In his first exclusive column for The Athletic, an anonymous club owner dishes the dirt on the ‘crazy’ world of football…



Why the hell would you become the owner of a football club? Ego and vanity — it’s as simple as that.



When I started making money, I wanted some fun and was wondering what was the best vanity project to get involved in? I wanted to do it because it gave me a great release from the stresses of work and it also gave me that sensation of “what the fuck!” as now all eyes are on you. No one had ever heard of me and then, the minute I bought a football club, the newspapers, the TV, all kinds of people are trying to get into your life, they’re trying to make you out to be a bad guy. You’re a middle-aged guy who has a big house then because you own a football club all of a sudden you must be an arms dealer, you must be a drug dealer or you must be ripping off clients.



So you bring all...