Man City owner replaces Abramovich atop 'Rich List'

LONDON — Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich slipped from first to third in British football's rich list, replaced at the top by the man behind Manchester City, Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The annual list compiled by the football magazine FourFourTwo puts Sheik Mansour, whose Abu Dhabi United Group bought City from former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September, at the top with a personal fortune of 15 billion pounds ($22.2 billion; euro16.5 billion).

Lakshmi Mittal, a 58-year-old Indian industrialist who has invested in Queens Park Rangers along with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and Renault managing director Flavio Briatore, is second with 12.5 billion ($18.5 billion; euro13.75 billion). Ecclestone is fifth in the list.

The magazine estimates Abramovich's wealth at 7 billion pounds ($10.36 billion; euro7.7 billion) after the Russian reported to have lost about 3 billion pounds ($4.44 billion; euro3.3 billion) during the global financial downturn.

Among other big changes are Manchester United owner Malcolm Glazer's slide from fourth to a tie for 10th, Irish businessman Dermot Desmond, owner of Celtic, slipping from third to eighth, and Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner dropping from seventh to 15th — all largely because of the arrival of new owners and investors such as Sheik 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; euro1.21 billion). Lerner owns Villa and the Cleveland Browns and is estimated to have 750 million pounds ($1.1 billion; euro825 million).

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; euro137.5 million) for 38th place on the list.

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