Governing Bodies
NEWCASTLE SET TO LEAD THE ALTERNATIVE ‘PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE’
Newcastle are closing in on a major takeover deal that could see them top the table for the wealthiest owners in the Premier League.
Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) is looking to take over the Magpies from Mike Ashley in a £300million transaction.
The proposed Saudi Arabian deal would see Manchester City, one of the most valuable sporting franchises in the world, knocked off top spot.
Topping the Premier League rich list is quite the feat as England’s top-flight generates 72 per cent more revenue than its nearest competitor, the Bundesliga in Germany.
Sportsmail has ranked the owners of every club by their estimated wealth based on Newcastle’s lucrative takeover going through…
1. NEWCASTLE – SAUDI ARABIA PUBLIC INVESTMENT FUND (£320BN)
British brothers Simon and David Reuben – billionaire property developers with North-East links – are said to be taking a 10 per cent stake in the club – but the big money is arriving from Saudi Arabia.
That 10 per cent for the Reuben brothers will be the stake that Amanda Staveley is currently holding.
While the remaining 80 per cent will be taken by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is said to control assets worth £320bn.
2. MANCHESTER CITY – SHEIKH MANSOUR (£23.3BN)
Sheikh Mansour has turned Manchester City into one of the world’s biggest sporting franchises having taken the club over in 2008.
Since arriving to replace former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, City have gone on to win four English Premier League titles, four League Cups and two FA Cups.
Such success has caused City Football Group’s value to skyrocket to £4.8bn – making them one of the most valuable sporting franchises in the world.
Mansour, the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, has spent more than £1.6bn over the first decade of owning the club.
He is chairman of International Petroleum Investment Company and also has a stake in Richard Branson’s space tourism programme, Virgin Galactic.
3. CHELSEA – ROMAN ABRAMOVICH (£9.6BN)
Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 for £140m when the club was on the brink of bankruptcy.
The 51-year-old billionaire has transformed the English outfit into one of the biggest and best clubs in the world through his enormous investment in the squad.
With a portfolio of assets worth £9.6bn, he has earned the reputation as one of the richest men on the planet.
Abramovich made his fortune in the oil business, selling his stake in the Russian gas company Gazprom in 2005. He still owns stakes in steel and nickel companies among his other business ventures.
4. ARSENAL – STAN KROENKE (£6.8BN)
The Missouri billionaire is a real estate and sports mogul with an international portfolio. He married Walmart heiress Ann Walton in 1974 and later founded Kroenke Group in 1983.
His sports empire also includes the LA Rams (NFL), Denver Nuggets (NBA), Colorado Rapids (MLS), Colorado Avalanche (NHL) and Arsenal FC.
He first became involved in Arsenal in 2007 before assuming majority control in 2011.
5. WOLVES – GUO GUANGCHANG (£5.2BN)
Guo Guangchang took over Wolves in 2016 after making a substantial investment in the club.
He is chairman of the Fosun Group and turned the company into an insurance-focused investment group.
Fosun’s investments range from steelmaking to mining, tourism and pharmaceuticals.
6. ASTON VILLA – NASSEF SAWIRIS (£5BN)
Nassef Sawiris replaced Tony Xia as Aston Villa owner in July 2018 when he claimed 55 per cent of the controlling stake.
Sawiris is from one of Egypt’s wealthiest families and owns numerous construction, engineering and building companies.
His holdings include stakes in cement giant Lafarge Holcim and adidas; he sits on the supervisory board of sports giant adidas.
7. LEICESTER – AIYAWATT SRIVADDHANAPRABHA (£4.6BN)
Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, known as Top, became the CEO and chairman of their family company King Power and chairman of Leicester after his father Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha died.
Vichai, two members of his staff, the pilot and a passenger died in a helicopter crash leaving the club after a match in October 2018.
Their family company has an estimated annual revenue of $3.2bn (£2.5bn) and is the country’s leading operator of airport duty-free stores.
8. TOTTENHAM – JOE LEWIS (£3.9BN)
Having originally been born above a pub in London’s East End, Joe Lewis went on to become a billionaire.
English National Investment Company, which Lewis owns 70.6 per cent of, bought a controlling stake in Tottenham in 2001 from Lord Alan Sugar.
Joe Lewis owns the Tavistock Group, with more than 200 assets across 10 countries. Those assets include sports teams, energy companies, restaurants and luxury properties.
He has a variety of other investments including luxury club resort Albany, restaurants, hotels, and even an Australian agriculture firm.
9. MANCHESTER UNITED – THE GLAZER FAMILY (£3.6BN)
The Glazer family have owned Manchester United after Malcolm Glazer bought the club for £1.1bn. Malcolm was the primary stakeholder until he died in 2014.
His sons, Avram and Joel, have since stepped up as co-chairmen, with the family controlling 83 per cent of the voting power in the publicly traded team.
The person with the most shares in the club is Joel Glazer. He is among 23 other executive management members, but he holds the most power. Others include: Avram Glazer, Kevin Glazer, Bryan Glazer and Edward Glazer
10. SOUTHAMPTON – GAO JISHENG (£3.1BN)
Gao Jisheng became majority owner of Southampton in 2017 when he completed a £210m deal, acquiring an 80 per cent of the club.
The investment was made personally by Jisheng and his daughter Nelly as opposed to being sanctioned through Lander Sports.
Jisheng was the founder of Lander Sports Development until last year when he sold enough shares to lose control of the real-estate company.
11. CRYSTAL PALACE – JOSHUA HARRIS (£2.7BN)
Joshua Harris is an American private equity investor that co-founded Apollo Global Management – one of the world’s largest alternative investment firms.
Harris owns an 18 per cent stake in Crystal Palace and is the principal shareholder of both the NHL team New Jersey Devils and NBA team Philadelphia 76ers as of 2011.
12. LIVERPOOL – JOHN W HENRY (£2.1BN)
John W Henry is the principle owner of Liverpool, having the most significant financial stake in Fenway Sports Group, which bought Liverpool in 2010.
Henry has a passion for sports and also owns the prolific Boston Red Sox team in Major League Baseball.
He made his wealth through founding the investment management company, John W. Henry & Company.
13. WEST HAM – DAVID SULLIVAN AND DAVID GOLD (£1.6BN)
West Ham co-owner David Sullivan has seen his wealth increase by £50m over the past 12 months, while David Gold has seen his raise by £10m – according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.
Gold and Sullivan acquired a 50 per cent share in West Ham in January 2010 and then purchased a further 10 per cent a few months later – Sullivan holds 51 per cent of those shares and Gold owns 35 per cent.
Sullivan and Gold’s first business venture together was in pornography.
Sullivan started selling soft pornography photos and expanded into sex shops, adult magazines and several low-budget blue movies. He became a millionaire by the age of 25.
Gold owns Gold Group International, the parent company of Ann Summers and he previously co-owned adult magazine company Gold Star Publications with his brother.
14. EVERTON – FARHAD MOSHIRI (£1.5BN)
Having previously been involved with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, Farhad Moshiri sold his stake in the club to raise the capital he needed to launch a takeover of Everton.
He successfully took over the Toffees in February 2016.
Moshiri made his money from owning and having shares in numerous steel and energy companies in the UK and Russia.
15. BRIGHTON – TONY BLOOM (£1.3BN)
Tony Bloom is thought to have acquired most of his wealth through online gambling and gaming websites and he even finished fourth at the World Series of Poker in 2005.
Bloom acquired even more wealth through property and start-up investments he involved himself with.
He became the chairman of Brighton in 2009 and has taken the club from League One to the Premier League.
16. BOURNEMOUTH – MAXIM DEMIN (£900M)
The Russian businessman became a co-owner of the south-coast club in 2011 when they were in League One and assumed full ownership of the club in 2013.
He is known to have at least two companies in the UK, those being Wintel (a petrochemical company) and Wintel Holdings Ltd.
17. SHEFFIELD UNITED – PRINCE ABDULLAH BIN MUSA’AD (£198M)
The Sheffield United owner is the son of Prince Musa’id bin Abdulaziz Al Said and accumulated his wealth by setting up a paper manufacturing company in 1989.
The Saudi prince recently won a High Court battle over the control of Premier League side Sheffield United.
Kevin McCabe and the Prince were locked in a legal battle over their 50-50 ownership of the club last year. The court ruled that McCabe’s shares in the club had to be sold to Price Abdullah for £5m.
18. WATFORD – GINO POZZO (£93M)
The Pozzo family bought Watford from Laurence Bassini in 2012, but it is Gino Pozzo that has full ownership and control over the club.
He managed to buy the club from the profits of their family tool-making business, Freud.
He also is the son of Italian businessman Giampaolo Pozzo, who is currently the owner of Serie A club Udinese and the previous owner of LaLiga side Granada.
19. BURNLEY – MIKE GARLICK (£62M)
Mike Garlick became the sole chairman of the Clarets in 2015 when co-chairman John Banaszkiewicz stepped down from the role.
As founder and CEO of Michael Bailey Associates – a project management and consultancy company – Garlick made his wealth by establishing an international company with a portfolio of top tier clients.
20. NORWICH – DELIA SMITH AND MICHAEL WYNN-JONES (£23M)
Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones are majority shareholders of the Canaries and have been since 1996.
Smith made her £28m net worth being an English cook and television presenter best known for teaching cookery.
Wynn-Jones made his wealth by establishing New Crane Publishing and subsequently selling it for around £7m and remaining in the industry as a consultant.
Kirsty Coventry became the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the most powerful person in sport, on Monday in a handover ceremony with her predecessor Thomas Bach.
The Zimbabwean is the first woman and African to head the body, and at 41, the youngest since Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who is credited with founding the modern-day Olympics.
Coventry accepted the Olympic key from Bach, who, like her, is an Olympic champion — he won a team fencing gold in 1976 and she earned two swimming golds in 2004 and 2008.
Stepping down after a turbulent 12-year tenure, Bach expressed his confidence that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands” and Coventry would bring “conviction, integrity and a dynamic perspective” to the role.
Coventry, who swept to a crushing first-round victory in the election in Greece in March, leans heavily on her family.
Aside from her parents, who were present at the ceremony in Lausanne, there is her husband Tyrone Seward, who was effectively her campaign manager, and two daughters, six-year-old Ella, who Bach addresses as “princess”, and Lily, just seven months old.
“Ella saw this spider web in the garden and I pointed out how it is made, and how strong and resilient it is to bad weather and little critters,” said Coventry, who takes over officially at midnight Swiss time Monday (2200 GMT).
“But if one little bit breaks it becomes weaker. That spider web is our movement, it is complex, beautiful and strong but it only works if we remain together and united.”
‘Pure passion’
Coventry said she could not believe how her life had evolved since she first dreamt of Olympic glory in 1992.
“How lucky are we creating a platform for generations to come to reach their dreams,” she said to a packed audience in a marquee in the Olympic House garden, which comprised IOC members, including those she defeated, and dignitaries.
“It is amazing and incredible, indeed I cannot believe that from my dream in 1992 of going to an Olympic Games and winning a medal I would be standing here with you to make dreams for more young children round the world.”
Coventry, who served in the Zimbabwean government as sports and arts Minister from 2019 to this year, said the Olympic movement was much more than a “multi-sport event platform.”
“We (IOC members) are guardians of this movement, which is also about inspiring and changing lives and bringing hope,” she said.
“These things are not to be taken lightly and I will be working with each and every one of you to continue to change lives and be a beacon of hope in a divided world.
“I am really honoured to walk this journey with you.”
Bach, who during his tenure had to grapple with Russian doping and their invasions of the Crimea and Ukraine as well as the Covid pandemic, said he was standing down filled with “gratitude, joy and confidence” in his successor.
“With her election it sends out a powerful message, that the IOC continues to evolve,” said the 71-year-old German, who was named honorary lifetime president in Greece in March.
“It has its first female and African to hold this position, and the youngest president since Pierre de Coubertin. She represents the truly global and youthful spirit of our community.”
Bach, who choked back tears at one point during his valedictory speech, was praised to the rafters by Coventry, who was widely seen as his preferred candidate of the seven vying for his post.
After a warm embrace, she credited him with teaching her to “listen to people and to respect them,” and praised him for leading the movement with “pure passion and purpose.”
“You have kept us united through the most turbulent times.
“You left us with many legacies and hope, thank you from the bottom of my heart for leading us with passion and never wavering from our values.”
-AFP
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Former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry took over the leadership of the International Olympic Committee from Thomas Bach in a ceremony on Monday with the 2028 Los Angeles Games already threatening to fill her in-tray to overflowing.
Coventry, who starts her eight-year spell officially on Tuesday as the most powerful sports administrator in the world, became the first woman and first African to be elected head of the Olympic ruling body in March.
Much of the discussion during campaigning focused on the IOC’s need for change in its marketing strategies with several top Olympic sponsors having left in the past 12 months.
However, with Los Angeles hit by protests against immigration raids, and relations tense between state and city officials, and the U.S. government, the 2028 Games have become the major talking point in the movement that would ordinarily be focusing on next year’s Milano-Cortina Winter Games.
Coventry has long-standing ties with the United States, dating back to her time as a leading swimmer at Auburn University in Alabama. That will prove useful ahead of LA 2028, and she has said she will seek to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the Games.
Coventry will also need to find time to help secure the long-term finances of the movement. The IOC, which generates billions of dollars in revenues each year in sponsorship and broadcasting deals for the Olympics, has secured $7.3 billion for 2025-28 and $6.2 billion for 2029-2032. More contracts are expected for both periods.
COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Coventry is also expected to continue the IOC’s plans to expand commercial opportunities for sponsors at the Olympics with the organisation’s finances in a robust state and the privately-funded LA Olympics a good place to start.
Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, beating six other candidates, making history for the African continent, with the IOC having been ruled for 131 years by European or North American men.
Her background and being the first female president will be assets in a diverse IOC membership and the international makeup of Olympic stakeholders.
On Monday she was handed the golden key to the IOC by Bach, who was the organisation’s president for 12 years.
“I am really honoured I get to walk this journey with you. I cannot wait for anything that lies ahead,” Coventry said in her address to IOC members and other Olympic stakeholders.
“I know I have the best team to support me and our movement over the next eight years.”
Coventry will hold a two-day workshop this week to get feedback from members on key IOC issues.
“Working together and consistently finding ways to strengthen and keep united our movement that will ensure that we wake up daily… to continue to inspire,” she said.
A seven-time Olympic medallist, Coventry won 200m backstroke gold at the 2004 Athens Games and in Beijing four years later.
“With her election, you have also sent a powerful message to the world: the IOC continues to evolve,” Bach said in his speech. “With Kirsty Coventry, the Olympic movement will be in the best of hands.”
-Reuters
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Penalties scored when a player accidentally touches the ball twice must be retaken, world soccer’s lawmaking body IFAB has said after Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez had his spot kick disallowed in a Champions League last-16 match.
During a tense shootout with Real Madrid in March, Argentine forward Alvarez slipped and the VAR spotted that his left foot touched the ball slightly before he kicked it with his right.
Although Alvarez converted the penalty, the goal was chalked off and Atletico went on to lose the shootout and were eliminated from the Champions League.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said the correct decision was made under the current laws but IFAB (International Football Association Board) has said that in such cases the penalty must be retaken.
Atletico Madrid v Real Valladolid – Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain – April 14, 2025 Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo
“(When) the penalty taker accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously or the ball touches their non-kicking foot or leg immediately after the kick: if the kick is successful, it is retaken,” IFAB said in a circular.
“If the kick is unsuccessful, an indirect free kick is awarded (unless the referee plays advantage when it clearly benefits the defending team). In the case of penalties (penalty shootout), the kick is recorded as missed.”
The decision to disallow Alvarez’s penalty left Atletico boss Diego Simeone livid and the club’s fans outraged.
IFAB added that if the penalty taker deliberately kicks the ball with both feet or deliberately touches it a second time, an indirect free kick is awarded or, in the case of shootouts, it is recorded as missed.
The new procedures are effective for competitions starting on or after July 1, but IFAB said it may be used in competitions that start this month.
-Reuters
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