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Al-Faraj admits money was motivation for Pompey takeover
• Portsmouth's new owner knows nothing about football
• £5m to pay players' wages borrowed from banks
Ali al-Faraj, Portsmouth's new owner, has revealed that he knows nothing about football and has bought the club solely for profit.
In his first interview since taking over at Fratton Park from Sulaiman al-Fahim, the 40-year-old Saudi businessman did little to convince Portsmouth supporters that they can anticipate a period of stability, admitting that he borrowed the £5m used to pay the players' wages earlier this month from three financial institutions.
Before his intervention the Premier League club had endured a turbulent few months during which Fahim's protracted takeover ended with the Emirates-based businessman selling control while retaining a 10% share and staying at Portsmouth as non-executive chairman.
But speaking to the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Faraj confirmed he is not a billionaire and that he is searching for more partners, which suggests a wish to oust Fahim and buy his shareholding.
"We are going to purchase the remaining shares in the club by entry of additional partners, whether they are from the Gulf or Europe," Faraj said. "Our plan is to stay at the club for a period of not less than six months, until the club stands again, benefiting the club as well as us. This is based on the fact that purchasing the club was purely [an] investment, and in the future we may sell it if we get additional gains."
Faraj, who is represented on the board by his lawyer Mark Jacob, claimed it was no concern that he knew little about football. "It's not a secret to hide, we are investors and we have no relationship to sports, but at the same time we have an integrated team of legal and technical advisors," he said. "All are working at the club as executives and planners for more than five years, and they know all the details and reasoning. This is natural in the business world."
While he described himself as rich but not a billionaire, the disclosure from Faraj, whose brother Ahmed is also on the club's board, that he had to borrow the money to pay the players' wages suggests there may not be any sizeable sum with which the manager, Paul Hart, can buy new players in January. The team are bottom of the league with only three points.
"We did not have the £5m but we agreed with three banks to finance the acquisition, and they approved it based on the club financial guarantees we provided, such as annual revenue from TV coverage, and the income of the club real estate and other assets," he said. "We did not we give these banks any personal guarantee." He also conceded that Jacob had to convince him to take over the club as Faraj initially felt Portsmouth, £70m in debt, would not be a sound investment.
"The British friend of my brother Ahmed al-Faraj had convinced me that the possibility of investing in the club is very large, and all they have to do is to cover the club's debts, and the gains will be in the short term," he said.
The businessman, who owns several properties in London and says he also has a private company there, said that his first real estate deal was a £50,000 investment in a building in Cromwell Road, west London, which he sold for "£1.5m profit".
Faraj also admitted to a sense of pride at being portrayed as the saviour of Portsmouth. "We're proud of ourselves as young Saudis to be entering sports investment in England, and proud to see the British media write that two young Saudis rescued an English football club from closure."
