This Club Needs You! 

Town owner Lee Power appeals to fans after 'damaging' court hearing...

  

After a Court hearing this week confirmed Lee Power as the right and proper owner of Swindon Town FC, the chairman has made a Lord Kitchener-like plea to fans ahead of the new season.

 

'I need your help' he said in an open letter to supporters on the official STFC website.

 

'It is your football club and we need to unite together to make this club successful. I am just a custodian looking after your club at this moment in time.

 

'No Chairman, no manager or player stays around forever but the fans and the people of the town do.

 

'But I am sure whether I am here 10 years, 15 years or however long, that when I leave Swindon Town Football Club it will be in a better position than when I arrived but only with your support.

 

Let’s have a great season together'

 

Budget concerns

 

In the letter, Power describes the recent legal wrangle between himself and previous chairman Jed McCory as 'very unwelcome and unneeded' and one that he believed has 'dragged the name of our club through the mud'.

But after Nicholas Strauss QC, deputy judge of the High Court sided with Mr Power and ruled that he was the overall controller of the football club and not Mr McCory, the Swiss-based chairman is now only looking to the future - albeit with concerns over the current budget for players.

 

'I have always said I wanted to make the club self sustainable as quickly as possible. We would be nearly there, if the income was similar to last season, but at this point, it isn't.

 

'We have hardly sold a season ticket over the last 2 months, hardly sold any hospitality and have had plenty of sponsors pulling out saying they won't renew until this case is resolved, but that has now happened.

 

'I need your help, I am not the richest man in the world, far from it. As was stated in court it has cost me personally well in excess of 2 million pounds in the last 12 months but I cannot keep funding the club at anywhere near that rate.

 

'So, in order for us to have a competitive budget - which I have allowed £1.8 million for this season - we need the income to remain at the levels it has been or the budget will have come down accordingly. I don't apologise for this because I believe a club should be self sustainable for the long-term good of the club.'

 

The full open letter is on the official STFC website via the link below.