Crystal Palace’s co-owner Steve Parish is hoping to have the deal to sell a sizeable shareholding to American investors in place before Christmas and has moved to reassure fans that he remains committed to the club.
Palace have reached an agreement in principle with Josh Harris, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management and his business partner David Blitzer. Under the offer Parish, who owns a 25% stake in Palace along with the three other members of the CPFC 2010 consortium – Stephen Browett, Jeremy Hosking and Martin Long – having bought the club out of administration five years ago, would continue to run the day-to-day operations at Selhurst Park.
Writing in his programme notes ahead of Monday night’s Premier League fixture against Sunderland, Parish admitted that talks are at “an advanced stage” and assured supporters that redeveloping Selhurst Park will be their main priority.
“There has once again been plenty of speculation regarding potential investment in the club. I can confirm that talks are in an advanced stage which would still see me as the joint largest shareholder alongside David Blitzer and Josh Harris, meaning the day-today running of the club will remain the same,” he wrote.
“It’s important to me and the three other current owners, who will all stay involved in any future structure, that the club remains in the hands of people who love it as much as we do, and we’ll continue to do everything we can to drive it forward and establish ourselves as a force in the Premier League for a long time.
“Redeveloping the stadium is key to that, and this is what the extra finance will help bring about sooner than we can at the present. I feel as though the current owners and new investors can work together well and hopefully a mix of UK and USA personnel can help avoid the mistakes fans from other clubs have experienced when boardroom level changes are made.
Parish added: “I know some people may have reservations about this but I firmly believe this is what is needed to move us to the next level, and as always we only have the club’s best intentions at heart.
“If it all goes ahead then it’ll be great for Crystal Palace Football Club, but we all know that these deals are complicated things so if it doesn’t go through then we’ll still be in a good position. I’ve said that we hope to get things done before Christmas if possible but we’ll see – I’ll keep you informed.”
