Stoke City: John Coates' net worth compared to the richest Premier League owners | OneFootball

FLW looks at how much the Potters' owner is worth compared to Premier League clubs' chiefs

Stoke City have been backed by the Coates family for over 18 years now, and John Coates was made the outright owner and chairman of the club a few months ago ahead of the new season.

Peter Coates, who was born and raised in the local area, was first chairman of the Potters from 1986 to 1999, and founded bet365 in 2000 after selling the club to a group of Icelandic business community, who then sold it back to him in 2006 after he had built even more wealth through his new company.

The first years of Coates' second spell as chief of the Potters saw the club go from strength-to-strength as Tony Pulis guided the club into the top-flight in 2008 for the first time in 23 years, and they stayed there for ten years before problems emerged under Mark Hughes and the owners came in for criticism as Stoke were relegated to the Championship in 2018.

Peter's son, John, assumed co-ownership in 2020 with the club still unable to improve in the second-tier, and he took full control of the club last month following a structural change and demerger of the club from bet365, while assuring fans that "it’s very much business as usual" in terms of the club's day-to-day operations.

John Coates' net-worth compared to Premier League owners

The Coates' have long been regarded as some of the richest owners in England in terms of outright wealth, and they displayed those riches by clearing all of the club's debt as part of their ownership change last month, despite the last few years of struggle in the Championship.

According to Forbes, John Coates' net worth currently sits at around $4.3 billion as it stands, which roughly equates to £3.23 billion, meaning he is the 808th richest person in the world according to their calculations.

When that figure is compared to clubs in the Premier League, his net worth is below 13 different owners, and above the likes of Leicester City, Everton, Bournemouth, Brighton, Southampton, Nottingham Forest and Brentford.

The likes of Newcastle United, Manchester United and Manchester City all understandably sit at the top of the wealth table in the top-flight, but it may come as a surprise that Coates' net worth is close to Tottenham Hotspur owners Daniel Levy and Joe Lewis, given the contrasting positions of the two sides.

John Coates aims to take Stoke back to the top

Stoke's struggles on the pitch have been well-documented over recent years, but off the pitch has largely been a different story, with numerous financial issues avoided as a result of the owners' shrewd business moves.

Faith in the owners to take the Potters back to the top-flight has been largely worn down though, with so many years of failures and poor footballing decisions culminating in yet another sacking this past week, as Steven Schumacher departed the bet365 Stadium after just nine months in charge.

In an interview with The Athletic in March, an unnamed former senior member of staff at Stoke explained that the 54-year-old chief "falls in love with his managers, gives them everything they want, and stays in love with them until one day he wakes up and sacks them, and then he has to start all over again" and that trend has to come to an end soon if the club want to improve on the pitch.

Coates has been determined in his aims of "long-term success" for Stoke despite the losses of money over the years, likely due to his family's close ties with the city and club, and new head-coach Narcis Pelach is now the newest in a long line of recent Stoke bosses that must start to improve their fortunes.