A boyhood Norwich City fan is pledging to get Championship rivals Coventry City to the Premier League after his takeover of the Sky Blues.
Lowestoft-bred entrepreneur Doug King has taken an 85pc stake in Mark Robins’ club, pending final EFL approval.
King, the CEO of Stratford-based company Yelo Enterprises, failed in a separate 11th hour High Court bid last week to buy the Coventry Building Society Arena for £25m, after completing his multi-million takeover.
Mike Ashley’s Fraser Group now own the facility, after lease holders Wasps went into administration, but King is still determined to get the Sky Blues back to the big time.
“I have great plans. I am not doing this just for mediocrity,” said the 55-year-old, who is also the CEO of RCMA Capital LLP, an investment fund with a current portfolio of £330m.
“I don’t have gold fever, but I am not going to sit around and do nothing. I have a local business, you get to know the people and the area, and from there you get excited.
"I come from Lowestoft. My career has taken me around the world. Norwich City is my first club. In that part of the world it is either Norwich City or Ipswich, and it was Norwich City for me. That is where I was brought up.
Meet Doug King - the next owner of Coventry City FC #PUSB #SkyBlues pic.twitter.com/2Z8w9r9Zv1
— Dan Salisbury-Jones (@dsj_itv) November 18, 2022
"But now I am ready to help this club. Let’s make a statement and get Coventry City back to the Premier League, which is where I believe it belongs.
“I will say one thing at this stage - we are not going to be sellers in the January transfer market. Great players, great manager, great momentum.
“Once approval is there of course I will speak to Mark and we will assess the situation in January. I haven’t even met Mark at this point. I am a businessman. I don’t throw away money but if we like stuff, we like stuff. Let’s take it step by step. I am old enough not to get super excited.”
Dean Smith’s side eased to a 3-0 Championship win over the Sky Blues in early September, but Robins’ squad went into the World Cup break just three points behind after four wins on the spin.
The Canaries have attracted their own outside investment this season with US baseball impresario Mark Attanasio taking a minority stake, in addition to purchasing £10m of ‘C’ preference shares.
Attanasio and some of his family were at Carrow Road for the recent 2-1 home league defeat to Middlesbrough.
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