- 02 May 10, 15:55#198092
From Sunday Times:
The Sunday Times Sport Rich List: Racing drivers have formula to build fortunes
Footballers dominate the first Sport Rich List but the big money is made behind the wheel of an F1 car
Formula One world champion Jenson Button and his girlfriend Jessica Michibata
(Zainal Abd Halim / Reuters)
No 10: Formula One world champion Jenson Button, here with his girlfriend Jessica Michibata
Richard Woods
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You might expect the the richest sports people in the country to be footballers followed by golfers. Wrong.
The first definitive list of the wealthiest sporting stars in Britain and Ireland, published in the Sunday Times today, shows that motor racing dominates the top 15 places. If you want to get seriously rich in sport, get driving, preferably fast cars not little white balls.
True, top of the first Sunday Times Sport Rich List are two men who kick, or used to kick, a leather ball about the park. Dave Whelan has come a long way since he broke his leg while playing for Blackburn Rovers in the 1960 FA Cup final. Though Rovers lost 3-0 and the injury put Whelan’s career into decline, he used the £400 compensation he received to start a discount store. He went on to make a £190m fortune from the JJB chain of sports shops.
In second place is a footballer who manages to combine business with playing in a way no other British star can rival: David Beckham. His many sponsorships outstrip his earnings as a player to take his fortune to £125m.
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After those two, however, comes the roar of engines revving. Of the next 13 places, 10 go to motor racers.
Highest among current drivers is Jenson Button, the reigning world champion with wealth estimated at £43m. After a strong start to the season, Button leads the drivers’ championship, making him well placed to overtake Nigel Mansell and David Coulthard in the rich list. Both retired, Mansell and Coulthard are worth £50m apiece.
Other former F1 racers have amassed fortunes by turning track speed into entrepreneurial success: they include Eddie Irvine, with £80m, and Sir Jackie Stewart, with £41m.
Lewis Hamilton trails on £35m - but he is only 25. More unexpected is to find Dario Franchitti ahead of Hamilton on the rich grid. Dario who?
Franchitti, who was born in Bathgate, Scotland, has made £36m from Nascar and IndyCar racing in the US. In 2007 he won the Indy 500 at Indianapolis.
Though his work keeps him in the US much of the time, he hasn’t forgotten his roots. He married the actress Ashley Judd at Skibo Castle in Scotland and has a £3m estate in Perthshire.
He told one interviewer: “I’m not star-struck. My friends are my friends, whether they are famous or not. Neither Ashley nor I are into the showbiz thing, we just chill out and have fun with each other.”
He has said he gets “homesick” and as an antidote likes to watch TV shows such as Shameless and Rab C Nesbitt.
Dr Philip Beresford, compiler of the list, said: “Motor racing has several factors that combine to make its stars highly rewarded. There are big, often global television audiences and vast commercial interests at stake. And unlike football, you only need to pay one or two drivers per team - not 11 or more. For the best drivers that can make salaries and sponsorships huge.”
Motor racing, however, is a winner-take-all sport, with only a handful of entries lower down the list. By contrast, footballers are there in depth, occupying 57 out of the 100 places. They range from Michael Owen, with £40m the richest player after Beckham, to Gianfranco Zola, the former striker turned West Ham manager with £10m.
In football, it seems, money buys success. It is probably no coincidence that eighteen of the richest footballers on the list play, or have played, for either Chelsea or Manchester United.
Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City have only three players each on the list.
If you are more skilled with your hands than your feet, don’t despair. Boxing and golf are the other sports notable for big financial rewards. Lennox Lewis, former undisputed world heavyweight champion, weighs in with £95m; Ricky Hatton, who lost his world light welterweight title last year, has retired to count his £29m; and Joe Calzaghe, the former super middleweight champion, is worth £15m.
The richest golfer is Sir Nick Faldo, who won the Open three times and the US Masters three times. At 52, he has amassed a fortune of £32m, even though at 18 he was working as a carpet fitter while playing golf as an amateur.
Faldo ranks 22nd in the list and is followed, among the golfers, by Padraig Harrington with £31m and Lee Westwood with £28m.
In all nine golfers make the list, making it the third most lucrative sport. Even Rory McIlroy, though not yet on the main list, is a multimillionaire despite only reaching his 21st birthday this week. McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, became a professional golfer at 18 and is currently at number 13 in the world rankings; he has already won nearly £4.2m in prize money and appears on the list of the 40 richest young sportsmen, ranked 30= with a fortune of £5m
The youngest sportsman - and it is conspicuous that the entire list consists of men - in the top 100 is 22-year-old Andy Murray, the tennis player. After reaching two grand slam finals and an epic battle Wimbledon semi-final with Andy Roddick last year, Murray is worth £15m.
If he were to take the Wimbledon title this year, it would give his fortune a handy fillip. The singles champions will receive £1m in prize money alone.
THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORT RICH LIST TOP 10
1 Dave Whelan Football £190m
2 David Beckham Football £125m
3 Johnny Dumfries Motor racing £110m
4 Lennox Lewis Boxing £95m
5 Eddie Irvine Motor racing £80m
6 Jody Scheckter Motor racing £60m
7 Dave Richards Motor racing £58m
8= David Coulthard Motor racing £50m
8= Nigel Mansell Motor racing £50m
10 Jenson Button Motor racing £43m
YOUNG SPORT RICH LIST TOP 10
Aged 30 and under
1 Jenson Button Motor racing £43m
2 Michael Owen Football £40m
3 Lewis Hamilton Motor racing £35m
4 Wayne Rooney Football £33m
5 John Terry Football £20m
6 Andy Murray Tennis £15m
7 Joe Cole Football £14m
8= Petr Cech Football £13m
8= Luol Deng Basketball £13m
8= Michael Essien Football £13m
Forumula One: The World's Greatest Sport
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although could Tiger be the TRUE Stig??? 
