Special Feature: Top 10 takeovers in club football - Part 3
Zeljko Arkan, another man who covered himself in shame with his takeover at FK Obilic in 1996. Before his takeover of the Serbian club, Arkan was a ruthless criminal and an underworld warlord in Serbia. Therefore his takeover at Obilic was one of the most
controversial one’s in the history of club football. Originally known as Zeljko Raznatovic, Arkan’s team won the Serbian league title in the 1997/98 season. In doing so, they earned a spot in the 1998-1999 version of the UEFA Champions League competition.
This qualification was a huge achievement for the Belgrade club who had an almost non-existent history in the past before 1997. However, the worst part of Arkan’s reign was yet to come.
Obilic were denied entry into the competition due to their chairman’s criminal record. They cited his connections with friendship and acquaintance with Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator as a reason for their refusal to accept Obilic’s entry into
the prestigious club football competition. This came as quite a shock to the players as it was further revealed that other teams were subjected to death threats before their matches against FK Obilic.
It was a sorry state of affairs for the Serbian football club as in 1998, Arkan resigned from his post as the club’s chairman and handed the club’s leadership to his wife, Ceca. This decision turned out to be another nail in the coffin of FK Obilic, who
slipped into obscurity after Ceca was appointed as the club’s chairman by her husband. In 2000, Arkan was mysteriously assassinated in a hotel in Belgrade. Right now, Obilic are in the Beogradska prva liga in Serbia, which is an amateur league division right
at the bottom of Serbian footballing hierarchy.
In 1998, Manchester United were subject of a humungous 623 million pound bid, it was one of the biggest bids ever to be made in club football for an English club. Nonetheless, the deal never went through. The big came from Rupert Murdoch, a U.S media tycoon
who wanted to gain control of Manchester United, a club that has been at the top of English football since 1992. Due to Murdoch’s bid in 1998, United’s share price sky rocketed as the news of a deal with Murdoch’s Sky broadcasting company appeared in the media.
It was a tough time for the Red Devils, who gathered their global support plus all of their influential shareholders. This extensive lobbying effort caused the board of directors at Manchester United to refuse Murdoch’s giant bid for a majority of shares
in Manchester United. In the end, Murdoch’s bid was foiled thanks to the British government’s decision to declare the takeover as illegal as it would appreciate anti competitive behaviour in club football.
This decision by the government was influenced by the growing fears in media industry and world football that upon takeover, Murdoch was going introduce a “pay per view” method for Manchester United’s matches. In later years, United were eventually bought
out by the Glazers family while their city neighbours, Manchester City were bought by the Arab billionaire Sheikh Mansour. The Glazer take over at United has gained significance of late as the fans have come out in protest because of the increasing ticket
prices for Manchester United’s home matches. This exponential increase in ticket pricing has come into place as a result of the increasing debts that have surfaced at the club after the Glazer family’s take over.
However, this debt situation at United has not affected the club’s on-the-field fortunes as from 2006-2009, Manchester United won the English Premier league thrice in a row and got to two UEFA Champions League finals against Chelsea and Barcelona respectively.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s team won the final in Moscow against Chelsea in 2008 but failed to retain their trophy in Rome, a year later as they lost out to a rampant Barcelona side in 2009.
Tags: