The ownership of Charlton took a fresh twist on Wednesday after it emerged Tahnoon Nimer has explored options to sell the club before his takeover has been fully ratified by the EFL.
East Street Investments announced in January that it had completed a deal with controversial owner Roland Duchatelet after several consortiums had spent months in negotiations.
Syrian businessman Nimer and Jonathan Heller, the chairman and chief executive of Abu Dhabi Business Development, joined Charlton’s board of directors with former football agent Matt Southall named chairman as they acquired control of the club for £1, with an obligation to buy the stadium and training ground freehold for £50million within the next five years.
However, relations have soured with Southall and Heller last week removed, and amid accusations posted by Nimer on social media that Southall misused club funds, including a £12,566-a-month apartment in Southall's name.
Southall denies any claims of wrongdoing and argues that Nimer failed to invest “a single penny of the promised funds” with the club under a transfer embargo for failing to show how they will be funded beyond June 2021. And Standard Sport can reveal Nimer is ready to consider walking away having held preliminary talks over the past few days to sell the club.
Nimer’s lawyer, Chris Farnell, denied any suggestion his client was interested in selling when contacted by this newspaper, but it is understood there is at least one “substantial” interested party, while another ended negotiations due to the complexity of the deal.
Nimer is looking for at least £2m to exit — one source close to the talks claimed he had asked for as much as £4m — representing a huge profit on the £1 he paid to acquire the club. However, any deal would have to include a commitment to the £50m payment owed to Duchatelet, while a further £7m is owed to several ex-directors should the club reach the Premier League. Nimer publicly insisted on Monday he would inject funds to safeguard the club’s future.
“I will never let them down,” he told Sky Sports. “We are ready to inject the money [since] day one [that] we arrived. If there is anything short-cut in the club we are going to support it."
