Swindon Town owner Clem Morfuni has publicly challenged the football club’s supporters’ trust to provide details of any credible potential buyers, saying no official bid has materialised since he took control in 2021.<\/p>\n
The statement follows criticism in a recent newsletter from the Swindon Town Supporters’ Trust (STFC Trust), which Morfuni says presents “opinion and speculation as fact”.<\/p>\n
The trust’s intervention follows comments by manager Ian Holloway in a pre-match press conference with BBC Wiltshire Sport and the Swindon Advertiser in which he described Morfuni as ‘dead man walking’.<\/p>\n
STFC Trust said the club has “lost its soul, its hope, its passion” under Morfuni’s leadership and says it has been approached on “multiple occasions” by interested buyers, including a consortium with experience in sports franchising, digital media and marketing.<\/p>\n
But it said Morfuni has shown “no genuine interest in selling despite publicly saying he would consider offers”.<\/p>\n
The trust says the club’s debt stands at around \u00a314m, all in the form of loans repayable on demand.<\/p>\n
But the club has now hit back with a robust statement, saying Morfuni stepped in to stabilise Swindon Town in 2021 when it faced an uncertain future, and has since invested millions of pounds to sustain operations.<\/p>\n
Much of the debt referenced by critics was inherited from previous ownership regimes, including approximately \u00a38m of historic debt, according to the club.<\/p>\n
Australian businessman Morfuni takes no money out of the football club and personally pays for his flights, accommodation and meals when visiting Swindon, the statement says.<\/p>\n
The club listed a series of supporter engagement initiatives introduced under Morfuni’s ownership, including a monthly supporters advisory board, a joint venture board, sensory rooms, and support for the community foundation including the provision of over 3,000 tickets this season.<\/p>\n
More than 176 community engagements were delivered through the club and community foundation last season, supporting schools, hospitals and community groups.<\/p>\n
The club says its pitch was recognised as the SkyBet League Two Pitch of the Year last season following investment to stitch and strengthen the playing surface.<\/p>\n
Under Morfuni’s ownership, the women’s team has been brought fully in-house and based at the County Ground, achieving promotion last season.<\/p>\n
On redevelopment, the club says it remains committed to improving the Nigel Eady County Ground but notes the trust has never publicly backed the club’s development proposals and has not contributed financially towards architectural, surveying or professional costs.<\/p>\n
The statement clarifies that the Nigel Eady Trust will did not direct that funds be used to purchase a football ground or impose any requirement that supporters be granted ownership rights, with Morfuni’s proposal to gift 50% of any future ground ownership to supporters described as a voluntary gesture.<\/p>\n
The club says it is focused on improving operations, strengthening foundations and working towards a successful future for Swindon Town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Owner Clem Morfuni defends investment and engagement record since 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":47413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120904],"coauthors":[160],"class_list":["post-47412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-featured-story","tag-wiltshire"],"yoast_head":"\n