Rossoneri is “no longer a worthwhile investment” for Italian PM

Since their two countries made peace with one another, Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi and Italian Prime Minister/AC Milan owner/caricature sex pest Silvio Berlusconi have bee getting on like a house on fire.

Such is the strength of their relationship that Italian newspaper la Repubblica are today reporting that Berlusconi wants to sell his beloved AC Milan to the man who recently made his people take part in a compulsary celebration of the 40th anniversary of his military coup d’état.

On Sunday, the day after the Rossoneri were pummeled by their fierce Milan rivals, Berlusconi flew to Tripoli to attend a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the 2008 cooperation treaty between the two nations. While there, la Repubblica say the Italian offered the Libyan leader the chance to buy his club, and also requested references from the Libyan Central Bank, Foreign Bank of Libya and Libyan Investment Authority. Incidentally, these institutions have also been linked with Juventus and Roma in the past.

Berlusconi no longer views the club as a “strategic asset”,

Manchester Utd star starts collecting luxury watches

At a time when keeping vast sums of money in a bank account is a relatively fruitless endeavour, the Premier League’s wealthiest are looking for new ways to invest their assets.

Cristiano Ronaldo has spent some of his cash well (his Robbie Fowler-esquer property investment) and some rather poorly (the legions of prostitutes, sports cars that he manages to write off in tunnels), but according to The Sun, his latest money making scheme involves watches. The Manchester Utd star reportedly owns several luxury timepieces, including a £70,000 Franck Muller design, and will invest in various other brands that promise to increase in value.

Spoiler cynicism alert: Cristiano Ronaldo announces an interest in collecting luxury watches in the same season that luxury Swiss watch manufacturer Hublot sign a £4m sponsorship deal with Manchester Utd. How very coincidental.

… but not into Chelsea

One of the only Premier League club owners to suffer more than Mike Ashley during the current economic crisis is Roman Abramovich: reports suggest he has lost up to a third of his £15bn fortune. The Russian tycoon is clearly unfazed by his rapidly decreasing wealth, as he is all set to invest in a £60m Caribbean estate:

Chelsea’s owner, who is estimated to have lost two thirds of his £15billion fortune, has “fallen in love” with the two-acre plot on St Barts.

The idyllic spot boasts a deep-water mooring with enough space for his three superyachts.

Over Christmas, Abramovich anchored his ridiculously-named super-yacht ‘Ecstasea’ on the millionaire’s playground of St Barths, and it is said that he and 27-year-old model girlfriend Daria Zhukova fell in love it.

Stanford ambassador likely to lose huge chunk of wealth

Picture: Worried customers queue to withdraw their savings from a Stanford bank. Not pictured: The wolf banging at Michael Owen’s door.

Last April, Michael Owen agreed to become a global ambassador for the Stanford Financial Group. That’s the same Stanford Financial Group whose chairman is currently facing a £5.6bn fraud charge.

Owen’s statement of endorsement, made back in April, now makes interesting reading:

“Stanford is a company that has a solid track record in financial services and wealth management. I’m proud to be associated with the Stanford brand and delighted they’ve asked me to serve as one of their global ambassadors.”

Michael Owen’s pride, however, isn’t the only thing to take a hit in light of the Stanford Scandal - according to the Daily Mail, the striker is thought to have invested in the Texan’s empire, and has some of his fortune managed by Stanford companies.

Owen, was who recently offered a £25,000-a-week pay cut by the team who are sponsored by Northern Rock, is also an ambassador for Jaguar, the car company whose plummeting sales have forced them to lay off staff and halt production.

Is this man financially cursed?

Financial turmoil could flush out unwanted owners

Earlier this year, Hank Hicks and Billy Bob Gillett ran into a little money trouble and faced the prospect of offloading Fernando Torres and Ryan Babel just to pay the heating bills. Today, the papers are awash with the news that the American investors have suffered at the hands of the current financial apocalypse and will owe two banks (Wachovia and the Royal Bank of Scotland) £350m in January. They do not currently have the cash, and refinancing loans from two of the worst hit banks in the crisis will be harder than getting Ledley King to stay sober in a nightclub.

While the prospect of a fire sale right in the middle of a serious title campaign is a possible (and potentially disastrous) way of raising much-needed equity, the current predicament does have a rather large silver lining: Hicks and Gillett may be desperate to bail out, forcing

It’s West Ham, according to new blog

The fact that a website exists where users simply submit pictures of stuff on top of their cats pays testament to the fact that anyone can set up a blog for absolutely any cause. In the spirit of sharing valuable information on the internets, one man, presumable a West Ham fan, has dedicated an entire blog to potential Premier League investors, claiming their money would be better used at Upton Park than any other football club in the country. Their mission statement is as follows:

An analysis of why West Ham United offers the best investment opportunity in English football; reviewing: talent production, Olympic Stadium prospects, proximity to London’s financial districts, large and passionate fanbase, high media profile, strong tradition & brand, consolidated private ownership, catchment size and growth potential.

Persuasive post highlights include ‘Bigger online than Chelsea‘ (based solely on the official sites), ‘West Ham can become bigger than Chelsea‘ (based solely on comments by Iranian businessman Kia Joorabchian) and ‘Fanbase bigger than Chelsea’s‘ (based solely on attendances from 1981 to 1994). If any Sheikhs have great big piles of money burning a hole in their palaces, they’d be foolish not to take heed of these compelling arguments.

Would you trust this man with your club?

While balancing the books may win Arsenal plaudits in the business world, supporters fail to see the honourable value of trading within one’s own means, and are becoming increasingly impatient with the lack of investment in the playing staff. Arsenal currently have three holes shaped like Mathieu Flamini, Alexander Hleb and Gilberto Silva and no one willing to splash out and fill them.

Unless, that is, Alisher Usmanov, with a twenty four per cent stake in the club, launches a formal takeover, as he is entitled to do, starting today. His advances have so far been greeted with boardroom skepticism - unsurprising, being that the Arsenal board appears to be made up of very grand old English ladies and gentlemen (plus American Stan Kroenke) with little apparent appetite for relinquishing power to anyone so vulgar as an Uzbek oligarch.