"If you want some accessible but informative insight into football then I suggest you couldn't do better than the Political Economy of Football website, which is not only intelligible but comes with the added bonus of being written by Addicks fan Wyn Grant." Ben Hayes - Charlton Athletic programme
Articles on football club takeovers and related issues
A BBC investigation has raised more doubts about Ashan Ali Syed, the would be buyer of Blackburn Rovers. He appears to have left a trail of debts when he lived in the UK for four years and does not seem to be well known either in Bahrain or what he claims to be his home town in India.
Questions marks over the bid for Blackburn Rovers by Ahsan Ali Syed have been raised after his company Western Gulf Advisory was closed by the authorities in Bahrain for operating outside its remit. The Blackburn takeover is being organised by another company and it is being insisted that the bid is not affected. However, the Premier League is yet to receive any formal notification of a bid.
After Arsenal’s largest shareholder, Stan Kroenke, took a controlling stake in the St. Louis Rams it looks increasingly like that the status quo in terms of ownership will continue at the Emirates. Four large shareholders are likely to continue sitting on their positions, an outcome that would be acceptable to most Arsenal fans, avoiding off pitch distractions.
According to this report by respected football finance commentator David Conn all is not clear about the takeover of Leicester City by a Thai consortium. The basic details of the takeover remain unknown: whether Mandaric has sold out completely, who the investors are and in what proportions they will own the club, and how much they have paid him.
Football deal broker and former Football League chairman Keith Harris claims to be representing a mysterious potential purchaser of Liverpool. He will not name him, but says he is not one of the interested parties named in the press so far. The prospective owner has completed due diligence and will now have to decide whether to proceed.
There has been yet another development in the complicated and protracted business of selling Liverpool Football Club with an announcement by Kenny Huang that he is withdrawing his bid. However, even this is not as straightforward as it appears on the surface as there are those who think that it is a negotiating tactic on his part. Certainly one sentence in his statement would appear to leave the door open for a renewed bid.
It’s thought that new Leicester City owner Vichai Raksriaskorn is the real deal and will be able to further the progress of the Championship club. His personal fortune is estimated at £115m. However, he is realistic about the chances of the Foxes achieving a big following in Thailand or elsewhere in Asia. Only clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona create real excitement there
One of the leading bidders for Liverpool Football Club, Kenny Huang, has threatened to walk away if a deal is not concluded soon. However, this may simply be a negotiating tactic to hurry things along. Even if a credible bidder could be successfully identified, due diligence could take another two months.
Formal takeover talks have taken place at Blackburn Rovers with representatives of Ahsan Ali Syed, an Indian national. Ali, who lives in Bahrain claims to have followed Blackburn for ten years, although he has never been to Ewood Park. In an interview on Radio 5 this evening, he said that his involvement was an emotional one and he had a ‘passion’ for Blackburn. He would buy a house in Lancashire if his bid was successful.
The state-owned bank Royal Bank of Scotland may step in to take control of Liverpool FC after none of the prospective bidders could show that they had the funds needed to ensure the development of the club. The bank has set an unofficial deadline of the end of the month for a credible bidder to be found.