Football's dabbling in the stock market did not all go to plan as clubs discovered that their value could go down as well as up.

Some serious overspending and relegation from the Premiership proved a disastrous mix for a number of clubs.

SELLING OUT What the main shareholders made out of the recent sales: Ken Bates (Chelsea) Bought for £1 Sold for £17m Martin Edwards (Man Utd) Bought for £100,000* Sold for £90m Milan Mandaric (Pompey) Bought for £5m Sold for £32m Doug Ellis (Aston Villa) Bought for £500,000 Sold for £23m Terry Brown (West Ham) Bought for £2m Sold for £33.4m David Moores (Liverpool) Bought for £8m* Sold for £89.6m Figures are from reports at the time of purchase * Also inherited some shares

The spectacular fall from grace of Leeds - bought by the Caspian Group for £30m in 1996 - following their financial suicide seemed to send out the final warning against clubs 'chasing the dream'.

That was until Abramovich arrived at Chelsea in July 2003 with his billions of Russian roubles.

Just a few months earlier Malcolm Glazer began investing in Manchester United, although it would take him over two years to gain full control of the club.

Then came 2006's sale of the century.

Alexandre Gaydamak, the son of a Russian billionaire, invested £20m in Pompey in January before gaining full control from Milan Mandaric in the summer for a sum of £32m.

Then came American Randy Lerner and his £62m buyout of Aston Villa, bringing an end to deadly Doug Ellis' 24 years at the helm.

The third and final Premiership purchase of the year came from the Icelandic consortium headed by Eggert Magnusson and funded by Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, who wrestled ownership of West Ham from Terry Brown for £105m.

But whereas the leaders of the 1990s revolution were characterised as the English entrepreneurs of the 80s, these days it takes a bigger fish to gain control of a Premiership club.

Now when clubs go hunting for new investors they no longer look for wealthy local businessmen with ties to the club, they go scouring the world's rich list.

Gillett (left) and Hicks won the race for Liverpool

Liverpool courted Sheikh Mohammed - the fifth richest man in the world with a fortune of $10bn - before settling for the combined fortunes of Gillett and Hicks.

Steve Morgan - a multi-millionaire Liverpool fan who made a £70m bid for the club in 2004 - did not stand a chance.

The Liverpool buy-out takes the number of foreign owners of Premiership clubs to seven.

Add in the overseas companies who control Blackburn, Bolton, Newcastle and Tottenham and it means over half of the Premiership is now based outside of England.

Surely more will follow.

Last year former Football League chairman Keith Harris, who helped push through the West Ham, Pompey and Villa takeovers and is now head of investment bank Seymour Pierce, said: "I would like to think I'll do a handful of deals next year."

Two Premiership teams look particularly ripe for the picking.

Manchester City have rolled out the red carpet to potential investors without any luck so far.

And despite Newcastle chairman Freddie Shepherd's reluctance to let go, the Magpies have already held takeover talks with American financiers Polygon and the Jersey-based Belgravia group that came to nothing.

American Robert Earl, owner of Planet Hollywood, has recently bought into Everton, a club in desperate need of outside investment with dreams of a new stadium.

Reading owner John Madejski has admitted his willingness to step aside and in the past month Arsenal, Tottenham and Fulham have been linked with potential buy-out.

Kia Joorabchian has been linked with a move to Fulham after missing out on West Ham, while reports suggested the Dubai International Capital group may bid for Arsenal after failing to land Liverpool.

But why is owning a club such an attractive proposition and is this new investment good for the game?