England is for Russians

Vladimir Antonov, 36 years old

Wealth: $300 million (2007).

Club: Portsmouth (since May 2011)

Chairman of Convers Group Vladimir Antonov, president of the group’s sports affiliate Convers Sport Initiative Roman Dubov, and CSI co-owner Chris Akers (former Leicester City owner and Leeds United chairman) have spent the last two months choosing from several Championship clubs, and one could only guess that it would be Portsmouth. At the beginning of April a source at Pompey revealed that the deal was about to be to completed, but did not specify the name of the buyer. The only tip-off could be Portsmouth crest ‘liked’ on Facebook by Roman Dubov back in winter.

It is believed that Vladimir Antonov developed a passion for football last summer. In June he offered £6 million to Eddie Mitchell, owner of AFC Bournemouth (who are currently in League One), but according to the Russian daily Kommersant the latter refused to even start any negotiations (though on his site Dubov denies any contacts with the Cherries). In August there appeared some persistent rumors about the Convers Group’s possible acquisition of the Glasgow Rangers. At the same time Antonov was also making approaches to Russian clubs. «We’ve had an unsuccessful attempt to buy FC Moscow, there were no other offers except that,» stated Vladimir Antonov in his interview with the Russian edition of Forbes. «It’s hard to start from scratch, while the prices of commercially successful Russian clubs are too high».

However, some time ago another manly passion used to play much more important role in Antonov’s career. These were cool cars. Beyond his banking activity the Russian businessman has been known as the chairman of the board and the largest shareholder at Spyker Cars, a Dutch manufacturer of sports cars. Also, last month the Swedish National Debt Office allowed the Russian to purchase 29.9 percent of shares in SAAB after a prolonged wrangling with General Motors, who at first feared Romanov’s advent.

As if that wasn’t enough, the group’s eponymous racing team has been taking part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Russian representative office of Ferrari is listed among the Convers assets.

According to Forbes, the sports division of Convers Group, called Convers Sports Initiatives, incorporates companies engaged in organization and holding of the Isle of Man motorcycle race, 5 Oceans sailing regatta, golf tournaments, rally races, as well as funding of Russian hockey club Spartak Moscow and Lithuanian basketball club Lietuvos Rytas. Recently Antonov has completed the purchase of North One Sport, the promoter of the World Rally Championship.

Antonov will become Portsmouth’s fifth owner in three years, while the still incumbent president of the Blues Balram Chainray has just managed to pay back all the club’s debts and to invest some £17 million in the team. The last season’s FA Cup final saw Portsmouth already as a near bankrupt, their current Championship season is going to end up in the mires of the league’s table, but now they have every chance to count on a revival. Still, a Russian coming to the club may well evoke some pleasant memories at Pompey...

Alexandre Gaydamak, 35 years old

Wealth: $300 million.

Club: Portsmouth (July 2006 – May 2009)

The son of Arcadi Gaydamak, a well-known Russian-born Franco-Israeli businessman with an imperfect reputation (whose track record also includes Beitar Jerusalem among other purchases), completed the acquisition of Portsmouth in the summer of 2006, the previous president Milan Mandaric receiving $60 million. By that time Gaydamak Jr. had already been helping the club to kept itself afloat, having bought a share of $27.5 million in it. The announced amount of investments was £100 million, while the starting payment was 15 million. That same summer, Portsmouth brought in a quartet of players from Tottenham, the most expensive player in their history Benjani Mwaruwari, and the Argentinian rising star Andres D’Alessandro (on loan).

During 2007-08 season under Harry Redknapp (who, by the way, is Vladimir Antonov’s neighbour in Dorsetshire) Portsmouth have won the FA Cup, having cleared no less than Manchester United off their way. Still, in the spring of 2009 club was swept over by the next wave of crisis and Gaydamak left the club to Sulaiman Al-Fahim.

Roman Abramovich, 44 years old

Wealth: $13.4 billion.

Club: Chelsea (since June 2003).

Abramovich was the first of the Russian businessmen to understsnd that «anyone may dispose of his money as he wishes». He spent $100 million on the club’s shares, $150 million on debt payoff, and $180 million on transfers – and it was only his first pre-season. With Abramovich Chelsea have won 3 league titles, 3 FA Cups, and 2 League Cups and have managed to spend almost £100 million for Andrey Shevchenko and Fernando Torres.

Alisher Usmanov, 57 years old

Wealth: $17.7 billion.

Club: Arsenal (since August 2007)

The fact that Usmanov’s partner at Red and White Holdings Farhad Moshiri supports Manchester United, and Usmanov himself cheers for the Gunners did not prevent them from considering the options of buying Tottenham Hotspur or Liverpool FC. Anyway, they settled on Arsenal whose 15 percent of shares cost Usmanov €150.6 million. A month later Red and White Holdings (headed by the former Arsenal vice-president David Dein) have increased their share in Arsenal to 21 percent, and soon thereafter to 23 percent, which was only 1 percent less than the share of the then-biggest shareholder Danny Fiszman. In the winter of 2008 Usmanov left Fiszman behind too, becoming the Arsenal’s biggest shareholder. This April the rest of the shares (62.89 percent) were bought by the U.S. businessman Stan Kroenke. This share share used to belong to the club’s board, which has refused Usmanov’s offer to invest £100 million into the club, deciding that it should continue to stake on its young players.

Boris Zingarevich, 51 year old

Wealth: $330 million.

Club: Everton.

According to Sunday Times, before the start of 2004-2005 season Boris Zingarevich had an opportunity to buy 40 percent of Everton shares for £20 million and become its main shareholder. The Toffees’ management denied this information, however, a new candidate for their shares resurfaced soon. That was Boris Zingarevich’s son Anton, owner of Brunei-based Fortress Sports Fund. The information has been published by BBC Sport, but was never confirmed in the end.

Boris Berezovsky, 65 years old

Wealth: $1.3 billion (2008).

Club: West Ham United.

It has been alleged that Boris Berezovsky wished to get hold of West Ham United together with Badri Patarkatsishvili. Eventually, it had turned out that the ‘third-party investor’ whom the club officials expected so much was the Iranian-born Kia Joorabchian. In the summer of 2006, on the last day of the transfer window, the Hammerers have added to their squad Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano from the Brazilian Corinthians controlled by Joorabchian’s company Media Sports Investment (MSI) – and many suspected the Russian capital to be involved in the deal.

Vagit Alekperov, 60 years old

Wealth: $13.6 billion.

Clubs: Tottenham, Birmingham.

The Daily Mirror used to report that the president of Russian oil giant Lukoil Vagit Alekperov was going to buy a controlling share in Tottenham for £400 million, however, the company’s press service has denied this information. In reality Alekperov was much closer to buying Birmingham City, his interest being disclosed by the current owner of the club Carson Yeung.

Vladimir Yevtushenkov, 62 years old

Wealth: $7.7 billion.

Club: Sheffield Wednesday

According to the Daily Mail, Yevtushenkov – who is now the chairman of board at AFK Sistema, a Russian conglomerate engaged primarily in IT and telecom, – was going to buy the Owls for some £60 million and then spend another £310 million within five years on the development of the club’s infrastructure. In the end, the rumors remained rumors.

by Alexander Muyzhnek