West Ham United FC has been rated as the world's 18th-most valuable football club based upon figures from the 2019/20 season.
The new Forbes list, which is produced on an annual basis lists the Hammers as one of the wealthiest football clubs on the planet with a value of £369m, despite the Hammers narrowly avoiding relegation at the end of the last campaign.And the position represents a change of one place based upon the previous year's ratings, where West Ham were listed in 17th place - which in itself was two places lower than the club's record high of 15th achieved in 2018 and 2019.
With English clubs dominating the list due to the lucrative broadcasting rights available to each of the 20 members of the Premier League , West Ham remain the eighth wealthiest domestic club behind Man Utd, Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs and Everton.
However the personal wealth of West Ham United's major shareholders David Gold £335m ($460m) and David Sullivan £870m ($1.2bn) is dwarfed by most of their fellow Premier League owners.
Manchester City's Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who controls the Abu Dhabi United Group has an estimated net worth of £16bn ($22bn). Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich's personal fortune is estimated at £10.6mn ($14.5bn), while Arsenal chief Stanley Kroenke is worth in the region of £6bn ($8.2bn).
But it is not just the major English clubs who have vastly-wealthy owners; Aston Villa's Fortress Investment Group are said to be worth around £7.3bn ($10bn), Fulham's Shahid Khan some £5.8bn ($8bn) and Tag Worldwide Investments, the group behind Crystal Palace nearly £3.7bn ($5bn).
Currently only Brighton (Tony Bloom) and Sheffield United (Abdullah bin Musa'ed) are believed to have owners with a smaller combined net worth than Sullivan and Gold.
Top 20 Most Valuable Clubs
(brackets represents last year's rating)
1. (2) Barcelona £3.46bn ($4.76bn)
2. (1) Real Madrid £3.45bn ($4.75bn)
3. (4) Bayern Munich £3.07bn ($4.22bn)
4. (6) Manchester Utd £3.05bn ($4.2bn)
5. (8) Liverpool £2.98bn ($4.1bn)
6. (5) Manchester City £2.91bn ($4bn)
7. (3) Chelsea £2.33bn ($3.2bn)
8. (7) Arsenal £2.03bn ($2.8bn)
9. (11) Paris St Germain £1.82bn ($2.5bn)
10. (9) Tottenham Hotspur £1.67bn ($2.3bn)
11. (10) Juventus £1.42bn ($1.95bn)
12. (13) Borussia Dortmund £1.38bn ($1.9bn)
13. (12) Atletico Madrid £730m ($1bn)
14. (15) Inter Milan £540m ($743m)
15. (19) Everton £478m ($658m)
16. (18) AC Milan £406m ($559m)
17. (16) Roma £398m ($548m)
18. (17) West Ham Utd £369m ($508m)
19. (-) Leicester City £331m ($455m)
20. Ajax £300m ($413m)
West Ham's rich-list position
2021: 18th (-1)
2020: 17th (-2)
2019: 15th (-)
2018: 15th (+2)
2016: 17th (+2)
2015: 19th
West Ham had not previously appeared in the top 20 prior to 2015, although have hovered just outside since the sale of the club to the Icelandic consortium in the mid-2000s.
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