Pod interview with Tony Khan

[RaySmith]

Since Mohamed al Fayed bought FFC, FFC has literally been some rich guy's toy.

If Fulham isn't some rich guy's toy, Fulham isn't a Premier League club and won't ever be.

Fulham are no different than most other Prem clubs in this respect.
If MAF hadn't bought us where would we be today? Another rich man , prepared to spend  big on the club, would have had to have bought us if we were ever to get to the Promised Land of the Prem, rather than struggle to survive in the lower divisions - which was  such an achievement, and then to be there for 13 years!

Now we are lucky enough to be owned by the Khans - another rich man prepared to spend big on Fulham, except now he is stymied by FFP, but still got us to the Prem, and have a decent chance of getting there again in the near future.

[toshes mate]

If Fulham isn't some rich guy's toy, Fulham isn't a Premier League club and won't ever be.

Oh do stop embarrassing yourself Lyle.
You can start by referring to Fulham as plural not singular

Haha... you've got no argument that you're a fan of a club long owned by successive sugar daddies.

Thank you Mohamed al Fayed! Thank you Shahid Khan!

After the Bosman ruling which, superficially, opened the way for players to dictate fairer terms with their clubs, professional football had to adapt to a new business model which effectively changed the way owners had to behave.  Their weaknesses in behaviour were then exploited by media interests who grasped their selfish greed factor and produced a form of protectionism that the mafia would have been proud of.  That it requires sugar daddies or (to complete the range of euphemisms) the richest of rich guys or the baddest of bad guys to run a business is self evident of any racket.  This is just the proliferation of something football, sport and life generally has always been prone too - a protection racket that is there to stop bad things happening to those at the very top that operates at the expense of all those lower down the order.   It is now more obvious than it has ever been in sport.  Thanks for pointing that out.

[Jonnoj]

Since Mohamed al Fayed bought FFC, FFC has literally been some rich guy's toy.

If Fulham isn't some rich guy's toy, Fulham isn't a Premier League club and won't ever be.

Fulham are no different than most other Prem clubs in this respect.
If MAF hadn't bought us where would we be today? Another rich man, prepared to spend big on the club, would have had to have bought us if we were ever to get to the Promised Land of the Prem, rather than struggle to survive in the lower divisions - which was such an achievement, and then to be there for 13 years!

Now we are lucky enough to be owned by the Khans - another rich man prepared to spend big on Fulham, except now he is stymied by FFP, but still got us to the Prem, and have a decent chance of getting there again in the near future.

What i hope we've done now is put ourselves on the map for wealthy owners to look at. If we'd stayed hopping about in Lg1 and the championship with no Prem experience we would be no more valuable than say QPR but I think we are seen as a prestige club now. That won't last forever but it was Al Fayed that put us on the map and I am forever grateful for his slightly mad purchase of us back in the 90s. Plus the Cottage has become an iconic ground now which also helps, few people putting together 'best grounds in the world' lists would have included the Cottage in the 80s but they nearly always do now.