Foreign Owners - Good or Bad for football?

Britain's richest man and Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov has defended the foreign ownership of Premier League clubs, saying it's good for the English game.

The billionaire said the growing influence of overseas shareholders was not stripping the sport of its identity in England.
And while he praised Arsenal's impressive start to the Premier League season, he said he reserved the right to criticise the club's board if he felt they weren't getting things right.

The Russian, who has a fortune of more than £13bn, has spent more than £200m over the last six years, building a 30% stake in the Gunners.
He has been involved in an uneasy stand-off with the club's American majority shareholder Stan Kroenke, accusing him and chief executive Ivan Gazidis of failing to invest sufficient money in Arsene Wenger's team despite significant reserves of cash.

Usmanov has stated he would like to take full control of Arsenal in the event of Kroenke ever deciding to sell.
Asked whether it was right that so many top English clubs were now foreign-owned, he said: "It's an artificial question which somebody wants to put on the table.

"Everyone who has legal right to buy something can perform this right.
"We have Kroenke, [Aston Villa's Randy] Lerner, many, many people and now many Asian owners. I think everyone is comfortable if the club are successful.
"If the club are not successful then, of course, everybody wants to find somebody guilty."

In recent years, investments from outside the United Kingdom in Premier League clubs have included Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich at Chelsea in 2003, American Malcolm Glazer taking control at Manchester United in 2005 and Sheikh Mansour from Abu Dhabi buying Manchester City in 2008 from former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

"I'm sure it is good [for English football]," added Usmanov. "When investors come and invest in the economy, in British football, it is a big part of the entertainment economy in the United Kingdom.
"What's bad?"

With the Football Association chairman Greg Dyke establishing a commission to examine the underperformance of the English national team, Usmanov appeared to hint that top clubs like Arsenal needed to work harder to get the right mix between foreign and English players.
He said: "We need to find the balance of international players and local players. Every country has this problem. Russia also.
"I think everybody must think about his own success. National team - it is for national federations. Clubs for the Premier League. Everyone has his own interests."

Last year Red and White Holdings, the investment company which holds Usmanov's shares in Arsenal, wrote an open letter to the club's board, criticising their prudent self-sustaining model and accusing them of squeezing fans with higher ticket prices at the same time as selling their shares for personal profit.

The letter also criticised the lack of spending on the team, arguing that it led to the departure of Robin van Persie to Manchester United.
But since then Arsenal have spent £42.5m on the German international Mesut Ozil and are currently top of the Premier League.
Usmanov said he was very happy with the way the club had started the season but added that he would always speak out if he felt they were making mistakes.

He said: "I never said anything bad about the club or somebody personally. I said what, in my view, we can do - not better - but more effectively. I continue to keep this right for me.
"If I am [a] fan, if I am [a] shareholder and my team is in position number one, of course I am very happy. I hope this result keeps on until the end of the season. I wish this [for] my club.

"The club and team demonstrate Arsene Wenger's capacity to be number one. This is Wenger's responsibility and his vision.
"He does not every time have the possibility to solve this. Now I think he has this possibility and we support every effort to make our club [the] best.

"In the past I tell the club that if they want to pretend to be number one in every tournament then they must have best players in the world, and if we don't have them in our squad we need to buy these in the market. Wenger confirmed this by buying, for example, [Mesut] Ozil.
"I don't think somebody heard me but in any case anything that gives to Arsenal, good results, is for us very good news. This is our mission and hope.

"We wait - I think we begin a new era for Arsenal where we win trophies. It's most important for football, winning trophies. We will be number one."

Foreign investment in the Premier League
Arsenal: Stan Kroenke (USA) 2011

Chelsea: Roman Abramovich (Russia) 2003

Man United: Malcolm Glazer (USA) 2005

Man City: Thaksin Shinawatra (Thailand) 2007, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Abu Dhabi) 2008

Liverpool: Tom Hicks and George Gillet (USA) 2007, Fenway Sports Group (USA) 2010

Aston Villla: Randy Lerner (USA) 2006

Southampton: The estate of Markus Liebherr (Switzerland) 2009 when in League One

Sunderland: Ellis Short (USA) 2008

Cardiff City: Vincent Tan (Malaysia) 2010 when in the Championship

Fulham: Shahid Khan (USA) 2013

What if I think they are neither good nor bad, but I care, and my team don't win stuff anyway?

I for one can't comment. 

I always say any foreign owner is risky, only have to look on the lines of Portsmouth and Blackburn. People who have no idea about football running the club and embarrassing it. 

I am happy we have a rich Albion fan as a chairman, who is a complete legend. Invests his money correctly and will never ever over spend on players etc.

Leeds United had a English owners, and yet had similar problems to Portsmouth and Blackburn. I don't think there is anything to suggest that foreign owners are more likely to make mistakes, it's about competency rather than nationality. It's also important I think that owners recognise that football clubs aren't just a business, and in that respect it's probably better when an owner is a football fan.

I don't think the problem is foreign investors/owners, as much as it is owners who dont treat clubs like a business, and more like a hobby. I don't mind an NFL player getting a 5 year $100m contract, for the simple reason that in American sports, they'll never pay you more than you're worth (generally, Kobe just got a fat contract)... With all these foreign investors, it feels like they don't mind paying £50m for average, and then paying £250k a week to keep it. This is all well and good, while his bottomless pockets bankrolls the club, but what happens to the club once the guy is bored?