In the second of our series about the men who want to buy English football clubs, we tell the story of Dozy Mmobuosi, whose Tingo group of companies p

‘Under every rock, we found a lie’: How the bid to be English football’s first black owner unravelled

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2024-08-30 03:30:04

In the second of our series about the men who want to buy English football clubs, we tell the story of Dozy Mmobuosi, whose Tingo group of companies promised to bring European football to Sheffield United.

This is part of our series about prospective investors and what their interest in English football says about their ambitions and the game itself.

In the 1990 gangster classic Goodfellas, the protagonist Henry Hill goes for the ultimate flex on his first date with future wife Karen by leading her through the kitchen of the coolest club in New York, skipping a queue outside, to a front-row table that has just been laid for them.

It is a scene that encapsulates the movie — Henry and his friends don’t wait in line — and it ends with a question that underlines the point.

It is a question I asked Dozy Mmobuosi last year after I had been led through the basement of The Dorchester hotel to sit across from him at the Chef’s Table — “the best seat in the house”, a private dining room separated from the kitchen by a glass wall that can be transparent so you can watch your meal being made, or opaque so that nobody can see who you have invited.