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Articles on football club takeovers and related issues
Former Aston Villa chairman Sir Doug Ellis has defended current owner Randy Lerner, saying that he is a ‘good man’ and he does not regret selling the club to him.
Last week Ellis told the Birmingham Mail, “I warmed to Randy Lerner. He kept his word, has put his £200 million into the club and has little return for it.
This blog essay contrasts the style of ownership at Charlton Athletic and Sheffield Wednesday. At Charlton, the eccentric decision-making of Roland Duchatelet and his unwilligness to engage in a dialogue with fans, or ‘customers’ as his chief executive has called them, has led to a vigorous campaign of fan protests.
A sale of Notts County is expected to be completed within the next month. The hearing of a winding up petition against the club brought by HMRC has been postponed.
Torquay United are in advanced takeover talks. The current owners, a consortium of local businessmen, took over last summer, but have found it a financial struggle.
Morecambe FC have announced on their official website that the club is for sale. Majority shareholder and chairman Peter McGuigan has been in charge for 16 years.
In a statement Mr McGuigan said, ‘The club moved into a new purpose built wholly-owned stadium in August 2010 and is virtually debt free. There is an option to develop the ground further with a 30,000 square foot pitchside office block which is already 50 per cent pre-let, as well as a 50-60 room hotel adjacent to the stadium.’
There has already been big interest in taking over Notts County with eight buyers reported to be in the frame. Most of the interest has come from overseas and talks have already been held with an anonymous Danish billionaire.
Having failed in a takeover at Woking, businessman Ashley Read is now to trying to take control at rivals Aldershot Town. Months of negotiations with Woking ended after they failed to provide the financial information he required. Woking, who posted losses of £500,000 in their last financial year, badly need a cash injection.
Aldershot chairman Shahid Aszeem save the club from almost certain closure in 2013, doesn’t hide the club’s search for fresh investment. However, he says that there is no offer on the table yet.
Subject to Football League approval, the takeover of Bolton Wanderers by the Sports Shield consortium headed by Dean Holdsworth has been completed. He has yet to make investment promises or identify his backers.
Iranian-born British citizen Farhad Moshiri, who is resident in Monaco, has agreed to take a 49.9 per cent stake at Everton. Until Friday he was a significant shareholder in Arsenal.
Moshiri, who made a fortune of £1 billion through investments had been a co-investor in Red and White Holdings who own 30 per cent of Arsenal. He sold his stake to partner Alisher Usmanov for £150m to fund buying into Everton. His investment values the club at £175m. It is expected that he will eventually complete a takeover.
It has been announced that the takeover of Bristol Rovers by the Al-Qadi family has been completed. The influential family are major shareholders in the Arab-Jordanian Investment Bank. The asset value of the bank is £1.72bn.
The club say Mr Wael Al Qadi – “a lifelong fan of English football and a member of the executive board of the Jordan Football Association” – will become president.