The 2025-26 Championship season has been another fascinating one.
Southampton, Ipswich Town, and Leicester City all returned to the second tier in the hopes of returning to the top flight, but the latter has instead found themselves at the bottom of the table after losing points.
Meanwhile, American-owned Birmingham City and Wrexham have been attempting to upset the apple cart by using their financial resources to move up the league. Charlton Athletic has also been competitive since their play-off victory under Nathan Jones.
For much of the season, Coventry City, Millwall, and Hull City have all performed admirably, and 25/26 has been full of surprises at both ends of the table.
As another Championship season full of twists and turns approaches, FLW ranks the division’s top 11 richest owners.
11 Shilen Patel, West Brom – £376 million
The 2025-26 Championship season has been another fascinating one.
Southampton, Ipswich Town, and Leicester City all returned to the second tier in the hopes of returning to the top flight, but the latter has instead found themselves at the bottom of the table after losing points.
Meanwhile, American-owned Birmingham City and Wrexham have been attempting to upset the apple cart by using their financial resources to move up the league. Charlton Athletic has also been competitive since their play-off victory under Nathan Jones.
For much of the season, Coventry City, Millwall, and Hull City have all performed admirably, and 25/26 has been full of surprises at both ends of the table.
As another Championship season full of twists and turns approaches, FLW ranks the division’s top 11 richest owners.
11 Shilen Patel, West Brom – £376 million.
Shilen Patel at the Hawthorns.
Shilen Patel, West Brom’s principal shareholder, bought the club from Chinese investor Guochuan Lai for £60 million.
According to Birmingham Live, the American businessman’s net worth is estimated to be $100 million (£75.3 million), however it is not all of his riches.
Birmingham Live said in the same article that his father’s net wealth is $400 million (£301.3 million), with a portion of these monies invested in Bilkul Football WBA, LLC.
This means that the total wealth is £376.6 million, with Shilen in charge of the club and his father taking a back seat.
Shilen Patel net worth vs. Kiran Patel net worth (Birmingham Live, as of 16/02/2024)
Shilen Patel is worth $100 million.
Kiran Patel has $400 million.
10 Steve Gibson, Middlesbrough – £640 million
Steve Gibson is ranked tenth, having served as Middlesbrough’s chairman and owner for more than 30 years.
Gibson became an entrepreneur in the early 1980s when he established Bulkhaul Limited, which transports gasses and liquids around the world.
Gibson’s riches grew to the point that he could invest in the Riverside Stadium, which is now worth £640 million, according to Teesside Live.
9 Michael Eisner, Portsmouth – £870 million
Michael Eisner, Pompey’s owner and former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, has entered the top ten.
It was disclosed in March 2017, during Portsmouth’s League Two title-winning season, that the American businessman and his Tornante Company were to start exclusive talks about purchasing the club, with the transaction finalized later that year for £5.67 million.
According to Forbes, Eisner is worth $1.1 billion, or £870 million, as Portsmouth seeks to keep their status in the second tier.
8 The Hemmings Family, Preston North End – £1.1 billion
Preston North End is still led by the Hemmings family, with Craig Hemmings, Trevor’s son, taking over the role after his father died in 2021.
Trevor Hemmings was on The Sunday Times Rich List months before his death, with a net worth estimated at £1.1 billion.
Hemmings began his professional career as a builder, establishing a business in his twenties.
He began to accumulate significant riches in this profession before transitioning to the leisure and real estate sectors.
At various stages in his life, Hemmings owned Blackpool Tower, Pontins tourist camps, and, of course, Preston North End.
7 Dragan Šolak, Southampton – £1.25 billion
Southampton is owned by Sport Republic, an investment corporation run by Serbian billionaire Dragan Šolak.
Sport Republic bought an 80% share in the club in January 2022 for more than £100 million ($133 million), taking it from Chinese tycoon Gao Jisheng.
According to Live Score, Solak’s net worth is expected to be around $1.65 billion in 2024, which equates to £1.25 billion and places him seventh on the list.
6 Tom Wagner, Birmingham City – £1.34 billion
Tom Wagner, the owner of Birmingham City, wants to develop the club into an English ‘Powerhouse’.
Following years of turmoil, the American investor has rescued the club, bringing legendary former NFL player Tom Brady on board and finishing plans for a new Sports Quarter in the city core.
Wagner became wealthy after co-founding his hedge fund with Ara Cohen in the summer of 2008.
According to the company’s website, Knighthead, which has offices in New York, Florida, and Connecticut, manages $9 billion (£7.15 billion) in assets across a range of investment vehicles, specializing in distressed credit.
According to Birmingham Live, Wagner is estimated to have a personal wealth of £1.34 billion, with money continually being invested in the West Midlands club to assist them achieve success on the field.
5 The Venky’s, Blackburn Rovers – £1.66 billion
The Venkys are up next, and they have been divisive figures at Ewood Park.
V H Group, formed in 1971 as Venkateshwara Hatcheries Pvt LTD, is well-known for its involvement in the chicken sector. They are based in Pune, India, and handle a variety of enterprises in the industry.
That work aims to produce a wide range of items, including processed foods, animal vaccines, and human and animal pharmaceuticals. Venky’s has offices and production sites in a number of nations across the world as a result of its expansion in that business.
According to the Yorkshire Post, the Venkys are estimated to be wealthy £1.66 billion, which has irritated Rovers fans about the club’s lack of investment.
4 Stephen Lansdown, Bristol City – £2.3 billion
Stephen Lansdown has a lengthy history with Bristol City, having served as chairman since 2002.
Lansdown’s riches began in 1981, when he co-founded Hargreaves Lansdown, a British financial services company.
Providing clients with information on unit trusts and tax planning. Just six years later, they were dealing with a significant volume of business as a result of a frenzy in which clients wanted to get into stocks.
According to Forbes, Lansdown’s net worth is $3.1 billion, which equates to slightly more than £2.3 billion.
3 John Coates, Stoke City – £2.4 billion
John Coates is still in control of Stoke City, which the family bought in 1986.
John’s father, Peter, first became wealthy by creating Stadia Catering in the 1960s and local radio station Signal in 1983, as well as Provincial Racing, a bookmaking enterprise.
John went on to follow in his sister Denise’s footsteps, co-founding the gaming startup bet365 in 2001. It quickly became one of the world’s leading betting sites in the new era of online gambling, and it remains one of the largest of its kind today.
According to Forbes, Coates is worth $3.2 billion, or £2.4 billion, and Stoke hopes to use some of that money to campaign for a return to the Premier League.
2 Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, Leicester City – £2.7 billion
Leicester City is principally owned by Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, CEO of King Power, a big Thai duty-free retailer. He owns a 55% ownership in the club, while Voramas, Apichet, Aroonroong, and Aimon Srivaddhanaprabha have minor stakes.
They also have large assets in real estate and other projects, like as the MahaNakhon skyscraper project in Bangkok.
According to Forbes, Srivaddhanaprabha is the seventh-richest man in Thailand, with $3.5 billion (£2.7 billion), making him the second-richest owner in the second tier.
1 Gamechanger 20 Ltd, Ipswich Town – £10.8 billion
Ipswich Town is owned by a consortium of investors, each with a considerable share.
In April 2021, Gamechanger 20 Ltd bought a majority ownership in the team.
Brett Johnson, Berke Bakay, and Mark Detmer, three American-based businessmen, have taken over the majority of procedures at Portman Road, resulting in astonishing back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League.
According to the East Anglian Times, the group’s fund is $13 billion, or £10.8 billion, with such superior financial resources positioning them for an instant return to the top flight.
This places Ipswich Town as the Championship’s richest owners by a significant margin.
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