Problems at Exeter City?
So a meeting last night of the club's Supporters Trust to answer some of the questions.
But what has gone wrong?
As usual in football it's reported to be financial.
According to Devon Live: 'There was also a suggestion that the club will be short of money in
November, such that the club would not be able to meet its financial
obligations.'
However the Supporters Trust has its critics and a new group 'Trust In Charge' has been formed. They weren't happy about the Supporters Trust giving the club £400,000 to pay the wages.
This from Exeter City:
Exeter City Supporters’ Trust board last night unanimously
voted to approve the appointment of Richard Pym as a Club board
director.
Richard will become the new Chair of the Club
board at the Trust AGM on November 8, replacing outgoing interim Club
board Chair Clive Harrison. Clive will step down as part of the usual
governance process, having served a full nine-year term on the Trust
board.
Richard, who has vast financial experience from his senior
executive and non-executive career in the retail and banking sectors,
was previously Chair of Exeter City Football Club from June 2020 to
December 2021.
The Trust board last night also unanimously voted
to approve the appointment of Laurence Overend as a director, and he
will take up the role of Club board Vice Chair. Laurence, a solicitor,
was previously Chair of Exeter City Supporters’ Trust from 2012 to 2016,
whilst also serving as a director of the Club.
Clive will stay on at the Club in the role of General Manager until the end of the 2025-26 season, to assist the board.
Upon
his appointment, Richard said: “I am pleased to have been invited to
rejoin the board as the new Independent Club Chair and am determined to
resolve the current issues at Exeter City Football Club.
“First of
all, I want to thank outgoing interim Chair Clive Harrison for the way
he has professionally handled the Club, and for what is going to be his
ongoing assistance as General Manager for the remainder of this season.
“On
behalf of the Club board, I want to thank Exeter City Supporters’ Trust
and all fans for their patience over the last few months whilst both
the Club and Trust boards worked together on a number of issues that
arose this summer.
“As the incoming new Independent Club Chair, I
want to provide you with greater insight into these issues, what has
been happening behind the scenes, and how the Club board intends to
fully resolve them. The Club has prepared a list of questions and
answers which hopefully fill in some of the gaps, and they follow.”
Q1. What exactly were the issues?
In early
June, the Club became concerned about certain operational matters. At
that stage, Joe Gorman, the Chief Executive, tendered his resignation.
He was placed on garden leave.
Three main issues emerged, and
these were the subject of an investigation by the Club board. An
external partner was engaged to review the detail of this investigation
and report back to the board. The summary findings were:
Firstly,
financial forecasts which the Club and Trust boards relied upon to make
decisions for future years were found to have been overstated.
Secondly,
the Club and Trust have an agreement to ensure that contracts costing
£50,000 or over per annum or in total, including management staff but
excluding players’ contracts, are all approved by the Trust board. The
investigation found that one material transaction had breached this
agreement.
Thirdly, there is one further matter which at this time
is still subject to legal process. We anticipate this will be resolved
in the coming weeks, and as soon as it is we will explain that in
detail.
As a result of the investigation, a disciplinary process involving Mr
Gorman began, and concluded in early September, when he departed the
Club with immediate effect. We cannot go into more detail on what is a
confidential staff management matter.
Q2. How did the Club allow these issues to happen?
There
were checks and scrutiny measures in place at the Club to stop the
above issues emerging. They did not work, and for this the Club
apologises. There are clear lessons that have been learnt. The Club is
now putting stronger safeguards and controls in place to ensure that
such matters do not arise again.
As previously stated, there is
no money missing, no-one has taken any money out of the Club, and the
board is now continuing its close financial and operational management
to ensure financial stability.
Q3. What is the Club now doing to resolve all these issues?
In summary, here are some of the changes which have been brought in by the Club board, and are currently underway:
The Club board is taking immediate action to tidy the share register
and look at options for utilising shares to raise funding, perhaps via a
rights issue, while maintaining Supporters’ Trust majority ownership.
We
are interviewing third parties to become retained financial advisers to
the Club to advise on future funding requirements, and to work
alongside the Trust and the minority shareholders if additional capital
investment is required in future.
The review also assessed the
strength of recruitment processes behind a number of key appointments
and suggested recommendations for future improvements. These are now in
place for future leadership team hires.
We are restructuring our
finance function and will soon be appointing a new financial controller
with a football background, along with a new accountant.
Q4. What impact will the issues have on the Club?
We
are working with an independent financial expert to revise and reduce
our overhead base back to manageable levels. This means that further
cost reductions will be made across the Club and we have begun this
process.
We will ensure that these changes are fully implemented. Importantly,
across the Club and Trust, we are also focusing with renewed energy on a
number of new income and membership initiatives.
Q5. How has the Club board changed and why?
The planned departure of three Club board directors has taken place to ensure continuity and a handover to new board members.
Richard
Pym will be the new Independent Club Chair, and Laurence Overend will
be the new Vice Chair. Other voting directors on the Club board are:
Julen Beer and Nick Edwards (Trust representatives) and Andrew Rothwell.
A further voting Trust director will be appointed to replace Clive
Harrison who will continue as a director until the Trust AGM, along with
a new independent director.
Julian Tagg will remain as President
and Director of External Affairs and work alongside the Trust-elected
representatives and independent directors. Sue McQueenie will step down
as an associate director but will continue to work with the Club.
Q6. Why has all this taken so long?
When
dealing with financial and staff matters, it is important to follow
processes and confidentiality, in order to protect the integrity of
ongoing, complex investigations. The Club understands that this has left
many people concerned and questioning transparency. However, the
confidentiality was vital to protect the rights of everyone involved
and, ultimately, the Club itself.
Richard Pym said: “I am sure
that other questions will arise, but I am hoping that these initial
answers will help everyone inside and outside the Club to begin to see
what has happened, and how the Club is planning to move forward. There
will be opportunities to ask more questions, particularly at the Trust
AGM in November which Clive and I will be attending.
"It is
important to recognise the challenges that the staff have had to deal
with this summer, and we are extremely grateful to them for their hard
work and the commitment that they have shown to improve the club for the
future.
“The Club and Trust boards are determined to make sure all the issues
that emerged this summer are resolved and not repeated. Supporters will
be very angry, and they are entitled to be, they have been let down
badly. I am sorry, I wasn’t here, but I can still say sorry, but I am
here to help put it right. There are some excellent people around Exeter
City and we shall be working as one team to fix this as soon as
possible. Let’s crack on!”