Chainrai uninterested in running Portsmouth
Reuters - Friday 05 February 2010, 03:38
HONG KONG - Hong Kong businessman Balram
Chainrai, the new owner of Premier League Portsmouth, has no
interest in running the club and will offload the troubled club
as soon as he can find a buyer.
Chainrai became the fourth person to control the club this
season on Thursday after becoming frustrated at not receiving
payments on a 17 million pound loan he made to
his predecessor Ali al-Faraj via the Portpin company.
"I have zero interest in buying Portsmouth and it's
completely untrue that I am the new owner of the club," he told
Friday's South China Morning Post.
"As far as I am concerned, I have just confiscated the
shares of the previous owners.
"It's nothing to do with controlling the club. I don't know
anything about running a football club. I just love the game
and that's why I've taken this action. We have exercised our
right to take control of the shares, and to remove the previous
owners."
Portsmouth are banned from buying players because of money
owed to other clubs while the players and staff have regularly
had their salary payments delayed this season.
Five points adrift at the foot of the Premier League, they
are also fighting a winding-up order from the British
Government's Revenue and Customs department.
Chainrai said he had seized al-Faraj's 90 percent interest
to protect Portsmouth and his priority was to find a new
investor with "the club's best interests at heart."
"Believe me, someone will come in and buy this club. This
is Premier League football we are talking about," he told the
paper.
"We are eagerly looking for an investor to come in and take
over. I don't have a time frame to find a prospective buyer. I
would like to have one here today if I could, but we'll just
have to wait."
Chanrai was the second Hong Kong businessman to take a
controlling interest in a Premier League club after Carson
Yeung's Grandtop International Holdings Ltd bought Birmingham
City last year.