Of the top 20 clubs on the list, seven are in England – though they are owned by foreign-born billionaires, including American hedge fund tycoon George Soros, Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal and Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Top of the list, however, is Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim. With an estimated fortune of $70bn, Slim is the world’s richest football club owner, according to Wealth-X, the ultra-high-net-worth intelligence provider. Slim’s America Movil bought a 30 percent stake last year in Grupo Pachuca, whose holdings include first division Mexican football clubs Pachuca and Leon. 

Second on the list is Amancio Ortega, founder of retailer Zara, who holds a stake in the Spanish Football League team, Deportivo De La Coruna. 

Arsenal is the only club to be featured twice in the list due to the prominence of its ultra-high-net-worth owners: American businessman Stan Kroenke and his Russian counterpart Alisher Usmanov. 

Here is the list of top 20 billionaire football club owners:

1. Carlos Slim ($70bn) – Club Leon (Liga, Mexico)
2. Armancio Ortega ($51bn) – Deportivo de la Coruña (La Liga, Spain)
3. Alisher Usmanov ($20bn) – Arsenal (English Premier League)
4. George Soros ($19bn) – Manchester United (English Premier League)
5. Paul Allen ($15bn) – Seattle Sounders (Major League Soccer, USA)
6. Lakshmi Mittal ($15bn) – QPR (Football League Championship, England)
7. Rinat Akhmetov ($15bn) – FC Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukrainian Premier League)
8. François-Henri Pinault ($14bn) – Stade Rennais (Ligue 1, France)
9. Roman Abramovich ($12bn) – Chelsea FC (English Premier League)
10. John Fredriksen ($12bn) – Vålerenga (Tippeligaen, Norway)
11. Philip Anschutz ($10bn) – LA Galaxy (Major League Soccer, USA)
12. Dmitry Rybolovlev ($10bn) – Monaco (Ligue 1, France)
13. Silvio Berlusconi ($7bn) – Milan (Serie A, Italy)
14. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nayhan ($7bn) – Manchester City (English Premier League)
15. Dietrich Mateschitz ($7bn) – FC Salzburg (Austrian Budesliga)
16. Suleyman Kerimov ($6bn) – Anzhi Makhachkala (Russian Football Premier League)
17. Denis O’Brien ($5bn) – Celtic (Scottish Premier League)
18. Leonid Fedun ($4bn) – Spartak Moscow (Russian Football Premier League)
19. Stan Kroenke ($4bn) – Arsenal (English Premier League)
20. Joseph Lewis ($4bn) – Tottenham Hotspur (English Premier League)

“Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who recently celebrated his 10 years as owner of Chelsea Football Club, seems to have laid the foundation for other billionaires to include a prestigious football team as a must-have trophy asset,” Wealth-X CEO Mykolas Rambus said. “Our data shows that 12 out of 20 have been owners for less than 10 years.”

If you are curious about buying your own football club, look no further – Real Business has its own entrepreneur’s guide to buying a football club.