Blackburn Rovers are the latest English Premiership side to come under the scrutiny of foreign ownership, press reports said on Friday.
The Sun reported that South African billionaire Johann Rupert had teamed up with the owner of NFL team Miami Dolphins to piece together a potential bid for the Lancashire side.
The 57-year-old Rupert, whose family was recently named as the 207th richest in the world, has enlisted the support of Wayne Huizenga after emerging as a rival bidder for Rovers.
Lancashire-born American tycoon Daniel Williams has already declared his interest in buying his boyhood club.
Huizenga does not intend to play a major part in the bid but would support Rupert, the press report said.
”My good friend Johann Rupert asked me if I’d be a very, very small partner,” the Miami Dolphins chief told the Sun.
”I did say that I’d do that — but only because I was a friend of his. I personally have no interest in buying a team over here.
”I know some of our fellow NFL owners have come over here and purchased all or parts of teams and I’m really not sure what their agenda is.”
The Blackburn report follows the latest foreign bid for a top English football side with former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra going after Manchester City. — AFP
