| The 'India Shining' campaign may have boomeranged badly, but if he looks at Thai Prime Minster, Thaksin Shinawatra, he can take heart that there are others making worse decisions to deflect the minds of people from the real problems. |
| The Thai Prime Minister, a multi-millionaire businessman, announced a few days ago that he was on the verge of buying 30 per cent stake in Liverpool Football Club for a reported sum of £60 million (about $99 million). |
| But soon after that another businessman, Steve Morgan, a construction magnate, is reported to have offered to inject £73 million into Liverpool. |
| Initally, it was thought that Shinawatra's deal was a personal one, but now it seems he is thinking of putting in government funds into the deal and making the Thai taxpayer the 'owners' of Liverpool. |
| Backing the Prime Minister is the Sports Authority of Thailand governor Santiparb Tejavanija who maintains that Thai ownership of the famous club would motivate local Thai footballers to enter the professional arena. And who knows Liverpool might some day have a couple of Thai players turning out for them. |
| Shinawatra is said to be under lot of fire for many of Thailand's current problems, but the Prime Minster, is a hard-nosed businessman, who among other things also owns a golf course and vast amounts of real estate. |
| Still, imagine Vajpayee or for that matter somebody else putting government funds into buying a foreign football club! |
| THANK God, the Indian government hasn't turned its thoughts to investing in foreign football clubs. But nevertheless, a NRI businessman has decided to turn his attention to football. |
| It had to happen sometime. After buying all kinds of businesses and often turning them into successful ventures, it was only a matter of time, before some rich non-resident Indian turned his attention to picking up a sports team or a club. In America rich businessmen invest in baseball, basketball and their National Football league teams. |
| In Europe, it is plain and simple football, the most popular sport in the world. |
| A 29-year-old NRI, Jojar Dhinsa, who has made his fortune from a variety of businesses over the last few years, has turned his sights on Coventry City Football Club. |
| He has made his estimated fortune of over £40 million from various activities, ranging from media services, financial services, telecom, FMCG, technology and logistics. He also has business interests in hotels, hot spas and overseas real estate. |
| A street-smart businessman, Dhinsa, hails from Coventry, where he grew up, and his first business was getting into venture capital. He formed Athlone Group, a private equity firm based in Reading in 2001. |
| Last month he was named 'Newcomer of the Year' at the Asian Business Awards and his goal is to become a billionaire by 40. |
| Coventry City Football Club's chairman Mike McGinnity has been sceptical about Dhinsa's reported offer. He has not as yet been approached and he said he would have preferred Dhinsa to approach him rather than make public statements. |
| Making Coventry fans' mouth water, Dhinsa has claimed he and a group of investors from the Russian oil industry are willing to emulate Roman Abramovich's £200m injection into Chelsea. |
| He is talking of taking the club to the premiership, buying big names like Ronaldo and even David Beckham and Claudio Ranieri, the current Chelsea manager, and aiming for European titles. |
| Adding rider to his takeover, Dhinsa has said his decision would also depend on the completion of the club's new 32,500-seat stadium in the Foleshill area of the city where Dhinsa grew up. |
| Coventry, also called The Sky Blues, expect to start the 2005-06 season at their new home, the £113 million Coventry Arena complex. |
| And yes, Baichung Bhutia and other can also take heart. Dhinsa also wants to encourage Asian (read Indian) players and promote the game within the Asian community so that more Asians look at its as career option. |
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