MANCHESTER City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan has toppled Roman Abramovich to head British football’s rich list.

Sheikh Mansour, a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi, has a personal fortune of £15billion according to the Football Rich List, researched and published by FourFourTwo magazine.

The 38-year-old bought City in the summer, while Abramovich, Chelsea’s Russian owner, has slipped to third in the list – his wealth is estimated at £7bn and he has been said to have lost over £3bn in the economic downturn.

He has also been overtaken in the list by Lakshmi Mittal, the 58-year-old Indian industrialist worth £12.5bn who joined Formula One’s Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore investing in Queen’s Park Rangers.

David Beckham remains the richest player associated with British football – his personal fortune of £125m being streets ahead of his closest rivals Michael Owen (£40m) and Wayne Rooney (£35m).

Beckham is 38th in the overall list, while England head coach Fabio Capello is at number 73 – worth an estimated £25m, with a £6m-a-year contract and a £10m private art collection.

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is at number 78 in the list (£22m) and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger at number 92 (£14m).

Celtic shareholder Dermot Desmond, the Irish entrepreneur, is the richest person in Scottish football – he is eighth on the list and said to be worth £1.2billion. Rangers chairman Sir David Murray is 19th on the list, worth £600million.

Despite the huge fortunes of the wealthiest owners, football finance experts fear British football’s bubble may be about to burst.

Professor Tom Cannon told the magazine: ‘‘Season-ticket numbers will probably be down by about 10 per cent but renewals will be down by at least 15 or 20 per cent.

“That’s where the problems will be as you go down the divisions.’’

Football's rich list

1 Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Man City) £15billion
2 Lakshmi Mittal and family (QPR) £12.5bn
3 Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) £7bn
4 Joe Lewis (Tottenham) £2.5bn
5 Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone (QPR) £2.4bn
6 Stanley Kroenke (Arsenal) £2.245bn
7 Alisher Usmanov (Arsenal) £1.5bn
8 Lord Grantchester & the Moores Family (Everton) £1.2bn; Dermot Desmond (Celtic) £1.2bn
10 Lord Ashcroft (Watford) £1.1bn; Malcolm Glazer (Man Utd) £1.1bn
12 Simon Keswick (Cheltenham) £966m
13 Trevor Hemmings (Preston) £900m
14 Mike Ashley (Newcastle) £800m
15 Randy Lerner (Aston Villa) £750m
16 Tom Hicks (Liverpool) £700m
17 Walker family (Blackburn) £660m
18 M Al Fayed (Fulham) £650m
19 Sir David Murray (Rangers) £600m
20 Steve Morgan (Wolves) £400m

Top 20 players
(overall position in the main list in brackets)
1 David Beckham £125m (38)
2 Michael Owen £40m (56)
3 Wayne Rooney £35m (61)
4 Rio Ferdinand £28m (69); Robbie Fowler £28m (69); Sol Campbell £28m (69)
7 Ryan Giggs £23m (77)
8 Michael Ballack £20m (80); Frank Lampard £20m (80)
10 Steven Gerrard £19m (86)
11 Cristiano Ronaldo £18m (87)
12 John Terry £17m (88)
13 Didier Drogba £15m (89)
14 Nicolas Anelka £14m (92); Damien Duff £14m (92)
16 Dimitar Berbatov £13m (96); Ashley and Cheryl Cole £13m (96); Fernando Torres £13m (96)
19 Emile Heskey £12m (100)
20 Gary Neville £11.75m (101)