The Norwich City Supporters Trust tonight gave a warm welcome to Michael Foulger's 'pound for pound' offer to match the contribution any City season ticket holder makes in forgoing their 'relegation rebate'.
In the same breath, however, the Trust urged supporters still waivering as to what to actually do with their rebate to actively consider popping the money into their pot ? thereby enhancing their prospects of placing a 'Fan Director' on the board.
The fate of up to ?1 million in already 'banked' revenue is likely to dominate many a conversation this summer as season ticket holders wrestle with the Canary consciences ? ?70 remains ?70 in these difficult financial times.
It was, after all, money that season ticket holders were promised by the football club in the event of relegation to League One.
Given that particular nightmare scenario has unfolded, for some hitting the club where it hurts ? in the pocket ? is one way of registering their protest at the way that events have unfolded over the last few seasons.
For others, however, ripping up to potentially ?1 million out of Bryan Gunn's playing budget will merely ensure that the club's downward spiral continues; that it will be little more than kids and old men next season.
It would also leave the club teetering ever nearer the edge of administration; ever more reliant on Delia Smith to keep the cook books and TV series coming in the on-going absence of any fresh new investor.
It is into that poisoned and divided breach that Banham Poultry owner and long-standing Canary director Foulger today made his pound-for-pound vow ? that for every pound that every season ticket holder allows to stay within the Norfolk club, so he will match it with one of his own.
It is a gesture that could yet leave a ?1 million hole in Foulger's back pocket ? should everyone agree for their promised rebate to stay where it is and be put at Bryan Gunn's disposal.
Speaking for the Trust tonight, spokesman Mike Reynolds welcomed Foulger's intervention as the club's three-man board desperately looks to restore some trust and belief into the system following the swift exits of chairman Roger Munby and chief executive Neil Doncaster after City's descent into the third tier of English football.
But ? and it remains a key 'but' ? the Trust were advocating a different home for the much-debated rebate.
Into their own 'pot' where it could then be used to bolster the Trust's own shareholding in the Canaries and with it their hopes of opening up the boardroom to a fans' rep.
That, they suggest, could be a middle way.
?Whilst this is an exceedingly generous offer, evidence from recent meetings and correspondence on a range of websites indicates that there are a large number of season ticket holders who, as a matter of principle, wish to receive their ?relegation rebate? but do not wish to further damage the Club's finances,? said Reynolds.
?To these people the Trust offers a means to do just this by passing their rebate to Norwich City Supporters Trust who in turn will use the rebate to buy further shares in the football club thus increasing the fans stake-holding in the club and providing greater empowerment for the fans.
?The club gets the money it expects and the fans increase their equity in the club.?
The trouble, as ever, with any 'nominee' of the people is that once he is sat at the table of power so he or she swiftly finds themselves bound to silence on certain matters.
And as much as they can take fans opinions in to the boardroom, it is very difficult to take open and honest answers back 'out' of it ? particularly with regard to the more sensitive areas of club policy and action.
Which, after all, is where the real interest lies. Just how much are we paying that idiot up front? How much did his agent want? What's the manager on?
These are the kind of questions to which any fans rep will find it very difficult to give open and honest answers.
There will also be the small matter of who, exactly, gets all the fun of the fair and the chance to sit at the table alongside Delia Smith, her husband Michael Wynn Jones and Foulger.
A democratic election, would be the Trust's answer.
?The club has previously said that a fans' director on the board would not work,? admitted Reynolds. ?But if those disgruntled season ticket holders took up our offer regarding their rebate, the Trust would considerably increase it's shareholding in the club.
?t is often said that fan directors can only work in the lower leagues, well that is where we are and we believe it is time for the club to seriously consider our request for a democratically elected fan on the Board of Norwich City Football Club.?
Fans can register their interest in these proposals via the Trust's website at www.ncst.org.uk.
In a separate development today, the contract of City's Player of the Season Lee Croft was terminated five weeks early ?by mutual consent?.
The net effect of which means that the soon-to-be 24-year-old can sign for a new club before he goes away for his summer break ? as opposed to waiting until his contract officially expires on June 30.
It also means that the Canaries save themselves five weeks worth of wages as Croft disappears off to Derby or wherever to talk terms with his new Championship employers.
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