![Businessman Mohamed Al Fayed dies aged 94 Businessman Mohamed Al Fayed dies aged 94](https://i0.wp.com/www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https://d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net/production/3610c4c5-0703-4e5d-817a-b5b96a72441f.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1)
Receive Free Mohammad Al Fayed Updates
we will send you myFT Daily Digest Email summary of the latest information Mohammad Al Fayed Every morning there is news.
Mohamed Al Fayed, the Egyptian-born businessman who owned a string of prominent British companies, has died aged 94.
His death was confirmed in a statement from Fulham FC on Friday night, where he was owner and chairman from 1997 to 2013.
Al Fayed was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1929. As well as owning Fulham, Al Fayed moved to London in the 1960s and for decades also owned Harrods in Knightsbridge, west London, and the Ritz in Paris.
On August 31, 1997, his son Dodi, who was then the partner of Diana, Princess of Wales, died along with Diana in a car accident in Paris. Al Fayed blamed the accident on the royal family.
A series of investigations instead placed the blame on the driver of the car.
Following the deceased’s death, Harrods was stripped of its royal warrant, a sign of British royal patronage, which it had held for almost a century. Al Fayed later sold the store to Qatar Holding, an instrument of the emirate’s royal family.
Shahid Khan, who bought the Fulham club from Al Fayed, said in a statement his “sincere condolences” to Al Fayed’s family and friends.
“I have always enjoyed my time with Mr Al Fayed, who is brilliant, versatile and committed to Fulham, and I am forever grateful for the confidence he placed in me to succeed him as chairman in 2013,” Khan said.
Al Fayed has also been embroiled in controversy over payments to two Conservative MPs to ensure they raise parliamentary issues on his behalf.
The incident led to a rule change prohibiting such behavior.
In 1985, he bought the House of Fraser, then owner of Harrods, leading to an investigation by the then Department of Trade and Industry and branding him “unreliable, untrue and false”. “Tag of.
The investigation concluded that Al Fayed and his brother had been misrepresenting their wealth and background during the takeover battle with the Lonrho group.
Although he had been seeking British citizenship, it was never granted.
Svlook