Robert Timothy Chase (born July 1938) is a businessman and the former Chairman of

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

Norwich City career

Chase was elected to the Norwich board in 1982 and became chairman in 1985. Chase's time as Norwich chairman ended acrimoniously in April 1996, with fans calling for his departure following a succession of player sales and disappointing results on the field. However, prior to that, he steered Norwich through one of the most successful periods in the club's history, including three finishes in the top five of the English league and a notable victory against Bayern Munich in the

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. However, the first two top-five finishes had failed to book a UEFA Cup place due to the ban on English clubs in European competitions arising from the

Heysel disaster The Heysel Stadium disaster ( it, Strage dell'Heysel ; german: link=no, Katastrophe von Heysel ; french: Drame du Heysel ; nl, Heizeldrama ) was a crowd disaster that occurred on 29 May 1985 when mostly Juventus fans escaping from a breach by L ...

of 1985. Among the many high-profile players he sold included

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, Steve Bruce, Dale Gordon,

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, Mike Phelan, Kevin Drinkell,

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, Ruel Fox, and

Mark Robins Mark Gordon Robins (born 22 December 1969) is an English football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Coventry City in the EFL Championship. As a player, he was a striker and is best known for his time in the Premier Leagu ...

. All of these players had left by the time Norwich were relegated from the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

in 1995. Chase was voted into the Norwich City Hall of Fame in 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Robert Living people Norwich City F.C. 1938 births