Sulaiman al-Fahim to pump £50m into Portsmouth

zoom

SULAIMAN AL-FAHIM: Portsmouth owner pledges to put £50 million into football club. (Getty Images)

Portsmouth’s UAE-based owner, Sulaiman al-Fahim, has pledged to inject £50 million into the Premier League club within the next month as it looks to stabilise its finances and move forward.

At a meeting with fans on Friday night al-Fahim also gave his backing to under fire manager Paul Hart.

Al Fahim attended the meeting as rumours circulated that the club was about to go into administration.

"As I sit here with you, these reports and rumours are factually incorrect. The continued rumours are also deeply misleading and damaging to the club's interests to the point where they are threatening to undermine the viability of the club and are damaging my efforts to secure financial stability.

''I can assure you that there is a plan in place backed by firm commitments that will bring £50 million into the club over the next three to four weeks. A large team of people is working on these arrangements as I speak. The credit facilities are backed by stand-by letters of credit from international institutions," the Guardian reported.

While the club has substantially eased its debt problems following player sales in the summer, including Peter Crouch, Glen Johnson and Niko Kranjcar, more work clearly needs to be done.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

50 Million
Posted by scott Banks, Portsmouth, England on Monday 28 September 2009 at 19:12 UAE time


Lets all take a reality check, if you want to own a premier league club such as Portsmouth you will need the following, Around 125 million for a new stadium, another 5 million at least for decent training facilities, along with another 25 to 50 million to buy players of real quality, the injection of 50 million is well short of what is really needed.

£50 million - too late?
Posted by Peter Walsh, Portsmouth, UK on Sunday 27 September 2009 at 20:11 UAE time


Regrettably, the takeover by Al-Fahim was too long happening. The result being a severely depleted ability to purchase top-class players during the transfer window...and an inability to win matches.

The promised injection of £50 million, though necessary if Al-Fahim is to restructure the club's finances as he plans to do, has probably come too late to save the club from relegation...

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM