The Arnault family and the Red Bull group are in the process of purchasing the Paris FC football club, currently in Ligue 2. But will the first French fortune be able to stand up to other investors in the world of football?
A financial monster is coming to French football. The richest man in France, Bernard Arnault, will take over, by joining forces with Red Bull, the Paris FC clubcurrently in Ligue 2. The owner of LVMH has, with his family, a fortune estimated at more than 190 billion euros, according to the Challenges ranking. Which currently makes him the third richest man in the world (or fourth, his fortune varying by several billions every day).
If the acquisition of Paris FC marks the entry of a new juggernaut into the world of football, one fact must be taken into account: it is not LVMH but the holding company of the Arnault family which is buying the club. However, Bernard Arnault’s fortune depends largely on the actions of his own group. The investment in Paris FC, which could be delegated to his son Antoine, will therefore be made through a channel different from that of the luxury giant.
Furthermore, despite the colossal fortune of the Arnault family, other billionaires have already been present for a long time in the capital of successful European clubs and constitute financial and sporting competition that is already well established.
François Pinault, second richest football club owner in the world
In France, another competitor is already very active in the sports segment. François Pinault, owner of Stade Rennais since 1998, is one of the richest sports club owners in the world. According to the American site OLBG.com, he would be fifth in the ranking in sport in general and second in football.
The boss of Kering, the world’s second largest luxury company behind LVMH, has a fortune estimated at 23.6 billion euros. However, it has been far supplanted by state funds which have burst onto the scene in recent years, notably at the head of PSG in France.
The royal family of Qatar at the head of PSG
Although he is the president of PSG, Nasser Al-Khelaifi is not part of the ranking of the richest football club owners in the world. The purchase of the Parisian club in 2011 was in fact carried out by the Qatari royal family Al Thani, via the sovereign fund Qatar Sports Investments (QSI).
Nasser Al-Khelaifi is president of this investment company and combines this position with that of president of PSG but also director of the audiovisual group Bein Sports. If his personal fortune does not allow him to compete with that of Arnault or Pinault, the financial means injected by the royal family are very significant.
The fortune of this family is estimated at more than 3 billion euros, according to The Sun. A hell of a sum but much lower than the fortune of the Arnault family. But the relationship is reversed if we take into account the size of the QSI fund. Its overall value is not exactly known but, according to some estimates, it could reach $450 billion.
Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, multi-owner sheikh of clubs around the world
Across the Channel, competition is also very tough. Emirati Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan got his hands on Manchester City in 2008 through his holding company Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG).
But that’s not all: the businessman owns a myriad of clubs around the world (Melbourne City, New York City, Girona FC, Troyes, etc.) and has built a solid network of player transfers between his clubs. based on their performance. To date, the fortune of the man who is also vice-president of the United Arab Emirates is around 40 billion dollars.
Mohammed Ben Salman, a king behind the renaissance of Newcastle
With a financial heritage of more than 25 billion dollars, the king of Saudi Arabia offered the Newcastle club for 350 million euros in 2021, while the Magpies repeatedly came close to relegation from the Premiere League. 80% owned by the Saudi public fund (FIP), Newcastle has just returned to the Champions League, a first in 21 years.
Thanks to the kingdom’s coffers, Mohammed Ben Salman was able to sign unprecedented contracts to convince star players to play in his country’s championship such as Christiano Ronaldo (200 million euros per year), Karim Benzema (200 million), Neymar (200 million euros per year). 100 million euros per year) or even Ngolo Kanté (100 million).
The assets of the Saudi fund have a value of more than 300 billion dollars and the personal fortune of Mohammed Ben Salmane exceeds 10 billion dollars.
Jim Ratcliffe, the British billionaire extends his influence in European football
In December 2023, the head of the chemical group Ineos reached an agreement to acquire a 25% stake in the famous English football club Manchester United. The richest man in England, with more than 33 billion euros to his credit, had already taken the reins of the Swiss club FC Lausanne-Sport but also of OGC Nice, in 2019, for 110 million euros.
But this is not the only foot that Jim Ratcliffe has put in the world of sport: he is also the main shareholder of the sailing team Team Ineos UK in the America’s Cup, of the cycling team Ineos Grenadier and the Mercedes team in Formula 1 at 33%.
Fierce competition
In this list of billionaires and family fortunes active in the world of football, we could also have cited the Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz and the Thai Chalerm Yoovidhya, involved in the shareholding of the Leipzig or Salzburg clubs through their group Red Bull (which therefore invests alongside the Arnault family in Paris FC).
The winged bull company has become a major player in world football with a strategy linking its clubs to each other, under the leadership of a brand new director of football in the person of ex-Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp. Red Bull will therefore be a perfect matchmaker for the Arnault family in the world of football… but also a competitor on the European scene.
We can also mention the American Stanley Kroenke (Arsenal), the Pakistani Shahid Khan (Fulham), the Chinese Zhang Jindong (Inter Milan) or the Agnelli family, who recently withdrew from the management of Juventus after more than 100 years of ownership, entangled in a legal case of tax fraud. So many strong competitors facing the Arnault family, who are entering this ultra-competitive market as a young recruit.
Rise of LVMH in sport
LVMH is nevertheless very present in the world of sport: Roger Federer is ambassador for the champagne brand Moët & Chandon, owned by LVMH, and he even participated in an advertisement for Louis Vuitton alongside Rafael Nadal.
The group was also a premium partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, with several of its houses contributing to the creation of the event (Dior and Berluti costumes for the ceremony, the jeweler Chaumet for the manufacture of the medals, etc.).
LVMH has also been present in sailing since 1983, notably awarding the Louis Vuitton Cup, one of the most prestigious cups in the world (Louis Vuitton Cup). More recently, it was in F1 that it chose to invest nearly a hundred million euros at the beginning of October.
