Sulaiman Al-Fahim to buy Chelsea?

cfloo

Man City owner ´has sights set on Chelsea´

PARIS(AFP) - Manchester City owner Sulaiman Al-Fahim is working inconjunction with a group of German investors to put together a bid tobuy Premiership rivals Chelsea from Russian tycoon Roman Ambramovich,an Arabian business website reported on Friday.

The reportclaims the mega-rich Abu Dhabi businessman has met with five potentialGerman partners from Swiss based company Falcon Equity in a bid towrest the club from Ambramovich who is rumoured to have seen hisinterest in the club wane.

The Russian, who lost a large chunkof his fortune during the financial crisis, has been less in evidencein his seat at Stamford Bridge this season.

"We have lookedbefore at some European clubs before to see if the numbers add up, andnow we are doing the same with Chelsea. I can't go into more details atthis stage," Falcon Equity boss Holger Heims told Arabianbusiness.com.

"Idon't believe anything is ever not for sale if you come up with theright price. It's not about trying to buy a football team but about abusiness," he added.

Abramovich took over the club in 2003 andhas since invested some 500 million pounds (532 million euros) as heturned the Londoners into a European force by first bringing in JoseMourinho as manager as well as a string of world class players.

Theywon back to back Premiership titles in 2005 and 2006 and a string ofdomestic cups but have yet to win the Champions League trophyAbramovich craves, despite coming within a successful penalty kick ofglory in the 2008 final against Manchester United in Moscow.

Howeverthe club has racked up massive debts and encountered a number ofproblems on and off the pitch which have fuelled rumours Abramovich ison the verge of pulling the plug.

The reclusive 42-year-oldrarely gives interviews and these latest reports are unlikely toinspire the Russian to declare his intentions in public.

"Giventhat Roman Abamovich has invested over 500 million pounds into theclub, it would not be cheap (to buy Chelsea), and with the currentcredit crunch, nobody wants to be over exposed on one deal. But througha number of investors, there is money available to put together adeal". said Heims.

The report was immediately denounced by Chelsea assistant coach Ray Wilkins.

"Itis no, no," said Wilkins. "Roman is very keen to continue his supportof Chelsea and what Peter Kenyon said last week is the bottom line.It's not for sale."