The Indian businessman tells of his dream for Champions
League glory at Ewood Park
Champions League football, Premier League titles – even
the most optimistic of Blackburn Rovers
supporters must find the ambitions of the club's
prospective new owner outlandish.
Yet Ahsan Ali Syed, the Indian businessman based in Bahrain who
is proposing a £300m takeover of one of the
league's least fashionable concerns, is bullish regarding his
vision for the 1995 champions.
Syed estimates his total wealth at more than £8bn, divided among
the more than 130 companies he privately owns. In an interview with
the Guardian, he said this fortune is unencumbered by any
third-party debt, allowing him to invest it as he wishes. If Syed's
claims are correct and he does buy Blackburn through his Western
Gulf Advisory company, the club would rank behind only Manchester
City and Chelsea as the Premier League's richest.
Asked why he chose Rovers as the target for a takeover, the
36-year-old told the Guardian: "Many football clubs were presented
to me. Blackburn caught my attention for the room it has for
productive growth. It also fits my investment philosophy, plus the
size of the investment. There's no point giving away millions of
dollars of debt to acquire a club because almost all of my
companies are unencumbered, so if I buy a club with heavy debts it
would have been difficult."
Blackburn, who are thought to owe £20m, are the only club to
break the cartel of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea by
winning the Premier League, and Syed is confident they could do it
again under his stewardship. He said: "Why not? It is always easy
to repeat the history. You need to be positive. If the resources
are given to Big Sam [Allardyce, the manager] he can do
wonders."
Ewood Park has a capacity of more than 31,000, which the club
struggle to fill. Last season they had an average attendance of
25,428, compared with Manchester United's 74,864. Yet Syed, who
claims he would hand Allardyce a £100m transfer fund, believes
Blackburn can become a global brand over the next 15 years.
"The first step is to maintain Premier League status, enhance
the capabilities of the academy, see if there lies potential to
increase the seating of the stadium, help Big Sam with the transfer
budget and to market the club rightly in other parts of the world,
specifically in India, the Far East and Middle East."
Ambition is always admirable yet in 2008 (the most recent
available figures), Rovers' turnover was £56.4m compared with
Manchester United's £256.2m, Arsenal's £222.5m and Chelsea's
£213.6m. From commercial revenue Blackburn realised £9m compared
with United's £64m, Arsenal's £31m and Chelsea's £23.8m.
Syed is undeterred. "There's huge potential. We need to be more
innovative. If you go back in history United and Real Madrid
started somewhere. They did not start as giants. I want an
opportunity to start somewhere. I cannot write the books of history
in one day, I need time."
Pressed on specific areas into which Rovers could expand, Syed
said: "If I talk about just one market, the Middle East, people
here love football. They get glued to screens when football is
played. The right marketing can get Blackburn back to the glory
days, I'm sure about that."
The club has confirmed talks are ongoing with Western Gulf and
Syed says he hopes to complete due diligence by next week, to push
through what would be a cash buyout before the transfer window
closes. Is such a time-frame really viable? "One plus one is always
two. When you say financial propositions are always complicated,
they're not. I'm trying for two weeks. It might [take] three but
eventually it will be completed."
Portsmouth's financial mishandling and Liverpool's problems are
only two illustrations of why scepticism is now the default
reaction to news that a club may soon acquire a rich benefactor.
Syed accepts this and has told Blackburn fans he is 100%
serious.
"I'm not coming into this for marketing. I'm a well-established
man, I have well-established businesses. With regard to what you
require to buy a club, you need liquidity. And my liquidity is
quite public. I have nothing to hide. Blackburn fans can easily
check on me. I was reading in the papers that the Liverpool deal
fell apart because there was no proof of funds or something. That
is not the case with this acquisition. I own more than 130
companies and publicly my assets are worth more than £8bn.
"To the fans – if you pick up any of my companies, there is no
single loan in any of them from any other financial institution or
other outside party. Any finance is from me, in capital or a loan.
I feel proud in making this statement. And that is exactly the
first step I want to take with Blackburn. The moment I acquire
Blackburn I want to get rid of the loan."
If Syed is genuine, then fans can dream of future glory and
Champions League football. "Why not?" he added. "Let's be positive.
Surely the day will come when everybody will smile with some
titles."
Despite the grand promises Allardyce was preaching caution. "I
have to persuade the new owners – if it happens – that we have got
to do it relatively slowly," he said. "Not bang, bang, bang, bang.
That is a little too quick to turn a club round.
"Even though we might have millions and millions to spend, we
still have to negotiate the right price and not overspend for a
player that is not worth the money. If we have paid £10m or £20m
and the fans see him on the pitch and say that he is not worth it,
then straight away you are going to have a negative response to the
money we have spent."
Allardyce also doubted he would get a significant cash injection
this month. "The chairman says to me it would be almost impossible
to think that any of that money might be available before the end
of this window," he said.
