Tony Fernandes, 54,  is  the Malaysian owner of English club, Queen’s Park Rangers. Tony is best known to Filipinos as the Chairman of AirAsia, the largest low cost carrier, with formidable operations in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India and, naturally, Malaysia.

Tony went to school in London, worked there with Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group and, naturally, loves football. He bought the London club, QPR in 2011 but had seen the club’s performance fluctuate between EPL and Championship levels. 

Tony’s passion and  involvement  in sports obviously created immense marketing  opportunities for his brands particularly in the EPL and the Formula 1 which he owned the Lotus Racing outfit in the 2011/2012 season. Unfortunately, the later turned out to be a “disaster” by his own admission and he no longer owns a team on F1.

Erick Thohir, 43, is a media mogul in Indonesia and earlier this year was chairman of the organizing committee of  the highly successful Asian Games held in Jakarta and Palembang in 2018. He is,  until recently,  the majority shareholder top flight Serie A club, Inter Milan. Erick is currently eyeing buying Oxford United, a level 3 English club from another Thai owner.

Eric also owns American major football league club, DC United and, take note of this – he is the first Asian to ever own a NBA team, the Philadelphia 76ers! At his early age, we can only expect more acquisitions and spectacular moves from this young Asian in the global sporting world. Watch out for Oxford United, guys!