Inter Milan chief is star signing for troubled Goals
A struggling five-a-side football company has signed a senior executive from European giants Inter Milan as it attempts to turnaround its fortunes.
Goals Soccer Centres has managed to persuade Michael Bolingbroke, 50, the chief executive of the Italian football club, to join as a senior independent non-executive director.
Bolingbroke was previously chief financial officer at Manchester United and has a wealth of experience in sport and leisure having also worked at entertainment firm Cirque du Soleil and The Jim Henson Company, the production business that created the Muppets.
Goals is trying to improve flagging UK sales after increasing competition in the sector.
In March the company revealed a full-year £6.2m pre-tax loss, its first in 12 years. It also scrapped its dividend.
Mark Jones, 55, has recently joined as chief executive from Rank Group where he headed up the Grosvenor Casinos business. He has also worked in the pub industry.
On joining Goals, Bolingbroke said: ‘I am passionate about all forms of the game and pleased to now be involved in this fast-developing area of the sport.’
Chairman Nick Basing joined in March and has instigated a review of the firm.
He has already hired Jones as chief executive and appointed new non-executive directors including gym specialist Scott Lloyd, son of the founder of David Lloyd gyms.
Basing said the Inter Milan executive ‘will bring significant experience and value, as we seek the many opportunities ahead of us’.
New openings are on hold while the review is completed.
It has nearly 50 sites in the UK and one in California. Non-executive directors at the firm are paid a salary of between £35,000 and £65,000 a year but Bolingbroke’s pay was not disclosed.
Shares were flat at 102.5p having started the year above 160p. The shares peaked above 400p nine years ago. Nigel Parson, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity, said Goals ‘has built a team with real quality, with relevant operational and broader industry skills to drive the business forward’.