Saudi and Indian join British football's beanfeast
442 Staff - Thursday 08 January 2009, 17:03
The recent rush toward foreign ownership is reflected in the overseas countries which provide members of the Football Rich List.
Although British and Irish nationals still make up almost three-quarters of the list, the 23 foreign entrants reflect the wide spread of overseas investment in this country.
The two countries with the most vested interests are the USA and Russia. There are five Americans, all involved at Premier League clubs: Manchester United’s Malcolm Glazer, Liverpool’s George Gillett and Tom Hicks, Aston Villa’s Randy Lerner and Arsenal’s Stan Kroenke.
Arsenal also have one of the three Russians, Alisher Usmanov, who has joined his compatriots Sacha Gaydamak (Portsmouth) and of course Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) in the top flight.
But while Russia and the US have the most members of the list, they don’t have the most money, and the two new entries who top the pile both break new ground.
£12.5bn-rated QPR investor Lakshmi Mittal is the first Indian in the list, while the £15bn fortune of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan has put the UAE firmly on the map of British football.
One foreigner very much in charge of English destiny is national team manager Fabio Capello, who joins fellow Italian and QPR chairman Flavio Briatore on the list. There are also two Frenchmen, Arsene Wenger and Nicolas Anelka.
Among the other nationalities on the list are a Dutchman, a German, a Spaniard, a Portuguese, an Ivorian, a Bulgarian, a Latvian, a Serbian, an Egyptian and an Ivorian. But to find out who they are, you’ll have to buy the magazine. As the Rich Listers know, you can’t expect everything for free…
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For the full Rich List, see FourFourTwo magazine, out now. If quoting, credit FourFourTwo magazine and link to FourFourTwo.com.
The new issue of the magazine includes exclusive interviews with Robinho, Dimitar Berbatov, Russell Brand and Woking boss Phil Gilchrist, among many others.
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