[Archived] Rovers Might Have Been Sold?

[RevidgeBlue]

"Hello I'm Malcolm Glazer. I have no liquid assets and intend to saddle my football club with 716m pounds worth of debt. However I intend to invest in Manchester United therefore I am clearly a fit and proper person."

"Hello I'm Arshan Ali Syed. I'm a multi billionaire (ALLEGEDLY) and have unpaid debts amounting to 70k (ALLEGEDLY). However I only intend to invest in Blackburn Rovers so that clearly makes me unsuitable."

[insiderover79]

rothschilds are certainly not a mickey mouse outfit. They thoroughly investigate all potential investors. Whatever the final outcome of this particular bid it will imo be proffesionally handled in our best interest.

[rebelmswar]

"Hello I'm Malcolm Glazer. I have no liquid assets and intend to saddle my football club with 716m pounds worth of debt. However I intend to invest in Manchester United therefore I am clearly a fit and proper person."

"Hello I'm Arshan Ali Syed. I'm a multi billionaire (ALLEGEDLY) and have unpaid debts amounting to 70k (ALLEGEDLY). However I only intend to invest in Blackburn Rovers so that clearly makes me unsuitable."

I have said it before and I will say it again – there are dark nefarious powers at work in that cathedral to Satan.

[RevidgeBlue]

I fear we may be about to find out just how desperate the Trust are to get rid of us.

How so?

At the absolute minimum the Trustees will want their 25m asking price and if Goldberg is to be believed Mr. Syed would struggle to lay his hands on 25 quid let alone 25 mil.

[michaelthomas]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tl99q

up on iPlayer for anybody who has missed it.

[beerwins]

"Hello I'm Malcolm Glazer. I have no liquid assets and intend to saddle my football club with 716m pounds worth of debt. However I intend to invest in Manchester United therefore I am clearly a fit and proper person."

"Hello I'm Arshan Ali Syed. I'm a multi billionaire (ALLEGEDLY) and have unpaid debts amounting to 70k (ALLEGEDLY). However I only intend to invest in Blackburn Rovers so that clearly makes me unsuitable."

+ didnt he say I am only doing this as a fan and not looking to make money? I think that was my favourite and most realistic line in all that he has said, I dont care who put the words in his mouth, I didnt hear the same from the owners of Liverpool and Manure.

If that was the best that mudslingers can find then they have'nt really found anything at all, Its basically impossible to find someones exact worth unless they want it to be known and even then you could double it or half it.

People have been paid a lot of money to find out if he is the person he claims to be and im sure they do it better than me or anyone else reporting for the BBC, if the books are open then he has the cash, does'nt stop me being nervous but how long till we run out of options?

[Fife Rover]

Ah, not a lecturer I know...

This is a bit concerning, but considering how prudent the Trust/Rothschilds seem to have been in the past it seems strange that they could have overlooked all of this.

As I see it there are just two conclusions from what has been said tonight:

1) The BBC program is correct, and in which case Rothschilds have failed utterly and lamentably in their research into Mr. Ali Syed's background and financial history and substance.

2) Rothschilds have done a perfectly good job as we have all been lead to believe up to now (Due Diligence virtually complete) and therefore the BBC have got it entirely wrong (possibly picked on the wrong man i.e another Ali Syed?)

The crunch line though is that BRFC needs to know which and ASAP. They cannot afford to get this thing wrong.

[Uddersfelt Blue]

How so?

At the absolute minimum the Trustees will want their 25m asking price and if Goldberg is to be believed Mr. Syed would struggle to lay his hands on 25 quid let alone 25 mil.

Listened to the programme and really none the wiser.

So what the BBC and their accounting lecturer are saying is that WGA is just a scam company made to look like Sayed has almost £1 billion assets/loans from himself???

I think the test is where that $1 billion is invested and whether there is any evidence that he actually has that sort of money. More importantly that the promised funds are readily available.

If the Trust and their advisors haven't got this evidence already then the deal should not have got this far. Can't believe that but then I worked for HBOS!!!

[philipl]

Rothschilds rank second in handling mergers and acquisitions in London and 9th in New York. They are global players of enormous repute. Jack Walker wanted the best and he got the best and the Rothschild relationship with the Trust he established in part with their guidance goes back some 25 years now.

Something has gone wrong even for a "show" like that to be aired.

For what it is worth there were three glaring moments of tarting up on the 5live programme

- the cringeingly embarassing exchange in which Goldberg and the letting agent pretended Goldberg had just walked in off the street into his office pretty well convinced me the photos of the flat were staged as well,

- the casual throw away mention of the County Court Judgement with no details of what is 90% by value of the alledged unpaid debts made me think Goldberg did not feel at all secure about that item,

- and the Essex Accountancy professor who raised questions about the numbers which are very fully answered in the notes to the accounts of WGA.

Just as those journalistic titivations lead me to ask if the whole thing was a tart-up, so to be honest the apparent admission of a falsely claimed degree from the LSE (despite the LSE enthusiasticly embracing him in their news section for months!) and the unpaid debts lead me to seriously doubt Ali Syed has the moral prism and standing to lead Rovers forward if those claims are true.

As I have said before, this all looks very bad and if Ali Syed becomes the owner, he will have been subject to most rigorous investigation of any overseas investor in the PL.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Surely there are only 3 questions:

1) is he wealthy?

2) if so, is that wealth kosher?

3) if so, is he a fit and proper person?

I'm not sure what the BBC have done to challenge any of those other than imply that people who don't pay parking tickets aren't wealthy and people who don't tidy up aren't fit and proper.

[tony gale's mic]

There's a lot of people with their heads in the sand right now.

If this was ANY other Premier League club I think a lot of people would have different opinions.

There's so much going on here:

- Apparently worth billions but no previous trace of him before this takeover, no information, not remotely known of in the business world (this is the biggest issue IMO)

- Company accounts which have been scrutinised by an expert and make little sense

- Supposedly is from a prominent business family in Hyderabad but noone knows him

- Spokespeople claimed he went to LSE (though he denied this personally when the matter was forced) - surely one's spokespeople would know his background unless they were deliberately lying?

- Mysterious investments in Australia and Ireland - McCabe deal likely hasn't even been completed yet - first news of it on the internet is from 30th July and McCabe is still not allowed to say anything about the deal. People say he's done multiple deals with hundreds of millions but this isn't true.

- Unpaid bills that have been mentioned - yes not paying rent on time can be careless but after your landlord has repeatedly tried to get hold of you - after five years that's more than just careless, not to mention the £61,000 county court judgement.

- Repeated dissolved companies in UK/Canada and troubles in Bahrain

One or two of these things can be explained away.

However ALL of these things existing at once is far too much to explain away.

[RevidgeBlue]

Listened to the programme and really none the wiser.

So what the BBC and their accounting lecturer are saying is that WGA is just a scam company made to look like Sayed has almost £1 billion assets/loans from himself???

The lecturer completely failed to address the point previously made in the local press that that WGA has allegedly been loaned one billion quid from Syed out of his own personal wealth (which IF true would tend to suggest he is worth considerably more than one billion - you wouldn't lend every last penny you own for investment purposes would you?)

Fife has it about right either Rothschilds have got it horribly wrong and should be sacked or the BBC are completely wrong and this programme could be very very expensive for them indeed.

I would prefer to believe the latter. It seems incomprehensible that the Club would allow access to the books without Rothschilds having verified his financial status beyond doubt.

[Brfcrule1]

by the way good spot on the letters even the gas bill when zoomed in does not look like it is addressed to Mr Ali. By the way I emailed that programme and still the questions weren't read out so no surprise there. Also we have to remember certain points they say Mr Syed ran up all these debts but how do they know it is the same person?. when I googled his name there were quite a few Ali Syed's it is like the Shah bloke we can not make any judgements until we know it is the same person. Also when I spoke to my folks about the revelations they reckon the timing of this is suspect & wonder why none of this did not come out before it even got to the due diligence stage. I am sure the Trust/Rothschild would have found something out. The bid would never have gone this far to due diligence if something was amiss. I have to say most should and I will be keeping an open mind until Mr Syed/Rovers comment on the matter because from that article nothing has been substantiated or backed up with real hard facts to suggest it is the same Ali Syed.

[DE.]

There's a lot of people with their heads in the sand right now.

If this was ANY other Premier League club I think a lot of people would have different opinions.

There's so much going on here:

- Apparently worth billions but no previous trace of him before this takeover, no information, not remotely known of in the business world (this is the biggest issue IMO)

- Company accounts which have been scrutinised by an expert and make little sense

- Supposedly is from a prominent business family in Hyderabad but noone knows him

- Spokespeople claimed he went to LSE (though he denied this personally when the matter was forced) - surely one's spokespeople would know his background unless they were deliberately lying?

- Mysterious investments in Australia and Ireland - McCabe deal likely hasn't even been completed yet - first news of it on the internet is from 30th July and McCabe is still not allowed to say anything about the deal. People say he's done multiple deals with hundreds of millions but this isn't true.

- Unpaid bills that have been mentioned - yes not paying rent on time can be careless but after your landlord has repeatedly tried to get hold of you - after five years that's more than just careless, not to mention the £61,000 county court judgement.

- Repeated dissolved companies in UK/Canada and troubles in Bahrain

One or two of these things can be explained away.

However ALL of these things existing at once is far too much to explain away.

You're right, but how likely is it that Rothschilds have missed out all of these in their investigations? It'd make a mockery of their reputation if so.

[chaddyrovers]

I have to look on the London school of Economics website and search for Syed Ali and this is what it came up with

http://search.lse.ac.uk/search/search.cgi?query=syed+ali&site=LSEWebsiteOnly&collection=lse_external

He did go to the LSE. So the BBC is wrong about that. They say he didnt go there but this say he did.

[RevidgeBlue]

There's a lot of people with their heads in the sand right now.

If this was ANY other Premier League club I think a lot of people would have different opinions.

There's so much going on here:

- Apparently worth billions but no previous trace of him before this takeover, no information, not remotely known of in the business world (this is the biggest issue IMO)

- Company accounts which have been scrutinised by an expert and make little sense

- Supposedly is from a prominent business family in Hyderabad but noone knows him

- Spokespeople claimed he went to LSE (though he denied this personally when the matter was forced) - surely one's spokespeople would know his background unless they were deliberately lying?

- Mysterious investments in Australia and Ireland - McCabe deal likely hasn't even been completed yet - first news of it on the internet is from 30th July and McCabe is still not allowed to say anything about the deal. People say he's done multiple deals with hundreds of millions but this isn't true.

- Unpaid bills that have been mentioned - yes not paying rent on time can be careless but after your landlord has repeatedly tried to get hold of you - after five years that's more than just careless, not to mention the £61,000 county court judgement.

- Repeated dissolved companies in UK/Canada and troubles in Bahrain

One or two of these things can be explained away.

However ALL of these things existing at once is far too much to explain away.

I would suggest the only thing of any genuine concern is the fact no-one seems to have previously heard of mr. Ali Syed.

1) If the alleged unpaid bills relate to another person, our Mr. Syed woudn't have mentioned them and Rothschilds would have had no cause to investigate them. Conversely if they did relate to him surely Rothschilds would have picked them up. Even if they do relate to him, we don't know if they were disputed and I'm not sure how relevant they are if indeed he is worth billions now. If the reason he didn't pay them was because he has no money it's a different matter from Rovers viewpoint.

2) Whilst I have often wondered if the McCabe / Australian deals are genuine equally I have seen no suggestion that these deals haven't gone through either. Surely if Mr. Syed was not genuine NDA's would not be applicable and the other parties would deny being in negotiations.

3) If he didn't go to LSE as the Beeb claim, why was he in London at all during the relevant period?

4) Dormant Companies are no evidence of anything one way or another and the alleged infringement in Bahrain seems of a very technical nature - that's if indeed it did occur. WGA have denied it thus far.

[67splitscreen]

You're right, but how likely is it that Rothschilds have missed out all of these in their investigations? It'd make a mockery of their reputation if so.

Quite easy as another poster said, maybe a junior or similar has been given the task (doubt it's big bucks in the eyes of Rothchilds) then his findings rubber stamped by someone higher.

Guess we will have all the answers in the next seven days, by the way of Yeah! or Nay!

[nicko]

What a strange programme. Jeremy Kyle with a football scarf.

So Mr Syed didn't pay his rent and bogged off to somewhere in St.John's Wood with or without his degree from LSE and THAT trolley.

Call the cops.

The BBC have got some interesting little titbits but nothing real.

If this guy is a joker then Rothschilds want shooting - or sacking at least.

However Syed MUST have shown proof of funds, so this little irritation will not mater compared to the wealth he seems to have shown.

Whether the investigation matters or not one thing IS certain...there is another bidder around and is being encouraged.

Why is that exactly? Has someone got their doubts about Syed BEFORE the BBC show or are there other issues around this?

I suspect the answer is 'both.'

Anyway, much more pressing matters to concern all in Chez Nicko [where the rent is paid I should add]...like Murray's shocking first serve.

[BPF]

01/10/10

The club will have a new owner.

[philipl]

Quite easy as another poster said, maybe a junior or similar has been given the task (doubt it's big bucks in the eyes of Rothchilds) then his findings rubber stamped by someone higher.

Guess we will have all the answers in the next seven days, by the way of Yeah! or Nay!

The Trust are a long standing client of 25 years with a broad portfolio of investments which by worth will most certainly make them amongst Rothschilds' 50 biggest clients. That combined with something as publicly high profile as a PL club sale means a senior director will be running this engagement with peer review from a Managing Director.

If Rothschilds believe Ahsan Ali Syed is worth $8bn, there is no way this has been handled by an office junior- they would want to impress.

[rebelmswar]

01/10/10

The club will have a new owner.

12/12/12 The world will end.

Do we trust Rothschilds or do we trust a radio hack and a landlord?

Hmmmmmm.

In a normal world this question wouldnt even be asked. This equation has only one solution; the radical must be that the BBC are a bunch of slavering racists.

Or… desperate for a story.

[67splitscreen]

I have to look on the London school of Economics website and search for Syed Ali and this is what it came up with

http://search.lse.ac...on=lse_external

He did go to the LSE. So the BBC is wrong about that. They say he didnt go there but this say he did.

Not so sure about that chaddy, they are just online links of financial news globally, from what I have just seen anyway, probably picked the bit up with regard to LSE from WGA website.

[JohnD]

There is far more information available on me on the internet than there is about Sayed. That alone must be a major concern.

He deserves a right of reply but I wonder if he will take the opportunity.

Rothschilds are in it for their fee, no more no less.

I hope this bid is dead in the water. This guy is a liar at best.

I agree that Murray is the biggest concern at the moment. I always thought he was way better than Henman but he is yet another Brit who just doesn't have what it takes. (still time to prove me wrong tonight )

[Fylde Coast Fan]

The real story for me isn't the unpaid debts, it's the lack of trading information on the few companies they could find his name attached to. I've had a gut feeling that we could end up like Portsmouth, but that was more the Shah guy than Syed. Very unsettled by all this.

Question for those in the know - if Rothschilds don't think the guy is kosher, would they stop the deal in its early stages or simply present what they know to the Trust and let them make the final decision?

[tony gale's mic]

Surely the events of the last couple of years are evidence enough that big financial institutions can screw up royally.