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Goole
ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL CLUB
It
is an exciting time for everyone currently involved with Goole
AFC at the moment with plans in place to help the club progress
both on and off the field. Football Focus Magazine recently caught
up with their Chairman Alan Wilson to find out more.
Involvement
He told us, “I’ve been a supporter of
the club for about seven years, having
been attracted to it because it was my
local club.
At the end of the 17-18 season the
Chairman and Vice Chairman (the main
shareholders) stood down. In order to
move the club forward, the supporters
formed a cooperative. I was elected
Chairman.
Shortly after the formation of
the Supporters Cooperative, the ex-
chairman and ex Vice-chairman agreed
to pass their shares over to a semi-local
businessman for an agreed donation
to the club. He then assumed overall
control.
Because he wasn’t from Goole, he
asked me, because of my local contacts to
join him on the Board as Vice Chairman,
which I did, after resigning as Chairman
of the Supporter’s Cooperative.
Unfortunately, this didn’t last very
long, because of his work commitments,
he found he couldn’t continue, and on
the 13/06/18 he resigned, leaving me as
acting Chairman.
10 Issue 81
At our Supporter’s meeting on the
19th, we unanimously agreed to discard
the “Board of Directors” concept and
adopt the Supporters Cooperative as the
main decision making body of the club. I
was re-elected as Chairman.”
The Role
“The most rewarding aspect will
be to see our ground opened up to the
community as a whole. Goole AFC has
for many years been just a one-team
club, and never embraced local teams
and local talent. Under our five year
plan, we aim to successfully drive the
club forward both on the field and off
it. By building a hierarchy of teams and
coaches, we hope to set a structure in
place that ensures the total sustainability
of the club for years to come.
The most challenging aspect is to
persuade the people and community
of Goole to invest in the club, both
financially, and with their time. To do
this, I believe that we the supporters
have to work harder at “selling” the
benefits of the club to the town and the
community.”
Atmosphere
“To sum it up, I would say the mood
is ‘tentative’. As a club we have never
been run in this way, we have always
had a figurehead, some good, some bad.
The supporters are now realising that as
a club we ‘sink or swim’, as a result of
our off-field activities to fund the club. It
is their club and they have to work hard
in order for it to be successful. But they
will be involved in the decision making
which is a big plus.”
Present
“Given that our manager of last
season resigned at the same time as
the Chairman (13/06), and he had
signed no players, we were facing a
major challenge. However, we had new
managers (Derry Robson, Steve Jeffs)
installed by 5pm the same day, and we
had worked out a playing budget.
Our joint managers have managed
to sign up a number of players, and are
continuing to do so. They have organised
an ‘Open Day’ inviting any new players
to come and join us - we have a large