Monday 8 January 2001

COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP OF LCFC

Rob Bradley, the LCMS Chairman and Acting Chairman of Lincoln City, has issued the following press release with regards to the proposed Community Ownership of Lincoln City FC.

"We have recently offered our Community Ownership Package to John Reames and the trust administering his shareholding. This option will meet the requirements of Mr Reames in providing investment into the club with his shareholding being acquired by LCMS (the Supporters Trust) in return. We feel that we are now able to provide details of the scheme as we wait to see if our offer is accepted.

Community Ownership of the club comprises the following elements:

1.. Investment in the club by a consortium of members of the local business community, local institutions, and individuals.

2.. No single individual having overall control with those having invested in the club forming a new board to run the club as a team.

3.. The club being run democratically and with sound business expertise.

4.. The club being restructured with a new constitution.

5.. The club being run with policies enforced to resolve historic financial difficulties, and run as a going concern with the equal aims of achieving success as a business and success on the pitch.

At present we have pledges of financial investment to meet the sum required to acquire the shareholding. These pledges have come from award winning businesses, institutions, and local businessmen. We are confident that, if this option is selected, further investment will follow, with those investors joining the club to play their part in the running of it. The principle of one man one vote will apply at board level and within the Supporters Trust. Shares acquired by new investors will be held in trust by LCMS.

LCMS has been registered as an Industrial and Provident Society and a similar constitution will be adopted by Lincoln City F.C. The constitution will declare the club as a not-for-profit organisation with any profits re-invested. All investors, from those who pay a subscription to LCMS to those who invest at the appropriate directorship level and beyond will do so within the new structure of the club, all working to achieve the same aims.

Representation at board level will come from all investment levels. In addition to those who join the board in the conventional way, representation will come from the supporters of the club. Tiers of support will be set up based on peoples ability to pay with elected representatives from each tier being part of the decision making process. Further details of these supporter levels, such as Associate Directors, Executive Members of LCMS, etc. will be released in due course.

All of these proposals are firm and carefully thought out. The Community Ownership package has been assembled based on sound advice from Supporters Direct, The Co-operative Party, The Co-operative Bank, Lincoln Co-operative Society, local business people who are keen to invest in the club through this scheme, and other interested parties. However, a Community scheme such as this will only be adopted once the local community has had their opportunity to be consulted and give their views.

The Community Ownership of Lincoln City will not seek to deter the right sort of single investor buying into the club and investing large sums. As long as this person has the best interests of the club at heart and can demonstrate this, they can do so following democratic approval by the board and the Supporters Trust.

We believe that our scheme will lead to Lincoln City F.C. recovering from the financial blight it has endured for years. The club will be run responsibly and effectively by members of the local community including the business community. Supporters will play more of a role in the club than they ever have before, and the whole decision making process will be based on democracy, business sense, and good planning. Above all the club can develop in terms of youth policies, scouting networks and coaching, so that the playing staff can achieve as much as possible without the air of gloom that has been present for too long. We sincerely hope that this option is the one adopted by the ex-chairman, and look forward to putting it into operation if so."