"I wouldn’t be against" - Turki Alalshikh name-dropped as Hull City owner Acun Ilicali seeks Tigers investment | OneFootball

Tigers owner Ilicali is looking for new investors to help the club achieve Championship success

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Hull City owner Acun Ilicali's plans to source outside investment into the Tigers has been looked at as a positive thing for the club moving forward by our FLW fan pundit, who does not want to see him sell up anytime soon despite their struggles on and off the pitch in recent times.

Turkish entrepreneur Ilicali became the Tigers' owner and chairman in January 2022, as he took over from Assem Allam and assumed sole ownership through his television production company ACUNMEDYA.

The 55-year-old is a high-profile public figure in his home country, after making his name as a TV broadcaster and media mogul. He has also previously owned shares in Dutch team Fortuna Sittard and Irish club Shelbourne, while he is currently vice-chairman of Turkish giants and boyhood club Fenerbahçe alongside his role at Hull.

Tigers fan pundit offers 'sensible' Acun Ilicali investment verdict

Ilicali is yet to oversee any proper progress from the Tigers on the pitch since he took charge, but the general atmosphere and profile of the club has certainly improved due to his style of ownership.

His decisions regarding transfers and managerial appointments can certainly be questioned, though, especially after Tim Walter's failure at the club earlier in the last season, which ultimately led them to struggle near the bottom of the second-tier as Ruben Selles guided them to safety on the final day.

The Turkish owner surprisingly moved to relieve Selles of his duties just two weeks after the season ended, however, and is now on the hunt for his third managerial appointment in 12 months.

The Tigers' most recent financial accounts did not make for great reading, with a pre-tax loss of £18.8 million, mainly due to a significant rise in wages and a decrease in profit from player sales. Their revenue did increase by 17% from the previous year though, with commercial, matchday and broadcasting revenue all going up.

Hull Live have recently revealed that Ilicali is actively looking for outside investment into the club, and would consider a partial sale to ease their financial burdens. He has reportedly held talks with potential investors in recent months, and while no agreement has been found with any one person or group, he hopes to continue that pursuit ahead of the new season.

FLW's Tigers fan pundit, Cameron Gibson, believes that looking for fresh investment into the club is the right thing for the Turkish owner to do right now, due to their potential off-pitch struggles, and he does not want to see him sell up and move on due to the fact that he cares about the club and has ambitions to take them into the top-flight.

However, the one caveat is that he would not mind Ilicali moving on if a billionaire that is ambitious would be ready to take it on, name-dropping Saudi Arabian sports mogul Turki Alalshikh as one individual in particular.

“If I’m being completely honest, I think it is quite sensible from (Acun Ilicali) to seek investment, because as things stand, based off the latest accounts and what gets spoken in the local media, the club is spending about £500,000 a week on wages and running the club," Cameron told FLW.

“So, realistically, Acun is spending £2 million a month out of his own pocket running the club, with the hopes of getting to the Premier League.

“My concerns as a fan is obviously that is then classed as debt to his company, so if someone else was to take over the club, then I doubt he is going to wipe away that debt.

“Therefore, on top of the value of the club there is close to £60 million there already that the club is in debt, based off the last accounts.

“It’s concerning, but I think most Championship clubs are going through this, because the gap is now so big from the top six down, really. We know the jump up to the Premier League is absolutely massive, so investment is huge.

“I don’t actually know how much longer football can go like this. You’re seeing the numbers that are being spent in the Premier League, and the amount of money that clubs are charging for tickets, merchandise, shirts etc. How long is that going to continue to be sustainable?

“A club like Hull City has its diehard, local fanbase, we don’t have the luxury of tourists and passive income from people that are popping in for a one-off game as much as your Chelsea’s, Man United’s and Tottenham’s.

“I’m quite concerned for the overall football picture, and how football is going to keep running with this amount of investment required to sustain clubs now. It seems really unrealistic.

“We’ve never known exactly what (Acun’s) net worth is. He’s obviously a wealthy man, and he knows a lot of very wealthy people in Turkey, hence why he has been really good at getting some great sponsorships in for the club.

“We’ve had some amazing sponsors that have probably put a lot of money in to allow us to get to this point.

“Acun has not said that he is going to pull the chequebook away or anything like that, he still says he is going to spend what he can, and is still going to give us a top 10 budget.

“I’m not concerned about him leaving. I wouldn’t be against him leaving if there was Turki Alalshikh or someone there with billions, but on the other hand, Acun has put his heart and soul into the club.

“It may not have gone how he wanted it to so far, but no one can deny, when you’re spending £15 million a season running a club, he has done absolutely everything that the Allam’s didn’t do.

“I don’t think the fanbase is in any rush to see Acun leave, because we know what can happen with a change of owner if it’s not one that’s well thought through.”

Acun Ilicali needs to keep Hull stable on the pitch to achieve the success he wants

It is clear that Ilicali's heart is in the right place when it comes to the Tigers, but his desire to achieve instant success has also arguably been a stumbling block for the club's progress over the last few years.

Hull finished seventh in the Championship in 2023/24 under Liam Rosenior, with a good squad that relied heavily on loanees to help them in their push for a play-off finish.

That was their highest finish since relegation from the Premier League in 2017, yet Rosenior was sacked due to his differing opinions on their style of football with the owner.

Nearly a year later, and the Turkish chairman must surely regret his decision.

Tim Walter was hired ahead of the new season with the challenge of improving the team and making a real charge for promotion, yet he was unable to implement his style properly and was sacked in November after just 18 games in charge, with the club in the bottom three.

Reading boss Ruben Selles was snapped up by the Tigers to become their new head-coach just a month later, and while he was able to lead them away from danger, he was soon sacked not long after the end of the campaign. The club's following statement insisted that they felt "a change in leadership is necessary to move the team forward in line with our ambitions."

Ilicali has the right ideas about how to run a club like Hull, but on-pitch fortunes need to follow for him to be deemed a definite success at the MKM Stadium.

Aside from any investment into the club for transfers or to ease financial worries, he needs to appoint a head-coach that he is happy to let fail before they succeed, or the Tigers will simply get nowhere while he is at the helm.