Grasshopper Club Zurich Sold by LA Team to Bridge Football

(Bloomberg) — Bridge Football Group has bought Grasshopper Club Zurich, one of Switzerland’s most storied football teams.

Bridge is acquiring a stake of more than 96% of the Swiss club from Los Angeles Football Club, according to a statement Monday. Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed in the statement.

After a sales process that attracted more than a dozen credible investors and ownership groups, Bridge was selected based on its long-term strategic vision for Grasshopper Club Zurich and its commitment to preserving the team’s heritage while investing in its future, Markham Capital and Sports Advisory, which managed the sale process, said in the statement.

Bridge Football already owns three football teams globally: FC Den Bosch in the Netherlands; Shaanxi Union FC in China; and Pro Vercelli in Italy. Bridge has a Swiss-based chief executive, Ludovic Delechat, a lawyer who was formerly a senior legal executive at FIFA.

Grasshopper Zurich has been owned since 2024 by Los Angeles FC, an unhappy period for the Swiss team that has been fighting off relegation from the top tier over the past two seasons, leading to fan unrest. Grasshopper, which was founded in 1886, has won the Swiss Championship 27 times, most recently in 2003.

LAFC confirmed the sale in a separate statement and said it will consolidate its European strategy to focus exclusively on its long-term partnership with Austrian club FC Wacker Innsbruck.

In April LAFC said that without continued injection of owner funding Grasshopper couldn’t continue to operate as a professional football club.

LAFC decided to search for a new investor after a fan protest at the team’s Letzigrund stadium, which it shares with FC Zurich. Both teams share a bitter rivalry which is also illustrated by different fan cultures. FC Zürich is known for its loud south stand and working-class milieu fans, while Grasshopper fans are often seen as posh and establishment.

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