The Guardian offers a subjective assessment of the main men (and woman) on the global stage

John Cassy
Guardian

Monday March 27, 2000

The balance of power in global sport is shifting and few individuals better illustrate the changes taking place than Rupert Murdoch.

He does not play sport, he does not administer it and he rarely even watches it. However, over the past decade Murdoch has become the most powerful man in world sport.

His worldwide satellite television operation and deep, deep pockets have transformed the way sports on both sides of the Atlantic - and Asia and Australasia - are watched and funded. The tentacles of a media empire spanning newspapers, TV and internet now stretch across the globe and cover sports from basketball, baseball and cricket to fishing, football and figure skating.

The geographical spread of his companies, the number of sports he has an interest in and his financial firepower combine to give him more power to influence sport on a worldwide basis than the administrators and owners, the traditional ringmasters.

"Media rights revenue has become the driving force behind all sport," says Jean-Paul de la Fuente, the chief executive of the sports media consultants Media Content and a man who has acted for many individuals on our list.

Even the Fifa president Sepp Blatter, football's most powerful man who co-ordinates of the World Cup, and the International Olympic Committee's president Juan Antonio Samaranch cannot compete with Murdoch in terms of sheer global influence.

In our opinion, anyway. Inevitably, any ranking such as this is going to be highly subjective. Without any established measure of "power", we have drawn up a list of key considerations in an effort to establish a consistent method of ranking the top 50.

Four things seemed crucial: the number of sports an individual is involved with; his or her global position within them; the pulling power and global reach of those sports; and the power of the individual to effect change of a structural and long-term nature.

Major League baseball may only operate in North America but we believe its commissioner Bud Selig warrants a top-20 global rating because of the size of the market (the first game of the new season is being played in Tokyo on Wednesday) and the game's huge financial and broadcasting pulling power.

Sports administrators inevitably score highly in global reach, but so do the agents, marketing men and media moguls. The exact influence Nike, as shirt sponsor, exerts over the Brazil football team is a constant source of debate in the bars of Rio de Janeiro, but it is certainly significant.

Amid the media owners and executives, marketing men and team owners, there are some notable absentees. Tiger Woods, for example, is the only current player to feature in the list. For all his massive earnings and domination of an important global sport, his actual - as opposed to potential - power was felt to be limited.

Others who hold seemingly powerful positions within their sports, such as Michael Schumacher and Lennox Lewis, were felt to be too vulnerable to loss of form and the decline of their abilities with age, without having established a long-term, formal grip on their sport. They may surprise us.

Women too are notable by their almost complete absence. Even the chief executive of the top women's sport, tennis, is a man. Yet power can be understood in different ways; power as a role model, for example. But that, even more than wealth and corporate muscle, would have been exceedingly difficult to measure.

1: Rupert Murdoch, media magnate

Murdoch's unprecedented range of international interests makes him impossible to overlook. Across the world he not only owns sporting competitions but teams to compete in them and the media through which he can persuade people to be interested.

Through the combination of his Fox, Sky and Star networks in the US, Europe and Asia, Murdoch has an iron grip on sports broadcasting. Between them his companies own some of the biggest contracts around, ranging from the NFL, Major League baseball and Nascar in the US to rugby league in Australia and Premiership football in the UK, and including many of the biggest events in the world's biggest sports, such as golf's Ryder Cup and the cricket World Cup.

He is currently buying a 25% stake in Kirch Media, Germany's largest sports broadcaster and owner of the rights to the next two football World Cups.

He is also taking steps to ensure that his power remains intact, investing heavily in the internet including an agreement with Yahoo!, the world's most popular website, which could lead to Sky programming going online.

His direct sporting investments include the Los Angeles Dodgers and stakes in five of English football's biggest clubs: Sunderland, Chelsea, Leeds United, Manchester City and Manchester United.

But it was this last deal which proved his power is not all-encompassing. In the face of protests by the club's fans, the government decided to block the takeover of Manchester United, limiting Murdoch's stake in the club to a modest 9.9%. Other failures include Star Sports in Asia, Stream in Italy and Sky Latin America. They are the exceptions to the rule.

2: Sepp Blatter, president, Fifa

Blatter's power derives principally from Fifa's control of the World Cup, the world's biggest sports event. Its cumulative television audience is about twice the size of the next largest, the Olympic Games.

Fifa has 203 member associations, and all but a handful enter the World Cup. The world TV rights (excluding the US) for the 2002 and 2006 finals have been sold to the Kirch group for £1.37bn, a six-fold increase on the £215m paid by the European Broadcasting Union for the three 1990s tournaments.

With the 2002 tournament taking place in Japan and South Korea, Fifa is well placed to further the game's development in the relatively underexploited markets of Asia, a process which began in earnest when Blatter's predecessor Joao Havelange brought China back into Fifa.

Blatter, 64, came to Fifa from the timing company Longines in 1975 and played a key role in developing Havelange's plans for under-21 and under-17 world championships.

In 1990 he became Fifa's chief executive officer and last year fought off the challenge of Uefa's Lennart Johansson to take over the most important job in world football.

The rift with Europe, which has festered ever since Havelange ousted Sir Stanley Rous in 1974, represents the only real threat to Blatter's position. As club football increasingly takes precedence over national teams in Europe, conflicts over availability of players can only intensify.

With Fifa backing the World Club Championship, the Confederations Cup and other international tournaments, while Uefa expands the Champions League, the crunch over football's calendar cannot be far off.

3: Juan Antonio Samaranch, president, International Olympic Committee

Despite the controversy over the Salt Lake City bid and his advancing years, Samaranch, 79, is still a formidable presence. Since becoming president he has overcome the financial ruin of Montreal and the political boycotts of the 70s and 80s to make the Olympics the second biggest sporting event on the planet, with almost 200 countries taking part.

His stewardship of the Games has been as controversial as his background as a minister in Franco's government, largely because of his success in raising revenue through exclusive licensing agreements and corporate sponsorship. Worldwide television and sponsorship rights between 1997 and 2000 were worth £2.2bn.

Whatever the arguments of the purists, he has undeniably added financial clout to the existing international appeal of the Games, making his post a far more powerful one than it was for his predecessors.

4: Leo Kirch, president, Kirch Media

Kirch leapt to public attention outside Germany with his purchase of the rights to the next two football World Cups, which may mean they will be shown on pay TV for the first time in many countries. The 73-year-old heads an empire spanning television, music and print. He operates the main subscription TV services in Germany and Austria through the Premiere World digital service, which offers the German Bundesliga and formula one among other sports and signed up 200,000 subscribers in its first two months. Rupert Murdoch is in the process of buying a 25% stake in the service.

5: Ted Turner, vice chairman, AOL-Time Warner

The creator of CNN has his finger in a number of significant sporting pies. In Atlanta alone he controls baseball's Braves, basketball's Hawks and the Thrashers, the city's new ice hockey team. Time Warner also owns the Home Box Office network, which owns the rights to screen Lennox Lewis, Oscar de la Hoya, Roy Jones and Prince Naseem Hamed on pay-per-view in America. In a move that may ultimately carry even more weight for sports broadcasting, Time Warner merged with America Online, the word's largest internet service provider, in January in a deal worth £220bn.

6: Phil Knight, chairman and ceo, Nike

Knight is the major shareholder in the world's biggest sporting brand. Nike controls more than 40% of the US athletic shoe market and its goods reach markets throughout the world. It grew from modest beginnings in the 70s, in a market previously monopolised by Adidas, by selling high-quality shoes at lower prices. Nike's power in the sports goods market has facilitated close ties to some of the world's biggest sports stars, such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Ronaldo. Its contract with the Brazil football federation gives it a major role in determining where and when the national team plays.

7: Lennart Johansson, President, Uefa

Although he lost his battle with Sepp Blatter to become president of Fifa, the head of European football's governing body remains a major player in the world game and a significant counterweight to Blatter. Uefa's trump card is the vast commercial success of the Champions League, which is Europe's dominant TV sports product and also has a global appeal. With an annual gross income from television and sponsors of more than £300m, it is small wonder that Uefa has added a new slogan to its website. As well as insisting that "we care about football" it now proclaims: "Centralised marketing - everyone benefits."

8: Dick Pound, vice president, IOC

The Canadian has three crucial roles in the Olympic movement which, if he deals with them successfully, should see him as a strong contender to take over from Samaranch. Having negotiated substantially larger TV rights deals for the first few Games of the new century, Pound is confronted with the two biggest threats to the IOC's credibility: drugs and corruption. He led the internal inquiry into the Salt Lake City scandal and is now head of the IOC's World Anti-Doping Agency, with a brief to provide the Games with a policy to counteract the public perception of widespread drug use.

9: Bernie Ecclestone, owner, Formula One Holdings

Ecclestone's position is not exactly under threat but he may soon choose to scale down his control of formula one, which until now has been all but absolute, hinging on his control of the television rights for the next 10 years. He has also forced formula one into digital television earlier than almost any other sport. Ecclestone, whose personal fortune is estimated at £2bn, has turned formula one into one of the most genuinely global sports: its 16 races in the 1999 season were broadcast in over 200 countries by 120 TV channels to more than 4.5bn viewers.

10: Dick Ebersol, president, NBC Sports

NBC is the leading sports broadcasting network in the US, holding the major rights to baseball and basketball, but the jewel in its crown is a contract for the next five summer and winter Olympic Games, beginning in Sydney this year. NBC also screened the Atlanta Games, which drew 209m viewers, and its portfolio includes golf's US Open, the Ryder Cup, the PGA tour, horse racing's Breeders' Cup and the Nascar series. However, it is the Olympics deal which carries the international power to affect the way the Games are run and which sets the financial standard for world television rights.

11: Michael Eisner, ceo, Disney Corporation

Formerly the head of Paramount Pictures, Eisner went to Disney 15 years ago. Since then Disney has acquired Capital Cities, the parent company of both the ABC television network and the all-sports cable network ESPN. As well as its television presence, ESPN boasts the leading sports website based in the US. In addition Disney has purchased Major League baseball's Anaheim Angels and an ice hockey team which was christened the Mighty Ducks after the Disney film of the same name.

12: Tim Finchem, commissioner, United States PGA golf tour

A lawyer by training, Finchem has boosted the tour to 47 tournaments with prize money of over $132m since succeeding Deane Beman as the PGA's third commissioner. He negotiated a $600m television deal which increased the tour's revenue and media presence, and expanded the game globally with the creation of the World Golf Championships. His is the dominant voice in the recently formed International Federation of World Tours.

13: Bud Selig, commissioner, Major League baseball

As the leader of what is still America's biggest sport, Selig has led baseball out of its trough since the disastrous players' strike in 1994. He undertook a long-overdue restructuring of baseball's central office, bringing the American and National Leagues into closer harmony, and has maintained the sport in the TV mainstream.

14: Mark McCormack, founder, IMG

McCormack is viewed as the father of the sports marketing industry and, although he is not quite the force he was, IMG still operates 76 offices in 31 nations. His impact on golf in particular marks him out as a force much more powerful than many agents and marketers who would follow in his wake.

15: Silvio Berlusconi, president, AC Milan

The man whose money helped make Milan European champions three times in the 80s and 90s has suffered his ups and downs but his media empire still dominates the Italian scene. Perhaps more significantly he also represents the biggest threat to Uefa's dominance of European football, through his leadership of the so-called G14 group of rich clubs.

16: Lamine Diack, general secretary, International Amateur Athletic Federation

The Senegalese lawyer was temporarily installed as the successor to Primo Nebiolo last November after the Italian died of a heart attack. Whether athletics will retain such an influence in world sport after Nebiolo's death is still unclear, but Diack is in pole position to take over.

17: Charles Fruit, director of media and marketing, Coca-Cola

The man responsible for running Coca-Cola's global sponsorships. Its annual net operating revenues are in excess of $14bn (£9bn) and its sponsorships include an unprecedented eight-year sponsorship of the World Cup and a scarcely credible 100-year marketing contract with the NBA.

18: Paul Tagliabue, commissioner, NFL

He has overseen the expansion of American football while retaining control of the franchise system, and along the way secured the largest TV contracts in entertainment history. The NFL remains a US sporting success story.

19: Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum, racehorse owner

The Sheikh has been the leading owner in Britain every year since 1985 bar two and was the mastermind behind the successful Godolphin racing operation. He now intends to extend his operations to the US and has also promoted Dubai as a venue for horse racing, golf and tennis events.

20: David Stern, commissioner, NBA

Stern came out of the NBA players' dispute last year with minimal damage to attendances or ratings. The deal he negotiated included incentives for players to re-sign with their current teams, giving fans some welcome continuity in their teams.

21: David Hill, chairman, Fox Sports

Rupert Murdoch's No1 sports executive. Nothing happens chez Rupert without 53-year-old Hill's involvement. Described by one Nascar official as "the absolute best sports TV executive in the world". Has overseen virtually all News Corp's major sports-rights deals and has a liaison role with Sky Sports in the UK.

22: Mark Miles, ceo, ATP tour

The American marketing man keeps a low profile but he is the dominant force behind the lucrative men's tennis circuit. He has recently attracted a £1bn package from the sports marketing company ISL over 10 years and repackaged the rankings system as the ATP Champions Race.

23: Phil Guarascio, vice president, advertising and corporate marketing, General Motors

Guarascio controls a sponsorship and advertising budget of over $1.3bn and has made a $1bn, 10-year investment in the Olympics. He launched a $4m advertising campaign last year for the Olympics to try to deflect attention away from the ethical scandal surrounding the movement.

24: Robert Louis-Dreyfus, chairman, Adidas

Having recovered from near bankruptcy in 1993, Adidas has now re-established itself as the No2 sporting goods brand in the world. Dreyfus was also instrumental in buying Olympique de Marseille after their bribery scandal and is now chairman at the Vélodrome.

25: George Bodenheimer, president, ESPN

Bodenheimer has overseen the rapid growth of the cable sports network since taking the top job in 1998.

26: Bob Arum, boxing promoter

Promoter of Oscar de la Hoya, currently the biggest-earning boxer in the world with an estimated annual salary of $43.5m (£27.5m), some $10m more than Mike Tyson. The WBC welterweight champion has a 32-1 record.

27: Pierre Lescure, chairman, Canal Plus

The French pay-TV station owns Italy's Telepiu channel and Paris St-Germain football club. It broadcasts top-division football on pay channels in seven European countries and controls live broadcasts of all matches involving Juventus, Milan, Internazionale and Napoli.

28: Don Fehr, director, Major League baseball players association

Proved the muscle of the players (and not just in baseball) through his leadership of the 1994 players' strike which led to the cancellation of the World Series. His work on legal cases has helped boost the players' earnings massively, but he is also respected enough by the sporting establishment to be named as a member of the panel appointed by the United States Olympic Committee to investigate the Salt Lake City bid scandal.

29: Florian Haffa, chief financial officer, EM.TV

The German media group seized joint ownership of formula one with a £1bn deal to buy a 50% stake in F1 holding company SLEC this month. It is also in talks with Bernie Ecclestone to buy a further 25% in the company. If Ecclestone steps back from formula one, Haffa will be one of those jockeying for position.

30: Bill Allard, president, SFX sports

SFX is a huge US-based conglomerate of sports marketing companies, which has now also swallowed up several UK agents. Among the British sports stars SFX companies have represented are Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, David Beckham, Dwight Yorke, Michael Atherton and Greg Rusedski.

31: Hein Verbruggen, president, International Cycling Union

The Dutchman put professional cyclists in the Olympics, founded the World Cup and is currently rejigging the sport's structure along the lines of formula one, with the sport essentially run by the teams. Has come under fire over the fight against drugs but is adamant that he is guiding the sport in an ethical direction. Now also a member of the IOC.

32: Robert Kraft, ceo, New England Patriots

The man who helped engineer the defection of Martina Navratilova from Czechoslovakia is now the owner of the Patriots and chairs the NFL's powerful finance committee. He also played a major role in the founding of Major League Soccer and is an investor in the ambitious international football website, goalnetwork.com, set up by the 1994 World Cup organiser Alan Rothenberg.

33: Roland Smith, chairman, Manchester United plc

Nominated not so much for the man himself but the post. Indeed, Smith is retiring in the summer but whoever inherits his position will hold the reins of the biggest football club in the world. Though the success on the pitch moulded by Sir Alex Ferguson laid the groundwork for United's growth in the 90s, the real power lies with the plc, which is why the football club chairman Martin Edwards is so keen to assume Smith's position.

34: Max Mosley, president, FIA

Formerly Bernie Ecclestone's legal adviser, Mosley is a highly influential presence within the motor racing and motor industries. He intends to stand again for his position in 2001, remaining the sport's principal administrator.

35: Jagmohan Dalmiya, president, International Cricket Council

During his controversial reign the Calcutta businessman has played a major role in switching cricket's balance of power towards the subcontinent, where it commands by far its largest audience. At the same time he has fostered the game's development in countries such as Bangladesh and Kenya, a role he will continue to pursue for the ICC after his term as president expires in June.

36: Roberto Marinho, chairman, Globo group

The Rupert Murdoch of South America. Controls the largest television group in the region and virtually monopolises sport on TV in Brazil. Has paid $460m for the Brazilian rights to the next two World Cups - up from $8m for 1998. He is also working with Microsoft to develop internet access in Latin America; on-line sport will naturally figure heavily.

37: Gianni Agnelli, honorary chairman, Fiat

The entrepreneur turned Fiat into Italy's most important privately owned industrial group, which also owns the Ferrari formula one team and Juventus. Agnelli, known as "L'Avvocato" (the lawyer), stepped down as the company chairman in 1996 after 30 years. But he still commands tremendous influence at Fiat.

38: The Dolan family, owners, Cablevision

Brothers Chuck Dolan and James run Cablevision, one of the largest cable television operators in the US, which has a controlling interest in Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks basketball team and the New York Rangers ice hockey franchise, as well as a 50% stake in Fox Sports. A third brother, Lawrence, owns the Cleveland Indians baseball team.

39: Vince McMahon, chairman, World Wrestling Federation

Whether it is sport is debatable but WWF is a runaway success in the US. It out-rates the NBA and was recently floated on the Nasdaq index at $1bn. Most importantly it is the world leader in pay-per-view TV. It also licenses characters for merchandise and is launching its own professional football league. McMahon has 97% of the voting power.

40: Franz Beckenbauer, vice president, German FA

Beckenbauer is by far the most powerful man in German football, which in turn is the biggest voice in the European game. He is the official ambassador for Germany's 2006 World Cup bid, a vice president of Bayern Munich, media commentator and columnist, but above all a supreme networker whose influence is felt in politics, the media and the advertising industry.

41: Viviane Reding, education and culture minister, European Union

The Luxembourgoise is the commissioner responsible for sport, and as such plays a leading role in negotiations over football's attempts to gain exemption from EU rules on freedom of movement for workers between member countries. The decisions made over football will undoubtedly set the pattern for other sports in the future.

42: Barclay Knapp, chief executive, NTL

Murdoch's chief rival for the rights to broadcast Premier League football in the UK, Knapp runs the $14bn US-based cable concern. Backed by the financial power of Bill Gates's Microsoft, it is now looking to build a global sports base. In the UK, NTL already has stakes in Newcastle United and Aston Villa and is talking to Middlesbrough. One to watch.

43: Bart McGuire, ceo, WTA Tour

McGuire, a 58-year-old former law professor, may seem an unlikely sports power broker, but tennis is the largest women's professional sport and it is booming, with attendances of nearly 4m each year and a worldwide TV audience of more than 11bn households. Its total prize money will pass the $50m mark this year.

44: Michael Jordan, ex-NBA basketball player turned owner

The highest-earning sportsman of all time, his relationship with Nike changed the face of sports marketing and he has the capacity to make a new career in sports business, having announced he is giving up all his personal endorsements. Part-ownership of the Washington Wizards could be a springboard to greater things.

45: Kim Un-Yong, president of the Association of International Sports Federations

The most senior IOC member to be censured over the Salt Lake City affair (though his offence was considered minor), Dr Kim's organisation represents more than 70 sports. The Korean remains a significant voice inside and outside the Olympic movement.

46: Don King, boxing promoter

Though King is at one of the lowest points of his career, his capacity to come back is well proven. Legal wranglings over the next opponent for Lennox Lewis hold the key.

47: Ma Guoli, president, CCTV sports

The Chinese national TV station has bigger audiences than any other TV station in the world and China is likely to be a increasingly powerful force in the biggest international sports events, the Olympics and the World Cup. CCTV is also investing heavily in the internet.

48: Tiger Woods, golfer

The most marketable figure in global sport by a distance, but at the moment Woods's power is latent rather than actual. The world No1, still only 24, has made such an impact since breaking on to the major circuit in 1996 that Nike restructured its contract with him and doubled its sponsorship deal in the process. If he has the desire and the know-how he is in a position to parlay unrivalled playing skill into marketing empires to rival those of Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus in former generations.

49: Jean-Louis Dupont, lawyer

Reputation as the lawyer who won the Bosman case makes him the most feared legal representative in the world; currently defending two Spanish athletes who have tested positive for nandrolone, the long-distance swimmer David Merca and pole vaulter Dana Cervantes.

50: Leigh Steinberg, ceo, Assante Sports Management

A so-called "super-agent" who represents many prominent NFL stars, including the quarterbacks Steve Young and Troy Aikman, he was reputedly the inspiration for the film Jerry Maguire. His client list also includes the former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.