Cross-border M&As in the Italian football industry: does the national culture of the acquirer matter?

In the thesis I am going to analyze if the national culture of the acquirer matter. First of all, in the first chapter I analyze the European football industry based on several studies published by Deloitte focusing more on the Top 5 European League: Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, Ligue One and Serie A. Furthermore, I will analyze each of these five leagues and compare them with each other, giving more space to the Italian championship since it is the focus of the thesis, trying to assess the numbers it generates and why it is becoming a target for many investors. The second chapter is focused on the three emerging markets in football: China, United States and Middle East. China because started investing in football around 2015 both internally, investing large sums of money to develop football in the country, and in Europe, buying numerous European football clubs between 2015 and 2017 and then block investments at the behest of the government. The United States they started investing much earlier in European football and in recent years they have been amplifying their investments a lot by buying numerous clubs after the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, Middle East especially with countries such as Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia bought several clubs in Europe and have invested heavily in hosting events in their country, in particular Qatar, which hosted the World Cup in 2022. Moreover, chapter 3 explain the M&A process and cross-border M&A from a theoretical point of view with its advantages and disadvantages and then focusing on the M&A and cross-border M&A in the football industry, analyzing the types of buyers and the reasons and risk in buying a football club. In conclusion, the chapter 4 is the analysis of three football clubs owned by foreign investor in Serie A. The Chinese club in my analysis is Internazionale F.C., actually the only Chinese club in Serie A and which I have analyzed the financial and sport performance also helped with an interview to Giuseppe Marotta, the CEO of Inter. The second club is Bologna, a Serie A club owed by Joey Saputo, a North American investor and where I interviewed Claudio Fenucci, the CEO of the club. The third club, bought in 2022 by the UAE group, the City Group is Palermo, actually participates to Serie B and I interviewed Alberto Galassi a member of the board of City Group. In conclusion I compared the data found for each club trying to find similarities and differences between the three cultures in how they manage a football club.