5 links between UK football clubs and the UAE

5 links between UK football clubs and the UAE

A member of the ruling family in the UAE has denied buying a stake in an English premier league club. But the ties between the UAE and football clubs in the UK seem to be building.

June 24, 2009 1:51 by Aarti Nagraj

3. In January this year, Arabian Business reported that Sulaiman Al Fahim was working with a group of German investors on a bid for Chelsea. Fahim told the magazine “It’s not entirely clear if Chelsea is for sale, but regardless of that, we first need to see if we are in a position to buy it.

“Given that Roman Abramovich has invested over 500 million pounds into the club, it would not be cheap, and with the current credit crunch, nobody wants to be over-exposed on one deal. But through a number of investors, there is money available to put together a deal.”

4. In June last year, UK-based Daily Mirror reported that football club Tottenham Hotspur’s board was in talks with a Dubai-based body to sell the club. The paper said that Tottenham was probably worth around $487.6 million at the time, but that investment group ENIC, which owns 82 percent of the club, was looking for more.

5. Speculations about a takeover of the football club Liverpool by the Dubai International Capital (DIC) again surfaced earlier this year.

DIC was close to buying the club in January 2007, but pulled out when Liverpool refused to agree to a deadline on the deal. DIC also refused to pay $300 million for a 15 percent stake in Liverpool in October 2007.

In 2008, it was reported that DIC was planning to launch a $1 billion bid to buy the club.

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Tags: Abu Dhabi, buy, Chelsea, Dubai, football clubs, investments, Liverpool, Manchester city, premier league, Sulaiman Al Fahim, UAE, UK