60% majority stake sold - But who is it?
Monday, June 22, 2009 at 6:40AM Morning all. Choke on your coco-pops time:
Sheikh Ahmed bin Saqr al-Qassimi, member of a ruling family in the United Arab Emirates, has bought a majority stake in an unnamed Premier League club.
Sheikh Ahmed, a member of the ruling family Ras al-Khaimah, will be honorary chairman of the club.
Ras al-Khaimah is one of seven members in the UAE federation which also includes key oil producer Abu Dhabi and regional trade and tourism hub Dubai. (WAM news agency)
It's a 60% stake apparently. Honorary chairman means someone else (Levy?) will remain in charge of day to day business. Other reports cite a 'leading Premier club'. Which could mean it's possibly Everton, West Ham or even Fulham. Pompey is the more obvious link being made by others because of their prior attempted dealings.
If this happens, and it turns out to be Spurs I think I might need therapy to recover.
Going down this route is not something I wish for. I'm a little more traditional.
Reader Comments (50)
Surely if it was us there would have been an announcement to the LSE?
exactly
Newcastle probably although you'd have to say Premiership loosely then? I doubt its us though. Too many other teams looking for cash for someone to come in and pay over the odds for us.
Aren't we due to name the company or consortium that have the naming rights on the stadium, perhaps it will come as one big announcement, can't see it though.
Just wish we would hurry up and get in these 3 signings Harry and spoke about.
Its not us. Looks like the uae wants to own the premiership. We can now call it abu dabi emerates premiership.
Highly unlikely for Arabs to do business with Jews or at least buy a club with Jewish heritage, we may not bother about the religious side of things but they sure do.
I can imagin one of those "Priceless" spoof ads going up about Yids owned by Arabs!
Can't be us, as someone has correctly pointed out....need to inform the LSE.
Although if it happened over the weekend then the earliest time we could do that would be Monday morning!!!! Plot thickens!
Everyone is gonna need a sugar daddy sooner or later. To be competetive we either need a sheik, or we need to get lucky with our academy a la ManU 1990's.
Can't see the latter happening.
Actually it would not have to be announced on the LSE yet, this coming from a stock broker. This seems to be a verbal agreement and until it is made official and a formal application is made for acceptance of the proposed takeover, then this can be kept private, as non-public information!
To be honest, I would welcome this, as the way things are going in the premiership at the moment, it is the only way we will be truly able to compete. Although I would still want LEVY to be calling the shots, as I believe we have one of the best businessmen possible, running the show for us, and with him in charge, we will not risk being a self run, viable club!
I agree, everyone in the PL will need a sugar daddy sooner or later just to survive. The amount of money being thrown about means that nobody without a billionaire owner can compete with them and Madrid (god knows where they generate all that money from).
It wont be us (at least I hope not) I am more than happy with Levy he makes the odd mistake but works hard for the club bit like O Hara. Anyway where are these signings ? Whys everything gone so quiet ? Did anything happen from Levy being in Spain the other day ?
I agree with the sentiments about being 'more traditional' but with the ever increasing population of Arab money men in the game we could find ourselves lagging a long way behind the rich clubs. My fear is, if this trend continues, football will be beyond ruin within the next 10 years.
Firstly If it was Spurs we would have had to announce it to the stock exchange, Secondly can you imagine anyone from an arabic country wanting to invest in us and turn up on match day and watch a game with the fans chanting YID's several times?
These arabs are not religious trust me.
Normaly when things are quiet around the club thats when something happens, I do know that nothing has to be annouced on the LSE until after something is signed, on the other hand, if 60% of the club is being sold, doesnt that automaticly trigger that a complete take over of the club & an offer of all other shares has to be made ? I doubt it's us.
Ras Al Khaima?!?! That place is a shithole. Not much money there at all. I hope to god its not us, but as pointed out earlier, its not very likely.
"Jewish heritage"
Right, can someone actually quantify this? We have Jewish shareholders/chairman(s) etc but our heritage surely isn't Jewish. It's like saying Arsenal are a Jewish club because of their history of Jewish shareholders. Fanbase wise both clubs have Jewish support, but it's a bit like saying Fulham is a Christian club or something equally silly.
In the 1930's Oswald Mosely used to make his impassioned racist comments at Highbury where he often used to speak. This is a time when far right politics and racism where the norm. When he gestured northwood and referred to 'the yids' when he was talking about the Hassidic jews of Stamford Hill, the Arsenal supporters used that as a metaphor for their rival football club, Spurs.
it seems to me the way the game has in the uk.....its going to have to be seriously debated by the FA etc
to keep a reality etc on the state of the sports future!
all the money at the top and the lower leagues getting hardly anything tv rights, who owns what.etc.....the whole picture!
or is it a runaway financial train ?
no one seems to know how to regulate the vast amounts of money
Had my breakfast.
Ok, logistically, it can't be us. ENIC have around a 85% share so you'd think they would sell the lot if that's the direction they wanted to take. Joe Lewis percentage sits at around 58%. Which is near the 60 mark...hmm.
Everton have three major share holders (Kenwright, Earl, Woods) so it's possible that Earl and Woods have sold up. Everton aren't rolling in money and easily qualify as a leading Prem club.
If it is us, cue £100M bid to sign Crouch.
This could be spurs because we had a represensative in the U.A.E looking for sponsers of our ground but i dont think the isreal flag would be welcome by arab personell. This is not a critism but a fact of our historical history. Some of the wage demands going round we need to own our own oil feilds to compete the worlds struggling and footballers have more money than the banks pricless.
No way in a million years do I want Tottenham to go down this route.
It's fine for certain clubs with no prestige or history(Man City and Chelsea)but for a club like Tottenham this isn't the answer.
I would rather sit mid-table for the next ten years trying to build up and make this club great again than pin all my hopes on a lucky Billionaire(lucky as in his fortune came from the oil he was sitting on)buying us trophies.
We operate at a nice profit, we dont spend what we can't afford and I think we are a very honourable club.
3rd rate clubs like Pompey and West Ham dream of having a sugar daddy but I like to think we are a bit more traditional than them.
Arguably, we already spend a shedload anyway don't we? Season in and season out we have spent millions. Having this type of investment would mean being able to bid more for players outside of our price range, including wages.
Toasted - So what you mean is, we could bid £40M for Downing to make sure nobody else signs him?
I'm in!!!
yep it looks stable and a more shrewd levy(Redknaap timing)(30 mill bebatov) and our public status keeps us in check......also its a good time to be a spurs fan......new stadium will be awesome!
Don't this will happen and don't think it's us.
Anyone else wondering if the club might be West Ham United? Can you imagine the open bus parade if they suddenly become mega-rich?
I'm fairly certain the club is Everton. As mentioned, Woods and Earl own around 62% and the club is not a PLC so they do not need to announce anything to the stock exchange (obviously).
The 60% equating to Spurs doesn't add up. ENIC own 82% of the club. ENIC itself is owned by Levy and Lewis
Enic owns about 82% of Spurs, so it would be Enic that would need to sell the 60% stake leaving them with 22%. Messy. and unlikely.
If it was us, I'd be happy. In a dirty kinda way.
I'M A MUSLIM & BEEN A SPURS SUPPORTER FOR THE LAST 28 YEARS, SO ARE MY KIDS, WIFE & ALL OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS , & I CAN TELL U THE AMOUNT OF MUSLIM SPURS SUPPORTERS LIVING IN LONDON IS HUGE, READING SOME OF THE COMMENTS MADE ABOVE , MAKES ME ASHAMED OF SOME OF OUR SUPPORTERS, AINT THERE OTHER ISSUES REGARDING RACIAL HATERED IN THIS WORLD "ENOUGH"............ WE NEED TO KEEP FOOTBALL AWAY FROM ISSUES LIKE JEWS v MUSLIMS..... SHOULDNT WE BE LOOKING AT THE OPTIMISTIC SIDE !!!!!............,HOW CAN WE FREE THE MINDS OF OUR KIDS AWAY FROM CASE OF RASCISM & HATERED IN SPORTS ........... I THINK & REALLY HOPE THAT ONE DAY ALL THE RASCIST CHANTS & HATE 'LL VANISH FROM FOOTBALL........, SPUIRS IS THE GREATEST CLUB IN UK, FOR THOSE WHO THINK THAT CLUB IS ONLY A JEWISH HERITAGE, SHOULD PAY A VISIT IN THE SCHOOLS OF NORTH LONDON & FIND OUT HOW MANY MUSLIM KIDS SUPPORT THE CLUB.................. YOU'LL BE AMAZED..
COYS
Hear hear
I mentioned this last thursday on Vital Spurs. .I reckon it will be us. For a start being linked and supposedly serious about bringing in RVN ROBBEN RVD SNEIDER HEINZE and HUNTELAAR from real madrid would cost an absoloute fortune which to be honest we aint got..We'd have to pay higher wages then they were on at madrid and probably throw in all sorts of clauses etc but if we had a new sugar daddy then surely money wouldnt be a issue..Funny how all of a sudden Ramos gets his compensation sorted with Levy being in spain to sort it out.. he then pops over to madrid's jumble sale whilst paul barber is over in UAE sorting out our investment for the new ground and naming rights..and then oh news reporters today name a top premier league club ( maybe spurs ) have had a 60% take over etc etc.. i might be reading into this a little deeper then needed but surely its gotta be us.. and for any spurs fan to say then dont want us to be rich and competitive you might aswell sit back in your arm chair and pay for sky sports for another season.. what a load of shit!! i want spurs to win everything..money dont mean success!! look at chelsea richest club in the league until man city took over they've not exactly romped every trophy have they...Its how the money is spent. Man city wont become winners over night it will still take time and they still need to build the prestige of there club..
As anybody who has supported the club for more than 5 minutes knows, the Yids thing stems from our proximity to Stamford Hill, an area popular with orthodox Jews. That we have a Jewish chairman and owner only proves their sagacity as businessmen. Football is secular, despite those praying for success, plagues of locusts at the 'emma freuds' and the ref's imminent demise.
I don't think our benefactor has arrived this time, but when he does, I'll be cheering. Ten years of mid-table mediocrity might be ok for some of you, I'd prefer to enjoy rubbing wenger's nose in the brown stuff, competing for titles and European Cups.
spot on silver_spurfer
Thing is, with other clubs with little history (City, Chelsea, Pompey etc) it seems like cheating but with us, considering we do have some weight behind the claims of being a famous club we could probably pull it off with some style.
If we suddenly had the money like Chelsea or City then as long as we don't go mental with stupid £100M bids for players and that we sign player we need rather than as many 'names' that would care to join, I could live with it. I don't want us mugging it and whoring ourselves out. We do that now and in most circumstances (regardless what opposing fans say) we get the players we go for. Modric being a great example of plucking a potential world class player before anyone else got there.
With the backing of Arabs (or whomever) it should allow us to offer wages above and beyond what we can now. This is the reason for my reluctance. Mainly because players are over-paid. So if they know Spurs is alternative option, would you really be happy with players signing for us because the money?
Or is that the point? Is that the only way we can now compete?
How many of the current squad do you think would say no to citeh if the offer of mahussive sacks of 'Nelson's' was on the table? One or two, four if we're lucky. Most of them are whores. Look in the car parks, the watch shops, the OKs, Hellos and red-top show biz pages. Ledley and others giving it 'Loadsamoney' to blokes earning ordinary money. lt's all about the money. Integrity, loyalty and dignity are exceptions, like Wilson, rather than the rule. I've a feeling that the transfer market is quiet in the UK because £1.00 = €1.00 (almost) and the 50% tax rate is looming. Money.
We are a public company - it would have to be announced.
In fact, any approach whether it be accepted or not would have to be announced.
Just to quantify my comments, we have a traditional massive Jewish fanbase (historical and current) and obviously the current chairman is Jewish too.
I personally couldn't give a stuff what religion someone is and everyone is entitled to their own POV.
I just couldn't see an Arab being closer to the troubles that exist in the middle east looking at a club with the background ours has. However if he has a live and let live attitude like superspurs and the north London kids, excellent as along with us getting our sugar daddy (nice to get one over on Chelsea and the Arse) it would be nice to breakdown some walls with a football club.
I'm from the Middle East and I don't want us to go down this route either!!!!!!
I am really hoping this news has nothing to do with us!
COYS!!!!!!!!!!!
not us, definitely.
Would have been announced this morning if it was us. Don't think Levy will look to sell (if he does) until the new stadium begins to be built. Too early for any potential takeover or sugar daddy. And its completely out of the blue, so surely one of the ITK's would have leaked it.
:p
Definitely would take some getting used to if it WAS us. That said, I realize that the Arabs who've been investing in football are not the religious type, I'm sure they wouldn't have any problems doing a business deal with someone who's Jewish. Maybe I'm being optimistic, or just naive.
I think it's going to be Everton though.
http://www.google.co.uk/finance?q=LON%3ATTNM
any coincidence our share prices have gone up considerably since this morning?
I'd be amazed if any potential Arabic owner knew about our supposed Jewish heritage but even if they did people who are that rich don't get rich by having principles so they wouldn't really care if they thought they were gonna make money.
I was surprised by the post abouit Oswald Mosley - is that really true? I've always assumed it was bit of a myth about the antisemitism between us and A*se. You get it so much from Chelsea and WHU and Millwall etc but I hadn't heard that story before. Did the blackshirts really have rallies at Highbury?
I thought it started out in the 70's and not way back in the 30's.
I dont think its us but im praying its not Everton. Moyes has had em in the champs league on my beer and fags budget before. Who knows what he could do with a wedge in his back burner. Btw im pretty sure no businessman worth his salt would allow religeon to affect his decisions. COYS
All clubs have fans of all faiths. Im pretty sure were only regarded as a jewish club because when our jewish fans were being harrassed, the whole spurs crowd responded. ie if you target one of us you take us all on. If opposing fans started abusing Muslims in our crowd i would stand shoulder to shoulder with them too. Its one of the reasons im so proud to support this club. If any older (more knowledgable) fans want to correct me on this, please keep it polite as its just what ive always been led to believe. COYS
i cant believe some of you lot banging on that we hope its not us...i want to see us win the league dont you...ive been watching loyally for 35 years now and are my life thru and thru but come on...wake if some rich bloke comes along and we start buying grade a stars ie eto ,are you lot gonna complain...stop living in the dark ages...
it's portsmouth, as confirmed on middle-east news sites. shame, I'd have liked it to be us too.
And so it ends.