Kerala Blasters deny reports of Lulu buying stake in franchise

Dubai - The franchise in a statement issued to Khaleej Times from Hyderabad called the news as speculation.

Kerala Blasters have denied reports in Indian media that UAE-based LuLu International Group LLC had bought stakes in the Indian Super League (ISL) franchise.
The franchise in a statement issued to Khaleej Times from Hyderabad called the news as speculation while confirming that the 80 per cent stake holders in the Hyderabad-based club had acquired 20 per cent stakes in the club from the former Sachin Tendulkar.
"The existing 80% shareholders of KBFC comprising of IQuest, Mr Chiranjeevi and Mr Allu Arvind have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Sachin Tendulkar's 20% stake in the club," the club CEO, Varun Tripuraneni told the Khaleej Times in a WhatsApp message.
"Any other news regarding the shareholding is purely speculative in nature," he stressed.
"Sachin has been a great support and we thank him for his immense contribution to KBFC. He will forever be a member of the Yellow Army.
"As it has been, we will continue to uphold and take forward, the spirit of the sport, spirit of the fans and the spirit of Kerala," the statement added.
According to information available on Wikipedia, the ownership group of the Kerala Blasters is part of a consortium known as Blasters Sports Pvt Ltd. Current other investors for the Blasters include film stars Chiranjeevi and Akkineni Nagarjuna, as well as film producer Allu Aravind and industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad. Before they all became co-owners, co-ownership of the club was held by Prasad V. Potluri from 2014 to 2015.
The club finished runners up twice in 2014 and 2016 and failed to qualify for the finals in last season and in 2015.
When contacted, a spokesperson for LuLu group refused to comment on the news of the group taking over the Kerala Blasters from the Hyderabad-based owners.

• India