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In the world of football, there are only a few things worse than feckless club owners. Granted it’s hard to criticise people for not being willing to splash out insane amounts of money ala Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, but seeing rich men use a football club to line their own pockets while the team and fans suffer is unbelievably frustrating.
Football has seen some crooked owners in the past – remember Jesus Gil at Atletico Madrid? – and its fair share of eccentric ones too – men like Mohamed Al-Fayed and Sam Hammam spring to mind – but the following five owners all remain in power as of the time of writing this article, and the fans absolutely despise them.
#1 Mike Ashley
It’s hard to believe that when he first took over Newcastle United, Sports Direct supremo Mike Ashley was actually popular with the Geordie fans. And why not? This was a man who professed to be an ordinary guy and was even seen downing pints of beer in the crowd with the locals while wearing a replica shirt. He hired club icon Kevin Keegan as manager to replace the disliked Sam Allardyce, and everything would surely be great.
Except that hasn’t been the case at all. Keegan was gone about nine months later amid rumours that he’d been undermined by Director of Football Dennis Wise – part of Ashley’s so-called ‘Cockney Mafia’ – and Ashley appointed Joe Kinnear as manager and put the club up for sale. Nobody was willing to buy and so a cycle of pain for Magpies fans began, with Ashley attempting – and failing – to sell the club on numerous occasions.
Over the decade he’s been in charge, Newcastle fans have suffered two relegations; they’ve seen their beloved St. James’s Park renamed to ‘sportsdirect.com@St. James’s Park’, and despite a soaring transfer market, their record signing remains Michael Owen – bought for £16m back in 2005. Is it really any wonder that the Geordie fans despise Ashley? Even now the club remains on the market.
#2 SISU
While it’s easy for Newcastle fans to loathe Mike Ashley, it’s almost harder for Coventry City fans to vent their frustrations at owners SISU, as the power brokers behind the shady hedge fund remain largely faceless. SISU – headed by so many different people over their decade in charge of the Sky Blues that it’d be hard to list them – took over the club when they were in the Championship with an aim to reclaim Premier League status. Ten years later, the side languishes in League Two.
Over that decade, SISU have hired and fired a ridiculous seven managers and seventeen board members; they’ve fallen out badly with the local council – who co-owned the Ricoh Arena – to the point where the council sold the stadium to rugby team Wasps; they’ve refused to pay the rent for the stadium and in the 2013/14 season, even forced the team to play their home games at Northampton – miles away from the city.
Even administration couldn’t save Coventry, as another business group linked directly to SISU simply stepped in to reclaim the club’s assets. The Sky Blues have no investment, no home to speak of and very few assets left. In recent years the fans have even taken to hurling plastic pigs onto the pitch in protest against their owners, but none of it has worked – SISU remain in power and look to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
#3 David Gold and David Sullivan
Infamously labelled ‘The Dildo Brothers’ by Sporting Lisbon president Bruno de Carvalho after the transfer of William Carvalho fell through in September, West Ham’s joint owners David Gold and David Sullivan remain two of the most outspoken owners in the current Premier League. They also remain two of the most hated by the fans.
The duo took control of the Hammers back in 2010, and have since overseen the move from Upton Park into the Olympic Stadium – a move that Gold has claimed prevented the stadium from becoming a ‘white elephant’, but the fans feel has stripped the club of their identity. Most recently, the fans have become furious with the club’s performance in the transfer windows – with Gold and Sullivan promising to bring in world-class players and pretty much never delivering.
2017/18 has perhaps been the worst season for the duo yet – they fired Slaven Bilic and hired the unpopular David Moyes, and although results have improved somewhat, fan morale off the pitch has not – especially not with a club director recently being embroiled in a scandal that saw him accused of racism. Hammers fans recently unfurled a banner comparing Gold and Sullivan to Adolf Hitler – that says it all, really.
#4 The Glazer Family
While Manchester United fans’ feelings towards their American owners have mellowed somewhat in recent years, the Glazer family remain one of the more controversial – and disliked – group of owners in the Premier League. Sure, United are still a financial powerhouse – probably the richest club in Britain right now in overall terms – but the way that the Glazers seized power at Old Trafford, fuelled largely by heavy debt, still leaves a sour taste over a decade on.
While United continued to succeed on the pitch in the years immediately following the Glazer family’s takeover – despite tons of fan protests surrounding the debt that the club had been shouldered with, particularly in times of world financial crisis – in hindsight most of this had to do with the presence of manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Since Ferguson retired in 2013, the real success – as in Premier League titles – has all but dried up.
United have spent big money since – particularly since the arrival of current boss Jose Mourinho – but you can’t help but think that some of the more expensive signings of the post-Ferguson era – Alexis Sanchez, Angel di Maria, etc – were simply bought to sell replica shirts. Many fans blame chief executive Ed Woodward for the issues, but in reality, the problems all started with the Glazers – which is why they remain disliked by United fans.
#5 Owen and Karl Oyston
Few fans outside of Blackpool will have heard of father-and-son duo Owen and Karl Oyston, but fans of the Seasiders completely despise their owners, particularly since it was revealed in a 2017 high court judgement that the two had been stripping assets from the football club in order to fund other business ventures they were involved in.
The Oyston family – who made their fortune in property and telecoms – initially bought shares in Blackpool in the 1980’s, and father Owen acted as chairman. A prison sentence for rape meant that he had to step down in 1996, and by 1999 his son Karl was in charge, and initially, things looked rosy – a season in the Premier League in 2010/11 followed, but since then it’s been a nasty downhill slide for the club.
By 2014 Blackpool were floundering in League One, and the fans began to protest against Oyston’s ownership, feeling he simply hadn’t done enough to invest following the lone Premier League season. In fact, the truth was even worse – the 2017 court judgment found that the Oyston family had illegitimately paid around £26.77m out of the club to other companies they owned. Ordered to pay £31m to a minority shareholder by the court, the Oystons have since put the club up for sale, but right now they remain in charge – and remain despised by Blackpool fans.
