Nottingham Forest are now under new ownership as the Kuwaiti Al-Hasawi family completed their takeover of the club last night. As is the modern way, Fawaz Al-Hasawi formally announced the confirmation of the takeover via twitter.
“I can officially announce that the acquisition of Nottingham Forest is complete,” presumably in his best super-villain tone (evil hysterical laugh to follow).
As that seemed too illegitimate for some, the club released a statement on their website to relieve potential fears of an oligarchic monarchy which had little intention of aiding the club.
“It is an honour and privilege for the Al-Hasawi family to assume control of this great club steeped in history and with the outstanding legacy left by its previous owner Nigel Doughty.
“We know there are challenging times ahead of us to bring the club back to its glory days and we look forward with excitement towards a new successful future.
“Over the next few weeks, we will be working closely with our players, on-field and off-field team members in preparation for the forthcoming season. This is a tremendously motivating time for the family and club and you can be assured of our best efforts in bringing the Reds back to the top of the table.”
Former chairman Nigel Doughty had been trying to sell the club prior to his death in February and the Al-Hasawi family, consisting of Fawaz, Omar and Abdulaziz, registered their interest in late May. Now the long strewn out legal proceedings have been passed and the mandatory ‘fit and proper persons test’ administered by the FA has presumably been carried out (please not another Venky’s!), the club can look to challenge the elite once again.
Since Forest’s relegation from the Premier League in 1999, the club have struggled. Relegation in 2005 followed and three seasons languishing in League 1 were not ideal but the club has since bounced back to the second tier and remained ever since.
A disappointing finish lack of ambition has recently culminated in many fans’ (and Billy Davis’) disapproval of the club having seen the owners desperately delve behind the nicely ordained club sofas in the executive boxes for any transfer funds, unwilling to inject enough of their own cash. The club looked more like the sort that iconic local figure Robin Hood would have helped out!
Having owned the Al-Quadisya Sports Club in their native country prior to the purchase of Forest, the family appear to have sporting experience and the interests of the club at heart, which can’t be said about some other foreign owners in the English leagues.
Luke Chambers, Garath McCleary and Joel Lynch have been sold already though and the Al-Hasawi family will need to prove their credentials to the expectant Forest fans and fulfil the ageing ambitions they set themselves in double quick time. Resurrecting Brian Clough might not be a bad first move!
This article was written by Tom Wellman of www.fc-barcelonanews.com, log on to his site to read all the latest FC Barcelona News.
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Billy Davies. And Chambers, McCleary and Lynch were not sold. They were all out of contract. You might want to check your facts before writing inaccurate stories.
Actually, Davies IS coming in as SOD number 2.
We have a £20m warchest and WILL be back in the EPL by April 2013