Calling a spade a spade
American ownership of the European sports teams is increasingly out of touch with the local realities.
Welcome to my newsletter, where I am sharing my thoughts about investing in sports.
For many of us in public and private markets, it is fairly obvious that we are in an AI bubble. If you are looking at sports investments, there is a different type of bubble, especially in football – a nonsense bubble!
Recently one story has encapsulated nonsense in football – Brera Holdings MCO. I don’t have intricate information, and I am just laying out my views here.
In less than three years Brera has:
raised small amount of capital as the first publicly traded MCO on Nasdaq
acquired clubs in North Macedonia, Mongolia and Mozambique
acquired Italian Serie B team
pivoted to become Solana digital asset treasury backed by Cathie Wood
its Italian club is placed under judicial administration for mafia infiltration!
The listed MCO experiment with fringe clubs
Brera started as a Multi-Club Ownership vehicle founded in 2022 by a group of experienced American and Italian executives.
Brera Holdings raised $7.5m when it listed on Nasdaq in January 2023, positioning itself as the first publicly traded MCO. Of course, the goal was to “democratize” multiple club ownership.
First two clubs acquired were:
AP Brera Strumica in North Macedonia (1st League) for €600k. The club is founded by the Serie A legend, Goran Pandev
Brera Ilch FC in Mongolia – not necessarily an epicentre of football
They also created the third Brera club, in Mozambique, which since then shut down.
In July 2023 Brera acquired 51% stake in UYBA Volley, Italian women volleyball club playing in the top league. In 2025 they sold it back to the original owner.
Hard to see much synergy between owning football clubs in North Macedonia, Mongolia and Mozambique, plus a women volleyball club, but with limited capital available they were probably not able to buy established football club in Italy.
SS Juve Stabia
At the end of 2024 Brera reached agreement to acquire a 52% majority stake in the Italian club, SS Juve Stabia, in tranches over a period of ~6 months, with final tranche completed in the summer 2025.
Juve Stabia is a club from the Naples area, playing in Serie B. Historically, it has played in the third and fourth Italian division, but since 2010 it has played five seasons in Serie B. 2024/25 has been their best season ever, finishing 5th in Serie B and getting nearly promoted.
Pivot to Digital Asset Treasury
Just a couple of months after completing Juve Stabia acquisition, in September 2025, Brera closed a $300m private placement, pivoting from football MCO to become a Solana digital asset treasury (DAT) with a sports arm, and rebranding as Solmate.
Given major backing from Abu Dhabi they reallocated HQ to UAE. Solmate has brought in a very credible management team from crypto and Solana universe.
The round was anchored by the investors from Abu Dhabi, Solana Foundation, and Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest (11.5% ownership). Following PIPE, the company was valued at ~$1bn.
The shift is playing the crypto-treasury trend (popularised by MicroStrategy), promising to combine a sports operating business with an aggressive digital-asset accumulation strategy and to build Solana infrastructure in the UAE. It initially purchased $50 million worth of SOL, Solana’s native cryptocurrency, directly from the Solana Foundation at a 15% discount.
Let’s face it, operating companies that pivot to DAT are failing businesses. Whatever your view on DATs is (I am not bullish), turning football MCO into DAT is just bollocks. There is no sporting and operational rational and benefit, it’s a fundraising grab. If you can only raise $30m for MCO, but $300m for DAT, you decide to pivot.
They have very credible crypto management team and may end up as a success, but in my view football wise that is nonsense.
Guess who’s running the show in Naples?
Two days ago, just a month after Brera pivoted to DAT, SS Juve Stabia have been placed under judicial administration amid suspicion of mafia infiltration, marking the third such intervention in Italian football.
Extensive investigations “uncovered a system of mafia-style influence over the economic activities of the football club” by a local Camorra clan, Naples prosecutors, police and the national anti-mafia prosecutor said in a joint statement.
“Players just had to play, while the Camorra took care of the rest… It was a complete, all-round package”, Naples prosecutor told a press conference.
According to prosecutors, the Camorra’s influence stretched across every operational layer of the club from security, catering, travel logistics, to ticketing. Last season alone, 38 Juve Stabia fans were hit with stadium bans, with 22 suspected of clan affiliation.
Investigators allege the new owners “inherited long-standing financial ties already under mafia influence” and failed to sever them.
I doubt that new owners had any ties with Camorra clan, or real knowledge of the situation. Whatever the case may be, it is a horrible look, and shows negligence, either in due diligence or operations. The truth is they probably couldn’t have done anything, which is why they shouldn’t have bought the club in the first place.
Cathie Wood’s ARK dumping Brera stock
In the weeks following the PIPE at $4.50 per share, the price of Solmate rallied to over $24.88 (3rd October). Since then, it has plummeted to $8.35 (22nd October). Guess who’s been dumping the stock? Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest.
It makes sense to take profits if you 5x share price after PIPE. Interesting question is if you are dumping stock a week or two before a major implosion in the MCO, could this be insider trading? Likely it isn’t, the share price is now more tied to Solana anyway, but optics are not looking great.
Calling a spade a spade
There will for sure be a lot more details to come out. I try not to be critical in my writing, after all I have little regard for armchair warriors. However, as someone who tends to call a spade a spade, I must bring up one underlying theme that is emerging. American ownership of the European sports teams is increasingly becoming out of touch with the local realities, and in some cases is just turning into nonsense.
Thanks for reading,
Nikola