Italian is the richest manager in British football

In his most recent book, Richard Branson reveals that rich lists are seldom accurate, based as they are on estimations and public domain information. Nevertheless, the good folks at Four Four Two have this week released the British Football Rich List, and there are few surprises at the top. David Beckham tops the players’ list with a supposed £125m fortune, and the wealthiest person in British football is still the QPR owner who isn’t about to be kicked out of the game, Lakshmi Mittal. The Indian steel magnate is said to be sitting on £18.4bn, nearly £1.5bn more than second-placed Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

In the richest manager top ten, noted money fan Harry Redknapp places at number seven with £10m, while second place is held by under-fire Ipswich coach Roy Keane, who apparently amassed the majority of his £27m fortune in his playing days.

The richest gaffer in Britain is also the one who has to take charge of the least amount of games - England manager Fabio Capello is worth £30m due to his utter refusal to pay tax hugely successful career.

[See the richest player list here, the manager list here and the full top 100 list here]

Owner’s Sheikh brother in torture video probe

The handsome son of a gun above is Sheikh Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother of Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The Arab businessman is currently on the wrong end of an American lawsuit, filed by a former advisor who claims he was tortured. The basis of said lawsuit is a video, depicting Sheikh Issa torturing an Afghan merchant accused of cheating him.

In the video - a small portion of which you can see here - Sheikh Issa and his henchmen hit the Afghan with a plank, pour salt into his wounds, stick a cattle prod where the sun don’t shine, set fire to his genitals with lighter fluid and run him over with a Mercedes SUV.

At one point in the video - which was filmed in 2005 - Sheikh Issa says: “Get closer. Get closer. Get closer. Let his suffering show.”

The UAE Ministry of the Interior have confirmed it was Sheikh Issa in the

Kerrrazy billionaire to be sidelined in takeover deal

Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim - the perma-grinning Arab executive who stars in the UAE’s version of The Apprentice - is set to take a backseat in the Manchester City negotiations once due diligence is completed next Monday. From then on, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his trillion dollar family wealth will take charge:

Sheikh Mansour bin Zahed [sic] Al Nahyan, the son of the founding president of the United Arab Emirates and a senior member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, is the real power behind City’s new owners and he is planning to take an increasingly high-profile role once Ramadan finishes later this month.

It is said that the Sheikh could take a more ‘measured approach’ to running things at Eastlands, so Al-Fahim’s dream of seeing every attacking player under the sun in a sky blue shirt may never materialise.

Spoiler FYI: Political asylum seeker Dr Thaksin Shinawatra received his doctorate in criminal justice. Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim’s PhD is nowhere near as ironic - his qualification is in Real Estate investment.