Fulham Supporters' Trust Statement: End Of Season Meeting With Club Officials

[LRCN]

Hi all,

Last week the Fulham Supporters' Trust met with Alistair Mackintosh, Club CEO, Sean O'Loughlin, the Finance Director, Sarah Brookes as Communications Director, together and Supporter Liaison Officer Tommy Guthrie. We had what we felt was a very positive meeting, a summary of which you can find on our website; link at the bottom of the post.

It is fairly lengthy, so here I'll give a short summary of some of the key issues discussed (which you can also find on Twitter @FulhamSuppTrust):

RIVERSIDE STAND: Recently received formal sign-off from the Mayor of London. The initial phase will take an entire offseason to complete. Because of planning and legal issues to resolve there is still no formal start date, but the Club will begin as soon as feasibly possible.

SAFE STANDING: The Club will follow the official Premier League stance on safe standing & say it's difficult to acommodate at Craven Cottage. The Club also say that by introducing safe standing capacity will be reduced, and so they are unwilling to support it for financial reasons. The Club explained that the gradient of the Hammersmith & Putney Ends means they'd have to be altered for standing, reducing capacity.

FINANCES: Mohamed Al-Fayed's debt-to-equity conversion changes our balance sheet to one with no debt. Focus is on self-sustaining finances.

FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY: 'No' vote philosophical. A wealthy benefactor was significant in FFC rise; voting no would've let others rise as we did. The club are very confident that the introduction of FFP will not affect the club negatively.

CRAVEN COTTAGE FACILITIES: The Club will continue to work on the ground, improving media and toilet facilities across the whole stadium. The Club also revealed to the Trust they are considering trialling a scheme where you pre-load money onto your membership card to pay at CC.

For further details and areas of discussion, see our Trust statement in full on our website: http://fulhamsupporterstrust.com/news/2013/6/19/fulham-supporters-trust-statement-end-of-season-meeting-with-1.html

We hope you find this informative and covers your concerns. The FST will continue to remain in constant dialogue with the club moving forward with regards to fans issues on all levels.

[HillingdonFFC]

Bit worrying about the new riverside stand. I thought all this planning and legal stuff would`ve been already sorted?. One thing after another, seems we cant do anything without complications.

[thebumponleroyshead]

Yeah but have you seen QPha - they can't even get sign off for their TRAINING GROUND. Puts it into perspective.

[Burt]

The key thing in there is reiterating that the focus is on living within our means - financially self-sustaining.

This will drive all future decisions re ground, support infrastructure, transfer policy, etc. etc.

[Edwatch_Winston_Malone]

I really hope that Alistair Mackintosh, Club CEO, Sean O'Loughlin, the Finance Director, Sarah Brookes as Communications Director,or Supporter Liaison Officer Tommy Guthrie never used the term "off season" as they would then lose all credbility...

[Fernhurst]

How many of the FST committee are invited to meet with the club officials and more importantly are they FOFFERS?????

[LRCN]

How many of the FST committee are invited to meet with the club officials and more importantly are they FOFFERS?????

i believe i am the only one...

[btings]

Fair play, Lorcan.

[aFFCn_Fan]

I like this bit...
FINANCIAL FAIR PLAY: 'No' vote philosophical. A wealthy benefactor was significant in FFC rise; voting no would've let others rise as we did. The club are very confident that the introduction of FFP will not affect the club negatively.
I really do understand why FFP should be introduced and have been in favour of it since Abramovitc started splurging, but at least the FFC stance is consistent - we made it that way, others should be allowed too