According to Deloitte Football Money League 2023 data, 11 of the 20 richest teams in Europe compete in Premier Leaguewhich, in turn, a few days ago became the UK’s strongest brand abroad for the third year in a row.

Money doesn’t always bring happiness, of course, as supporters’ voices of protest against several English team owners are rising, as hundreds of millions of pounds have been spent but the goals have not been met. The common denominator is that most of those affected are not British.

From Portsmouth American Michael Eisner floundering somewhere in League One to Everton’s British-Iranian major shareholder Farhad Moshiri, the list of owners that fans are worried about right now is long. In fact, the latter, seeing that his team’s path to the Championship is irreversible, only last Tuesday decided to sell either a minority or a majority stake, although just a year ago it increased its percentage from 49.9% to 94%.

As reported by the Guardian, the 67-year-old owner of Everton is asking for about 550 million euros for “sweets”. His decision came just 24 hours after Everton fans staged a sit-in against him and the board.

Something similar has long happened to Manchester United, where their supporters pit against the Glazer family, culminating in the takeover of Old Trafford in May 2021 ahead of the Liverpool derby.

The American owners have sold the team since last November, while Liverpool are also following the same path as here too the American Fenway Sports Group is looking – mainly in the Arabian Peninsula – for a successor situation.

A similar crisis has happened at Arsenal before, but this year the course and chances of winning meant a “truce” between the fans and Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, which, like the aforementioned cases, is based on the other side. Atlantic.

Portsmouth’s Michael Eisner is another major American shareholder blacklisted by fans. The former CEO of Walt Disney, and now the owner of The Tornante Company, which owns the English club, is a good owner, as the team managed to dump the debts of past years under him.

But the club remains where he bought it, away from the Premier League, and this is not liked by his fans, who recently staged a peaceful protest against him, accusing him of a lack of ambition and plans.

English football has been held captive for years by billionaire club owners who play their ball in the Premier League but live far from it. But paper wealth alone is not enough. In fact, it doesn’t make sense unless accompanied by a shot, which is most often missing.