Portsmouth Press Speculation Becomes Outright Mud Slinging

Posted on | June 15, 2009 | No Comments

Well, we’ve seen a couple of ‘interesting’ articles about the proposed Portsmouth takeover over the weekend!

After reading and digesting, there doesn’t seem to be much to digest! The central revelation in Saturday’s article in The Sun by Shaun Custis, seems to be that a few people involved in running the Premier League and a couple of the clubs within it, actually know each other! 

Then there is Sunday’s News of the World article by Andy Dunne and Rob Shepherd, featuring Peter Crouch. Peter Storrie has called Crouch’s comments ‘disappointing’, which they are, but you can bet the journalists didn’t need much encouragement to turn them into another sensationalist article with Portsmouth Football Club as its target.

These people have made no secret of their intention to throw mud at Portsmouth at every opportunity. The best response, of course, is to sit tight, wait for the takeover to be completed, and watch the club go from strength to strength. 

Mike Hall puts it better than I ever could in his article today on the Pompey Rivals website. The main thrust of his article is to ask the question, ‘Why would Thaksin Shinawatra remain in the background, in secret, as the true owner of the club whilst unable to allow anyone to discover this?’. The very idea is ludicrous, especially when you consider that Al Fahim is considerably richer than Shinawatra in any case. 

In my mind, the issue was more to do with Shinawatra being one of a number of investors. However, it still doesn’t stack up. It could be argued that Shinawatra is the very person who caused the introduction of the Premier League’s ‘fit and proper person’ test in the first place! Why then would someone of the calibre of Al Fahim even take the idea of involving Shinawatra remotely seriously, knowing the takeover would be doomed to failure? Nice try Shaun, but no-one’s buying it I’m afraid.

For the flip side of the coin, the BBC today carries a report drawing heavily on quotes from Al Fahim’s spokesman, Ivo Ilic Gabara. See the full article here, but let’s just touch on some of the content.

Amongst other things, he says that the purchase is being made by Al Fahim Asia Associates, the Dr’s sole vehicle. I am sure that I heard the purchase was in the form of a consortium (and not just from The Sun!), but in any case Gabara goes on to say that if any investor ends up owning more than 10% of the club, full details will be disclosed, as per the rules. No ambiguity there, then. The Sun’s latest revelation today is that Hydra Properties is part of a group owned by the brothet of Manchester City owner, Sheikh Mansour. Well, Gabara addresses this in revealing that Al Fahim does not own a single share in Hydra Properties.

Unfortunately, we do seem to be in for a long wait with Al Fahim’s camp refusing to commit to a timescale for completion any shorter than ’some time in July’, but the spokesman does say that focus on the deal has become even more heightened recently.

The protracted timescale won’t help the current speculation, or the apparent insecurity of the players, but I will swap that any day for a squeaky clean (how could it be anything but?) completed takeover. I believe anyone except Glen Johnson jumping ship in the meantime will be losing more than they gain. My moneys’ still on Al Fahim.

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