FORMER AFC Bournemouth chairman Eddie Mitchell has died.
Local property developer Mitchell helped make Sandbanks – Britain’s equivalent to Miami Beach – a millionaires’ playground.
Former AFC Bournemouth chairman Eddie Mitchell has diedRex Features
GettyMitchell helped make Sandbanks a millionaires’ playground[/caption]
It’s renowned as a hotspot for the rich and famous, and has attracted celebrities such as Rick Stein, Harry Redknapp, Karl Pilkington, John Lennon, and Liam Gallagher.
He also introduced major share-holder Maxim Demin to the South Coast club.
But soon after the Russian bought the Cherries, Mitchell was banned from Bournemouth and told never to return.
It was Mitchell who negotiated Eddie Howe‘s return from Burnley in 2012 during his four-year spell in charge.
That history-making decision came off big time and Howe drove the side into the top-flight for the first time in the club’s history.
The property magnate’s heart stopped twice back in 2018 when he was work.
He was in a medically-induced coma for three weeks and had open-heart surgery.
At the the time, he told The Daily Echo: “I keep reliving it. I remember it in detail.
“I’d come to work and was sitting at my desk when I just felt this pressure on my shoulders.
“It started to work its way down my back and it felt worse and worse.
“I realised something I was going on so I staggered into the Co-op and fell on my face on the floor.”
Mitchell built his first property in Sandbanks aged just 24 and established Seven Developments in 1992.
He built more than 1,000 homes in his lifetime including a lavish property based on Tracy Island, the fictional headquarters of the International Rescue organisation in Thunderbirds.
Mitchell, who was chairman of the Cherries from 2009 to 2013, also set up the technology company Elite Skills Arena in 2014.
It was Mitchell who negotiated Eddie Howe’s return which drove the Cherries into the top-flight