Europe’s richest, but his club is drowning in debt

The fortune of a Spanish businessman is $51 billion. But his team, La Coruña, is sinking to the bottom.

Forget football billionaires like Roman Abramovich. The richest man to own a football club is Spanish. At the top of the latest ranking of wealthy patrons is the founder of the fashion brand Zara, Amancio Ortega. His fortune currently stands at $51 billion – about five times that of Chelsea’s owner Abramovich. But don’t think Ortega owns a highly successful big club. At least not now. He holds a stake in Deportivo La Coruña, which is drowning in debt. Today, his team owes more than €150 million, with nearly €100 million of that in unpaid taxes and social contributions. Yet in the past, it belonged among Europe’s elite clubs. “I followed that club – it was among the top. But the owner doesn’t run it, and it depends on the presidents what they do with it. And Ortega’s club turned out badly,” former Czechoslovak international Václav Němeček told the Economic Daily.

Didn’t save his club
You might ask why the richest European doesn’t financially rescue his club. Ortega has never been the type of businessman to bail it out with his own money – despite climbing the ranks of Europe’s wealthiest people every year since 2001. The club lived off its successes and earned its own way. “This is a case where the owner decided not to pay the club’s debts. This team paid the price for the leniency of people in Spanish football, and the owner didn’t save it,” football agent Jozef Tokos told the Economic Daily. Ortega is known for his frugality. “The club operated independently and had to earn for itself,” Němeček added. And in the last season, La Coruña even dropped from Spain’s top division into the second league.

From the top to the bottom
Ortega was born in La Coruña and has always been a supporter of the football club. When he brought his Zara brand to prominence, he bought a stake in the club. Even during his era, La Coruña was among the best clubs in Europe – in 2004, it even reached the semifinals of the Champions League. Twelve years ago, Ortega’s club won the Spanish title. They had some of the best players in the world, like Brazilian Bebeto, with salaries on par with the biggest clubs. But gradually, the team began to fall apart. “At that time, La Coruña regularly fought for the title with clubs like Real Madrid. But then came the decline,” added Tokos. (...)