States
Active clubs
Dormant and dissolved clubs
Uruguay
Wales
Chester F.C. is in the England section
Former
Australian Rules football
AFL: These clubs all operate sides in the AFL Women's league.
State Leagues
Tasmania
TSL
Tasmanian Lower League Clubs
North West Football League
Northern Tasmanian Football Association
Division One Division Two
Southern Football League
King Island Football Association
Baseball
Basketball
Futsal
Gridiron football
American football
Canadian football
Ice hockey
Canada
Poland
Rugby league
Australia
NRL:
United Kingdom
RFL:
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