Soccer: Gaydamak following in Roman's footsteps

In a curious 2006 transfer window, where most Premiership teams are wistfully pondering the vanishing vapour trail of jetset leaders Chelsea, the strangest 'signing' involves a co-chairman rather than a player.

While much of this month's buying of players is from clubs like Manchester United looking ahead to next season rather than trying to rein in Chelsea this year, Portsmouth have set tongues wagging because of Alexandre Gaydamak, son of Russian millionaire Arkady Gaydamak, buying a 50 per cent stake in the club for a reported £15m ($38.3m). While Alexandre has done the buying, it's believed that he's a front for his father who has a mysterious past and similarly mysterious present.

His father is a Russian-born oligarch and multimillionaire businessman with French, Israeli, Russian, Canadian and Angolan passports. Arkady Gaydamak, 53, made his fortune initially in France, where he arrived as an apparently penniless and, according to one account, illegal, immigrant in 1972. Within a few years, he had built a huge fortune and established connections with the French political and financial elite and at least one part of the French security services. An Israeli rich list suggests he is worth around US$800m.

Since the year 2000, he has been refusing to respond to an international arrest warrant issued by a French investigating magistrate. The French authorities want to question Gaydamak Snr for his alleged part in a UN-sanctions-busting US$633m arms sale to Angola in 1994, brokered by his sometime associate, the Franco-Brazilian businessman Pierre Falcone. Gaydamak has denied any wrongdoing in the Angolan arms affair, which also involves Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of the former French president.

Since the Angolan affair broke, he has been the object of a war of words in the French press. Gaydamak angrily denied allegations, based on internal memos by French security services sent to an investigating judge, that he had connections with the Russian Mafia. He began defamation proceedings against the Le Monde newspaper and the security services involved.

Other accounts describe him as a friend and benefactor of France. He was awarded a medal, 'L'Ordre National du Merite,' by President Jacques Chirac in 1996 for his part in brokering the release of two French pilots captured by Serbian forces during the Yugoslav civil war. This is not his only French honour. He is also a 'Chevalier de l'ordre du merite agricole', for his part in French food exports to Russia.

Since the Angolan arms affair broke, Gaydamak Snr has stayed away from France, apparently dividing his time between Tel Aviv and Moscow. Gaydamak emigrated from the Soviet Union to Israel in his teens but soon moved on to France.

Little is known about his early life, though according to one account he once had a job with the Moscow State Circus, feeding the animals. He arrived in France at the age of 20 in November 1972. He began a small translation company, which rapidly became an international trade-brokering organisation, with business in Russia, Angola, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Britain.

Responding to questions about his rapid success, he told an Israeli newspaper in December 2000: "A Jew and a Russian who succeeds in business always attracts the attention of the media and the authorities, who assume he must be linked to the Mafia or the KGB." Famously shy of publicity, Gaydamak's Russian and Jewish origins are something of which he says he is intensely proud.

He spends much of his time back in Moscow where he owns a lavish apartment in the centre of town filled with 19th-century furniture. Last year he decided to raise his profile in Russia by becoming the proprietor of one of the country's most famous newspapers, Moskovskie Novosti. His purchase was controversial because he immediately announced plans to turn the weekly into a pro-government publication.

"Newspapers responsible for public opinion should not direct the public against the powers that be," he said. "If the political and administrative structures in Russia are organised by people elected in free, democratic elections, it's not right to turn public opinion against them."

The precise nature of his Russian business empire is unclear but he is reported to control a network of interests, including a medium-sized bank and a brokerage company. He says he knows Roman Abramovich but has rejected any comparisons.

The family are already involved in football, having recently bought the Israeli club Beitar Jerusalem - although their behaviour at the club may not bode well for Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp.

Two coaches were sacked in the first two months, with one told he had to go because he was too outspoken and stealing the limelight from the owner. The former French international Luis Fernandez is currently in charge.

Portsmouth, however, stressed that there was "no question" of Redknapp's position at Fratton Park being under threat.

It is understood that substantial funds have been promised to improve the team. Redknapp will want to know whether these extra funds will be available to him for the January transfer window. He has already sold French winger Laurent Robert to Benfica and signed Polish international striker Emmanuel Olisadebe on loan from Panathinaikos.

Milan Mandaric, who has solely owned Portsmouth since 1999, will carry on for now, although sources believe that he will eventually sell the rest of his holding if the club remain in the Premiership and the Gaydamaks want to push through with a full takeover.

- INDEPENDENT