Soccer: Premiership playthings

SINCE Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in July hardly a day has gone by without speculation that some other premier league club will soon become the prey of another tycoon.

Where once the ownership of a football club was the wont of local businessmen keen to boost their profile in the town, now it seems English-top flight clubs have become the must-have plaything of super-rich foreigners.

Premier league champions Manchester United are the constant subject of takeover speculation as a raft of high-profile shareholders up their stakes in the glamorous club.

While many United fans feel threatened by the possibility of their club falling into the hands of American sports baron Malcolm Glazer, who raised his shareholding to 14.31% this week, smaller clubs look on enviously in the hope that someone similar will come in and solve their financial problems.

Manchester United are one of the richest clubs in the world. A profitable, debt-free business, they do not need a benefactor.

“The prospect of a full takeover is a big worry for us,” a spokesman for supporters’ group Shareholders United said.

However, Leeds United are on the brink of administration after accumulating debts of 80 million pounds ($138.3 million) and reporting annual pre-tax losses of almost 50 million.

Bottom of the premier league and staring relegation in the face, they must be desperate for Sheikh Abdulrahman Al Khalifa to go ahead and bid for the club.

The Sheikh, a member of Bahrain’s royal family, said last week he might make an offer for the debt-ridden club but on Wednesday Leeds said, for the second time this week, that they had received no approach.

Some investors had expected a wave of takeovers in English football after Abramovich’s remarkable purchase of Chelsea.

The 36-year-old Russian, whose fortune is estimated at $5.7 billion, paid 60 million pounds for the west London club in July, wiped out debts of nearly 90 million and has spent 110 million pounds on new players.

He said he had bought Chelsea to have fun but his investment is already paying dividends with Chelsea top of the premier league and through to the knockout phase of the lucrative European Champions League.

“I don’t want to throw my money away but it’s really about having fun and that means success and trophies,” Abramovich said at the time.

While Glazer is being pinpointed as a likely buyer of United, the high debts of most other clubs have made similar deals tricky.

Yet, this has not put an end to rumours.

Aston Villa, fourth from bottom of the premier league, have been linked with a possible takeover by a Venezuelan billionaire.

Villa said in September they had held talks with a potential investor but described the approach to buy shares in the club as “highly speculative”.

The 79-year-old chairman Doug Ellis, who has come in for much criticism from fans unhappy at his running of the club, could soon decide that enough is enough and sell up for the right price.

ALREADY a number of top-flight clubs are owned by wealthy benefactors, one of the most notable being Fulham.

Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al Fayed, who also owns west London department store Harrods, took over at Fulham in 1997 and his millions helped Chelsea’s near neighbours to move through the divisions until they won promotion to the premier league in 2001.

But even tycoons have their limits.

Al Fayed pulled the plug on plans to build a new stadium when costs soared to 100 million pounds and Abramovich, despite his raft of expensive summer signings at Chelsea, baulked at the price set by Inter Milan for striker Christian Vieri, according to media reports.