Sheikh Mansour falls from top of Football Rich List

Manchester City's owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan has been toppled at the summit of the Football Rich List, UK magazine FourFourTwo reported on Wednesday.

The brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi slipped one place to second in the list despite the magazine calculating a 2bn pounds ($3.1bn) boost to his wealth since January to 17bn pounds.

Since taking on the Premier League club last year, he has authorised a 200m pound spending spree on players to transform Mark Hughes’ side into one of the league's top clubs.

In September, he achieved 100 percent ownership of the club when he bought the final 10 percent held by former owner Thaksin Shinawatra.

According to the magazine, he still fell short of the fortune amassed by QPR investor Lakshmi Mittal, whose wealth has skyrocketed over the last nine months as shares in his Arcelor-Mittal company recovered from a stock market slump.

FourFourTwo said he spent 200,000 pounds on a 20 percent stake in the Championship club in December 2007 and the Indian tycoon could yet buy out the 54 percent stake of former F1 boss Flavio Briatore.

"Despite his enormous wealth, Mittal crept in under the radar at QPR because of the media focus on Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone," said FourFourTwo editor-in-chief Hugh Sleight.

"But the real financial power at Loftus Road lies with the Indian. It's a signal of just how wealthy he is that even a small recovery in the economy can give him a 6bn pound bump."

Chelsea supremo Roman Abramovich completed the top three in the Football Rich List.

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