Hussain AlSaeed to buy remaining Bristol Rovers shares

Daniel Wales and Charles Hague-Jones discuss the latest Bristol Rovers takeover news

Transcript

00:00So, Dan, looking at Bristol Rovers, and obviously we've mentioned League One and the fact that

00:06modern football has become a real game where owners make a huge impact now and signings

00:12come in and money comes in, you know, in the millions, if not billions in some cases. And,

00:18you know, we've seen the story of Wrexham, obviously a lot of clubs around Wrexham and,

00:24you know, clubs they've surpassed now will want to go on that same trajectory. But, you

00:27know, money talks in this modern game and, you know, in terms of Bristol Rovers and their

00:32sort of ownership situation, it's a massive change that could be coming up. What's the

00:37sort of latest that you can tell us on it? Obviously, it is very, you know, exciting

00:42news and hopefully holds Bristol Rovers in good stead for the future. So how can the

00:47fans be feeling as well on top of that? Because, you know, they're hoping for some success

00:52and hoping to push on just like their counterparts at the top of the division, if you look at

00:57Birmingham City and Wrexham. Well, it's fair to say that when Hussain Al-Sayed came into

01:03the club, when he first bought the majority share of Dwayne Sports, of course, who were

01:10the holding company for the club, they were in a great position. But now they are, the

01:15Stable in League won, he bought roughly, I think it was about 55%, and now he's going

01:20to acquire the remaining 45% of the club who, as I say, currently owned by Dwayne Sports,

01:26who is a partnership between the brothers of Wael Ansameh Al-Qaidi. That's going to

01:32take place over the next 18 months. So it's a bit of a long-winded takeover, it's fair

01:36to say. But he said in a statement that he wants to provide full funding to support the

01:43club's ongoing operations and development, I quote him there. And so clearly he's got

01:47ambition for the club going forward. And that, as I say, it's certainly a positive for them

01:54going forward because, well, Bristol Rovers clearly, and probably a lot of Gashead fans

02:00won't want me to say this, but they probably do envy a little bit the league position that

02:05they find their counterparts in Bristol. It's that mid-table in the Championship, not far

02:10off the playoffs, and they think, well, we'd like to be up there at some point in the future

02:13as well. So if Al-Sayed is true to his word and he follows through on what he's saying

02:22in the statement in terms of building a bright future, he calls it, certainly they could go on

02:29to be promoted one day in the future. He says that he wants to build on top of the strong

02:33foundations that have been established by the current part owners in Duane Sports. So

02:39there's a lot to be excited for from Bristol Rovers' point of view. Obviously, whether it

02:43comes to fruition, that's a different matter because you just don't know, do you, how owners

02:49are going to be. There's lots of horror stories at this sort of level of English football,

02:54of owners promising the world and then not delivering. So, you know, good luck to him.