To me to you… A change of ownership at Swindon Town?
It’s never a slow news day at the County Ground as the ownership of Swindon Town has been acquired by Lee Power…
SWINDON Town Football Club are pleased to announced that the Football League have formally sanctioned the change of ownership of STFC to Swinton Reds 20 owned by Director of Football, Mr Lee Power.
The change of ownership signals no fundamental changes in the Club but has been executed post the completion of the audit in line with the intent of the consortium led by Mr Jed McCrory who acquired STFC.
Since the takeover, Mr Power has injected £1.2m to release the embargo enforced by the Football League at the time of takeover.
Since then, a further £1m to date has been injected and to ensure the financial ongoing probity of the Club, Mr Power has furnished the Football League with further proof of funds to underwrite the future liquidity of the Club.
With news that Lee Power has taken full control of the football club through his holding company, the club’s statement confirms our initial suspicions that Jed McCrory always required additional sources of funding to keep the club solvent following his takeover in February.
Power has invested £1.2m in the club, yet throughout that process he never had any control of the club, as Jed retained the 98% shareholding that he bought from Andrew Black within Seebeck87 Ltd.
The transfer of ownership to Power is ultimately a logical outcome of this process to protect his investment; and isn’t something that should necessarily concern supporters. The club now appears to be in control of the person who has committed a large financial stake, who will want to protect his investment.
Bringing the ownership of the club into ‘Swinton Reds 20’ is essential for Power to ensure that he becomes the primary creditor should the club go to the wall, which we all hope is never the outcome.
Furthermore, the other positive outcome is that the club is owned by someone who has injected money and hopefully can sustain that investment if it ever was needed. The indication (in the Swindon Advertiser) that Lee Power is seeking additional backers can only be a good outcome for the future of our club.
The question is now whether Jed McCrory remains chairman of the club and does Power’s financial commitment change the strategy and vision that has been adopted? Do you want Jed to stay at STFC or see the vision changed?
The Washbag 
I’ve added a ‘?’ to the title seeing that the club have removed the statement from the website…
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Swinton? Are we changing our name as well?
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Are tou sure Power has put in the money he claims? Some on the town end don’t think he did really
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The club has stated that Power has invested some money, which I understand is true according to my sources.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if Jed had also opened his chequebook…
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A comment I made on thetownend.com in response to: “I did notice that, find it strange that Washbag has accepted this as usually Ron & co stick to the facts”
The ‘facts’ were reported by the club statement; albeit I accept that this later retracted.
The club statement actually confirmed what I had been previously told on numerous occasions about Power’s increasing financial stake in the club and what he was eventually going to do to provide security on that investment – i.e. calling in the agreement the two made and boot out Jed when the time elapsed on him finally bringing some money to the table, which it doesn’t seem he did.
Perhaps Power’s move in making the club release this statement will make Jed wake up and stump up some cash…perhaps not…
Never a dull day at STFC
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Sangita Shah appeared on BBC Wiltshire post match to clarify the situation…
Power will be exercising an option to acquire 60% of the Seebeck 87 holding (which was at the end of Lee’s 6 months period with the club). Jed retained 40% holding of the club.
Agreement has been sanctioned by the Football League, but not activated.
Not entirely clear why Jed is seeking counsel on the situation…
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