putting smile on face of the city
AS Assem Allam gazed out over the thousands of Tigers fans celebrating promotion a week ago, he felt a warm glow.
His 2010 purchase of the club, which at the time had been described by then director of football operations Adam Pearson as being “a gift to Hull”, had paid the kind of dividends the Egypt-born businessman had hoped. Namely, putting a smile back on the face of his adopted city.
“After living here for more than 40 years,” says Allam, who fled his homeland in 1968 to avoid persecution for speaking out against President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s regime, “I felt I had a duty to the community when the club got into trouble. I have made a good life here and that is why I had to help.”