US investors put millions in Mexican football before 2026 World Cup
A SYNDICATE including General Atlantic is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Mexican football ahead of the 2026 Fifa World Cup.
The group agreed to buy a 49 per cent stake in Ollamani Group, which owns Club America, one of Mexico’s biggest football teams, as well as the 88,000-seat Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, where the sport’s premier tournament will kick off in June, the companies announced in a joint statement.
The new joint entity will be known as Grupo Aguilas and the value of the enterprise is US$490 million, according to the companies. The investor group’s stake works out to roughly US$240 million.
Telecom and broadcasting giant Televisa Group set up Ollamani in February 2024 to separate its non-media related assets like Club America and the stadium, and focus solely on its core businesses.
Ollamani will retain the remaining 51 per cent stake of Grupo Aguilas and Televisa chairman Emilio Azcarraga Jean will become its executive president.
“This strategic alliance positions us strongly for our next stage of leadership as we expand our reach and deliver even more unforgettable experiences for fans in Mexico and beyond,” Azcarraga Jean said in a statement.
General Atlantic and Ollamani are partnering with Kraft Analytics Group, the subsidiary of billionaire Robert Kraft’s holding company, on data management and consulting. Its parent company has owned the New England Patriots since 1994 and related assets including Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts.
Club America, which Televisa acquired in 1959, is Mexico’s most successful football team with over 40 domestic and international titles and a large fan base in its home country and the US.
It is also listed on the Mexican stock exchange, making it one of the few publicly traded football clubs alongside European giants like Manchester United and Juventus. The iconic Azteca Stadium – now called Estadio Banorte after the financial group bought naming rights – is undergoing a US$106 million renovation.
Otherwise, Ollamani owns a gaming division that operates 18 casinos while their publishing business includes titles such as weekly entertainment magazine TVyNovelas.
Mexico’s football market is ripe for investment since it was agreed that no single group can own more than one team in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexico’s professional football league.
Three business groups, including one owned by billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego’s Grupo Salinas, currently own multiple teams and will need to sell to avoid penalties.
“We could really move forward at ending multi-propriety with fresh foreign investment,” Liga MX president Mikel Arriola in an interview in November. “Today the Mexican league is extremely attractive for American investors.”
Buying into Mexican teams is cheaper than investing in a new Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise, with the upside of already having a fan base on both sides of the border. Charlotte Football Club and San Diego FC, two of the newest names in MLS, cost US$325 million and US$500 million, respectively, according to the league’s records.
The price tag for a first division team in one of Europe’s top leagues goes well over US$1 billion.
Arriola also said that the appetite for Mexican teams will grow as football gains traction beyond its core Hispanic fans in the US and the 2026 World Cup euphoria lingers long after the tournament.
“We have 10 American investment funds looking for teams in Mexico,” he said at the time. “To have this amount of purchases in 2025 is huge.”
Mexican football has attracted millions of dollars in recent years from investors taking a chance on the country’s obsession with the sport.
In 2021, Hollywood star Eva Longoria and a group of American investors including Al Tylis and Sam Porter bought 50 per cent of Club Necaxa, one of the country’s oldest teams. The club currently features in a television series produced by FX.
Club Queretaro was fully acquired this year for US$120 million by Innovatio Capital, an Atlanta-based investment firm. Its CEO Marc Spiegel became the first foreign owner of a top Mexican division football team since the league’s establishment 82 years ago.
Atlas FC is one of two other clubs expected to be sold to US investors in the upcoming months.
“You start to go: ‘OK, where is the place where an investor still can capture some of the upside that hasn’t been unlocked yet, that hasn’t been fully invested by folks who are buying NFL and NBA teams?’” said Sam Porter, chief strategy officer at Apollo Sports Capital, in an October interview with Bloomberg’s Business of Sports podcast. “I think Liga MX holds a lot of that appeal.”
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