Deadly Doug's Cash Bonanza - 31/10/2006

Football magazine 4-4-2 has been looking into just how much money 'Deadly' Doug Ellis made out of Aston Villa and it is understood that BBC television is also preparing a programme on the subject. Ellis made his money selling holidays in the post-war foreign travel boom. After initial involvements with Birmingham City and then Villa, and a brief spell at Wolves, he returned to Villa and acquired 42 per cent of the shares at a price that has never been publicly revealed but is thought to be below £500,000. A company he owned, Ellmarton Construction, was paid 'administration fees' of £108,000 in the 1980s. With the passage of time it is not clear what these were for, although 'secretarial services' is one suggestion. From 1986 Villa's constitution was changed so that one director could be paid. Step forward Doug Ellis. At this stage he never got more than £30,000 a year, although by the end of the 1980s only four Villa players were getting more than £45,000 a year. When Villa floated in 1996, Ellis sold 363,636 shares at the float price of £11, making £4 million, whilst still retaining a 33 per cent stake in the company. Of course, people at other clubs benefitted from flotation.

From 1998-2001 the plc announced a dividend of 8.8p on each share, reduced to 7.7p in 2002, giving Ellis a total of £1.65m. The dividends dried up as Villa started to lose money after 2003, but Ellis' salary (agreed, of course, by a renumeration committee) reached £296,555 in 2005. When he sold his remaining Villa shares he netted £20.14m and, because he had a twelve month contract, he was due £300,840 for leaving. 4-4-2 calculate that he made a total of £29m from Villa in the period since 1982. His defenders could argue that he kept Villa in the Premiership and avoided the kind of financial meltdown experienced at Leeds. But supposing, for example, the dividend payments had been largely invested in the team. Would Villa's revival have started earlier?