From The Foxes Trust...

This week has been a significant one for the future of football with the findings of both the Independent Football Commission (IFC) and the release of the All Parliamentary Party Football Group Report (APPFG).

The immediate introduction of the Fit & Proper Person test is one of the key findings of the APPFG report, while the IFC recommended its introduction from the start of next season.

Commenting on the findings acting Managing Director of Supporters Direct (the umbrella organization for all Supporters Trust), Dave Boyle, said "The absence of such a test has caused a great deal of the difficulties now faced by football clubs, and we hope that the game positively embraces this idea. However, it is important to add that this test is not a panacea. The message that comes from the supporters trust movement is that football needs to learn to be viable and sustainable. “

With the increased involvement of trusts in the game (106 formed now) trusts will play an important role in establishing good governance alongside any proposed compliance unit.

Foxes Trust Board Member – Business Liaison, Ian Guyler feels that the new Leicester City Board have taken positive steps since taking over the club “With Tim Davies in charge of day to day activity there is no doubt a prudent approach has been taken from day one”

Guyler (who has years of varied Director level experience, including review and advice on Corporate Governance at PLC level) also feels the club have acted upon the need for corporate governance well before the reports were issued “A few months into ownership the new club board set up an Audit Committee, chaired by Greg Clarke which is made up of Non-Executive Directors and Shareholders who are not involved in the day to day running of the club to address governance issues and this clearly was a further stride in the right direction”

However although the Foxes Trust is happy with the clubs approach so far, they feel the Trust could play a more significant role. Ian Bason, Foxes Trust Chairman explains “While we have an Observer at LCFC Board meetings we do have access to information to ensure the club is being ran on a sound basis, however we do have the skills within the Trust Board to be able to make a positive contribution to the Audit Committee, which the club has declined at present, but we hope will be taken up at some point in the future”

One of the other key findings by the APPFG was that each professional football club should establish procedures to ensure a Board Director has responsibility to liaise with supporters and ensure that their views are represented at Board level.

The Foxes Trust Observer represents supporters views under the current set up however Bason would like to see a fully fledged Supporters Director introduced following the reports recommendations “We have always faced a target of £500,000 to achieve this however while we will always seek to raise money to contribute to the success of the club, that figure is many years away and following the APPFG findings we would like to see the club make the next positive step now in removing or massively reducing the figure to enable Leicester City to be the first large club to appoint a Trust Director to its board”.

A reminder that the first AGM of the Foxes Trust is being held on Monday 16th February at the Walkers Stadium. This will be followed by a Q&A with Leicester City Director of Football Dave Bassett & the Clubs Chief Executive Tim Davies.

Tell us what you think about this in our FFS Fans Forum.