The founding owner wants a Quebec buyer for MLS’s lowest-valued club, but he says he won’t give it away.
Joey Saputo founded the club that became CF Montréal in 1992. On Monday he hired bankers to sell it. The team announced a structured sale process with BMO Capital Markets as lead financial advisor and National Bank of Canada Capital Markets as co-advisor.
The club’s stated priority is to give “the right Québec-based investors” a chance to step forward. Saputo framed the timing as a choice, telling reporters the decision “is neither driven by urgency nor dictated by circumstance,” according to Reuters.
He also left a door open that fans will notice. If no local buyer emerges, Saputo said an offer to relocate the club could win out, provided it fits Major League Soccer’s plans. He added that he would not discount the team to the point of giving it away.
The price tag is the question. Reuters reported that CF Montréal ranked last in Forbes’ 2026 MLS valuations at an estimated $440 million. The on-field product does not help the pitch: the team finished last in the Eastern Conference with six wins, 20 losses and eight draws, and TSN counts 11 full-time managers in 14 MLS seasons, six of them since 2019.
Club officials argue the setting is improving, pointing to Olympic Stadium plans and Canada Soccer’s bid for a national training centre. Management stays in place during the process, with Gabriel Gervais continuing as president and CEO.
Saputo is not leaving soccer. He remains the owner of Italy’s Bologna, which he bought in 2014, TSN noted. What he is giving up is the club his family started more than three decades ago, and the buyer pool will decide whether it stays in Montreal.
Sources
- MLSsoccer.com – Joey Saputo initiates sales process for CF Montréal – https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/joey-saputo-initiates-sales-process-for-cf-montreal
- Reuters via Devdiscourse – Soccer-Saputo initiates sales process for MLS club CF Montreal – https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/international/4004157-soccer-saputo-initiates-sales-process-for-mls-club-cf-montreal
- TSN – Saputo puts CF Montreal up for sale – https://www.tsn.ca/soccer/article/saputo-puts-cf-montreal-up-for-sale/
- Wikipedia – Joey Saputo – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Saputo
Featured photo: Funke, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (license).
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