Frank Warren has revealed he was ‘pretty close’ to buying Tottenham despite his love for rivals Arsenal.
The promoter is famous for his work in the world of boxing, but things could have turned out very differently if he had tried his hand at football.
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The 72-year-old is the founder of Queensbury Promotions, which represents current WBC world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Warren has enjoyed success promoting and managing a host of former champions, including Frank Bruno, Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank and Ricky Hatton.
But he almost got into the football business in the 1990s when the opportunity to acquire Tottenham arose.
Warren has linked up with former Spurs boss Terry Venables in the hope of securing a deal despite his club allegiances with the Gunners.
Warren revealed how close he was to buying Tottenham before Alan Sugar’s takeover of the club in 1991.
“I almost did it, I almost did it with Terry Venables years ago,” Warren told That Peter Crouch Podcast when asked if he ever thought about getting into football .
“I actually organized it for him to get involved with Spurs. We did it in my dressing room at the old Arsenal stadium.
“We sat down and we were going to make a deal with Irving Scholar and Tony Berry, who was a director there at the time.
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“We were pretty close and the person who was going to finance him literally disappeared and he went to do the deal with Alan Sugar.”
Sugar bought Tottenham in 1991, spending a decade at the helm before selling his majority stake in the club in 2001 to leisure group ENIC.
He then appointed Venables as general manager after having been a player and manager at the club.
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