Roman Abramovich only just makes the top five richest football owners

While many think Chelsea owner has perhaps more money than sense, his riches are dwarfed by some other big hitters in football.

By Declan Whooley

The Russian tycoon bought Chelsea a decade ago and has pumped nearly £2 billion into the club as they have won the league on three occasions and the Champions League, and his tidy bank account reads somewhere in the region of £6.6 billion.

According the The Football Daily, that places him at number five in the richest football owners, with three other figures in the English game occupying places ahead of him.

Indian-born Lakshmi Mittal owns not only 33 per cent of QPR, but also is reported to be worth in the region of £10.8 billion, so they can well afford to offer such lavish wages to the likes of Chris Samba and Jose Boswinga. Ulisher Usmanov, who has had a bit of a power struggle with Stan Kroenke at Arsenal has a cool £11.5 billion to his name and with the way the Gunners are being run, that figure is only going in one direction.

Manchester City’s riches are well documented and the club has had a huge upturn in fortunes since Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nayhan, to give him his full title, spent £300 million to transform the blue half of Manchester. He may be worth £20 billion, but that is not enough to give him top spot.

No wonder he is smiling

That accolade goes to Amancio Ortega, who has a vested interest in Deportivo La Coruna. Worth an estimated £37 billion, not only is he the richest football owner, he is apparently the fourth richest man in the world.

Not short a few pennies these lads.