15 Facts About Irving Scholar

Irving Alan Scholar was born on November 1947 and is a property developer and former investor in football clubs, most noted for his time as chairman of Tottenham Hotspur and as a director of Nottingham Forest.

Irving Scholar was instrumental in pushing for higher fees paid by television companies for rights to broadcast football matches.

Irving Scholar was a surveyor and became a property developer and business executive.

Irving Scholar made his money through a company associated with European Ferries called Townsend Thoresen Properties.

However, Irving Scholar became convinced that the club would get into financial trouble over the rebuilding of the stand, and as a fan with a keen interest in the club's fortune, he started buying up shares in the club from various shareholders in order to get into the boardroom.

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Irving Scholar inherited a club in debt to the tune of nearly £5 million, what was then the largest debt in English football, but a rights issue after he took over brought in a million pounds.

Irving Scholar played a significant role in the commercialisation of English football clubs, and his activities in these areas would later see him branded a visionary in a 2001 BBC documentary The Men Who Changed Football, as merchandising and stock market flotation would later become popular for football clubs.

At that time, the television companies operated a cartel to keep the broadcast fees for football on television low, but Irving Scholar persuaded the major clubs that the television companies should be made to pay considerably more for their coverage of football matches.

Irving Scholar looked to Robert Maxwell to help bail the club out.

Irving Scholar finally sold his shares in the club for £2 million and left in the summer of 1991, a couple of months after the club won the FA Cup for the eighth time.

Irving Scholar spoke a couple of weeks later to writer Alex Fynn and predicted that the Sugar-Venables marriage would last a short time, stating "The first year will be the honeymoon, the second will be the divorce".

Irving Scholar published a book about his time at White Hart Lane, Behind Closed Doors, in 1992 with Mihir Bose as his co-author.

Irving Scholar became a director of Nottingham Forest in 1997, as part of a consortium that took over the club.

Irving Scholar would go on to sell some of Nottingham Forest's players behind the back of manager Dave Bassett, which led to Dutch forward Pierre van Hooijdonk going on strike.

In May 1999 Nigel Doughty gained control of Forest after the club's flotation on the Alternative Investment Market, following which Irving Scholar resigned from his directorship in June 1999, accusing other board members of a "farcical lack of professionalism".