Thursday, February 12, 2009

Football's Richest Club Owners 2008

10: Sir David Murray (Glasgow Rangers)
David Murray is undoubtedly the man with the most footballing history in this list. He bought Rangers back in 1986, after failing in to takeover Ayr United. He made his money initially from steel, then diversified into areas including property and call centres. Murray’s had two tenures at the helm at Ibrox. The first was a period of unprecedented success with 11 Scottish league titles in 14 seasons. However, overspending led to him stepping down in 2002 before he returned in 2004. He’s worth around £720m, a lot less than his rival at Celtic Park, Dermot Desmond.



9: The Walker Family (Blackburn Rovers)
Jack Walker’s death in 2000 possibly marked the end of the benevolent ‘local boy made good’ figure as chairman at one of Britain’s elite clubs. Walker made his fortune in steel before taking over at Ewood Park in 1991. He pumped money into the club to lift Blackburn from the old second division to the Premiership title in 1995 – they’re still the last team outside the so-called ‘big four’ to have lifted the trophy. After this death, his family carried on putting money into the club as trustees, until the 2007/08 season. However, they’ve given £3m to new manager Paul Ince this summer, although they’re looking to sell their 99.8% stake in the club.


8: Michael Spencer (Ipswich Town)
A bit of an enigma, our Michael. He’s made a personal fortune of around £1.15bn, thanks to his Icap (Intercapital) business, which is the world’s biggest broker for share dealers. He also has a big share in City Index, the spread betting firm. He’s not a football fan but two of his children are. Spencer holds around 15% of Ipswich’s shares and is an associate director of the club. While his sons spend their time at Portman Road, Spencer himself prefers other pursuits – such as collecting art. Ironically, Spencer’s wealth dwarves that of current Ipswich owner Marcus Evans, who’s only worth around £200m.


7: Mike Ashley (Newcastle United)
It’s been an annus horribulus for the St James’ Park supremo and football’s partly to blame – though not the football served up by his players. The lack of home nations at Euro 2008 cost his Sports Direct company – and other sportswear retailers – dear. More significantly, Ashley reportedly lost £129m in one day betting on the share price of Halifax Bank of Scotland. Although that, and the £133m he paid to take control of Newcastle, is still relatively small change to a man worth around £1.4bn. However, Ashley has recently called for new investors to come onto the board amid rumours he may be looking to leave Toon.


6: Dermot Desmond (Glasgow Celtic)
These days Dermot Desmond is Chief Executive at Parkhead, having sold his stake in Manchester United to one Malcolm Glazer. Having moved up the ranks at various financial companies, Desmond established his own IIU company, investing in and turning handsome profits from many ventures around the world. He made even more from buying and selling London City airport and from his stake at Old Trafford. He owns betting exchange Betdaq and has interests in refineries in Canada, a hotel in Barbados and a private jet company. His wealth is estimated at around the £1.5-16bn mark.



5: Malcolm Glazer (Manchester United)
Still one of the most controversial figures in football, Glazer outraged many United fans with his audacious £790m takeover in 2005. He transferred the cost of the takeover to the club, potentially saddling them with years of debt. Glazer made his fortune from a variety of business interests, including food processing, property and health care. He was already owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers American football team when he took over at United. However, he’s kept a low profile since, leaving the Glazer involvement in the running of the club to his sons. Despite this, Chief Executive David Gill recently credited Glazer with masterminding United’s £56m sponsorship deal with American insurance company AIG.


4: Joe Lewis (Tottenham Hotspur)
A Londoner who has a stake in a London club is a rare thing nowadays in the top tier but Spurs’ Joe Lewis was born in the capital. Having said that, he’s now based in the Bahamas, after making an estimated £2.8bn fortune from catering businesses and foreign exchange dealing. He’s taken a big hit this year though, with the turbulence in the financial markets hitting his stake in American bank Bear Sterns to the tune of around £500m. He keeps a low profile, leaving Daniel Levy to be the public face of Spurs.

3: Alisher Usmanov (Arsenal)
Arsenal now have their very own Russian to rival Chelsea’s after Usmanov bought a 24.2% stake in the club. The Uzbekistan-born Usmanov is the fifth wealthiest man in Britain, worth £5.7bn. He made his money in steel and iron ore mining in Russia. However, he’s also now building a sizeable media empire in Russia, with a 50% stake in Russian sports channel 7TV and there are rumours he is hoping to profit from the Russian TV rights to the Premier League. Despite his wealth, Arsenal are still taking a prudent approach in the transfer market.



2: Roman Abramovich (Chelsea)
The second-wealthiest man in Britain, incredibly, now owns the second-richest club in Britain. Still, an estimated fortune of £11.7bn must be some consolation. Abramovich has spent around £578m since taking over at Stamford Bridge in 2003. Since then, he’s diversified from oil, where he made his fortune after buying the Sibneft company, into gold. His stake in mining group Highland Gold is set to make him even richer. And the big money transfers – Jose Bosingwa, Deco – and high salaries show no sign of stopping at Stamford Bridge as the ultimate goal of the Champions League continues to be pursued.

1: Lakshmi Mittal (Queens Park Rangers)
No-one really expected the title of wealthiest club in Britain to shift a few miles across west London – certainly not to Loftus Road, anyway. Yet that’s what happened when Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone and Renault team boss Flavio Briatore took over at struggling QPR. F1 and the associated TV rights and spin-offs have made Ecclestone worth around £2.4bn. As if there wasn’t enough cash in the boardroom, steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and his family – with a fortune estimated around the £27.7bn mark – have also come on board as shareholders. While they haven’t splashed the cash yet, they certainly have it if they want to.
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a few candidates for 2010 and 2011 nomination as the richest owners from SEA region :
1) Ahmad Tevez Muzani - Kg Tekek Football Club (KTFC)
2) Wan Fakri Zamora - PKR Football Club
3) Datuk TZ Persie- Kumpulan Gagak Hitam Football Club
4) Ckay Anelka - Modjo Football Club
5) Mohd Farhan - Pasir Mas United
6) Nik Amizam Torres - Lebam United

2 comments:

hilmha said...

sejak bilo ado Pasir Mas United nyo????????biijokkk......hahahahaha

Mohd Farhan said...

hahha...lamo doh..mu jah tok tau..bok bong sungguh..