The man lined up to safeguard Caley Thistle’s future has been described as a “fantasist” who would have killed the club off by people let down by him in the past.
Ketan Makwana was announced as the new majority shareholder of the Highland club last month but the deal collapsed at the eleventh hour.
Seventy7Ventures, the investment firm led by Makwana, had an offer totalling £2.5m to purchase just over 50% of ICT’s shares accepted by the club’s board on July 25.
That came after it was endorsed by outgoing chief executive Scot Gardiner.
But around three weeks later, the club announced that it had suspended negotiations with Makwana and Gardiner had left the club.
The Press and Journal has spoken to numerous people who have dealt with Makwana before.
They painted a picture of a person with the gift of the gab, but someone “prone to exaggeration”.
One said Caley Thistle had dodged a bullet by calling off the talks, saying that the club would have been out of business within six months if they finalised the Seventy7 Ventures contract.
Ketan Makwana ‘was never the owner of this club’
At the end of last year, Makwana attempted to take over English semi-pro club Hayes and Yeading United.
He promised to renovate the club’s ground and build a new bar and restaurant.
During the negotiation period, he referred to himself as the club’s owner on LinkedIn and in one post, he said: “There is a lot of work to do but the early indications to the proposed strategy is showing a 10x return on the investment and rollout.”
A Hayes and Yeading United official told the Press and Journal that Makwana had failed to deliver any of his promises.
He added: “Ketan Makwana was never the owner of the club – but he pretended like he was.
“He told us he wanted to make an investment on behalf of somebody and we thought all our Christmases had come at once.”
The insider added: “It all caused a lot of confusion, the manager didn’t even know who he was supposed to be dealing with because of all the uncertainty.
“The whole thing just really messed us up. We eventually broke off negotiations with him because he just didn’t come up with anything.”
‘He wasted our time and the whole idea was built on fantasy’
After failing to finalise a deal with Hayes and Yeading, Makwana posted on LinkedIn that he was investing in a film production company involving the former Arsenal and England striker Tony Woodcock.
That production company is called Krafty Entertainment.
It focuses on football documentaries and its work has been featured on networks like the BBC, Sky and Amazon Prime.
Makwana promised a six-figure investment.
The Press and Journal tracked down Krafty’s founder and CEO John Warrington.
He said Makwana failed to deliver any of his promises.
When it came time to stump up the cash, Makwana continually made excuses about why payment would be delayed.
Mr Warrington said: “Our board believes that Ketan exaggerated many of the claims he made to us.
“We don’t believe he ever had the cash available. He wasted our time and the whole idea was built on fantasy.
“If he came to us again, we wouldn’t go near him. As for Caley Thistle, the club would have gone bust within six months if Ketan had won ownership.”
What other claims has Ketan Makwana made?
Makwana also expressed an interest in taking over Dagenham and Redbridge.
The Daggers spent nine seasons in the English Football League between 2007 and 2015.
They now ply their trade in the fifth tier.
Steve Thompson, the club’s managing director, said: “We have recently gone through a sale and Seventy7 Ventures was one of the companies who expressed an interest.
“I met Mr Makwana on one occasion and showed him around our club. In the end, they were not a successful bidder.”
By Makwana’s own admission, he has failed with takeover bids for a further four clubs.
The Press and Journal has also uncovered some inconsistencies among the claims Makwana has made about himself on LinkedIn.
On his CV, he claims to have worked as a special adviser for former UK Prime Minister David Cameron between 2013 and 2014.
The Cabinet Office has published details about who was employed as a special adviser by Lord Cameron during his time in office.
There are more than 40 names listed during the period Makwana claimed he was employed. Each of them earned between £60,000 and £140,000 a year for their roles.
Makwana’s name does not appear on any of the lists for 2013 or 2014.
One of those special advisers, who worked for Lord Cameron for years, told the Press and Journal he’d never heard of Makwana.
He added: “That’s not to say he didn’t, but I can’t say I remember that name.”
Forbes magazine boast
Another claim on his CV is that he was a freelance writer for Forbes, the globally-known business magazine and website, between 2020 and 2023.
However, his byline has not appeared on any online articles in that time.
A spokeswoman for Forbes said: “We’ve checked and this individual hasn’t been a contributor for Forbes.”
Seventy7 Ventures has also boasted of winning a “best of British business award” from the Independent newspaper in 2023.
The claim appears to reference its appearance in an article published by Business Reporter, which has a partnership agreement with The Independent.
The Seventy7 Ventures article is listed on Business Reporter’s website as “sponsored content”, indicating that the business involved has paid towards its appearance.
Ketan Makwana’s ‘vision’ for Caley Thistle
Makwana’s proposal involved a “five to seven year” vision.
He told the club’s board it would take both Caley Thistle and the Inverness community “to new heights”.
In the vision, he mentions:
- a 150-bedroom hotel
- a “player eco-system” which would include housing, schooling and groceries for players and their families
- an Esports Arena
- and a fan park that would encourage sports tourism in the area
Makwana has predicted a huge rise in the use of cryptocurrency.
He also said that the word “phygital”, a combination of physical and digital, will be commonplace in the next five to 10 years.
Football finance expert Martin Calladine published a book last year on cryptocurrency scams in the sport.
He said: “What we’re seeing here is a really common pattern across British football.
“This idea that you can make a big investment and turn it into this entertainment hub.
“We’ve heard this time and time again and it almost always comes to nothing.
“This is like every red flag you can imagine.”
How did Caley Thistle come so close to handing the club over to Ketan Makwana?
Caley Thistle supporters have been asking serious questions about how the club has been running for a while now.
They want to know how Makwana was able to come so close to taking control.
His initial LinkedIn post raised numerous red flags when he said he’d already failed to invest in six football clubs and was unable to find any information on ICT.
That was an incredibly alarming statement given the information age we’re all now living in.
Especially given Caley Thistle had been in the Scottish Cup final just 12 months earlier.
The perilous financial position the club found themselves after numerous financial setbacks left them on the brink of administration.
And that meant they needed to act fast when it came time to make a decision on new investment.
They were reassured by Scot Gardiner that the Seventy7 Ventures proposal was “entirely solid”.
In an email to board members on June 27, Gardiner said: “The Seventy7 proposal looks to me to be an incredibly strong and positive one, especially given the dire circumstances the club is in.”
Within seven weeks of that message, negotiations were suspended and Gardiner had left the club.
Ketan Makwana was asked to respond to this story.
He said: “I appreciate you will be running this story, I have no comments to provide you.”
Conversation