[Archived] Rovers Might Have Been Sold?

[Mike Graham]

I have kept stum on this subject to date largely disbelieving at the number of posters being sucked in by Mr Syed and Co, although I can understand why most including me, want a fairy godmother to appear from another part of the Globe and invest in BRFC.

What I have heard to date, £300m etc, has always sounded too good to be true. I for one do not want a dodgy businessman from wherever, and this appears to include Mr Syed, to invest in BRFC. As Norman Tebbit once said: "On yer Bike". I do not give a toss if he is worth £300bn, I do not want someone running my Club who fails to pay his debts (even if they are £1000's) breaks the laws of the countries that he operates in, and leaves rental property like a sh1thole.

On yer Bike son!

[old darwen blue]

I haven't read through everything so forgive me if there's holes in what I'm about to say...

I'm not too bothered if potential new bidders have more money than Syed - when you are talking billions it starts to become insignificant - what really matters is who is prepared to strike the best deal for Rovers and commit to a positive long term realtionship

As to the 'dodginess' surrounding Syed - can we please get realistic on this?

Most Premier League club owners/benefactors have had some sort of smear campaign raised against them - whether it's money raised from gambling, porn, oil, creating debt to buy the club, being non-English, upsetting the royal family etc etc - maybe Dave Whelan might be exempted from this - but I can't think of many others...

Maybe Arsenal - but there's is more a coalition than an outright owner - and apart from that nobody else in the Premier League would appear to be squeaky clean.

I say this in all sincerity, but we were absolutely spoiled rotten with Uncle Jack.

He was ideal, he was perfect in many ways (OK maybe not prefect - remember you still have to be ruthless to make that amount of money)but perfect for us. We loved him, he loved us. A marriage made in heaven.

Unfortunately situations like that don't tend to happen twice.

FACT - Whoever takes us over, they will never be Jack Walker.

He is, was and always will be the best ever owner of football club anywhere in the world.

We were blessed that he was a son of Blackburn.

Don't look for another Jack Walker - you won't find one.

Lets just find the best of the rest.

Brilliant John

[koi]

Good grief! That is some investigative journalism! The combined efforts of the fans on here came up with nothing! Yet there was a trail to follow if you knew where to go........even in the UK. Ah well!

Well not really, it's pretty basic stuff BUT I would have really expected Rothchilds to be fully aware of some basic facts and have been satisfied with answers given.

[philipl]

The BBC have journos and contacts in every part of the world - Rothschilds can't rival this I reckon. In any case, would Rothschilds do the nitty gritty until Syed was ready to purchase?

Rothschilds ought to be way ahead of the BBC given they are a registered bank with banking priviledge. That means they have the right to ask credit and character reference questions of any other registered bank anywhere in the world.

Rothschilds should have done their checks at the point negotiations first started some five weeks ago to avoid wasting their own time and their client's (the Trust) money.

Rothschilds have been doing a lot of pre-screening and as I have mentioned before, Dan Williams' structure was deemed unsuitable some weeks before he hit the press. They kept the door open just as they have kept the door open during the WGA exclusive period to talk to other serious interested parties.

This is why I am posing the question that either the BBC has got this right or Rothschilds got this right but the revelations this morning indicate one got it right and one got it wrong.

[tonyoz]

Well not really, it's pretty basic stuff BUT I would have really expected Rothchilds to be fully aware of some basic facts and have been satisfied with answers given.

Yes. It could just be that no one else but the BBC gives a toss I suppose. But the fact remains that nobody but the BBC came up with any verifiable doubts. We would just have stumbled forward in ignorance. Now, at least, it can all be checked out.

[The Gull]

His revalations are this morning that when he left his flat in London he had unpaid rent of less than £7000 unpaid council tax of £1000, oh and the flat was left in a right state, he has pictures and everything.

Well worth our licence fee for those scandalous revalations about his business.

[AndyNeil]

the most worrying aspect of the story for me is the string of business' removed from the CH register for non-compliance

[Ozz]

Oh well there goes the fear....

[Pete1981]

Has anyone checked out the 5 live investigates facebook page. The pictures of the flat he rented in london are on there.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/5-live-Investigates/119101041472426

[Iceman]

Only 1 side of the story thus far. Lets wait and hear the other side, but it doesnt look good.

[imy9]

I am very happy that this has come out as now something can be done before we sell the club-where is julia?!

[deryck guyler's spoon]

The club needs to give Mr Syed the oportunity to explain himself but surely the explanation will have to be pretty damn good and verifiable.

On the face of it his bid looks dead in the water.

[HemelRover]

On the face of it his bid looks dead in the water.

Erm, why? Who's to say that the Trust don't know about all of this already?

[The Gull]

I'm sorry, but a billionaire from a far away country didn't keep filing his accounts with companies house.

He probably had a few small interests which came to nothing and then he went back to India and got serious, not thinking twice about these tin pot businesses.

The businesses would have had nobody to report but himself, and therefore nothing at stake by ignoring the companies house rules.

He is not the only successful business man that will have flouted the rules to get where he has, and he certainly won't be the last.

People need to get a grip of the real world that is business and money.

Abramovich is rumoured to have done substantially worse, morally especially, yet I don't think Chelsea fans are too bothered.

The only thing that matters is the here and now and what the intentions of a new owner are, which means we may have to trust the person who does take us over a little more than we would like. Any owner now is going to have a huge job convincing the premier league they are fit and proper as well as having a huge media spotlight on them which could potentially ruin their reputation.

As mentioned earlier there are a lot of positives from the businesses which he has taken over recently, they are extremely happy with him, they obviously don't come from East Lancashire though!

[imy9]

Its the debt that he left behind which is my biggest concern, does not reflect well on him,i am sticking to my original line-trust the trust and rothschild s to serve us well.

[S15]

Goldberg's a joke. "Shocking revelations?"

Nobody gives a s**t mate, just glad the Pakistan cricket team have ensured this story gets the publicity it deserves.

[CrazyIvan]

This all sounds bad and smacks of what we heard about Shah. Nobody knew who he was either. But something does not smell right about the report. Smear campaign would be putting it lightly. Not long ago people were saying Syed has the right team around him... I think Rovers checks might be pretty strong to confirm who he is and that he has the money behind him. I'd still like to hear something back about this stuff though.

A thought, no mention is made of any companies that Syed runs now that are successful. They are there so why not balance the report?

[RibbleValleyRover]

It doesn't look good then again there is usually two sides to every story. Will he come out with some statement? Perhaps Rothschild’s already know about these revelations? Surely a CCJ would have been found when they did a credit check on him? (that's if these allegations are true of course).

Honestly deep down i wasn't optimistic about there being a sale and these revelations only add to that belief. All i know is that we do need new owners, we just can't continue down the path we are. Relegation might not come this year, next year or in 5 years time, but it will come eventually due to our low budget. Its just inevitable imo.

[chaddyrovers]

Well not really, it's pretty basic stuff BUT I would have really expected Rothchilds to be fully aware of some basic facts and have been satisfied with answers given.

I am very sure that Rothchilds and Rovers already know this. The BBC Report is pretty basic to be honest. I will be listening to Radio 5 tonight but if they are the revalations about him then these are no reason to worry about. Some of his companies in the uk were closed becuase he didn't file his accounts. Not a massive thing tbh, and were closed. The unpaid debt that he owns, hope he will paid it now before he buys the club and puts this to bed.

[BPF]

Stop basing your opinions on whatever the 'latest piece of news' is. A lot of you do exactly the same when it comes to players. Making entire judgements on the last game or whatever has happened most recently.

The BBC will not have uncovered anything that Rothschild won't have done. If they have then Rothschild are a terrible company and serious questions must be asked.

I honestly believe that if any of this recent mudslinging bothered the trust in any way, they would not have let Syed get to the stage he is at.

Calm down. To say his bid is dead in the water is totally foolish.

[47er]

Its the debt that he left behind which is my biggest concern, does not reflect well on him,i am sticking to my original line-trust the trust and rothschild s to serve us well.

Well there's a bit of a weakness in that argument. How come, if its all true and as significant as you seem to believe, it took the BBC to find it out and not theTrust or Rothchilds? Are we to be grateful that the BBC has saved us from an enormous embarrassment?

How come he got to the (almost completed) due diligence stage?

I'm going to wait and see where it goes from here but renewed trust in the Trust hardly seems appropriate. Suppose the club has spent all this time failing to properly evaluate a buyer yet invested no money at all in the club on the basis that a takeover would go through?

And what happens next? Do we start evaluating the next prospective buyer, then he goes through all the various stages, meanwhile we fight on to preserve our Premiership status with a weak squad? Could the next buyer or next but one be in place for the NEXT transfer window? Or is it no decent midfield for the entire season-again?

If all this is true and Mr Syed is not after all a suitable buyer for our club, this is a bloody scandal of the highest order. Dingle Heaven I'd call it.

[chaddyrovers]

This all sounds bad and smacks of what we heard about Shah. Nobody knew who he was either. But something does not smell right about the report. Smear campaign would be putting it lightly. Not long ago people were saying Syed has the right team around him... I think Rovers checks might be pretty strong to confirm who he is and that he has the money behind him. I'd still like to hear something back about this stuff though.

A thought, no mention is made of any companies that Syed runs now that are successful. They are there so why not balance the report?

Did anybody know Bill Gates and Paul Allen before they set up Mircosoft, probably not. I am very sure that rovers, Rothchilds and walker trustees would throughly check out Mr Ali's companies, background and how he made his money and make sure he's got his money to buy the club and invest in the long term future of the club.

[philipl]

Combined debts unpaid of £70,300 and a string of non-compliances.

This just doesn't ring true with him being worth billions- he would simply get his accountant to sort it for him and a maid to clean the apartment.

He might have been hiding his London and Canadian problems from a scrupulous guardian in the past but now he is off the leash, his reputation is worth far more to him than £70,300 and surely he would have got that lot sorted in retrospect before launching the Rovers bid which would have stuck him under the media spotlight?

Re-reading the new Premier League rules shows that if these BBC allegations stick, he has got a bit of a problem but not insurmountable.

Quite apart from what this will do to his wider ability to pursue his dream for WGA as an investment vehicle.

Difficult to park this BBC story as gossip- it is the BBC after all, not the red tops. The allegations have to be answered in my opinion.

[otto man]

Stop basing your opinions on whatever the 'latest piece of news' is. A lot of you do exactly the same when it comes to players. Making entire judgements on the last game or whatever has happened most recently.

The BBC will not have uncovered anything that Rothschild won't have done. If they have then Rothschild are a terrible company and serious questions must be asked.

I honestly believe that if any of this recent mudslinging bothered the trust in any way, they would not have let Syed get to the stage he is at.

Calm down. To say his bid is dead in the water is totally foolish.

Agree totally BPF. Now please stop posting common sense. You know we love nothing more than running round shouting "The sky is falling", "The sky is falling"!

[tonyoz]

Well there's a bit of a weakness in that argument. How come, if its all true and as significant as you seem to believe, it took the BBC to find it out and not theTrust or Rothchilds? Are we to be grateful that the BBC has saved us from an enormous embarrassment?

How come he got to the (almost completed) due diligence stage?

I'm going to wait and see where it goes from here but renewed trust in the Trust hardly seems appropriate. Suppose the club has spent all this time failing to properly evaluate a buyer yet invested no money at all in the club on the basis that a takeover would go through?

And what happens next? Do we start evaluating the next prospective buyer, then he goes through all the various stages, meanwhile we fight on to preserve our Premiership status with a weak squad? Could the next buyer or next but one be in place for the NEXT transfer window? Or is it no decent midfield for the entire season-again?

If all this is true and Mr Syed is not after all a suitable buyer for our club, this is a bloody scandal of the highest order. Dingle Heaven I'd call it.

Well, if the Trust and Rothchilds didn't know before, they know now.