Abramovich now football's poor relation

Published on Tuesday 6 January 2009 22:12

MANCHESTER City's hugely wealthy owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan has toppled Roman Abramovich to head British football's rich list.

Sheikh Mansour, a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi, has a personal fortune of 15 billion according to the Football Rich List, researched and published by FourFourTwo magazine.

The 38-year-old bought City in the summer, while Abramovich, Chelsea's Russian owner, has slipped to third in the list – his wealth is estimated at 7 billion and he has been said to have lost over 3 billion in the economic downturn.

He has also been overtaken in the list by Lakshmi Mittal, the 58-year-old Indian industrialist worth 12.5 billion who joined Formula 1's Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore investing in Queens Park Rangers.

David Beckham remains the richest player associated with British football – his personal fortune of 125 million being streets ahead of his closest rivals Michael Owen (40 million) and Wayne Rooney (35 million). Beckham is 38th in the overall list, while England head coach Fabio Capello is at No73, worth an estimated 25 million, with a 6 million-a-year contract from the FA and a 10 million private art collection.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is at No78 in the list (22 million), ahead of long-time rival and Arsenal manager Arsne Wenger at No92 (14 million).

Celtic shareholder Dermot Desmond, the Irish entrepreneur, is the richest person in Scottish football – he is eighth on the list and said to be worth 1.2 billion. Rangers chairman Sir David Murray is 19th on the list, worth 600 million.

Desmond made his fortune in investment banking and stockbroking. He is ranked fifth in Ireland's own Rich List, but has at times been heavily criticised by the Celtic support for the club's reluctance to spend in the transfer market.

Murray recently marked 20 years at the helm at Ibrox but is willing to sell the club should a suitable offer be made. Last November, he admitted that Rangers would have to downsize dramatically unless his successor had deeper pockets than himself. "This has not been a good financial year for Rangers Football Club and the Murray Group will underwrite it," he said.

Despite the huge fortunes of the wealthiest owners, football finance experts fear British football's bubble may be about to burst.

Professor Tom Cannon told the magazine: "Season-ticket numbers will probably be down by about 10 per cent but renewals will be down by at least 15 or 20 per cent. That's where the problems will be as you go down the divisions."

RICH LIST TOP 20

1, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Manchester City) 15bn

2, Lakshmi Mittal and family (Queen's Park Rangers) 12.5bn

3, Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) 7bn

4, Joe Lewis (Tottenham Hotspur) 2.5bn

5, Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone (Queen's Park Rangers) 2.4bn

6, Stanley Kroenke (Arsenal) 2.245bn

7, Alisher Usmanov (Arsenal) 1.5bn

8=, Lord Grantchester & the Moores Family (Everton) 1.2bn

8=, Dermot Desmond (Celtic) 1.2bn

10=, Lord Ashcroft (Watford) 1.1bn

10=, Malcolm Glazer and family (Manchester Utd) 1.1bn

12, Simon Keswick (Cheltenham) 966m

13, Trevor Hemmings (Preston) 900m

14, Mike Ashley (Newcastle United) 800m

15, Randy Lerner (Aston Villa) 750m

16, Tom Hicks (Liverpool) 700m

17, The Walker Family (Blackburn Rovers) 660m

18, Mohammed Al Fayed (Fulham) 650m

19, Sir David Murray (Rangers) 600m

20, Steve Morgan (Wolves) 400m

TOP 20 PLAYERS

1 David Beckham (LA Galaxy) 125m

2 Michael Owen Newcastle United) 40m

3 Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) 35m

4= Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United) 28m

4= Robbie Fowler (Blackburn Rovers) 28m

4= Sol Campbell (Portsmouth) 28m

7 Ryan Giggs (Manchester United) 23m

8= Michael Ballack (Chelsea) 20m

8= Frank Lampard (Chelsea) 20m

10 Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) 19m

11 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) 18m

12 John Terry (Chelsea) 17m

13 Didier Drogba (Chelsea) 15m

14= Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea) 14m

14- Damien Duff (Newcastle United) 14m

16= Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United) 13m

16= Ashley Cole (Chelsea) 13m

16= Fernando Torres (Liverpool) 13m

19= Emile Heskey (Wigan Athletic) 12m

20 Gary Neville (Manchester United) 11.75m