Exeter City Supporters’ Trust board last night unanimously voted to approve the appointment of Richard Pym as a Club board director.

Richard will become the new Chair of the Club board at the Trust AGM on November 8, replacing outgoing interim Club board Chair Clive Harrison. Clive will step down as part of the usual governance process, having served a full nine-year term on the Trust board.

Richard, who has vast financial experience from his senior executive and non-executive career in the retail and banking sectors, was previously Chair of Exeter City Football Club from June 2020 to December 2021.

The Trust board last night also unanimously voted to approve the appointment of Laurence Overend as a director, and he will take up the role of Club board Vice Chair. Laurence, a solicitor, was previously Chair of Exeter City Supporters’ Trust from 2012 to 2016, whilst also serving as a director of the Club.

Clive will stay on at the Club in the role of General Manager until the end of the 2025-26 season, to assist the board.

Upon his appointment, Richard said: “I am pleased to have been invited to rejoin the board as the new Independent Club Chair and am determined to resolve the current issues at Exeter City Football Club.

“First of all, I want to thank outgoing interim Chair Clive Harrison for the way he has professionally handled the Club, and for what is going to be his ongoing assistance as General Manager for the remainder of this season. 

“On behalf of the Club board, I want to thank Exeter City Supporters’ Trust and all fans for their patience over the last few months whilst both the Club and Trust boards worked together on a number of issues that arose this summer. 

“As the incoming new Independent Club Chair, I want to provide you with greater insight into these issues, what has been happening behind the scenes, and how the Club board intends to fully resolve them. The Club has prepared a list of questions and answers which hopefully fill in some of the gaps, and they follow.”  

Q1. What exactly were the issues?

In early June, the Club became concerned about certain operational matters. At that stage, Joe Gorman, the Chief Executive, tendered his resignation. He was placed on garden leave.

Three main issues emerged, and these were the subject of an investigation by the Club board. An external partner was engaged to review the detail of this investigation and report back to the board. The summary findings were:

Firstly, financial forecasts which the Club and Trust boards relied upon to make decisions for future years were found to have been overstated.

Secondly, the Club and Trust have an agreement to ensure that contracts costing £50,000 or over per annum or in total, including management staff but excluding players’ contracts, are all approved by the Trust board. The investigation found that one material transaction had breached this agreement.

Thirdly, there is one further matter which at this time is still subject to legal process. We anticipate this will be resolved in the coming weeks, and as soon as it is we will explain that in detail.

As a result of the investigation, a disciplinary process involving Mr Gorman began, and concluded in early September, when he departed the Club with immediate effect. We cannot go into more detail on what is a confidential staff management matter.

Q2. How did the Club allow these issues to happen?

There were checks and scrutiny measures in place at the Club to stop the above issues emerging. They did not work, and for this the Club apologises. There are clear lessons that have been learnt. The Club is now putting stronger safeguards and controls in place to ensure that such matters do not arise again. 

As previously stated, there is no money missing, no-one has taken any money out of the Club, and the board is now continuing its close financial and operational management to ensure financial stability.

Q3. What is the Club now doing to resolve all these issues?

In summary, here are some of the changes which have been brought in by the Club board, and are currently underway:

The Club board is taking immediate action to tidy the share register and look at options for utilising shares to raise funding, perhaps via a rights issue, while maintaining Supporters’ Trust majority ownership.

We are interviewing third parties to become retained financial advisers to the Club to advise on future funding requirements, and to work alongside the Trust and the minority shareholders if additional capital investment is required in future.

The review also assessed the strength of recruitment processes behind a number of key appointments and suggested recommendations for future improvements. These are now in place for future leadership team hires.

We are restructuring our finance function and will soon be appointing a new financial controller with a football background, along with a new accountant.

Q4. What impact will the issues have on the Club?

We are working with an independent financial expert to revise and reduce our overhead base back to manageable levels. This means that further cost reductions will be made across the Club and we have begun this process.

We will ensure that these changes are fully implemented. Importantly, across the Club and Trust, we are also focusing with renewed energy on a number of new income and membership initiatives. 

Q5. How has the Club board changed and why?

The planned departure of three Club board directors has taken place to ensure continuity and a handover to new board members. 

Richard Pym will be the new Independent Club Chair, and Laurence Overend will be the new Vice Chair. Other voting directors on the Club board are: Julen Beer and Nick Edwards (Trust representatives) and Andrew Rothwell. A further voting Trust director will be appointed to replace Clive Harrison who will continue as a director until the Trust AGM, along with a new independent director.

Julian Tagg will remain as President and Director of External Affairs and work alongside the Trust-elected representatives and independent directors. Sue McQueenie will step down as an associate director but will continue to work with the Club.

Q6. Why has all this taken so long?

When dealing with financial and staff matters, it is important to follow processes and confidentiality, in order to protect the integrity of ongoing, complex investigations. The Club understands that this has left many people concerned and questioning transparency. However, the confidentiality was vital to protect the rights of everyone involved and, ultimately, the Club itself.

Richard Pym said: “I am sure that other questions will arise, but I am hoping that these initial answers will help everyone inside and outside the Club to begin to see what has happened, and how the Club is planning to move forward. There will be opportunities to ask more questions, particularly at the Trust AGM in November which Clive and I will be attending. 

"It is important to recognise the challenges that the staff have had to deal with this summer, and we are extremely grateful to them for their hard work and the commitment that they have shown to improve the club for the future.

“The Club and Trust boards are determined to make sure all the issues that emerged this summer are resolved and not repeated. Supporters will be very angry, and they are entitled to be, they have been let down badly. I am sorry, I wasn’t here, but I can still say sorry, but I am here to help put it right. There are some excellent people around Exeter City and we shall be working as one team to fix this as soon as possible. Let’s crack on!”