How 'half a day in Hull' convinced Ilicali to buy Hull City

[Getty Images] Hull City owner Acun Ilicali has been speaking to BBC Radio Humberside in a three-part feature interview covering the four and a half years between him becoming the club's owner to the Tigers securing their return to the Premier League. In the third part, he explained how purchasing Hull City came about and why he felt it was the right move for him. "I realised I wanted to play the game on the biggest stage in the world, which is the Premier League," Ilicali said. "Of course, if you don't have £3bn in cash then you can only go for a Championship club. That's the only way in. "So I started looking at different teams and my team was making presentations for the different teams that we could buy. Derby County, Cardiff City and Swansea City had problems at that time, so they were all options. "When they were making Hull City's presentation to me, they said one very important thing: 'If you buy a team that is pushing in the Championship, they already have a squad, you have to pay for the squad and it will not be your squad'. "But Hull City had just been promoted from League One, so they had a limit to spend money. They said it would be better to look at Hull City first and, if it didn't look good, to then have a look at the others. "So I flew to Hull for half a day to meet Ehab Allam. I landed at Humberside Airport and we went to get lunch somewhere. "I met Ehab Allam at the stadium. He was saying the club had so many offers but they wanted to sell the club to somebody that would make the people happy. They didn't want to just sell to anybody and go. "I also met his father on that day, he was a fantastic guy. After having good conversations with them and seeing the city, I got the feeling. I've always gone through life following my feelings. "I knew that I didn't want to go for another club, I wanted this one. We didn't ask anybody anything after that. I woke up the next morning with a very good feeling, I was excited." Listen to part three of Acun Ilicali's interview on BBC Sounds