Potential Buyers For Liverpool Deterred By Nearly $400M Debt

Liverpool's More Than $391M  In Debt Deterring Potential Buyers

DUE DILIGENCE: In London, Kevin Eason reports the EPL is investigating prospective Portsmouth Owner Ali Al-Faraj and his backers "before rubber-stamping the fourth foreign takeover" of the team in 11 years (LONDON TIMES, 10/9). Also in London, Jim White writes former Portsmouth Owner Sulaiman al-Fahim's "comical 60-day tenure at Portsmouth" is the "latest episode to make mockery of fit and proper person test." The problem for Portsmouth fans is that "no one knows anything about" Al-Faraj. White: "And I mean anything. No one knows how much -- if any -- money changed hands in the transaction. No one knows how much -- if anything -- Faraj is able to invest in his new toy. No one knows where his money -- if he has any -- comes from. ... So private that beyond his name and nationality, I have found no one who knows a single verifiable fact about him." Still, Al-Faraj "has already passed the Premier League's 'fit and proper person' test" (London TELEGRAPH, 10/9).

BIGGER, BETTER THINGS AHEAD? Scottish Premier League (SPL) club Rangers CEO Martin Bain "believes his club will not be playing in Scottish football in ten years' time." SPL club Celtic CEO Peter Lawwell Thursday said his club is "looking for an opportunity to participate in an environment that gives us that global exposure." Lawwell: "If we had the TV rights value that you get in England, then there is no barrier for Celtic." Bain later "jumped aboard with the prediction that [Rangers] will quit Scottish football within a decade -- although he sees a European league as a more likely scenario than" joining the EPL (THE SCOTSMAN, 10/9).

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