'The Billionaires Club: The Unstoppable Rise Of Football's Super-Rich Owners' by James Montague

A small but select group of Cutting Edge followers will be fascinated to learn of a book to interest footie fans as well as financiers:

"The Billionaires Club", written by  James Montague explains why investors and sovereign nations have poured enormous sums into Premier League clubs.  For reasons of prestige, publicity, personal life-insurance and cupidity; as well as a guarantee of TV coverage for-ever-and-ever-amen.

Bloomsbury, 320 pages £16.99

It’s hard to review this book, since it isn’t available until 24 October, but Amazon has said this about it:-

“Once 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?

In 'The Billionaires Club', James Montague delves deeper than anyone else has dared, to tell this story for the first time. It is part history of club ownership, part in-depth investigation into the money and influence that connects the super rich around the globe, and part travel book as he crosses national boundaries in an attempt to reveal the real force behind modern-day football.

At its heart 'The Billionaires Club' is a football book, about some of the biggest clubs in the world. But it is also about something bigger: the world around us, the global economy, where the world is headed, and how football has become an essential cog in this machine.”

Amazon also allows a peep inside the book:-

“By the turn of the 21st century, football was a new game. Millionaire local owners were not enough. Now billionaires and the super rich were the only individuals with pockets deep enough to bankroll survival and success. The purchase of Chelsea in 2003 by Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch who was one of the richest men in the world after building a fortune in the anarchic capitalism of post-USSR Russia, raised the bar. The purchase of Manchester City five years later by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, presented football with its richest family of billionaires.”



https://www.amazon.com/Billionaires-Club-unstoppable-footballs-super-rich/dp/1472923103

Published 24 August, apparently.


The Billionaires Club

The Unstoppable Rise of Football’s Super-rich Owners

By: James Montague


Media of The Billionaires Club

Published:
24-08-2017

Format:
Hardback

Edition:
1st

Extent:
336

ISBN:
9781472923103

Imprint:
Bloomsbury Sport

Dimensions:
234 x 153 mm

RRP:
£16.99

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-billionaires-club-9781472923103/

My apologies. The book was clearly published on 24 August, because a Dr Barry Clayton posted this review of it on Amazon by the next day:-

“The author is a well-known football journalist. His account reminds us of the mind-boggling money that now swirls around and through the beautiful game. Transfer fees are now escalating to unbelievable amounts while weekly earnings of the top tier of players are many, many times the average annual wage of a British worker.

Qatar is the richest nation In the world. It views football as an excellent way of cementing the country's role as a forward looking world centre for sport. It gives the state an image of being progressive. This book focuses on money. Montague examines why foreign owners from China, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Dubai and other states have invested millions in three-quarters of our Premier League clubs. The author reveals why billionaires are very keen to finance ultra-rich players.

People like Abramovich and Usmanov don't simply buy football clubs, they are also getting protection from the Russian government. Their international profile, argues the author, makes them very hard to get rid of. Football is a form of insurance. The same applies in China. Its leader aims to make the country a football superpower. Love of the game is a secondary concern.

Montague says the flood of money into the Premier League has definitely forced up ticket prices. He also questions the ethics and morality of some of the foreign owners. He accuses Qatar of using slave labour to build its World Cup stadia. I very much doubt if such thoughts enter the mind of the average fan. What concerns them is winning.

This is a book replete with detail, not all of it is about the game. It is nevertheless an engrossing portrait of the connection between the super rich and the increasingly rich players in the Premier League.”

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Billionaires-Club-Unstoppable-Football-Super-Rich/dp/1472923103

Amazon is currently selling the book for £11.89. If you add VAT to that, you get a price nearer to the Bloomsbury one.....

One curious point. If you click on the ‘amazon.com’ link in my previous post, it still says that the book won’t be on sale until 24 October!