From Manchester City to Chelsea: who are the 12 richest billionaire owners of English Premier League soccer clubs?
These top division soccer club owners – including Roman Abramovich, John Henry and Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Mansour – are worth a combined US$90.8 billion, Forbes magazine reports
Russian entrepreneur Roman Abramovich kick-started a new wave of overseas billionaires taking over English Premier League soccer clubs when he bought Chelsea from then owner Ken Bates in 2003.
Ever since then, the clubs in England's top division – which attracts huge global audiences for its televised matches – have become attractive prospects for wealthy investors looking to boost their business profits.
Today there are now 12 billionaire owners among the English Premier League’s 20 clubs. These owners are worth a combined US$90.8 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
We have ranked them in terms of their net worth according to Forbes and Britain’s The Sunday Times newspaper.
We have also explained how each of the owners have made their fortunes.
Katharina Liebherr and Gao Jisheng of Southampton FC have been excluded from the list because Liebherr sold 80 per cent of her shares in the club to Jisheng in 2017, and the Chinese businessman's net worth is currently unclear having just lost control of his real-estate company, Lander Sports, according to Britain’s Financial Times newspaper.
Check out the English Premier League's richest billionaire owners in ascending order.
12. Everton: owner Farhad Moshiri – US$1.9 billion
Age: 64
Nationality: Iranian
How he made his fortune: Trained as a chartered accountant at Britain’s University College London, Moshiri and his business partner, Alisher Usmanov, hold shares in mining and steel manufacturing giant Metalloinvest and Russian wireless operator Megafon.