The blooming of the English Premier League (EPL) has inculcated the top 100 rich list of people, where the top 10 are mostly billionaire owners of the EPL clubs. This information is according to the Football Rich List Top 100 published yesterday. Half of the top 10 billionaires are in fact newcomers, with asset worth more than £11 billion between them.
As usual, the top of the list is Chelsea’s Russian billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich, despite having running a loss of up to £220 million since taking over the club in 2003. Another Russian owner, who is a newcomer, Alisher Usmanov is raking up to be 3rd on the list. His personal fortune is estimated to worth about £2.76 billion.
| 1 | Roman Abramovich | Chelsea | £10.8 billion |
| 2 | Joe Lewis | Tottenham | £2.8 billion |
| 3 | Alisher Usmanov | Arsenal | £2.76 billion |
| 4 | Bernie Ecclestone | Queens Park Rangers | £2.5 billion |
| 5 | Mike Ashley | Newcastle | £1.6 billion |
| 6 | Dermot Desmond | Celtic | £1.6 billion |
| 7 | Malcolm Glazer | Manchester United | £1.25 billion |
| 8 | Stanley Kroenke | Arsenal | £1.2 billion |
| 9 | Trevor Hemmings | Preston North End | £980 million |
| 10 | Lord Ashcroft | Watford | £950 million |
Apart from the billionaire owners who top the list, there is also a growing list of top 10 richest footballer players.
| 1 | David Beckham | £112 million |
| 2 | Michael Owen | £37 million |
| 3 | Robbie Fowler | £30 million |
| 4 | Wayne Rooney | £30 million |
| 5 | Sol Campbell | £28 million |
| 6 | Andriy Shevchenko | £25 million |
| 7 | Rio Ferdinand | £25 million |
| 8 | Ryan Giggs | £23 million |
| 9 | Michael Ballack | £18 million |
| 10 | Steven Gerrard | £15 million |
The top 10 footballer players are currently based in the Premiership, with the exception of David Beckham who has moved to Los Angeles Galaxy in the United States. David Beckham heads the list with an impressive £112 million worth of fortune, mainly due to the move to America and his off-field earnings. Currently, he stands at 45th position of the Football Rich Top List. His next challenger, Michael Owen, is worth about one-third of his fortune.
As quoted by Hugh Sleght, editor of the FourFourTwo magazine,
“… this year only 14 players make our top 100 compared with 21 last year. If anything, players have gone backwards as the billionaire owners continue to make football richer than ever…”