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Fulham Chairman and owner
Mohamed Al Fayed |
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Al Fayed slams 'naughty rumours' of Fulham sale
Fulham chairman Mohamed Al Fayed has again dismissed "naughty rumours" that he is seeking to sell the club.
Al Fayed, reported last week to be keen to find a buyer in the face of mounting losses, also went on to attack the Premier League and the FA as being "run by donkeys", and pledged to campaign for a wage cap and a larger share of television deal money.
Fulham recently posted losses of £7.5m for the last financial year, following £15.2m losses the year before – the reduction largely due to a £10m increase in "central awards" from the Premier League's deal with Sky. However Al Fayed, who paid £30m for the club in 1997, believes the distribution of funds from the deal remains unfair.
"I own the best club in the world, with the best team and the best fans," Al Fayed told the club's official site. "I want to reassure people of this, because sometimes there are naughty rumours that I may sell the club.
"I am not going to give up on other things in the game either. Take my crusade against sky-high players' wages. Our expenses bill rose by 17 per cent last year. How can it be right for top players to be earning £15, £20 million a year? It's crazy. These wages need to be capped.
"But I worry that it won't happen, because the Premier League and the FA are run by donkeys who don't understand business, who are dazzled by money. If the world wants to keep players in pocket for tens of thousands of pounds every week, then let the Premier League and the FA negotiate with Sky and other broadcasters for a share of the billions that they make in profit from our product, from my product.
"Because at present, they don't. All around the world, football fans are paying to watch top matches on TV. And yet do most clubs see any of that money? No: we are hopelessly dependent on our end-of-season League placing to determine our share of the cash – it makes a difference of feast or famine every season. Yet even then, except for the top four clubs, we're only talking about a difference of few million, which doesn't get you far."
Al Fayed called on other club chairmen to "wake up from their coma and join me in this fight with the Premier League and the FA": "In fact, they can come and have lunch with me at Harrods, where I can serve them stags' testicles from my Scottish estate, Balnagown. We all need big balls in this business."