Blowing your owners horn
▶ Football’s richest club owners
Football is a sport where money has become part and parcel of the game over recent years. So much so that the Deloitte Football Money League reached its 24th year with this week’s edition of the annual report.
The richest club in the world is FC Barcelona according to Deloitte, with fellow La Liga giants Real Madrid and UEFA Champions League winners Bayern Munich close behind. English Premier League side Manchester United are fourth ahead of the English champions and their great rivals Liverpool.
The favorites to beat the Reds to the English title, Manchester City, are sixth, leading last year’s beaten Champions League finalists Paris St-Germain. English Premier League sides Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur edge out Italian Serie A perma-champions Juventus for the top 10.
Silverware and on-pitch success – such as qualifying for the UEFA Champions League season after season – are key factors, as are the value of the clubs’ respective share of their league’s broadcast rights and their commercial clout.
What Deloitte’s annual list does not take into account, if you’ll pardon the pun, is the fortunes of their respective owners. Financial Fair Play, a UEFA initiative to level the playing field for clubs who do not have angel investors, has ensured that money in the owner’s bank account does not mean success on the pitch or even power in the transfer market. Bur what if it did? Here, in order, are the 10 richest club owners in world football and perhaps with it a look at what a global superleague would look like if the gloves were off. While there are some shocks in store, it might not be quite as different as you might think.
Sheikh Mansour – Manchester City, Melbourne City, New York City
The pride and joy of Mansour’s City Football Group are undoubtedly the English Premier League side who have won titles galore since the Abu Dhabi royal family invested for 210 million pounds back in 2010. There have been four English Premier League titles since – ending a barren run dating back to 1968 – plus two FA Cups and five League Cups. Their global network of football clubs – which also includes teams in China, Japan, Uruguay, Spain, India, France and Belgium – are not averse to winning either, as evidenced by A-League champions Melbourne City. Mansour is worth an estimated $30 billion.
Dietrich Mateschitz – RB Leipzig, Red Bull Slzburg, New York Red Bulls
The Austrian has redefined football club ownership in Germany where fans are built into the fabric of football finance. Worth a reported $26.9 billion, the 76-year-old’s fortune comes from the energy drink that provides the name of his football clubs – with the notable exception of RasenBallsport Leipzig, the German side named after “lawn sports” to get past Bundesliga naming rules. Mateschitz, who got involved in Red Bull after travelling to Thailand in the 1980s, has made the clubs global brands and market leaders in the same way he did the drink.
Leipzig made the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals last season.
Andrea Agnelli – Juventus
The Juventus owner is worth $19.1 billion with the money coming from the family’s interest in Italian car brand Fiat, though that is now only a part of the Agnelli’s wide interests. The welleducated Andrea followed in the footsteps of his father Umberto in working at the Italian giants and became president in 2012. Juventus have won Serie A every season since he took charge of the club.
Dietmar Hopp – Hoffenheim
Hoffenheim owner Hopp is a billionaire entrepreneur who made his fortune in the software industry, founding SAP. His $18.5 billion net worth makes him Germany’s eighth-richest but he is second among club owners. The 81-year-old saw his hometown club surge up the leagues after he started backing them, finally reaching the promised land of the Bundelsiga in 2008. He is not popular with fans of other clubs but will cement his legendary status should the one-time minnows ever finish as champions.
Roman Abrahamovic – Chelsea
The Russian revolutionized English football back in the days when FFP was but a glint in the eye of the UEFA suits, bankrolling the Blues to success in the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League under a succession of big-name managers. The West London side have established themselves as one of Europe’s biggest clubs in the years since Abrahomovic, who is worth a reported $12.5 billion, walked through the doors at Stamford Bridge in 2003.
Phillip Anschutz – LA Galaxy
The American billionaire has long been involved in the US football pryamid with a slew of Major League Soccer sides having fallen under his financial clout.
Anschutz, who was born in 1940 and is reported to be worth more than $10 billion, has backed Chicago Fire, Houston Dynamos and the San Jose Earthquakes.
Stan Kroenke
– Arsenal and Colorado Rapids
Another American billionaire but one who happens to own an English Premier League side who Deloitte rank as the 11th-richest in the world, Kroenke has been at Arsenal since 2007.
The 74-year-ol, who is reported to be worth $8.3 billion, has a long-standing interest in sports that also includes NBA side Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL and NFL side St Louis.
Nasser Al-Khaleifi – PSG
The Qatari business magnate is worth a reported $8 billion and helped his company take over French side PSG in 2011. Since then the Parisians have gone from strength to strength, winning the French Ligue 1 seven times and challenging for the biggest trophies in world football – PSG finally reached the UEFA Champions League final last season.
Zhang Jindong – Inter Milan/Jiangsu FC
Owner of Chinese electronics retail giant Suning, Zhang (worth $ 8 billion) took over Inter Milan in 2016. The side lead Italy’s Serie A title race this season while Chinese Super League side Jiangsu won the CSL title last season. Success might come at a cost as both clubs are reported to be looking for investors.
Robert Kraft – New England Revolution
Worth almost $7 billion, Kraft owns the MLS side and NFL side the New England Patriots.