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Alisher Usmanov: 'Foreign owners good for Premier League'

Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov insists that foreign ownership is good for the Premier League and is not having a negative impact on the identity of the English game.

Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov has insisted that foreign ownership of Premier League clubs is good for the English game.

Half of the top flight's teams are owned by non-English benefactors, including all of those sides currently occupying the top six places in the table.

Critics have suggested that the increasing influence of overseas shareholders is stripping the country's sport of its identity, but Usmanov, Britain's richest man with a personal fortune of £13bn, has stressed that foreign ownership is only criticised when clubs are not successful.

"It's an artificial question which somebody wants to put on the table," he told reporters. "Everyone who has legal right to buy something can perform this right.

"We have [Stan] Kroenke, [Randy] Lerner, many, many people and now many Asian owners. I think everyone is comfortable if the club are successful. If the club are not successful then, of course, everybody wants to find somebody guilty.

"I'm sure it is good [for English football]. When investors come and invest in the economy, in British football, it is a big part of the entertainment economy in the United Kingdom. What's bad?"

Usmanov has also repeated his public desire to take full control of Arsenal, if the club's majority shareholder, American Stan Kroenke, decides to sell his stake in the Emirates Stadium outfit.

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Arsenal stakeholder Alisher Usmanov photographed in December 2004
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1Liverpool108111961325
2Manchester CityMan City1072121111023
3Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest10541147719
4Chelsea105322012818
5Arsenal105321711618
6Aston Villa105321715218
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8Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton104421714316
9Fulham104331413115
10Bournemouth104331312115
11Newcastle UnitedNewcastle104331010015
12Brentford104151920-113
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd10334912-312
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham103251319-611
15Leicester CityLeicester102441418-410
16Everton102351017-79
17Crystal Palace10145813-57
18Ipswich TownIpswich100551021-115
19Southampton10118719-124
20Wolverhampton WanderersWolves100371427-133


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