Group in offer to make‘no strings’ loans
A group of Stirling Albion supporters – including current director John Hunter – is offering to inject up to £200,000 in the club.
The proposal has been forwarded to Binos’ Supporters Trust Board which is already considering a bid to take over the club from the John Neill/Colin Rowley consortium.
Mr Hunter is owner of Hunter’s Executive Coaches, Tullibody, and named on the Albion website as the club’s commercial director.
In a letter to the trust board, he said a group of supporters – Stirling Albion Supporters Associates – would willing to make available to the club “no strings” loans although he acknowledged the club did not need additional cash at the moment.
He added: “The guarantee will be to provide funds up to a total of £200,000.
“It will be for the club board to determine whether the club needs to make use of the facility. “The club would undertake to use any funds provided by the group to enhance the playing budget.
“Each member of the group will contribute a proportion of the sum requested by the club equal to the proportion of the total fund to which they are committed.
“Sums loaned to the club would be repaid by the club board when, acting reasonably, they felt that the club’s finances permitted.”
If the proposal is acceptable to the trust membership, SA Supporters Associates would work with the trust board to create a new board of directors of the football club with the aim of advancing up the league pyramid without a restricting debt, plus interest, to finance from any success.
The letter adds: “We are committed to retaining Stirling Albion Supporters’ Trust as the effective majority shareholder in the club and to working with them to support the club.
“The club management, both football and business, will have our full support in building a successful team and a strong business model.”
Members of the supporters trust, owners of the club, are currently mulling over an offer to buy into the club by Mr Neill a businessman and ex-professional footballer, and Colin Rowley, Albion supporter and director of Stirling firm Dron and Dickson.
They are offering to invest £600,000 in the club in return for which both become directors and Mr Neill assumes the position of chairman.
The two businessmen outlined their offer at a question and answer session attended by trust members at the Golden Lion Hotel on Wednesday.
In the course of a statement posted on the Albion website on Sunday, a club spokesman said: “With regard to the offers to invest in SAFC, irrespective of any individual opinion that may be held, the club board, supported by the trust board, can unequivocally confirm they are, and will remain, fully committed to and united in conducting themselves, in all matters, in a manner that is 100 per cent in the best interest of Stirling Albion FC.
“It should be noted that the offers will be determined by the Trust Membership and, as such, members of both boards will be free to exercise their individual vote as trust members.”