30 November 2000
SUPPORTERS TRUST MEETING
Tonight sees the launch of the Chester City Supporters Trust. The meeting takes place at Chester Town Hall and proceedings start at 19:30. Several speakers are lined-up and there will also be a Q&A session. All supporters and members of the local busiess community are urged to attend.

The following message of support has been sent to the Trust by Culture Secretary Chris Smith:

"I welcome the establishment of the Chester City Supporters Trust and fully endorse its objectives. Last week, I met representatives of the Trust and was impressed by their plans for the club's future and commitment to making them work. It stands every chance of success if as many Chester fans as possible get behind it.

"The Government wants to help supporters of clubs across the country gain a greater say in the affairs and future of their clubs. That is why we set up the Supporters Direct scheme. It is based on the simple principle that supporters can achieve more for their clubs and communities working together than they can alone.

Solicitor Graham Ross, chairman of the trust fund's working party, who is among representatives meeting the Culture Secretary on Friday said: �We're one of the first groups to form one of these trusts. At the meeting, we'll be bringing him up to date with where we are with the launch of the trust. I believe that Chris Smith will say that he wants us to become a community club. This is a gesture of confidence in the trust fund from the Culture secretary and we've had total support from his department in the steps that we're taking in the formation of the trust. Our primary aim is to be able to make the supporters a major player in the future of the club.”

The trust fund if officially launched on Thursday 30 November at Chester Town Hall. The meeting starts at 19:30hrs and all City supporters and members of the local business community are urged to attend.

�I hit the bar,� said Carden (speaking to the Evening Leader), who was impressed with the way a team of players, who were thrown together an hour and a half before kick off, gelled. �It was a great experience, pulling on the proper England kit, wearing the number seven shirt and playing against Chris Waddle. The manager said he wasn�t too worried about the result but we played well and we�ll just wait and see if we�ve done enough to make the England squad for the Italian game in February. All our lads played well and enjoyed it. We all went up in the same car to the game and although we weren�t allowed to keep the shirts, we were presented with a leather watch with the England badge on it.�

You may have read in the Press recently about the setting up of a Football Trust in Chester by a group representing all five supporter groups of Chester City FC; Chester City Official Supporters Club, Chester City Exiles, Independent Supporters Association (ISA),The Executive Club and the Disabled Supporters Group to turn Chester City FC into a supporter owned club. You may also have read about other initiatives also promising ownership, in one form or another, by the fans.

There is a danger of confusion, as the group setting up the Trust, we are issuing this Notice to set out the facts:

OUR OBJECTIVE
• To make the club fully accountable at all times to its supporters as to its financial position and decision making
• To have the club run to the highest standards of business and football management
• To operate in synergy with the supporters and the wider community and not for personal ego or private profit
• To ensure all profit is ploughed back into the club for football purposes alone
• To support and encourage youth programmes and activities both within the Club and in the community
• To return the club to its rightful position...in the Football League
• To achieve the above by either full ownership of the club or a minority shareholding working with private investors fully bound to these principles.

HOW CAN THIS BE ACHIEVED?
• By the formation of an Industrial and Provident Society (IPS) and through that body to seek to acquire a shareholding in the club.
An IPS:-
• ensures a legal framework so that the Club can be owned, at least in part, by and fully accountable to, the public
• operates with full openness and accountability to the public
• makes decisions on a fully democratic basis
• prohibits any one individual making any financial gain
• puts a high priority on youth programmes and public and business community links

WHAT SKILLS DO WE HAVE TO RUN A FOOTBALL CLUB?
If we succeed in full ownership, the club will be run to the highest standards of business and football management. Such skills and expertise will be provided both by a Board balancing expertise with supporter representation and assisted by an advisory group formed from the professions, from business and from football administration. Offers of assistance for the Trust are coming in from all quarters including major businesses, the FA and certain Premiership and Football League clubs.

ARE WE IN COMPETITION TO OTHER INITIATIVES?
No...

The IPS provides the legal framework for supporters' share ownership either alone or in partnership with any other initiative that genuinely shares in full our aims and objectives.

Whoever you feel is best placed to run Chester City FC in the future and whoever may become the majority owner, by supporting the Trust you are giving yourself and all supporters a real democratic and accountable voice in that outcome.

DO NOT BE CONFUSED BY:-
'Chester Supporters Group'. They are not connected with ourselves (the Chester City Supporters Trust – formed by all five supporters associations) but are a self-named group of supporters of long standing and local private investors. They have yet to set out in public how they will provide shares to the public and how they will achieve the sort of accountability set out in our aims.

Should they succeed in acquiring ownership from Mr Terry Smith, then we, through the IPS, will be able to assist them achieve their stated pledge of supporter ownership. Support of the 'Chester Supporters Group' does not require lack of support for the Trust. Quite the reverse.

Terry Smith's plan to form a PLC to sell shares direct to the public. There are laws to protect the public from being sold shares in a company. If it was easy to achieve, many small private companies would seek to raise money in that way, In fact it is expensive to set up , draining much needed finances from the football requirements of the club, and the club would have to establish an extremely high level of business management and record keeping before being allowed to take that step. It would take a lengthy period of time and have a low prospect of success. Mr Smith is to be congratulated in standing by his pledge of supporter ownership. The quickest, cheapest way to achieve that aim and the one most likely to succeed, is by selling shares to the Trust.

The Chester City Supporters Trust is the ONLY way presently available to achieve supporter ownership of the club that GUARANTEES the above stated aims and objectives.

Join us at the launch of the Chester City Supporters Trust on Thursday, 30 November at 7.30pm at Chester Town Hall. As well as setting out the details of how the IPS will operate and how you can be a part of the future for the club, you will hear speeches from various organisations supporting our project including Supporters Direct, the Government, the City Council together with players from five decades of footballing history in this City.