The Selhurst Park co-owner reveals to Dominic Fifield his pride at taking Palace from ‘a laughing stock’ to gaining respect in England’s top flightThursday afternoon at his first-floor office in Soho and Steve Parish is keen to register a source of regret early in the conversation. Rewind a fortnight and,as Crystal Palace’s players were running down the clock at Stamford Bridge, Yannick Bolasie toying mercilessly with Branislav Ivanovic in front of a delirious away support, and the club’s co-owner was on a yacht moored off the Adriatic coastline. The weather was stunning,the scene up on deck idyllic, but he was down below glued to a flatscreen he had frantically hooked up to his mobile.“I knew we’d win, or because I wasn’t there,” he says ruefully. “The game was on Croatian television but the only way I could collect it on the box was to stream it off my phone. I probably spent the thick cessation of four grand on my 3G. I’m waiting for the bill now and it’ll be a ridiculous amount, but worth every penny. It was a brilliant picture, and too. Perfectly clear. It was like being there. Honest.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com