Description
Book SynopsisA compelling examination of football club ownership in the era of the super-richOnce upon a time football was run by modest local businessmen. Today it is the plaything of billionaire oligarchs, staggeringly wealthy from oil and gas, from royalty, or from murkier sources. But who are these new masters of the universe? Where did all their money come from? And what do they want with our beautiful game? While almost cloaked in secrecy, the billionaire owner has to raise his head above the bunker when it comes to football ownership a rare Achilles heel that allows access to worlds normally off limits journalists and outsiders. In the
Billionaires Club James Montague delves deeper than anyone ever dared, to tell this story for the first time. He criss-crosses the world from Dhaka to Doha, from China to Crewe, from St Louis to London, from Bangkok to Belgium to profile this new elite, their network of money and their influence that defies geographic boundaries.
The Billion
Trade Review
The business-minded and the football crazy… will find [this book] hard to resist * Sunday Times *
The Billionaires Club seeks to understand why the global super-rich suddenly became interested in football, and what the consequences of this trend have been * Irish Times *
A fascinating read for the many football fans interested in the developments off pitch * Financial Times *
Both surprising and insightful … The book does a fine job of examining just why rich men choose to plough oodles of money into football * FourFourTwo *
Montague… proves himself adept here at rustling up enlightening stories on the game from relatively far-flung outposts and placing them in the context of a broader global picture * When Saturday Comes *
Table of Contents
Introduction Part One - Eastern Europe: Rise of the Oligarchs Part Two - America: The Money men Part Three - Asia: Dawn of the East Part Four - The Middle East: Princes and Sheikhs Postscript Acknowledgements Index
