Charlton Athletic are in line to be the next British football club to pass into foreign ownership after Zabeel Investments, a Dubai-based company, made an offer thought to be between £20 million and £30 million for the Coca-Cola Championship club.

The Charlton board said in a statement last night that it would recommend that shareholders accept if the indicative offer, which is subject to a number of conditions, including due diligence, is formally put to them.

“Zabeel Investments had been looking at the opportunity to invest in a leading English football club and had been monitoring the situation at Charlton Athletic Football Club closely,” the statement read. “In spite of being approached by various English football clubs, as well as a number of well-known clubs in Europe and South America, Zabeel Investments believes Charlton is the right club for them.”

But the statement cautioned: “There is, however, no certainty that a formal offer will be made, nor as to the terms of any offer.” Zabeel, which has links with Dubai International Capital \, the group that was interested in buying Liverpool, claims to have assets of $5 billion (about £3 billion) from its interests in property in Dubai and the United States.

However, it is not interested simply in throwing money at football. It is understood to have had talks with Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United, but regarded his asking price of £480 million as too steep.

Instead of bidding for an established Barclays Premier League club, it has followed the lead of Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, who took over Queens Park Rangers for an investment of £14 million and are looking to take them into the top flight — a more economical way of acquiring a Premier League club, if it comes off.

Charlton are fourteenth in the Championship after losing their Premier League status in 2007 and may not seem an obvious attraction when, for example, Portsmouth are reported to be on the market for a similar amount. However, while the South Coast club are in the Premier League, they cannot match the solid foundations of the London club, who have a modern stadium with good facilities and plans to expand, an established and successful youth system and a fan base whose loyalty was proved when the club were forced to ground-share with both Crystal Palace and West Ham United during a period of exile from The Valley from 1985 to 1992. That fan base also has considerable growth potential, given the number of new homes planned for nearby land in northwest Kent.

“We feel now is the right time to make a strategic, long-term investment in Charlton and get CAFC back to the English Premier League, where they belong,” Mohammed al-Hashimi, the executive chairman of Zabeel Investments, said. “The passion of the fans at Charlton, the heritage of the club and the unique status it enjoys in the community make it an exciting proposition for us.”

The potential riches that could be pouring into SE7 are in contrast to the slump in fortunes at some of their London neighbours, whose backers have been adversely affected by the financial situation. Just across the Thames Barrier from The Valley, West Ham United face an uncertain future after Landsbanki, the Icelandic bank of which Björgólfur Gudmundsson, the West Ham chairman, was a major shareholder, was nationalised.

Lakshi Mittal, who has bought into QPR, has lost an estimated $16 billion in the value of his shares over the past four months, according to reports last weekend, while Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, is reported to have seen the value of his holdings drop by around £12 billion. The last English club to beat Chelsea at their own ground may be about to beat them in a more unexpected field.