MCFC Supporters' Trust Is On The Way!

A big thank you to all those that attended yesterday's open meeting.

We will be posting at more length during the coming few days but over 150 people attended the meeting which, given the fact it was Sunday afternoon and the weather wasn't conducive to going out, we were happy with.

The meeting involved presentations from Dave Boyle, Deputy Chief Executive of Supporters' Direct, who talked about what trusts were and what their role was. Sean Hamill, a board member of Supporters Direct, lecturer at Birkbeck College and member of the Celtic Trust, talked on a wide range of issues affecting football fans at the moment and the intriguing possibility that we face an American-style, franchise-based future. Jon Keen, a board member of STAR (Supporters' Trust at Reading) spoke about how they had worked their way to a position where they had regular meetings with the Reading senior management team, even though the chairman owns the overwhelming majority of the shares.

Colin Howell and Colin Savage talked about why we needed a trust at City, our draft aims and how we felt these could be achieved.

The fact the people like Sean Hamill and Dave Boyle turned up shows the importance that Supporters' Direct attaches to a trust at Manchester City. They also felt that the attendance was excellent for a meeting of this type, although we would have liked standing room only! However it was interesting to see Paul Tyrrell sat at the back of the meeting together with another of the communications team from the club. They took plenty of notes so now have no excuse for not knowing what we are about or why a supporters' trust is not just another supporters' club.

After a very in-depth Q&A the motion was put that there should be a supporters' trust formed at Manchester City, with the draft aims as set out. The meeting was virtually unanimous in approving this. We will be publishing a response to the questions raised in the meeting and to other questions we have been asked in the near future.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill "It's not the end. It's not even the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning." There's still an awful lot of work to do and we will be shortly announcing of how people can help in carrying out the next stage, which is the formal setting up of the trust.

But once again, thanks to all those who attended, participated and have helped us in the background. We are confident that the supporters of Manchester City will soon get the voice they deserve.