Football On This Day – 28th February 2005. Was it really 20 years ago?.....When it comes to football controversies, few would have expected TV chef, Delia Smith, NOW 83 YEARS OLD!! to be at the centre of one, but at the centre of one she was, on this day in 2005. The majority shareholder of Norwich City grabbed a microphone during the interval of the Premier League match between the Canaries and Manchester City and to drum up a bit of vocal support for the home side had this to say. ‘A message for the best football supporters in the world. We need a twelfth man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let's be having you. Come on." Was she drunk? Was it an undignified outburst or a genuine plea from a loyal supporter? The papers were full of it.
Smith was first invited to invest in the club amid their financial struggles following relegation from the Premier League at the end of the 1994/95 season and after pumping in an initial £2m, she became the majority shareholder a couple of years later.
Sadly though the words didn’t inspire the Canaries – the only goal after the break proved to be the winner for Manchester City and Norwich were relegated at the end of the season. Smith and her husband Michael Wynn Jones, bought Norwich in 1996. They are now Honorary Life Presidents. The 85-year-old, Delia will reportedly not get a penny from giving up her Club shares but the Canaries’s long-term future will be secured by the new owners, who will take on debts understood to be around £59m. “After 28 years as directors of Norwich City, Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones have stepped down to become honorary life presidents. It’s not goodbye, it’s just thank you.” Most recently she agreed to reduce her share of the club to 10 percent in August 2024.
During her time in charge, the Canaries were promoted on six occasions and also relegated six times as they became the archetypal Premier League to Championship "yo-yo" club. The Canaries are 10th in the Championship.
https://youtu.be/NiC679ASOyA = should lead you to her appearance on the pitch!
During her time as owner of the club, the Canaries have spent seven seasons in the top flight, most recently competing in the Premier League in 2022, under Daniel Farke and Dean Smith, with Thorup now in charge of bringing them back as soon as possible. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Smith and Wynn-Jones have a net worth of $36 (£27.8) million. The pair oversaw the club's rise to the top flight, but have since struggled to maintain the same competitiveness in more recent years, leading to outside investment coming in to aid the Norfolk club. Attanasio's involvement with Norwich began in September 2022, initially purchasing an 18 percent stake in the club. This has since risen to an approximately 85 percent stake in the Championship side, reported in the Mirror, with the American becoming increasingly involved in the running of the Norfolk outfit. It has been reported by the Associated Press, that the American businessman has a net worth of $700 (£540) million.
and there's more....do some research!!
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