What is it about Watford FC that attracts some of the richest men in the UK to put their cash into the club? First a couple of high profile spells as chairman by everyone’s favourite panto dame Elton John and now deputy chairman of the Conservative Party Lord Michael Ashcroft is to take his shareholding in the club up to around 42%.

The billionaire was the Tory Party’s Treasurer from 1998 to 2001, under William Hague’s leadership and is one of their major donors and as such will be no stranger to throwing money away on failed bids for success although he is inheriting a football ship in better shape than his political one with Watford sitting fourth in The Championship and pushing Leeds United and Sheffield United for the second automatic promotion spot behind Reading.

He has praised the current club leadership and although he makes a big point about mentioning the good business lines the club is ran on, it should always be remembered that, to paraphrase Sir Richard Branson, the best way to turn a billionaire into a millionaire is to buy over a football club.

Whether Watford can make a more sustained effort at staying in the Premiership if they do get promoted this time will depend largely on the money made available to manager Aidy Boothroyd and how far Lord Ashcroft reaches into his change pocket.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Watford. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.