Tottenham chief Vinai Venkatesham stresses Lewis family ‘firm backing’ for club

Tottenham chief executive Vinai Venkatesham has emphasised the Lewis family’s passion, ambition and “firm backing” as the club embark on the post-Daniel Levy era.

A statement from the board late on Sunday confirmed that the owners have no intention of selling Spurs despite reported interest from Amanda Staveley, saying it had “unequivocally rejected” two expressions of interest in acquiring the club.

Levy stepped down from his role as executive chairman last Thursday, after being invited to leave the position he had held since 2001 by majority owners ENIC, which is owned by the Lewis family trust.

“The Lewis family are really clear,” Venkatesham told the club’s in-house media channel. “They see their involvement in Tottenham as being long term. They see it continuing through the generations.

“We made a statement which I hope was unambiguously clear, that Tottenham Hotspur is not for sale.”

Levy brought an end his 25-year stay at the club last week following a season in which Spurs ended a 17-year wait for a trophy but also recorded their worst Premier League finish.

Under his direction, the club underwent heavy infrastructure changes including the financing and construction of a new 60,000-capacity stadium and state of the art training ground.

Venkatesham said that the succession, which involves board member Peter Charrington taking over as non-executive chairman, is in hand as they seek to build on victory in the Europa League final in Bilbao in May.

“The club is well organised for succession,” he said. “We have a very strong executive team in place. Whilst it might seem like a slightly strange thing to say to the external world, though it’s big news, inside the club it really is business as usual.

“This is a new era for the club, under new leadership, completely backed by our majority shareholder the Lewis family. We can feel optimistic and ambitious for the future as well.

“We saw in May in Bilbao what the next step is. It’s competing for and winning major trophies. We’ve had a taste of that.”

One of the principal frustrations felt by supporters towards Levy was a perceived lack of investment in the squad, something Venkatesham said is high amongst the club’s priorities moving forward.

“It is fair to say we have firm backing from the Lewis family against our ambitions to be successful,” he said. “They know that’s going to require investment.

“But like all 20 Premier League clubs we need to make sure we are cognisant of financial fair play rules. That means we need to continue to grow our revenues, we need to continue to develop players from the candy and players we buy, we need to make sure we’re selling players at the right time, and we need to make sure we’re making smart decisions.

“If you don’t do that you can find yourself in a position where you’ve got many to spend but the regulations don’t allow you to spend it.

“Absolutely there’s financial backing against the ambition we have, but like every club we have to do that in line with the financial fair play rules.”