Armenian businessman Roman Gevorkyan targets the Charlton Athletic, an English team, which compete in EFL League One, The Athletic reports.
According to the source, Charlton, who spent most of the first decade of this century in the Premier League, have been up for sale all season but have seen two potential takeovers collapse in the past four months.
An Anglo-American group led by former Sunderland director Charlie Methven thought they had a deal with current owner Thomas Sandgaard in December, only to see the US-based Dane change his mind in early February. Methven and his US backers have come back with an improved offer, but the fact they are also threatening to sue Sandgaard does not bode well for their prospects.
The same can be said for the group fronted by Marc Spiegel, the co-founder of an American waste disposal and recycling firm, as it has struggled to find the funding required to complete the deal it struck with Sandgaard.
However, there are other interested parties, including two with considerable experience in club ownership. Robert Platek, a partner at American IT billionaire Michael Dell’s investment firm MSD Capital, is looking at Charlton as he is interested in adding an English club to his personal stable of European teams. He already owns Serie A’s Spezia and Portuguese top-flight side Casa Pia, as well as Danish second-tier team Sonderjyske.
But, according to The Athletic, Platek is not the only multi-club suitor with his eye on the club, as Armenian businessman Roman Gevorkyan is strongly considering a bid to make Charlton the flagship of his Noah Football Group fleet, which is comprised of Armenian Premier League side FC Noah and stakes in Hungarian top-flight team Debreceni VSC, French second-tier outfit Paris FC and Siena in Italy’s Serie C.
