It's time to get serious, says new Crystal Palace director Eddie Izzard

Crystal Palace have announced that the comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, who is a boyhood fan of the club, has become an associate director of the Championship club.

Izzard said he was delighted to be invited to take the role. "With Dougie Freedman as our manager and the new young players coming up through our academy, I hope that Crystal Palace will be pushing forward to new heights with all of them succeeding to the best of their ability – and further.

"All I really want is for Crystal Palace to win every game from now until the end of time. That's all. I know that's a tough thing to ask but that really is what I want. At times I've been a fan and at times I've been just a supporter because I'm a bad loser and if we don't win games I don't deal with it well. I tend to swear in front of children and shout at televisions in pubs. I've tried to mature my behaviour as my life has progressed, but in this one area I am still like the teenager I was in the '70s, living and dying every week for the football games I was playing myself or watching Palace play.

He is not the first comedian to become a director of a football club. Stephen Fry is on the board at Norwich City, Tommy Cannon was chairman of Rochdale in the '80s, Eric Morecambe was a director, then vice-president of Luton Town until his death in 1984 and Tommy Trinder was Fulham's chairman from 1959-76.