The London Nominees Football Fund, which employs former England and Manchester United midfielder Bryan Robson as an adviser, is a group “investing in football clubs, players, franchises, merchandising and sponsorship in this outstanding growth industry”.
But an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches programme screened on Monday night shows members of the fund, including Robson, talking about loopholes that enable foreign owners, with the help of offshore bank accounts and front groups, to buy two English clubs.
The undercover reporters, who claim to be working on behalf of an Indian businessman who makes his money in “India’s illegal gambling market”, meet London Nominees chief executive Andrew Leppard and Robson, then manager of Thailand, in Bangkok’s officially franchised Manchester United Bar.
They are then introduced to Joe Sim, a Far Eastern businessman and adviser to the Thai FA, who talks repeatedly of his close personal friendship with Sir Alex Ferguson. He even passes the phone to the Manchester United manager to talk to one of the reporters when they are out together for a meal.
Sim and Robson both boast how they would get players on loan from United once they had bought one or two of the many Championship and Football League clubs they claim are open to a takeover.

They also claim other Premier League managers, including Kenny Dalglish, Harry Redknapp and Steve Bruce, would help them out with loan signings to make success more likely because of Sim and Robson’s personal connections. These claims are denied by lawyers acting on behalf of Ferguson and the other managers mentioned at the end of the programme.
Clubs offered as potential takeover targets include Leeds United, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Leicester City, Cardiff City, Birmingham City and Crystal Palace.
Key to the London Nominees business plan, according to Leppard, is taking over a big club outside of the top flight, getting them promoted in the space of three or four years and selling at a huge profit.
Other ideas mentioned include the selling of training grounds in prime locations to supermarket chains and the employment of PR firms to get supporters to “accept the new owners” by announcing they intend to “put a substantial amount of money into the club.”
London Nominees denied that they, or anyone associated with them, would breach or offer to breach FA or Football League regulations.
Sim denied saying that Ferguson would “call in favours from other managers” but that as a friend “Mr Sim was confident that Sir Alex would help if he could”.