The man who owned Portsmouth for six weeks during an ill-fated spell in 2009 has been sentenced to five years in a United Arab Emirates jail for stealing \u00a35m from his wife to fund the purchase.<\/p>\n
Sulaiman Al Fahim, who also fronted the Abu Dhabi United Group’s deal to buy Manchester City in 2008, was found guilty of forgery, using forged documents and aiding and abetting.<\/p>\n
He and an accomplice were found to have stolen the money used to buy Pompey from Sacha Gaydamak, with Al Fahim soon selling the club to Ali Al Faraj.<\/p>\n
Al Fahim, 42, did not attend the hearing and was sentenced in his absence.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said that Al Fahim’s wife discovered the money was missing after the returns she had expected from a high interest rate account she opened in 2009 did not come in.<\/p>\n
She said she contacted the bank’s accounts manager, but he “kept stalling” despite her asking him to move the account in September 2011.<\/p>\n
When she decided to visit the bank in person, she was told there was no money in the account.<\/p>\n
She then went to the bank’s legal affairs department, and when they failed to take action she reported the matter to the police.<\/p>\n
Dubai Criminal Court also convicted the bank manager of theft, forgery of official documents and use of forged official documents. He was also sentenced to five years in prison.<\/p>\n
At the time of Al Fahim’s ownership, Portsmouth were in the Premier League but the club was also in financial difficulty and had struggled to pay players and staff.<\/p>\n
Four years later, Pompey had gone into administration twice, suffered three relegations and had seven different owners.<\/p>\n
In 2013, it was taken over by the Pompey Supporters Trust (PST), who sold it to former Disney chief executive Michael Eisner in August 2017.<\/p>\n
Last season the club was promoted from League Two to League One. They are currently ninth in the table.<\/p>\n
In a 2009 interview with Radio Solent conducted after he had bought Portsmouth, Al Fahim said: “To be realistic we need a new ground and we want to strengthen the squad and the academy.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully we can have a new stadium in place by 2015 or 16. We would like to be a top-eight club by that time.”<\/p>\n
PST spokesperson Ashley Brown told BBC Sport the case “once again raises questions about how owners can purchase football clubs”.<\/p>\n
The Premier League has tightened its rules on ownership since Al Fahim’s brief spell, and stricter criteria now have to be met than at the time of his takeover – with changes introduced largely as a result of the club’s tumultuous ownership history.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"