Hull City owner Acun Ilicali is actively looking for outside investment to ease the financial burden of owning a Championship football club and would consider a partial sale of the club. Hull Live has learnt the City owner has held talks with potential investors in recent months and while no agreement has been found with any one person or group, the City chairman hopes to continue that pursuit in coming months.
City are one of a host of clubs in English football’s second tier who have not had the benefit of the Premier League’s parachute payments in recent seasons, and after a heavy spending spree over the past few transfer windows, the club are feeling the hit of their endeavours with debts rising to a last recorded £66m.
City’s most recent statement of accounts showed the club were losing around £500,000 per week, an amount which essentially comes out of Ilicali’s pocket. Since those accounts were submitted, City have recouped around £30m in transfer fees with the sales of Jacob Greaves to Ipswich Town and Jaden Philogene back to Aston Villa, but there was also a significant outlay last summer with the arrivals of Liam Millar, Mohamed Belloumi, Charlie Hughes, Ryan Giles and Abu Kamara.
Ilicali continues to fund the East Yorkshire club and remains fully committed, but it’s understood he would welcome outside investment to help shoulder some of the huge costs being run up, if the right person or group came forward.
The Turkish businessman has owned the Tigers since taking over from the Allam family in January 2022. He has had offers to sell the club and step away, but has not engaged in any approaches for a full sale and wants to keep hold of the club. It is understood a condition of any investment is that Ilicali retains overall control of the club.
Hull Live has been told nothing is imminent in terms of financial backing coming in to help Ilicali, but conversations have been held and will continue over the coming weeks and months in the hope of finding investment to boost the club’s financial position.
Ilicali will again look to back his manager this summer, but given the nature of being a club in the Championship, there’s an acceptance that players will have to be sold to balance the books and enable the new manager to bring in new faces to strengthen the squad.