Qatari businessman set to become first foreign owner of a Primera Liga football club.
Qatari businessman Shaikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani is set to become the first foreign owner of a Primera Liga Spanish football club.
Shaikh Abdullah, chairman of Nasser bin Abdullah and Sons Group, will announce the details of the purchase of Primera Liga outfit Malaga CF, rumoured to be around euro 25 million, at a press conference. He will have 100 percent ownership of the club.
Spain, like Italy and England, has no rules preventing foreign citizens from owning clubs.
The press conference will be attended by Fernando Sanz, the current club president, and his father Lorenzo Sanz, former Real Madrid president.
In 2006, Sanz senior purchased a 97 percent holding in the club and then appointed his son Fernando, the former captain of the team, as club president. The club also has its own reserve team, Atletico Malagueno.
Shaikh Abdullah is also expected to announce the name of the club coach and his plans that include deals to bring in players like Rangers’ star Madjid Bougherra.
Malaga, established in 1948, finished 17th in the 2009-2010 La Liga this season, barely avoiding relegation. Last year, it finished eighth.
Malaga won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2002 and then qualified for the following season’s UEFA Cup and reached the quarter-finals.
The club has a sizeable British following, mainly due to the large number of British expatriates residing on the Costa del Sol.
