Mark Attanasio and his Norfolk Holdings partners are set to be the new major shareholders of Norwich City - with Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones stepping down from the board with immediate effect.

The club’s ordinary shareholders gave their seal of approval, as expected, at a special extraordinary general meeting convened at Carrow Road on Wednesday night.

The vast majority cast their ballots in advance to sanction a change of ownership that will see Attanasio and his group increase their shareholding to 85pc, following a £56m debt to equity process agreed by the former majority shareholders.

Shareholders passed six resolutions that will see a formal transition of power from March 1, 2025. 

Smith and Wynn Jones become honorary life presidents with immediate effect, but will remain a visible presence around the club on matchdays, after their long standing 28-year association as the club’s custodians.

The club released a statement, which read: 'Norwich City can confirm that each of the resolutions proposed at the extraordinary general meeting held at Carrow Road on Wednesday evening were passed by the relevant shareholders.

'The club will now proceed with allotting 2,465,165 newly-created 'D' Preference shares and 56,023,908 newly-created 'E' Preference shares to Norfolk Holdings, the group led by Mark Attanasio.

'From 1 March 2025, the 'D' Preference shares can be converted on a one-for-one basis into ordinary shares in the club, which would result in Norfolk Holdings’ ordinary shareholding increasing to 2,792,874 ordinary shares (approximately 85pc of the club’s ordinary share capital).

'Richard Ressler’s appointment as a director of the club was also approved at the meeting.

'The approval of the resolutions means that Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones will now step down from the club’s board of directors and take up the position of honorary life presidents of the club.

'This brings to an end an incredible 28-year spell as directors of the football club.

'The club’s existing board would like to place on record its sincere thanks and gratitude to Delia and Michael for their contributions to the club during their time as directors.

'Going forward, the club’s board will be made up of Mark Attanasio, Richard Ressler, Tom Smith and Zoe Webber, with Norfolk Holdings also having the right to appoint an additional director to the board in due course.'

The latest shareholder vote marks the culmination of a process that saw the Milwaukee Brewers’ principal owner join the club's board in September 2022, when the US-based businessman purchased a 22pc stake in a private transaction with former Norwich director Michael Foulger and family.

Attanasio’s group have continued to increase their financial support, with the latest set of published accounts outlining, as of August 31, 2024, Norfolk Holdings had injected $80.45m of debt financing into Norwich City.

That was increased last month by a further loan of $7.05m, to provide the business with working capital cash flow and to help with player acquisitions over the summer window. 

Attanasio and his family have also had a hands on role in the key decisions that brought Ben Knapper to the club as sporting director, and in turn the appointment of Johannes Hoff Thorup as head coach.

The Dane gave an insight into the working relationship ahead of the midweek Championship draw at Preston.

“I would say exactly the support that you hope for as a head coach, “ he said. “And I think I can speak on behalf of Ben as well, where they are interested in a positive way, where they want to hear about our thoughts and processes and how we do things, and then they ask how they can support with that, and how they can support going forward?

“That's I would say, the perfect ownership and the perfect relationship between us, because that's exactly how we want to go forward.

“They're curious, they ask questions. I think actually they want to be here more than they are, because they, of course, obviously watch all our games and have questions to why we do this, and what about this, and so on. And then in some other areas, they can support even more, which is for this club going forward so important.

“I think there's a really good relationship, based on the curiosity they have for the game and for how you can develop a style of play and how you can develop a team going forward. Then, of course, on the other hand, they can support with maybe a little bit more clarity from the outside, maybe a little bit more stable business on the other side.”