Lifelong fan says unpaid appointment is ‘an honour and a privilege’ seven months after losing his seat at general election

The former shadow chancellor Ed Balls has reinvented himself on many levels since losing his parliamentary seat, perhaps most surprisingly as a cookery writer.

It should stand him in good stead for his latest venture, after he was announced as the new chairman of Norwich City, where he will share an executive box with the cookery writer and former TV chef Delia Smith.



Balls, 48, who was born in Norwich and is a lifelong Canaries fan, is to take up the unpaid, non-executive role with immediate effect, joining fellow directors at Carrow Road for Monday’s match against Aston Villa.



For the erstwhile parliamentarian, who has had more time on his hands since losing his Morley and Outwood seat at the general election in May, it is an opportunity to indulge a passion for the club he has harboured since he was a small boy.



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The former financial journalist is currently a senior fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School and a visiting professor at King’s College London. A budding pianist – he took his grade 4 exam last year - Balls recently started working as a cookery writer for the rightwing Spectator magazine.



His debut column, on how to perfect a crab and Gruyère souffle Christmas starter, should stand him in good stead with Smith, a Norwich City shareholder with whom he will be able to swap recipes and garner tips.



In a statement, Balls said: “It’s an honour and a privilege to be asked to join the board of directors at Norwich City as chairman.



“From the moment my dad first took me to watch City from the terrace at Carrow Road in 1973, my earliest ambition was to play for the club I loved. But the next best thing is to become chairman of Norwich City and do what I can off the pitch to help City succeed on the pitch.



“The club’s immediate priority and focus is, of course, the retention of our hard-earned Premier League status, and the hard work of my fellow directors and all of my colleagues at the club means Norwich City is in great shape on and off the pitch going into 2016.



“With that foundation, the challenge for all of us at Norwich is to go from the up-and-down fortunes I have known since I was a boy to an era of sustained success, and I will be proud to play my part in that.”

Balls, who is married to the former shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, with whom he has three children, left an opponent with a bloodied eye following a tackle during a charity match in September 2014.

Born at Norfolk and Norwich hospital, Balls moved with his family to Nottingham aged eight, having attended Bawburgh County primary school. But his allegiance to the Norfolk club remained steadfast.

After attending Oxford University, he worked in financial journalism before moving into politics, serving as a Labour MP for 10 years from 2005 and as a minister from 2007 to 2010. Once Gordon Brown’s right-hand man, he was shadow home secretary and shadow chancellor of the exchequer before losing his seat.

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Norwich were promoted back to the Premier League under manager Alex Neil last season. They are currently 17th, having moved out of the relegation zone last week with a 2-1 win at Manchester United, their first victory at Old Trafford since 1989.



Majority shareholders Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones said in a statement: “His economic know-how and experience, coupled with his passion for all things Norwich City, will be a major asset for the board and we’re excited about working closely together with Ed, David McNally and the other directors in this new era for the club.



“Ed will work closely with all of us on the short-, medium- and long-term strategy to shape the future of this great football club”.

Political footballs

Ed Balls is not the first Labour politician to make a foray into football.

Tony Blair Two years before he became prime minister in 1997, Tony Blair played head tennis with then Newcastle United manager Kevin Keegan at the Labour party conference. Keegan’s side, nicknamed the Entertainers, were on a great run of results and part of a sport repairing its image after the violence that seemed to follow it around over the previous couple of decades. Blair and Alastair Campbell wanted to highlight the similarities with their New Labour project. It helped, too, that Blair was a Newcastle fan.

Blair was also fond of a photo opportunity with the former Manchester United manager and staunch Labour supporter Sir Alex Ferguson, while Campbell has always been forthright in his support for Burnley. Campbell, who grew up in West Yorkshire, said his father took him to watch Huddersfield and Leeds before the club he eventually took to his heart. It was, he once said, “the one that stuck”.

David Miliband Fast forward nearly 20 years and the reflected glory of football had lost its glow somewhat. In 2013, David Miliband was forced to sever his links with Sunderland AFC after it appointed Paolo Di Canio, a fascist who had praised Mussolini and given a straight-armed salute while playing for Lazio, as manager. Miliband had joined the club as vice-chairman and as a non-executive director after losing out on the leadership to his brother.



Gordon Brown Less ostentatious, but perhaps more active, in his support for a football club was Gordon Brown. An anecdote from his former spin doctor Damien McBride hints of a man who, besides running the country, liked to get involved with his favourite club: Raith Rovers.

In his memoirs, McBride says that a journalist called saying they had heard that Brown had been discussed contract terms with a player in a Kirkcaldy car park in the middle of the night. Brown’s reaction, McBride says, was to ask if the journalist had photos.