The new owner of Spanish club Racing Santander, Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed, on Thursday denied “serious allegations” over the conduct of his business.
“The source of these serious allegations is known. They are manifestly false and defamatory,” said a statement by Ali and his company, Western Gulf Advisory, on its Web site.
Ali and his company’s business practices have come under criticism in the Australian press.
They are also the object of attack by a Web site, www.westerngulfadvisory.net, that has imitated the real address of his firm, www.westerngulfadvisory.com.
Western Gulf Advisory, based in Bahrain and Switzerland, threatened legal action against anyone repeating details of the allegations.
The company released a separate press statement accusing the attack Web site of having sent an e-mail attempting to extort money in return for halting the criticism.
“The e-mail clearly seeks to extort money from myself and my companies,” Ali said in the statement. “Of course, no payment was made and the consequences are there for all to see.”
Ali bought Racing Santander in January for an undisclosed amount but local paper Diario Montanes put the price at 30 million euros (US$42 million) to 40 million euros.
The club have never won a major title in their 98-year-history.
Ali has said he wants to focus on talent, and not big names, in his quest to create a “great” club.
He guaranteed himself a warm welcome after he announced in almost his first move as owner that tickets for his first match would be free to members of the club.
Ali made an unsuccessful bid to buy English side Blackburn Rovers earlier this season.
On his company’s Internet site, Ali describes himself as a legal graduate specializing in law and finance who was an advisor to “sovereign clients and high net worth individuals.”
“One of the main reasons Mr Ali started his own asset management company was that he believed in his own ability and qualifications to manage and invest his wealth,” the site says.
“Absolute trust has been the bedrock of relationships at Western Gulf Advisory [WGA]. A truth evidenced by Mr Ali’s mutually satisfying professional relationships with several clients in the Middle East, Europe and the Far East.”
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in