How rich the Middlesbrough owner is compared to the Championship's wealthiest clubs | OneFootball

It is quite some time since Steve Gibson first began his involvement with Middlesbrough Football Club.

A lifelong fan of the club, Gibson initially made his money as a businessman by founding Bulkhaul Limited in 1981.

The company is dedicated to the transportation of bulk liquids, powers and gases around the World, although its main operations base remains in Middlesbrough.

Gibson then became Middlesbrough's youngest ever board member at the age of 26 in the 1980s, and by 1986, had formed a consortium that helped prevent the club from entering into administration.

By 1994, Gibson had become chairman of the club, taking ownership of 90% of the club in the process.

Since then, Middlesbrough have enjoyed a fruitful period that includes several long spells in the Premier League, three cup final appearances at Wembley in the 1990s, the 2004 League Cup title - their only major honour to date - and a run to the final of the UEFA Cup in 2006.

Now, 'Boro are once again pushing to win promotion back to the top-flight of English football, and if they are successful with those efforts, then Gibson will have played a significant part in that return to the Premier League, given his backing of the club.

Middlesbrough chairman Gibson is a multi-millionaire

Courtesy of the expansion of his Bulkhaul Limited company, Gibson has amassed a considerable net worth that he has been able to use to support the club.

According to a report from The 2020 Sunday Times Rich List, via Teesside Live, Gibson has a net worth of around £270million, thanks to his ownership of Bulkhaul Limited, and the Rockliffe Hall Hotel.

That was apparently an increase in his worth of £60million over 12 months, with Gibson having reportedly been valued at £60million in 2019.

But while that is still a rather sizeable fortune that Gibson has to call on when investing in Middlesbrough, it is still far from the biggest that is available to an owner of a current Championship club.

Many Championship club owners have a higher net worth than Gibson at Middlesbrough

According to reports, the most valuable owners of a Championship club in the 2023/24 season can be found at QPR.

It is reported the Loftus Road club's co-owners, Ruben Gnanalingman, Richard Reilly and Lakshmi Mittal, are reportedly worth a combined total of $15.5billion (£12.9billion).

That is therefore a net worth that is over 45 times more valuable than that of Gibson at Middlesbrough.

Indeed, owners of other Championship clubs such as Stoke City (the Coates Family), Leeds United (the 49ers Enterprise), Bristol City (Steve Lansdown), Leicester City (the Srivaddhanaprabha family), Blackburn Rovers (Venkys), Southampton (Sport Republic), Preston North End (the Hemmings family) and Sunderland (the Louis-Dreyfus Group) are all also worth over $1billion.

As a result, it is clear that financially, Gibson is not in anywhere near as strong a position as some of the owners of the clubs that his are currently competing with.

However, the fact that Middlesbrough are in a much stronger position than some of those aforementioned teams in the Championship table, and are often effective with the business they do in the transfer market, it seems clear that the way Gibson runs the club, deserves a lot of credit.