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Former kit salesman Geoff Sheard the man behind takeover
GEOFF Sheard's first significant involvement with the commercial side of football came when he worked for sports manufacturer Asics in the Nineties.
Asics supplied kit for a number of leading English clubs, including Leeds, Newcastle and Blackburn, with Sheard working within the sales arm of the company.
He then got involved in working with a chain of sports shops, including running the club shop at Preston North End.
More recently he's worked as a consultant for a company called Sockatyes, which makes branded sock tie-ups for a range of professional clubs.
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His role there has brought him into contact with various movers and shakers within the football world, including football agent Philip Morrison.
Sheard says it was Morrison who was originally contacted by investors wanting to buy into an English club and the agent then subsequently asked him to locate a suitable club.
Morrison did not respond when contacted by the Yorkshire Post.
How the investors would make money by buying control of Sheffield Wednesday remains as much a mystery as their actual identity, which has remained a closely guarded secret.
Sheard has said one is British and the other German, though neither have had any previous involvement with football.
Loosening the financial shackles would involve a huge investment with no guaranteed return, unless the club returned to the Premiership.
Although his home is an impressive restored barnhouse in Nether Kellet, near Lancaster, none of the money to buy control of Wednesday would come from Sheard.
Despite being based in Lancashire, family connections with Huddersfield Town meant Sheard's first footballing experiences were at the old Leeds Road ground.
But he has clearly developed an affinity with Wednesday, attending a clutch of matches this season, including the away match at Wolves. He plans to attend tomorrow's home game with Watford and travel to Reading for the away game on Tuesday.
Sheard, educated at the Royal Lancaster Grammar School, retains close links with his local community and regularly turns out as a cricketer for the village of Caton, near to his current home and where he used to live.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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