The Premier League Owners: Who has invested the most?
From the local businessmen propping up boyhood clubs to the Gulf states chasing reflected glories, an eclectic mix has taken over English football's top 20 clubs.
Owners of Premier League teams have spent millions to secure a seat at the top table but no two stories are the same. Some are in for billions, gambling on long-term prosperity. Others have already assured themselves of vast returns.
To begin a series on the Premier League's owners running across this week, The Athletic has calculated the total investments of those at the top of all 20 clubs. And, yes, we've even put them in descending order for you to argue over.
On top of the estimated outlay required to take control (and this is not an exact science given the changing structures and fluctuating shareholdings), an additional figure for funding commitments illustrates how much has been spent under the current owners. Information has been gathered from historical reports, annual accounts and data collected by football finance experts, including Swiss Ramble, Kieran Maguire and Chris Weatherspoon.
A few bits of housekeeping before we begin. In the cases of multiple owners, we have gone with the biggest stakeholder's buy-in. And when working out investor funding, we have included shareholder loans and any debts turned into equity. All prices are in pounds because, despite the investment from all over the world, it is still the English Premier League, after all.
Put together, it helps answer the big question: just how much has every club's main owner spent? Let's dive in, starting with the top flight's biggest spenders...
(If you click/press/hover over each bar, the hiding totals will appear)
1. Chelsea (investment of £2.65bn)
Owner:Takeover:Takeover price: £2.5billion ($3.16bn at current rates) Owner funding: £146million
The Premier League has never known a takeover as big as the one that placed Chelsea in new hands two years ago. The UK government sanctioning of Roman Abramovich, the billionaire oligarch who elevated Chelsea to new heights during his long reign, demanded a change of owner once Russia invaded Ukraine and it was BlueCo, an American consortium, that swept into Stamford Bridge.
BlueCo primarily comprises United States businessman Todd Boelhy and the private equity firm Clearlake Capital, with stakes also held by partners Mark Walter and Hansjorg Wyss. Eleven rival suitors courted Chelsea and it took an outlay of £2.5billion, as well as a further infrastructure commitment of £1.75billion, for BlueCo to win the race.
Spending records have since been obliterated by Chelsea in the last two years, with more than £1billion invested in new players.
The huge debt (£1.5bn) owed to Abramovich was written off at the point of purchase but a further £146million of borrowing, owed to the parent group, was recorded in the last set of accounts. With plans to either rebuild Stamford Bridge or relocate to a new stadium in west London, it is an investment without parallel.
2. Manchester City (£1.5bn)
Owner: City Football Group (CFG) Takeover:Purchase price: £200million Owner funding: £1.3billion
A takeover deal that changed the face of English football was completed in September 2008 when Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan's Abu Dhabi United Group struck a £200million deal to rescue Manchester City from the threat of collapse under Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand.
The new owner's riches transformed City, pushing them to the summit of European football. The Premier League has never known a more dominant force but Sheik Mansour's early years were characterised by enormous investment.
Six consecutive years (2009-2014) brought cash injections of more than £150million, taking the total spend beyond £1billion, or five times what Manchester City were bought for.
It is also alleged that City breached the Premier League's spending rules on 115 occasions when scaling the summit of English football, something they strenuously deny, but owner funding has been nominal in recent years. Annual revenues of above £700million depict the modern, self-sustaining City.
City are close to being debt-free and, as the associated party transactions (APT) legal challenge underlined this summer, do not take shareholder loans.
3. Arsenal (£1.26bn)
Owner: Kroenke Sports and Entertainment (KSE) Takeover:Purchase price: £1billion Owner funding: £259million
American Stan Kroenke loves owning sports clubs and, as far back as 2007 when he first invested in Arsenal, there has been an intent to plant his family flag in the Premier League.
The road to full control included a long-running battle with Uzbek-Russian Alisher Usmanov but by 2011, Kroenke had built up a majority stake. Buying out Usmanov's 30 per cent stake for £550million in 2018 added the full stop.
The precise amount paid for all shares in Arsenal is unclear but it is likely, given the cost of Usmanov's stake, that Kroenke committed £1billion when collecting shares.
It can now be viewed as a sound investment given Arsenal's valuation on the open market but it took until 2019 before Kroenke provided direct investment to build a more competitive squad.
That has come in the shape of shareholder loans, which stood at £259million at the end of the 2022-23 season, up from £218million the previous year.
The most recent accounts, for the 2022-23 campaign, said KSE had "provided funds to underpin the club's transfer activities and for working capital purposes". Kroenke has bridged the gap on Premier League rivals but without winning the prizes Arsenal covet most.
4. Fulham (£938m)
Owner: Shahid Khan Takeover:Purchase price: £150m Funding: £788m
Shahid Khan, owner of the NFL team Jacksonville Jaguars, was one of the early American arrivals in the Premier League when buying Fulham from Mohamed Al-Fayed over a decade ago. The purchase price was thought to be £150million but that was only the start of Khan's investment.
Total funding has run close to £800million, equating to roughly £80million a season. Fulham are yet to record a profit during the reign of Khan, with losses peaking at £94million in 2020-21.
The need for additional investment came in the wake of relegations in 2019 and 2021 but Fulham, upwardly mobile under Marco Silva, can consider themselves a settled Premier League club again under Khan, who has consistently turned loans from holding company Cougar into share equity.
The most recent instance came only last month and Fulham's most recent accounts detailed that £62.5million of shareholder loans had effectively been written off in a share conversion, as well as "further financial support amounting to £47.5million" coming from Khan.
Significant funding has been required to transform the Riverside Stand at Craven Cottage, eventually raising capacity to just under 30,000 on the banks of the Thames.
5. Everton (£878m)
Owner: Farhad Moshiri Takeover:Purchase price: £128m Funding: £750m
These are the last knockings of Farhad Moshiri's reign as Everton owner. American businessman Daniel Friedkin, already owner of Italian club Roma, waits in the wings with a takeover that promises to drag Everton from the threat of collapse.
The profligate reign of Moshiri began in 2016 when he bought a 49.9 per cent share for £87.5million, with the following years seeing his stake built up to the 96 per cent share he has desperately attempted to offload in the last 12 months.
That total outlay of £128million, however, has been dwarfed by the sums Moshiri has found to plug the gaping holes in Everton's balance sheets.
Moshiri has invested a remarkable £750million in a ruinous period that has demanded sizeable funding to construct a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. That sum includes the outstanding shareholder debts that climbed to £451million during the 2022-23 season. Those will be written off in the Friedkin takeover.
It takes some believing at a club that has found itself dragged to some dark places in the last two years but Moshiri's total investment will be close to £900million by the time he finally walks away.
6. Manchester United (£845m)
Owner: Glazer family Takeover:Purchase price: £800million Funding: £45million
A landmark that will not be celebrated is coming at the back end of this season, as Manchester United bring up 20 years of ownership under the Glazer family. A leveraged buyout has been costly to United, with an original £800million sale becoming a financial deadweight. Approximately £815million has been paid in interest servicing the debt that came with the Glazer takeover.
- the Glazers' Man United ownership by numbersThe arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe has at least pointed towards happier times. The head of petrochemical giant INEOS completed the acquisition of a 27.7 per cent stake for approximately £1.25billion. Ratcliffe's investment also sees him oversee football operations at Old Trafford and spearhead long-term plans for a new stadium.
Ratcliffe's arrival also brought an injection of £158million, the first owner-funded investment at United since the 2012-13 season.
Kieran Maguire, the football finance expert, says that brings total owner funding to £477million when including the £249million received when listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012, but dividends paid over the Glazers' tenure run to £432million. That leaves a net ownership funding commitment (none from the Glazers) standing at £45million across almost two decades.
7. Aston Villa (£582m)
Owner: V Sports Takeover:Purchase price: £60million Owner funding: £522million
Villa are a Champions League club this season but they were in a financial hole when missing out on promotion in the 2018 Championship play-off final.
Tony Xia, the beleaguered Chinese businessman, accepted £30million for 55 per cent of his shareholding in the summer of 2018 and the arrival of American billionaire Wes Edens alongside Nassef Sawiris, Egypt's richest man, marked the advent of a remarkable transformation. They were initially known as NSWE but rebranded as V Sports in 2021.
Promotion to the Premier League in 2019 saw Villa settle a £30million debt owed to previous owner Randy Lerner, a move that saw them inherit Xia's remaining shareholding for a relative bargain.
The subsequent investment from V Sport, though, has been vast. Villa have received £522million of equity funding from its owner since 2018, with the contribution standing at £123million for 2022-23 alone.
Only in 2020-21 was there no funding, with V Sports committed to underwriting heavy losses that have seen the club battling the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules (PSR) in the last 12 months.
The regular approach of V Sports to convert loans into equity ensures Villa's debt levels are nominal and among the lowest in the Premier League.
8. Newcastle United (£566m)
Owner: Public Investment Fund Takeover:Purchase price: £300m Funding: £266m
It had to wait but Saudi Arabia 's Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced its controversial arrival into English football three years ago when buying out Mike Ashley at Newcastle United.
An original 80 per cent stake left room for the minority investment of the Reuben Brothers, operating under RB Sports and Media, and Amanda Staveley, but the latter's exit this year has seen PIF's stake climb to 85 per cent.
There have been grand statements to establish Newcastle among the elite of European football under a Saudi owner and investments have indicated a club in a hurry.
Owner funding, through the allotment of shares, already totals £266million, almost equal to the 2021 purchase price. The 2022-23 accounts, published 10 months ago, detailed that two shares had been issued in return for £127.4m in the accounting year, before another was issued in August 2023 for a further £60million. Shareholder loans have not been a consideration since Ashley's exit.
Spending levels have dropped against a backdrop of PSR challenges in the last 12 months but there is an ongoing feasibility study into renovating St James' Park or building a new home. Either option would demand huge capital investment.
9. Brighton & Hove Albion (£512m)
Owner: Tony Bloom Takeover:Takeover price: £18m Owner funding: £494m
A local boy with a hugely successful career in sports data readily ploughed millions into his local football club to inspire an ascent up the English football ladder.
Tony Bloom is among the Premier League's longest-serving owners after initially taking on former chairman Dick Knight's 75 per cent stake when Brighton were a League One club in 2009, quickly committing £80million of interest-free loans to fund the construction of the Amex Stadium.
Bloom's financial support has not wavered since. Shareholder loans stood at £373million when the club's most recent accounts were filed, a figure that had been reduced by £33million following the first repayment to Bloom since taking charge of his boyhood club.
Close to half a billion has been injected into Brighton by Bloom when including previous loans turned into equity, with a dependence on the owner evident for much of the club's rise to the top half of the Premier League. Bloom has little apparent interest in selling the club he has rebuilt, or in recalling the soft loans that have helped to fund it all.
10. Leicester City (£484m)
Owner: King Power International Takeover:Purchase: £40m Funding: £444m
Leicester made an immediate return to the Premier League when winning the Championship title last season and the gratitude to their owner only grows.
A reported £40million takeover led by Thai billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who owned travel retail company King Power, saw control first taken from Milan Mandaric in 2010 and the subsequent years have been considered Leicester's greatest. Lifting the Premier League trophy in 2016 is an achievement that may never be topped.
The tragic death of Srivaddhanaprabha in a helicopter crash six years ago saw operations handed to his son, Top, and little has changed in his approach. Owner funding stands at £444million, ten times the initial outlay to buy the club, with £194m debt to the parent company converted into equity.
That move, according to a club statement in February 2023, demonstrated the owner's "commitment to supporting the club's long-term sustainability" after building a state-of-the-art training facility and riding out the Covid-19 pandemic. Leicester's owner had previously taken the same approach, with £103million effectively written off in 2013.
Outstanding shareholder loans continue to stand at £132million but history would indicate that carries little relevance.
11. Liverpool (£436m)
Owner: Fenway Sports Group (FSG) Takeover:Purchase price: £300m Owner funding: £136m
Liverpool are a different beast to the one Fenway Sports Group (FSG) found in a heap 14 years ago. Another spell under American owners, namely Tom Hicks and George Gillett, had plunged Liverpool into financial danger and the £300million takeover, signed off in 2010, soon steadied the ship.
FSG, a multinational conglomerate based in Boston, already owned the Red Sox and its founders, John W Henry and Tom Werner, pledged to restore Liverpool to former glories.
They did so, winning the 2019-20 Premier League a year after triumph in the Champions League, but the rebuild has rarely been dependent on the resources of FSG.
Aside from early investment, helping with the reconstruction of Anfield's Main Stand, no owner funding has been recorded since the 2015-16 season. Money was actually paid back to reduce the amounts owed to FSG between 2017 and 2020.
FSG's total investment in Liverpool is far lower than plenty in the Premier League and made all the more impressive by two other capital projects, the expansion of the Anfield Road Stand and the construction of a new training site.
FSG's financial health was endorsed by RedBird Capital Partners, who bought a 10 per cent share in Liverpool's parent company for $735million in 2021 .
12. Crystal Palace (£278m)
Owner: CPFC 2010 Takeover:Takeover price: £88million Owner funding: £190million
The Premier League's most complex shareholder structure does not offer straightforward answers to financial questions, with the Steve Parish-fronted group formed in 2010 to take the club out of administration picking up new investors along the way.
The most recent of those, American John Textor, has the biggest shareholding after spending £88million for 40 per cent of the club in 2021. His stake is worth roughly 45 per cent — although he is trying to offload it. Textor is one of four general partners alongside Parish, a lifelong Palace fan, and American businessmen Josh Harris and David Blitzer (who both own 18 per cent).
Parish has been the one constant at a club amid its longest unbroken sequence in English football's top flight. Owner investment is running close to £200million.
Financial commitments have gradually climbed, with loans of £30million put into the club in both 2021-22 and 2022-23.
Last season brought even more and the most recent accounts detailed that £12million had been loaned, as well as the injection of a further £45million being approved via a capital call from shareholders. Those, it added, were due for receipt in January and February of this year, halfway through a season that ended with Palace finishing 10th in the Premier League.
13. Wolverhampton Wanderers (£243m)
Owner: Fosun International Takeover:Purchase price: £45million Owner funding: £198m
Wolves' world changed in 2016 when Fosun, a Chinese conglomerate, bought out former owner Steve Morgan in a deal worth £45million. They were a middling Championship club but promotion in 2018 under Nuno Espirito Santo has seen them become part of the Premier League establishment.
That has come at a cost. Fosun's funding since taking control at Molineux runs close to £200million, with the 2022-23 accounts recording a £51million injection via shareholder loans.
That debt, not including money owed to external lenders, stands at £65million but Fosun has previously shown its commitment to Wolves after writing off a £126.5m loan in the 2020-21 accounts.
Fosun's long-term aspirations as Wolves' owner are less clear, with persistent reports linking it with a sale.
14. Bournemouth (£213m)
Owner: Black Knight Football Takeover:Purchase price: £120million Owner funding: £93million
Bournemouth might look like the Premier League's plucky underdog but their fairytale rise has been underwritten by men with deep pockets. Maxim Demin, a Russian-born businessman, funded the climb to the Premier League and the subsequent sale of Bournemouth to Bill Foley, head of Black Knight Football, has seen the pattern to continue.
Foley paid £120million when buying Bournemouth from Demin less than two years ago. Black Knight Football has since invested in French club Lorient, Scottish side Hibernian and Auckland of the Australian A-League as part of a growing multi-club group.
The opening seasons saw Black Knight invest heavily. Bournemouth's last set of published accounts detailed that £25.5million of shareholder loans had been converted into equity since their publication, as well as a further £67.2million being loaned from parent company Turquoise.
That £92.7million of funding already comes close to eclipsing Demin's investment during his 11 years at the helm as Bournemouth attempt to make the Premier League their long-term home under Foley. That commitment includes the construction of a state-of-the-art training facility.
15. West Ham United (£206m)
Owners: David Sullivan, Daniel Kretinsky, the Gold family Takeover:Purchase price: £50million Owner funding: £156m
A recurring theme in the collection of Premier League owners is the presence of lifelong supporters and West Ham had two give into that emotional pull when Sullivan and the late David Gold took on a 50 per cent stake in 2010 for a reported £50million.
The shareholding of Gold and Sullivan eventually climbed as high as 85 per cent before the arrival of Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky saw 27 per cent sold off for £180million in 2021.
Sullivan remains the biggest shareholder (38.8) but, compared to Premier League rivals, owner investment has been low.
Following relegation to the Championship in 2012, there was £32.2million pumped in but that annual figure was unsurpassed until the arrival of Kretinsky injected £125million of equity.
That was used to invest in the playing squad and trim debts, primarily money owed in shareholder loans totalling £54million to Sullivan and Gold. Unlike most borrowing of its kind, those had previously incurred interest payments but West Ham are now one of seven Premier League clubs not holding shareholder loans.
16. Tottenham Hotspur (£194m)
Owner:Takeover:Takeover: £94m Funding: £100m
The Premier League's oldest ownership group is among the most financially circumspect. ENIC, owned by the family trust of billionaire Joe Lewis and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy, bought out Sir Alan Sugar in two separate deals, the first for £22million in 2001 and the second for £25million five years later.
That totalled a 43 per cent shareholding bought from Sugar and subsequent acquisitions have since seen that grow to 86.58 per cent. Attaching a figure to the purchase of those shares is difficult owing to the number of private investors involved so we will double the outlay, but Tottenham's market value has grown exponentially with the construction of their new £1billion home.
That capital investment ensures Tottenham carry the highest financial debt in the Premier League at £850million but, unlike others, none of that has come through shareholder loans. Generous fixed-rate agreements are instead in place with external lenders.
ENIC broke with its conventions as Spurs owner in 2022 when announcing that up to £150million would be injected via a share issue and the 2021-22 accounts showed that £100million of that had been drawn down.
Tottenham's revenues continue to grow, ensuring ENIC's long-term investment is among the most valuable in English football.
17. Southampton (£185m)
Owner: Sport Republic Takeover:Purchase price: £100million Owner funding: £85million
Southampton carried obvious appeal when Sport Republic was confirmed as the club's controlling stakeholder in the opening days of 2022. The club had become a Premier League mainstay in the previous decade and the £100million exchanged for 80 per cent of shares held by Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng saw the investment firm, headed up by Serb Dragan Solak, make its move into English football.
The financial shift has been clear under Sport Republic. A club that had gone seven years without the benefit of owner funding saw a cash injection of £85million during the 2022-23 season, but it ended with relegation to the Championship.
That investment came in a series of share issues through the holding company St Mary's Football Group Ltd, diluting the original 20 per cent stake held by Katharina Liebherr, who had inherited Southampton following the death of her father, Markus, in 2010.
Southampton's promotion through last season's Championship play-offs will reduce the club's short-term dependency on Sport Republic, which wrote in its most recent accounts that there was "an intention to continue to provide financial support" moving forward. Sport Republic also owns controlling stakes in French club Valenciennes and Turkish side Goztepe.
18. Nottingham Forest (£162m)
Owner: Evangelos Marinakis Takeover:Purchase price: £50m Funding: £112m
Nottingham Forest had not seen English football's top flight for 18 years when Marinakis parted with £50million to buy a 100 per cent stake from Fawaz Al Hasawi . It would be another five years before they finally got to the Premier League and Marinakis' investment has played a key role in the revival.
The shipping magnate, who also owns Greek giants Olympiacos, has pumped money into Forest every season. The total stood at £112million at the end of the 2022-23 season, their first back in the Premier League.
That is not a figure unusual by top-flight standards but the significance of the sums is heightened by the fact the majority of Marinakis' reign had been spent in the Championship.
Marinakis goes it alone at Forest, and supporters have been grateful for his continued investment. The owner has consistently converted shareholder debt into equity. The 2021-22 season saw £41million written off by Marinakis, who had done the same with a further £32million in the previous two seasons. The most recent accounts said funding was "exemplified" by the conversion of another £11million from loans to equity.
19. Brentford (£124m)
Owner: Matthew Benham Takeover:Purchase price: £20million Owner funding: £104million
You would have got long odds, the type that would likely appeal to the club's gambling owner, that Brentford would be a Premier League club when Benham took charge 12 years ago.
The lifelong fan, whose Smartodds platform offers data modelling for professional gamblers, has been the figurehead behind Brentford's improbable journey from League One to English football's top-flight, one that has included a relocation from Griffin Park to the Gtech Community Stadium.
Benham had initially loaned money to his boyhood club in 2007 but was persuaded in 2012 to buy out a 60 per cent shareholding owned by Bees United, Brentford's supporters trust. That was increased to 100 per cent in 2014 when hoovering up all remaining shares and the happy union has not looked back.
Benham has invested significant funds into establishing Brentford as a smart and respected Premier League club, a sum that stood unchanged at £104.4million in the 2022-23 accounts. That, according to Brentford, included £22.8million of loans relating to the stadium project.
It is a measure of Brentford's evolution, though, that Benham's funding is no longer required. The owner has not invested significant money since 2017 as they have continued to punch above their weight.
20. Ipswich Town (£123m)
Owner: Gamechanger 20 Takeover:Purchase price: £40m Funding: £83m
Once upon a time, there was no club more familiar with the Championship than Ipswich. They were uncomfortable mainstays for 15 years before it got worse still with relegation to League One in 2018-19. The Premier League could not be seen even if fans squinted.
Ipswich were drifting under former owner Marcus Evans, a wealthy benefactor whose interest had dwindled, but everything changed when Gamechanger 20, an American investment group, struck a £40million deal to take control in 2021.
Hefty owner investment, totalling more than £80million, helped Ipswich rebuild, winning back-to-back promotions to reach the Premier League at the end of last season. Filings in the summer showed that £39million of investment in 2023-24 had been converted into shares.
.S. investors: 'It's been a rocket ship and we're holding onto the wings'Ipswich's rapidly improving fortunes were reflected by a £105million investment from Bright Path Sports Partners, an American private equity and advisory firm that, in return, took on a 40 per cent shareholding in the club. That valued Ipswich at £262million, three years after they had been bought for £40million, with Bright Path's investment bringing a direct cash injection.
Music star Ed Sheeran , who provides shirt sponsorship for his boyhood club, also bought a 1.4 per cent share from Gamechanger in August.
(Top photos: Martin Rickett/PA Images, Plumb Images/Leicester City, Chris Brunskill/Fantasista, Richard Heathcote via ; design: Eamonn Dalton)
