Aim – To enable a democratically elected director representing the views of the supporters to influence the decision making of the board, and to enshrine in the football club’s Memorandum and Articles of Association the representation of the Trust on the Board.
Review – The Trust did not meet the targeted amount (£500,000) to automatically gain a full board position, although the entitlement was written into the articles of association until they were changed upon completion of Milan Manderic’s takeover.
However for the initial investment made (£100,000), the Trust negotiated an Observer position which entitled the Trust to attend any LCFC board meeting. In fact our Observer was allowed to contribute fully to meetings, except when a topic was put to the vote. The confidence in the Trust was extended to allow a deputy to attend LCFC board meetings when the usual Observer was unavailable.
The Trust was always offered the chance to raise topics at the appropriate time during the board meetings as well as contribute to any discussion. The Observer role was also utilised to put forward a series of concerns when it became apparent that the club could be subject to takeover proposals…..
Going Forward – The current make up of the LCFC board is minimal in numbers, with a representative of Teachers (the stadium finance company) and one other Director (chosen by Milan Mandaric) from the previous board.
However Milan Mandaric has given the Trust a commitment that an Advisory Board will be set up, with the Trust represented on it. With the football management situation this season, the creation of this board has been delayed, but the Trust is pushing for it to be set up early in 2008. We are still waiting for further details of the exact make up of this board, but understand it will contain as examples political and Chamber of Commerce representatives.
Our belief is that the Advisory Board will consider and advise on strategic aspects of the clubs future, which would previously have been covered by the main LCFC board.
The next article which looks at the fund raising aim will appear later this week