Mystery Surrounding West Ham Deepens - 06/09/2006

Not even the most diehard West Ham fan would pretend that Upton Park is a glamorous location. Gritty would be more appropriate. But the high stakes world of international finance is increasingly enveloping the club, leading sports minister Richard Caborn to plead for greater clarity about bidders, urging those involved to be as open and transparent as possible. Kia Jooabchian, described by the Financial Times as 'the enigmatic Iranian-born entrepreneur', has now made a statement to the Stock Exchange, but it is a most unusual one. He confirmed that he had not ruled out making a bid for West Ham but, due to a recent family bereavement, 'the immediate focus of my attention is on family matters.' This statement leaves his options open under the terms of the Takeover Code. However, if West Ham decided that they had enough of what the FT called 'his unspecified attentions', the club could eventually ask the panel to issue an 'put up or shut up' deadline.

Mr Joorabchian has built what the FT described as an 'eclectic' business empire ranging from martial arts and horse racing to car dealing and Brazilian football. He holds directorships in ten UK companies, many of them losing money. He is director of a number of car dealerships, many of which were established by his father. His largest business, the car dealership Greens of Rainham, made a loss of £9,152 on falling turnover of £8.8m last year. His most unusual investment is perhaps Karmara, a company that operates a kick boxing business in Chalk Farm, London. This company has experienced mounting losses since it was set up, leaving it with negative shareholders' funds of £679,879. The FT refers to 'lingering questions about who is backing the entrepreneur's sports investments or how he structured an unusual deal to bring two superstar footballers to West Ham.'

Badri Patrakatsishvili, the Georgian businessmen and associate of exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, said he was aware of people wanting to buy West Ham but he was not one of them. He added that his ownership of Dinamo Tiblisi prohibited from buying another club under Fifa rules. However, he somewhat cryptically added, 'I'm just close to people thinking about buying this club. I know these people for a long time.'

In an unrelated development, Fifa said that it would meet next week to discuss how to make professional club and player ownership more transparent. Its executive committee is to discuss how to implement the recommendations of its task force aimed at preventing multiple ownership of professional clubs, money laundering and other financial matters. Fifa emphasised that it was not examining specific instances of problems over transparency and had no specific information about West Ham football club.