Indians Buy Blackburn Rovers...

Rebajlo

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Blackburn Rovers have been purchased by the Indian Rao family. See story below:




Rao family buy Blackburn Rovers from Jack Walker Trust

Blackburn have been bought by the Rao family in a £43m deal to become the first Indian-owned Premier League club.


The new owners acquired Rovers' shares for £23m with a debt of about £20m also taken on, BBC Sport understands.
A trust set up by the late former owner Jack Walker to own the club has sold its 99.9% holding to the newly-formed company Venky's London Limited.

"The Blackburn board has completed all necessary processes outlined in our rule book," said the Premier League.


Trust chairman Paul Egerton-Vernon said: "We're very pleased to be passing on the Rovers to the Rao family."


The Venky's brand was initially founded in India as a poultry firm.


Egerton-Vernon continued: "We have been impressed with their enthusiasm and their plans and ideas for investment as well as their wish to preserve the legacy of Jack Walker."
Venky's chairman Anuradha J Desai said the company was "delighted, proud and humbled to be associated with Blackburn Rovers".

He added: "We will absolutely respect the Jack Walker legacy and will be actively supporting the organisation to ensure that Blackburn Rovers remains one of the best-run clubs within the Premier League.



"We are particularly pleased that the deal has the full support of the Walker Trust, the chairman and the management team, who will of course remain in place with our full support."
The new owners believe their experience in India means they will be able to open a huge new market for the Lancashire outfit.

Venky's director Balaji Rao said the firm intends to "exploit our in-depth knowledge of the Indian market in particular, and beyond that, the whole of Asia" to develop the club's fan base.

However, manager Sam Allardyce has urged the fans to temper expectations, saying: " He said: "You've got to keep to the reality.


"We all know we have been short of a bit of investment in the last few years.


"Since the trust has tried to sell the club they haven't been willing to fund the sort of transfers needed to keep the club improving.


"[But] people will go off mentioning we're after Torres or Drogba and in terms of investment, rather than huge sums of money, it will be relatively moderate.


"We will improve the squad but we will have to be diligent in our research to get the right player and spend the money wisely."
According to its website Venky's was established in 1976, mainly to produce chicks for the Indian poultry market, before diversifying into other areas including nutritional health products for humans, pet food and other healthcare products.



The Jack Walker Trust put Blackburn up for sale two years ago in the hope of attracting buyers willing to invest.


Blackburn are 14th in the Premier League, only two points above the relegation places after picking up four victories in 13 games.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/b/blackburn_rovers/9210221.stm

The "English" Premier League is becoming less "English" by the millisecond. The Blackburn takeover means that 10 of the 20 current Premier League clubs are foreign-owned:

Arsenal: Stan Kroenke (American) / Alisher Usmanov (Russian Uzbek) are the majority shareholders of Arsenal Holdings plc

Aston Villa: Randy Lerner (American Jew)

Brimingham City: Carson Yeung (Hong Kong Chinese)

Chelsea: Roman Abramovich (Russian Jew)

Fulham: Mohamed Al Fayed (Egyptian)

Liverpool: John W. Henry (American) / Tom Werner (American Jew)

Manchester City: Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan (United Arab Emirates)

Manchester United: Glazer family (American Jews)

Sunderland: Ellis Short (American)

That's before one takes the "British" Jews into account...
 

icsept

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The Kinks said it best in the 80's, "there's no England anymore". I'm an American with a British heritage, always loved British comedy and music even before I knew where my great grandparents resided. Now, the most common male baby name in England is "Mohammed". Sad.Edited by: icsept
 

Europe

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Why can't all these people stay in their own country and invest in their own country. Why not start an Indian league? They'll be about 20 players from England in the EPL,no BPL, in an few years,half won't even be of European heritage and half the fans in the stands will be from some place else.It's a travesty.

The new Liverpool owner said he wants to play games outside of England also. What is going to be left?
 

Rebajlo

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Another disturbing fact is that the two clubs which are currently on top of the League Championship are also Asian-owned.
Cardiff City are owned by Malaysians Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chi Tioun and Datuk Chan Tien Ghee (both of whom are - surprise, surprise - ethnically Chinese), while Indian Lakshmi Mittal (of "Cash for Influence" fame) is the largest shareholder of Queens Park Rangers.
 

Rebajlo

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Another Indian takeover, this time in Spain.I saw the story in the Polish media this morning and this is the first English-language article I googled up:

<DIV id=hd name="hd">If you can't get EPL, buy into La Liga
<DIV name="hd">
<DIV name="hd">Madrid, Jan. 21 (Reuters): A Bahrain-based businessman has become the second Indian to own a premier-division European football club.
<DIV name="hd">
Ahsan Ali Syed has completed the purchase of Racing Santander â€" now placed 14th among the 20 clubs in Spain's La Liga â€" his office said today without giving any financial details.
French news agency AFP had reported yesterday that Syed, founder and chairperson of investment company Western Gulf Advisory, planned to buy the indebted club for 30-40 million euros (Rs 184-246 crore).
Last October, Syed had failed in an attempt to buy the English Premier League (EPL) club Blackburn Rovers, which was acquired by the Pune-based Venkateshwara Hatcheries.
Having lost to an Indian opponent, Syed will now have to contend on the field with a Gulf rival: a member of the Qatari royal family bought Racing's La Liga rivals Malaga last May.
"Football is not only an investment for me but my personal passion,"Â￾ AFP quoted Syed as saying yesterday.
Today, he said: "I look forward to an active and long-term commitment to this great club and will invest all my knowledge and financial strength to elevate the club to the highest level of success in Spain and Europe."Â￾
For a "great club"Â￾, Racing has a modest record. It has never won the league in its 98-year history and its best finish in the past 75 years has been sixth position in 2007-08, when it qualified for the Uefa Cup. It finished 16th last season, just escaping relegation, which threatens this year again.
Western Gulf Advisory's website says Syed "considers himself and his company to be experts in turnaround stories"Â￾. It says Syed is "a financial adviser to sovereign wealth, royalty, as well as many high net worth individuals"Â￾.

Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110122/jsp/frontpage/story_13478303.jsp
 

Matra1

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Ahsan Ali Syed has completed the purchase of Racing Santander

As I type I'm watching Racing Santander losing to Barcelona - a team owned by the fans. From Wikipedia: Along with Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, and Osasuna, Barcelona is organised as a registered association. Unlike a limited company, it is not possible to purchase shares in the club, but only membership. The members of Barcelona, called socis, form an assembly of delegates which is the highest governing body of the club. As of 2010 the club has 170,000 socis.
 

Rebajlo

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Getafe football club bought by Dubai-based group
Spain's Getafe football club has been bought by the Royal Emirates Group.


The group - chaired by a member of Dubai's ruling Al-Maktoum family - bought the La Liga club for "between 70 and 90m euros" (£79m, $131m), it said.


The purchase "will push Getafe to the highest level in domestic and European competition", club president Angel Torres said.
The Madrid-based club is the third in Spain's top flight to be bought by Gulf-based buyers.


The other two are Malaga, bought by Qatari billionaire Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani, and Racing Santander, now owned by Dubai-based Indian tycoon Ahsan Ali Syed.
Aiming high


As part of the deal, Getafe will now add the tag line "Team Dubai" to its crest.


"For the coming year, we are definitely going to secure a position in the top six," Royal Emirates managing director Kaiser Rafiq said.


"Our vision is to now beat Real Madrid," the group also said.


Getafe finished sixth last season, but is struggling this year.


The team currently lies 14th in the table with 37 points. Local rivals Real Madrid are second with 77 points.


The club, in Madrid's suburbs, attract the lowest attendances in La Liga.


Real Madrid are at the top of the league table of the world's 20 richest football clubs for the sixth straight year, according to an annual study by the accountants Deloitte, which was published earlier this year.


A separate report from Sporting Intelligence has said that Barcelona and Real Madrid have the highest paid players in world sport. They are on more than $7m (£4.3m) a year, on average.


Foreign ownership in football is a growing trend. In England, nine out of 20 teams in the Premier League are already foreign owned, and US businessman Stan Kroenke has recently made a bid for Arsenal.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13158185


The buy-outs continue...
 

Rebajlo

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I forgot to post this earlier, when Qatar Sports Investmentsbought 70% ofParis Saint-Germain on 31 May. The reach of the Arabs' tentacles is ever-widening...


<H1 =test1>PSG football club seals deal with Qatari investors</H1>



PARIS (AP) -- Qatar Sports Investments acquired a 70 percent ownership stake in Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.
Paris city hall made the announcement in a statement.



PSG said its American owner, Colony Capital, will keep 30 percent of the shares. Financial terms of the deal were not announced.


QSI was set up in 2005 by Qatari prince Sheik Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani. The fund's previous investments include a golf club and health spa in Doha.


PSG, which will play in next season's Europa League, added "this new partnership is aimed at guaranteeing the development and the growth of the PSG on a long-term basis."


PSG has struggled in recent years because of poor results and hooliganism but managed to win the French Cup last year and placed fourth in the French league this season.


The deal marks the latest in a series of investments by oil-rich Gulf investors into European football clubs.


A Dubai business group last month said it agreed to pay at least $100 million for Spanish club Getafe. The investors, who were not backed by the emirate's government, plan to add the words "Team Dubai" to the club's shirts, stadium and other merchandise.


Another member of the Qatari ruling family bought Spanish club Malaga last year. The family has also been rumored to be interested in Manchester United, but the English Premier League club's owners aren't willing to sell.


In 2008, Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, took over that team's rival, Manchester City.


Tiny Qatar ranks as one of the world's richest countries per capita. It is the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas -- a major source of the OPEC member's wealth.
Source: http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/PSG-football-club-seals-deal-apf-2637113142.html?x=0&amp;.v=1
 
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