From local businessmen to wealthy patrons supporting their childhood clubs to Gulf states chasing glory, an eclectic mix have taken over the top 20 clubs in English football.
Owners of Premier League teams have spent millions to secure their place in the top flight, but no two stories are alike. Some have invested billions and are playing for long-term prosperity, while others have already secured huge returns.
But who spent the most, and how much investment can we talk about at each club? THE The Athletic a ranking when setting it up, or when calculating investor financing, it also took into account shareholder loans and debts converted into equity. All prices are in pounds, because despite the investments coming from all over the world, it is still about the English Premier League.
These were the biggest investments
Chelsea
The Premier League has never seen as many acquisitions as it did when Chelsea took over two years ago. Because of the war, the British government sanctioned Russian billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich, who during his long “reign” raised Chelsea to new heights. After Russia invaded Ukraine, England demanded a change of ownership, so BlueCo, an American consortium, stomped into Stamford Bridge.
BlueCo consists primarily of American businessman Todd Boelhy and private equity firm Clearlake Capital. When the competition was announced, eleven rival suitors courted Chelsea,
in the end, BlueCo’s £2.5 billion bid won, who pledged a further £1.75 billion to develop the infrastructure.
Chelsea have since broken records in the past two years, investing more than £1 billion in new players. We wrote about how this corresponded to financial fair play in this article.
Manchester City
The takeover deal that changed the face of English football was completed in September 2008, when Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Abu Dhabi United Group completed a £200m deal to save Manchester City from the collapse threatened by Thaksin Shinawatra (former prime minister of Thailand).
City fans are grateful for the successes
The new owner completely transformed City and took it to the top of European football. The Premier League has never known a more dominant force, but that required massive investment from Sheikh Mansour in the early years.
In six consecutive years (2009-2014), the club was pumped with capital injections of more than £150m, bringing the total spend to over £1bn, five times what Manchester City was bought for.
Another issue is the 115 times the English league’s spending regulations were violated, which is why an investigation is currently underway.
Arsenal
The American Stan Kroenke loves to buy sports clubs, and already in 2007, when he first invested in Arsenal, he had the intention of planting his family flag in the Premier League. The road to full control took a long time, but by 2011 Kroenke had acquired a majority stake, and in 2018 he bought out 30 percent of the Uzbek-Russian Aliser Usmanov for £550 million. The exact amount paid for all of Arsenal’s shares is not entirely public, but is estimated to be around $1 billion.
Fulham
Shahid Khan, owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, was one of the earliest American arrivals in the Premier League when he bought Fulham from Mohamed Al-Fayed in 2013. The purchase price was estimated at £150 million, but this was only the beginning of Khan’s investments.
The total funding was close to £800 million, roughly equivalent to £80 million a season.
Fulham are yet to turn a profit under Khan’s reign, with losses set to top out at £94m in 2020-21.
Relegation in 2019 and 2021 has necessitated further investment, but on the rise Fulham can once again see themselves as a stable Premier League club under Khan, who has consistently turned loans from holding company Cougar into equity capital.
Everton
Farhad Moshiri is in his “last hours” as Everton owner. Blue Heaven Holding, which he owns, sells his 94 percent stake in Everton FC, so the club became the property of the American billionaire Dan Friedkin, the son of the founder of the Friedkin Group. By the way, they also own the Italian Roma team.
Moshiri invested a remarkable £750 million in a tragic period that required significant sums to build a new stadium, for example. This figure included outstanding shareholder debts, which rose to £451m for the 2022-23 season. These will be written down during Friedkin’s takeover.
Let’s not forget them either
Manchester United
Sixth on the list, Manchester United has been through hell with the Glazer family that owns the club in the recent period. The fans of the Red Devils tried to drive away the American family with strikes and threats, but this was only enough for the Glazers to sell 27.7 percent of the club to Sir Jim Ratcliffe for 1.25 billion. In addition to the development of the team, the chemical magnate also promised a new stadium and further infrastructure development.
Ratcliffe’s arrival also brought a £158m capital injection, the first owner-funded investment at United since the 2012-13 season.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe (in red tie) is a regular at the team’s matches
Total ownership funding rises to £477m if the £249m received from the 2012 New York IPO is included, but dividends paid out during the Glazers’ tenure amount to £432m, so
the net ownership finance commitment is £45m over almost two decades.
No wonder United fans are going crazy…
Newcastle United
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced its controversial entry into English football three years ago when it bought Mike Ashley from Newcastle United. The original 80 percent share left room for the minority investment of the Reuben brothers and Amanda Staveley, operating under the name RB Sports and Media, but with the latter’s exit this year, PIF’s share rose to 85 percent.
By the way, PIF does not only deal with football in the city, they have undertaken to develop the economically dying city of Newcastle as well: they build real estate, shopping centers, and shops, thus updating the labor market in the area and helping with housing problems.
Half the Premier League is owned by American investors
We could update our list ad infinitum, but it is worth checking that 9 of the 20 clubs in the league can be linked American to owner. Of course, there are far more American shareholders in the club than this, we only looked at the majority owners. The
- Arsenal,
- a Bournemouth,
- and Chelsea,
- a Crystal Palace,
- Everton
- the Ipswitch,
- a Liverpool,
- a Manchester United
all are wholly or majority American owned.
Only a few clubs can be connected locally, ie English to the owner: Brentford, Brighton, Southampton and Tottenham have English blood in their veins when we look at business matters.
It is on top of that Egyptian(Aston Villa), Pakistani-American (Fulham), Thai (Leicester), Gulf coast (Manchester City, Newcastle United), Greek (Nothingham Forrest), Welsh (West Ham United) and Chinese (Wolwerhampton) business interest in the league as well.
If your own government doesn’t, then the Arabs will create livable conditions
The Saudis didn’t just buy a football team when they bought Newcastle United. In the North East region, the British government left the people on their own, so now they welcome with open arms anyone who will create livable conditions for them in the post-industrial era. However, the Arab actors – who are getting closer to the British political elite – are not Good Samaritans, they have serious interests in developing the city of Newcastle. Read more→
Source: www.economx.hu
