Snoop Dogg has made headlines after becoming an investor in Championship side Swansea City – but he’s not the first household name from the music world to part-own a football club.
With football firmly established as the most popular sport in the world, scores of famous fans are looking for a slice of the action through investment in different clubs.
We’ve picked out 11 music artists who have invested in football clubs, ranging from Serie A giants to English ninth-tier minnows.
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg has become a co-owner and investor at Swansea City after taking a minority stake in the Championship club.
The rapper was the surprise model as Swansea launched their home kit for the 2025-26 season last weekend.
The Swans have now announced that the 53-year-old American icon has followed Real Madrid and Croatia legend Luka Modric by joining the club’s ownership group.
“My love of football is well known, but it feels special to me that I make my move into club ownership with Swansea City,” Snoop Dogg said on the club’s website.
“The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me. This is a proud, working-class city and club. An underdog that bites back, just like me.
“I’m proud to be part of Swansea City.”
Ed Sheeran
Grammy Award-winning singer Ed Sheeran is a long-time supporter of Ipswich Town and is incredibly involved with his local club.
In 2021, Sheeran became the club’s shirt sponsor, with his logo featuring on their Men’s and Women’s teams’ kits ever since.
His sponsorship helped raise the profile of the club, bringing additional media attention and a unique connection between his music career and the football world.
Sheeran also acquired a minority stake in the club last year and will be hoping to see Ipswich promoted back to the Premier League at the first attempt.
Drake
One of the very biggest names in the world of music, Drake joined LeBron James as an investor at AC Milan in October 2022.
Around the same time, the Canadian rap icon’s OVO owl logo adorned the shirts of Barcelona for El Clasico as part of their sponsorship deal with Spotify.
Stormzy
The grime artist even your nan knows, Stormzy was born in Croydon took over at local non-Leaguers AFC Croydon Athletic in 2023.
Teaming up with Crystal Palace legend Wilfried Zaha, who moved there at the age of four, this was something of a match made in heaven.
“May the journey begin,” Zaha proclaimed upon the announcement. The journey to where exactly?
Well, Croydon were plying their trade in English football’s ninth tier at the time and they finished 12th in the Isthmian League South East Division in 2024-25.
Elton John
John is a lifelong Watford fan and in 1976 he became the club’s owner. The three-time Grammy award winner’s association with Watford has been anything but a smooth ride in the years since.
Under his ownership, the Hertfordshire club rose from the fourth division to the top flight, finished league runners-up to Liverpool, reached the FA Cup final and played in Europe.
John sold the club in 1987 and repurchased it again 10 years later before stepping down as chairman in 2002.
Although no longer a majority shareholder, he still holds a financial interest and has a stand named after him at Vicarage Road. Which is nice.
READ: Elton John at Glasto threw us right back to Sky Sports’ best ever advert
Fatboy Slim
In 1999, Fatboy Slim invested £100,000 into his then impoverished local side Brighton and Hove Albion.
In return, his Skint Records label logo was emblazoned on the front of the club’s shirts for the next season.
Five years later, the chart-conquering dance titan also launched a limited-edition Brighton shirt in 2004 to celebrate the release of his new studio album ‘Palookaville.
Olly Murs
A non-League footballer either side of finishing as runner-up on the 2009 edition of The X-Factor, Olly Murs invested in Essex side Coggeshall Town after playing for them.
The man responsible for songs like ‘Troublemaker’ and ‘Dance with Me Tonight’ co-owned Coggeshall for six years, before stepping down in 2022 to focus on his music career.
Jade Thirlwall
Two of her Little Mix bandmates have been romantically involved with Premier League footballers and Thirlwall attached herself to the beautiful game by becoming a South Shields FC shareholder in 2020.
And her presence seemed to help: within three years, South Shields were promoted to the National League North, English football’s sixth tier, and are still there today.
D'Anjj
Afrobeats star D’Banj, who hit the UK Charts in the summer of 2012 with ‘Oliver Twist’ founded his own football club in Nigeria and called it Koko FC.
“With D’banj’s pedigree and commitment to excellence, as already expressed in music and business, his entry into football via Lagos Liga is one other teams should pay attention to,” Lagos Liga wrote as confirmed Koko FC’s participation in October 2024.
D’Banj urged aspiring footballers to post one-minute clips of their skills on The Cream platform, where the most popular videos led to physical tryouts and the best players made the team.
Ciara & Macklemore
Grammy award winner Ciara, Seattle Seahawks quarterback and Super Bowl winner Russell Wilson, and rapper Macklemore all have a vested interest in MLS side Seattle Sounders.
Ciara and Wilson, who have been married since 2016, are Seattle-based due to the latter’s American Football commitments, while Macklemore is Seattle-born and raised.
The trio are part of an ownership group consisting of 17 families and saw their side become the first MLS club to win the CONCACAF Champions League in 2022.
Method in the madness, perhaps.
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