Football Comparison In the late 1990s and early 2000s, several football teams seemed to prefer floating themselves on the stock market to obtain funds, particularly in the United Kingdom. Only 22 teams are now registered on European stock exchanges and monitored in the Stoxx Europe Football index, which is the major index for European clubs. The last team to do so was Monaco in 2004, who issued shares to fund their transfer budget. The strategy was used by many clubs as a way of raising money while still playing at home. If a club was unable to find a sponsor, then they would have to rely on ticket sales and merchandise to keep afloat. This method proved successful for several clubs including Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. After several years of success, it looked like this strategy was going to revolutionize English football, but now it's been taken away from most of the big clubs. There have been some reports that Manchester United may want to follow suit, but so far they have refused to comment on whether or not this is something they are interested in doing. There are also plans to make an NFL team available to American investors, but no date has been set for this to happen. In the meantime, only Chelsea and Liverpool have announced plans to float this year.