Rich List: Mittal topples Mansour
442 Staff - Wednesday 07 October 2009, 11:02
Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan has been toppled from the summit of the Football Rich List.
The latest edition, released today on FourFourTwo.com, shows that the brother of the ruler of oil-rich Abu Dhabi has increased his income by a further £2 billion since January to £17 billion – despite shelling out more than £250m to buy City plus another £200 million on players to transform Mark Hughes’ side into genuine top-four material.
However, it still falls short of the fortune amassed by QPR investor Lakshmi Mittal, who has watched his wealth skyrocket over the last nine months as shares in his Arcelor-Mittal company have recovered from a stock market slump.
Having spent £200,000 on a 20 percent stake in December 2007, Mittal could yet buy out the 54 percent stake of disgraced former F1 tycoon Flavio Briatore, and accelerate the drive towards the Premier League that Hoops’ fans have long been anticipating since the club’s high-profile takeover in 2007.
Mittal's son-in-law Amit Bhatia already sits on the Loftus Road board as vice-chairman.
"Despite his enormous wealth, Mittal crept in under the radar at QPR because of the media focus on Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone," says FourFourTwo editor-in-chief Hugh Sleight.
"But the real financial power at Loftus Road lies with the Indian. It's a signal of just how wealthy he is that even a small recovery in the economy can give him a £6 billion bump."
Chelsea supremo Roman Abramovich, jolted from first to third in the last edition of the Football Rich List, lags behind in the bronze medal position, despite seeing his wealth increase from £7 billion in January to £7.8 billion – a jump eclipsing the £600m he's poured into the club.
It's not all good news for those at the top, though. Fifth-placed Stan Kroenke, now Arsenal's major shareholder, has seen his wealth shrink from £2.245bn to £2.079bn – while his Spurs counterpart, fourth-placed Joe Lewis, will be happy to stay on £2.5bn after losing an astonishing £500 million in the collapse of Bear Sterns last March.
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