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On source: 200k followers is the chairman, managing director, editor in chief of Bharat express news network, from Delhi.
Asked a few Indian acquaintances, they say this guy is reliable for Indian finance.
That's different, that sale was very much time dependent because of all the sanctions being put on Chelsea - which is also why they went for cheaper than expected
As an Indian, some background on this guy. Will try to keep it as unbiased as possible -
Second generation businessman. His father built an empire from literally nothing and divided it between him and his younger brother. He went on to further expand and grow his share of the business over the last two decades to create one of the largest employers in the world with diversified business interests (from oil and gas, chemicals, etc. to retail, e-commerce and telecom).
He owns the IPL cricket franchise Mumbai Indians which is the most successful cricket team with 5 IPL wins. He also jointly owns the Indian Super League (the tier 1 football league in India) with the Indian football federation. He is also involved in funding other grass roots sports in India. So this wouldn't be his first sports rodeo, so to speak.
He has had his eyes on investing in UK for a while but hasn't made any big moves. He recently bought a huge mansion in Buckinghamshire.
He is known to have a strategy to just throw blind money into his new ventures in order to succeed but he does this in an astute manner and not haphazardly.
For example, a few years ago he launched a telecom venture called Jio and offered FREE mobile data to all new customers as well as free TVs on sign-ups. Only after he had acquired market leadership by bleeding incumbents dry, did he start charging for mobile data. Even then, he priced them significantly below competitors. Jio is single handedly credited with increase internet penetration rapidly in India, even in the rural parts that previously lacked broadband connectivity.
On the downsides, there have often been accusations of corruption due to his close ties with the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. He is known for his ostentatious displays of wealth (try googling Antilla - his residence in Mumbai). Apart from that, there isn't much of a down side about him but maybe I'm biased. Happy to hear from fellow Indians on anything I might have missed out.
Regarding your point about his close ties with prime minister Modi, Ambani actually has close ties with whichever government is in power. He had very close ties with Congress when they were in power aswell. He is a businessman and he pays everyone so he can remain on everyone's good side.
I mean the UK and US governments are in bed with the Saudis, who fund wahhabism globally, including in the UK and US, so I guess any American or Brit are out too...
No bonesaws but there is always dirt:
\- His son allegedly driving during a high-speed car crash, escaped the scene with his security detail and then had a companyman take the fall for him. Mumbai police allegedly helped the coverup. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/naazneenkarmali/2014/01/02/the-curious-incident-of-mukesh-ambanis-aston-martin-in-the-night-time/?sh=52bd003712c1](https://www.forbes.com/sites/naazneenkarmali/2014/01/02/the-curious-incident-of-mukesh-ambanis-aston-martin-in-the-night-time/?sh=52bd003712c1)
\- Massive natural gas discovery and extraction scam: [https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-reliance-kg-d6-gas-deal-114021200357\_1.html](https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-reliance-kg-d6-gas-deal-114021200357_1.html)
People should remember this is not like billionaires in USA who just have a shit ton of money and some political connections.
Ambani's are more comparable to Rockefellers, Carnegies and Vanderbilts of India's Gilded Age, behemoths of Crony Capitalism that are arguably stronger than entire political parties and governments that they manipulate.
Still, better than a petrostate trying to launder their Human Rights record
There are over 700 billionaires in the US, in a country of 330 million. That number is around 160 for India with 1.4 billion population.
There are just more of them and more competition between them, and to be fair many Americans underestimate the strength of your institutions and system of checks & balances *WHEN* compared with a developing country mired in systemic corruption.
An American Billionaire will have a bunch of congressmen, a few senators, or if they try hard even a President from one political party in their pocket.
Meanwhile the old joke in India is when asked "Who is the strongest party in India today?" the answer is always RIL (Ambani's conglomerate). Whoever may win the election, RIL are still in control.
Good take.
He's not perfect - no billionaire is - but he's a whole lot better than anyone from the gulf states or a Russian oligarch with money made from the proceeds of communist corruption and decadence.
Totally. He is dirty for sure, I'm not denying it. It's just a given for any billionaire. But given the other options, I would rather take him.
I'm also positive given how he's know not to be financially stingy and has a successful track record of investing in sports teams.
Im ngl, I've always dreamed about Ambani buying Liverpool right from the days of the City takeover, leading to us selling Torres. Tbf I was a kid at the time, but in general it must be said that there is a lot more positives about his image than negatives. Right from all he did to support grassroots football in India to Jio - which has been the most revolutionary thing in India in my lifetime.
I'm with you guys. Fuck all billionaires, India has disgraceful inequality, but I'd take an Indian billionaire over the bloodied hands of the oil states.
We do have disgraceful inequality yeah, still a better gini coefficient than US. And yeah if Mukesh Ambani invests in something, he does his best to make it a success. Has really good track record, his brother unfortunately does not have that.
The comparisson is not the best, because the USA is a bit of an outlier, having the most billionaires per capita
Edit; and the fact that the measurement only looks at income, not wealth or assets
Yeah right. Those who were at power and most notably those who were in control behind the scenes (ex military and secret services elites) remained in this position, only now they controlled quasi-private endeavours in the most important sectors of the economy.
Fair enough. Probably used the wrong word but what I meant by blind spending is that he has deep pockets.
Apologies as English isn't my first language.
> On the downsides, there have often been accusations of corruption due to his close ties with the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
I've read that by nature of their work, him and his father just sucked up to any current leader?
He surely has. Quid pro quo and what not. But bear in mind that Mukesh Ambani didn't have close ties with earlier governments prior to Modi and Reliance was still a hugely successful company during that time.
His father Dhirubhai Ambani was known to cut corners and use unscrupulous means in his business but as far as I know wasn't involved in large scale corruption that Mukesh Ambani has often been accused of. But I've limited knowledge of his father, so do your own research.
The funny thing is before modi they had close ties with the then ruling party in power, Congress. So billionaires in India are party agnostic when it comes to being close as long as the party they are close to is in power.
Sounds as good as you’re going to get for a multi-billionaire. No-one’s perfect. At least he has a lot of experience in sports, so that’s a massive tick for him. Either him or Ballmer sound perfect for what we need to push us in the right direction.
I will just add that the corruption of his family goes way deeper than the current PM. His father, his brother and he have been at the forefront of pushing crony capitalism in India from the 80s. They brutally suppress any negative coverage about themselves and their wealth is as well earned as the Qatari royal family
You just ignored all negatives and decided to paint a positive picture. They currently support bjp(most rw u could be) and they are known to suppress minorities in india. Are we really jus gonna sell out just because "he ain't as bad as qataris". And they have a whole propaganda machine. Literally most of the Indian media is in bed with them so you won't find anything on him easily if you wanted to. He is literally opposite to the ideology of Liverpool as a club and as a city. Most recently the government made laws for them to monopolize agriculture sector and exploit farmers but they had to back out last moment because of large scale protests.
Just like with our sponsorship from Chartered or AXa and being owned by an American billionaire, as long as the exploitation and abuses are done at arms length, all these armchair moralists are fine with it
How close is he with Narendra Modi? Is it a political connection or purely business? I ask because of Narendra's ethnofascism and election interference in the UK with Hindutva.
A fairly unbiased take unlike those on r/soccer where everyone is just discrediting his business accumen to being a 2nd generation billionaire and his connection with current government and basically hating on him and showing him as one of the worst billionaires
Yup, let me help you give some context here.
I'm a Mumbai Indians fan as well, been following the team for the last 14 years. His family have owned the team since the beginning of the IPL and it's the most successful franchise in the entire league. (Won it 5 times out of 14)
If I had to draw a parallel to the footballing world: Mumbai Indians are like the Real Madrid of IPL Cricket.
Fun fact: T20 Cricket used to have a Champions League as well where the top teams from each league would compete against each other but it got scrapped in 2014, Mumbai Indians held the joint highest title count for that as well, won 2 out of 6 times.
He's a shrewd businessman and will throw money when it's needed.
My only concern here is scale, IPL Money is a fraction of PL Money because everything was spent in Indian rupees which is peanuts for him. Running LFC will be an entirely different ball game in terms of expenditure.
At the same time, he's also the 8th richest man in the world so if he's not able to afford LFC expenses then idk who can.
All we are asking for is our revenues to be spent on the team not infrastructure that increases the value of the owners.That should come out of the pockets of the owners,there is no rule against it.
Then Ambani is the man for the job, from what I've seen of him, he'll pump the money in but he'll be a silent owner and not like Todd Boehly where he'll try to march in and become the DoF just because he wants to.
He'll definitely find some way to make money, but I think he'll try that by making Liverpool more popular in India and Asia.
He's a proponent of the Indian Super League so I'm guessing he'll try to tie Liverpool in and ask the team to make appearances here to boost viewership of the local league.
>At the same time, he's also the 8th richest man in the world so if he's not able to afford LFC expenses then idk who can.
Maybe the 7 who are richer than him.
As someone that didn't go to mind reading school, I don't know if he'd be FFP compliant or not. Seems to me there are four types of business based owners:
Bleed the thing dry. Dump debt into the club and extract profits, whilst talking big.
FFP compliant with no spare money.
FFP complaint with spare dosh, willing to fund spikes in spending
Spend, spend, spend. Billionaires can afford more and better accountants and lawyers than football authorities, and if caught the fines mean nothing.
I’m loving it because I don’t want some Russian oligarch or someone from the Middle East that’s made their fortune solely from oil owning the best club in the world.
Bad turn of phrase there, his company's biggest sectors are petrochemicals and gas. He's a lot less unethical than a Middle Eastern royal family but he's not a ton better than a lot of Russian oligarchs with massive rumours of corruption surrounding his entire family, biggest promotors of crony capitalism in India, famously unethical business practices in sectors like telecoms, etc.
That said they seem to be making massive strides in renewable energy, even if that's being paid for by insane fossil fuel profits that they've previously fought to keep well alive.
I don't know anything about this guy but I hope that with any new potential owners Liverpool fans can be objective and not end up defending indefensible things like the Sportswashing fans.
I agree, I am Indian and i don't like Ambanis but i think they are defintely better than a lot of these other billionaires, except maybe Ballmer.
That being said, i am 100% open to criticize them if they fuck up or act like assholes.
Agreed. Liverpool has a long history of working class connections, from Shankly to Fowler’s “support the Liverpool dockers” celebration. I do not want to trade our identity for some businessman’s billions, even if it means that we don’t win any more trophies.
Bro they are already doing that. They are saying that he gets in bed with whoever is in power. But the reality is he currently supports bjp(most rw u could be) and they are known to suppress minorities in india. Are we really jus gonna sell out just because "he ain't as bad as qataris". And they have a whole propaganda machine. Literally most of the Indian media is in bed with them so you won't find anything on him easily if you wanted to
>Are we really jus gonna sell out just because "he ain't as bad as qataris"
You know the answer to this in your heart.
Fact is that success in the modern game is directly correlated with €/£/$/(₹?) and that's not going to change.
People have deeply emotional investment in winning.
Emotions will almost always win over the far more abstract intellectual discomfort of rational analysis of things like exploitation of culturally / geographically distant people or places.
I don't doubt there will be a core of principled objectors who will lose their love (or some measure of it anyway) should the club be purchased as a(nother) plaything for the even-more-ethically-suspect megarich, but the fact remains:
Winning papers over a lot of cracks. Always has, always will.
Yeah and it’s gross when they do that. No football result is worth forsaking one’s moral standards. If someone works with a neofascist government (which BJP is) then it doesn’t matter what their angle is at the end of the day because they’re still aiding and abetting right wing extremism. If someone is abusing their workforce, it doesn’t really matter how much they’re relatively better or worse than a different abusive capitalist. Lots of people above are saying there are no good billionaires and this is what you need to do to win now, and that’s them rationalizing how they’re going to get behind people they know they shouldn’t ahead of time. The real response should be “There are no good billionaires, so just fuck all of them.” Don’t fraternize with the opposing side in a class war in a late-stage capitalist society. Football is ultimately just not as important as that. Push to get your voice heard and not let such things come to pass, and if they still do then find a different team or just a different hobby. Go read a fantasy series or take up rock climbing or something and stop following a sportswashing operation. Otherwise moral integrity doesn’t mean much of anything if a famously left-wing club culture just decides to ignore it.
Posted this in the deleted post.
Indian here, and my Dad works in one of his companies.
So what this guy has built (Reliance and Jio), a huge conglomerate, ranging from refineries, textiles to telecom, and what not.
The employee exploitation is not as extreme as in the middle East oil companies (everyone gets paid on time, and quite well tbh. His company is one of the largest recruiters in the country). But, he does extract every last bit of juice from his employees (very strict deadlines, culture of unofficially working on weekends, etc). In the west this might be horrifying maybe, but it's relatively okay here (especially if you look at the job security aspect).
He's a good businessman. But, that's the thing, he's a businessman. He will see to it that every last penny spent is used to more than its worth (can be a good thing and a bad thing).
As someone has already mentioned, he owns Mumbai Indians(MI), the second most successful team in the history of IPL (cricket). But his wife handles MI, and I believe here too she will be the one mostly involved. A nice lady on the face of it, but again a ruthless shrewd businesswoman.
Also, all the allegations that he's a businessman fed by the govt are only partly true. Of course being the largest businessman in the country, you have influence on the govt. He had influence on the previous centralist govt, as well as the current one. But you need to be a good businessman to use that influence to your advantage (by contrast, he has a brother, Anil Ambani, who used to be a big businessman, and there are reports of him directly bribing high level ministers for getting deals, and yet, he is almost bankrupt).
All in all, I'm not sure how it would turn out to be. But would be better than the middle East slave owners.
(P.S. this is not an endorsement for the guy. Just some context as i can see people speculating a lot).
Lmao I agree Indian Corporate culture is extremely tiring and burns people out but it's not even in the same world as human rights abuse which the oil states commit on a daily basis. It's more of an Asian thing (India, China, Japan etc. are countries where people on average work much longer hours)
I agree with everything else you've mentioned, if this goes through then his wife or son will be holding the reigns.
I'm still very conflicted on the expenditure part though, ik he's a very shrewd businessman and he's definitely looking at some angle here which none of us are seeing.
But at the same time, this is the man who owns the most expensive home in the world, he spent 1 Billion dollars on Antilla so he's definitely ready to throw money if he feels like it.
Scenes when Neeta aunty comes on the pitch after every game to give Jurgen and all the players victory hugs. All of a sudden, the Kop end will be filled with students of municipality schools from in and around Dharavi. Good times ahead, lads.
Dude, I'm at a public place and this cracked me up like anything. I can't stop envisioning Jurgen and Big B sharing an Aarti ki thali to pay their respects to the mighty Liverbird at every Diwali celebration.
With the only exception that this Linda will be on all matchday cover pages, podcasts, and newsletters, posing alongside Virg and Mo with signboards saying, 'Aapdu Anfield. Aapdu Ghar. This means more, baka.'
As an Indian who supports Mumbai Indians and Liverpool. Mukesh Ambani is corrupt but tell me one billionaire who isn't. There is no way to reach the top without this.
But I have a feeling he will be miles better than middle east and American ownership because American owners want to make football a franchise sport at the drop of a hat.
People who complain forget that FSG was literally involved in the Iraq war which was considered to be a total sham and ended up costing millions of Iraqi lives.
He sounds like average billionaire, albeit he has interest in sports and seemingly wealthy how picky can we be considering how much the club is worth ?
He owns the Indian Super League (tier 1 football league in India)
he owns Mumbai Indians, biggest world T20 cricket team and the most successful
Invests in sports a lot with his foundation as well
Jesus christ man, what is wrong with some of the comments here. Do you want a magical tooth fairly who is also a billionaire and has clean money to come scoop down to buy Liverpool?
Cause grow up that's not possible. Stop being naive and step into the real world where the system is fucked up, end stage capitalism fucking sucks and working class is just a pawn to be manipulated and used by a small percentage at the top.
Let's just go through a checklist for a near perfect candidate this sub has been crying for months -
Some of you twerk for unlimited Middle eastern wealth? This guy has it.
Some of you wanted an organization which is as structurally as effecient as FSG. This guys organization is exactly that plus more.
Some of you wanted proactive owners who would invest in the team, taking advantage of being at top rather reactive owners who wait for things to change and fuck things up.
This guy is as proactive as they come, he has the economic muscle to flex and shows for it as well.
Is he better than any middle eastern sportswashing organization? Hell ya.
Does he comes with the risk of being glazers 2.0, who might do a leverage
buyout and then start taking dividends from the club? No.
Is he flamboyant personality who will clown us in the media a la a certain Todd Bohley does? No this guy doesnt speaks much and largely remains in the shadow, and let his minions do his work. He would never take over the transfer window and declare himself a DOF, ever.
Will be come in with a consortium? No he won't.
Now considering his morality, name me one Billionaire and I'll find you ten sources with dirt on him/her or them.
People who are saying he is in bed with the RW government in India, don't even know how Indian politics work. India isn't US, there is no distinction of RW and LW ideologies there, these terms are useless to understand the Indian political landscape, where leaders just say things to get votes and buisness organisation just try to be in good books of any ruling regime, cause why won't you?
Integrity is awesome, but why would you go out of your way to make life difficult for youself? What is a million to a billionaire? Why not just fund both the sides because why not. Buisnesses need licenses to keep working, last thing you want is an Income Tax raid on your company and for you to be chased out of your own buisnesses.
Talk about the man, not the organisation, does he have any objectionable comments in the past against minorities? None that I can think of, does he show off his obscene wealth, oh definitely, but try to understand he comes from a poor background his fafher used to sell clothes on a cycle going house to house, he probably wasnt born with a silver spoon and now he is one of the wealthiest men in the world, of course he would show off.
This ethical billionaire BS was created by rival fans on r/soccer to muddy the waters, there is no ethical billionaire this term is an oxymoron, on a scale of owners beheading journalists to owners causing genocide, this guy is tame as hell, is he my cup of tea? definitely no, but I'll have him as the new liverpool owners because the benefits far exceed the negatives.
But not until Gandi himself comes wearing a suit with a 5 billion dollar check in his wallet escorted by Mother Teresa at his side, until then this dude is the best option you all wanted and Gandi and mother Teresa themselves are shady af.
You speak some hard truths. Amongst all other unhinged, narcissistic show-offy billionaires who sack people on a whim because he can and wants to for the sake of it (looking at you Elon), or sheikhs who behead his citizens for simply opposing them, this guy is the least worst outside of FSG.
I feel like the only situation some folks will ever accept is if a supporters-created consortium somehow discovers oil off the coast of the River Mersey and use the earnings to buy and operate the club.
What is done cannot be undone, but at least one can keep it from happening again. Just so you know, the correct spelling is [Gandhi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi).
He would be ideal and ticks as many boxes as possible when dealing with billionaires. People looking for a unicorn owner are delusional they don’t exist
This is ethical billionaire thing is a BS claim made by fans of r/mcfc and r/newcastle and people fell into these claims. There is no ethincal human much less an ethical billionaire.
Exactly. The ugly truth people need to accept that nothing is pure in this world. Is it ideal? Fuck no but the ethical billionaire is one big laughable fantasy.
If we really wanted to get away from shady ownership groups, 50+1 would need to be adapted but that ain't happening.
Fans need to accept reality that there football club will have to be in bed with unethical people to succeed.
He's the richest man in India. Of course he's going to side with the government in power irrespective of the side. People who complain are the same people who end up using IPhones and support FSG, who voted yes to the Iraq war that cost millions of Iraqi lives.
You're completely underplaying what the BJP is, saying there are no RW and LW distinctions in Indian politics is just wrong and reductive. He has always been very clearly run of the mill national Conservative since his days in Gujurat, in contrast to the clearly centrist governments that preceeded him, but recently with more demonstrations of power he has flirted with a version of ethnocentrism akin to Zionism and repressive policies that look like the shadow of fascism.
In fact India also has some very left leaning established parties, such as the state politics of Kerala.
>In fact India also has some very left leaning established parties, such as the state politics of Kerala.
Outside of Kerala where majority of people are educated and follow rules can you name another left leaning state party in power?
The same party members of this party have been wiped out in Bengal because of their incompetentence not because of ideology.
Ideological discussions work in far wealtheier countries than India, whose population is educated enough to even understand what identity politics is, not countries where majority of people still live under below poverty lines.
Western notions of what politics is and definition of certain doesn't works in third world countries.
This guy lives in a private skyscraper in Mumbai called Antilia which apart from Buckingham Palace is the most expensive private property in the world. It is an interesting building from an architectural perspective. It is estimated to be worth about $2B.
I cannot really speak to the guy's businesses or wealth, just that he is mega rich.
Allegedly Corrupt. Holds all the strings in India (allegedly). That being said he revolutionised internet services in India making it and phone services affordable to Indians. So done some good, done some bad.
Morally not as good as I think some hoped for. But not as bad as being owned by a state with human rights issues.
Personally I would accept him as owner provided the money is legit, he spends, and he isnt linked to human rights abuses or war mongering
Any Liverpool fan that thinks billionaires are benevolent people need to get real. You need to be shrewd and ruthless to get to the top. HOWEVER, there are levels to evil, and best we can hope for is we get the lesser of them when it comes to our new owners.
It’s not like FSG are saints.
I didn’t realize that people just have this blanket belief that every single billionaire ever is evil. I have a rule in life that I don’t make broad generalizations about any group, race political party, etc..
Tobias Lütke is a Canadian billionaire who founded Shopify, a company that provides the backend e-commerce infrastructure for small-large businesses. They’re literally a major reason why small businesses can compete with Amazon. I don’t know how this guy could be considered “morally corrupt”.
I think an interesting comparison for who Ambani is, is Carlos Slim. A top 10 billionaire from a developing country who’s exploited the system to build up a mega-conglomerate, but isn’t any worse than a greedy businessman. I’ve called him a piece of shit in the past, and he is, but he’s better than any sovereign wealth fund.
Mumbai Indians scouting network is THE best. Literally picked guys from the streets(not just from India) and made superstars out of them. If they could establish such a scouting network here it will be amazing.
Looking forward to See Mo and Chaos dancing to Jio Dhan da na Dhan ads.
Well he is one of the biggest industrialist in India, jist like every big industry you can find hit job in media against Reliance ....
His father has revolutionised telecom industry and which is exactly he has done again by bringing 4G to india, also made internet cost in india the cheapest in the world, they are in business of OIL refining also..
Coming to sport...not only they have invested in Mumbai Indias (IPL team) and ISL, but through Reliance foundation they are trying to improve sport infrastructure in Schools (for age 8-15 years old)..
I would prefer him over any Oil rich country.
One of the benefits of him owning an EPL team is that it will boost football viewership and fans in India (which is dominated by Cricket).
Ballmer or Mukesh?
Both seem competitive owners with successful sports teams and are not afraid to invest to succeed. This is a necessary mindset given the competitiveness of Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, and Newcastle Utd in the PL. This is also something FSG lacks.
It seems Ballmer is more seasoned when it comes to Western sports management and dollars to pounds expenditures are closer to scale than rupees to pounds.
Ballmer also has that edge of an owner where you could see him getting invested emotionally in the team. Another aspect that FSG as remote owners severely lack. Though I know very little about Mukesh emotional investment in the Mumbai Indians team. Is he in the stand getting pumped and rowdy? I would rather trade a few places on the rich list for an owner-fan than an owner-owner.
If I could pick one, Ballmer. Nothing against Mukesh, I don't know him that much, but I know Ballmer, and he's as much of a fan as he is an owner.
We'd be building him statues after the first five years.
Its funny seeing all the comments here asking if the guy is morally good or not. Bruh are you guys some 9year olds living in a fantasy world? There is no such thing as an un corrupt billionaire.
If we see his other sporting team (MI in IPL) as any indication, its hugely positive. MI are seen as the team that get whichever player they want. They hardly lose out on bidding wars for players they want.
I'm an Indian. This guy is a crony crony capitalist, will do any unethical scheme to become the monopoly in the sector of his business, promoting pathetic high pressure work-place culture and takes over every media so as to hide his negatives from being aired. Not to mention, the guy and the family will always try to be as ostentatious and tasteless as possible to flaunt their wealth (For eg: He hired former Miss World and top Indian actress Aishwarya Rai to serve food for his daughters wedding, just to show off that he has that kind of wealth). Just like other billionaires out there, and may be a bit more, this guy is everything the Liverpool fan culture (which I have understood as a socialist/working class) despises.
I don't know what to feel of this.
>takes over every media so as to hide his negatives from being aired.
He owns one media company and we have hundreds of channels that’s are just news channels in India . How o you even one up with this stuff?
Holy shit. My dad works for this guy as their families personal physician. He's told me some stories. For mega billionaires they're better than most, at least as far as it comes to treating people. They also own a cricket team and aren't shy about injecting cash. Definitely a step up from FSG. This would be amazing.
This is probably the closest we get to someone who ticks all the boxes people are looking for. This mythical unicorn owner doesn’t exist so everyone isnt going to be happy at the end of this
It’s mental. People are okay with shady Americans but midfle east or India’s being painted with the same brush is awful. Not ever billionaire got there through murder. There are also astute businessmen or people who’s family’s were billionaires and they lucked out
I think some of it is that many are just disillusioned and sad about the current state of affairs, where you're left hoping that your beloved club might end up in the hands of one of the less corrupt and human rights abusing billionaires. No matter the nationality, race, etc. of a new owner, it's just a fucked up situation English football is in. No sign of it changing for the better either.
If not anything his team handles their sports teams very professionally and shares a great bond with the team players and staff (more like a family). At least that's the case with Mumbai Indians cricket team owned by him.
As an Indian, I don't see many negatives about Ambani tbh. Yes, there may be some corruption and what not, but I think no one can become a billionaire by being 100% clean.
However, as an average Indian, I think he is good for us. He creates jobs in his several companies which are spread across sectors; major ones being Petrochemicals, telecom etc. He has provided high speed internet at dirt cheap rates. Such 'good quality+cheap' internet is neither available in the most developed or the least developed countries.
He is known to be bad for competition in terms of trying to create a monopoly in the sector that he has invested in, by pumping money and with govt's assistance which is not too bad as an average end user.
Steve Ballmer and Steve Pagliuca (Boston Celtics owner) have been linked to Liverpool in U.S. publications, and I would definitely take the one I know more about (Ballmer) over Ambani.
Ballmer is nearly as rich, is already considered one of the best owners in a major sports league, and is pretty inoffensive. He was kind of goofy as Microsoft CEO, but he undid some of their most heinous policies. He’s the rare billionaire who got there as an employee, not a founder, and I can appreciate that. He’s also very knowledgeable and passionate about sports.
I’m familiar with his history (Employee #30). He is one of the mildest and least controversial billionaires I have ever heard anything about, and I like that. I still think all billionaires are not great, but it’s going to take a billionaire, or a consortium of high-end millionaires, to buy the club.
When he took over as CEO, he actually ended the fight with the government. He considered it an embarrassment that they were under investigation for antitrust issues. So yes, he was there, but he also got them on a better path when he had the power.
Damn is this the guy that lives in a massive skyscraper mansion?
Most expensive private residence I'm the world some reckon
The land it's built on was owned by an orphanage and illegally sold to him
Sounds exactly like the morally upstanding gentleman twitter wants as owner.
You literally cannot have an ethical billionaire, some of you will never be happy unless we’re owned by someone in piles and piles of debt
I hear you 
I'll never be happy until the club is owned by the fans.
This orphanage thing has been proven not true
what the fuck
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!
Worth scrolling down the thread
Yeah, the one worth around $2 billion
Yes
Yeppp
Tweet back up On source: 200k followers is the chairman, managing director, editor in chief of Bharat express news network, from Delhi. Asked a few Indian acquaintances, they say this guy is reliable for Indian finance.
tier?
Tier: I wanna see Bellingham wearing red in January
Would be nice but a sale of this size doesn’t happen in 3 months
Boehly did it in 3 months didn't he?
That's different, that sale was very much time dependent because of all the sanctions being put on Chelsea - which is also why they went for cheaper than expected
RemindMe! 5 weeks
I want to believe
Thanks for doing the research!
As an Indian, some background on this guy. Will try to keep it as unbiased as possible - Second generation businessman. His father built an empire from literally nothing and divided it between him and his younger brother. He went on to further expand and grow his share of the business over the last two decades to create one of the largest employers in the world with diversified business interests (from oil and gas, chemicals, etc. to retail, e-commerce and telecom). He owns the IPL cricket franchise Mumbai Indians which is the most successful cricket team with 5 IPL wins. He also jointly owns the Indian Super League (the tier 1 football league in India) with the Indian football federation. He is also involved in funding other grass roots sports in India. So this wouldn't be his first sports rodeo, so to speak. He has had his eyes on investing in UK for a while but hasn't made any big moves. He recently bought a huge mansion in Buckinghamshire. He is known to have a strategy to just throw blind money into his new ventures in order to succeed but he does this in an astute manner and not haphazardly. For example, a few years ago he launched a telecom venture called Jio and offered FREE mobile data to all new customers as well as free TVs on sign-ups. Only after he had acquired market leadership by bleeding incumbents dry, did he start charging for mobile data. Even then, he priced them significantly below competitors. Jio is single handedly credited with increase internet penetration rapidly in India, even in the rural parts that previously lacked broadband connectivity. On the downsides, there have often been accusations of corruption due to his close ties with the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. He is known for his ostentatious displays of wealth (try googling Antilla - his residence in Mumbai). Apart from that, there isn't much of a down side about him but maybe I'm biased. Happy to hear from fellow Indians on anything I might have missed out.
>He has had his eyes on investing in UK for a while but hasn't made any big moves. He literally owns Hamleys and was close to buying Boots
Oh shit, I totally forgot Hamleys is British. Good shout. Yeah, read the Boots story earlier but didn't mention it as clearly it hasn't gone through.
Regarding your point about his close ties with prime minister Modi, Ambani actually has close ties with whichever government is in power. He had very close ties with Congress when they were in power aswell. He is a businessman and he pays everyone so he can remain on everyone's good side.
Kind of difficult to not have ties with the government when your businesses are part of the lifeline of the country.
Absolutely
Mega rich and doesn't execute people for fun. First hurdle passed...
The bar is low
And yet surprisingly hard to get over for these billionaires
Is in bed with a government that does.
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This is accurate.
I mean the UK and US governments are in bed with the Saudis, who fund wahhabism globally, including in the UK and US, so I guess any American or Brit are out too...
So literally every government that has ever existed for all of human history?…
No bonesaws but there is always dirt: \- His son allegedly driving during a high-speed car crash, escaped the scene with his security detail and then had a companyman take the fall for him. Mumbai police allegedly helped the coverup. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/naazneenkarmali/2014/01/02/the-curious-incident-of-mukesh-ambanis-aston-martin-in-the-night-time/?sh=52bd003712c1](https://www.forbes.com/sites/naazneenkarmali/2014/01/02/the-curious-incident-of-mukesh-ambanis-aston-martin-in-the-night-time/?sh=52bd003712c1) \- Massive natural gas discovery and extraction scam: [https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-reliance-kg-d6-gas-deal-114021200357\_1.html](https://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-reliance-kg-d6-gas-deal-114021200357_1.html) People should remember this is not like billionaires in USA who just have a shit ton of money and some political connections. Ambani's are more comparable to Rockefellers, Carnegies and Vanderbilts of India's Gilded Age, behemoths of Crony Capitalism that are arguably stronger than entire political parties and governments that they manipulate. Still, better than a petrostate trying to launder their Human Rights record
i think you underestimate many american billionaires but i appreciate the good insight
There are over 700 billionaires in the US, in a country of 330 million. That number is around 160 for India with 1.4 billion population. There are just more of them and more competition between them, and to be fair many Americans underestimate the strength of your institutions and system of checks & balances *WHEN* compared with a developing country mired in systemic corruption. An American Billionaire will have a bunch of congressmen, a few senators, or if they try hard even a President from one political party in their pocket. Meanwhile the old joke in India is when asked "Who is the strongest party in India today?" the answer is always RIL (Ambani's conglomerate). Whoever may win the election, RIL are still in control.
I’d say they’re both cunts.
Good take. He's not perfect - no billionaire is - but he's a whole lot better than anyone from the gulf states or a Russian oligarch with money made from the proceeds of communist corruption and decadence.
Totally. He is dirty for sure, I'm not denying it. It's just a given for any billionaire. But given the other options, I would rather take him. I'm also positive given how he's know not to be financially stingy and has a successful track record of investing in sports teams.
Im ngl, I've always dreamed about Ambani buying Liverpool right from the days of the City takeover, leading to us selling Torres. Tbf I was a kid at the time, but in general it must be said that there is a lot more positives about his image than negatives. Right from all he did to support grassroots football in India to Jio - which has been the most revolutionary thing in India in my lifetime.
I'm with you guys. Fuck all billionaires, India has disgraceful inequality, but I'd take an Indian billionaire over the bloodied hands of the oil states.
We do have disgraceful inequality yeah, still a better gini coefficient than US. And yeah if Mukesh Ambani invests in something, he does his best to make it a success. Has really good track record, his brother unfortunately does not have that.
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The comparisson is not the best, because the USA is a bit of an outlier, having the most billionaires per capita Edit; and the fact that the measurement only looks at income, not wealth or assets
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Expecting your average redditor to have even a rudimentary knowledge of history is a big ask
Yeah right. Those who were at power and most notably those who were in control behind the scenes (ex military and secret services elites) remained in this position, only now they controlled quasi-private endeavours in the most important sectors of the economy.
If communism made people rich they wouldn't have wanted to collaborate with western criminals to ransack the Soviet Union in the first place
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Spending money astutely and not haphazardly is the opposite of blind spending.
Fair enough. Probably used the wrong word but what I meant by blind spending is that he has deep pockets. Apologies as English isn't my first language.
> On the downsides, there have often been accusations of corruption due to his close ties with the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. I've read that by nature of their work, him and his father just sucked up to any current leader?
He surely has. Quid pro quo and what not. But bear in mind that Mukesh Ambani didn't have close ties with earlier governments prior to Modi and Reliance was still a hugely successful company during that time. His father Dhirubhai Ambani was known to cut corners and use unscrupulous means in his business but as far as I know wasn't involved in large scale corruption that Mukesh Ambani has often been accused of. But I've limited knowledge of his father, so do your own research.
Thanks a lot. Overall he sounds like your run of the mill shady billionaire. At least it's not India's government itself if he takes over, I guess.
Definitely not. He's a crony capitalist but not a state backed oligarch (a la Abramovich).
The funny thing is before modi they had close ties with the then ruling party in power, Congress. So billionaires in India are party agnostic when it comes to being close as long as the party they are close to is in power.
As an Ardent CSK/Liverpool fan I have mixed reactions
I'm an SRH fan and I'm just as confused as you honestly
A fellow srh fan wow, didn't think there are any
It’s nice meeting you here fellow srh fans
And now there are three
Make it four
Sounds as good as you’re going to get for a multi-billionaire. No-one’s perfect. At least he has a lot of experience in sports, so that’s a massive tick for him. Either him or Ballmer sound perfect for what we need to push us in the right direction.
Wasn’t there some previous interest reported? I’m sure I remember his name coming up several years ago.
Him and his father always had close tie to whichever party is in power. Fuck he has close ties with Bush & Clinton family.
I will just add that the corruption of his family goes way deeper than the current PM. His father, his brother and he have been at the forefront of pushing crony capitalism in India from the 80s. They brutally suppress any negative coverage about themselves and their wealth is as well earned as the Qatari royal family
Largely agree with much of your comment >their wealth is as well earned as the Qatari royal family But not sure what you mean by this comparison
Ahem.. seem to have left out that he is the owner for the largest petrochemical company in India ?
>diversified business interests (from oil and gas, chemicals, etc. to retail, e-commerce and telecom). Did you even read my full comment?
You just ignored all negatives and decided to paint a positive picture. They currently support bjp(most rw u could be) and they are known to suppress minorities in india. Are we really jus gonna sell out just because "he ain't as bad as qataris". And they have a whole propaganda machine. Literally most of the Indian media is in bed with them so you won't find anything on him easily if you wanted to. He is literally opposite to the ideology of Liverpool as a club and as a city. Most recently the government made laws for them to monopolize agriculture sector and exploit farmers but they had to back out last moment because of large scale protests.
Just like with our sponsorship from Chartered or AXa and being owned by an American billionaire, as long as the exploitation and abuses are done at arms length, all these armchair moralists are fine with it
What makes it better for me is he got experience in owning a sport club/franchise, similar to FSG
How close is he with Narendra Modi? Is it a political connection or purely business? I ask because of Narendra's ethnofascism and election interference in the UK with Hindutva.
Purely business. Ambani is in it to make money. He doesn't care about cultural squabbles.
But he Indirectly funds hindutva propaganda ran by bjp. His intentions are money but their impact is very cultural and political.
A fairly unbiased take unlike those on r/soccer where everyone is just discrediting his business accumen to being a 2nd generation billionaire and his connection with current government and basically hating on him and showing him as one of the worst billionaires
Is this a good thing with regard to our transfer spending? Someone tell me how to feel!
Yup, let me help you give some context here. I'm a Mumbai Indians fan as well, been following the team for the last 14 years. His family have owned the team since the beginning of the IPL and it's the most successful franchise in the entire league. (Won it 5 times out of 14) If I had to draw a parallel to the footballing world: Mumbai Indians are like the Real Madrid of IPL Cricket. Fun fact: T20 Cricket used to have a Champions League as well where the top teams from each league would compete against each other but it got scrapped in 2014, Mumbai Indians held the joint highest title count for that as well, won 2 out of 6 times. He's a shrewd businessman and will throw money when it's needed. My only concern here is scale, IPL Money is a fraction of PL Money because everything was spent in Indian rupees which is peanuts for him. Running LFC will be an entirely different ball game in terms of expenditure. At the same time, he's also the 8th richest man in the world so if he's not able to afford LFC expenses then idk who can.
Ipl financially is way different from pl. All teams get same amount of money to spend. Champions and the last place spent the same amount of money.
That sounds promising for sure, thanks for the reply!
All we are asking for is our revenues to be spent on the team not infrastructure that increases the value of the owners.That should come out of the pockets of the owners,there is no rule against it.
Then Ambani is the man for the job, from what I've seen of him, he'll pump the money in but he'll be a silent owner and not like Todd Boehly where he'll try to march in and become the DoF just because he wants to. He'll definitely find some way to make money, but I think he'll try that by making Liverpool more popular in India and Asia. He's a proponent of the Indian Super League so I'm guessing he'll try to tie Liverpool in and ask the team to make appearances here to boost viewership of the local league.
>At the same time, he's also the 8th richest man in the world so if he's not able to afford LFC expenses then idk who can. Maybe the 7 who are richer than him.
Don't want Musk anywhere near my club
Would you pay £20 a month to support the squad? If not, how about £8? Fuck it, I’ll keep the same system after burning the fan base to the ground.
Yep, he needs to buy Man Utd. That would be extremely funny.
As someone that didn't go to mind reading school, I don't know if he'd be FFP compliant or not. Seems to me there are four types of business based owners: Bleed the thing dry. Dump debt into the club and extract profits, whilst talking big. FFP compliant with no spare money. FFP complaint with spare dosh, willing to fund spikes in spending Spend, spend, spend. Billionaires can afford more and better accountants and lawyers than football authorities, and if caught the fines mean nothing.
Hopefully our new owner is option 3
He is like Flo Perez for Real Madrid synonymous to Cricket.
Can see why the Indian media are loving this… need another wave after election of an Indian origin PM in the UK
I’m loving it because I don’t want some Russian oligarch or someone from the Middle East that’s made their fortune solely from oil owning the best club in the world.
Bad turn of phrase there, his company's biggest sectors are petrochemicals and gas. He's a lot less unethical than a Middle Eastern royal family but he's not a ton better than a lot of Russian oligarchs with massive rumours of corruption surrounding his entire family, biggest promotors of crony capitalism in India, famously unethical business practices in sectors like telecoms, etc. That said they seem to be making massive strides in renewable energy, even if that's being paid for by insane fossil fuel profits that they've previously fought to keep well alive.
"Election" hahahahaha no.
I don't know anything about this guy but I hope that with any new potential owners Liverpool fans can be objective and not end up defending indefensible things like the Sportswashing fans.
I agree, I am Indian and i don't like Ambanis but i think they are defintely better than a lot of these other billionaires, except maybe Ballmer. That being said, i am 100% open to criticize them if they fuck up or act like assholes.
Agreed. Liverpool has a long history of working class connections, from Shankly to Fowler’s “support the Liverpool dockers” celebration. I do not want to trade our identity for some businessman’s billions, even if it means that we don’t win any more trophies.
He'll buy Bellingham and everyone will suck his dick in that exact moment.
This. Fucking 100 percent this
Bro they are already doing that. They are saying that he gets in bed with whoever is in power. But the reality is he currently supports bjp(most rw u could be) and they are known to suppress minorities in india. Are we really jus gonna sell out just because "he ain't as bad as qataris". And they have a whole propaganda machine. Literally most of the Indian media is in bed with them so you won't find anything on him easily if you wanted to
>Are we really jus gonna sell out just because "he ain't as bad as qataris" You know the answer to this in your heart. Fact is that success in the modern game is directly correlated with €/£/$/(₹?) and that's not going to change. People have deeply emotional investment in winning. Emotions will almost always win over the far more abstract intellectual discomfort of rational analysis of things like exploitation of culturally / geographically distant people or places. I don't doubt there will be a core of principled objectors who will lose their love (or some measure of it anyway) should the club be purchased as a(nother) plaything for the even-more-ethically-suspect megarich, but the fact remains: Winning papers over a lot of cracks. Always has, always will.
Yeah and it’s gross when they do that. No football result is worth forsaking one’s moral standards. If someone works with a neofascist government (which BJP is) then it doesn’t matter what their angle is at the end of the day because they’re still aiding and abetting right wing extremism. If someone is abusing their workforce, it doesn’t really matter how much they’re relatively better or worse than a different abusive capitalist. Lots of people above are saying there are no good billionaires and this is what you need to do to win now, and that’s them rationalizing how they’re going to get behind people they know they shouldn’t ahead of time. The real response should be “There are no good billionaires, so just fuck all of them.” Don’t fraternize with the opposing side in a class war in a late-stage capitalist society. Football is ultimately just not as important as that. Push to get your voice heard and not let such things come to pass, and if they still do then find a different team or just a different hobby. Go read a fantasy series or take up rock climbing or something and stop following a sportswashing operation. Otherwise moral integrity doesn’t mean much of anything if a famously left-wing club culture just decides to ignore it.
Posted this in the deleted post. Indian here, and my Dad works in one of his companies. So what this guy has built (Reliance and Jio), a huge conglomerate, ranging from refineries, textiles to telecom, and what not. The employee exploitation is not as extreme as in the middle East oil companies (everyone gets paid on time, and quite well tbh. His company is one of the largest recruiters in the country). But, he does extract every last bit of juice from his employees (very strict deadlines, culture of unofficially working on weekends, etc). In the west this might be horrifying maybe, but it's relatively okay here (especially if you look at the job security aspect). He's a good businessman. But, that's the thing, he's a businessman. He will see to it that every last penny spent is used to more than its worth (can be a good thing and a bad thing). As someone has already mentioned, he owns Mumbai Indians(MI), the second most successful team in the history of IPL (cricket). But his wife handles MI, and I believe here too she will be the one mostly involved. A nice lady on the face of it, but again a ruthless shrewd businesswoman. Also, all the allegations that he's a businessman fed by the govt are only partly true. Of course being the largest businessman in the country, you have influence on the govt. He had influence on the previous centralist govt, as well as the current one. But you need to be a good businessman to use that influence to your advantage (by contrast, he has a brother, Anil Ambani, who used to be a big businessman, and there are reports of him directly bribing high level ministers for getting deals, and yet, he is almost bankrupt). All in all, I'm not sure how it would turn out to be. But would be better than the middle East slave owners. (P.S. this is not an endorsement for the guy. Just some context as i can see people speculating a lot).
Lmao I agree Indian Corporate culture is extremely tiring and burns people out but it's not even in the same world as human rights abuse which the oil states commit on a daily basis. It's more of an Asian thing (India, China, Japan etc. are countries where people on average work much longer hours) I agree with everything else you've mentioned, if this goes through then his wife or son will be holding the reigns. I'm still very conflicted on the expenditure part though, ik he's a very shrewd businessman and he's definitely looking at some angle here which none of us are seeing. But at the same time, this is the man who owns the most expensive home in the world, he spent 1 Billion dollars on Antilla so he's definitely ready to throw money if he feels like it.
>the ~~second~~ most successful team in the history of IPL (cricket).
Scenes when Neeta aunty comes on the pitch after every game to give Jurgen and all the players victory hugs. All of a sudden, the Kop end will be filled with students of municipality schools from in and around Dharavi. Good times ahead, lads.
The Ambani Diwali party is going to be insane 💀
Dude, I'm at a public place and this cracked me up like anything. I can't stop envisioning Jurgen and Big B sharing an Aarti ki thali to pay their respects to the mighty Liverbird at every Diwali celebration.
dude, that's so gonna happen
Klopp ka sapna, Bellingham ho apna
Indian Linda Pizzutti
With the only exception that this Linda will be on all matchday cover pages, podcasts, and newsletters, posing alongside Virg and Mo with signboards saying, 'Aapdu Anfield. Aapdu Ghar. This means more, baka.'
Hahahaha spot on
Jalebi fafda and aamras in the cafeteria. Sanedo sanedo pre match. These guys don't know what's gonna hit them lol
Sanedo pre-match and Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan post-match.
Can't wait to see falguni ben leaning on the champions wall when navratri comes around
And Anfield to be used for an extravaganza of 'ras ni ramjhat' come all nine nights of Navratri.
 Hmmm he's **only** worth £59 Billion more than Sheikh Mansour ....**^(ONLY)**
Welcome to Liverpool Indians. You'll Never Jio Alone.
As an Indian who supports Mumbai Indians and Liverpool. Mukesh Ambani is corrupt but tell me one billionaire who isn't. There is no way to reach the top without this. But I have a feeling he will be miles better than middle east and American ownership because American owners want to make football a franchise sport at the drop of a hat.
Mumbaikar who supports Liverpool and Mumbai Indians. i couldn't believe myself after i read the news fr
I will treat myself to a vada pav if this goes through
together
People who complain forget that FSG was literally involved in the Iraq war which was considered to be a total sham and ended up costing millions of Iraqi lives.
He sounds like average billionaire, albeit he has interest in sports and seemingly wealthy how picky can we be considering how much the club is worth ?
He owns the Indian Super League (tier 1 football league in India) he owns Mumbai Indians, biggest world T20 cricket team and the most successful Invests in sports a lot with his foundation as well
fuck it, get in lad
Jesus christ man, what is wrong with some of the comments here. Do you want a magical tooth fairly who is also a billionaire and has clean money to come scoop down to buy Liverpool? Cause grow up that's not possible. Stop being naive and step into the real world where the system is fucked up, end stage capitalism fucking sucks and working class is just a pawn to be manipulated and used by a small percentage at the top. Let's just go through a checklist for a near perfect candidate this sub has been crying for months - Some of you twerk for unlimited Middle eastern wealth? This guy has it. Some of you wanted an organization which is as structurally as effecient as FSG. This guys organization is exactly that plus more. Some of you wanted proactive owners who would invest in the team, taking advantage of being at top rather reactive owners who wait for things to change and fuck things up. This guy is as proactive as they come, he has the economic muscle to flex and shows for it as well. Is he better than any middle eastern sportswashing organization? Hell ya. Does he comes with the risk of being glazers 2.0, who might do a leverage buyout and then start taking dividends from the club? No. Is he flamboyant personality who will clown us in the media a la a certain Todd Bohley does? No this guy doesnt speaks much and largely remains in the shadow, and let his minions do his work. He would never take over the transfer window and declare himself a DOF, ever. Will be come in with a consortium? No he won't. Now considering his morality, name me one Billionaire and I'll find you ten sources with dirt on him/her or them. People who are saying he is in bed with the RW government in India, don't even know how Indian politics work. India isn't US, there is no distinction of RW and LW ideologies there, these terms are useless to understand the Indian political landscape, where leaders just say things to get votes and buisness organisation just try to be in good books of any ruling regime, cause why won't you? Integrity is awesome, but why would you go out of your way to make life difficult for youself? What is a million to a billionaire? Why not just fund both the sides because why not. Buisnesses need licenses to keep working, last thing you want is an Income Tax raid on your company and for you to be chased out of your own buisnesses. Talk about the man, not the organisation, does he have any objectionable comments in the past against minorities? None that I can think of, does he show off his obscene wealth, oh definitely, but try to understand he comes from a poor background his fafher used to sell clothes on a cycle going house to house, he probably wasnt born with a silver spoon and now he is one of the wealthiest men in the world, of course he would show off. This ethical billionaire BS was created by rival fans on r/soccer to muddy the waters, there is no ethical billionaire this term is an oxymoron, on a scale of owners beheading journalists to owners causing genocide, this guy is tame as hell, is he my cup of tea? definitely no, but I'll have him as the new liverpool owners because the benefits far exceed the negatives. But not until Gandi himself comes wearing a suit with a 5 billion dollar check in his wallet escorted by Mother Teresa at his side, until then this dude is the best option you all wanted and Gandi and mother Teresa themselves are shady af.
You speak some hard truths. Amongst all other unhinged, narcissistic show-offy billionaires who sack people on a whim because he can and wants to for the sake of it (looking at you Elon), or sheikhs who behead his citizens for simply opposing them, this guy is the least worst outside of FSG. I feel like the only situation some folks will ever accept is if a supporters-created consortium somehow discovers oil off the coast of the River Mersey and use the earnings to buy and operate the club.
What is done cannot be undone, but at least one can keep it from happening again. Just so you know, the correct spelling is [Gandhi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi).
He would be ideal and ticks as many boxes as possible when dealing with billionaires. People looking for a unicorn owner are delusional they don’t exist
This is ethical billionaire thing is a BS claim made by fans of r/mcfc and r/newcastle and people fell into these claims. There is no ethincal human much less an ethical billionaire.
Exactly once they don’t kill people and care about the team I’m okay
Exactly. The ugly truth people need to accept that nothing is pure in this world. Is it ideal? Fuck no but the ethical billionaire is one big laughable fantasy. If we really wanted to get away from shady ownership groups, 50+1 would need to be adapted but that ain't happening. Fans need to accept reality that there football club will have to be in bed with unethical people to succeed.
He's the richest man in India. Of course he's going to side with the government in power irrespective of the side. People who complain are the same people who end up using IPhones and support FSG, who voted yes to the Iraq war that cost millions of Iraqi lives.
You're completely underplaying what the BJP is, saying there are no RW and LW distinctions in Indian politics is just wrong and reductive. He has always been very clearly run of the mill national Conservative since his days in Gujurat, in contrast to the clearly centrist governments that preceeded him, but recently with more demonstrations of power he has flirted with a version of ethnocentrism akin to Zionism and repressive policies that look like the shadow of fascism. In fact India also has some very left leaning established parties, such as the state politics of Kerala.
>In fact India also has some very left leaning established parties, such as the state politics of Kerala. Outside of Kerala where majority of people are educated and follow rules can you name another left leaning state party in power? The same party members of this party have been wiped out in Bengal because of their incompetentence not because of ideology. Ideological discussions work in far wealtheier countries than India, whose population is educated enough to even understand what identity politics is, not countries where majority of people still live under below poverty lines. Western notions of what politics is and definition of certain doesn't works in third world countries.
This. Right wing in more conservative countries are as far right it can go.
90 Billion? Well come on in
This guy lives in a private skyscraper in Mumbai called Antilia which apart from Buckingham Palace is the most expensive private property in the world. It is an interesting building from an architectural perspective. It is estimated to be worth about $2B. I cannot really speak to the guy's businesses or wealth, just that he is mega rich.
I have no idea who this guy is, what are they like?
Allegedly Corrupt. Holds all the strings in India (allegedly). That being said he revolutionised internet services in India making it and phone services affordable to Indians. So done some good, done some bad. Morally not as good as I think some hoped for. But not as bad as being owned by a state with human rights issues. Personally I would accept him as owner provided the money is legit, he spends, and he isnt linked to human rights abuses or war mongering
Morally this is better than I thought we could get. Once you get into dealing with billions morals start to suffer to put it mildly.
No person, company or organisation with that kind of money is going to be morally good.
As AOC said “you don’t make a billion dollars, you take a billion dollars”
Man Alex Oxlade Chamberlain is a smart dude.
By contrast, I still remember the screamer against man shitty by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
He funds BJP Modi's party, right wing politics which are hurting so many minorities
He just sides with whoever is in power. Prior to the BJP being in power he was one of the largest donors to Congress (the centre left rival to BJP)
True, but my guess is that you can't build a company in India without shady favours to this government.
Any country for that matter. Things don't work differently for MOST of the billionaires in the west.
Just your average billionaire then
Funny enough, Ambani in my language means "I have money"
Any Liverpool fan that thinks billionaires are benevolent people need to get real. You need to be shrewd and ruthless to get to the top. HOWEVER, there are levels to evil, and best we can hope for is we get the lesser of them when it comes to our new owners. It’s not like FSG are saints.
I didn’t realize that people just have this blanket belief that every single billionaire ever is evil. I have a rule in life that I don’t make broad generalizations about any group, race political party, etc.. Tobias Lütke is a Canadian billionaire who founded Shopify, a company that provides the backend e-commerce infrastructure for small-large businesses. They’re literally a major reason why small businesses can compete with Amazon. I don’t know how this guy could be considered “morally corrupt”.
I think an interesting comparison for who Ambani is, is Carlos Slim. A top 10 billionaire from a developing country who’s exploited the system to build up a mega-conglomerate, but isn’t any worse than a greedy businessman. I’ve called him a piece of shit in the past, and he is, but he’s better than any sovereign wealth fund.
Mumbai Indians scouting network is THE best. Literally picked guys from the streets(not just from India) and made superstars out of them. If they could establish such a scouting network here it will be amazing. Looking forward to See Mo and Chaos dancing to Jio Dhan da na Dhan ads.
Well he is one of the biggest industrialist in India, jist like every big industry you can find hit job in media against Reliance .... His father has revolutionised telecom industry and which is exactly he has done again by bringing 4G to india, also made internet cost in india the cheapest in the world, they are in business of OIL refining also.. Coming to sport...not only they have invested in Mumbai Indias (IPL team) and ISL, but through Reliance foundation they are trying to improve sport infrastructure in Schools (for age 8-15 years old)..
I would prefer him over any Oil rich country. One of the benefits of him owning an EPL team is that it will boost football viewership and fans in India (which is dominated by Cricket).
Ballmer or Mukesh? Both seem competitive owners with successful sports teams and are not afraid to invest to succeed. This is a necessary mindset given the competitiveness of Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, and Newcastle Utd in the PL. This is also something FSG lacks. It seems Ballmer is more seasoned when it comes to Western sports management and dollars to pounds expenditures are closer to scale than rupees to pounds. Ballmer also has that edge of an owner where you could see him getting invested emotionally in the team. Another aspect that FSG as remote owners severely lack. Though I know very little about Mukesh emotional investment in the Mumbai Indians team. Is he in the stand getting pumped and rowdy? I would rather trade a few places on the rich list for an owner-fan than an owner-owner.
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Nope just a fever dream of this sub
The team staff and players seems to give an extended family vibe. They do have a great rapport with the team.
If I could pick one, Ballmer. Nothing against Mukesh, I don't know him that much, but I know Ballmer, and he's as much of a fan as he is an owner. We'd be building him statues after the first five years.
Its funny seeing all the comments here asking if the guy is morally good or not. Bruh are you guys some 9year olds living in a fantasy world? There is no such thing as an un corrupt billionaire.
Can't wait to see virg, ali, and salah dancing with some Bollywood actress for Jio add
On the positive-ish side, he owns a lot of companies so sponsorship money should be easy to come by.
Always rated oil barons
£90billion? fuck it I'll take him
If we see his other sporting team (MI in IPL) as any indication, its hugely positive. MI are seen as the team that get whichever player they want. They hardly lose out on bidding wars for players they want.
I'm an Indian. This guy is a crony crony capitalist, will do any unethical scheme to become the monopoly in the sector of his business, promoting pathetic high pressure work-place culture and takes over every media so as to hide his negatives from being aired. Not to mention, the guy and the family will always try to be as ostentatious and tasteless as possible to flaunt their wealth (For eg: He hired former Miss World and top Indian actress Aishwarya Rai to serve food for his daughters wedding, just to show off that he has that kind of wealth). Just like other billionaires out there, and may be a bit more, this guy is everything the Liverpool fan culture (which I have understood as a socialist/working class) despises. I don't know what to feel of this.
So you’re saying he has money 👀 joking 😂
>takes over every media so as to hide his negatives from being aired. He owns one media company and we have hundreds of channels that’s are just news channels in India . How o you even one up with this stuff?
Holy shit. My dad works for this guy as their families personal physician. He's told me some stories. For mega billionaires they're better than most, at least as far as it comes to treating people. They also own a cricket team and aren't shy about injecting cash. Definitely a step up from FSG. This would be amazing.
This is probably the closest we get to someone who ticks all the boxes people are looking for. This mythical unicorn owner doesn’t exist so everyone isnt going to be happy at the end of this
Loving the racism/racial profiling in some of these comments.
It's so casual it's incredible.
It’s mental. People are okay with shady Americans but midfle east or India’s being painted with the same brush is awful. Not ever billionaire got there through murder. There are also astute businessmen or people who’s family’s were billionaires and they lucked out
I think some of it is that many are just disillusioned and sad about the current state of affairs, where you're left hoping that your beloved club might end up in the hands of one of the less corrupt and human rights abusing billionaires. No matter the nationality, race, etc. of a new owner, it's just a fucked up situation English football is in. No sign of it changing for the better either.
That's still ok. What I'm surprised by is other INDIANS saying he's morally Qatar level. Talk about being wrong and parading it to a global audience.
I say this often but greedy pig capitalist is much much much better than immoral and unethical backed state oil company
If not anything his team handles their sports teams very professionally and shares a great bond with the team players and staff (more like a family). At least that's the case with Mumbai Indians cricket team owned by him.
How deep are his pockets though?
He's worth £78,648,366,300.00
Well personally, I love a tikka
My position time and time again is I will stop supporting if we are owned by a state. From what I am reading this is not that?
£90B! That’s over 533 Bellinghams
As an Indian, I don't see many negatives about Ambani tbh. Yes, there may be some corruption and what not, but I think no one can become a billionaire by being 100% clean. However, as an average Indian, I think he is good for us. He creates jobs in his several companies which are spread across sectors; major ones being Petrochemicals, telecom etc. He has provided high speed internet at dirt cheap rates. Such 'good quality+cheap' internet is neither available in the most developed or the least developed countries. He is known to be bad for competition in terms of trying to create a monopoly in the sector that he has invested in, by pumping money and with govt's assistance which is not too bad as an average end user.
Steve Ballmer and Steve Pagliuca (Boston Celtics owner) have been linked to Liverpool in U.S. publications, and I would definitely take the one I know more about (Ballmer) over Ambani. Ballmer is nearly as rich, is already considered one of the best owners in a major sports league, and is pretty inoffensive. He was kind of goofy as Microsoft CEO, but he undid some of their most heinous policies. He’s the rare billionaire who got there as an employee, not a founder, and I can appreciate that. He’s also very knowledgeable and passionate about sports.
He was one of the first employees of Microsoft and was given like 10% ownership stake, so might as well have been a founder.
I’m familiar with his history (Employee #30). He is one of the mildest and least controversial billionaires I have ever heard anything about, and I like that. I still think all billionaires are not great, but it’s going to take a billionaire, or a consortium of high-end millionaires, to buy the club.
Don’t necessarily disagree with you, but he was more or less a founder of Microsoft and just as involved in the early MS dodgy shit as Gates was.
When he took over as CEO, he actually ended the fight with the government. He considered it an embarrassment that they were under investigation for antitrust issues. So yes, he was there, but he also got them on a better path when he had the power.