It has been announced that Sheikh Ahmed bin Saqr Al Qasimi chairman of the Ras al Khaimah Department of Customs and Seaports, has purchased 60 per cent of an English Premier League football team. Whilst the speculation points to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1> Portsmouth being the club in question, Mr Sulaiman Al Fahim was at pains to deny that his deal was being supplemented by Sheikh Al Qasimi.

And speculation turns into fact. When there's smoke, there's fire. Just as we reported last weekend, Liverpool finally get their man Glen Johnson.
Johnson will come in as a direct replacement (and upgrade?) to Alvaro Arbeloa - who will now surely end up in Spain - perhaps even with former Premier League rival Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid.

With all the focus this summer on players getting bought and sold - and making big money moves across Europe - we sometimes forget that the summer is also a time when scores of players lose their jobs. Their contracts are not renewed. They don't make the step up from the reserves to the first team.

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Fulham started off their 2009/10 campaign in winning fashion as they brushed aside a Portsmouth team still in turmoil.

Lady luck shone on Roy Hodgson's side as a Clint Dempsey's shot took a heavy deflection off Bobby Zamora and went straight into the back of the net in the 13th minute. A goal that even Hodgson himself admitted was ‘fortuitous' proved to be the perfect start for a rejuvenated Fulham who are aiming to better their 9th place finish last season.

The Dubai-born businessman taking over Portsmouth wants the club to sign two of the biggest 'stars' in the United Arab Emirates. Sulaiman Al Fahim has told reporters in the Middle East that Al Wahda defender Hamdan Al Kamali and Al Ahli forward Ahmed Khalil. Pacy centre-back Al Kamali, 20, captained the UAE Under 20 side that [.

by GIANFRANCO PANIZO

Brazilian striker Adriano left Serie A earlier this year because he had lost the desire to play. After regaining that desire, and his form with Flamengo, he could soon be heading back to Italy.

Sampdoria sporting director Beppe Marotta has revealed that his club would consider making a move for Adriano if he was interested in returning to Serie A.

by TRAVIS CLARK

It certainly wasn't a good start for Jose Mourinho's club last week, drawing 1-1 against newly-promoted side Bari. With Juventus looking like a strong side, it was inevitable for the Special One to bring in some new blood to his side.

Reports out of Italy and Spain have Real Madrid's Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder heading to Inter as early as today.

Just a year ago Harry Redknapp was still managing Portsmouth. Just a year ago Redknapp turned down a 12M pound offer from Monaco for his star playmaker Niko Kranjcar.
One year later, Portsmouth are in shambles, Harry is sharing the top of the table with Chelsea at Tottenham, and Niko has moved from Fratton Park to White Hart Lane for less than 3M pounds.

Pompey have announced that jobsite.co.uk will be their new shirt sponsors. The online recruitment site replaces OKI as the Premier League club's new jersey sponsors. The Jobsite logo will now appear on all shirts and training wear. Jobsite have apparently paid more than the £4m forked out by OKI. The Fratton End will now be known [.

Rounding up yesterdays biggest transfer news and gossip.

"Is that the way to Sunderland?"

Portsmouth Set To Lose Even More Players.

With negotiations with Sulaiman Al Fahim's in a stale mate, Portsmouth will look to cash in on some of their bigger named players.

Another week is past, and you know what that means: yet another A to Z breakdown of this week in Premier League action. Here we go...

A is for Abou Diaby. The underrated Arsenal midfielder grabbed a brace on Saturday as he led Arsenal to yet another early season romp.

Well, it looks like tomorrow a new era in European Football will start. One where revenue will determine what kind of players can be signed, NOT reputation, nor Arab monies. I'm betting that al-Fahim is thrilled to be getting in on Portsmouth just in time to find out that an actual business plan is necessary.

Last week we covered that Portsmouth players had not been paid, and I asked whether Sulaiman al Fahim actually had the money to buy the club.

The answer was no, as Sulaiman al Fahim today sold Portsmouth to Saudi property magnate Ali al Faraj. Ali al Faraj is a familiar name to Pompey fans as Portsmouth executive Peter Storrie had told former, former, Portsmouth owner Sasha Gaydamak that Al Farai was interested in buying the club.

According to Sky Sports, Portsmouth's new owner Sulaiman Al-Fahim is interested in going after manager Sven Goran Eriksson. Eriksson is currently out of work after losing his coaching position with Mexico.

UPDATE: According to Chris Burton at Sky Sports, Sven Goran Eriksson will not be manager at Portsmouth. Portsmouth executive chairman Peter Storrie told The News,

"It's a complete nonsense ... No discussions have gone on about a new manager coming in whatsoever.

Like two peas in a pod Hmm, this lookalike is a bit too good to be true. They are, in fact, one and the same. Sulaiman al-Fahim fronted the Abu Dhabi United (the name still makes me snigger) takeover of Manchester City before mysteriously disappearing out of sight. He has now re-emerged as the all-but-signed-on-the-dotted-line new oener [.

With the credit crunch and the ever increasing debt in football, this summer looks set to be filled with a lot of high profile club buyouts. West Ham have recently been taken over by CB Holdings and Portsmouth and Newcastle look set to be the next clubs to be taken over in the English game. However, could these potential club changing decisions actually end up being worse in the long run than good?

AAAAHHHHHHHH I AM ARTUR BORUC AND THIS IS A LIST OF THINGS THAT MADE ME ANGRY THIS WEEK:

1. ARSENE WENGER'S SHOW HOW CAN YOU GET SENT OFF FOR KICKING A WATER BOTTLE?!?!?!! ONE TIME I FILLED A WATER BOTTLE WITH MILITARY GRADE EXPLOSIVES AND THEN I DRILLED A BABY IN THE HEAD WITH IT AND ALL I GOT WAS A WARNING!

So Portsmouth has assured its players that they will be paid the wages they are owed on Friday. Some players were not paid earlier in the week because of "a delay in the transfer of funds" following Sulaiman al Fahim's recent takeover.

My question is what happened to the money? Al Fahim recently told the club's supporters he will inject £50m into the club within the next month.

Premier League clubs, it should be remembered, enjoy every single advantage that the football world can throw at them. They have massive television contracts which give them an annual amount of money that would keep most lower league clubs going for years. They have the opportunity of European football.

Good news for Pompey fans.

Portsmouth Vs Manchester United Tickets Still Available!
Portsmouth Vs Tottenham Tickets Still Available!
Portsmouth vs Chelsea Tickets Still Available!

Saudi business tycoon Ali Al Faraj has completed his takeover of Portsmouth, acquiring a 90% stake in the club.

Transiting through London Heathrow this morning, on a journey from Florida to India, all the talk among football supporters (who I sought out in the airports and on the plane because they stand out in their club kits or England shirts) was not about any title contender but about Portsmouth.

Pompey picked up some Saudi Oil money today as Saudi tycoon Ali al-Faraj bought 90% of the financially stricken club from Sulaiman al-Fahim.
Al-Fahim, of Abu Dhabi, bought the club just 44 days ago - but he's out and the 40-year-old al-Faraj is in.
So, what does this mean? Well - for starters, not much on the pitch: Pompey may have a large arsenal of cash to use in the January transfer window - but they'll have to stick with their hodgepodge of new signings and on-loan stars (O'Hara 4.

(Al Fahim, patron arabo milionario del Manchester City)
Al Fahim ci riprova. Fallito l'assalto per Kakà, in seguito al clamoroso blitz di Berlusconi che ha convinto il calciatore a restare, il "paperone" del Manchester City ha pronta la sua valigetta piena di banconote ed è pronto a sferrare l'attacco per un altro fenomeno del calcio mondiale, forse il più grande in questo momento.

(Lionel Messi professa amore eterno al Barcellona)
Barcellona a vita. La dichiarazione d'amore di Lionel Messi arriva, in queste ore, ed è un mattone grosso come una casa sulle mire del "paperone" arabo Al Fahim che aveva individuato, nel fuoriclasse blaugrana, il nuovo possibile sogno del Manchester City, dopo aver fallito l'assalto al brasiliano del Milan, Ricardo Kakà.

Investors complaining of poor customer service relations. Bust ups with investors. Arbitrary rises in housing units, severe penalties for late payments, delayed construction work, and unhonoured site visits.

"Does anyone know of anywhere else in the world where a seller is able to sell an off-plan property without a contract and then a year or two later provide a contract showing an increase the price of what he has already sold?

Kudos to Texas businessman Ellis Short. Thanks to him Americans have staked out four Premiership teams.
He's taking over Sunderland 100 percent.
Atta boy.
The league also has to welcome some new Arab owners. Word is United Arab Emirates businessman Sulaiman al-Fahim has said his company is gonna buy Portsmouth.

PGL: Good morning Insiders and welcome to the TGIF Season Awards as voted by you, our readers! (How cheesy an intro was that? I should be wearing a Tux.) FTK and myself thought this would be a nice touch to bring the curtain down on a long season; it's always good to finish on a positive.

The colourful approach of Pompey's suitor will see Sulaiman Al-Fahim slot seamlessly into the vaudevillian Premier League.

UPDATE: According to James Dall at Sky Sports, Sven Goran Eriksson is interested in coaching Portsmouth. His agent Athole Still said,

"It [Portsmouth] is a club with money and a club that looks like it will have ambition, which is very important to any top manager"

"Of course it would be a club that interests him .

Liverpool will attempt a shock move to re-sign striker Peter Crouch from Portsmouth.
Despite severe financial restrictions in place at Anfield, manager Rafa Benitez will attempt to try to land Crouch for as little as £4million.
The Anfield club are not alone in wanting Crouch.

Ah, isn't buying a football club the easiest thing in the world. Look how quickly Abramovich bought Chelsea, the Glazers bought Manchester United and the Abu Dhabi group picked up City. Compared to the protracted nature of the proposed takeover of Portsmouth, even buying Newcastle United may be easier.

The Premiership season begins on August 15th, just under four weeks away and for most clubs in the top flight, July has seen them scurrying about trying to strengthen their squads. At Fratton Park however, Portsmouth find themselves hampered by the current process of due diligence for Sulaiman Al Fahim's proposed takeover to be completed.

According to Portsmouth's official website, Portsmouth have signed manager Paul Hart to a two-year deal.

According to Portsmouth's official website, an agreement has been reached in principle that will sell the club to Al Fahim Asia Associates.

What a long, strange trip it's been for Portsmouth supporters. Just a little over a year ago, Portsmouth Football Club lifted the FA Cup, qualified for Europe, and was enjoying its second straight season in the top half of the table. Harry Redknapp was forgiven for his brief trip to Southampton.

No sooner has Sulaiman Al Fahim taken over at Portsmouth, than rumours start linking Argentina legend Diego Maradona with a role at the club.Al Fahim, you will remember, was the face of the group that took over Manchester City. He was the man that declared City would sign Cristiano Ronaldo for £134m and other similarly ridiculous things.

According to SSN, Sulaiman Al Fahim has revealed Portsmouth are in talks to sign Jonas Gutierrez and Egyptian striker Amr Zaki. Whilst we'll obviously be pretty disinterested about the Zaki link, Spiderman would be yet another hole in our ever decreasing squad and is something to ponder. Of course, Al Fahim, a businessman out in Dubai, [.

Portsmouth will be relegated if the club does not stop hemorrhaging players. A new consortium is bidding to takeover led by Peter Storrie, the current CEO. Continuing doubts over Sulaiman Al Fahim's ability to fund the club is prompting this move. There is a possibility of Storrie's group linking up with Al Fahim's Asia Associates in a 50-50 partnership.

Birmingham City are the latest Premier League club to be lined up for foreign ownership. As Mark Murphy reports, the new potential new owner has already had a go at buying the club, but fans are split on whether his involvement and there are question marks over his financial credentials.

Birmingham City chairman David Gold isn't easy to like.

You have to feel for Peter Storrie.
His second face was ecstatic as Pompey sunk to their latest defeat at the Emirates last Saturday. For, despite the defeat, our sneaky CEO had only gone and done the dirty on the man who was sitting next to him, US college kid lookalike, Sulaiman al-Fahim.