Home > Football > Local billionaire to invest in Norwich City: Is it too good to be true?
by Graham Fisher on 01 July 2008
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Norwich City fans must be getting very excited. Not a lot has gone right for the Canaries over the past couple of seasons but the news released this week could be just what the club has been waiting for.
Billionaire insurance businessman Peter Cullum has confirmed his intention to take over financially at Norwich City from Delia Smith. Not only is he a billionaire, he is a lifelong Norwich City fan. That’s right. He’s not a Russian oil tycoon or American businessman who fancies a dabble in the bright lights of the Premier League, he is a Norwich fan who wants to invest and take the club forward.
Mr Cullum, unlike some other football-interested billionaires I could name, has a realistic outlook. "I don't believe I can ever make money out of a football club. This is about passion and love for the club," he said.
That phrase would make me all excited and warm inside if I was a Norwich fan. Are we absolutely sure that he hasn’t got a soft spot for Watford as well? The insurance billionaire is apparently willing to pump £20million into the club's transfer kitty and Glen Roeder must be rubbing his hands with glee.
Mr Cullum has built a personal fortune estimated at £1.7billion since founding the Towergate Partnership in 1997. OK, it isn’t in the Abramovich league, but it’s not bad! Cullum wants to become the club's majority shareholder, while keeping Delia Smith as a club figurehead. He said: "I don't want to be the front person for the football club - that's Delia. I don't want fame and publicity."
Cullum claims to have first approached the Canaries board in October 2007, when the club was rooted at the bottom of the Championship. It is believed that this is the second time he has approached the club having been turned away just under a year ago. It is clear that there are a few obstacles to overcome before Roeder can start his search for players at a higher level.
Fifty-seven-year old Cullum is Norfolk born and bred and went to school at the City of Norwich Grammar School. He says he played for Norwich City boys, but if every bloke of his age had played at that level who say they did, they would have had to have been playing at least 35-a-side!
Obviously I don’t begin to suggest that I know the slightest thing about takeover bids, but as a simple football fan I know that this development must be exciting the fans at Carrow Road. A local fan with a billion pounds who is prepared to invest and isn’t looking to make money? It sounds too good to be true. Maybe it is. I don’t know.
So I would like to know, what do Norwich fans know about Mr Cullum? Is it all as exciting as it sounds?
Comments (2)
by Dan S on July 01, 2008
She has claimed that she will move aside if a true fan steps up and wants to invest in the team. Well it has happened and suddenly she wants £56 Million (though not all personaly) Time to go before you become an object of hate. This is our dream and you are fast turning it into a nightmare!
by Paul the Essex Canary on July 02, 2008
Delia and her husband invest more than £10m of their own personal money into the club over the last 10 years, saving us from bankrupcy, funding player acquisitions out of their own cash and effectively kept our club alive and in return people like Dan S expect them to hand over their shares for nothing and walk away. They have every right to set their price (they are after all merely asking for the current share value - nothing more). Yes the £56m is a big price but that includes £20m in the transfer kitty and £20m on debt repayments so they are effectively only valuing the club at £16m which is far from unreasonable. They have shown in the past they have the clubs best interest at heart and I'm sure they will continue to do so. Nobody expects Peter Cullum to simply hand over a cheque for the full £56m, its called negociation and this is merely the starting point!!
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