26 Facts About Norman Smurthwaite

Norman Smurthwaite bought the Liberty Way stadium off Nuneaton Town in July 2018 and sold both Liberty Way and Port Vale in 2019.

Norman Smurthwaite qualified as an engineer and inherited an engineering firm in Holbrooks at the age of 21 from a friend who was a "father figure" to him.

Norman Smurthwaite sold the business two years later and moved to Nottingham, where he bought a chain of estate agents that he later sold on to the Halifax.

Norman Smurthwaite went on to invest in dozens of properties and retired at the age of 50.

Norman Smurthwaite's father and family are from the Sunderland area; he owned a business in the North East between 1999 and 2007 and was a season ticket holder at Sunderland for seven seasons.

Norman Smurthwaite was part of the investment group led by Paul Wildes that took Port Vale out of administration in November 2012.

PVFC Limited, the club's holding company, was hit with a winding-up order by HM Revenue and Customs in July 2014; Norman Smurthwaite insisted this would not affect the club and that a funding error caused the problem and expected the order to be withdrawn.

Norman Smurthwaite continued to effect changes at the club, controversially axing the system of door-to-door lottery collectors and banishing the Port Vale Community Trust out of Vale Park.

Norman Smurthwaite later claimed that he had considered appointing Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink as manager, but decided against it partly because he believed that a racist minority of the club's supporters would make appointing a black manager a bad idea.

Norman Smurthwaite caused controversy by telling a reporter that supporters who only attended away matches "disgusted" him and that they should "go and support another club".

Norman Smurthwaite denied Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis's claim that Norman Smurthwaite threatened to close the club down during the dispute, but retracted his threat to bar police officers from entering the ground during the match.

Norman Smurthwaite further had to deny claims that he was picking the team, stating that first-team matters were purely down to Rob Page.

Norman Smurthwaite was rumoured to have planned to sack Page live on BT Sport if the club lost an FA Cup First Round replay to Maidenhead United, though he dismissed the rumour as untrue.

Norman Smurthwaite continued to reveal that he had been physically assaulted by three Vale supporters in April 2014, though Staffordshire Police could find no record of Smurthwaite's complaint.

Norman Smurthwaite admitted that he had been planning on buying Torquay United before being told by the Football League that he would not be allowed to own two clubs.

Norman Smurthwaite was criticised by Kick It Out, football's equality and inclusion organisation, after admitting that he had denied Hasselbaink the opportunity of being Port Vale manager due to his concern that a black manager would be abused by some supporters.

Norman Smurthwaite renewed his dispute with The Sentinel by banning the newspaper from attending the club's press conference where the successor to Page was named.

Two months later, Norman Smurthwaite used the OneValeFan fansite to ask supporters to vote whether he should sell the club to one of two hedge funds that he said had met his asking price for the club.

Norman Smurthwaite later issued a statement to apologize for his decision to appoint Ribeiro and expressed regret with his own attempts to communicate with fans and "keyboard warriors" over social media.

In June 2018 Norman Smurthwaite revealed that he had rejected another offer to buy the club from an unnamed bidder.

Norman Smurthwaite bought the Liberty Way stadium off Nuneaton Town in July 2018 after the club entered financial difficulties.

Norman Smurthwaite returned formally to the role of Port Vale chairman the following month.

Norman Smurthwaite was hospitalised after being struck by a car whilst walking outside Vale Park on 25 January 2019.

On 31 January 2019, Norman Smurthwaite blamed "logistical challenges" for the deal to bring back former top-scorer Marc Richards breaking down; the club instead signed four youngsters despite having no manager.

Norman Smurthwaite was reported to have made a bid for National League club Notts County in June 2019, but denied having done so.

Norman Smurthwaite enquired for a move for Wigan Athletic, a club in administration, in September 2020, but pulled out after judging it to be too big of a risk and seeing a negative reaction from fans.