The Richest Premier League Owners

There was once a time when Manchester City were counting their blessings for just being in the Premier League with the club in relegation battles and no trophy for decades along with no financial backing.

Fast forward to 2008, and City become one of the latest clubs to be backed by billionaires in the form of the Abu Dhabi royal family member, Sheikh Mansour. Now, the Manchester outfit are one of the most recognisable teams out there and have the ability to pay for and attract anybody in world football.

Mansour has been the owner for close to 14 years now and after being born into wealth, the deputy prime minister of Abu Dhabi has built a business portfolio amassing billions more and even started City Football Group, which now has clubs in four different continents.

The net worth of Mansour is believed to be $21bn, making him the second wealthiest Premier League owner.

Roman Abramovich is one of the originals when it comes to foreign ownership in the Premier League within the billions. In fact, you can go as far as to say that the Russian is one of the most important names in the history of Premier League football, with his wealth catapulting Chelsea to the top of European football twice, and the Premier League itself five times.

If it wasn't for this billionaire, perhaps the likes of Mansour would have not bought City a few years later, but Abramovich did seemingly pave the way for extreme wealth within the realms of England's top flight.

He is one of the richest Premier League owners from working in the oil and gas industry, and his net worth is a reported $12.9bn. Abramovich has also donated more money than any other living Russian after donating $2.5 billion to build schools, hospitals, and infrastructure in Chukotka.

Moving on from two much-loved owners who put their club first, we head to north London where the controversial Stan Kroenke runs Arsenal and as you can tell by their current league position, he isn't doing a great job of it.

Kroenke's enemies within the Arsenal fan base haven't necessarily sprung from the demise post-Arsene Wenger, but more so because of the simple fact they refuse to spend the big bucks year after year. The Gunners did, however, spend more money in the 2021/22 summer window, so the fans can't really say that much.

The American has had a say in Arsenal's finances for some time after buying 62.89% of shares in 2011, before upping this to 90% ownership in 2018 which then forced compulsory ownership of the club.

After years of not spending much of his reported $10bn net worth, the hatred towards Kroenke has grown year on year as he continues to invest more in his other sports franchises like the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL.

Sticking with more controversial ownership, we have the Glazer family at Manchester United. As of now, the United fans can't disregard them that much as they have spent the second most amount of cash in the league since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, even surpassing the big spenders, Chelsea.

However, what angers the Old Trafford faithful is the overall running of the club and how the American billionaires actually bought United. Firstly, the Glazers have refused to bring in a director of football for years now and have instead invested in Ed Woodward in such a role until it was announced he was leaving, ironically after the European Super League collapse. They also refused to help grow the famous youth system to the levels seen across the city and renovate Old Trafford itself, which was due one about two decades ago.

The Glazers also bought the club with a loan, which effectively meant that the club was eating itself from the inside with the debt from this loan growing as the Glazers continued to take the profits of the club for their own wallets.

They remain some of the wealthiest owners in the land with a reported net worth of $4bn, although the pandemic crippled their real estate business slightly.

Within the last five years, despite spending time in the Championship, Aston Villa have become one of the wealthiest clubs in the Premier League, which, by default, means this Midlands outfit that hasn't won a top flight title for over 40 years is now one of the richest clubs in the world.

This wealth comes from Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris and the American billionaire Wes Edens, who collectively own the NSWE group. Nassef Sawiris's $9.2bn net worth makes him the richest Arab in the world according to Forbes, while Wes Edens' reported $1.2bn puts Villa's overall wealth to $10.4bn.

The owners have become very well-liked by the fans due to the amount they spend and how they have moved the club back into the Premier League and towards the top 10. Moreover, spending the £100m cash from the sale of Jack Grealish has also kept fans on their good side as most owners on this list would have pocketed that for themselves.

What might surprise people is the wealth of Crystal Palace, as they are far from big spenders and have had a bit of topsy-turvy time with owners such as the likes of Simon Jordan, who failed to move the club forward financially.

However, American businessmen, Joshua Harris and David S. Blitzer, bought shares in the club totalling 18% each, leaving Steve Parish as the part-owner of the south London outfit. Three have a combined net worth in the billions, which reportedly totals the club's overall wealth at $5.7bn, which is more than gargantuan English clubs like Tottenham Hotspur and Everton.

Practically all of this wealth, however, comes from the two Americans, with Parish far from being a billionaire in his own right.

If you thought the names listed above were wealthy, we haven't even touched the sides as we come to the astronomical wealth that is the owners of Newcastle United. Simply put, while the likes of United, City, and Chelsea are owned by billionaires in their own right, the Magpies are literally owned by a the wealth of a country: Saudi Arabia.

Amanda Staveley's PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben family's RB Sports & Media own 10% each of the club, which leaves 80% for the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, who have amassed a wealth of a staggering $500bn.

Such an insane amount of money makes Newcastle the wealthiest club in the Premier League by such a margin that if all the 92 clubs in the Football League put all their money together, it still wouldn't be enough to get close to the cash being flown through St. James' Park.

We have seen Chelsea and City rise from the ruins with their wealth immediately after their takeovers, and expect the same plus billions and billions more at Newcastle.