How the Wolves fell to the lower divisions and almost vanished – Part 5: Everything is good on the field.
The Express & Star provides a more comprehensive account of the Bhatti brothers’ turbulent period, during which Wolves faced financial ruin and relegation to the lower leagues. In Part 5, everything is going well on the field, but chaos is brewing behind the scenes and is ready to explode.
Given Wolves’ explosive start to the 1982–1983 season, it made sense that supporters were uninterested in the goings-on behind the scenes. Besides, it was understandable that supporters would want to concentrate on the game of football after months of drama, intrigue, and boardroom coups.
Even though “the Doog” was the well-liked public face of the new broom—he attended the season’s opening game on the terraces—there were still unanswered concerns regarding the true ownership of the team.
All the talk about Dougan’s backers during the takeover process was evasive, usually referring to a “Manchester-based consortium”. Douglas ‘Dougie’ Hope, a 37-year-old Scottish real estate developer who would go on to become the vice-chairman of the club, would frequently stand beside Dougan.
At the age of 19, Hope relocated to Wolverhampton in order to start working as a sales representative. As a young man, he used to admire the Doog’s abilities from the terraces at Molineux. Hope would grow to be Dougan’s devoted lieutenant and the two would become close friends. However, despite Hope’s business success, it was clear that without outside support, neither he nor Dougan would have had the resources to take over the club. Additionally, reporters encountered stony silence whenever they inquired about their “friends in the North.”
Rumors began to circulate that the mysterious backers were the enormous Co-operative Wholesale Society, which had its headquarters in Manchester. Dougan and Hope had discussed the possibility of developing a supermarket or recreational facility on club property, so it was understandable why they might have reached that conclusion.
But over time, it became clear that the Manchester connection was made possible by a transportable structure outside of Manchester Airport, rather than the opulent headquarters of a long-standing retail conglomerate.
Reporter Derek Tucker of Express & Star conducted an investigation and found that Allied Properties, a UK subsidiary of a larger Swiss-based company, was the source of the funds used to purchase Wolves.
Allied was registered with Companies House as a “land trafficking” company with “substantial interests in the Middle East,” and its registered office was located in the Royal Exchange buildings in Manchester.
Among the company’s four directors were Arab commodity dealers Mahmud Bhatti and Mohammed Akbar Bhatti, who were identified as ‘non-British residents with business addresses in Manchester’; Wilbur J. Smith Jr., an American financier with an office in London’s West End; and 40-year-old Stockport-born chartered surveyor Mike Rowland. The Bhattis each held one share of Allied’s fifty thousand shares, while the Swiss holding company Al Akbar Investments and Trust held the remaining forty-nine thousand shares. In addition, the Bhatti family served as directors of Allied Arabian Mineral Resources and Allied Arabian Trading Company.
The men from Allied Properties were satisfied with the potential of the ground and went to one of the four major banks (they thought it was NatWest) to arrange financing.
According to Rowland, the bid nearly fell through at the last minute because a deal that was being worked out to raise the money did not work out in time. After frantic negotiations with Allied’s parent company in Switzerland, the necessary funds were provided by a two-year loan.
At one point, Rowland had to move quickly to meet the receiver’s demand for the sale of one of his company’s other UK assets. This could have been seen, with the benefit of hindsight, as an indication that the deal was being put together cheaply. However, it didn’t seem like the right moment to look a gift horse in the mouth when Wolves was saved with three minutes remaining.
According to Rowland, the new group leading the club was not the typical “cigar smoking set of directors”.
Derek will manage the football team, but we are thrilled about the possibilities of growing Wolves,” he remarked.
Derek will manage the football team, but we are thrilled about the possibilities of growing Wolves,” he remarked.
We have a fantastic stand at Molineux, and one of our ideas is to use the space as an exhibition space.
“A community’s heart is a football team. Although it’s a highly sentimental matter, we think we can pull it off.”
