League Championship club Wolverhampton Wanderers has been taken over for £45M ($59.4M) "by a Chinese group, Fosun International," according to the PA.
The Wolves have been up for sale since '15 and Fosun is to "pump up to" £30M ($39.6M) into the club "over the next two years as part of the deal." The investment group "has links with the super-agent Jorge Mendes who represents José Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo and has stakes in the travel agent Thomas Cook, among other interests."
Fosun "will have a football board of four people with Jeff Shi, who led the negotiations on behalf of Fosun, becoming the club’s representative." Sky Sun "will join him with two local businessmen John Bowater and John Gough remaining as non-executive board members." Former Owner Steve Morgan bought Wolves for £10 from Jack Hayward in '07 with the promise of investing £30M into the club. The future of Manager Kenny Jackett, who is currently in Ireland with the squad, "is now in doubt." Jackett is understood "to have told the team earlier this month that the takeover was going ahead and he had been given no assurances over his future" (PA, 7/21). The EXPRESS AND STAR wrote Morgan is selling the club and "pledging to hand part of that sum to charity" if the club is promoted. The sale figure "is significantly lower" than the £45M widely reported.
Sources close to the sale suggest that if Wolves are promoted he will donate "a substantial part" of the sale figure to charity.
After 16 years at Wolves, Jez Moxey "is set to leave the club, although he will stay in his role for a transition period of up to three months." Shi said Fosun's priority "would be winning promotion to the Premier League as soon as possible, but also pledged to invest in Wolves' academy, promote youngsters to the first team and to support the local community" (EXPRESS AND STAR, 7/21).
