Irving Scholar

Irving Alan Scholar (born November 1947) 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.

As chairman of Tottenham, Scholar became known for a number of innovations in the commercialisation of the club, such as floating it on the stock market in October 1983, innovations that were copied by other football clubs. He was also instrumental in pushing for higher fees paid by television companies for rights to broadcast football matches. The financial imperative would eventually led to the formation of the Premier League with Tottenham one of the five prime movers who pushed for its formation. Tottenham won a UEFA Cup and a FA Cup with him at the helm, but his chairmanship at the club ended with heavy financial losses and the club was sold to Alan Sugar and Terry Venables.

Early career

Scholar was a surveyor and became a property developer and business executive. He made his money through a company associated with European Ferries called Townsend Thoresen Properties. He then moved to Monte Carlo for tax reasons.Jason Nisse
BOOK REVIEW / How Irving Scholar won and lost his Spurs: 'Behind Closed Doors'
from ''The Independent''

Tottenham Hotspur

In 1981, Scholar, a lifelong supporter of Tottenham, turned up at a meeting at Tottenham with the intention of leasing a box in the West Stand of White Hart Lane that was to be rebuilt by 1982. However, 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. At that time there was a rift in the boardroom between former chairmen Arthur Richardson and Sidney Wale, and Scholar persuaded Wale to sell his shares, buying up 25% of the club for £600,000. Together with the help of Paul Bobroff who had bought 15% of shares from the family of a previous chairman Fred Bearman, he took control in December 1982 from the Richardson and Wale families who had been major shareholders for many years. After he took over, Douglas Alexiou, the only remaining member of the previous board, was made chairman, but later in 1984 Scholar took over the position of chairman.

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. As chairman of Spurs, Scholar worked closely with fellow property developer Paul Bobroff and they diversified the club into other areas such as computing and the clothing firms Hummel UK and Martex, merchandising as well as floating on the London Stock Exchange, with Spurs becoming the first sports club in the world to float on any stock exchange. 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
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