Are Trusts usually formed when a Club is in crisis or facing closure?
Many are, and the most spectacular successes and growth are usually at a club in crisis, where people fear their club could become extinct. That acts as a rallying call, and people make sacrifices that they might normally not make. But plenty of clubs aren’t in dire crisis, or even in any crisis at all at the moment. The crisis is the ’future’ – who knows what tomorrow might bring – new owners, massive debts, the football bubble bursting. Football is an eventful sport, and clubs rarely have a period of settled calm where nothing serious happens to them. At these types of clubs, the Trust is an insurance policy against that day, should it ever come. If owners change, it’s there to remind the new people that the fans love and care for the club and their interests need to be protected and their voice listened to. They’re also there to be a vehicle to save the club should things go badly wrong, though of course no-one ever wants to see that happening.
