As sugar daddies go, Fayed has been a sweet success at Fulham

 
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Dan Jones11 July 2013

The TV commentator nailed it “Fantasy Fulham!” It was Thursday April 29 2010 and Zoltan Gera had just leathered home one of the most extraordinary goals in the club’s history.

The scoreboard read Fulham 2 Hamburg 1, with 76 minutes played. Craven Cottage was losing its collective mind. This was the second leg of a Europa League semi-final and Gera’s goal had more or less put Fulham in the final.

Several thousand fans bounced up and down together, the Johnny Haynes Stand thundering beneath their boots. At the final whistle, the roar was monstrous. Roy Hodgson and his players celebrated. The supporters bellowed.

And the club’s owner, Mohamed Fayed, walked about the pitch, sweeping a scarf joyfully around his head.

The club he had bought for £6.25million in 1997 and suckled with more than £200m in loans were on their way to a European final. He saluted the home support, drank the adoration. When he walked past the Hamburg fans kicking their heels bitterly in the away stands, he flicked them the V sign.

That image serves as a portrait in miniature of Fayed’s time at Fulham. The Egyptian billionaire has done some funny things at the club — not least erecting a statue of Michael Jackson outside the ground and telling the fans that they could “go to hell” if they didn’t like it.

But in the last 16 years he has invested a pile of his own money to build Fulham from third-tier strugglers into an established Premier League side. Fayed’s money has paid for some fine managers — Hodgson, Mark Hughes, Martin Jol — and some outstanding players including Louis Saha and Dimitar Berbatov. Craven Cottage has been redeveloped as an all-seater stadium with a reputation as the most pleasant and family-friendly in London.

Although Fulham lost that 2010 Europa Cup Final to Atletico Madrid, they were, at least, there.

“Take me home, Fayed,” Fulham fans like to sing. And well they might.

Today, however, rumours are flying around that the 84-year-old chairman is preparing to wind up his time in charge of old Craven Cottage, down by the river.

It is reported that he has commissioned the football fixer Keith Harris to find him a buyer who will pay between £150m and £200m. That would recoup a decent chunk of Fayed’s investment over the last decade and a half. It would also begin a new era at Fulham. Good thing? Bad thing? Well, more on that in a minute.

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At the time of writing, Fulham were making no comments on the club’s potential sale. But if we look at Fayed’s apparent strategy with his biggest business assets, a sale could make sense. He sold his most famous and prized asset, Harrods, to Qatar Holdings in 2010 (it has been reported that he attempted to include Fulham in negotiations for that deal).

This spring there were rumours that the Ritz hotel in Paris, currently under a two-year refurbishment, was on the market — the rumours were denied. In May his Falls of the Shin Visitor Centre in the Scottish Highlands was destroyed by fire; this week a number of staff were laid off and no plans have yet been announced either for the centre’s rebuilding — or for a recommission of the waxwork of Fayed wearing a kilt which was also ruined in the blaze.

Fulham themselves seem to be in something of a holding pattern. This January Fayed converted his loans to the club into equity, making them effectively debt free: fans might ask whether this is a practical means to prepare for Financial Fair Play regulations or a sensible corporate move to improve the club’s attractiveness for sale.

Likewise, Fulham have been muted in the transfer market so far this summer. Goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg has signed on an undisclosed fee; midfielder Derek Boateng and defender Fernando Amorebieta have joined on free transfers.

But there has been little to suggest another transfer in the region of £10m, as Fulham were thought to have paid for Bryan Ruiz in 2011.

None of this adds up to a certainty. We cannot say for sure that Fulham are about to change hands. But what we can do is reflect on what Fayed has done for the club and what their future could hold in other hands.

As sugar daddies go, Fayed has been a dream. There are flashier owners — Roman Abramovich at Chelsea has bought his way to Champions League success and Premier League titles; Manchester City’s owners have the same ambitions.

But there have been far worse, too. Tony Fernandes’ money has bought Queens Park Rangers relegation and Venky’s cash has bought Blackburn universal ridicule. The list of English clubs undone by wealthy owners is much longer than the list of those who have been improved.

Will Fayed sell? If he does, he will leave Fulham almost immeasurably improved by his ownership. But he will also be sending the club into a new and uncertain period. Better the sugar daddy you know, and all that.

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