Is 'Sinatra' eyeing a new football club?

photo : manchestercity evening news

While the Thai government has been desperately looking for the man so he can serve his two-year jail sentence, Thaksin was recently caught in the spotlight of the British media over an alleged football club takeover.

Thaksin, who sold Manchester City to the Abu Dhabi United Group for £210 million (Bt11.5 billion) last year, was linked to the Portsmouth football club deal offered by Dubai-based billionaire Sulaiman al-Fahim.

Al-Fahim, a property magnate, was the frontman for the United Arab Emirates' Sheikh Mansour in the Manchester City sale. This time, however, al-Fahim himself bid for Portsmouth.

Though he said he has the money to acquire the club with investment being raised through Falcon Equity, a network of Asian and Mid-East investors, questions are still being asked about the takeover's funding.

"Who is buying Portsmouth?" was a headline in Britain's The Sun tabloid, which noted a "mystery finance company" known as Falcon Equity had been created to seek other "heavyweight investors" for the deal.

The bidding, so far, is doubtful leading to speculation that Thaksin might be one of al-Fahim's financiers. Pairoj Piempongsant was the man who pointed Portsmouth club to al-Fahim. Pairoj, as a senior adviser to Thaksin, also oversaw the Manchester City dealings.

However, al-Fahim has denied that the former Manchester City club's owner was part of the consortium planning to buy Portsmouth.

There may be some grounds to this denial because Thaksin cannot be considered a "fit and proper" person to own an English football club because he was convicted for corruption last October. If the man, dubbed "Sinatra" by fans of the Sky Blues, is really eyeing another football club he will have to use a nominee - his usual tactic when it comes to business.

This time, however, it may be difficult to do even that. Under the new rules governing the ownership of football clubs, the Premier League will demand to know the identity of all investors and make it available to the public.

After all, league's chief executive Richard Scudamore has said: "We should know and the public should know and the fans should know who owns their club."

Obviously, al-Fahim's bid for Portsmouth will be the first to fall under the policy.