Football
ESPN staff 7y

Most influential 30-21 includes Pogba, Sheikh Salman and Al Thawadi

ESPN FC is counting down the 50 most influential men and women in football, as compiled by our editors and writers from around the world.

MOST INFLUENTIAL: 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

30. Victor Montagliani (CONCACAF and Canadian soccer association president)

Montagliani must clean up a region that has been plagued by corruption. Just consider this: the five incumbents in his role have been indicted on criminal charges and/or banned by FIFA. Further, he must balance the needs of global players -- U.S. and Mexico -- as well as the many nations for whom resources are scarcer. It is an area that will see plenty more attention, given the joint U.S., Mexico and Canada bid for the 2026 World Cup, which is, according to Montagliani: "A very strong sign of what football can do to bring countries together." Success there would reflect well on the progress he has sought to make.

29. Zhang Jindong (Inter, Jiangsu Suning and PPTV owner)

A self-made billionaire who turned two air conditioners into a multi-billion home appliance retail chain, Zhang is an ambitious workaholic who tells his employees to "run a marathon as if you were in a 100-meter dash." He has bought into Chinese president Xi Jinping's football economy project wholesale, acquiring Inter and, perhaps as significantly, taking control of Chinese broadcaster PPTV, who hold the rights to the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga and Chinese SuperLeague. And he's doing so in the most aggressive way: The Premier League rights were acquired for around $215 million a season, 30 percent more than the US deal, despite the fact that the American economy is more than 60 percent larger.

28. Hassan Al Thawadi (Secretary General Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Qatar 2022)

Even for the tournament's smooth-talking public face, organising the 2022 World Cup is "challenging," as Al Thawadi himself put it last December when asked about the six years since the bid was awarded. Temperature, timing, concern over the conditions in which the several new stadia are built and, most recently, the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region, have dominated the agenda. Part of Al Thawadi's task is to make it appear more palatable. He has claimed that Qatar is making progress with workers' rights and has stressed the World Cup should be used as a platform to unite people, but plenty are yet to be convinced.

27. Sheikh Salman (Asian Football Confederation president)

In another world, Sheikh Salman could be the most powerful man in the world's game. A member of the Bahrain royal family and head of the Asian Football Confederation, he ran for the FIFA presidency in 2016 and was a favourite in the days leading up to the vote, but accusations that he used development funds for his own ends and that he was complicit in human rights abuses -- he denied both -- hurt his bid and led to Infantino's victory. Sheikh Salman remains head of the AFC and chairs the FIFA development committee, whose "Forward" program has committed $5m per four-year cycle to every member association.

26. Wang Jianlin (Wanda Group chairman)

There was some bad news for Wang in May: He was overtaken as China's richest man by Jack Ma, head of online retailer Alibaba. Still, merely being No. 2 isn't bad, and Wang has used his wealth to buy some serious influence in football, including the 2015 purchase of a 20 percent stake in Atletico Madrid and building them a new stadium. But his biggest power move is probably in the realm of broadcasting: Two years ago, Wanda, a Fortune Global 500 company that also counts hotels, retail outlets and movie theatres in its portfolio, spent $1.2bn on InFront Sports, the marketing company that controls international TV rights for FIFA competitions.

25. Christian Seifert (Bundesliga chief executive)

The Bundesliga is positioning itself as a global trailblazer and this season will be the first major league to deploy VAR technology in all games, just one example of the willingness to embrace change that Seifert has insisted upon. The 2015-16 season saw the combined revenues of Bundesliga clubs break €3bn for the first time, and, while Bayern accounted for 18.2 percent of that, the division looks in good overall health and prides itself on high attendances, affordability and enviable goals-per-game ratio. Perhaps Seifert's biggest task is to ensure the environment exists for a credible long-term challenge to Bayern.

24. Jaume Roures (MediaPro founder)

There won't be too many people on this list who identify as Marxists and have produced a number of Woody Allen films, but Jaume Roures fits into that narrow Venn diagram. Last year, multimedia communications company MediaPro added three more packages of Spanish TV rights to one (the biggest available) they already own, making them the most prominent player in a wide, varied and often confusing market. They have also purchased the rights to show Champions League football, a significant move in as much as it means the competition will no longer been shown on free-to-air TV in Spain.

23. Ed Woodward (Manchester United executive vice chairman)

Woodward has helped transform United into the world's richest club; separate high-profile studies from both Deloitte and KPMG put them top of the global money pile, the latter ascribing them an enterprise value of £2.7bn. The former investment banker helped push the Glazer family's takeover in 2005 and, after replacing David Gill four years ago, has negotiated a host of deals, such as the Chevrolet shirt sponsorship that nets the club £53m a year. Woodward has also taken the lead on high-profile transfers, but has a hit-and-miss record, having been criticised for failing to land top targets.

22. Javier Tebas (Spanish League president)

As head of an organisation that has two of the world's biggest clubs in its ranks, Javier Tebas has plenty of clout. Not that his influence is universally popular: Tebas hasn't hidden his support of Real Madrid particularly well, and that has led to plenty of criticism from Catalunya; last year Barcelona reported him to the Spanish courts for comments made about their players. Meanwhile, acutely aware that his league's earning power is dwarfed by that of the Premier League, Tebas has moved to see TV money distributed more equally among clubs and also sought to increase La Liga's popularity in the Americas and Asia, through initiatives like TV-friendly kickoff times in those markets. 

21. Paul Pogba (Manchester United player)

Manchester United spent a world record fee on Pogba, not just because he's a brilliant midfielder, with the potential to get much better, and not just to right the wrong of letting him leave in 2012. They also know that the 24-year-old is probably the most marketable young player this side of Neymar, from his influential social media presence to ties with United kit makers adidas and beyond. Young fans can identify with a smart, enthusiastic man like Pogba, who will do something brilliant with the ball then dab to celebrate. With Raiola as his agent and United as his club, Pogba's influence is only set to increase.

MOST INFLUENTIAL: 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-6 | 5-1

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