Post by QPR Report on Aug 28, 2009 6:31:05 GMT
You read David Conn's latest (and the various other pieces written about Portsmouth
David Conn/The Guardian
Sulaiman al-Fahim takes charge but fears for Portsmouth persistDoubts over the financial power of Pompey's new owner mean the club's summer of uncertainty is not over
Sulaiman al-Fahim's spokesman has been making it clear that after a summer of player exits, ceaseless speculation and a final furious fortnight, no wriggle room remains over Portsmouth's ownership. The deal, the spokesman, Ivo Ilic Gabara, clarified, is done. Fahim, the flamboyant Dubai property-developing celebrity turned publicly silent, scruffily dressed Fratton Park chairman, has bought Pompey and is its "sole new owner".
Peter Storrie, the chief executive who believed that he would complete a takeover in the last few days, with backing understood to be from a Saudi Arabian property developer, Ali Al Faraj, was bitterly cursing being left in the cold yesterday, describing himself as "absolutely shattered" and "done in". Some might apply the same descriptions to his football club.
Fahim's Portsmouth deal means he has been involved in the takeover of two Premier League clubs in successive Augusts, both introduced by Thaksin Shinawatra's right-hand man, Pairoj Piempongsant. Last year, Fahim was the too-talkative broker of the Manchester City takeover where, before it was even completed, the new owners slapped �32m down to buy Robinho. It was done to declare that Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour, with his phenomenal fortune, was truly City's new owner, and that he was very serious. After the deal was done three weeks later, Mansour wiped out debts thought to have been �90m by the dog-end of Thaksin's crumbling regime, and has since spent some �140m assembling a team intended to challenge the big four's Premier League stranglehold.
Fahim was removed from involvement in the City deal after his bragging, about signing a sticker-book of gal�cticos, and about his backers' "very deep pockets" struck a discordant tone with Abu Dhabi's rulers, who like to balance more money than anyone can comprehend with a certain dignity and discretion. Fahim learned his lesson and has employed Gabara to speak for him at Portsmouth. The other contrast with City's dramatic transformation has been starker and more painful. After announcing in June his outline agreement to buy the club, Fahim has watched, first from the sidelines then, since late July, as the chairman, a summer-long draining of playing resources.
With Fahim picking through due diligence then, more recently, apparently negotiating with Pompey's bankers, Portsmouth sold Glen Johnson, then Peter Crouch, five other players were released and now Sylvain Distin looks likely to follow them. Where Mansour delivered Robinho immediately, Fahim's new club was yesterday signing, with the greatest of respect, Tommy Smith from Watford.Storrie has put his best front on Portsmouth's goings-on for the last year, since Harry Redknapp left and Pompey's owner, the Russian-French-Israeli Alexandre Gaydamak, decided he could no longer fund the club and the punishing wage bill his backing of Redknapp had accumulated.
Storrie insisted in May that as Premier League survival had been achieved under Paul Hart, Pompey were not in meltdown, and would have to sell just one player to be fine with the banks. Slowly, he has admitted the position was a lot worse than that. Standard Bank of South Africa, which was owed at least �24m, is understood to have been asking for all its money back by 31 August.
Bitterly frustrated by finishing empty-handed after working obsessively to pull off his own deal, Storrie cracked and admitted: "I have kept this club alive in the last 12 to 14 months with the banks demanding payments for reasons outside our control."
Those reasons are understood to be that Gaydamak, the owner who, at 29, took over Portsmouth in 2006 then backed mountainous overspending on quality players the club could not afford, was no longer able to fund that loss-making extravagance. The cause of his withdrawal has not been explained beyond the general economic downturn.The banks really were closing in, and players did have to be released en masse, beginning with Jermain Defoe and Lassana Diarra last January. Portsmouth sources now say that after all the sales, they have placated Standard Bank, whose repayments can be extended beyond Monday's deadline.
Storrie believed he had his saviour when Pairoj introduced him to Fahim, who was then the chief executive of developers Hydra Properties, in Dubai. Fahim said his money, presumed to be enormous, was coming from investors in the Middle East and Asia, but after fierce speculation that Thaksin was his backer, Fahim has since said he is financing the deal himself.
In June, he was removed from his position at Hydra, which has suffered myriad problems in Dubai's construction crisis, and appointed to the company board instead. Doubts grew about whether he really has money to invest in Pompey via his chosen vehicle, Al-Fahim Asia Associates, which boasts the happy initials AAA.
In coming months, he will have to prove to nerve-shredded Pompey fans that he is a man of substance, before they accord him anything approaching a AAA rating.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/27/sulaiman-al-fahim-portsmouth-takeover
David Conn/The Guardian
Sulaiman al-Fahim takes charge but fears for Portsmouth persistDoubts over the financial power of Pompey's new owner mean the club's summer of uncertainty is not over
Sulaiman al-Fahim's spokesman has been making it clear that after a summer of player exits, ceaseless speculation and a final furious fortnight, no wriggle room remains over Portsmouth's ownership. The deal, the spokesman, Ivo Ilic Gabara, clarified, is done. Fahim, the flamboyant Dubai property-developing celebrity turned publicly silent, scruffily dressed Fratton Park chairman, has bought Pompey and is its "sole new owner".
Peter Storrie, the chief executive who believed that he would complete a takeover in the last few days, with backing understood to be from a Saudi Arabian property developer, Ali Al Faraj, was bitterly cursing being left in the cold yesterday, describing himself as "absolutely shattered" and "done in". Some might apply the same descriptions to his football club.
Fahim's Portsmouth deal means he has been involved in the takeover of two Premier League clubs in successive Augusts, both introduced by Thaksin Shinawatra's right-hand man, Pairoj Piempongsant. Last year, Fahim was the too-talkative broker of the Manchester City takeover where, before it was even completed, the new owners slapped �32m down to buy Robinho. It was done to declare that Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour, with his phenomenal fortune, was truly City's new owner, and that he was very serious. After the deal was done three weeks later, Mansour wiped out debts thought to have been �90m by the dog-end of Thaksin's crumbling regime, and has since spent some �140m assembling a team intended to challenge the big four's Premier League stranglehold.
Fahim was removed from involvement in the City deal after his bragging, about signing a sticker-book of gal�cticos, and about his backers' "very deep pockets" struck a discordant tone with Abu Dhabi's rulers, who like to balance more money than anyone can comprehend with a certain dignity and discretion. Fahim learned his lesson and has employed Gabara to speak for him at Portsmouth. The other contrast with City's dramatic transformation has been starker and more painful. After announcing in June his outline agreement to buy the club, Fahim has watched, first from the sidelines then, since late July, as the chairman, a summer-long draining of playing resources.
With Fahim picking through due diligence then, more recently, apparently negotiating with Pompey's bankers, Portsmouth sold Glen Johnson, then Peter Crouch, five other players were released and now Sylvain Distin looks likely to follow them. Where Mansour delivered Robinho immediately, Fahim's new club was yesterday signing, with the greatest of respect, Tommy Smith from Watford.Storrie has put his best front on Portsmouth's goings-on for the last year, since Harry Redknapp left and Pompey's owner, the Russian-French-Israeli Alexandre Gaydamak, decided he could no longer fund the club and the punishing wage bill his backing of Redknapp had accumulated.
Storrie insisted in May that as Premier League survival had been achieved under Paul Hart, Pompey were not in meltdown, and would have to sell just one player to be fine with the banks. Slowly, he has admitted the position was a lot worse than that. Standard Bank of South Africa, which was owed at least �24m, is understood to have been asking for all its money back by 31 August.
Bitterly frustrated by finishing empty-handed after working obsessively to pull off his own deal, Storrie cracked and admitted: "I have kept this club alive in the last 12 to 14 months with the banks demanding payments for reasons outside our control."
Those reasons are understood to be that Gaydamak, the owner who, at 29, took over Portsmouth in 2006 then backed mountainous overspending on quality players the club could not afford, was no longer able to fund that loss-making extravagance. The cause of his withdrawal has not been explained beyond the general economic downturn.The banks really were closing in, and players did have to be released en masse, beginning with Jermain Defoe and Lassana Diarra last January. Portsmouth sources now say that after all the sales, they have placated Standard Bank, whose repayments can be extended beyond Monday's deadline.
Storrie believed he had his saviour when Pairoj introduced him to Fahim, who was then the chief executive of developers Hydra Properties, in Dubai. Fahim said his money, presumed to be enormous, was coming from investors in the Middle East and Asia, but after fierce speculation that Thaksin was his backer, Fahim has since said he is financing the deal himself.
In June, he was removed from his position at Hydra, which has suffered myriad problems in Dubai's construction crisis, and appointed to the company board instead. Doubts grew about whether he really has money to invest in Pompey via his chosen vehicle, Al-Fahim Asia Associates, which boasts the happy initials AAA.
In coming months, he will have to prove to nerve-shredded Pompey fans that he is a man of substance, before they accord him anything approaching a AAA rating.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/27/sulaiman-al-fahim-portsmouth-takeover
