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Welcome to the Northwich Victoria Supporters Trust Website

TRUST STATEMENT No 4 - SUNDAY 22 JANUARY

As was mentioned in our last Statement posted on Friday evening, the Trust have now arranged an open meeting for all Vics fans, not just Trust Members and this will take place at Wincham Community Centre (which is next to Wincham Primary School) next Wednesday, 25 January, staring at 1930.

The primary purpose of the meeting is to bring the fanbase up to date with the latest situation and enable constructive debate to take place between all present. This will hopefully allow individuals to make an informed and reasoned assessment of what they are being told. It will also give us an opportunity to explain what the Trust Board has been doing to try and ensure the survival of NVFC's name and tradition since this crisis broke and what our next steps are / could be. However, it is not our intention to seek any decisions at the meeting that would require Trust members to vote on.

The Chairman of the Football Club Jim Rushe will be invited to attend as we realise that there may be many questions that fans wish to put to him regarding the current predicament of the club and his plans to resolve these. Likewise, invitations to attend this event will also be sent to both THOR and Deloitte. However, it needs to be recognised that we cannot ensure that all or indeed any of the three parties will attend.

To ensure that the meeting is run as smoothly as possible and that the main aim of the event is achieved, rather than seek questions directly from the floor, the Trust Board would prefer that any questions that fans may wish to ask are submitted in writing. These should be sent directly to Brian Edge ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) by 1700 on Tuesday 24 January - i.e. 24 hours or so before the meeting.

Not only will this ensure that the issues that most fans want to ask are tabled first, but we can also eliminate any duplication, thereby ensuring that as many points of view as possible are put forward and discussed. It is our intention to send the list of questions to Jim, THOR and Deloitte's so that they have sufficient time to consider them and formulate a response.

The meeting itself will be run in a similar way to that used by TV's Question Time, i.e. the meeting Chair will ask a question to the representatives present, each will then be given an opportunity to respond to this - and no interruptions will be allowed whilst they are doing so - and then we will take questions from the floor that are directly linked to the original question. The number of questions that will be taken will be at the sole discretion of the meeting Chair and he/she will also decide when it is time to move to the next question.

There are a number of other points which the Trust Board wishes supporters to note.

• Whilst we will be prepared to consider any questions regarding the formulation of a break-away or 'Pheonix' club, our view is that the primary purpose of this meeting is to ascertain the immediate position of the existing club and its future and as such the focus of this event must primarily be on this matter.
• As this is a general meeting that is open to all supporters, no Trust Business will be discussed or dealt with on the night.
• Those fans who are not currently Trust members but wish to join will be able to do so on the night.

Trust Statement - Friday 20 January

Tonight’s statement is relatively short but it does contain two important developments.

Firstly, as those of you who read last night’s statement may be aware, the Trust was seeking to make direct contact with Thor Chemicals today. We can report that the Trust Chairman, Paul Stockton did indeed have an introductory meeting with representatives from THOR’s senior management. This meeting was both cordial and constructive and as a result of this it is likely that a further meeting will be arranged between THOR and a wider representation of the Trust Board next week. However, no firm dates / times have so far been set.

The Trust wishes to make it absolutely clear that this meeting was purely a way of making an initial point of contact between THOR and the Trust and it was held completely independently of the club.

As was also stated in Thursday’s statement, it was our intention to hold an open meeting for all Vics fans as soon as we thought it practicable to do so. We can now confirm that this will take place at Wincham Community Centre (which is next to Wincham Primary School) next Wednesday, 25 January, staring at 1930.

Full details of the format / ground rules of this meeting will be published in a subsequent statement which will hopefully be published on the Trust web-site on Sunday evening.

Startment on Current Situation

Firstly, on behalf of the fans, the Trust would like to place on record its huge thanks and appreciation to the two Andy’s and their back-room team for their fantastic efforts over the past three years in what have been unbelievably trying and difficult circumstances. It is a mark of their abilities that this year’s squad has achieved so much in such a short time and played some of the best football that Vics fans have seen for many a long year. Without denigrating Airbus UK, I think that the Trust speaks for most fans when we say that we hope that Andy, Jock and the team are given the opportunity to manage at the higher level they deserve to at some time in the near future.

Likewise, huge credit must be given to the current squad to what they have and could have achieved had circumstances been different. Their only consolation is that their undoubted ability, spirit, skill and determination will mean that they will all have a rosey future in the game. Whilst many of the current crop of players have only been with us for a relatively short time, I’m sure that I speak for many when I say that they were one of the most talented, committed and joyous team I have had the pleasure to watch.

Moving onto the current crisis, the Trust Board wishes to re-assure all fans that since the news came out about the purchase of the ground, discussions have been ongoing between the Board itself and several other key parties regarding this matter.

The issue that both the Board and all Vics fans have at present is the lack of absolute facts regarding the current position - with regard to the current situation of the club in terms of its right of tenure and other related matters, the position and intention of THOR Chemicals, the view of both the Evostick League and the FA and the role that Deloitte’s are playing in this matter.

Hence, our initial position is to try and establish the facts. Without this information we will be unable to advise both Trust members and fans (I will touch on why we have to treat the two separately later in this post) of what we believe the situation is and what options are / may be open to us.

Read more...

Trust Statement - Thursday 19 January

As we indicated in yesterday evenings statement, we’d try and make a further comment tonight to try and keep all fans abreast of the latest situation and what the ST is doing to try and preserve the future of our great club.

First to report is that both myself and Trust Chairman Paul Stockton did meet with Jim this evening. As you will probably imagine, our meeting was somewhat spasmodic as, quite understandably, Jim was dealing with a number of phone calls and e-mails with various parties regarding the action he was taking in relation to the rights that the football club (i.e. NVFC 2007 as opposed to NV Developments) have to occupy the ground.

As most fans will have read, Jim has issued a statement through his solicitors which indicates that he is considering seeking an injunction to defer or even halt the current proceedings. Whist the Trust has and will play no part in this process, it goes without saying that we hope that the end result of this action is that the club and supporters are granted more time to find at least a short-term – if not longer-term - solution to the current problem.

We did ask Jim a number of questions, including the three that we set out in last night’s statement. However, as we warned in that post, Jim wasn’t able to provide answers to these as either they were subject to ongoing legal action or might prejudice the position of the club. However, he did advise us that the first time he became aware of a counter bid was towards the end of last week and he only knew that the prospective purchasers were Thor at the same time as everyone else – i.e. yesterday. Read more...

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The Supporters’ Trust is a group set up by Vics fans for both fans and the wider community.

It is an independent voice on matters affecting NVFC and its supporters and an opportunity for Vics fans to get together for the benefit of our Club, through social meetings or via the internet.

 

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