Nice piece about Mo in todays Express

[Peabody]

http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/mick-dennis/377139/Money-man-Mohamed-Al-Fayed-plays-it-fair-at-Fulham

[Meerkat]

I am so pleased we have Aly Fayed as Chairman, when I look at other clubs with foreign owners and what they are doing to their clubs I count us very lucky indeed.

[LBNo11]

...good spot Peabody, I have copied and pasted here:-

Money man Mohamed Al Fayed plays it fair at Fulham



IT SEEMS the only way Queens Park Rangers can get three points is if Harry Redknapp says he was driving Chris Huhne's car. Meanwhile, at Chelsea, manager of the month is not an award, it is an appointment.

By: Mick DennisPublished: Tue, February 12, 2013

Fulham's Mohamed Al Fayed has run the club admirably compared to local rivals QPR and Chelsea

Yet the third west London top-flight club, Fulham, jog along happily enough – and provide an intriguing nuance as the Premier League and UEFA rush to embrace rules about debt.

This week, Real Madrid confront Manchester United in the Champions League. Next week Arsenal face Bayern Munich, another member of European football's established aristocracy.

But I want you to look away, briefly, from the gala games with their razzmatazz to consider the Fulham story and the role of chairman, Mohamed Al Fayed.

The chaos at QPR and the impatience at Stamford Bridge demonstrate that having a rich owner is not an unquestionable virtue. So does my Midlands round-up on this page.

Chairman Mo provides a counterpoint, though.

I have met him three times in 16 years. He has told me the same joke each time.

Yet the rest of Al Fayed's spending at the Cottage has been a model of generous but planned expenditure.

He arrived in 1997. A year earlier, Fulham had sunk to their lowest-ever ebb – seven places off the foot of the bottom division in the Football League.

A succession of landlords had threatened to kick them out and merge them with other clubs but chairman Mo bought Fulham, bought the freehold of the Cottage and began funding a climb up the table.

They are now in their 12th consecutive season in the Premier League and on Saturday I watched them take a point at Norwich.

It was a turgid game but John Arne Riise was immaculate at left-back, Damien Duff dominated his flank, Hugo Rodallega pulled his markers this way and that and Dimitar Berbatov ambled about embellishing events with languid skills.

Last month we learnt how much it has cost Al Fayed to finance his club's climb through the divisions, entrench them in the top tier and fill the squad with quality players.

Fulham's annual accounts showed that Al Fayed had converted all the money owed to him by the club into shares. The loans that he thus effectively wrote off totalled £212million.

Fulham's accounts received little attention. Instead we were engrossed by Tony Fernandes's transfer-window spree at QPR and Roman Abramovich's search for a manager at Chelsea.

But Fulham challenge the glib, almost universal assumption that introducing "Financial Fair Play" must be a good thing. Last week the Premier League approved rules which seek to regulate the amount of money clubs can spend on players (transfer fees and wages).

UEFA and the Football League have already adopted similar constraints.

If they had been in place in 1997, Fulham would still be in the bottom division. Al Fayed's investment would have been outlawed.

It is easy to argue that the extravagance of Abramovich and the unprecedented spending of Manchester City's Sheikh Mansour have distorted the game in England.

It is far more difficult to believe that what Al Fayed has done has damaged anything other than his own bank balance.

There is no showy ostentation about Fulham. They do not have shouty, wad-waving fans.

Yet their moderate success and modest ambitions would have been impossible under Financial Fair Play.

And every club currently scrapping for points in the lower reaches of our game must surrender hopes of finding their own chairman Mo

[Airfix]

Dang you and your fast fingers.  I was just doing that, picture and all!

[LBNo11]

Dang you and your fast fingers.  I was just doing that, picture and all!

...the only thing that is fast about me these days.. :016:

[Northern Cottager]

Great read, proud to have Mo at the helm of the club. We are one of the lucky one's.

[Roberty]

Quite a different view of our performance at Norwich to some that I have read on here and written off is not quite correct since it assumes the value of the club to be zero, which is obviously not the case.

It does though clarify the club position on "financial fairplay" and the fact that our club does not want to deny the oportunity for other clubs to come through the ranks, which has to be fairplay.

[FFCAli]

Excellent piece  -  right from the opening sentence!

[grandad]

Very good article. We are indeed very lucky to have MAF. It really does show what a shambles our 2 neighbours are.

[Lighthouse]

The history of our club is littered with the good and the great. As well as the whoops oh dear. But like Haynes is often mentioned as our greatest ever player. None could argue that Al Fayed is the most important person in the clubs history. Yes Hill and Muddymen saved us from going out of business. Al Fayed did the same and was able to take us to the mountain.

It has been a frustrating season so far. But we do have the best Chairman around.

[Logicalman]

Excellent article, and a dire warning at the end.

One question though. The Financial Fair Play Rules (or whatever everyone calls them), which divisions does this actually affect? Is it all four Englidh Divisions, or just the top 1 or 2?

[Mr-ska]

didnt see this!!

[BraveDaveFFC]

We got to Hamburg because of MO!! Thank you Mr Al Fayed for allowing me and my family and friends the pleasure of our greatest away day ever!! It will remain with me till the day I die!! God bless you mate. I'm so proud to be a Fulham fan!!

[F(f)CUK]

Not certain that the rules brought in by the Premier league would prevent a lower league club moving up the divisions by spending money.  The debt that can be amassed over a three year period is still humungous.  I would be surprised if we amassed that debt over a three year period during Mo's leadership.

I don't know what constraints the league has put in place, which from the article appears to be more in line with the European Fair Play system.

I would be interested in being put right on this matter, if someone wants to tell me how the rules would stop a lower league team buying their way up the divisions.

[EJL]

I always find it annoying how the Sun and the Express set out their articles. Good read, though.