The multi-club ownership model championed by City Football Group and Red Bull is a proven failure when applied to MLS—and no case demonstrates this more starkly than the chasm between Bologna’s Champions League qualification and CF Montreal’s descent into irrelevance. The same ownership group that oversaw Bologna’s stunning rise under Thiago Motta has allowed Montreal to drift into the Eastern Conference basement, proving that “synergy” is a buzzword, not a strategy. This is not a story of different leagues or budgets; it is a story of deliberate neglect.
Watch the tape: Bologna sold Joshua Zirkzee to Manchester United for £36 million, banked a fee for Riccardo Calafiori, and reinvested in players like Santiago Castro and Giovanni Fabbian. They finished fifth in Serie A, earned a Champions League spot, and played with the tactical coherence of a team that had a clear identity. The Montreal side that took the pitch this season? They are a collection of mismatched parts—Laurent Courtois inherited a squad stripped of its best talent, with Djordje Mihailovic sold to Colorado and Ismaël Koné shipped to Watford for pennies relative to his potential. The ownership group did not move a single Bologna-level prospect to Montreal; no Zirkzee, no Calafiori, no Sam Beukema. Instead, Montreal’s “partnership” meant loaning out players like Ariel Lassiter and bringing in stopgaps like Josef Martínez—a fading star who was never going to fit a system that couldn’t even decide its own formation. The gap in ambition is not about market size; it is about where the ownership places its focus. Bologna plays in the Champions League while Montreal struggles to field a competent backline against teams like Chicago Fire.
The implication is damning for any MLS fan hoping global ownership brings global benefits. When an ownership group controls both a Serie A contender and an MLS also-ran, the smaller club is not a partner—it is a holding tank for castoffs or a tax write-off for transfer profits. The so-called “pipeline” flows one way: Bologna develops assets, sells them, and Montreal gets nothing but the leftover oxygen. Look at the coaching carousel: Motta was given two full seasons and the resources to shape his squad, while Montreal burned through Wilfried Nancy (who now tops the Supporters’ Shield with Columbus), then Hernán Losada, and now Courtois—each inheriting a weaker roster than the last. This is not a system that creates synergy; it is a system