Joe Lewis & Daniel LevyDuring the football investment boom of the mid to late 1990s ENIC began to
acquire shares in football clubs around Europe and bought stakes in Rangers, Slavia Prague, AEK
Athens, Vicenza Calcio and FC Basel.Â
They first bought a controlling stake in Tottenham in 2001 and over the next few years slowly
increased their shares in the club.
John W Henry's new house described as a 'monstrosity' plus watching Spurs not all plain
sailing for Alan Sugar
John W Henry has yet to unveil his plans for a redeveloped Anfield and perhaps that's for the
best given protests at the new mansion he is building in the posh Boston suburb of Brookline.
Daniel Levy was described by former Tottenham chairman and star of The Apprentice Alan
Sugar, as the toughest negotiator he has ever dealt with, after ENIC Group, an investment company
chaired by Levy, took over the club in 2001. However, it is vital that Levy eschews from entering
negotiations with any club regarding Luka Modric after categorically stating the player is not for
sale, at any price.
Many people were shocked when Aston Villa paid such a large transfer fee for Darren Bent last
season and perhaps even more shocking was the hefty wage packet offered to Wayne Rooney to stay at
Man United, but look at what these forwards have produced since and you start to realise just how
important these deals were to both clubs.
Despite its fundamental flaws, the BBC Money Programme production Lord Sugar Tackles Football
was a watchable attempt to evaluate English football's financial ills. These flaws were immediately
evident. Sugar's call for football to take a "dose of hard business reality" came during an
hour-long documentary whose introduction contained next-to-no reality whatsoever.
Here is Paul Kemsley, the new owner of the NY Cosmos... and Pamela Anderson.
Remember about a year ago, when Britain's Daily Mail broke the story that Paul Kemsley, a former
Tottenham Hotspur board member and property developer had been in the process to purchase the name
and image rights to the NY Cosmos?
1994 Having been hit with a 12 point deduction, F.A.Cup ban and a £600,000 fine for making
illegal loans to players, Spurs' chairman Alan Sugar met the appeal board, who halved the points
deduction to six, but also increased the fine to £1.
1991 On this day in 1991, Terry Venables and Alan Sugar completed a £7.25 million takeover of
Tottenham and saved the club from possible extinction. Sugar would became non-executive Chairman
and Venables the non-executive Managing Director of Spurs.
1994 On this day in 1994, an F.A. commission found the club guilty of making illegal loans to
players between 1985 and 1989. We received a £600,000 fine, a 12-point league deduction and were
banned from playing in the FA Cup.
1959 Spurs were on a tour of the USSR on this day in 1959, beating Dynamo Kiev 2-1. Johnny
Brooks scored both the goals. This tour marked a moment when prominent members of the team that
would win the Double, began to realise that they had the makings of a great team.
1994 The Alan Sugar v Terry Venables court case had revealed that illegal payments had been made
to Spurs players. On this day in 1994 the FA let slip the fact that they were planning to demote us
were we to be found guilty, with the relegated Sheffield United keeping their place in the Premier
League.
The world is awash with the autobiographies of players and managers, but Superfan is the first
biography that I can think of, which is based on the life of a fan.
That fan is Morris Keston, a larger than life character who has attended over 3000 Spurs games.
As well as being a Tottenham fanatic, Morris became friends with some of the biggest names in
football.
So its Friday morning and I should be working on important things in the church office, but
instead I find myself scanning the internet for news ahead of tomorrow's North London Derby.Â
Whilist doing so I can across an article of famous fans from both teams and thought it only
appropiate to have a face off.
The New York Cosmos are back! The legendary name had been more or less in mothballs for years
under the control of G. Peppe Pinton, long rumoured to have been asking for extravagant payment for
the trademark. And given what a circus the team was at times (even if this wasn't always a bad
thing), it's perhaps appropriate (if rather sad) that the trademark of the team has been purchased
and will apparently be used for a reborn Cosmos as "a traveling array of all-stars, playing matches
around the world.
Aston Martin is releasing a new car. A really, really sexy new car. So sexy it'll cost a million
pounds, meaning it will become the world's most expensive car, beating out the Bugatti Veyron, and
being made exclusively for the super rich. Unfortunately only the uber rich can afford to fill it
up with petrol [.
Reports claim that United have reached a verbal agreement with Tottenham over the sale of Dimitar
Berbatov. The theory goes that once Spurs land their new Russian striker they will allow the
Bulgarian to join the Champions.
It is somewhat ironic that Fergie looks set to acquire his number one target on the very weekend
that United are set to face Zenit St Petersburg in the European Super Cup Final in of all places
Monte Carlo, where fortunes are often gambled and lost on the turn of the Roulette wheel.
This article titled "How football has kept the Murdoch empire afloat" was written by David Conn,
for guardian.co.uk on Friday 15th June 2012 12.57 UTC
At the Leveson inquiry this week, the current and last Conservative prime ministers reflected on
the fact that Rupert Murdoch's News International had, over 20 years, cemented too much power.
Some nuts think the world will be no more in 2012 (hopefully after the Olympics is over), but for
English football's traditions the end is nigh once more after Tuesday.
The shock-horror arrival of Arab billions at Manchester City, followed by their first trophy,
Robinho, was mirrored by two old-style English managers, Alan Curbishley and Kevin Keegan, exiting
stage left.
The money going round in the Premier League is now so dizzying, it's almost impossible to
comprehend. In the 1980s and 1990s, when a very rich man such as Rupert Murdoch, Alan Sugar or
Robert Maxwell decided they wanted to be involved in football, there was an almighty fuss. Each of
them had vastly different [...]
Joey Barton leads Twitter campaign in support of Hillsborough petition
• Midfielder backs calls for release of documents into tragedy • Urges Lady Gaga and Lord
Sugar to also join online campaign After using Twitter to quote Nietzsche and George Washington,
and then to insult Alan Shearer's dress sense, Joey Barton was back on the social networking site
yesterday, but this time his comments were widely met by praise and respect as opposed to ridicule
and rage.
10 Peter Reid Leeds (March 2003 November 2003) To be fair to Peter Reid, this
was the easiest job in the world to be bad at. However, he still excelled in his ineptitude. Reid
was ridiculed as much for his dabblings in the transfer market as his side's poor performances on
the pitch, especially the loan signing of the comical Roque Junior.
Here's a classic blast of Cloughie getting into his gin-soaked, cantankerous and semi-lucid stride while laying into "unshaven Cockney spiv" Alan Sugar (then Tottenham chairman), the nature of football chairmen, King Eric, Stan Collymore's multicoloured hair and several other pressing subjects after ever-so-possibly having one too many in the green room before an appearance on ITV's 'Sport in Question' hosted byIan St John and Jimmy Greaves in 1995.
————————————————————– The club that changed football
Making the Arsenal
By Tony Attwood
When football got its first whiff of the money Sky could offer Alan Sugar apparently made a
statement to the effect that the League should put aside some of the new money into a fund, the
purpose of which could [.
There's been little to write about of any note recently, mainly because of the weather and local
councils' fear of someone suing them because they fell over on an icy pavement. First off, I know
the title is a little sensationalist but if ENIC were to sell Spurs that's exactly what it would
be.
- For latest QPR news-related pieces and discussion, visit the growing QPR Report
Messageboard. All QPR Perspectives genuinely welcomed! Or comment on any of the
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- Messageboard Rumours re Gianni Paladini Depature (or just a change in Title?
You're fired! All this business advice from Xabi Alonso got us thinking... we have never seen the
Liverpool midfielder and Alan Sugar in the same room. The wispy facial hair, the furrowed brow, and
now the pointy finger. It all adds up. While we are vaguely on the subject, if you haven't yet
watched Cassetteboy's remix of [.
The season is barely over but already another Middle Eastern owner has bought a Premier League
club. This time it is Pompey who are now controlled by the ‘Alan Sugar of the Middle East',
Sulaiman Al Fahim.
Al Fahim, as a celebrity in his home country, appears to relish the spotlight. We first saw him
last summer when Man City were taken over and he has obviously decided he wanted a piece of the
action after seeing City roar to a mid-table finish this season.
