Laxmi Niwas Mittal eyes taking over Birmingham City an English football club

After the successful take over French steel company Arcelor, world's richest Indian Laxmi Mittal is eyeing another grand acquisition - this time in the field of sports.
The 'Iron Man of India' has emerged as a contender to buy English Premiership football club Birmingham City after making an initial inquiry, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported here today.

56-year-old Mittal, at 19.25-billion-pounds twice as rich as Roman Abramovich, the Russian millionaire owner of Chelsea, was yet to follow up on his preliminary inquiry, the newspaper said.

Besides Mittal, a London-based NRI, another unnamed business magnate from the Far East was also said to be interested in the club and was likely to make a formal bid later this week.

David Sullivan and David and Ralph Gold, owners of Birmingham which has caused a flutter by getting promoted to the top league of the competition, were looking to sell the club and would be glad to finish with a speedy handover.

Besides Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur are the other English Premiership clubs that have been bought over by business tycoons in recent years.