Portsmouth News 24/7
Writer: pompeyrug 
Date:Sunday October 4 2009
Time: 8:51AM
UK time is: 09:01:57
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New owners for Pompey...again!
The 'reports' that we could be set for investment from the Faraj brothers, or even the complete takeover of the Saudi's from SAF has grown and grown - none more so in light of the latest financial developments towards the end of the week, with it seeming as though the Faraj's bailed us out.
According to The News on Saturday evening the brothers had agreed a deal with SAF that will see them take over this week, having already passed the 'fit and proper test', although SAF will retain a 10% stake in the club and keep an 'non-executive chairman' role.
The Mirror has Peter Storrie quoted as telling them: 'it was imperative that something had to be done to safeguard the future of this club.
'Portsmouth were completely skint and when it appeared funding from Sulaiman Al Fahim wouldn't arrive in time to stop the club from being put into a perilous situation we had to do something.
'Financial director Tanya Robins and I have worked round the clock to put this deal together.
'It's important to point out that this wasn't about any individual or consortium, it was about saving this club from going out of business.
'After prolonged talks with Ali Al-Faraj we eventually came to a solution and subject to all the legal issues being sorted out, I am confident the deal should go through early next week.
'I must say that for all the criticism he has faced, Sulaiman Al Fahim has been very supportive and realised that there was no other alternative.'
Until we know a deal is done, it is officially announced and we see some actions follow words that will inevitably be given - assuming this goes through - we never know what is what, although things seem a lot more positive at least, right?
SAF, himself being quoted in The Observer - with what they say is an exclusive - feels this will be done early this week, maybe tomorrow: 'I think by Monday or Tuesday he will be on the board. His consortium will be a major shareholder. And I will keep a minority.
'Due to my situation I will need rest and meet them on Monday. My lawyers are in discussion with the consortium lawyers.'
SAF also said that he will still give the club 'access to my new funding which will be ready in a few weeks - the £50m announced,' but also intends to stay on the board and continue to invest money and attend games, as he had become a fan.
What I would say, again assuming SAF finally does move aside - saying finally seems odd, given he has only 'officially' been our owner for around a month - or at least in majority terms lets just keep our criticism of him in check.
Yep the guy has been a plonker, or come across as one at times - although I think others have helped him look more like this at times - and does little to help himself but the most important thing that I think we must remember is he is not the one that got us into the mess we are in, his failings are thinking running a club was 'easy' when it was not and finding himself getting dragged in deeper and deeper, without the ability to find a solution to problems. We can blame him for not getting us out of this mess, but lets not blame him for others people's faults!
Although, whatever, lets just hope we can really start focusing on the future now and see this an easier one and of course that brighter one we had been hoping for...
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Your Comments
Oh Happy Days!
Maybe just maybe we are turning the corner and our bleak outlook can now be be filled with sunshine!
pompeymac
It's great news for the club infrastructure, we can do nothing about the team until January though we can now afford an assistant manager, a manager and the role I suspect Hart might "climb to" fairly soon- director of football. Ali AlF is worth a cash cool 700 mill and can finance that, and more, as he has property and share in the Saudi state oil company. Whisper it quietly but we could be looking at new stadium and training ground quite quickly; we could about to be - in the MONEY! Hope SAF gets well soon, It seems he is still going to put money in and the deal couldn't have been done without him.
russellm
Three battling finally on the board, players wages sorted, and now this! Dare we say hats off again to Mr Storrie?
Tantona
Finally I hope the AALF consortium are succesfull in their £30 million pursuit of Gaydamak Snr; wouldn't that be Pompey to get that money as investment.
russellm
Just waking up to all this .. Haven't we been here before ?? ... Fingers crossed not another false dawn..
Chix
Well, I woke up to this, this morning, but in all truth, I had predicted that something this would happen a short while back. I thought These brothers would be still in the picture. It does make me wonder if it is not all a scam to get the club out of Gaydamaks hands. If you think about it, didn’t SAF head up the City takeover initially, only for it to be Nahem Bros...I wonder if this could be a similar type of thing. What does worry me is that ...well....was'nt there a flurry of bets on droopy draws leaving Spuds, and a rumour he was coming back to his "Spiritual Home"...to coin a phrase .. what Spirtual Home?!!! "TOSH!!!" ..Spitual Home..Pah!..his in the bank.
Any way…it looks as if it might all end up OK…and we Won.
We have had a penalty given against us that wasn’t a pen, and one denied yesterday that was… one daw lost, and one avoided, that makes it 1 point to profit, by my calculations.
plymouth graham
There is also the Gaydamak Snr malign influence to be considered. I need to correct the comment about AALF above, he is a shareholder in the Saudi state chemical and mineral company SABIC, which as you all know does not trade in oil.
russellm
Here's hoping, and a message to all you uncounted chickens out there: "Leave me alone, cos I ain't counting you till all this is over"!!
BarneyArmy
Graham, Rug and I checked some while back and for what it means SAF hasn't kept a controlling interest in any of his aqusitions for more than 3 years; long term isn't his thing. So your hunch was probably right.
russellm
Cue everyone getting excited about a ridiculous flurry of money. It's not going to happen, anyone which poured silly money into this club at the moment would need their brain examining. We need to get the 'infrastructure' ;-) sorted first.
I was listening to Radio 5 earlier this morning and they were talking to Al Fahim's 'spokesman' who was denying all knowledge of a deal going through and was making out that Al Fahim was ploughing on.
What surprises me is Al Fahim is supposed to be the 4th most influential Arabian accoring to Arabian Business magazine, which makes me think that the comment above on all of this being a front for the Al Faraj seem more realistic. Maybe he had to make everything at the club seem terrible to try and remove Gaydamak's influence (he supposedly can veto a takeover still?!)
stooH
Well let's hope so. We are a dead duck under the 'ownership' of Dr camel breath. I was gutted when Storrie's consortium didn't win & here's hoping it now does.
storagematt
..... and rug's dad always said the plots of Dream Team were too fantastic to be believed, centre stage Pompey FC to make him eat his words. Hey, perhaps they could generate some money selling the story copyright to the telly? ;o)
rugsmum
Stragematt..." Camel Breath?"...that's a racist remark and I for one think you are OUT OF ORDER.
plymouth graham
again, i - like graham - do think the 'camel breath' thoughts are uncalled for and do show a lack of respect... as i keep saying, for all SAF's faults it is not his fault we are in the mess we are in so lets remember not to shovel all the blame onto him.
pompeyrug
I've had enough of "camel breath" as well. Casual racism on Vital Portsmouth, lovely. What are you going to call the Faraj brothers?
Pompeyscum
Anyone know just how rich the brothers are?
footy_fans
This is excellent news. I hope we turn out like man city but spend the money carefully and not chuck £40 mill at every player.This is where our new chaptr starts. I heard the quay said something bout HH maybe a return ????
Football_Casual
Saf has done the decent thing and we can all thank him for that, regardless of his shortcomings, which I am not so charitable about. I think he cud see the porperty development and it was greed that drove him. However, if Rug says there were things he wasn't told and only found out the deal,then I defer to Rug's knowledge which is bound to be better than mine. So thank you Saffy, hope you get well soon.
Gandor1
i think this is great news!! however i am greatful for what al fahim has done in his short time as our owner, as you cant forget although he didnt have the money to do alot he did stop us going under so you cant complain there and i guess he learned quickly which is fantastic better him do that than hold onto it and put us in a bad position again..
thabuch
Interesting stuff on Sunday Supplement on Sky this a.m. about Wobblechops, Storrie and Milan and the (first) sale of Crouch. Looks like if Wobblechops goes down, then PS will go with him. Wobblers was gettin 10% rake-off from every transfer and putting it in offshore account and then denying it was a rake-off saying it was a loan from Milan! All three men have completely different accounts of where the money came from and the tax people are going have their plums for ear-rings.
hammersmithblue
i cant find anything about the Faraj bros online...also, the firm he has a stake in SABIC is 70% owned by the government, but they did make $333.000+ USD last year so he must have a few quid...more than me any way
plymouth graham
This is a great news. Strangely enough, this is something that Rug was almost sure that it will happen when SaF took control. I am feeling that this has been in place for a long time now: I think that SaF coming abroad was simple; just an excuse to get rid of Sascha. So this might have been a great plan, all behind the scenes... and as always, for the better of Portsmouth Football Club. Peter Storrie plays a major role.
Pompey Malta
If theres anything I've learned the last few months it's that nothing's done and dusted until it is. But this does sound like good news, and we really really need it to come off. But does anybody know anything about the Al Faraj brothers? Its all very well celebrating them coming in, but who are they, do they have money? Also doesn't anybody who puts in a 10%+ stake into the club have to pass the fit and proper person test? Which would apply to Al-Fahim's £50 million, as well as any buy out by the Al Faraj consortium - wouldn't it?
tracyc
Can we stop the racism on here please? Matt's not the only one. We don't need that sort of cr4p on here.
ninjatim
Apologies for camel line!!!
storagematt
Whilst I certainly hope this latest takeover happens, I gotta wonder just what is it these fantastically wealthy Faraj brothers see in Pompey? If you're in the market for a premier league club then wouldn't Newcastle be a better bet? ok, they're not currently in the prem but they've got a damn good chance of coming back up and a much bigger ground than FP which means more revenue.
Squee
It is very good to hear that we may have some new investment coming onboard, I for one feel that even if this all goes through quickly we will not begin to see any real investment/development for quite a while, it is terribly exciting tho, Now lets concentrate on Forty points...Otherwise I wont see any games next year, and I just cant have that!!!!!!!! PUP....Well done Peter Storrie
NZ_Portsmuff
Squee...As sherlock Holmes once said- as evryoneknows he was the founder member of the PFC London supporters club-
all our recent owners and possible owners are PROPERTY/REAL ESTATE people. Pompey have a lot of prime building land either houses or suppermarkets, or a combination of both. The problem is the football club. so potential profits could be large maybe, but the housing crash affected this plan. I worry if this then led to a planned winding down of the club, insolvency and sell the land?
However, the market is picking up, boom follows bust, and now the land value is on the up again and this might be at the root of interest in the club.
Which is precisely why nobody is interested in newcastle-no where to nake a property buck. to be honest, if a football minded investor wanted to become an abramovich, there a a ton of clubs like Leeds, SWFC, and Wolves and West Ham that have massive potential....Money/Profit, its just Buisness thats why
plymouth graham
Cheers for that Plymouth.... kinda seems that any potential money made in property could/would easily get gobbled up with the football side of things and wipe out any profit. But then again, as you say, we've just had a bust so the race is on to grab some more land in preparation for the next boom. But do you really think there is THAT much money to be made from property? Bearing in mind that one months PFC wages was around the mill mark these property fellas would have to build and sell at quite a rate and then the land would run out...
Squee
As the property market picks up the project at Horsea Island becomes more viable. Especially as the South East Regional Plan from SEERA is calling for the whole of the south coast to be concreted over from Southampton to Folkstone within the next 20 to 30 years. So obtaining land in this area is a good idea, certainly when the market is low. Also by building more houses you increase your potential customer base. Add to that getting the development paid for by Tescos and the like and a tidy sum will be made. The developers like to make a quick buck but they also bank the land for future development. The club is located in a prime spot, no further land available in the city, so yes I'm sure that's a major reason for the investment.
Lemmi
what is SEERA?
SSN are saying players have not been paid, and Faraj denies being part of SABIC, but to be a part of FALCONDRONE....guess what!...its a Property Company.....I feel very un easy.
plymouth graham
South East England Regional Assembly - SEERA, unelected body . I saw that about Falcondrone, wasn't SAFs company called Falcon? Hmmm something going on here.
Lemmi
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