IT’S pantomime season again and there’s a new production treading the boards — Worcester City Football Club.
I can’t find a more apt way to describe the current happenings at St George’s Lane, which are now bordering on the farcical. If it wasn’t real, you’d swear people were making it up.
With every passing day it seems there is a new twist to the script and the plot gets more ludicrous.
The annual general meeting was supposed to bring an element of closure to the power struggle that had dominated proceedings for weeks. Yet all it did was open up a massive can of worms.
The newly-elected board found itself accused of alienating the club’s main sponsor and tactical voting.
A major own goal was then scored when the criteria used to appoint directors blatantly contradicted a voting procedure document issued to shareholders.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, two of the directors promptly resigned within a week of being placed in power. Still with me?
Simon Williams cited the general back-biting between the board and Shareholders Action Group (SAG), claiming “there appears little desire to work together as one team.”
Alistair Hayward-Wright, who had been lined up to replace company secretary Brian Lancaster, said he did not have enough time to devote to the role.
This crazy situation is made even worse by the fact three of the directors who were re-elected are due to retire within a month.
If that happens, as chairman Anthony Hampson has suggested to me that it will, there will be five vacant seats on the board, which surely renders the AGM a complete waste of time and effort.
What was the point of putting forward nominees at the meeting if two had no intention of sticking around and three knew they might have no choice but to walk away come January?
If I was a shareholder I would be more than a little miffed. The SAG, whose four representatives were defeated at the AGM, probably don't know whether to laugh or cry.
City went to great lengths to fight them in the build-up by outlining their plans for the future, promoting their candidates and heralding Nunnery Way as the only way to bring League football to Worcester and keep the club afloat.
Now they have shot themselves spectacularly in the foot. How can shareholders or supporters have any sort of confidence in a company that operates like this?
Re-elected chairman Hampson tried to look on the positive side by saying the resignations would “allow others a chance to influence the club’s progress.” In reality, he must feel let down.
I have a modicum of sympathy with Hampson. After all, this is a man who knew little about the Blue Square South club no more than a month ago and now finds himself in the middle of a huge mess.
He has been thrown in at the deep end and is trying desperately to keep his head above water as people flounder around him.
What’s left of the board, and anyone who eventually joins it, has a major task in restoring confidence. Hampson seems a decent person and I wish him luck — looks like he’ll need it.
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