When the 11 players dressed in the blue shirts of Sulaiman Al Fahim's Portsmouth FC walk on to their home pitch in three weeks' time, they will not only be trying to impress the new boss on the first day of the English Premier League season, they'll also be aiming to help him win early bragging rights in the Arab world.
Portsmouth's opposition on August 15 is Fulham, owned by Egyptian retail tycoon Mohammed Al Fayed.
It was Al Fayed in 1997 who initiated foreign investment in English football clubs when he bought the then-Second Division club for a reported £36 million (Dh218.9m)?and promised to catapult them into the Premier League.
Twelve years later, the west London club have established themselves as a top-flight team and will this season compete in Europe after finishing seventh in 2008-09.
Sports business analysts value clubs at between 1.5 and two times their annual turnover, and with Fulham's revenue for the 2007-08 season posted at £52m, calculations indicate a potential value of close to £100m – or a £64m growth on Al Fayed's initial investment.
It is these prospective profits that have led to a flood of foreign investors since Al Fayed's first foray – including a recent surge in Middle East interest.
Pete Hackleton, a senior manager at Deloitte's Sports Business Group, said the reason Gulf magnates are looking to the Premier League is because TV broadcast deals mean England is a far more attractive prospect than Italy's Serie A or Spain's Primera Liga.
A Deloitte report found the Premier League generated €1 billion (Dh5.2bn) more than La Liga for the year 2007-08.
The reason for such gulf in revenue is primarily that while the Premier League splits TV?money between its 20 clubs, La Liga favours the popular teams.
"Real Madrid and Barcelona can make €100m per year through TV?rights, yet a smaller Spanish club such as Getafe may only generate between €3-5m. You compare that to the Premier League, where the bottom-placed team receives £30m…" said Hackleton "La Liga can't compete."
The result is seven of the top 10 clubs in England last season – including the three highest-ranked teams, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea – are now registered to owners from outside the United Kingdom.
American backers are present at four of the top six clubs – United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa – while Russia (Chelsea) and Iceland (West Ham United) are also represented.
But it is the influx of financiers from the Middle East, such as Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nayhan's acquisition of Manchester City last August, that is catching the eye of economists. As well as the imaginations of supporters.
A UAE-based consortium was yesterday reported to be in talks with Merseyside club Everton, while Newcastle United, London's Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool have also recently been linked to takeovers led by Gulf businessmen.
Hackleton said further investment from the region was expected and cited the case of Notts County as proof that interested parties are now looking beyond the English top flight.
County, the Nottingham-based club, finished 19th in the Football League's lowest division – League Two – last season, but were this week bought by Middle East consortium Munto Finance.
The new owners – backed by the Al Thani Group, a Dubai-based investment company – paid off the club's £1m debt before installing former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson as the club's director of football for a fee reported to be in the region of £2m per year.
"Obviously if you buy a club in the lower levels such as Notts County, the question is can you get them up to the Premier League, can you improve the squad, can you improve the stadium? That's the challenge," said Hackleton.
"Going on the premise that the popularity of [acquiring] football clubs is on the basis they are trophy assets, we will probably see more investments in the lower leagues.
"It is more expensive to buy a Premier League club and there are many clubs in the lower divisions who have a good history, good stadium and good fanbase."
In their quest for a club with history, the Al Thani Group couldn't have chosen better: Notts County are the oldest professional football club in the world.
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