{"id":24006,"date":"2012-11-24T15:59:25","date_gmt":"2012-11-24T11:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=24006"},"modified":"2012-11-25T00:03:25","modified_gmt":"2012-11-24T20:03:25","slug":"bahrain-makes-splash-in-english-football-gdn-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-sports-news-and-analysis\/bahrain-makes-splash-in-english-football-gdn-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Bahrain in English Football Coup’: GDN Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Middle East investment in English football is set to increase with the imminent sale of Leeds United to a Gulf investment company.<\/p>\n

Leeds United has an illustrious history. In its heyday between 1965 and 1974, the club won many trophies under the management of Don Revie. The Leeds style was, shall we say, robust. Two of its hardest men were captain Billy Bremner, and defender Norman \u201cbite yer legs\u201d Hunter. Here\u2019s an example of Hunter\u2019s not very pacific style, where he meets his match in the equally combative Francis Lee of Derby County:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=V8kxMnc5KUs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whatever you might have thought about Leeds\u2019 style, which was not so unusual for the time \u2013 this was the era of Chelsea\u2019s \u201cChopper\u201d Harris, and Manchester United\u2019s fearsome Nobby Stiles \u2013 they played great football. These days, the club\u2019s reputation for robustness has been long expunged, though still remembered by those of us who followed the game in those days with a gruesome fondness.<\/p>\n

After Revie\u2019s departure, the club went into a decline that, despite a revival in the 90s, \u00a0ended with it going into administration in 2007 and the newly-constituted club being relegated into the third tier of English Football.\u00a0The current owner is Ken Bates, who had previously sold Chelsea to Roman Abramovich.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the odd thing from the perspective of a resident of Bahrain. When the possibility of the deal was first announced, our local English language daily, the Gulf Daily News, was keen to emphasise the Bahraini connection:<\/p>\n

A DUBAI-BASED private equity firm, GFH Capital Limited, is in the final stages of sealing a deal for a possible takeover of Leeds United. It is a subsidiary of the Bahraini investment bank Gulf Finance House. (Gulf Daily News 25\/9\/12)<\/p>\n

The day after that story appeared, the GDN enthusiastically proclaimed the Bahraini antecedents of the GFH Capital Board:<\/p>\n

POTENTIAL takeover of British football club Leeds United by Dubai-based GFH Capital has a distinctly Bahraini flavour.<\/p>\n

Not only is GFH Capital an affiliate of Bahrain\u2019s Gulf Finance House (GFH), but one board member who reportedly attended a game at the club\u2019s Elland Road stadium on Saturday is a Bahrain University graduate, while another worked for GFH in Bahrain.<\/p>\n

Prior to joining GFH Capital, board member Salem Patel was an executive director at GFH in Bahrain, while Hisham Alrayes obtained a Bachelor\u2019s degree with honours in electrical engineering from Bahrain University before embarking on a distinguished banking career.<\/p>\n

Mr Alrayes\u2019 other roles include the chief investment office position at GFH in Bahrain, chairmanships at Bahrain\u2019s Cemena Holding Company and Gulf Holding Company, as well as board memberships in companies including Bahrain Aluminum Extrusion Company and Naseej Development Co. (Gulf Daily News 26\/9\/12)<\/p>\n

Yesterday came the announcement that the deal was done. Mysteriously, though, the GDN referred to the buyer as \u201cCapital Limited\u201d. The GFH bit had disappeared, and the story makes no connection between the buyer and Bahrain:<\/p>\n

Dubai-based Capital has signed a deal to buy former English soccer champions Leeds United, the latest foreign group to invest in one of the clubs with hopes of promotion to the lucrative Premier League.<\/p>\n

Leeds were one of the top names in English soccer in the 1970s and won the Premier League in 1992 but are now struggling in the second-tier Championship. \u201cThe signing of this deal marks the start of a one-month transitional period in terms of full change in ownership and control of the club,\u201d the Yorkshire club said in a statement on its website.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing Football League approval, Capital Limited will be 100 per cent shareholders,\u201d it added. Leeds majority shareholder Ken Bates will remain as chairman until the end of the season and will then become club president. (Gulf Daily News 22\/11\/12)<\/p>\n

Leeds United\u2019s website does mention the full name of the acquiring company<\/a>, but not the Bahraini connection.<\/p>\n

I find it strange that the GDN should seem to\u00a0be downplaying GFH\u2019s and Bahrain\u2019s connection with the takeover. GFH is a respectable Bahraini financial institution. Bahrainis are mad about football, and I\u2019m sure would welcome the opportunity to follow the fortunes of an alternative to the usual suspects \u2013 clubs like Arsenal, Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Investment in sport is not a novelty for the Kingdom. Mumtalakat, the sovereign wealth fund, owns a\u00a0major stake in McLaren, the leading\u00a0Formula One motor racing team. Arsenal runs a well-regarded football school here.
\n<\/p>\n

The GDN\u2019s utterances are rarely accidental. So why, I wonder, the sudden coyness? I should have thought that\u00a0this is the kind of good news story that all parties would be glad to shout from the rooftops. Oh well, good luck to Leeds. I hope the deal leads to a swift return to the Premier League, where they can resume their fierce rivalry with the great powers of English football.<\/p>\n

PS: Today\u2019s edition of the GDN, which I\u2019ve just seen,\u00a0fully acknowledges the Bahrain connection<\/a>, so why the coyness in yesterday\u2019s edition? Curiouser and curiouser\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEVE ROYSTON: You would have thought that the role of a respected Bahrain financial house in the purchase of an English football team would have been cause for celebration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":24007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,154,173,482,7],"tags":[18303,1654,3609,197,2047,338,925,15215,7012,1650,9412,15285,15211,15293,3784,1808,3155,9911],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}