By Will Smale
BBC News Online business reporter |
 Colonel Gaddafi is looking to rehabilitate himself internationally |
In an age when the success of a football club is increasingly connected to its wealth, many soccer fans dream of a super-rich sponsor taking over their team. Someone like Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, able to spend many millions on the world's best players.
Yet would any supporter be so keen if the prospective wealthy buyer was Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi?
That is the current dilemma facing fans of south London club Crystal Palace, newly promoted to the English Premiership.
For as bizarre as it seems, Colonel Gaddafi is reported to be considering a bid for the club and Palace has publicly stated that it would have to consider any approach.
Palace supporters are up in arms at the prospect, despite the fact that Tony Blair has welcomed Colonel Gaddafi and Libya back into the international fold, saying the leader has apologised for his previous actions and all should be forgiven.
A great many of the fans have come forward to voice their steadfast opposition, remembering the 1988 destruction of a Pan Am plane over Lockerbie.
They say they do not want Colonel Gaddafi's 'blood money'.
Unlimited funds
If Colonel Gaddafi were to pursue an investment in Crystal Palace, it would not be the Libyan leader's first foray into European football.
The state-owned Libya Arab Foreign Investment Company (Lafico) has already invested about �14m in Italian football giant Juventus after buying a 5.3% stake in the Turin-based club. Colonel Gaddafi's son Al Saadi plays for Perugia.
Pushing ethical difficulties aside, just how much could Libya's interest be worth to Crystal Palace?
 |  Crystal Palace could certainly get a very major cash injection from Colonel Gaddafi, but would I be happy if I was a fan of the club? I don't think so |
Many, many millions is the short answer, thanks to a great deal of oil.
According to the latest available industry figures from oil giant BP, Libya has proven oil reserves of 36 billion barrels, more than the US's 30.7 billion, and the most in Africa.
At current oil prices that means Libya is sitting on almost $1.5 trillion (�801bn) worth of oil. Enough to buy Crystal Palace rather a lot of David Beckhams and Wayne Rooneys.
The only catch is that Palace would probably have to wait a few years before the cash started to flow freely because after 20 years of US and UN sanctions Libya is having to rebuild its oil infrastructure.
Yet with the sanctions now lifted and Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell leading the rush of foreign investment back into Libya, this shouldn't take more than a few years.
Open to negotiation
Bruce Evers, an oil analyst at Investec Bank, said Colonel Gaddafi could transform Palace.
"Gaddafi has absolutely more than enough money to buy a football club and a lot of football players, especially with oil prices at today's highs and the Libyan oil company being state-owned," said Mr Evers.
"Crystal Palace could certainly get a very major cash injection, but would I be happy if I was a fan of the club? I don't think so."
A spokesman for Crystal Palace told BBC News Online on Monday that the situation surrounding Colonel Gaddafi remained the same.
"As our chairman said at the weekend, we would consider any approach. But as of this point none has been made and there is no further information," he said.
Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan was quoted as saying he had "been told that Gaddafi and his son are interested in acquiring Palace" in a report in the Guardian newspaper.
Vanity project
The other side of the argument is not what Colonel Gaddafi can do for Crystal Palace, but what the club, which is said to be some �30m in debt, can do for him.
Not a great deal financially according to analyst David Pope of Brewin Dolphin Securities.
 Would Palace players celebrate having Gaddafi as chairman? |
"To make a commercial gain from a football club in this day and age you need not just a national reach, but a global one, like clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool," said Mr Pope.
"Crystal Palace's reach is currently more south London.
"With the right commercial management team you can make a small return on a domestic level, but unfortunately too often people who get involved in football clubs don't make decisions for commercial reasons, rather sporting reasons. A vanity reason is another factor."
Why Colonel Gaddafi is interested in buying Crystal Palace - assuming, that is, the reports are true - may seem unclear, but bizarre things do happen in football.
Go back a few seasons and what Chelsea fan would ever have dreamt that their club would have been taken over by a super-rich Russian oil tycoon?
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