Report: Chechen buyer for Swiss club Neuchatel

Published Apr. 19, 2011 11:20 a.m. ET

foxsports

Swiss media reports say Chechen businessman Bulat Chagaev is leading a takeover of top-tier football club Neuchatel Xamax.

The club says on its website that a deal to transfer ownership is almost complete but details can't be revealed before a meeting scheduled May 12.

Chagaev is vice president of Russian league club Terek Grozny, which recently hired Netherlands playing great Ruud Gullit as manager.

Terek president Ramzan Kadyrov is also is the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya.

Neuchatel is eighth in the 10-team Swiss league, three points clear of the relegation zone.

It won the last of its two Swiss championships in 1988.