Norwich City Football Club have called a general meeting for their shareholders to vote on a resolution to appoint Mark Attanasio as a new director of the football club.
As exclusively reported by the Pink Un back in May, Attanasio has been in advanced negotiations over the purchase of Michael Foulger’s 15.9% minority stake, with an agreement seemingly being reached to take on the shares of the Canaries’ deputy club chairman.
Attanasio, along with a seven-strong delegation of close associates including his two sons, were in attendance at Carrow Road for the club’s final Premier League game of the season against Tottenham Hotspur, also visiting other sites including their Colney training ground and the Community Sports Foundation’s The Nest.
Attanasio is reportedly worth $700m and has owned the Brewers since 2004 – he would become the first person since the Turners to acquire a significant new shareholding in the club and the sixth member of the club's board.
Foulger made his desire to sell his shares known to City’s hierarchy earlier this year, with the club then embarking on a process to find a person suitable and willing to purchase them. That was Attanasio, who is now poised to become the club’s second biggest holder of shares behind Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones.
A statement on the club website read: "Norwich City has issued a notice to the club’s shareholders for a general meeting on Monday, September 12, 2022.
'The formal business will be limited, and will include a resolution to appoint Mark Attanasio, an American businessman and principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, as a new director of the football club.
'Only the club’s current directors and shareholders will be present, and given the anticipated short length of the meeting, shareholders are encouraged to vote by proxy.
'The club will issue a further announcement following the conclusion of the shareholder proceedings and legal formalities.'
Attanasio’s own media team declined to comment on Friday.
Robin Sainty, chairman of the Canaries Trust, which is the club’s sixth largest shareholders, said: “Obviously I think everybody was aware that an announcement of some sort would come around now but there is very little detail yet and we shouldn’t be reading things into it that are not there. We need to wait until the club release more details.
“The fact that Mark Attanasio is coming on board I think is a very positive thing. One assumes more information will come out fairly shortly but while this is a positive step, I hope people don’t start building castles in the air just yet.”
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