They already wear prison uniforms... They have Joey Barton... Often compared to American Football team Oakland Raiders... But Bin Laden??? Really???
A wealthy construction company run by the family of terrorist Osama bin Laden has emerged as a shock front-runner to buy Newcastle United, a source with links to the club claimed last night.
The Saudi Binladen Group, whose chief executive is Osama's half-brother, Bakr bin Laden, and which was founded by their father, Sheikh Mohammed bin Laden, is said to be considering a £300millionplus deal to buy the club and then carry out a lucrative redevelopment of St James' Park and land surrounding the ground.
More after the jump....
Although the Bin Laden family publicly distanced itself from the founder of Al-Qaeda years before he claimed responsibility for the September 11 atrocities in 2001, any takeover would be football's most controversial yet, as well as taking the number of foreign-owned teams in the Premier League to 10, or half of England's biggest clubs.
Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has been dogged by rumours, always denied, that he wishes to sell the club ever since his takeover just over a year ago.
However, last night a private investment company from America, InterMedia Partners, confirmed reports that they had been approached by a third party about buying the club.
Despite Newcastle describing reports that Ashley had quoted them a price of £420m as 'absolute nonsense', the Americans' statement said: 'InterMedia was approached about a deal, made no offer and has no interest.'
But the most astonishing development is the suggestion that a firm connected to the world's most wanted terrorist could be interested in buying the club.
Although the offices of SBG in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, were open yesterday, there was no one in authority available to comment on the speculation.
Last night a spokesman for Ashley would say only: 'No comment.'
Osama bin Laden made his fortune after inheriting shares in SBG when his father died in 1967 but the revocation of his Saudi citizenship in 1994 means he has since, in theory, been unable to access any assets in the country.
The stigma of the name would be an embarrassment to the Premier League.
But a large multinational company like SBG would pass the 'fit and proper person' test which last year waved through Manchester City owner, Dr Thaksin Shinawatra, despite allegations of human rights violations while he was Prime Minister of Thailand.
Representatives of the company are believed to have been in Newcastle in recent weeks for preliminary talks and to examine in detail the site's potential for transformation into a huge retail, leisure and luxury accommodation development.
In April last year, just weeks before selling his shares to Ashley, then Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd unveiled blueprints for a £300m revamp of St James' Park, which included raising the capacity by 8,000 to 60,000, plus luxury flats, a hotel and a conference centre.
But SBG's plans are even more ambitious and, because of complications related to the location of the metro station which serves the ground, even include the possibility of knocking down the iconic stadium and building a new one on the outskirts of the city.
The report of SBG's interest is a stunning end to a typically dramatic week at the club, with midfielder Joey Barton receiving a suspended jail sentence for assaulting former Manchester City team-mate Ousmane Dabo and the confusion over links with Inter- Media and the alleged £420m price tag.
But at a more realistic price around the £300m-mark, SBG is understood not to be alone in being attracted by the prospect of combining the kudos of owning a Premier League club with a major property play.
Preliminary interest from Indian billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla is said to have cooled, but the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are still thought to be in the running.
In charge of the Abu Dhabi ruling family's massive oil wealth, ADIA is the richest investment fund in the world with assets worth hundreds of billions of pounds under management, including a stake in New York's famous Chrysler Building - by strange coincidence the location of InterMedia's head office.
Ashley is said to have had the chance to walk away with a £30m profit within weeks of his purchase when a Far East consortium came knocking.
At the turn of the year, it is understood that his brokers, Kaupthing, mentioned while discussing other business with representatives of Dubai International Capital, that a minority stake in Newcastle might be available.
DIC politely declined, not because they wanted to own the whole club, but because the only team they are interested in buying is Liverpool.
Taken from MailOnline
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