Keith Harris: football's Mr Fixit
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Contributing editor
Emily Hohler Nov 21, 2008
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The general public may not recognise him, but Keith Harris is arguably "the most influential man in British football", says Duncan White in The Sunday Telegraph. Harris, the 55-year-old chairman of investment bank Seymour Pierce, is the dealmaker behind the Premier League's biggest takeovers. As "happy chatting to his good mate Terry Venables as he is swapping canapés with City blue bloods", says Andrew Davidson in The Times, Harris welcomed Roman Abramovich at Chelsea Village, ushered Randy Lerner into Villa Park, and handled Thaksin Shinawatra's purchase of Manchester City and the takeover of West Ham by Eggert Magnusson. Mike Ashley recently charged him with handling the sale of Newcastle United and Bill Kenwright has asked him to find a billionaire buyer for Everton Football Club.
Harris's role as football's Mr Fixit is just a small part of his work – as well as his role at Seymour Pierce, he's on the board of several companies, including Halfords and Wembley National Stadium. But football has always been a big motivator. A devoted Manchester United fan, as a child the game gave Harris an escape from a "pretty difficult environment" in Stockport. As an economics student at Bradford University he played semi-professional football with Bradford Park Avenue. A first-class degree earned him an offer of a Masters scholarship from Oxford. But Harris didn't think he would be "socially comfortable" and went to Surrey University to do a PhD. After university, a career in investment banking beckoned. Harris found a job at Morgan Grenfell and swiftly rose to become the bank's youngest-ever director at 30. He moved to Drexel Burnham Lambert, then Apax Partners, before being headhunted in 1994 by HSBC. He became CEO of the group's investment banking unit, overseeing a workforce of 7,000. He resigned – reportedly by mutual consent – in 1999, and took up the chairmanship of Seymour Pierce.
He accepted a flattering invitation to chair the Football League in 2000 only to find himself embroiled in "perhaps the biggest crisis the sport has faced", says Frank Kane in The Observer. Shortly after Harris's appointment, ITV Digital pulled the plug on a £315m broadcasting deal with the league. ITV Digital's co-owners Carlton and Granada tried to settle for £50m, but Harris flatly refused. His subsequent failure to recover £130m via the courts prompted his resignation in 2002. Many football clubs were pushed to the brink of bankruptcy and Harris was slated in the press as being "incapable of running a kebab shop".
As well as denting his reputation, the Football League fiasco was a major distraction from Harris's other business interests, notably Seymour Pierce. In April 2003, he led a £7.5m management buyout of the investment banking and broking part of the group, backed by Jon Moulton's Alchemy Partners. Harris's £1.25m investment bought a 20% stake, leaving the rest of the staff with 40%. Harris "appears to have found his spiritual home" at the bank, where he pulled off the £125m acquisition of the Express Group for Richard Desmond in just one month, says Martin Baker. The firm, and Harris, have been in rude health since the buyout. An eventual flotation could make him a very wealthy man.
Keith Harris's Frankenstein betrays him
Harris has been adept at combining business and pleasure in his career, but has been accused of letting his emotions get in the way – most notably in his all-or nothing approach in negotiations with ITV Digital. But Harris is the first to admit that when it comes to football, passion is essential. Take Roman Abramovich, he tells Brian Woolnough in The Daily Star. He paid £140m for Chelsea and has since invested another £300m. "How can he be in it for the money?" His violent opposition to the purchase of Manchester United by American Sports tycoon Malcom Glazer (Harris is the 'eminence grise' of the Manchester United shareholders' activist group) is because he believes Glazer has no love for the game, and bought the club simply to fund his other business interests.
The takeover has a "haunting moral significance" for Harris, says Martin Baker, because he is the man responsible for importing "stockmarket capitalism into the football boardroom". Harris acknowledges this, but says times have changed. Ten years ago, clubs needed capital for their grounds in order to compete, he argues; it has since become clear that they are not suited to being publicly traded firms. Glazer borrowed £660m to finance the Manchester United deal; ticket prices have soared to help service the debt. The Manchester United Supporters Trust says this means fans are "effectively paying for someone to borrow money to own their club". The markets that he has played so well may have made his fortune, says Baker, but as a football fan, "Harris may have created the monster that has broken his own heart".
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Emily Hohler
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