MCFC Responds And Paul Tyrell Says Hello

For all of you who don't know the full history on 2 August 2006 I wrote to the Club enquiring about a Supporters Trust and they didn’t reply. At the same time I spoke to Supporters Direct who thought it was a great idea. As you know the Club charter says an answer to all enquiries will be sent within a maximum of seven days. I chased City and Karen Engel responded on 15 August confirming that the Chief Executive had "confirmed there are no current plans to be involved in setting up such a trust". I replied that day and my exact question was “Do you think that MCFC would ever entertain dealing with a properly constituted Supporter’s Trust formed by the supporters for the good of MCFC?”

Karen Engel replied on 17 August “I would need to consult with my colleagues and the board. Could you leave this with me for a couple of weeks to enable me to discuss internally. I will get back to you as soon as I have some feedback.”

From then onwards we have set about planning and researching towards the formation of the trust. On 29 September 2006 and after consulting with Supporters Direct we hand delivered a letter addressed to John Wardle confirming that we would be forming the trust, that we were working with Supporters Direct as part of the process and still wished to enter into dialogue with them. At this stage we also provided them with our mission statement.

I must point out that on 15 August and 29 September 2006 we confirmed that we were willing to meet a representative of the club in person or talk them through our positive move on the phone.

By close of business Monday 9 October we had not received a response. On Tuesday 10 October we contacted them reminding them of the club charter. Karen Engel (who I recently was informed is Alistair Mackintosh's right hand lady) came back and said that they were still discussing my original enquiry. OK we think, at least we have confirmation that they are still deciding how to respond it’s a mini breakthrough.

We then receive an e-mail shortly after Karen Engel’s from Paul Tyrell the Head of Communications at the Club. He confirmed that the Club charter means seven working days (which I have since thanked him for clarifying). He went on to say that "I envisage that Mr Goddard will receive a formal response from the club to his recent communications on Supporters Trusts by the end of this week."

I am sure that we would have received a response if we hadn't have chased them and am pleased that we finally appear to be making progress. As soon as we hear more you will be the first to know.