BY MICHAEL CAGE · MAY 30, 2021

The English Premier League is by far the most popular sports league in the world. The 2018-19 season saw the global cumulative live audience rise 6% to 3.2 billion viewers.

Outside of Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, the top clubs in England often attract the very top players in the game. Cristiano Ronaldo, Eden Hazard and Thierry Henry have all been attracted by the lure of the Premier League and being part of the Premier League winners’ list.

Suggested Article: Premier League Winners List – Year by Year

Today, the Premier League is shown in a total of 188 of the world’s 193 countries recognised by the United Nations. Countries including Brazil and South Africa even have coverage on free-to-air channels. Afghanistan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Cuba are the only countries where football fans perhaps don’t know what all the fuss is about!

It’s not only football fans that are interested in the Premier League though. Over the past number of years wealthy foreign businessmen have invested in a number of teams.

Roman Abramovich shook up football as we knew it with his purchase of Chelsea in June 2003. At the time, the West London club only had one league title to their name, dating back to 1955, and three FA Cups. Today, the Blues have been champions of England six times, the FA Cup eight times and won the prestigious Champions League in 2011-12.

The Russian billionaire was not slow to splash the cash, allowing manager Claudio Ranieri to spend over £100 million during his first summer in charge. The likes of top stars including Juan Sebastian Veron, Hernan Crespo, Damien Duff and Adrian Mutu all joined forces at Stamford Bridge.

And despite finishing a Premier League-high second place that season, the Italian manager was relieved of his duties and in came Jose Mourinho… who had just shocked the world by winning the Champions League with FC Porto.

Today, the majority of Premier League clubs are owned by billionaires. Aston Villa for example, not the most attractive part of the country, with just one league title since the war, have been owned by Chinese businessman Xia Jiantong since 2016. His company, Recon Group, are worth more than $10 billion. And yet, the purchase of the West Midlands club wasn’t considered huge Aston Villa news by any means. By 2016, several clubs also had owners with similar fortunes.

Suggested Site: Aston Villa Blog

Arsenal have owners combining for an estimated worth of over $8 billion (even if they don’t spend vast amounts of transfers), Manchester City $22 billion, Wolverhampton Wanderers $9 billion, and even Crystal Palace’s owners are worth in the region of $5 billion.

Purchasing a Premier League club these days can be a difficult job simply because many of these owners are so wealthy they have no interest in selling.

That’s when billionaires who are keen to own a club in England start looking down the divisions. The second tier, known as the Championship, also has wealthy owners. Queens Park Rangers’ owners are worth in the region of $15 billion and minnows Barnsley were purchased in 2017 by NewCity Capital and Pacific Media Group, worth more than $9 billion.

Even the teams at the bottom of the table have wealthy owners – Sheffield Wednesday’s are worth $575 million, Birmingham City €450 million and Derby County’s worth $700 million. Relegation for the latter would come as huge Football League news, and it’s looking more and more likely as Wayne Rooney’s side continue to lose week after week.

It’s not only the prestige of these clubs that attracts the foreign investment, but the money involved in the Premier League. In 2018 the UK segment of TV rights were sold for a combined £4.5 billion, whilst the overseas broadcasting rights generated a similar sum.

Suggested Site: Football League News

Michael is a digital advertising and marketing expert.

articlesbase.com