Zabeel deal off It is true that in my time I have woken up to some horrors in the morning but stretching out like a saddo for my Blackberry at 6.15am local time I had an even worse one to add to my list. Just 12 minutes earlier a dreaded 'cafcnews Newsflash' told us the bad news:

"The board of Charlton Athletic plc was informed by Zabeel Investments on Thursday that it will not be proceeding with the proposed acquisition of Charlton Athletic plc.

Zabeel Investments has informed Charlton that the decision not to proceed was taken on the basis that its focus moving forward will be on domestic opportunities in Dubai that complement the current Zabeel Investments portfolio.

This, combined with the current debate around foreign ownership of football clubs and the worsening economic climate in the UK, contributed to the decision by Zabeel to pull out.

Furthermore, Zabeel Investments has made it clear to Charlton that this decision was not made as a result of any discoveries during the due diligence process." (more)

I'm truly not surprised, rarely does anything ever good happen when you support Charlton and since Friday 10th, I've tried desperately hard to be guarded in my reaction to Zabeel's "indicative offer."

However I find it a little odd that Zabeel have pulled out following a clear due diligence citing the global economic situation and the debate on foreign ownership. This has hardly changed in the past 2 weeks, although as I said on here recently I think Dubai is an accident waiting to happen, and this was highlighted in a recent FT report.

It is also true to say that Zabeel have recently been adding quite a lot of foreign investment to their portfolio, I just bloody hope they don't bugger off to another club with their dishdashah's and broken promises because that would be heart breaking.

Without trying to state the bleedin' obvious, this morning's news is a huge blow for the club and Addicks everywhere, we are all gravely in need of a lift. Nevertheless, financially the club is in no different a situation than it was 2 weeks ago and the prudent paying down of short-term debt by the existing directors will mean that other clubs will sadly be ahead of us in the queue for administration. Watch that happen because it ain't going to be pretty.

And you know what? I will be there on Saturday week as will thousands Saturday at home to Burnley who supported this club when it was shit. If the moaners and glory seekers bugger off somewhere else, well then perhaps we can get back to supporting the team, because they sure need it.  ¶ 07:45