badmash
Well-Known Member
Nothing new but i did like 1 part of the article : )
Abu Dhabi owners put Man City on path of gold
By Mark Zeigler (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. January 7, 2009
Manchester City FC is an English soccer club that has long lived in the shadow of rival Manchester United. The Blues haven't won a major trophy since 1976, and twice in the past 12 years they were relegated to England's de facto second division. Once, they ignominiously dropped into the third.
Not a fan?
Well, you should be.
Because every time you buy gas in the United States, Japan or several other countries across the planet, you are indirectly supporting Manchester City FC. You are contributing to what, on paper at least, might be the world's wealthiest sports franchise.
Two summers ago, Man City was purchased by former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who de-listed it from the stock market and made it a private company. But Shinawatra ran into trouble back home – something about corruption charges – and had his bank accounts frozen. He needed to sell quickly, and last summer Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment plunked down a reported $300 million for the club founded in 1880.
Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment?
It is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose half-brother is the president of Abu Dhabi and whose royal family has turned the United Arab Emirates' vast oil reserves into a fortune worth, by some estimates, $1 trillion.
The transaction was consummated on the final day of soccer's summer transfer window. Within hours, Manchester City announced it had wrested 24-year-old Brazilian forward Robinho from Real Madrid for $48.5 million, a record transfer fee in England.
A shiver went through English soccer. Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich had bought Chelsea a few years earlier and brazenly poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the transfer market, but even he might not be in the same league as the family that controls eight percent of the planet's black gold.
That inked the deal to purchase Man City at the $3 billion Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi. That a few days earlier announced a $60 billion construction project. That started making noise about who it might sign in the next international transfer window, in January, and for how much.
Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Thierry Henry, Kaka, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Gianluigi Buffon, Fernando Torres, Fabio Cannavaro, Javier Mascherano, Roque Santa Cruz, Michael Owen – they all have been linked to Man City, either through speculation or legitimate sources.
So has Manchester United prize Cristiano Ronaldo, the 2008 World Player of the Year.
“Ronaldo has said he wants to play for the biggest club in the world, so we will see in January if he is serious,†Sulaiman Al-Fahim, the front man for the Abu Dhabi sheikh and his investment group, told arabianbusiness.com in September. “Real Madrid were estimating his value at $160 million but for a player like that, to actually get him, will cost a lot more – I would think $240 million.
“But why not? We are going to be the biggest club in the world, bigger than both Real Madrid and Manchester United.â€
Of course, the beauty of soccer is that wealthiest doesn't necessarily mean winningest.
Real Madrid tried it with its Galacticos experiment – hoarding David Beckham, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Raul on the same roster – and didn't have enough balls to go around. Abramovich and Chelsea have won English Premier League titles but not the coveted UEFA Champions League. AC Milan has assembled a triumvirate of Brazilian superstars and recently added Beckham on loan, and is currently nine points adrift of first place in Italy.
At 6-10-4, Manchester City is two points out of the EPL relegation zone and has won just one of its last nine league and cup matches. On Saturday, it proudly introduced its first January signing to home fans – left back Wayne Bridge from Chelsea for $15 million – then promptly lost to second-tier Nottingham Forest 3-0.
“There are a lot of people out there looking for us to fail,†City coach Mark Hughes told reporters. “We have struggled of late. We are a big story this year, obviously . . . We have to come to terms with that focus and the level of expectation that is on every game we play, deal with it and cope with it.â€
Hughes has pleaded patience, saying he probably needs “three transfer windows†to procure the kind of players he wants – solid, hard-working stars more interested in winning than a big payday. Man City management, for its part, has backed Hughes' vision and insists he is safe despite the dreary results.
In the meantime, transfer talk persists amid reports that Sheikh Mansour has allocated $150 million for the January window alone. In one breath, he insists they will “build a structure for the future, not just a team of all-stars.†In the next, he promises to buy “the best players in the world.â€
Says Noel Gallagher, the lead guitarist for British rock band Oasis and one of Man City's few celebrity supporters: “It's nice to know that every gallon of petrol a Manchester United fan buys is going into our transfer kitty.â€
Mark Zeigler: (619) 293-2205; (Contact)
Abu Dhabi owners put Man City on path of gold
By Mark Zeigler (Contact) Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. January 7, 2009
Manchester City FC is an English soccer club that has long lived in the shadow of rival Manchester United. The Blues haven't won a major trophy since 1976, and twice in the past 12 years they were relegated to England's de facto second division. Once, they ignominiously dropped into the third.
Not a fan?
Well, you should be.
Because every time you buy gas in the United States, Japan or several other countries across the planet, you are indirectly supporting Manchester City FC. You are contributing to what, on paper at least, might be the world's wealthiest sports franchise.
Two summers ago, Man City was purchased by former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who de-listed it from the stock market and made it a private company. But Shinawatra ran into trouble back home – something about corruption charges – and had his bank accounts frozen. He needed to sell quickly, and last summer Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment plunked down a reported $300 million for the club founded in 1880.
Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment?
It is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose half-brother is the president of Abu Dhabi and whose royal family has turned the United Arab Emirates' vast oil reserves into a fortune worth, by some estimates, $1 trillion.
The transaction was consummated on the final day of soccer's summer transfer window. Within hours, Manchester City announced it had wrested 24-year-old Brazilian forward Robinho from Real Madrid for $48.5 million, a record transfer fee in England.
A shiver went through English soccer. Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich had bought Chelsea a few years earlier and brazenly poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the transfer market, but even he might not be in the same league as the family that controls eight percent of the planet's black gold.
That inked the deal to purchase Man City at the $3 billion Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi. That a few days earlier announced a $60 billion construction project. That started making noise about who it might sign in the next international transfer window, in January, and for how much.
Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Thierry Henry, Kaka, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Gianluigi Buffon, Fernando Torres, Fabio Cannavaro, Javier Mascherano, Roque Santa Cruz, Michael Owen – they all have been linked to Man City, either through speculation or legitimate sources.
So has Manchester United prize Cristiano Ronaldo, the 2008 World Player of the Year.
“Ronaldo has said he wants to play for the biggest club in the world, so we will see in January if he is serious,†Sulaiman Al-Fahim, the front man for the Abu Dhabi sheikh and his investment group, told arabianbusiness.com in September. “Real Madrid were estimating his value at $160 million but for a player like that, to actually get him, will cost a lot more – I would think $240 million.
“But why not? We are going to be the biggest club in the world, bigger than both Real Madrid and Manchester United.â€
Of course, the beauty of soccer is that wealthiest doesn't necessarily mean winningest.
Real Madrid tried it with its Galacticos experiment – hoarding David Beckham, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Raul on the same roster – and didn't have enough balls to go around. Abramovich and Chelsea have won English Premier League titles but not the coveted UEFA Champions League. AC Milan has assembled a triumvirate of Brazilian superstars and recently added Beckham on loan, and is currently nine points adrift of first place in Italy.
At 6-10-4, Manchester City is two points out of the EPL relegation zone and has won just one of its last nine league and cup matches. On Saturday, it proudly introduced its first January signing to home fans – left back Wayne Bridge from Chelsea for $15 million – then promptly lost to second-tier Nottingham Forest 3-0.
“There are a lot of people out there looking for us to fail,†City coach Mark Hughes told reporters. “We have struggled of late. We are a big story this year, obviously . . . We have to come to terms with that focus and the level of expectation that is on every game we play, deal with it and cope with it.â€
Hughes has pleaded patience, saying he probably needs “three transfer windows†to procure the kind of players he wants – solid, hard-working stars more interested in winning than a big payday. Man City management, for its part, has backed Hughes' vision and insists he is safe despite the dreary results.
In the meantime, transfer talk persists amid reports that Sheikh Mansour has allocated $150 million for the January window alone. In one breath, he insists they will “build a structure for the future, not just a team of all-stars.†In the next, he promises to buy “the best players in the world.â€
Says Noel Gallagher, the lead guitarist for British rock band Oasis and one of Man City's few celebrity supporters: “It's nice to know that every gallon of petrol a Manchester United fan buys is going into our transfer kitty.â€
Mark Zeigler: (619) 293-2205; (Contact)