So, who is this guy who's taken over Blyth Spartans, then?

Irfan Liaquat has made quite a few claims over his previous business dealings, so why's it so difficult to find any proof of them?

There is a certain irony to the fact that the matter even came up at this of all times. On the 27th February 1978, Blyth Spartans fell in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup at home against Wrexham under highly controversial circumstances. Exactly 47 years to the day that this is published.

No non-league team had gone as far in the Cup as the quarter-finals since 1913, but Blyth were eliminated after a replay following a highly contentious late equaliser for Wrexham in the first match, when a corner was ordered to be retaken which allowed Wrexham to equalise and force the replay in the first place. Lincoln City finally ended that run when they beat Oldham, Ipswich, Brighton and Burnley—four EFL or Premier League clubs in a row—on the way to losing to Arsenal at The Emirates Stadium in the Sixth Round in 2017. Maidstone United finally more than met their match last night.

Seven years on, Lincoln City are a League One club. They reached as far as the League One play-off final in 2021, and are currently enjoying their best season since. But 46 years on from the close brush with FA Cup immortality (for what would have been 39 years), not much has changed for Blyth Spartans.

At the time of their famous FA Cup run, preparations were starting to be made that would change non-league football forever. The top clubs of the Northern Premier League and the Southern League, the two top semi-professional leagues of the time, were forming a new league called the Alliance Premier League, with the aim of forcing the envelope over automatic promotion and relegation with the Football League to replace the antiquated reelection system. In 1987, they got what they wanted.

In 1978, when all this was happening and Blyth Spartans were the most famous name in non-league football, Blyth were members of the Northern League rather than the Northern Premier League, so they were left out of those proceedings altogether. The Northern League had resisted the FA’s 1974 decision to end the distinction between amateur and professional players—a decision that came about in no small part over concerns about ‘shamateurism’, which had exploded in the national press in the mid-1960s—and didn’t become a part of the pyramid in 1991. It now exists at Steps 5 & 6, alongside the Southern Combination Football League and the like, as a feeder into the ‘Trident’ leagues.

By the time the actual pyramid came into the Northern League’s orbit, Blyth’s moment had passed. They appeared in the FA Cup First Round for the next four consecutive seasons after 1978, but it would be eleven years from 1982 before it would happen again.

They couldn’t make any inroads in the FA Trophy at that time, either. They made the quarter-finals in 1980, losing to Mossley. In 2011 they lost at the same stage to Gateshead. It remains the case that Blyth Spartans, a name synonymous with the FA Cup, have never played at Wembley. The closest they’ve ever come remains a 2-0 defeat to Enfield in the semi-finals of the 1972 FA Amateur Cup.

In the league, Blyth joined the Northern Premier League in 1995, but they’ve never played in the top division of the non-league game either. At the end of 2018/19 they finished 6th in the National League North, but were beaten on penalties in the quarter-finals by Altrincham They haven’t been anywhere near since.

The 2019/20 season was truncated by the pandemic with Blyth one place off the bottom of the table, but there was no relegation that season. The following season was ended early, with them having won 1 out of 14 league games at the point that it ended. The 2021/22 season saw them finish 19th, six points above the relegation places. And on the last day of last season they beat Hereford 5-0 to finish a point above the relegation places. This season has been a bit better, though these things are all relative. At the time of writing, they are in 16th place in the National League North.

There have been occasional gimpses of that FA Cup DNA. In 2008/09 they beat Shrewsbury Town and Bournemouth before losing 1-0 at home to Blackburn Rovers in the Third Round. In the 2014/15 season, they went all the way from the First Qualifying Round to the Third Round before losing 3-2 at home to Birmingham City. Perhaps those little flashes have been enough kindling to keep this club in the public consciousness. Perhaps it’s that distinctive name itself, or simply of good timing. After all, their run did occur in 1978, a year which is still well within the era when the FA Cup mattered in a way that would be considered inconceivable today.

But whatever. What matters about all of this is that Blyth Spartans are not ‘just a football club’, still less ‘just a business’. They are a piece of our shared cultural history. And this means that when it’s announced that the club is under new ownership, it’s worth looking closely.

At the end of last week, it was confirmed that the club had been sold to Irfan Liaquat. He has—stop me if you’ve heard this before—big ambitions for the club. The rumour on the grapevine is that the board agreed to write off £700,000 of debt and sell the club for £1, a figure valuing the club as effectively worthless.

So, who is the guy? What is his story? The club’s website describes him as a “Tyneside-based businessman, angel investor and philanthropist”, but what does any of this mean? There are no formal qualifications required describe oneself as a ‘businessman’, an ‘angel investor’, or a ‘philanthropist’. What’s the truth of these grandiose statements?

It is possible that his philanthropy is carried out well away from the spotlight. Some people prefer it that way (although we might be forgiven wondering why it was mentioned in the very first sentence of the club’s news article about the takeover, were this the case). The same could be said being being an “angel investor”, which business website The Hartford describes as:

Angel investors are wealthy private investors focused on financing small business ventures in exchange for equity. Unlike a venture capital firm that uses an investment fund, angels use their own net worth.

On the surface, this all sounds like very good news. But where has all this wealth come from? Because if it was made through his business dealings, you’d be expecting to see it reflected somewhere in the financial history of his companies somewhere, wouldn’t you?

That means it’s time to bore down into the history of his companies. To put it another way, it’s time to get BORING.

Mr Liaquat is listed at Companies House as being the director of eight companies. The first of these, City Blue Investments Ltd, was incorporated on the 7th October 2019 and dissolved on the 6th April 2021 without ever having apparently carried out any business.

The second of these businesses, the presumably ironically-named Million Dollar Listings Ltd, was incorporated on the 6th July 2018 and struck off the register, again without having carried out any business, on the 3rd July 2020, though they did change their registered address from their Newcastle address to a London address in 2019. Curiously, at the same time a request was made to change his name from ‘Mr Irfan Liaquat’ to ‘Mr Irfan Laiquat’. The London registered address is a sublet for a shared office space. At least, I presume it’s not the pharmacy that occupies the ground floor of the building.

The third company showing under that name is Newcastle Homes Ltd. They have, again, never filed any company accounts and a proposal to strike them from the register has been showing as suspended since 2021. A request to change the registered address was made at the start of 2020, from one Newcastle address to another; 3 Hartington Street. They have, you’ll unsurprised to hear, never filed any accounts.

Opposite this address are two adjacent properties listed together on TripAdvisor as being a short term let property, 2-4 Hartington Street. Next door to those is a lettings agency, F Naji Properties Ltd, who are based out of another address and who haven’t published any accounts since their incorporation at the end of 2013, even though they do seem to be trading. The F Naji is presumably Furhan Naji. Perhaps it is him about whom this coruscating review was left on TripAdvisor:

Just as we were about to leave for pre-booked plans, the owner called us to say that he had no record of our booking (despite us having received confirmation from booking agent and proof of payment and showing this to the host and being initially allowed to check in no questions) we were not allowed to stay.

They demanded duplicate payment (enquiries with the booking agent confirmed that payment had been sent to the accomodation a month earlier when the booking was made) and didnt offer us alternative room (despite rooms being available) unless full payment was made again (nearly £700!) Rather than allowing us time to seek to resolve with booking.com, they demanded we leave and threatened to call the police if we didnt.

The registered address for this company is 4 Hartington Street. He also uses 3 Hartington Street as the registered address for another limited company called United Homes (NE) Ltd, the same address as that given for Irfan Liaquat for Newcastle Homes Ltd. Mr Naji was also a director of United Homes (NE) Ltd, now dissolved without—you guessed it!—having ever posted any accounts, along with… Irfan Liaquat.

The same goes for Your City Location Ltd (who only posted accounts after he resigned as a director) and Smartone Ltd. Smartone never posted accounts either and have since been dissolved. They had (indeed, still have) a YouTube channel which features of what looks like stock video footage and not much else, and the Wayback Machine version of their website demonstrates that it was claimed that:

Irfan is the founder and CEO of SmartOne, the real estate investment firm designed to grow your wealth

Last Year Sold Nearly

£12.4 Million

Ranked #1 in Sales Volume for 2020

For the record, Smartone Ltd was not incorporated until February 2021.

The final company of Mr Liaquat’s is Winners World Wide Ltd, another new newly-incorporated company. But here, we finally see a direct connection to Blyth Spartans. In fact, a big picture of their Croft Park ground (council-owned) and an announcement is plastered all over their (brand new, as in the domain name was only registered on the 14th February) website. This website also proudly proclaims that:

We are operational in the world’s most desirable locations: from golden beach fronts to iconic city centres, each of our transactions are historic landmarks in their own right.

We are committed to quality and excellence across all of our properties: from desirable European boutiques, to iconic Italian buildings, and pristine European resorts, we deliver the same quality assets, with an exceptional experience to all of our clients.

Except none of these ‘desirable European boutiques” or “pristine European resorts” are advertised on their website. In fact, they only thing advertised on their website is… Blyth Spartans FC and a link to another website, irfanliaquat.com. This website in turn has another statement:

Irfan’s particular focus is on the acquisition and delivery of multi-disciplined transactions both residential and commercial providing lucrative returns for high level investors. He has previously acted for both public and private organisations particularly where there is an emphasis on social housing including the delivery of supported living and residential accommodation for vulnerable cohorts.

Irfan’s skills and ability to transact at high levels allowed him to deploy over £150 Million over the past 3 years for impact investors across the U.K. 

His impeccable track record secured him various roles working with private investment funds and institutions to strategically maximise a healthy income stream.

But for all this talk of “over £150 Million over the past 3 years”, there’s nothing to confirm where this investment was made. It’s been claimed that “Irfan is working in partnership with OYO Hotels across the UK with their ongoing expansion”.

According to their own website, OYO Hotels is “a global platform that empowers entrepreneurs and small businesses with hotels and homes by providing full stack technology that increases earnings and eases operations. Bringing affordable and trusted accommodation that guests can book instantly.” According to this article from Forbes in 2019, this means that:

OYO targets existing, underperforming budget hotels and rebrands them as OYO franchises. The company then streamlines back-end reservations, manages pricing and technology services, monitors standards on a host of parameters from cleanliness to Wi-Fi availability and, crucially, drives bookings through OYO’s mobile app. In return, OYO takes a percentage of monthly revenue.

The only one of these Irfan Liaquat’s companies to have seen any financial action while he was there is Dom Asset Management, who… ah.

The liquidation of this company offers a little more insight, but not much. From this, we can get to an assessment of the company’s finances at the point of its liquidation, which showed it as having no assets and debts of £443,000. Irfan Liaquat remains a director there, with his name spelt as Irfan Laiquat.

But there’s a catch, there. The name change from ‘Liaquat’ to ‘Laiquat’ on the Million Dollar Listings Ltd came in 2019. but Mr Liaquat didn’t become a director of Dom Asset Management until August 2022. The appointment paperwork spelled his name as “Laiquat” and gave a Birmingham address of One Victoria Square. This, again, seems to be shared office space.

So, what happened to Dom Asset Management? Well, like most of the rest of the companies listed above, they never filed any accounts. We know that the liquidation was voluntary and that the insolvency practitioners were Freddy Khalastchi and Guiseppe Parla of Menzies LLP. More significantly, we also have breakdown of their debts, and what sticks out like a sore thumb from those is that of the £443,406.87 they owed, £414.301.13 was owed to just two companies: Karla Homes Ltd and LTG Vision CIC.

So, who are these two companies and where’s this debt come from? Well, £100,000 is owed to LTG Vision CIC, a company who provide “Supported housing for people with substance misuse issues.” But that other £314,301.13 is owed to Karla Homes Ltd. So, who are they? They’re late with their accounts for the end of 2023, but the accounts for 2021 and 2022 show £7.754m in investment properties for 2021 followed by £7.789m of creditors due within a year in 2022.

One of their directors, one Jessica Mary Few, is a director of ten other companies, including… Dom Asset Management Ltd. So in other words, three-quarters of the money owed by Dom Asset Management was owed to another company, one of whose directors was a director of both the creditor and the debtor at the same time.

At his press conference last week. Mr Liaquat stated that:

The vision is to get them (Blyth) right up there at Championship level, but that will happen over time… We’re not naïve, we know we have to work hard to achieve that goal but we’re going to take it on a step-by-step basis.

Well, it certainly sounds naïve. Blyth Spartans have never played above the National League North before, and out of the eleven seasons they’ve played at that level, they’ve only finished above halfway on three occasions. Their average home attendance this season is 813. To get to the EFL Championship would require four promotions. Anybody playing at Step Two of the non-league game (and there are 48 clubs at that level alone) can have a ‘vision’ of getting that high, but to actually do so is a whole different matter.

And what does all of the above prove? Well, nothing, really. There’s nothing to suggest that there’s been any illegal or underhand behaviour going on in this myriad of different companies other than that their affairs as reported to Companies House do not really reflect the claims that were made regarding Mr Liaquat’s business prowess at the time of the takeover.

But in a way, they do say something. If Irfan Liaquat is the business genius that he has claimed to be, you would expect there to be something clear which confirms it. Instead, we have newly set-up websites, companies that have been set up and then quietly closed back down again, shared office space, and pretty much no evidence whatsoever that he is anything like the businessman that he claims to be. And that’s before we move onto the similarly unprovable comments about “philanthropy”. Ultimately, it shouldn’t be up to those on the outside looking in to ‘prove’ that they have the means that they claim. It’s up to them, and the time of writing, all anybody has offered is words.

Much of this post wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless work of Martin Calladine, to whom I am eternally grateful. Martin emailed Mr Liaquat with some questions about all of the above on Thursday 22nd February. At the time of writing, he has not had a response.