American Tom Hicks to Buy Roma?
Well, it’s all Italy all the time here. But this is a weird one. Why — given UEFA regulations prohibit an individual owning a majority shareholding in two competing clubs and that Roma and Liverpool regularly both play in the Champions League — did speculation about Liverpool’s Tom Hicks buying Roma lead to a big jump in their share price? Surely he wouldn’t ditch Liverpool so soon, though it’s conceivable he could buy a small share of the Italian club, which would be interesting given the crisis there.
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The vague and probably untrue rumor is that he’s fallen out with Gillette and is looking to leave Liverpool and buy a different club. Although it’s being denied so vehemently that it might just be true after all.
What I’ve been trying to figure out is how Joe Lewis is able to own both Tottenham and Slavia Prague without running afoul of this UEFA prohibition. Is it because he owns them through various wings of the Tavistock Group? They played each other in the UEFA Cup not long ago and no one batted an eyelash. Does anyone know how this works?
Ah, interesting, thanks Brian. As for the Joe Lewis thing, that did cause a slight stir when Spurs played Slavia Prague last year as it did bring to light the limitation of the dual majority ownership rule — Enic only owned 30-odd per cent of Spurs at the time, so didn’t fall foul of the rule technically, even though they ran Spurs in all senses. I’m not sure if UEFA ever tightened up their rules as a result or not, but it was certainly farcical.
The italian press is giving George Soros as the one who will buy AS Roma.
This seems to be the week when is all going to happen….any news is the US regarding this?