I used to believe the ‘no one else is interested in buying Norwich City FC’ line, but evidence throughout the league belies this.
Norwich’s owners are the poorest (bar a couple) of all the known owners’ wealth listed for all four divisions in England. That means almost every other club in English professional football has richer owners. And virtually all, if not all, of those clubs acquired their current owners within the last 25 years, the period that coincides with Delia and Michael’s tenure.
Many of those owners are half-billionaires, billionaires or just plain old multi-billionaires. Delia and Michael are not. My conclusion is that if League One and League Two teams with their current earning power can attract billionaire ownership, then a current Premier League club with its earning power is extremely likely to be able to attract offers from many potential suitors.
That begs the question – what is stopping these offers?
There can only be one answer, or more accurately two – Delia and Michael.
I like Delia and Michael, they’re great people, love the area and club, and are genuine supporters, but they’re not rich enough to play in this league (and City shortly won’t be). Norwich are currently riding a rickety tea-chest go-cart in Formula One trying to compete – but sadly all the other drivers and teams can see our dodgy pram-wheels and are laughing at us.
The solution?
There isn’t one until Delia and Michael agree to sell some of their majority shares, and as long as they refuse to budge the club will remain in their control.
I can’t see even a ludicrously massive offer shifting them either, because they have enough money to do what they want (hang-gliding lessons, skiing trips, and other expensive extreme sports and hobbies are probably beyond them – and me too these days) so why would they want to lose the profile, prestige, fun and frustration of fronting one of the top football clubs in the country?
Think of the people and events you get to mix with, seeing your name in the papers all the time, and just the thrill of being ‘current’ and well-known. You can’t buy that sort of attention.
Well, you can – you buy a football club (or appear on I’m A Celebrity…).
And they did, they bought a controlling share in Norwich City (the Finest of clubs). I don’t know exactly how much they paid for their shares, but current share price estimates suggest a figure in the regions of a very few tens of millions of pounds. You can barely buy a Premier League centre-back for that these days, never mind a whole Premier League club.
So, well done to them. And I reckon we’ll just have to learn to love them all over again because they – and nephew Tom – ain’t going anywhere.
Gosh bless Delia and Michael!
Hi Chris
You paint a sad picture of our future and I only hope you are very wrong.
Years ago Villa had an owner with the same stance he wouldn’t sell at any price Deadly Doug Ellis (Deadly was given to him by Tommy Doc) but finally succumbed to an American Billionaire and that didn’t work out for either party in the end.
There was some lyrics that seem apt
You always hurt the one you love,
Now it seems the Smith and Jones are content to hurt cities prospects of survival and future for their own ends and a little Celebrity status how will they cope if it turns nasty like at the end of the Chase reign but this time there is no Sir Geoffrey Watling on his white charger coming to the rescue.
They should sell up and hope the new owners offer them honorary board seats no voting power and take a happy retirement before it all goes badly wrong memories are short in football
Sounds like there needs to be a revolution then a campaign to make them see that they’re doing the opposite to what they think they are !
I agree with you well written piece Chris, I also like Delia & Michael, and have huge respect for what the have done for NCFC. But as a lifelong City fan & season ticket holder l can only describe the outlook as extremely depressing.
im glad there staying with us club at heart
Hold on, Delia did not buy her controlling shares in NCFC in order to find
“….people and events you get to mix with, seeing your name in the papers all the time, and just the thrill of being ‘current’ and well-known. You can’t buy that sort of attention.”
She was already “current” and well known, and much attention paid to her on national TV. In fact she was better known then than she is now. So I’m not quite sure where you were going with that.
The thing is, everybody talks about “investment”. That really means:
1 Somebody paying an agreed fair price for a majority of the shares, and taking control of the club. They don’t have to have all the shares, though they may prefer to. And not all the shares they buy have to come from Delia and Michael if sufficient minority shareholders are also willing to sell. (There are almost certainly small print rules that effect this, but we’ll not worry about that for now). None of that cash is going to do anything to improve the team – it is going to the current owners, not the club itself.
2 They’ve then got to make separate funds available to the club for building the squad. Lots of it, if we want to become an established PL team. They somehow have to do it within the FFP regulations which seem specifically geared to stop upstart clubs getting anywhere near the Uniteds and Liverpools of this world. Above all they want a return and hope in due course to resell their shares at a premium to someone else.
Step 1 without step 2 would achieve absolutely nothing.
So are they’re really billionaires not only buying, but also investing in, League One and Two clubs?
It is true that there has been a lot of investment in clubs, especially top clubs, in recent decades. But I think eventually it will dawn on people that only 1 club can win the league, only 5 or 6 others can get into Europe, and as the Saudis may soon find out 3 teams get relegated.
Even if the club were for sale, would some overseas consortium – sadly it always seems to be foreign investment – really want to pour billions in to a club like Norwich in order to finish 8th, 9th, 10th every year? Or even occasionally to reach the dizzy heights of the Europa Conference League? Just because that would be a big improvement from the fans’ perspective doesn’t mean it would appeal to the men with the money, unless they happen to be fans too.
Absolutely spot on and that’s without the issue of actually attracting the players in the first place Let’s see how the self proclaimed richest club in the world do in attracting players whilst second from bottom, and also rather geographically out on a limb too
The wealth of many PL club owners suggests there are indeed people willing to pump in a lot of money to finish 8th, 9th, 10th. For many, it’s not about winning the league, it’s about profile and being involved in the “biggest league in the world”. Leicester are never going to win the league again, for example.
You probably would have said there no chance of Leicester winning the PL before they did.
I certainly can’t learn to love them ‘all over again’ as I’ve never loved them in the first place.
Professionally speaking, I’ve never seen the point of them. Delia is an opportunist and to be fair, she played a blinder. Circumnavigated the rules to end up having a controlling share – with MWJ – and hoodwinked the vast majority of fans at the time. Some still will not have a word said against them and have been conditioned in thinking that the EPL is not for us.
To think all the effort made to remove Chase, for this. Is this what we fought for? To get in hapless amateurs above all else?
Norwich City have gone from being a neutrals favourite, to being one of the most disliked – if not the most disliked – teams in all 4 leagues.
I find that desperately sad.
The club is more than the sum of its parts, but how much longer do we stand around and watch things fall apart because we have ‘a fan’ who has put her own stubborn ego above the club she claims to care about. Enough is enough.
Hi IR
I have to admit that I am fed up with beating my head against a collapsed souffle to the point that I rarely criticise Delia and Michael [for that read Delia alone] in my MFW scribblings any more because like another divisive figure this lady is not for turning so it’s bleedin’ pointless.
I proactively battled against Chase too as did many folks of my vintage and your phrase *is this what we fought for* is as poignant as they come.
Very well said.
I agree with all of that Martin and I was on the barricades battling our own little Napoleon, Mr R Chase.
However to me Delia and Michael are nothing like the previous owner.
She is as stubborn as hell and the vast majority including ourselves realise the game is up regarding self funding working.
But I do believe her reluctance to sell up is genuine concern for the club.
Not all but a lot of it, I am sure the fame maybe hard to let go and that’s understandable but after reading Edward’s piece today I can sympathize with her fear as to what could happen to the club.
But on the reverse side of the coin there are good owners out there. Leicester, Liverpool and Wolves for instance.
I can never see the Stowmarket Two selling to “the wrong people” thankfully.
I can remember being right ars*ed off when Marcus Evans and Roy “wilting flower” Keane rolled up down the road and did I moan.
Poor Marty got most of it but dad was around then and he had to listen to his fair share of it. But we have had 4-5 forays into the Premier League since that awful day.
Ipswich Town have done b….r all and are now in division Three.
This is what makes this so hard.
This isn’t popular but I still see supporters believing with absolute certainty a change of ownership means a positive change of luck, I can’t agree with that.
I agree now after 2 EPL failures that the risk has to be taken as we cannot continue this yo-yo cycle but we all have to be careful what we wish for.
Just ask Charlton, Bolton, Sheffield Wednesday, Portsmouth etc fans.
How did she circumnavigate the rules ?
Geoffrey Watling made clear that nobody was to own more than ‘50% of the club. By having a Husband & Wife duo, they got round that and ‘ended up’ – to quote MWJ – with the majority of shares.
Technically they did nothing wrong, but morally? It’s like a democratic dictatorship. An oxymoron if ever there was.
Absolutely
It only took the Geordie fans the best part of a decade to bring the mega-rich human rights abusers in, so good luck with that one. And the last change in club ownership has hardly proved a complete success has it? Though, things have been far brighter than for the Binmen over the last 20 years…so careful what you wish for when it comes to ownership changes.
Football finances are a nonsense and, frankly, an accident waiting to happen. You only need to look at the bottom of the Championship and League One to see some rather bigger names than Norwich City. In fact the lower leagues are littered with clubs who have spent beyond their means on the instruction of the mega wealthy who know little about their investments. Remember Sven and Sol at Notts County? And what of Derby and Sheff Weds. How long did Leeds pay for the dream that they briefly lived? Remember all those amazing players Bolton used to have? Seriously this word ‘investment’ should be banned from use in football. What’s the investment for? £120m to finish in mid table? In order to earn the privilege of spending another £120m just to stand still? Let’s not kid ourselves here. If everyone is spending (sorry ‘investing’) more than they earn in every year then two things are guaranteed. Three clubs will be relegated. And football clubs will go pop. So while I wish we were performing better this season, I’d rather still have a football club in a decade
I do not need to add my thoughts on the ruddy cook and her book publisher, yes they have helped the club at various times but always ended up strengthening their position. Until we have what we have today.
I remember when I formed the Worthy Out campaign alongside, The disabled Supporters Association. a few of us involved, said we should carry on and demand change at the top. It took a while before the change happened with Neil (Prudence with Ambition) Doncaster leaving and Roger Munby falling on his sword. Instead, I devoted more time to the Disabled Supporters to get it established, which myself and my late mate managed.
Looking back that was an error of judgement, as we are still in the same boat paddling along without a rudder. That is over 15 years (2006) since Burnley thumped us and Worthy was shown in the door.
It is more than depressing to try and look forward to more of the same, while an octogenarian still loves the limelight. Suck it up, over my 50 plus years I have sucked up enough
They should have walked a decade ago when the club paid back their loans to themselves. We were in the PL, a perfect time for them to make a profit, while in prime position to kick on.
While we all blaming Delia and co for our demise it’s not down to them to show abit of fight and passion on the pitch it’s down to the players whatever they cost I see very little of that every time I go . remember there are many more failures then successes when big money has been thrown at it villa were in big trouble 3years ago threw £130 mill at it survived on a var failure against sheff it’s were might they be now had it been working?
Be careful suggesting change in Norfolk.
If there are billionaires all over leagues one and two then surely that shows having a billionaire owner isn’t the simple solution to success on the pitch?
We gather the shares and control will eventually pass to nephew Tom,
I could write all I know about Tim on the back of a postage stamp,
Does any one know more.?
I suspect that our beloved club will be owned by a completely unknown quantity as I have never heard him speak,,or know what longer term plans he has for the club or what his football philosophy is.
It’s typical of the club over the years to keep the fans in the dark about things that matter.
Its all very upstairs downstairs. As long as we all know our place and tug our forelocks when master tom lands his birthright.