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The Chairman keeping you informed

The Chairman keeping you informed

Mishi Morath8 Feb 2018 - 19:00
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Again, in last Saturday's match programme the Chair of the Football Committee Liam Hickey had a message for the fans...

From The Boardroom

Good afternoon everybody and welcome back to Champion Hill. I would particularly like to welcome all those who are here this afternoon from our friends at Met Police and hope they enjoy their short stay with us.

I am also delighted to welcome all those who are here as part of our LGBT History Month initiative. This once again proves that this club is one that is both open and inclusive. I would also like to praise our Supporters’ Trust for creating a special scarf as part of the initiative. If you want one, then get along to the Mega Container fast, as I am sure they will sell out quickly.

With the club having reached 125 years since its inception, I feel it right to turn again to the future of our club and urge everybody to dig deep if you want to see it survive to the end of the season and beyond. Those of us who are living this every single day have managed, with the help of your funds, to carry on as usual despite being squeezed from all sides by the stadium owners.

I assure you that there are many meetings going on to try to find a way forward and that these are of the utmost importance. However, I cannot get away from the fact that the club needs a significant injection of money between now and the end of the season to prevent problems with meeting its obligations, if off-field matters do not change. We can look to cut the budget, lose players and, inevitably our management team, but I would like to feel that the ethics and values on which our club is built mean that we should do everything to honour obligations made in the name of our club before even considering that.

The best way to help the club is to continue to donate to the 12th Man fund and we shall also use every penny that we receive that is additional to our budgeted income to make up the deficit whether that is through the 1893 Club, the 50/50 or the 12th Man. I understand that the Supporters’ Trust will shortly poll members on whether they should donate to the club and urge all members to support this if you want this club to survive.

However, I should also make it very clear that the funds raised for our Hamburg adventure in July are very much ring-fenced and will not be used for any other purpose.

I hope that we will shortly be in a position to make some more statements regarding the future but, as I am sure you can appreciate, it is not possible to provide a full update at present. All I know is that I am working on the basis that there is no immediate solution, hence the need for fans to continue to donate where possible.

We are in discussions with a number of bodies including the council, the Bostik League and other interested parties on a very regular basis in our endeavours to find a way forward that suits all parties. This includes trying to establish new lines of communication with Meadow Residential as the stadium owners.

There is also regular internal dialogue between the Football Committee, The Supporters’ Trust Board and our management team to ensure that everybody is happy with the actions being taken. I assure you that the aim is to ensure that this football club, and not an AFC entity, goes forward into its next 125 years.

Just to also assure you we are planning for a future, as part of the 125th anniversary, the club has decided to return to the earliest version of the club badge that it can find. I am told the current badge dates from the 1930s and so all kit will sport our earlier badge from next season.

I endeavoured to explain the situation in a recent set of notes, and am always available to answer questions from anybody interested. I will do this as honestly as possible so please feel free to email me on liamhickey1893@gmail.com.

Once again thank you for your magnificent support. I sincerely believe that without our magnificent fans the future would be very bleak. However, together I am sure we can still achieve a bright future.

Liam

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