Sheffield United owner, a Saudi prince, says he'd do business with Bin Laden family
Abdullah bin Mosaad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, a Saudi prince who recently took full control of Premier League club Sheffield United, says he would have no issue doing business with Osama bin Laden’s family.
After their partnership broke down, Prince Abdullah won full ownership of the team this week in court over former co-owner Kevin McCabe. The judge ordered McCabe to sell his 50 percent share of the club to the prince for 5 million pounds (about $6 million), according to ESPN.
In a news conference Thursday, Prince Abdullah spoke on his plans for the team and on his ties to a member of the bin Laden family who had previously expressed interested in investing in the team.
"Every family may have one bad person but they are a very respectable family," Bin Mosaad said at Bramall Lane, the team's home field. "I have not done business with them in the past but I will be very happy to do business with them. The Bin Laden family is not a disgraced name or something that I should hide."
"When I see the Bin Laden family as a dirty name," he added, "I get really offended."
Prince Abdullah, however, reportedly already did business with the family last spring.
When he and McCabe were engaged in the court battle, local Sheffield news outlet The Star reported that during the fourth day of testimony, it was revealed that the prince obtained a loan of 3 million pounds (about $3.8 million) for the club that came from the bin Laden family.
McCabe claimed he didn’t know where the loan came from at the time, but was linked to emails that appeared to show otherwise. In one email between McCabe and Jeremy Tutton, a Sheffield United director, Tutton wrote that he would hate to see a headline saying “Blades launder money for extremists.”
The two owners began their fight after putting up competing takeover bids in 2017. Their time in court lasted multiple weeks, according to The Star. McCabe is now reportedly refusing to give up his shares of the team until an October trial over the terms of the transfer takes place.
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