City taken over by Arabs and to become richer than Chelsea

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/529580-a ... city?ln=en

Premier League football club Manchester City has been taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment (ABUG), Arabian Business can reveal.

The deal was struck late on Sunday night between the club’s former owner Dr Thaksin Shinawatra, former Prime Minister of Thailand, and ADUG.

ADUG will be represented on the new board of Manchester City by Hydra Properties CEO Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim.
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Al Fahim, who led negotiations, confirmed the deal had been struck on Monday. He told Arabian Business: “We will release details later, but this is a great event for both the club and Abu Dhabi.

"Our goal is very simple – to make Manchester City the biggest club in the Premier League, and to begin with, to finish in the top four this season.”

Al Fahim stressed that the Group will solve all the club problems and clear any pending payments, and will comprehensively support the club by bringing in some of the best football players in the world.

Manchester City’s future has been uncertain following legal problems faced in Thailand by Shinawatra, who will stay on as honorary president of the club without any administrative responsibilities.

It is understood that negotiations began three weeks ago, and were completed on Sunday night at Emirates Palace Hotel in Dubai.

The deal was signed in the presence of Al Fahim, a member of the Group board and the successful architect of the deal, Shinawatra and Dr Khalid Kadfour Al-Muhairy, the head of the Emirates Group for advocate and legal consultants.

After sealing the deal for one of England's best known and oldest clubs, ABUG hope it will reinforce Abu Dhabi's position as a capital of both sport and economics.

Al Fahim said: "We in Abu Dhabi United Company for Development and Investment are keen to develop ways to provide support and care for various sports activities to help build and develop a new generation of young State, which represents the real wealth and the future of this nation and the cornerstone for building the future of our civilisation.

"As embodied in our mission to open new horizons in all kinds of sports, it will enable them to enjoy healthy body and mind, thanks to the lessons we have learned from the wise leadership in Abu Dhabi."

He added: "We will adopt marketing plans that reflect positively on the club and the company from investments in all sectors of television marketing and purchasing of the stars players, as well as development of infrastructure facilities at the club."

The deal is a huge coup for Al Fahim. Through Hydra Properties he is already involved in several sports sponsorship deals, and is building a new football academy in Abu Dhabi with Italian soccer giants Inter Milan.

Manchester City was founded in 1880 under the name of "Marx Sent" (St. Marks), which was changed to "Pedro" (Ardwick AFC) in 1887. The current name was taken on in 1894.

The club has won the English League Championship twice, the FA Cup four times, the League Cup twice and the European Cup Winners Cup once.

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Apparently they have £28 BILLION !

Top 4 this season is abit ambitious given their squad.

Al Fahim said: "We in Abu Dhabi United Company for Development and Investment are keen to develop ways to provide support and care for various sports activities to help build and develop a new generation of young State, which represents the real wealth and the future of this nation and the cornerstone for building the future of our civilisation.

"As embodied in our mission to open new horizons in all kinds of sports, it will enable them to enjoy healthy body and mind, thanks to the lessons we have learned from the wise leadership in Abu Dhabi."

He added: "We will adopt marketing plans that reflect positively on the club and the company from investments in all sectors of television marketing and purchasing of the stars players, as well as development of infrastructure facilities at the club."

did they use babelfish translator or something...this makes absolutely no sense to me!

Yeah top 4 seems OTT but still £28 billion is pretty good !

Do you not have any slight worries about this deal...i.e. has it been rushed through because of Thaksin's problems? do you actually trust Thaksin? It all seems a bit sudden and vague...some magical group of Arabs come along with billions of pounds to bail you out on transfer deadline day. Maybe some big money transfer to come, in order to win over the fans instantly?

Man city for top4 now? Or will there be a top 5 now? Will MAnchester overtake London as football capital? What will happen to Spurs now?

Just because they have £28billion doesnt mean they want to spend it.

Rosicky wrote:Just because they have £28billion doesnt mean they want to spend it.

Well i dont think tey intend on getting us into the top 4 by buying bosmans and season long loans

people actually like to see their club whore themselves out to a foreign investor?

as poor and as Cr@p as Hibs are, I wouldn't like to see our club head in that direction.

Are these the same guys who wanted to by Liverpool ?

Calidad wrote:people actually like to see their club whore themselves out to a foreign investor?

as poor and as Cr@p as Hibs are, I wouldn't like to see our club head in that direction.

I used to like City, because they were a proper club : they stood for what football should be about and they had soul.

Well they sold that to the devil

Hip Hip Heurelho wrote:Are these the same guys who wanted to by Liverpool ?

No. That was DIC.

These guys apparently made enquiries about Arsenal as well.

In the end this is good news! And that with SWP back...life is good for us city fans.

I hope the new owners are also gonna build a new city..only for man!

Shame about Corluka though!

@HHH: No, the Liverpool interest is from a Dubai company, this one is different.


@debaser: The announcement may be sudden but I don't think it's actually been that way. Thaksin has apparently been looking for alternative investment throughout the summer, and it leaked out to the press a couple of weeks back when talk of the "fit and proper" test cropped up again.

Great news for the only club in Manchester, hopefully they can eclipse their Salford rivals with all this cash

debaser wrote:Do you not have any slight worries about this deal...i.e. has it been rushed through because of Thaksin's problems? do you actually trust Thaksin? It all seems a bit sudden and vague...some magical group of Arabs come along with billions of pounds to bail you out on transfer deadline day. Maybe some big money transfer to come, in order to win over the fans instantly?

Maybe
http://football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_4078607,00.html

kas wrote:@debaser: The announcement may be sudden but I don't think it's actually been that way. Thaksin has apparently been looking for alternative investment throughout the summer, and it leaked out to the press a couple of weeks back when talk of the "fit and proper" test cropped up again.

True, but I was thinking that it may have only originated from when Thaksin's wife got sentenced and he realized he was not going to get his money - which wasn't that long back, not a huge amount of time for multimillion pound deal.

And I had a quick browse of a City forum where they were speculating there'd be a big name, big money signing by the end of the day - the timing of this announcement suggests to me they've rushed it through so they could be in before the transfer deadline and get a massive PR coup from the off, in order to instantly win over fans. Of course, this is all speculation, I'm just a bit cynical about it because it involves Thaksin, lots of money and seems sudden. Maybe they are genuine football fans, but it sounds like they're doing it solely for investment/prestige reasons, putting money into the club will be a by-product of that, which will be good for the fans, but, like Thaksin, they don't sound like a good long-term bet (e.g. the mention of top 4 this season - will this mean Hughes goes the way of Sven if it doesn't happen?).

Judging by the amount of time Arab mangers give coaches of their National team, Hughes will be out before Xmas

kas wrote:

debaser wrote:Do you not have any slight worries about this deal...i.e. has it been rushed through because of Thaksin's problems? do you actually trust Thaksin? It all seems a bit sudden and vague...some magical group of Arabs come along with billions of pounds to bail you out on transfer deadline day. Maybe some big money transfer to come, in order to win over the fans instantly?

Maybe
http://football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_4078607,00.html

It'd be bizarre. Although, if they Man U deal isn't happening, with Berbatov burning his bridges at Spurs, maybe he'll go there - he could probably name his price for wages, if they're as rich as is suggested, and they're desperate for it to go through

We have more than you can sheikh a stick at !

Rumours going around our new guy has said we aim to sign someone for £30m before the deadline.....will believe it when i see it though.

Oh and he said look at Chelsea and X10...i hope that doesnt mean we are buying Shevchenko for £300m

If Man City will become the new Chelsea..who will become the new Zola then? There has to be a player from the old era in it, otherwise people might think those supporters are gloryhunters.

Yef wrote:If Man City will become the new Chelsea..who will become the new Zola then? There has to be a player from the old era in it, otherwise people might think those supporters are gloryhunters.

SWP, clearly

Sgoater1 wrote:Yeah top 4 seems OTT but still £28 billion is pretty good !

How much do they realistically want to invest though?

Mintal the Indian steel guy has shares in QPR and is worth £40 billion + but hasn't invested that much.

It depends if they want a profit or a toy.

Not a clever start...they put United in their group name and on their jersey

true fans

debaser wrote:

Yef wrote:If Man City will become the new Chelsea..who will become the new Zola then? There has to be a player from the old era in it, otherwise people might think those supporters are gloryhunters.

SWP, clearly

Hmmm..I think he will be the symbol of a new era.

debaser wrote:

kas wrote:

debaser wrote:Do you not have any slight worries about this deal...i.e. has it been rushed through because of Thaksin's problems? do you actually trust Thaksin? It all seems a bit sudden and vague...some magical group of Arabs come along with billions of pounds to bail you out on transfer deadline day. Maybe some big money transfer to come, in order to win over the fans instantly?

Maybe
http://football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_4078607,00.html

It'd be bizarre. Although, if they Man U deal isn't happening, with Berbatov burning his bridges at Spurs, maybe he'll go there - he could probably name his price for wages, if they're as rich as is suggested, and they're desperate for it to go through

I think Berbatov to Man City would have to be one of the funniest transfers ever.

In a strange, twisted way I would love to see it happen.

Maybe make a cheeky £70m for C.Ronaldo too.

Yef wrote:

debaser wrote:

Yef wrote:If Man City will become the new Chelsea..who will become the new Zola then? There has to be a player from the old era in it, otherwise people might think those supporters are gloryhunters.

SWP, clearly

Hmmm..I think he will be the symbol of a new era.

but he's a City old boy. Prodigal son returning home and all that. Dunne's the only other possibility but I don't think he has the style.

They will get bored in a Year's time