Football club fans group votes to accept shares buy-up offer

SWANSEA City Supporters’ Trust members have voted to accept an offer from the club’s American owners to purchase part of their shareholding.

The trust currently owns a 21.1% stake in Swansea City, and the proposal from Steve Kaplan and Jason Levien would potentially see that halved in the coming years.

Negotiations over a potential deal had taken place as long ago as last autumn, but were put on hold due to the club’s struggle against relegation from the Premier League.

However, once safety was secured, discussions were picked up towards the end of last season.

The trust has held two consultation meetings for members to ask any questions over the deal, and initiated a ballot to decide on how best for the fans’ group to move forward.

The trust board had recommended that members vote in favour of the sale, with chairman Phil Sumbler describing it as the “biggest decision” they had ever faced.

Options on the ballot were whether to accept the offer and proceed with the sale or not; if members voted for the latter they could advance to an additional question asking whether they would want to take legal action against the Americans regarding the manner of their takeover last summer, or retain the status quo.

Some 927 members voted in total, with 684 voting in favour of the sale, 231 against and 12 being declared void by an independent scrutineer. That means just shy of 75% of respondents – the trust has a total membership of around 1,800 – voted in favour.

The offer is for Levien and Kaplan to immediately buy 5% of the total club shareholding from the trust’s stake.