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Shaikh Mansour Tops British Football Rich List

Abu Dhabi’s Shaikh Mansour, 38, took over at City in September, is estimated to be worth 15 billion pounds ($21.86 billion). That is more than twice as much as Russian Abramovich, 42, who slips from first to third spot on seven billion pounds.

Another new entry at number two is the Indian-born Lakshmi Mittal, worth 12.5 billion pounds. He joined Formula One’s Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore by investing in Championship (second division) side Queen’s Park Rangers.

England manager Fabio Capello is also a new entry. The Italian is worth 25 million pounds and is joint 73^rd on the list, with a six million pounds a year contract and a 10 million pounds private art collection.

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is at number 78 with 22 million pounds while Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger is at 92 with 14 million.

Among other big changes are Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer’s slide from fourth to a tie for 10^th, Irish businessman Dermot Desmond, owner of Celtic, slipping from third to eighth, and Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner dropping from seventh to 15^th — all largely because of the arrival of new investors such as Shaikh Mansour, Mittal, Ecclestone, Arsenal’s Stan Kroenke (sixth) and Alisher Usmanov (seventh).

Glazer and his sons own English and European champion Manchester United and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and have 1.1 billion pounds ($1.63 billion). Lerner owns Villa and the Cleveland Browns and is estimated to have 750 million pounds ($1.1 billion).

David Beckham is the highest listed player connected with British football even though he last played for an English team five years ago before moving to Real Madrid and then the Los Angeles Galaxy. Currently on loan to AC Milan, the England midfielder has 125 million pounds ($185 million) for 38^th place on the list.