The mancityfans.net football forum

Al fahim

What a dodgy cnut that bloke is, rumours that he is looking to shift Pompey on, players not being paid, talk of the tax man now being involved at Pompey as well as insolvency experts, worse case scenario could mean Portsmouth being the first Premiership club to go bust.

Wtf happened there?,I couldn’t help sparing a thought for Pomepy supporters, what an absolute disaster this dodgy cashless take over has been with this conman at the helm.

Makes you realise just how lucky we as a club are to have such wealthy dignified owners in control, so glad this clown has nothing to do with our great club.

A very Memorable moment, endeared him to me forever ( not)

I would be very sad if Pompey were to be the 1st ever Prem club to go bust....
I was hoping that title would go to the rags.

Hang in there boys til next season and I'll get my wish.

If these brothers are already throwing money at the club to pay wages and debts they'll be fine.

This guy may be a complete fuckin idiot but he wouldn't have bought Pompey only for all his money (or investors money) to disappear into a black hole. Wasn't he the arab version of Alan Sugar on their apprentice? He must have some business sense. Didn't he broker the deal for us?

I'm sure that the press will be having a lot of fun with Portsmouth right now but any teething problems will be ironed out and the investment they get for the team, should they survive, will soon be making everyone else (except us and Chelski) very jealous.

That said, the guy does come across as a complete cock. I'm so glad he's nothing to do with us.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKL3030 ... 3?rpc=401&

Portsmouth's new owner Sulaiman al-Fahim is to sell the majority of his holding in the Premier League club to a member of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families, he was quoted as saying on Sunday.
The Observer said Al-Fahim told the newspaper that a deal with Ali al-Faraj, a property investor with a personal holding in petro-chemical giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), would be completed within days.

Speaking from Dubai, Al-Fahim told the paper: "I think by Monday or Tuesday he will be on board. His consortium will be a major shareholder. And I will keep a minority."

Al-Fahim is recovering from a kidney stones operation on Friday which meant he had to postpone a meeting with the consortium scheduled for Sunday in London, The Observer said.

"Due to my situation I will need rest and meet them on Monday," Al-Fahim said. "My lawyers are in discussion with the consortium lawyers."

Portsmouth's precarious financial position was underlined on Thursday when the league's bottom club announced the first-team squad and executive board had not been paid.


PROTRACTED TAKEOVER

Problems have arisen due to delays in refinancing the club by Al-Fahim, who completed his protracted takeover in August.

Last week the owner said he planned to inject 50 million pounds ($79.50 million) into the south-coast club to stabilise their financial position.

Al-Fahim told Sunday's Observer this finance would still be available, saying: "Still the club can have access to my new funding which will be ready in a few weeks -- the 50 million pounds announced."

Asked if he would still be chairman after the takeover, Al-Fahim said: "I have no idea who from the team will join the board. Next Tuesday we will have a clear picture.

"As I said I am there for the long term and it is good to have a few partners so if one decides to leave the other can buy more shares and the club is always safe. Therefore, I will be ready to invest more."

Agree with that Slim......a bit similar to the Sheikh bankrolling our signing of Robinho prior to actually having completed the purchase from Thaksin

It has been a terrible shitshow of an affair for the last 12 months for Pompey.....ever since they won the FA Cup things have been on a seemingly terminal downward spiral.

One thing I think should hopefully come as a lesson from this is that the PL give some serious thought to the approval processes for new owners. I don't know quite how you could do it but there should be some requirement to prove funds available for the purchase as well as some approval of the business plan and funding available post acquisition to prevent new owners either coming in who don't have sufficient funds or who plan to excessively hock the assets they acquire (ie. doing the kind of aggressive financing we have seen used with Liverpool and Man United....but on other clubs who cannot realistically service serious debt and have enough cash to continue to operate/invest (....ie Portsmouth currently have massive debts incurred by Gaydamak's regime that were not cleared as part of Al Fahim's takeover)).

The one positive to come for City is that Sulamain should now more frequently be referred to in the context of this Portsmouth fiasco rather than his involvement in the Sheikh's deal to buy City

hahahah, silver linings are fun.

I think he bought it to sell off at a nice profit or that was his original intention anyways but it all backfired horribly taking a lot longer than he thought to take it over and costing him a lot in the process.

Vhero wrote:I think he bought it to sell off at a nice profit or that was his original intention anyways but it all backfired horribly taking a lot longer than he thought to take it over and costing him a lot in the process.

Well that's just not true. He took over to try and show up the ADU group, proving he could do better than we could without him. I would be surprised if his money didn't dry up because you don't fuck around with Sheikh Mansour in his own sandbox.

Slim wrote:

Vhero wrote:I think he bought it to sell off at a nice profit or that was his original intention anyways but it all backfired horribly taking a lot longer than he thought to take it over and costing him a lot in the process.

Well that's just not true. He took over to try and show up the ADU group, proving he could do better than we could without him. I would be surprised if his money didn't dry up because you don't fuck around with Sheikh Mansour in his own sandbox.

I agree about that mate but after thinking about this maybe he bought the team on somebody else money as a frontman to pass the prems fit and proper persons test because they couldn't? I mean theres talk of him getting an investor now into the team. Maybe they are the real buyers of Portsmouth but they are so dodgy there's no way the prem would have allowed them to buy the team.

It could well be he is trying to do what Shinawatra did.... albeit with spending fuck all. If he gets a nice pay off from these new investors that's all he'll care about.

Expect him to have nothing to do with the club by next summer. Then we'll know for sure.

I had a serious hatred towards them when twitchy was there, but now its sad to see them in this position.

Here is the real story. He wasnt supposed to be alone in this. He was leading a group of businessmen for the takeover and they backed off in the last minute.

I can't ever see a prem club going bust, things are always worked somehow. Even skint 3rd division clubs get by and survive somehow. Was it Aldershot who were the last league club to officially go under ... they certainly didn't die eh?

ant london wrote:Agree with that Slim......a bit similar to the Sheikh bankrolling our signing of Robinho prior to actually having completed the purchase from Thaksin

It has been a terrible shitshow of an affair for the last 12 months for Pompey.....ever since they won the FA Cup things have been on a seemingly terminal downward spiral.

One thing I think should hopefully come as a lesson from this is that the PL give some serious thought to the approval processes for new owners. I don't know quite how you could do it but there should be some requirement to prove funds available for the purchase as well as some approval of the business plan and funding available post acquisition to prevent new owners either coming in who don't have sufficient funds or who plan to excessively hock the assets they acquire (ie. doing the kind of aggressive financing we have seen used with Liverpool and Man U***d....but on other clubs who cannot realistically service serious debt and have enough cash to continue to operate/invest (....ie Portsmouth currently have massive debts incurred by Gaydamak's regime that were not cleared as part of Al Fahim's takeover)).

The one positive to come for City is that Sulamain should now more frequently be referred to in the context of this Portsmouth fiasco rather than his involvement in the Sheikh's deal to buy City

Some good points in there mate.

The thing is with the FA they are obsessed with the “fit and proper person side” of deals whilst ignoring the business plan and the implications for the Club and the supporters, like you say there should be some sort of safe guard with guarantees to avoid situations like this.

What ever the reason for the mess at Pompey it is obvious this deal what was not all it seems and the club will be lucky to avoid relegation this season as a direct result of the long drawn out process.

I think this is simple (or is it me)
This boy was employed to front the takeover of City and he had backers in the bag.
Either he has done the same with Portsmouth or he knows of potential buyers and wants some of the profit rather than a salary this time round.
It will all come out in the wash over the next few weeks.