Alexandre Gaydamak, who has all but completed the sale of Portsmouth to a Dubai investor has admitted that his three-year involvement with the Premiership will leave him out of pocket. ‘I turned out much worse off,’ he admitted. ‘It turned out not to be a good commercial transaction.’ Mr Gaydamak bought out Milan Manadric for £30m in 2006 and was thought to be looking for £60m. He has declined to reveal how much he was paid for the club by Al-Fahim Asia Associates, but it is likely to be a lot less than he was hoping for. He also spent heavily on players when he first took over.
Alexandre Gaydamak, who has all but completed the sale of Portsmouth to a Dubai investor has admitted that his three-year involvement with the Premiership will leave him out of pocket. ‘I turned out much worse off,’ he admitted. ‘It turned out not to be a good commercial transaction.’ Mr Gaydamak bought out Milan Manadric for £30m in 2006 and was thought to be looking for £60m. He has declined to reveal how much he was paid for the club by Al-Fahim Asia Associates, but it is likely to be a lot less than he was hoping for. He also spent heavily on players when he first took over.
Mr Gaydamak told the Financial Times that he was ‘very happy to move on’. ‘I couldn’t stay on.’ he said, ‘I couldn’t provide the investment needed. You have to dedicate a lot of time and it was very hard to concentrate on other businesses.’ As for the football sector in general, he said ‘You can make a lot of money out of a Premier League club but it depends on the circumstances of the shareholders.’ While it might be possible to make a return on Championship clubs by driving revenue, returns from Premiership clubs were best realised at the point of exit. Asked if he would recommend club ownership to others, he said ‘I would recommend it very strongly – if you have the nerve.’
It is believed that Mr Al-Fahim is inheriting debt of less than a quarter of Portsmouth’s turnover which was £70m at the end of the 2008-9 season.
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