In 2004 Melbourne Victory was announced as a foundation club of the A-League after beating out the alternative Melbourne based bids:
- Melbourne United, backed by the Melbourne Knights
- The Victorian Soccer Federation backed bid
The Melbourne Victory bid was led by Geoff Lord of Belgravia Leisure as well as a number of other smaller investors who joined the unlisted public company. Ron Peck, John Harris, Richard Wilson, and Anthony Di Pietro were all initial owners.
The club however failed to raise the necessary $5 million required by Football Federation Australia, so the FFA came in as a minority shareholder to the tune to $500 thousand. The quick financial success of the club though allowed private investors the ability to buy out the FFA.
In 2014 minority holders Robert Belteky and Harry Stamoulis decided to divest themselves and offered up their collective 35% stake in the club.
An attempt to sell this stake to fans was was blocked by the board. Eventually existing owners Anthony Di Pietro and Mario Biasin bought the shares for $6.75 million. This resulted in Biasin holding 47%, Di Pietro 20% and Paul Mirabella 8%. It also marked the first time a single shareholder owned more than 19.4 per cent.
Interestingly the two exiting owners made a bid for Tasmanian A-League team shortly afterwards in 2016.
As at 2016 Anthony Di Pietro and Mario Biasin remained majority owners.
As at 2018 Melbourne Victory was still a private company with over 50 shareholders
In 2021 Richard Wilson had a falling out with the majority owners and exited the club by selling his shared to fans.
In 2022 Wilson took other shareholders to court over a failed earlier attempt to sell his shares.
In 2022 Biasin passed away. At the time he was an owner, director and his company was a long time sponsor, although experiencing some difficulties.
In 2022 Melbourne Victory sold a minority stake to 777 Partners. This marked the first foreign ownership of the club. 777 Partners also supported the club though sponsorship of an associated company Bonza airlines.
In 2023 Melbourne Victory agreed for 777 Partners to acquire up to 70% of the club.
As at 2024 Melbourne Victory’s ownership remained diversified, with Goldern Riches (Metricon) holding 21.5% and 777 Partners holding 19.9%.
Insights
It’s astounding to see how difficult it was to arrange appropriate bid financing for Melbourne Victory considering the financial behemoth it would later become. Melbourne Victory for long periods was the only profitable A-League club thanks to a huge membership culture and high attendances. The operating surplus has kept the club running with little involvement required of its owners.
The tight nit ownership group provided stability and a valuable corporate network which seems to have been disrupted when Anthony Di Pietro and Mario Biasin acquired majority ownership. Public spats with Wilson and poor performances on field immediately after this acquisition where put into the spot light especially as this is when Melbourne City began to establish themselves as football focused and stable off-field operators.
Unfortunately the stalling of the club’s growth apatite seems to have created more recent issues. As COVID lockdowns stopped crowds and impacted the club’s operating profits substantially the club was faced with financial difficulties for the first time. This was exacerbated by the loss of their major owner and COVID related challenges at his company which happened to be the club’s major sponsor. These challenges may have contributed to the club’s openness to the investment from 777 Partners on questionable terms, from a questionable counterparty. The club’s growing contentedness over this time has also see very little change from an operating perspective. The club has been unable to secure appropriate training facilities, relies on owner related sponsors and has not diversified its revenue away from memberships which have remained stagnant over the last decade.
The question marks surrounding 777 Partners are plentiful and challenging. Rather than explore them shallowly it’s best to refer to excellent work conducted by Josimar.com which sheds light on the secretive legal web, unorthodox tactics and precarious financial position of the group
Limitations and considerations
Information has been accumulated based on publicly available reports and may not be entirely correct.
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