Shahid Khan, the owner of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, has bought English football club Fulham F.C.
The move gives Khan a permanent presence in London, after earlier this offseason it was announced that the Jaguars would be playing one regular season game per year in the English capital for the next four years. The club will take on the San Francisco 49ers in October at Wembley.
Khan confirmed the Fulham purchase news on Friday, with the deal to be announced officially tomorrow.
“Fulham is the perfect club at the perfect time for me,” said Khan in a statement. “My priority is to ensure the club and Craven Cottage each have a viable and sustainable Premier League future that fans of present and future generations can be proud of. We will manage the club’s financial and operational affairs with prudence and care, with youth development and community programs as fundamentally important elements of Fulham’s future.”,
Fulham finished 12th in the Premier League last season.
Khan becomes the latest NFL owner to buy a premier league club, following Malcolm Glazer who owns a controlling interest in Manchester United, as well as fellow American Owners John Henry, who owns Liverpool, and Stanley Kroenke, who is the largest shareholder in Arsenal.
The deal is said to be for 100% ownership of the team and to be a debt-free purchase, however full financial terms have not been released. However the rumored price is said to be in the neighborhood of £ 200 million. The selling owner is fellow billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, who acquired control of Fulham in 1997, when the club was in the third division.
“My time of serving as the custodian of Fulham Football Club would one day come to an end, and I feel that time has now arrived,” Al Fayed said. “The time is right because I have found a very good man in Shahid Khan to accept the responsibility and privilege that I have enjoyed at Fulham since 1997. Fulham will be in very good hands with Shahid, whose success in business and passion for sport is very evident. I ask everyone who loves Fulham and our Craven Cottage home to welcome Shahid as he begins his journey as the next guardian of Fulham Football Club.”
Khan made his vast fortune, estimated at £ 1.7 billion, in the manufacture of car parts. Khan is ranked by Forbes as one of the 500 richest people in the world.
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