Norwich City’s talks with US investors could help them escape their ‘purgatory’ between the Premier League and the Championship, for leading football finance expert Kieran Maguire.

The highly-respected academic, author and co-host of ‘The Price of Football’ podcast insists the Canaries are an attractive proposition for potential investment.

Milwaukee Brewers’ owner, Mark Attanasio, headed a delegation who visited Carrow Road and Colney for discussions with City officials on a flying visit to Norfolk around the Premier League finale against Tottenham.

The Americans are believed to be interested in acquiring shares, although neither Attanasio’s circle or the football club will comment publicly while discussions continue.

Maguire believes City have the right people in place to avoid some of the pitfalls associated with outside investment.

“The small print of any new deal is absolutely critical. And you would hope that the present owners of Norwich City would be aware of that,” he said. “The Norwich finance team, in my opinion, are extremely professional and would be able to show the merits and negatives of any financial consequences of a deal.

“The important thing ideally is that if there is any deal, it doesn’t involve the club being loaded with debt.

“What you don’t want is a situation similar to what we’ve seen at Burnley. They were taken over by people who borrowed money against the club’s own assets in order to fund the deal.

“And there was a clause in that lending arrangement that should Burnley be relegated they’ve got to pay back almost all of £65m borrowed over the course of the summer immediately following relegation.

“That’s put Burnley into an uncomfortable position.

“Norwich are in this sort of this ‘purgatory’ that they’re going too good for the Championship, struggling in the Premier League. The additional revenues, or additional investment, potentially could give them that bit of breathing space that you need to survive in that first season in the Premier League.

“But it would have to be on the case of what are the terms and conditions involved, because I would not want Norwich to go through a similar position to what we’ve seen with Burnley.”

Maguire mapped out two paths to potential new investment at Carrow Road.

“You can buy all, or a proportion of the shares, from the existing shareholders. There’s no advantage to the club in that because that’s cash changing hands between individuals,” he said. “The second way is for the club itself to issue shares, and certainly within Norwich’s own constitution that is feasible, and then the cash is injected into the club.

 

“If we take a look at what we’ve seen with Leeds United, they’ve had the San Francisco 49ers, broadly, take a similar approach. They bought some shares from the owner, and they’ve invested cash to top that up as well.

“We’re seeing with West Ham, again, a minority investor, initially, with perhaps an option to take over the club at a later date in time. That can run relatively smoothly.”