Saudi Owner of British Soccer Team Praises ‘Really Good’ bin Laden Family

Saudi Prince
Getty Images/Chris Brunskill

The Saudi Arabian owner of one of Britain’s soccer teams raised eyebrows this week, by praising the bin Laden family as “really good” people.

Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad, who now has full ownership of the Sheffield United team after the previous co-owner was forced by a court to sell his 50 percent stake, admitted doing business with the family that counts two major terrorists as members, the New York Post reported.

But bin Mosaad stuck up for the family and waived off any criticism of Osama bin Laden and his son, Hamza, both of whom are high-ranking, international terrorists who have been killed by U.S. anti-terrorism forces.

“Every family may have one bad person, but they are a very respectable family,” Prince Abdullah said of the bin Ladens. “I have not done business with them in the past, but I will be very happy to do business with them. The bin Laden family is not a disgraced name or something that I should hide.”

Indeed, bin Mosaad went even farther to chastise anyone that may criticize the bin Laden family.

“When I see the bin Laden family as a dirty name. I get really offended,” he said.

The bin Laden family is a large, established family in Saudi Arabia. The family patriarch, Mohammed bin Laden, made a fortune in the construction trade with projects funded by the Saudi Royal family. Mohammed bin Laden also had 22 wives and sired 54 children.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

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