Planet Swans ArchivesOver the weekend we had a few chats with a friend on the board of a successful lower league football club, and posed the question ” What will the new Swansea consortium be facing over the next few weeks “
Here’s the responses. For obvious reasons this particular Chairman has asked to remain anonymous but passes on his support for the new Swansea regime.
” The first thing the Swansea board will have to do is decide who will be there on a day to day basis, we have four directors who work tirelessly regards players registrations, red / yellow cards, specific disciplinary problems, control and security of the club staff in the week and of course the smooth running of things. You will be surprised to know just how many people try to wander in to a club on a day to day basis ( Oh no we wouldn’t ! ) Every club has hangers on, you just have to make it clear from the off where they stand, and that means paying at the gate and contributing to the clubs coffers. The directors will need to band together immediately, form the board then register their interests likes any business. And there definitely needs to be a Chairman with some nouse of league goings on, especially at Swansea where there are outstanding league issues with Petty. The Chairman should be well versed in these matters, it’s no job for an amateur because the club will suffer.
” Away from there the fans should be aware straight away who is running the club and who is accountable for every decision that is made, and that takes a brave man or woman. Okay they will make mistakes, but with Swansea there cannot be too many, from what I hear the club was so close to going out of business. The set up should revolve around a new Chairman from the off, and a good financial controller backed up by at least six board members, the majority of whom should have basic finance behind them, at our club we have people who can put their hands on cash when it’s required. That’s sensible. There cannot be people on a board with little or no cash, that is foolish, unless they are working for the club for no fee on a daily basis, and then you have to say or question their motives if they have no cash but want to serve on a Football League club’s board “
” There are many immediate issues, first the accounts need examining, then with that done a severe and disciplined procedure put in place to repay the debtors, like the Inland Revenue, they can cause real problems if not liased with straight away. All creditors should be contacted, then banded in a repayment scheme, obviously the top ones being the most important, but everyone needs to know the financial situation. The manager should be heavily involved in the boards decisions, he must be aware of the situation, and indeed the fans too, they all need to know the truth from day one, if not alienation kicks in and pretty soon dissenters will attack you. And as soon as that happens you are on a sticky wicket, even as bad as the previous owners “
” My bullet points would be as follows “
1. Immediate meeting and placement of real fans and business people on the board, but all must have finance, or act on behalf of financiers.
2. Announce a new Chairman, and they must have some football pedigree for the awkward decisions and meetings.
3. Involve the manager, players, staff and fans from day one. If you don’t your dead in the water. And remember no false promises ! They always come back to haunt you.
4. Involve the media in as much as possible, but watch them, in Wales I know that some journo’s want Swansea to come second to Cardiff, I have met them myself. And you probably know who they are.
5. It’s all about honesty with experience, you MUST have these ingredients, if not the euphoria will soon die away and you will be left with a club in deep difficulty.
6. And get a streamlined admin staff working for the club, and make them feel worthwhile, get disciplined, be ruthless but THINK about the consequences of ill thought out statements and bad judgement.
7. Club money comes from commercial activity, and that has to be addressed now, if it hasn’t been by now you are losing thousands in potential sales of club goods to a defined loyal public. You need a busy person to be involved, someone who can organise well, knows the terrace culture of the fan, can bargain decent deals with suppliers and turn around a 100 % mark up on the previous weeks trading from the year before. And they need to have a good checkable honest background, there are bungs a plenty in this role, so they need to be clean and totally beyond reproach . The gate money counts for nothing with a poor programme, no shirts and no produce to sell. You need a person in there on decent money who will give you 18 hours a day and be on constant call. If you have good organisers involved with the fans they would be ideal, and totally committed. Ideas, Ideas, Ideas – And new ones every day, every club has one good and obvious person staring right at them, we had one and he is a marvel, but it took a while to realise he was the right man for the job. Get that sorted quickly.
” To be honest the set up as it stands sounds like the ” ego ” board members will soon fall away leaving the real people who care in charge. And all clubs have ego board members, well, for a short while, but they soon disappear. I don’t think many will rate your chances, but I wish you well, as the alternatives were no football in Swansea. And for god sake don’t let anyone do that to you again, you have far too much tradition to let another Petty in again. I wish you well, but I imagine in the coming days there will be a number of the Swansea board just wondering what the hell they have got involved
in “
” Keep an eye on them – But give them a chance, I expectyour supporters will turn out in swarms for the next few Saturdays, and that’s crucial that the fans do their bit too “
