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Whiting: Good progress being made on proposed investment deal Cobblers CEO James Whiting says the ongoing investment deal with a Brazilian consortium continues to make ‘good progress’ despite no formal announcement being made before the start of the new League Two season. The deal, which was first announced back in April, has been agreed and is waiting for sign off from the EFL and Independent Football Regulator (IFR). Chairman Kelvin Thomas had hoped it would be completed before the start of the season. It was reported earlier this month that investment consortium Sports Alpha Capital (SAC), managed by Brazilian businessman Joao Xavier and featuring former AC Milan and Brazil star Alexandre Pato, were the group involved in trying to buy a stake in the club. However, while that remains the case, the process continues to drag on due to the rigorous new procedures put in place by the EFL and IFR for incoming investors into English football. Writing in the matchday programme for Saturday’s opening game of the new League Two season against Swindon, Whiting said: “Of course, this has also been a summer of speculation regarding the potential new investment. “The process remains under an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) which prevents us from going into greater detail, however we can say that good progress continues to be made and approval currently sits with the EFL (English Football League) and IFR (Independent Football Regulator). We hope to be able to update supporters shortly.” Whiting also spoke about the summer in general, adding: “A warm welcome of course, to our new manager Chris Hogg, and his assistant, Chris Doig. Both were appointed back in May and I think it is fair to say they have impressed us all with the way they have gone about their work over the last few months. “While you can never read too much in to pre-season, and we will of course have our ups and downs over the course of the season, you could see the identity, the structure and the organisation form in the group and that has come about thanks to a lot of hard work over the last couple of months, as well as what we hope will prove some good additions to the squad. “I thought we saw plenty of encouraging signs in the Carabao Cup at Leicester City last weekend. We couldn’t have had a much tougher draw, I think we all expect Leicester to do well in League One this season, but I thought we gave an excellent account of ourselves and it was very much an afternoon where we could take plenty of positives, not least of course the fantastic support we had. To take 2,000 fans to Leicester City was superb and we are very grateful for that. Thank you.”