Monday Football

26 January 2009

by Jerrad Peters

 

Liverpool co-owners squabble over club's sale

 

The Dubai-based consortium that failed in its bid to purchase Liverpool Football Club in January 2007 is thought to be preparing a new offer for the club. With current owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. unlikely to convince their lenders to refinance their 350-million pound loan, Sheikh Mohammed bin Riashid al Maktoum has emerged as the most probable candidate to take the club off their hands.

Al Maktoum and his Dubai International Capital (DIC) group have come into play after Kuwait's powerful Al-Karafi family balked at the Liverpool co-owners' 600-million pound asking price. They were also put off when rumors of the deal were made public.

In a bizarre twist, Hicks is hoping to persuade Gillett to sell his stake in the team while retaining a minority interest for himself. This marks a decided turn in events, as it was Gillett who refused his collaborator's request to sell the club outright last winter.

As it happens, officials representing Hicks traveled to London and undisclosed locations in the Middle East late last week. Joining them was Liverpool financial director Phillip Nash. It is believed that the purpose of the trip was to finalize a deal with the Kuwait group's chief negotiator, Nasser Al-Karafi.

The transaction fell apart, however, when Hicks placed a 600-million pound value on the club. Not coincidentally, the usually forthright Gillett refused to comment on the rumored sale ahead of an interview with Toronto radio station The Fan 590 on Thursday. On the station last march, Gillett railed against Hicks, stating, "This partnership [with Hicks] has been unworkable for some time.

Both owners have been unable to refinance Liverpool's debt since acquiring the club for roughly 435-million pounds on February 6, 2007. Their financial woes were worsened when the two institutions that provided funds for the purchase—Wachovia and the Royal Bank of Scotland—encountered financial difficulties of their own. North Carolina-based Wachovia was taken over by Wells Fargo on December 31, 2008 while the Royal Bank of Scotland was partially nationalized in October. Neither institution has been receptive to the idea of repackaging loans for sports properties while the rest of the economy is in tatters.

 

Gender inequality plagues Iranian football

 

Esteghlal Football Club is one of the most successful clubs in the Middle East. Since 1975 they have won five Iranian titles and two Asian championships. After 23 rounds of the current season, they are atop the Premier League standings. They are also the frontline in the battle to abolish gender inequalities from Iranian football.

According to a BBC report released Monday, January 26, Esteghlal has suspended or fined three club officials for allowing a mixed-gender friendly match to occur earlier in the month. One of the penalized officials is Alireza Mansourian, Esteghlal's academy chief and a former Iranian international. The 37-year-old claims that training sessions between the club's women's team and men's youth side overlapped, causing both sets of players to be on the pitch at the same time. Various Tehran media are contradicting Mansourian, however, maintaining that the male squad defeated their female counterparts 7-0.

The uproar over female participation in Iranian football—both as players and spectators—has long been a focal point for international media. Ahead of the 2006 World Cup finals, president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad made moderate concessions to female fans, permitting them to watch matches in special, separate sections of stadiums.

But after a furious backlash from the religious community, Ahmedinejad's reforms were quickly overturned by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Women have been prohibited from both watching men's matches and playing mixed-gender friendlies in the 30 years since the Islamic Revolution.

Prior to 1979, men and women were permitted to attend matches together and women's sport was as progressive as anywhere else in the Muslim world. All of that changed when the Shah was replaced by the Islamist Republic. The country's sporting clubs, including Esteghlal, were promptly commandeered by the Physical Education Organization. Among the organization's responsibilities was a mandate to enforce gender separation in both clubs and stadiums. Their reign of oppression exists to this day. They are currently investigating Esteghlal's alleged mixed-gender match.

Ahmedinejad may have been slapped down by the religious clerics in advance of the last World Cup. His country's women, however, made themselves heard loud and clear a full year ahead of the tournament in Germany. After Iran officially qualified for the World Cup finals by beating Bahrain on June 8, 2005, tens of thousands of women took to the streets of Tehran to celebrate the victory alongside male football fans.

Their act of defiance did not go unnoticed, either by the international community or local authorities. If this month's crackdown is any indication, the Physical Education Organization is as omnipresent as ever, and Iranian football has a long way to go before finally realizing gender equality.

 

jerradpeters@gmail.com