David Parkin on being fit and proper and tasting the high life in Sheffield

WHAT exactly is a fit and proper person?

Clearly the Football League has no idea. It decided that Italian businessman Massimo Cellino was disqualified from investing in Leeds United under its “fit and proper persons” rule only to have this overruled by an appeal hearing conducted by a QC.

The Italian, who owns Sardian club Cagliari, saw his deal to buy a 75% stake in the debt-ridden Championship club from Gulf Finance House vetoed because he had been convicted of avoiding tax payments on a luxury yacht.

But having overturned that decision through an appeal, it really does call into question what the fit and proper rule is and how it can actually be applied.

Perhaps it should be scrapped and replaced with a sanity test. Anyone who wants to invest in a football club does need their head tested, particularly one who wants to buy a stake in a club that doesn’t own its own stadium or training ground, is losing an estimated £1m a month and has debts of more than £20m.

And Cellino’s investment means he will have to work alongside the GFH team and chief executive David Haigh, a group who haven’t exactly distinguished themselves with their stewardship of a club where off the field management has been even worse than its footballing performance in recent years.

You would have thought the league would have a better idea of how to apply its rules given chief executive Shaun Harvey has past experience of working under chairmen Geoffrey Richmond at Bradford and Ken Bates at Leeds.

If it applied its fit and proper persons rule retrospectively then there probably wouldn’t be many directors, managers or players left in football.

And if you told the Football League that Attila the Hun was looking to buy Accrington Stanley then it would probably appoint a committee to consider the proposal.

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SHEFFIELD was positively shimmering in the glow of a spring evening on Wednesday when I introduced a wine tasting evening hosted by Investec Wealth & Investment.

From the glass Adelphi Room at the Crucible Theatre, guests had the chance to look out onto the square below and the Winter Gardens beyond.

In the room Investec had come up with the great idea of combining the expertise of its head of UK equities, Guy Ellison, and wine conniseur Charles Womersley, known as Charlie the Wine.

While Guy outlined the investment opportunities in each of six countries around the globe, Charlie then introduced a wine from each country which guests sampled along with food associated with that nation.

Both provided a fascinating overview of their specialist subject. Charlie claimed that 60% of wne bought in the UK drunk within two hours of purchase. I don’t care whether this is fact or fiction, it’s a great quote.

He said his worst career moment came when he hosted a wine tasting for pharmaceuticals giant Astra Zeneca in Cheshire. He told the gathered audience that the wine they were tasting was good enough to drink after experiencing “your worst nightmare, which for most of us is a shopping trip to IKEA”.

He then discovered he was speaking to 40 Swedish scientists.

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ONE of the guests at the wine tasting was Mark Bower, finance director of family-owned timber firm Arnold Laver.

Keen golfer Mark and fellow members of the Hallamshire Golf Club will be following the fortunes of their 19-year-old member Matt Fitzpatrick over the next few days as he competes in the US Masters at Augusta.

The only downside for the US Amateur Champion if he makes the cut is that he will miss out on a trip to see his team Sheffield United play in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley against Hull this weekend.

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ANOTHER member of the Yorkshire business community to sample sporting success this week was entrepreneur Andrew Cope.

A serial deal doer during his time running vehicle leasing business Zenith, Andrew recently completed the sale of the business to HG Capital in a deal worth well north of £200m.

However he hasn’t rested on his laurels and this week it was announced he has bought into Huddersfield-based road incident specialist FMG.

Expect to see plenty of activity there following his appointment as executive chairman.

Last Saturday Andrew was at Doncaster to see the first horse bearing his own colours romp home at 22-1.

It was called Cock of the North, a name Andrew revels in.

Given its father was called Cockney Rebel he came up with the name and couldn’t believe it hadn’t been claimed before.

Turf experts tell me that on paper the two-year-old horse didn’t look like it had much of a chance at the first flat meeting of the season.

But Colin Stirling of Spirit Capital, which has a stake in FMG, told me he put a bet on Cock of the North because Andrew has that great combination of skill and luck which you just can’t bet against.

He’s also fiercely competitive. I once made the mistake of betting with him on a game of golf. I went five holes up on the first nine to which Copey responded by launching a fightback which involved psychological warfare last put into practice by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

I was a phyically and mentally broken man by the 14th hole as Andrew triumphed with ease and sauntered down the golf course as cock of the walk.

Have a great weekend.