Annan Athletic set to pursue community ownership

Representatives of community owned clubs including Clyde, Dunfermline and Annan Athletic meet at a recent Supporters Direct Scotland Members Day.

Annan Athletic FC is set to become the latest Scottish football club to belong to its fans.

The SPFL League 2 outfit announced its plan to pursue 100 per cent community ownership during Supporters Direct Scotland’s Supporter Ownership Week, a week celebrating and promoting supporter ownership of football clubs.

Annan Athletic will join East Stirlingshire, Clyde, Stirling Albion and Dunfermline Athletic as clubs with similar ownership models in the SPFL.

Club chairman Henry McClelland said: “As it stands, Annan Athletic is essentially a members’ club anyway, we are unincorporated and operate within an out-of-date Constitution. We firmly believe that the correct model for the club is 100% fan ownership.

“We have a working party in place and hopefully we will be in a position to put the proposals to our members in the very near future. This week we will be releasing a survey on the club website as well as in the local newspaper. We are looking forward to working with Supporters Direct Scotland to steer us through the key stages of the process.”

Andrew Jenkin, Head of Supporters Direct Scotland said “Annan Athletic is already well known for its great community ethos, and this is a great move which will ensure the club’s financial sustainability. The benefits of greater fan involvement in ownership and governance are numerous and we are really pleased to see clubs take up this model proactively rather than resorting to it due to financial pressures. We look forward to welcoming Annan into the fan-owned family.”

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