Arcadi Gaydamak, the Jerusalem-based Russian-Israeli businessman, has said for the first time that he, rather than his son Alexandre - known as Sacha - is the owner of Portsmouth, as reports that the club are up for sale continue to circulate.

Gaydamak made the claims to Yedioth Ahronot, an Israeli newspaper, last week in an attempt to counter accusations that financial difficulties were threatening a personal fortune that stood at $1 billion in May last year. Under the headline “Look What I’ve Got”, Gaydamak listed all his assets, including Portsmouth.

He also made the surprising claim that Portsmouth’s proposed new ground will be built in partnership with the Dubai royal family, but the club may be in new hands before those long-delayed stadium plans are realised. The Times revealed in January that the club are for sale and a Sunday paper suggested yesterday that the Middle East is a possible source of buyers. However, Dubai is unlikely. The Dubai royal family remain in negotiations to buy Liverpool and The Times understands that no other clubs are in their sights.

The improbable link with Dubai and the fact Gaydamak valued Portsmouth at 1,895,700,000 shekels (about £300 million), which seems a fivefold overestimation, may incline most people to take his declaration with a large pinch of salt. But it poses a problem for the Barclays Premier League, which is “aware of” Gaydamak’s statement. Sacha Gaydamak-passed the governing body’s “fit and proper persons” test after reportedly paying £32 million to Milan Mandaric, the club’s previous owner, in 2006. His father, though, may struggle.

Although a philanthropist who has given to Israeli humanitarian causes, Gaydamak is the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant over alleged arms sales to Angola. Israel has refused extradition, but he has been investigated by Israeli authorities for money-laundering and by fraud police over allegatons of vote-buying.

In the circumstances, selling the club would make sense and is unlikely to break his son’s heart. Last season Sol Campbell, the captain, revealed that Sacha was rarely seen.