EuroMillions winner buys football club and gives it back to fans
Colin Weir, who won the EuroMillions in 2011, has completed his takeover of Partick Thistle.
The 71-year-old took home £161 million eight years ago and is a lifelong supporter of the Glasgow club. Having invested £2.5 million initially in The Jags, as well as setting aside nearly three times that amount to develop a new training complex, he has purchased a majority (55%) shareholding in the club.
Weir also bought a holding in the land at Partick’s Firhill Stadium and will immediately give it back to the team.
Next on his agenda is to develop a fan group that will help run club matters through ‘community ownership’.
The club released a statement saying that they are ‘planning for an exciting future’ and that ‘work will begin immediately on developing plans’.
In his own statement, Weir said: “This is a major financial commitment on my part as fan owners will not need to repay a penny - but I believe this gives fan ownership the best possible start."
Club statement in full:
The takeover of Partick Thistle by long term Jags fan Colin Weir allows the club to begin planning for an exciting future with the prospect of becoming a fully-fledged community owned club.
Colin’s generosity means we begin this process in a strong position. The club is debt free and for the first time in over a decade now has full ownership of Firhill.
Work will begin immediately on developing plans for community ownership. At its first meeting, the interim Board agreed that the priority at this stage is to ensure the club has stability on and off the park.
Although we are in a disappointing position, pushing up the league table towards the play offs has to be the least of our ambitions this season.
Ian McCall and the football management team have already achieved some great results in the short time since they were appointed and we are just one game away from a national cup final.
We all know what Thistle means to Ian and we are confident that along with Alan and Neil, they are the right people to help take Thistle forward on the pitch.
It will be our job as the board to work with the chief executive Gerry Britton to provide the support they need to get Thistle back where we belong.
There is a lot of hard work to be done on and off the pitch to achieve that success but we believe that this is the beginning of an exciting new era for the club.
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