FRANK MC.COURT RESUMES TALKS TO BUY MARSIELLE

Posted by on
Frank McCourt, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, said on Monday he had entered exclusive negotiations to buy Olympique de Marseille and vowed to restore the club to their former glories.
 
Olympique de Marseille's majority owner, billionaire businesswoman Margarita Louis-Dreyfus (R) and Frank McCourt, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, attend a news conference at Marseille city hall to announce McCourt had entered exclusive negotiations to buy the Club, France, August 29, 2016. REUTERS/Philippe Laurenson

Billionaire businesswoman Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, the Russian-born chairwoman of Louis Dreyfus Commodities trading house, said in April she was looking for a buyer for the Ligue 1 side.

"Margarita and I just executed a contract for us to buy OM, the greatest football club in the French league and one of the best in the world," McCourt told a news conference alongside Louis-Dreyfus and Marseille mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin.

"I'm very excited about making Marseille a champion again,"

The deal is due to be completed by the end of the year, the two parties said. RMC Sport reported that the club had been sold for 40 million euros (US$44.68 million).

Declining to give details on the sale, McCourt, who described himself as "very wealthy", told French sports newspaper L'Equipe he had bought the club as a long-term personal project and not to re-sell it like an investment fund.

"Football is becoming the most visible sport in the world. We see it through the World Cup, the (English) Premier League, which has created a fantastic business model," McCourt said.

"I think the future of French football can be excellent. I'm very optimistic on this."

Louis-Dreyfus took control of Marseille after the death of her husband Robert in 2009 but despite investing tens of millions of euros in recent years they have struggled and finished 13th in Ligue 1 last season.

She said she would keep five percent of the club as part of the deal.

BIGGEST FAN BASE

Marseille, who have French soccer's biggest fan base, won the last of their nine league titles in 2010.

While Qatari investors have bought arch-rivals Paris St Germain and Russian and Chinese investors have ploughed funds into Nice, Monaco and Olympique Lyonnais, OM have failed to attract top players and financial investment to take the club forward.

McCourt, who sold the Dodgers in 2012 for US$2 billion, said he aimed to bring his experience in sport ownership to turn OM's fortunes around.

"We have a project we will build together," he added. "We will build a championship caliber team that can compete year-in and year-out for the championship."

(US$1 = 0.8953 euros)

(Editing by Andrew Callus and Ed Osmond)

Comments

Post a Comment

Drop your comments. Thank you

NOW ON SALE WORLDWIDE!!!!!! THE FOUR STONES - The Battle of the Four Realms - BY UCHECHUKWU DANIEL

MORE COMMUNITY HEADLINES

Image

CAN GARDENING IMPROVE THE NATIONS HEALTH? - BY HELEN BRIGGS

Amanda Miller has her hands in the soil as she builds a garden in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace. Crouched on a bank beside a stream, she is putting the final touches to a garden that attempts to convey the solitude of depression. Her creation is one of several at the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show exploring links between health and horticulture. "The one I've focused on is depression because I have family members and friends who have suffered from it," she says. "Rather than being inspired to do it, I was compelled to do it."
Image

SEE FULL LIST OF NIGERIA'S 43 MINISTERS

BY EMMANUEL OKOGBA President Muhammadu Buhari has assigned portfolios to the newly sworn-in ministers. He made the announcement as the Presidential villa on Wednesday. The full list is below: 1. Dr. Ikechukwu Ogah (Abia State) -Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development  2. Mohammed Musa Bello (Adamawa State) -Minister of the Federal Capital Territory  3. Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom State)- Minister of Niger Delta  4. Chris Ngige (Anambra State)- Minister of Labour and Employment  5. Sharon Ikeazor (Anambra State) Minister of State Environment  6. Adamu Adamu (Bauchi State) Minister of Education  7. Ambassador Maryam Katagun (Bauchi State) State  8. Timipre Sylva (Bayelsa State) Minister of State, Petroleum under the President  9. George Akume (Benue State)  10. Mustapha Baba Shehuri (Borno State) Minister of State, Agric and Rural Development  11. Goddy Jedy Agba (Cross River State) -Minister of...
Image

FG SET TO BAN SALE OF ALCOHOL IN SMALL BOTTLES AND SACHET - SEE WHY

The Federal Government has issued directives targeted at phasing out the sale and consumption of alcohol in sachets and polyethylene terephthalate, PET, bottles. The goal is to reduce availability and curb abuse. Effective January 31 2021, producers of alcohol in sachets and small bottles are to reduce production by 50 per cent of capacity prior to January 2020. Mojisola Adeyeye, director-general of the National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, disclosed this in a statement. Adeyeye said uncontrolled access and availability of high concentration alcohol in sachet and small volume PET or glass bottles contribute to substance and alcohol abuse in Nigeria. She added that NAFDAC and the ministry of health have engaged major shareholders and have reached certain agreements. She said the food agency will no longer register new products in sachet and small volume PET or glass bottles with contents above 30 percent alcohol by volume (ABV). “These concerns relate t...
Image

KIRIKIRI TOWN RESIDENTS SPEAK WITH REPORTER ON NEIGHBOR ISSUES

When you hear Kirikiri, you think prison; but there is more to the sprawling community tucked in between Apapa and a Lagos Lagoon tributary. Residents share their experience with Gboyega Alaka IT was Nyma Akashat-Zibiri, co-host of TVC’s popular breakfast show, Your View, who not too long ago, described the road leading to Kirikiri Town, the small community that plays host to Nigeria’s most ‘popular’ prison, as totally neglected and a sample of the neglect and squalour that may exist in the prison itself. Nyma was responding to a hot topic on the decrepit state of the prisons and dehumanising condition the inmates have to put up with. This was therefore the first thing this reporter paid attention to, as he negotiated his way over the Berger/Kirikiri Flyover towards the sprawling community. One could say the town is divided into three parts, with the prisons yard taking a huge chunk. The prison houses the Minimum Prison, the Female prison and the Maximum prison. Naturally...
Image

PHOTO: LORAL INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL WINS 2017 AFRICA TOP SCHOOL AWARD

AFRICA Brands Review, an integrated marketing service company, has named Loral International Schools (LIS), Lagos & Osun States, as winner of “2017 Africa Top Schools Award (Platinum Category), as one of the top 10 schools in the country, and one of the best international schools in Africa. The award, it was disclosed, stems from among other things, the school’s ratings in the 2017 West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results. To arrive at this, the firm said it compared how secondary schools across the country performed, and thereafter rated the top 1, 000 schools. It was after this that it bestowed the award in May 2017 on LIS. The events brochure of the Africa Top 1, 000 School Award is to be distributed to embassies of various Africa countries and libraries of institutions of higher learning and blue chip companies. Free copies are to be sent to all participating schools on the continent. “We didn’t apply for any ...
Image

STORY SERIES: THE TRIALS OF PUNTO (EPISODE ELEVEN)

Written by U.D. Okechukwu To catch up on previous episodes visit http://reportersgc.blogspot.com /search/labels/storyseries and use the search button for quick opening. …Continued from last week Both Punto and Checheskey's parents hugged their children and pressured to find out their whereabout for days. the way they smiled made it seem that they were fine. indeed they were fine, weren't they? Before Punto took his shower at his home and rested, he spoke at length with his parents and siblings narrating everything that had happened without missing a line. Checheskey’s parents took him home without giving him a chance to say goodbye to Punto. Although both boys knew it is definite that they will meet in their usual place if the need arises. 
Image

WHAT A HUSBAND NEEDS FROM A WIFE IS NEVER SEX - BY ANYIA GLORIA

Sex is an important element in marriage and until there is sexual intercourse between a husband and a wife, the marriage is not yet spiritually recognized. This shows how important sex is in marriage. When you look at how aggressive men are towards sex you may think that what a man needs from a woman is sex. Of course, if he has not married you yet or he does not really intend to marry you what he will need from you is nothing above your body. But if he really intends to marry you or if you guys are already married sex is never what he needs from you - maybe let me say it better; "WHAT A MAN NEEDS MOST FROM A WOMAN IS NOT SEX." Many young girls think because they are sexually active and experience they will easily be married and have their husbands loving them. And when a man approaches for marriage they think the greatest asset they have to show the man is sex. Others also think once they are giving out their bodies it means they are giving ou...
Image

LIVING IN SIN IS SOMETHING OUT OF IGNORANCE

The Bible is a book of prophecy, history, prayer, law, counsel and knowledge about God. it holds information about the past, present and future revealing the mind of God concerning creation.
Image

POINT BLANK - FOR BELIEVERS - BY REV. FIDEL ADUAYE ODIETE

POINT BLANK: For Believers, and especially Ministers of the Gospel, to publicly show case their extension of charities to men, is HYPOCRITICAL and OBSCENE. The Lord Jesus Christ said: " Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward."  Matthew 6:2 NKJV Being charitable is a cardinal requirement of our faith, but to call in the press and cameras to record our charitable donations and beam it to the world, is strange to our faith.