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SALFORD CITY FC CLASS OF 92 SELL OUT

Star date: 22nd September 2014

CLASS OF '92 TO SELL 50% STAKE OF SALFORD CITY FC TO SINGAPOREAN BILLIONAIRE

Only six months after taking over Salford City FC the Class of '92 are about to sell off fifty per cent of the club to Singaporean stockbroker Peter Lim, who almost bought Liverpool FC for £320million a few years ago.

After droning on about the `grass roots' of football, Giggs, Scholes, Butt, Beckham and the Nevilles have already sold their `vision' to a billionaire who is also about to buy Valencia. Very strange. What on earth is going on?

Full details here...

click image to enlarge

On Twitter a few weeks ago, one of Phil Neville's virtual mates referred to Salford City FC as his `toy box'. But the Evo-Stik First Division North club is now also about to become the `toy box' of a Singaporean billionaire.

Peter Lim, who made his money from palm oil and is now known as `The Stockbroker' worth an estimated £1.5billion, shares the Class of '92's `vision' for Salford City apparently...

"Peter met with the lads a few months ago and they explained their plans and rationale for Salford City FC, the academy and the investment in grassroots football" said his spokesman "What the lads want to accomplish resonated strongly with Peter who shares a common belief with the lads in youth development through sports. Peter has high regard for footballers' talents and dedication to their sport..."

Lim, who almost bought Liverpool FC for £320million a few years ago, and is currently negotiating to take over Valencia, will now find himself with a club regularly playing the likes of Radcliffe Borough, Ossett Albion and Padiham.

"When we set upon this journey we always knew at some point we wanted external partners involved, people who would share our vision for Salford City FC" said the Class of '92 in a statement.

"We have all known Peter for over ten years, his love of sport, above all football, is well documented" they added "He has an incredible track record in business as well as youth and community engagement, especially at grassroots level. This will be fantastic for SCFC, Peter's experience and knowledge is invaluable and can help take SCFC to where we believe they can be, it's exciting times for the club."

Lim's investment in his beloved `grass roots' doesn't appear to have extended to his own country. Today on the website of Singapore paper, Straits Times, one person wrote "Charity begins at home. Why not support and nurture our own Singapore's football clubs?" – to which another replied "I believe he has already attained fortune and the next best thing is...fame".

`Fame' at being associated with Salford City FC?
Or is this about being associated with the Class of '92?

If Gary Neville et al are trying to build a club through the `grass roots', why sell half of it to a Singaporean billionaire from the other side of the world after only six months? They can't need the investment, they are all millionaires already – David Beckham, for instance, is worth an estimated £200million. Surely a club four tiers below the Football League, run by volunteers, doesn't need a billionaire's `investment'?

So what is in it for the Class of '92?

And can Salford City FC retain its newly found motto of `Integrity' during the process?

* See also previous Salford Star article - Ammies Go All Manchester United - click here

tangerina wrote
at 20:40:59 on 19 May 2015

Gary Neville's been spotted snooping around Salford Uni and the disused buildings and land nearby along the Crescent. Place your bets now on a new tinpot cheapo stadium being built for peanuts "in association with Salford University Manchester", and Moor Lane being sold off.

MIke wrote
at 19:42:41 on 28 September 2014

I am surprised no-one has picked up on the key points here. 1) Salford City have one asset. It is the ground and the land it sits on. Historically rich people target ownership of such clubs in order to move them on and profit from the land. Work your way through clubs at League One and below where the value of the only other assets a club can have (the players) starts to fall below that of the ground and then look at the number of ownership changes. Speaks for itself. 2) Gary Neville seems to like property development but going solo, as he found out with his eco house, is risky and exposes you to poor publicity which can be spread if you bring in others and sell it as one thing when it's possibly something else. 3) The new "investor" has looked at other clubs. He has shied away from complex ownership models. Generally that would be common sense anyway but it also means less argument should you wish to move a club on and build them a new ground. 4) Salford is ripe for this sort of thing and people will buy into the local boys giving something back angle because even the most tin pot cheapo stadium would be newer and better than what Salford have now and leave the owners with a tidy profit. Place your bets now on a ground share wirh the rugby league club. 5) Owners generosity looks fantastic until they walk and people discover that all that investment was really just loans or, to put it another way, debt loaded onto the club. Debt will always need repayment. Higher up the pyramid there's always a new rich owner willing to clear certain amounts but there's also endless debt and, as United have found out, eventually there's a cost to that. The examples given so far of how this might be a success show just how much people buy into this nonsense. Go read about Rushden and Diamonds. Not a dissimilar disaster to Gretna. And let's be clear, Gretna was a disaster. All the trophies in the world are meaningless if all you have left at the end are the bits of metal and the cabinet they sit in. The starving of grass roots football by the EPL, FA and Championship does mean this sort of model of Messiah ownership seems ever more attractive but it's the kiss of death and unsustainable at Salfords level. Fleetwood are an even more laughable example. Piley has made his money as a reseller. Even successful in the league they're a town of 27,000 with crowds of 2,700. They bought their way to promotion from non-league, which is exactly what happens every season now to be fair to them, but Piley has recently been described as having invested £10m to bring them to this level. Funny how when people started questioning his business methods a while back, it suddenly came out that he would pull out and demand back what, at that time was £4m of investment! Funny how threads on their independent forum went AWOL on the subject of how investment and philanthropy was actually just debt loaded onto the club they could never possibly repay. So, next steps I am guessing will be a certain amount of infrastructure investment prior to a ground move. Make the current place a more attractive destination for players to play and train and for spectators to attend and Salford will rise up the pyramid. As they do so the grounds for a land sale become ever stronger. It'll be easy to forget who will profit from that and the potential long term consequences.

Andrew Reid wrote
at 06:34:46 on 28 September 2014

Any chance of some POSITIVE news about Salford RL please than some 5th rate soccer club nobody cares about?? Cheers....

David Lyons wrote
at 03:45:35 on 25 September 2014

Pure sour grapes from the Salford Star.the Editor is missing some wonderfull football.

Alice Searle wrote
at 10:31:40 on 24 September 2014

I am just a neighbour of SFC but one who recognised the local nature and the dedication of the local volunteers. I wonder if these volunteers and loyal traditional supporters were consulted about the part sell off of 'their' club. It's so much pandering to big money and a insulting disregard for the grass roots supporters who have stood by the club in the past. Still I guess I am not a football enthusiast and, therefore, don't understand the corporate approach that is the nature of sport today. Wonder how much the shirts etc will cost in the future and which company will be bidding for this lucrative business. What a difference with FCUM!, anyone noticed its community, democratic approach!!

the end wrote
at 10:31:17 on 24 September 2014

Salford city have the chance o live the dream and once again all the Salford star can do is pour scorn on it. look at fleetwood town as a good example of how it works well.

TangerineDream wrote
at 04:54:49 on 24 September 2014

Gretna went from the Northern Premier League to the Scottish Premier League, the Scottish FA Cup final and European football in just five years and only ceased to exist when backer Brooks Mileson withdrew his financial support due to ill health. I can't see the five - soon to be six - owners of Salford City going down the same path. As for the drum? There never has been and there never will be a drum at Moor Lane if I have anything to do with it!

Richard wrote
at 06:47:15 on 23 September 2014

Looks like it could be another Gretna situation. Feel Sorry for the real Salford fans (and their drum!)

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