Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

RUGBY RICH LIST: Rugby Union's 7 richest money men

boudjellal

Hans-Peter Wild
Nationality: German
Net Worth: €3 Billion
Rugby CV: Wild Rugby Academy Founder, Stade Francais Owner

ADVERTISEMENT

German billionaire Hans-Peter Wild is the son of Rudolf, founder of the Wild company, one of Europe’s biggest natural ingredients manufacturers. In 1970 he co-founded the famous Capri Sun drinks line and his wealth has continued to rise ever since.

A huge fan of what he, with pun intended calls “the wildest gentlemen’s game”, he has heavily invested in German rugby at a grassroots level to huge success.

They are well on their way to their aim to “make rugby ‘made in Germany’ internationally successful”, taking huge strides into the European Nations Cup top division. Wild has taken this positive attitude to Stade Francais, where he recently acquired a controlling stake in the French club.

Given their recent troubles, perhaps an injection of both Wild’s funds and his attitude could see the Parisians return to the top.

Jacky Lorenzetti
Nationality: Swiss
Net Worth: €4 billion
Rugby CV: Racing 92 Majority Owner

Unlike most of this list, Jacky Lorenzetti was never a rugby fan growing up. Growing up in Switzerland and graduating from hotel school in Lausanne he understandably wasn’t exposed to the game.

ADVERTISEMENT

After founding Foncia, which since 2006 has been Europe’s biggest real estate company, he married his wife in France and caught the bug from her brothers. He was soon so in love with the game that he bought a 62% controlling share in Racing Club 92, then a second division French team.

Now however, they’re anything but second rate. After taking the reins at the club Lorenzetti has built two state of the art training centres, brought in the world’s best players and catapulted Les Ciels et Blancs to the top of European rugby.

While the recent fallen through merger with Stade Francais almost certainly would’ve brought even further domination, Lorenzetti’s finances have still been the source of Racing’s successes and sit as the archetypal example of the power of deep pockets in the Top 14.

Bidzina Ivanishvili
Nationality: Georgian
Net Worth: $2 billion
Rugby CV: Super Rich Super Fan

ADVERTISEMENT

Born into poverty, billionaire, former president of Georgia, rugby fanatic. If nothing else Bidzina Ivanishvili must have the richest story of any man in rugby. Having trained in Georgia and Russia as an engineer, Ivanishvili made his fortune buying small companies, revamping their operations and selling them on for profit. Starting with metal manufacturers and continuing until he owned so much of Georgia he decided to rule it.

In 2012 Ivanishvili formed his own political party to challenge the established government and was elected president of Georgia, but suddenly retired from politics in 2013 amid numerous offshore financial scandals. In terms of rugby, Georgia’s national budget is made up of Ivanishvili’s bank account.

We all know of their ambitions to enter the Six nations, and their potential to play at the highest level, and so do they. They’re investing huge time and money in grass roots and underage rugby.

Their hosting of the annual Tbilisi Cup and this years U20 World Championships has put them on the map. With the monetary and political backing of their former president they look primed to follow his example and head for the stars.

Stephen Lansdown
Nationality: English
Net worth: £1.5billion
Rugby CV: Owner Bristol Rugby

Bristol Rugby and Bristol City FC owner Stephen Lansdown co-founded Bristol-based financial Group Hargreaves Lansdown in 1981.

He’s the richest Briton in Rugby Union with a networth of approximately £1.5 billion. From the 2008–09 season Lansdown financed Bristol Rugby, which only became public knowledge when Lansdown formalised his ownership of the club in 2012.

Mohed Altrad
Nationality: Syrian/French
Networth: $1.7 billion
Rugby CV: Majority shareholder in Montpellier Herault

According to Forbes when Mohed Altrad immigrated to France from Syria in 1969, he didn’t speak French and survived on one meal a day. Now he heads Montpellier-based Altrad Group, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of scaffolding and cement mixers, with $2.4 billion in revenues and more than 21,000 employees.

He is the main shareholder in Montpellier, saying: “But above all I chose sport… because it reflects the values I have always defended, in my life and within the Group: passion, commitment, the will to succeed while respecting others, the solidarity, in fact, which cements teamwork. And of all sports, rugby, as those who are familiar with it or have played it are well aware, is perhaps the sport which most embodies these values. The MHR, for its part, is rising fast – you only have to look at its remarkable progress this year. And it represents the kind of challenge I like.”

Nigel Wray
Nationality: English
Net Worth: £300 million
Rugby CV: Saracens Owner

For a man worth £300 million, we don’t really hear much from Nigel Wray. Despite the fact that his club are possibly one of the most talked about in Europe the english investment banker is quiet on the scale of a normal man, never mind one that owns a club like his. Often called Britain’s most successful living investor, Wray is the epitome of traditional english demeanour and values.

Having been a sports fanatic all his life, he has collected huge amounts of sports memorabilia, not least owning London Saracens. Having taken charge in the 1990’s Wray remembers attending matches and hearing crowds shout “boring” onto the pitch. Almost everything has changed since then.

The high powered Saracen’s team are also well fuelled financially, having received repeated influxes of cash from their owner. He has never been one to speak out about himself, but Saracens do their talking on the pitch, and under Wray’s control, we’ve all been singing their praises.

Mourad Boudjellal
Nationality: French
Net Worth: Estimated to be around £40m-£50m
Rugby CV: RC Toulon President

Empty vessels and all that…. Not that $40m is anything to be sniffed, but it is surprising considering how much noise he makes.

While he and his comic book publishing company might not rake in as much cash as others on this list, it has been enough to finance his incredibly intelligent rugby dealings.

The early two-thousands saw him import world class talents approaching the ends of their careers. Men like George Gregan and Tana Umaga combined with and mentored unproven youngsters (a certain Sonny Bill Williams) and ensured performances for Toulon’s present and future, for a discounted price.

These days of course, Boudjellal’s wheelings and dealings have become so successful that the club finance their team of superstars without his external input. He may not be the richest man outside of rugby, but nobody has made more money using rugby than he has.

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

307 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING The Wallabies have a serious problem The Wallabies have a serious problem
Search