By Andrew Warshaw
September 4 – A Saudi prince is taking a 50% stake in ailing English third-tier club Sheffield United, the latest incursion into English football by Middle East investors but the first by a Saudi benefactor.
Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, whose family is worth an estimated £12 billion, becomes joint owner of one of English football’s most iconic clubs but one currently lying 17th in League One.
Prince Abdullah, a prominent businessman and industrialist, may have paid just £1 but will soon spend a whole lot more in what has been heralded as the start of a new era for a club that traditionally vies with arch-rivals Sheffield Wednesday for supremacy.
Since 1994, United have spent just a single season in English football’s top division and has had seven managers is six years. But chairman Kevin McCabe, who gave away half his stake in the club’s parent company, Blades Leisure, said he expected the prince’s investment to be “substantial”.
McCabe, whose family have invested over £90 million in the club, said: “”We’ve been looking for partner investors for six years and this is fantastic. This is game-changing for this club. The money being made available is for investment at first-team level and that means building a squad that can get us back to the upper echelons of English football.
“The partner is here for the long term and I’ve got to know him well, and I’m delighted that he’s on board.”
Prince Abdullah, whose personal wealth is estimated by the Forbes rich list at $144.5m (£93.5m), was once in charge of Saudi Arabia’s biggest club, Al Hilal, and is an avid follower of the game as well as of the NFL in the United States.
“I am delighted to invest in such a sensibly-organised, family and community club with a great history and heritage,” he said in a statement. “Like Kevin, I am determined to see it achieve its goals.”
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