Northampton open Board of Directors seat for fan representative
Northampton Town have announced plans to open a seat on the club’s Board of Directors for a supporter to be a fans representative.
The move will see Northampton supporters vote on a fan to join the club’s Board of Directors, with the club planning for the new representative to voice fan opinions at meetings.
After the voting process is concluded, the candidate who receives the highest number of votes will be elected to the club’s Board of Directors to represent fellow supporters and will attend regular board meetings.
Anyone interested in standing for nomination must be proposed and seconded by two current Northampton Town season ticket holders and each candidate is invited to submit a maximum of 250 words, which will be published publicly, to explain why they think they would be the ideal candidate for the role.
After the two-week nomination period, which is open now and closes on October 5th 2021, supporters will be able to vote via an online form that will be emailed out to the club’s database or at the Mansfield Town home game on October 16th.
Northampton Chairman Kelvin Thomas said that the plans are part of two new places onto the Northampton Town board, following the recent addition of James Whiting as the club’s new CEO.
In his statement on the club’s official website, Thomas said the move was intended to get ahead of the curve ahead of the government’s planned fan-lead review of football, and that they looked forward to bringing the representative into the fold.
Thomas said, “The Board along with the staff have been discussing for a while the structure at the club and decided that we were going to add two places to the board. With the way that the football world seems to be moving we have decided this is a good time to implement those changes.
“We are very pleased to welcome current CEO James Whiting to the Board in what is a natural progression for him. James has been a wonderful and dedicated servant of the club, was born and still lives locally in Northampton and is popular amongst staff, sponsors, and supporters alike. He will continue to be a great asset to the club in his new role and this move is well deserved.
“At the same time, we will also be opening up a position for a supporters representative to be elected and we think this is very exciting for the club. As a club we engage strongly with supporters every day but we have been talking to a lot of other clubs and consultants, including the Fair Game movement and we will be watching the release of the fan lad review by Tracy Crouch very closely, but we thought it makes sense for us to get ahead of the curve.
“We feel there will be changes coming in terms of independent regulation, hopefully financial distribution and other very important aspects of football and having a supporters representative on the board with us as we navigate some of these matters will be very useful.
“We have no preconceived ideas on how this will formally work but look forward to working closely with the successful candidate to structure the position and the role, so they are engaged in the running of the club but can also provide valuable feedback to and from fans.
“As a club we will not be dictating in anyway who this person is or what type of fan they are, which is why we are not saying they have to be a season ticket holder, member or anything like that. We are also not expecting them to change in terms of how they support the club now, like where they sit on a matchday or anything like that. All we are asking is that the successful candidate is available for regular board meetings and possibly other discussions on an ad-hoc basis, plus available to feedback to the fanbase.
“Anyone who meets the qualifying criteria is welcome to apply and the supporters will decide who they wish to represent them via a formal vote. We do think having a democratically elected fan is a major step forward and we look forward to welcoming the successful candidate to the board.”
Each supporter will only be able to vote once and the club will be performing checks to ensure that the votes are from Northampton Town fans.
All candidates will also be subject to the EFL’s Owners and Directors test.
To stand for nomination, supporters should download, print off and complete a nominations form available on the official Northampton Town website before emailing to [email protected]