The private markets industry has acquired ownership stakes in more than a third of all of Europe’s top football clubs, according to a new report that sheds light on how buyout bosses have been quietly muscling in on the world’s most popular sport.

Across the top leagues in Europe’s ‘Big Five’ countries — England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany — some 35.7% of clubs now have private equity, venture capital or private debt investors at the club-ownership level.