Santander owner Ahsan Ali Syed blasts critics

Sitting in the stands wearing a green-and-white scarf and watching his team play on the field below - it's just what Racing Santander owner Ahsan Ali Syed had always wanted.

Knowing when to cheer should be next on his list.

The Indian businessman bought the troubled Spanish football team in January, despite lacking a background in the sport, and essentially saved the 98-year-old club by paying off debts that had threatened to place it into administration. But just as fans rejoiced in their good fortune, reports began to emerge alleging that the Bahrain-based entrepreneur could be swindling people in shady business deals.

Deep pockets, however, will certainly keep the owner well-liked by the fans of a club that is still waiting for its first Spanish league title.

''Right now I want to take one step at a time,'' Ali Syed told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his office in Bahrain. ''I'm not a magician.''

Nonetheless, the club's results have already improved since Ali Syed took charge. Racing moved up to 14th place in the league, four points above the relegation zone, and has lost only to Real Madrid in the last eight weeks.

''It feels amazing,'' said Ali Syed, who tried to buy English club Blackburn last year. ''It was always my dream to own a football team.''

He can be a bit of nightmare to some of his Spanish league counterparts, however.

Club owners customarily sit next to each other at matches and show dignified understanding of the game through polite conversation rather than effusive celebrations. But when Racing beat Sevilla 3-2, Ali Syed jumped up and down, raised his arms and slapped five with those around him - all with an embarrassed-looking Jose Maria del Nido sitting next to him.

Ali Syed later apologized on TV, saying he was ''a humble man'' who had not wanted to offend the Sevilla president but felt it was natural for a fan to celebrate good goals.

Cantabria regional government president Miguel Angel Revilla also noted something was amiss after watching matches with the new owner.

''I sit next to him in the stands and crack up with laughter,'' Revilla said. ''When a defender passes the ball back to the keeper, even when it isn't a save, he claps like a madman.''

Ali Syed, who travels in a seven-car motorcade surrounded by advisers and bodyguards, says he intends to secure the club's future by developing a sustainable plan. Since he took over two months ago, the Hyderabad-born businessman has paid off a ?2 million ($2.7 million) debt to keep Racing from going into administration and agreed with Cantabria province finance minister Angel Agudo to pay ?13 million ($17.8 million) the club owed to the Spanish treasury ''in successive installments over the next 18 months.''

As far as team personnel, he signed Giovanni dos Santos on loan from Tottenham and hired coach Marcelino Garcia Toral. He said there hadn't been enough time for other deals because the transfer window closed only two days after he took over.

His next goal is to make Racing - which he pronounced the English way, rather than the Spanish ''rah-THING'' - a well known brand in India and the Middle East, hoping ''to see at least 10 percent of India's fan following diverted towards Racing.''

But despite apparently helping Racing secure its future in Spanish football, foreign media reports allege Ali Syed operated financial scams in Australia and Malaysia, defrauding people of $100 million.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Ali Syed ''duped victims into paying millions of dollars to obtain loans that never happen,'' and others have referred to him as ''the Bernie Madoff of India.''

''Let me be very open and honest,'' Ali Syed told the AP. ''They have alleged that I have done a fraud of 100 million. I don't know from where they have got this figure.

''If I have done something legally wrong, challenge me legally,'' Ali Syed added. ''Take legal proceedings against me.''

Australian media was not the first to delve into the 37-year-old Ali Syed's opaque financial dealings. After his attempt to purchase Blackburn, the BBC reported that the Western Gulf Advisory owner left a trail of unpaid debt in the UK.

Initially, WGA spokeswoman Julia Thiem said the investigation would not affect the purchase of the Premier League club because the deal would instead be channeled through one of Ali Syed's European holdings. But it eventually fell through and Blackburn was bought in November by the Rao family - also from India - for 46 million pounds (then $73 million).

''For various reasons I withdrew my interest in Blackburn,'' Ali Syed said. ''When the time comes I will come forward with the various reasons why I have withdrawn my interest in Blackburn.''

But he also tried to distance himself from any impropriety by saying that it wasn't easy to cheat clients because of the strict business laws in Bahrain, where the WGA is based.

''The legal methodology and legal system is something else in the Middle East,'' he said. ''It is a good place only for people who are honest.''

Revilla, the regional president of Cantabria, which oversees matters for the city of Santander and its football club, said he commissioned auditors Deloitte and Swiss bank Credit Suisse to report on Ali Syed's financial liquidity.

''They confirmed that his company had made ?124 million profits the previous year,'' Revilla said, adding that to him Ali Syed ''didn't look like a swindler.''

Regardless of the owner's past, the fans will only be interested in their club. And Ali Syed is complying, so far.

''My plan right now is to focus on the current team,'' Ali Syed said. ''To improvise with every game, to maintain the La Liga status and in years to come to make Racing a well-recognized team in the world of football.''