Features

Takeover talk disrupts Pompey

Author: John Harris
Date: 13/10/2009
Football betting

Few football teams in the last 20 years have been free from dodgy takeovers, although the recent shenanigans at Portsmouth take some beating.

After a summer of inaction which led to Paul Hart starting the campaign with surely the weakest squad in Premier League history, Sacha Gaydamak finally sold Pompey to Sulaiman Al Fahim just before the transfer window slammed shut.

After a hectic few hours before the end of August which saw a plethora of humdrum players move to Fratton Park, the team promptly lost their first seven league games while Al Fahim promised £50million investment.

Almost as soon as those words had tumbled out of his mouth, Al Fahim was being rushed to hospital to have some kidney stones removed and was finalising the sale of the club to Ali Al Faraj.

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Chief executive Peter Storrie had been trying to finalise Al Faraj's takeover in the summer and no-one was more shocked than him when Al Fahim's coup was announced.

It has all been a bit of a mess and already looks to have cost Pompey their Premier League status as they are the online favourites to suffer relegation.

But they are not the only club to have endured murky characters looking to earn some easy money.

Ken Bates' ownership of Leeds United seems to involve a series of unknown companies while the actual identities of Notts County's owners remains shrouded in doubt.

Unsavoury characters like Flavio Briatore have been run out of Formula One after attempting to fix last year's Singapore Grand Prix and his continued involvement in QPR is now being investigated.

Fans of the Championship club may be keen to see the back of the former Renault mogul as they have seen admission prices at Loftus Road massively hiked since Briatore's arrival with little significant improvement on the pitch.

Still if football is willing to allow Thaksin Shinawatra, whose antics in Thailand appeared to be airbrushed from history by the FA when they allowed him to join Manchester City, Briatore may be allowed to stay with Rangers.

The Glazers' success in making Manchester United effectively pay for them to take over the club by landing them in massive debt now seems like old news while Liverpool's problems since George Gillett and Tom Hicks' takeover are well-documented.

On a smaller scale, Stephen Vaughan's attempt to ruin Chester City is gathering pace, quite an achievement after he brought Barrow to their knees a decade ago.

Football has a habit encouraging such characters to become involved in the sport and Al Fahim will certainly not be the last to attempt to make a killing in as short a space of time as possible.

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