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The Franco-Russian owner of Portsmouth, Alexandre Gaydamak, has put the Premiership club up for sale. He is hoping to receive about £60m which would represent a sizeable profit on what he paid when he acquired full control about 18 months ago. If the sale goes through, Portsmouth would be the first team to have been taken over in the initial wave of foreign investment in English football clubs to be resold at a profit. Gaydamak's reasons for a sale are unclear, but they could be related to the cost of building's the clubs iconic new stadium. He has had interest from at least one investor, but no formal talks have been held. When Gaydamak took over at the age of 30 he was the youngest owner in the Premiership. He has denied on several occasions that his father, Arkadi, supplied the money to fund the deal. The structure of the purchase deal with Milan Mandaric, now owner of Leicester City, has never been explained. Gaydamak is thought to have paid £15m for a 50 per cent stake and anything between £15m and £32 million six months later.
One of the attractions for Gaydamak was that Fratton Park could be developed for housing. The club have planned to redevelop Fratton Park for years, one scheme involving turning the pitch 90 degrees and building 500 houses on the present site, but that idea has been shelved and plans for a 36,000 capacity stadium to be built on 13-acre site by the city's dockyards were unveiled in April. 750 new homes would be built on Fratton Park. The club said they would submit a planning application in 2007, to begin work in 2009 with completion two years later, yet no plans have been submitted to Portsmouth City Council which has left fans sceptical about the project.
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