Ex-QPR proprietor Tony Fernandes has purchased a 40 per cent stake in Dagenham and Redbridge, talkSPORT understands.
Fernandes, who was a shareholder at QPR between 2011 and 2023, is about to affix influencer KSI in investing in the sixth-tier Daggers.
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Last month, streamer-turned-boxer KSI made the headlines when it was introduced he had purchased a minority stake in the Daggers.
It is known that the web star owns in the area of 20 per cent of the club.
The takeover has drawn lots of consideration, not least after KSI declared his aim to take the National League South aspect to the Premier League.
And he might now have simply the person to assist him obtain his dream, with Fernandes boasting lots of expertise in this subject.
Who is Tony Fernandes?
Malaysian businessman Fernandes purchased QPR in 2011, simply three months after they’d secured promotion to the Premier League.
He turned co-chairman with majority shareholder Ruben Gnanalingam in 2015, earlier than stepping down from the role in 2018.
During Fernandes’ time as chairman, the Rs have been twice relegated from the Premier League, regardless of avoiding the drop in his first season.
After dropping all the way down to the Championship in 2013, they gained promotion again to the top-flight on the first try a yr later, however suffered one other relegation in the 2015/16 marketing campaign.
Fernandes’ spell additionally proved controversial, with QPR fined £17million in 2018 as half of a £42m settlement for breaching Financial Fair Play guidelines.
He stepped away from the club altogether in 2023, promoting his total shareholding to give attention to different enterprise ventures.
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The businessman is the founder of Malaysian finances airline AirAsia, and nonetheless holds the place of CEO.
Exciting instances
Fernandes seems to be the most recent high-profile determine to speculate in Dagenham and Redbridge, in an thrilling interval for the club.
The east London aspect have seen their possession group overhauled over current months.
Last month, US-based funding consortium Happy Fan Group purchased the club, with former captain Anwar Uddin taking on as chairman.
KSI’s arrival is the group’s greatest most transfer but, which got here simply days after former Premier League and England striker Andy Carroll turned a shareholder.
There was extra shock information in retailer, as Carroll was then placed in interim charge of the Daggers following Lee Bradbury’s sacking.
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With a brand new period simply starting at Victoria Road, there isn’t a scarcity of ambition from their new minority stakeholder.
After being unveiled as an investor, KSI boldly declared his long-term imaginative and prescient to take the club to the very prime.
Outlining his targets, he mentioned: “I need the place to be pumping, I need it to be rocking, I need it to be an occasion everytime you come right here.
“Playing a online game and proudly owning a soccer club may be very completely different, I do know that, however with Race to Division One (his FIFA YouTube collection), it was a journey. It was exhausting, however in the top, I did it.
“With this club, I need to do the unthinkable. I need to take Dagenham and Redbridge to the Premier League.
“It’s clearly going to take time, however I’d say the lifelike aim is getting out of this league and coming into the National League.”
