How It All Started/ A Huge Thank You

It all started back on 2 August 2006, when Ollie sent this e-mail to our Club:-

"From my own investigations I have noticed that there isn’t a Manchester City Supporters Trust although when looking at Supporters Direct’s website they detail that MCFC has approached them with reference to forming a trust. I would be interested to know what progress has been made and in particular if a supporters trust is still going to be formed.

If I can be of any assistance I would love to become involved. You may be interested to know that I have worked in the offshore finance industry for twenty years with the last seventeen of which within the trust industry where I am actively involved in administering all types of trust. I would be more than happy to provide my services free of charge if help is required to get such a worthwhile cause up and running.

I look forward to hearing from you."

After a reminder our Club did respond on 15 August 2006 confirming that there were "no current plans to be involved in setting up such a trust.". The following question was sent back "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?"

Two days later and wanting to allay any fears our Club may have, clarification was given "Can I just say how this has come about as I want to assure the board that there is nothing untoward in the offing, quite the contrary and I will explain...I thought that the fans could get organised via a trust or something similar and maybe have a voice. Taking that forward I thought that it could not only foster a very good working relationship with the fans but could also raise additional finance for the club....if the supporter's organisation raised say £1m could that then be introduced to the Club? Perhaps (and I am thinking out loud) the club has some ambitious plans that finance isn't available for maybe the fans could contribute or finance it?"

The e-mail finished "As I said earlier me gauging how many people are truly interested in the club etc is merely that and I see it as a positive move for the best of the club. If there was enough interest then I think it would be a good step forward, I must also stress that all those that I have talked about so far would prefer to move forwad with the club's involvement and approval.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you. By the way I am more than happy to speak to you or others (even the board) by phone or in person. I find in business today that e-mails can often be misinterpreted and am happy to expand or explain anything I have mentioned."

And that is how it all began! Last September 2006 we started this blog and have documented literally everything on the road to forming the MCFC Supporters Trust.

We have done a lot of planning and research but it is fair to say that we have been overwhelmed with the level of support and interest so far. A couple of days ago the blog reached 50,000 hits and as we write this figure is close to 55,000. Of course hits is not an indication of individual readers so we installed "Blogtopsites" on the right hand side of this blog which independently monitors the activity on here. For the last few weeks or so we have been averaging 3,000 individuals a week reading this blog and another piece of independent monitoring software tells us that the blog is currently read by readers from 89 countries around the world.

We have our Public Open Meeting coming up this Sunday but want to put on record now our sincerest thanks for all of your input, feedback, questions and help so far. Our role is simply to set this up but it will be the supporters, like you, who want to play a positive part in the future of our Club that will make it work.

A huge thank you from all of us!

Best wishes

Colin, Colin, Gavin, Ian, Mickey, Miles & Ollie