Chris Nathaniel, the man who unleashed Rio’s World Cup Wind-Ups on an unsuspecting nation, has emphasised that his fronting of an unlikely £400 million bid to buy Newcastle United is not a vehicle for his latest foray into football’s version of candid camera.

Embarrassing as Ferdinand’s lampooning of his England colleagues two years ago may have been, Nathaniel, chief executive of NVA Management entertainment group, has said that he is serious in his attempts to offer Mike Ashley an escape route, straight out of Africa. Claiming that he has accumulated considerable backing from a Nigerian-based consortium, Nathaniel said: “I’ve been working hard to get wealthy and football-loving Nigerian entrepreneurs to buy the club since Mike Ashley indicated his willingness to sell.”

If the unspecified nature of his financial muscle is perplexing, Nathaniel’s claim that the group is willing to meet a reputed asking price in excess of £400 million, a sum that has dampened interest in most quarters, is puzzling. “The consortium of Nigerian entrepreneurs has so far contributed £350 million to buy the club,” he said.

Ashley, the billionaire Newcastle owner, has said that he is being forced out by fan power and no longer feels safe taking his family to matches after the adverse reaction to claims by Kevin Keegan, the club’s former manager, that he was effectively shown the door by Dennis Wise, the executive director (football), this month. However, sympathy for such a stance is diminished by the reported asking price that the retail tycoon wants to sever his ties with the club. It is more than three times what he paid to take control 16 months ago.

Ashley has turned to Keith Harris, the former chairman of the Football League who holds the same position at Seymour Pierce, the investment bank. Harris has brokered buyouts at Chelsea and Aston Villa, to help to find a buyer after seeing initial interest from the Middle East and India wane.

“The board of Newcastle United can confirm it has appointed the London-based investment bank Seymour Pierce to act on the potential sale of the club,” a club statement said last night. “All matters relating to the sale of the club, including inquiries from interested parties, should go through Seymour Pierce.”

Nathaniel may have temporarily turned Ferdinand, the Manchester United and England defender, into a pseudo-Jeremy Beadle for the Premier League generation, but the businessman is adamant that his efforts to enhance the global profile of the top tier of English football is not a stunt.

“Mike Ashley has stood his ground and he won’t sell the club until the money is raised to the asking price,” he said. “So what that means is that we need to raise another £50 million or £100 million to shut the door behind the top Arab companies that are also interested in the club.”