Not sure what's happening with this so-called take over from the Yanks, if it really is such, it seems to me to be more of a boardroom shuffle than a take over, with an eye on inward investment for projects such as the 'Stadium Expansion' etc, which will probably be moth balled for another season, knowing our boardroom. My concern is that I'm hearing rumours, (yes I know), and they seem to point to two board members selling up, and making room for some new blood from across the pond in the good old USA, the land of dreams not. We all know that while rising from the ashes our board members had to juggle many positions of duty, and in many ways not so fashionable a manner, and we have all complained about our board having to deal with their current Premier league status, while operating at a league one mentality. Given this back drop and the fact that Huw Jenkins has vocally come out in the media, and called for the support of the trust, the question I ask, is the Trust really up to the task of the changes that could well come about? Does the trust have the ability to represent the Jack Army interest? The reason I ask these questions is that to me the Trust is not what I would call pro active, matter of fact it seems to me to be in a deep coma theses last few years, well and truly asleep, and I am a little concerned that our trust will be swept aside when boardroom deals are struck. Just to give you an example of this, anyone had any info from the 'Swans Trust' regarding the structure and nature of this 'American interest' NO! Anyone had anything from the Swans Trust this year other than the usual 'Raffle tickets'? NO! We have through the trust a 20% share on the board, and we really need to get our act together if we are not to be sidelined by money deals that could well be detrimental to our club, there is nothing like money to put a fly in the ointment, and we really need to get up to speed and make our 20% Trust interest work for us, and not be dictated to by Money people. Otherwise we could sleep walk into troubled waters. It needs to be said that the Trust do a massive amount of work and give up a lot of their time, but could the Trust challenge, question, and work with our Board of directors more? Could the Trust grow and reach out to us fans more? Communication is the name of the game here, and I do not see much of that, maybe I am missing something here, though I doubt it. These are challenging times, and our interest in the club through the Trust needs to grow with the times. Some of you may know more than me and may give a more reassuring picture, and I would gladly be corrected, but lets have a healthy debate on this regardless.
Club Ownership - a message from Trust Chairman Phil Sumbler. There has been much discussion on internet forums as well as the recent London fans forum around the discussions regarding a potential sale of shares in the football club. As it stands at the moment we do not have any formal terms which we can discuss with our membership. However, we would expect to be in a position to have this information early in the New Year, so please keep an eye on our relevant communication channels for this information. It is fair to say that we are working to ensure that relevant protection for the Supporters' Trust is the main aim that we have at this point in time. We have investigated several options already in terms of what we can do and will continue to look at all options available to us before making the communication with yourselves. Please understand that at the moment we cannot make any further comment regards this. Phil Sumbler
Yes I have seen that Musty and not that impressed to be honest, but Jim White's (Trust Vice Chairman) statement was more reassuring and informative.
they are finally sending me email updates after I paid my 10 quid early August, a query on facebook works wonders it seems
At the end of the day the trust was set up to keep the fans on side and a good way of raising revenue for the club but it has no voting rights whatsoever. Its a good way of involving the fans and keeping them informed in the day to day running of the club but the very important decisions are done in private that the trust wont know anything more than you or me....
The Trust's representative on the Board must be informed and participate in all Board level deliberations .... providing the Board operates as it should. The Trust has muscle through its ownership, not controlling muscle, but 25% (or whatever it is) is still significant and the Trust through its representative should be able to define and verbalize its position and act to influence as needed. The Trust and its representitive cannot be idle and passive on the Board and there for the tea and biscuits only - otherwise nobody is well served, neither the supporters or the Club. The Trust's representative must be capable of serving on the board of a professionally run company. I don't know that person from Adam, so I have no opionion on that, others might. The Board's business is private until made officially public through a release from the Club, so we as supporters have to trust in the Trust and its board rep to be diligent and serve our interests properly.
I was approached a few years ago to become a committee member of the trust and turned it down for personal reasons and i know quite a bit about how things are run. I am not knocking the trust here as i am a supporter of the trust but it is limited in what it can do. Major decisions the trust is not privee too and the shares cannot be sold to anyone outside the club boardroom unlike the other board members who can sell their shares to the highest bidder should they wish. It's a funny set up but a good worthwhile set up...
I am beginning to think you might well be right when you say "It's a funny set up" Dai, but I hope Phill 'Slumber' is up to the task............
Agree Dai - Phil is a top guy and the founder of ATFV with Nige Davies! He obviously had to step aside from the fanzine because of his commitment to the trust but we continue to raise money for local charities via the brand that is 'A Touch Far Vetched'. Am chuffed to say that in 2014 we raised £10,000+ for our charities, and every penny of that came from the generous 'legends' that are the supporters of SCFC! Think we have something very special here in Swansea; a Premier League team that are still very much in touch with the local community - no 'big time charlies' - every request we have made for signed merchandise, or player support for charitable events, has been met without question! We have now been operating under the ATFV banner for 10 years and in that time have raised close to £100,000, something that we couldn't have done without the support of every Jack bastard one of you! It is a privilege to stage our events knowing that the Jack Army will always support us - we have the best supporters in the whole of the football league, bar none!
Like most fans I am baffled as to what the Supporters Trust actually does. I send my membership cheque off every year but know not much of what goes on there. All I see is Huw Cooze(hard to miss) sitting in the directors box at every home match and heading into the hospitality lounges with his cohorts,but I am ignorant as to his role, because there is almost zero feedback with the Trust tight lipped like the secret service,and cannot tell us anything. The proposed takeover must have been discussed,but we are told nothing,only that all will be revealed in time,but by then it may be too late for the Trust members to have any say in the takeover. Don't you think we should have been consulted to find out whether our fans and it's 21% stake actually want any outside investment at all, especially from shady entreprenuers looking for a fast buck.
This is what im saying...The trust have no involvement in major decisions and wont even be invited to attend these private meetings, Even if cooze does know something he will be sworn to secrecy until the board makes a statement. The trust do a hell of a lot of work on behalf of the fans one being a small i know but a reduction in ST prices for next season, The 22% trust shares are made up of a few thousand fans and them shares are the only shares that cant be sold to outside people, The trust very often have guests from other clubs coming to see how it works and how to go about setting one up at their own club. It was the trust that finally persuaded the board to sack laudrup as the consensus was that the majority of fans had seen enough and what finally put the nail into laudrups coffin was he never Turned up for an emergency board meeting after the west ham match as ordered by the chairman and that made the decision clear, Up until that time no decision was made even though the trust wanted him to go....
monks hero's - a bit of a revelation that,I had no idea the Supporters Trust played a big part in Laudrup's sacking.
following from Dai's last comment .... It's one thing for the Trust to ascert itself in the operation of the club as a business - ensuring that it is run as a professionally as possible, true to the mission, vision and values of the business - setting busiess strategy and seeing objectives achieved. It is another thing altogether for the Trust to assume some "knowledge" of what supporters want in terms of a manager and set about to move for the dismissal of that manager based on that "knowledge" .... since when should fans or customers run a business. IMO this is the club run totally unprofessionally, and from reports of what transpired that is exactly how the situation was handled.
Our club is run the right way, if it were not we would not be 8th in the premiership and like any club not run right would be sliding down the leagues.
