Co-ownership is a system whereby two
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
clubs own the contract of a player jointly, although the player is only registered to play for one club. It is not a universal system, but is used in some countries, including Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. It was formerly commonplace in Italy, though the practice has now been abolished there.
This type of deal differs from
third-party ownership, in that in the latter, the player's contract is owned by a non-footballing entity, such as a management company.
Italy
Co-ownership deals were common in
Italian football, before being banned at the end of the 2014–15 season.
The practice was sanctioned in Article 102 bis of the
FIGC
The Italian Football Federation (, ; FIGC ), known colloquially as (), is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence.
It manages and coordinates the Italian football l ...
Internal Organizational Regulations (''Norme Organizzative Interne della FIGC'') and were officially known as "participation rights" (''diritti di partecipazione'').
For a co-ownership to be set, a player needed to be signed to a team and have at least two years left in their contract. It worked as a regular
transfer, except that the selling club would keep the aforementioned participation rights, i.e. the rights to 50% of the player's value. Unless the deal was terminated early by mutual agreement between all the parties involved, the two clubs had to agree on whether to renew or terminate the deal at the end of each season. In case they failed to reach an agreement by the league-wide deadline, the issue would be resolved via a blind auction. If the bids happened to be equal, or if none of the clubs submitted one, the full rights to the footballer would go to the club with which the footballer was registered (i.e. the club that acquired the footballer in co-ownership and not the one that kept the participation rights). When a player was under the co-ownership of two teams, he could still be sent on
loan
In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money.
The document evidencing the deb ...
to a third side, provided that all the parties involved agreed on the move. The club owning the "rights of participation" was allowed to transfer them to another club, still provided that all the other parties involved agreed.
A practical example of this type of deal was when Brazilian striker
Adriano was co-owned by
Internazionale
Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Since 1 ...
and
Parma
Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...
. Parma acquired Adriano for a reported £4 million in May 2002, with Inter keeping the participation rights. Adriano enjoyed a successful spell at Parma, which resulted in Inter paying a reported £13.5 million to buy out Parma's half share in January 2004.
See also
*
Transfer (association football)
In professional association football, football, a transfer is the action taken whenever a player under contract moves between clubs. It refers to the transferring of a player's registration from one football club, association football club to anot ...
*
Third-party ownership in association football
References
{{More categories, date=December 2024
Association football terminology