League Positions versus Wealth.
I was wondering how our current league position compares to the Championship owners' wealth table. I asked ChatGpt to build a table that compared the two. So it's bound to be full of errors and false assumptions. The most glaring is QPR, which Chapt Gpt thinks has the league's wealthiest owners. It may have been the case when it was owned by the Mittal family, but now they only own 16%.
The other mistake is to assume that the wealthiest owners will be the one's who invest the most. That definitely isn't the case. We, apparently, have the league's 5th wealthiest owners, so are underperforming by 13 places in the table. Tbh, I don't think anyone really knows how wealthy our owner are though, do they?
The most important factor, of course, is the Financial Fair Play (FFP) Sustainabilty regulations, which punish clubs who keep making losses. So even if owners want to invest in a club, they can't just buy loads of expensive player, because that could lead to penalties, including points deductions. That's why Wrexham are doing so well. They have massive commercial income, global sponsorships, (TikTok sponsoring their shirts for example) and the documentary series. So they can spend what they like, basically.
So all we can really hope for is steady improvement and survival. Even selling out The Valley every week won't make much of a difference.
For what it's worth, here's the table:
How to read the last column:
Gap = Wealth rank – League position
A positive number means the club is doing better on the pitch than its owners’ wealth rank would suggest.
A negative number means the club is underperforming relative to owner wealth.
Club | League Pos | Owner(s) used | Est. owner wealth | Wealth rank | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Coventry City | 1 | Doug King | ~£303m | 20 | +19 |
Millwall | 2 | John Berylson / Richard Smith | ~£132m | 23 | +21 |
Middlesbrough | 3 | Steve Gibson | ~£625m | 14 | +11 |
Ipswich Town | 4 | Gamechanger 20 Ltd | ~£10.8bn | 2 | -2 |
Hull City | 5 | Acun Ilıcalı | ~£300m | 21 | +16 |
Wrexham | 6 | Ryan Reynolds / Rob McElhenney | ~£480m | 15 | +9 |
Southampton | 7 | Sport Republic group | ~£5.0bn | 4 | -3 |
Derby County | 8 | David Clowes | ~£252m | 22 | +14 |
Watford | 9 | Gino Pozzo | ~£91m | 24 | +15 |
QPR | 10 | Lakshmi Mittal | ~£11.35bn | 1 | -9 |
Norwich City | 11 | Mark Attanasio | ~£1.44bn | 10 | -1 |
Stoke City | 12 | John Coates | ~£2.7bn | 6 | -6 |
Bristol City | 13 | Stephen Lansdown | ~£1.97bn | 8 | -5 |
Birmingham City | 14 | Tom Wagner / Knighthead | ~£1.34bn | 11 | -3 |
Preston North End | 15 | Trevor Hemmings family stake | ~£1.06bn | 12 | -3 |
Swansea City | 16 | Current US-led ownership group | ~£305m | 19 | -3 |
Sheffield United | 17 | COH Sports Group | ~£7.5bn | 3 | -14 |
Charlton Athletic | 18 | Global Football Partners group | ~£3.68bn | 5 | -13 |
Blackburn Rovers | 19 | Venky’s family group | ~£1.51bn | 9 | -10 |
West Brom | 20 | Patel family / group | ~£378m | 18 | -2 |
Portsmouth | 21 | Michael Eisner | ~£757m | 13 | -8 |
Leicester City | 22 | Srivaddhanaprabha family | ~£2.65bn | 7 | -15 |
Oxford United | 23 | Erick Thohir | ~£435m | 16 | -7 |
Sheffield Wednesday | 24 | owner wealth estimate used in public lists despite administration | ~£435m | 17 | -7 |
Comments
-
I'm not sure it's wealth per se that's important; well, not after you reach a certain threshold. I reckon it's the limit that you're prepared to lose that counts for more, and your ingenuity at finding ways around FFP. Nobody's going to be publishing figures on that.6
-
“Limit that you’re prepared to lose” usually very, very directly correlates with wealth0
