Pakistan born Shahid Khan buys Fulham footbal club

[Raja.Pakistani]

LONDON: Pakistan-born billionaire Shahid Khan proposed deal to buy English top flight outfit Fulham Football Club (Fulham FC) was approved by the Barclays Premier League on Friday.

Khan, who already owns the NFL team Jacksonville Jaguars in the US, has been in talks with Fulham owner Mohamed Al Fayed for several days and the pair struck an agreement that will put the West-London team under new ownership for the first time in 16 years, and most importantly, debt-free.
The transaction, reported to have cost Khan around £150 million, has been approved by the Premier League and the tycoon assumes 100 per cent ownership of the club, with a press conference scheduled for lunch time on Saturday to officially introduce the new Cottagers supremo.
“Al Fayed is giving me the privilege and responsibility of serving as the next custodian of Fulham Football Club,” Khan told the club’s website.
“I am extremely honoured to accept and want to thank him, on behalf of everyone who loves Fulham, for 16 years of exceptional service to the Club. Al Fayed rescued the club in its hour of need and has led it to a sustained place within the Premier League.
“Fulham is the perfect club at the perfect time for me. I want to be clear, I do not view myself so much as the owner of Fulham, but a custodian of the club on behalf of its fans.
“My priority is to ensure the club and Craven Cottage each have a viable and sustainable Premier League future that fans of present and future generations can be proud of.
“We will manage the club’s financial and operational affairs with prudence and care, with youth development and community programs as fundamentally important elements of Fulham’s future.”
Khan, who was born in Lahore but now has American citizenship, is ranked 179th in the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans with an estimated worth of $2.5 billion after making his fortune as a car parts manufacturer.
The 62-year-old, the first non-American to own a NFL franchise, already has ties to London, with the Jaguars scheduled to play one regular season game a season at Wembley for the next four years.
In 1967, at the age of 16, Khan left his native Pakistan for the United States and the opportunity to study engineering at the University of Illinois.
Khan struck it rich when he purchased Flex-N-Gate, a car parts supplier, and built it into a global leader that now employs more than 16,000 people at 52 manufacturing and nine product development and engineering facilities throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Spain.
Al Fayed, the 84-year-old former Harrods owner, had transformed Fulham from a third-tier outfit to an established Premier League side since taking over in 1997.
Off the field, training facilities have improved markedly and Craven Cottage has been revamped, with planning permission in place to redevelop the Riverside Stand and increase the stadium’s capacity to 30,000.
The club is also effectively debt-free after Al Fayed converted previous loans into equity earlier this year.
But the Egyptian was keen to step down and Khan has taken advantage of the chance to expand his sporting portfolio.
“My time of serving as the custodian of Fulham Football Club would one day come to an end, and I feel that time has now arrived,” Al Fayed said.
“The time is right because I have found a very good man in Shahid Khan to accept the responsibility and privilege that I have enjoyed at Fulham since 1997.
“Fulham will be in very good hands with Shahid, whose success in business and passion for sport is very evident.
“I ask everyone who loves Fulham and our Craven Cottage home to welcome Shahid as he begins his journey as the next guardian of Fulham Football Club.”

 

[Devil Soul]

Fulham's new Pakistan-born owner set to break EPL mould
MIAMI: New Fulham chief Pakistan-born Shahid Khan, the Premier League's latest foreign owner, is likely to break the mould and be one of the most open and public of billionaires to take control of one of England's top flight clubs.

Other international owners such as Russian Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) and American Malcolm Glazer (Manchester United) rarely talk to the media or engage with fans but Khan has shown that he enjoys attention.

When Khan bought the National Football League's Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011, he brought his yacht into port in the northern Florida city and set about a series of community meetings with local politicians and fans.

“He is kind of a rock star with the fans,” Alfie Crow, editor of the Jaguars' fan blog 'Big Cat Country,' told Reuters.

“He comes out to practice, interacts with the fans and talks to them. He is very much out there and engaged. He has really energised people.”

Any trepidation Jaguars fans initially had about the team's new owner quickly dissipated as he won them over with his charm, not to mention a thick handlebar mustache and flowing hair that is a marked change from the staid image of the traditional NFL owner.

Khan, after all, is far from a typical owner of an American sports franchise.

Born in Lahore, where he not surprisingly fell in love with cricket, Khan moved to the United States as a 16-year-old, sleeping in a YMCA and washing dishes on his way to earning an engineering degree at the University of Illinois.

He ended up buying the first company to give him a job, transforming Flex-N-Gate into a lucrative car parts business. In 2010 he was making his first move into the sports world with an attempt to buy the NFL's St. Louis Rams.

The man who foiled that attempt was Stan Kroenke, who took majority ownership of the Rams. At Fulham, Khan will be in close proximity to Kroenke, the majority shareholder in London club Arsenal.

While Khan missed out on the Rams he did win friends in the NFL's elite ownership group and that helped him when he finally got into the league with the Jaguars.

“I thought, I have developed a love and affection as a fan for the sport and I'd like to be part of it,” he told Reuters in an interview last year.

As well as engaging with the local fan base, Khan has emphasised the opportunities to “put Jacksonville on the map” by taking the Jaguars to London for an annual game over the next four seasons.

It was typical of Khan's approach though that he responded to speculation that his move for Fulham might have a negative impact on the Jaguars by emailing the team's season ticket holders to reassure them.

“Fulham F.C. will operate as a fully stand-alone business from the Jaguars. Fulham and the Jaguars each have a great responsibility to their players, fans, partners and communities, and both deserve nothing less than a 100 percent commitment from ownership,” he wrote.

“In short, our pledge to you - a Jaguars franchise that is proud, bold and committed - remains unchanged.

Fulham season ticket holders can expect the same sort of hands-on attention, including fan forums, emails, media appearances, the kind of things that most foreign Premier League owners shy away from.

“I want to be clear, I do not view myself so much as the owner of Fulham, but a custodian of the club on behalf of its fans,” said Khan.

“My priority is to ensure the club and Craven Cottage each have a viable and sustainable Premier League future that fans of present and future generations can be proud of.”

Mohamed Al Fayed, the man Khan is taking over from, was full of praise for the new owner.

“My time of serving as the custodian of Fulham Football Club would one day come to an end, and I feel that time has now arrived,” Al Fayed said.

“The time is right because I have found a very good man in Shahid Khan to accept the responsibility and privilege that I have enjoyed at Fulham since 1997.

“Fulham will be in very good hands with Shahid, whose success in business and passion for sport is very evident.

“I ask everyone who loves Fulham and our Craven Cottage home to welcome Shahid as he begins his journey as the next guardian of Fulham Football Club.”

The Premier League, with its unrestricted free-market approach to wages and transfers, is a very different world to the closed, salary-capped business model of the NFL, and it will be fascinating to see how Khan approaches Fulham.

However it turns out, Fulham fans are certainly going to know they have a new owner.
Fulham's new Pakistan-born owner set to break EPL mould - DAWN.COM

 

[BATMAN]

He is a Lahori lad!

 

[Windjammer]

Billionaire NFL team owner Shahid Khan agrees to buy English Premier League side Fulham

PAKISTAN-born billionaire Shahid Khan agreed a deal to buy English Premier League club Fulham on Friday.

Khan, who owns NFL team Jacksonville Jaguars, has been in talks with Fulham owner Mohamed Al Fayed for several days and the pair have struck an agreement that will put the west London team under new ownership for the first time in 16 years.

The transaction, reported to have cost Khan around STG150 million ($A249.77 million), has been approved by the Premier League and the tycoon assumes 100 per cent ownership of the club, with a press conference scheduled for 1200GMT on Saturday to officially introduce the new Cottagers supremo.

"Mr Al Fayed is giving me the privilege and responsibility of serving as the next custodian of Fulham Football Club," Khan told the club's website.

"I am extremely honoured to accept and want to thank him, on behalf of everyone who loves Fulham, for 16 years of exceptional service to the Club. He rescued the club in its hour of need and has led it to a sustained place within the Premier League.

"Fulham is the perfect club at the perfect time for me. I want to be clear, I do not view myself so much as the owner of Fulham, but a custodian of the club on behalf of its fans.

"My priority is to ensure the club and Craven Cottage each have a viable and sustainable Premier League future that fans of present and future generations can be proud of.

"We will manage the club's financial and operational affairs with prudence and care, with youth development and community programs as fundamentally important elements of Fulham's future."

Khan, who was born in Lahore but now has American citizenship, is ranked 179th in the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans with an estimated worth of $US2.5 billion ($A2.74 billion) after making his fortune as a car parts manufacturer.

The 62-year-old, the first non-American to own a NFL franchise, already has ties to London, with the Jaguars scheduled to play one regular season game a season at Wembley for the next four years.

In 1967, at the age of 16, Khan left his native Pakistan for the United States and the opportunity to study engineering at the University of Illinois.

Khan struck it rich when he purchased Flex-N-Gate, a car parts supplier, and built it into a global leader that now employs more than 16,000 people at 52 manufacturing and nine product development and engineering facilities throughout Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Spain.

Al Fayed, the 84-year-old former Harrods owner, had transformed Fulham from a third-tier outfit to an established Premier League side since taking over in 1997.

"My time of serving as the custodian of Fulham Football Club would one day come to an end, and I feel that time has now arrived," Al Fayed said.

"The time is right because I have found a very good man in Shahid Khan to accept the responsibility and privilege that I have enjoyed at Fulham since 1997.

"Fulham will be in very good hands with Shahid, whose success in business and passion for sport is very evident."

No Cookies | thetelegraph.com.au

 

[EagleEyes]

I hope he does well.

He is already doing good with Jacksonville Jaguars, though it will be good for him if he moves out from the city of Jacksonville to some popular place like California.

 

[A.Rafay]

Congrats to him! I thought it was old news but looks like he's on a football club buying spree.
Good luck to him.

 

[PlanetWarrior]

Hopefully he will continue with the magic Al Fayed did with Fulham. The club was practically wrecked when he acquired it.

 

[khanboy007]

I hope he does well

if there is a match between man u or real vs FFC my support will be to FFC only because there is a Pakistani in the background

 

[Rafael]

Can I apply for a job in the club now?

 

[Windjammer]

Can I apply for a job in the club now?

I believe FC have referees, groundsmen, linesmen, etc......never heard one having a moderator.

 

[Raja.Pakistani]

Hopefully he will continue with the magic Al Fayed did with Fulham. The club was practically wrecked when he acquired it.

Is not Al fayed father of Dodi who died with diana in car crash?

 

[Raja.Pakistani]

I believe FC have referees, groundsmen, linesmen, etc......never heard one having a moderator.

They also have stewards ..very much same as moderators of the crowds

It was my first part time job in uk during study..watch free match in stadium and free fights between fans as well lol

 

[Thəorətic Muslim]

I hope he does well.

He is already doing good with Jacksonville Jaguars, though it will be good for him if he moves out from the city of Jacksonville to some popular place like California.

Theres talk with Goodell wanting to open a NFL subsidy in the EU. The Jags look like a good flagship team. They are already committed to 1 London game for the next 4-5? years. Then again who in the EU knows American Football?

But there are allot of hurdles in the way if the Jags move.

He has to show losses of atleast last 3 years but with the new contracts that will be not possible.
NFL relocation fee,
Ending lease Fee with City,
Expenses to other NFL teams on the "cost" on them,
etc

NFL IN LA: RELOCATION FEES FOR LOS ANGELES CURRENTLY AT $275 MILLION « Footballphds.com

 

[PlanetWarrior]

Is not Al fayed father of Dodi who died with diana in car crash?

Yup same Al Fayed. He's known as the "man with the golden hand" in the UK. Everything he touches turns to gold

 

[Edevelop]

Fulham's new owner Shahid Khan: From Lahore to London via Jacksonville

Shahid Khan, the proud and wonderfully mustachioed new owner of Fulham, is clearly a man who knows a fantastic opportunity when one comes around.

The billionaire businessman knew the only way to ensure a future laden with gold was to leave an impoverished life in Pakistan as a teenager and head for the bright lights of the United States.

Khan, the richest man of Pakistani origin in the world, worth an estimated $2.9billion (Dh10.7bn), worked tirelessly to build his Flex-N-Gate automotive-parts empire which has enabled him to join an elite group who own both NFL and Premier League clubs.

His purchase of the Jackonsville Jaguars in 2010 has been followed this month by a surprise $230m (Dh844.7m) buy-out of the Cottagers from Mohammed Al-Fayed.

The 61 year-old will now rub shoulders with the likes of Stan Kroenke and the Glazers from next season. It’s a brash, bold move especially considering the Jaguars pitiful showing in the NFL last season. But, more significantly, Khan’s purchase now means more than a quarter of England’s top-flight sides are in the hands of American owners.

For Arsenal, Liverpool, Sunderland, Manchester United and Aston Villa, you can now read Fulham. Football, as Manchester City’s entrance into the MLS market has already proven, is becoming big business in the land of opportunity.

With the season fast-approaching, Americans are looking forward to all the usual thrills and spills like never before. NBC – the nationally renowned broadcasting empire – has acquired the TV rights for the next three years and their promotions engine is going into overdrive. A 30-foot-tall Gareth Bale billboard in New York dominates over Times Square’s crowds of tourists. A few years ago, that would have been unthinkable.

Now, though, it’s different. NFL owners have quickly realised when it comes to packing a serious global punch both financially and from a sporting perspective, the Premier League’s where it’s at.

Joining the dots

Jaguars’ President Mark Lamping is a 20-year veteran of the American sports scene having worked for the St. Louis Cardinals’ baseball franchise among others. It may be a whole new ball game, but Lamping knows the incoming Fulham supremo’s timing, as ever, is impeccable.

Owning a football team in West London has a two-fold positive for Khan. Yes, it solidifies a foothold in arguably the most exciting, dynamic and talked-about sporting competition on the planet. However, it also boosts awareness of what he’s trying to do in Florida.

With the Jaguars already agreeing to play one game a season in London, everything ties in neatly. Add in the announcement made in the last few days that Jacksonville have been given a team in the NASL – the second tier in US soccer – from 2015 and it all begins to make even more sense.

Of course, he’s astute enough to know running both sides in two different sports could be fraught with headaches, problems and steps into the unknown. Yet, the commercial and financial possibilities for both combined are mouth-watering for someone who knows how to make a buck or a billion.

“There is a tremendous amount of respect from NFL franchise owners towards the Premier League. I know that from the amount of calls and questions I’ve fielded since the takeover was completed,” Lamping told Sport 360°. “Shad talked to the other owners who had teams in England and each of them was very bullish about the future of the league and the timing of Shad’s purchase.

“When the idea came around for Shad to buy Fulham, I saw it as an opportunity which made a whole lot of sense in terms of stand-alone operations. And, given the fact that the Jaguars will be playing one game a year in London, it was clear to me that it could present us with some opportunities between the two organisations and put us in a position where we will have a much better understanding of the London markets.

“It’s an acknowledgment from afar of just how strong the Premier League is and, in our case, the confidence we have in the league moving forward. We view a lot of the commercial activities as best-in-class. We can learn a lot in many areas and we want to tap into that.

“With Shad now owning the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham, one of the things we have been trying to do is to raise the awareness and profile of the Jaguars. That is one of the reasons why playing one game a year in London makes sense for us. There has certainly been more talk globally about Shad and his ownership of the Jaguars. I would venture to say the awareness of our franchise is already much higher now than it was two weeks ago.”

Mr Nice Guy

Listening to Lamping enthuse about Khan’s approach to business and life, Roman Abramovich can sleep safely in the knowledge that his title as most ruthless owner in West London will remain intact. Yes, he’s not scared to make changes – there has been a huge overhaul in Jacksonville both on and off the pitch since his arrival with Lamping acting as his right hand man – but this is no despot general with a knee that jerks with every shoddy Saturday afternoon display.

Martin Jol has been given the green light to prepare for the new season with his coaching staff and board virtually untouched. There is money to spend and Lamping added: “He’s a wonderful man, a family man. He has an awe-inspiring story having left Lahore at a very early age and now owning an NFL and EPL team 100 per cent by himself. That is quite a story in itself.

“He’s very thankful for the opportunities his move to America has provided for him. He realises he’s needed a lot of people working very hard with him to help him accomplish what he has.

“Shad is very smart and believes in hiring the best people he can and providing those individuals the resources needed to make them successful, allow them to make decisions and manage the business. He isn’t a micro-manager by any stretch of the imagination. He will hold those people accountable for results. Most people would gladly accept that trade- off.

“He is probably one of, if not the most popular figure in Jacksonville today. Last year was a terrible year on the field and, in that particular case, it wasn’t just that we had a poor year. We had results so far left-field of what the coaching staff expected. We fell so short.

“Shad is very realistic, though. He has built his company over many years and understands there will be ups and downs as you go along. The strategy for Fulham is based on three things – it’s to invest in the academy, invest in the community and invest in Craven Cottage. We are confident they will have the resources to remain in the Premier League and get into the top half of the table.”

That’s easier said than done. But only a fool would doubt the ability of football’s very own slumdog billionaire to deliver.

Fulham's new owner Shahid Khan: From Lahore to London via Jacksonville