Cod Almighty | Diary

Let the debate commence

14 November 2018

Basque Diary has recently been watching the excellent mini-series Rebellion on a well-known juggernaut streaming service. It recounts the events of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, when the Irish people rose in their fight for independence.

The rebellion was fatefully unsuccessful for many, but the republicans bounced back with greater success having revised their tactics. The change in tactics and how to move forward was a hard-fought ideological battle among the leaders of the Irish, which resonates to this day.

For a brief moment last week, all social media and the internet was awash with ideas on how we can oust the current regime at Blundell Park and drive Grimsby Town forward. Two things in particular struck me about the debate. Firstly, that there is a clear will of the majority of the support to bring about change at boardroom level. Secondly, we do not have a fixed plan or ideology on how to achieve this.

Last week I launched a survey on Twitter asking if people would commit to a one-off share purchase to take control of the club. The results have come back: 63 per cent of participants are in favour of this.

If we are to move forward, the debate needs to be brought to the forefront of our current thinking. Our friends over at DN35 Podcast are talking about it tomorrow and asking for your questions and thoughts on the matter.

Do we want to follow the German model of 50+1, which allows fan ownership with private investment? Do we want a Spanish model where each member gets to vote on a president who is in office for a set time and has to present a pre-election manifesto? Do we want trust-led fan ownership like Wimbledon or Exeter City?

Nothing is going to satisfy all our supporters but before we can move forward we collectively need to decide on the model we want. There will no doubt be some passionate debates around what we should do.

It's high time the Mariners Trust stepped forward to ballot its members on these issues too. There are enough rumblings among its membership to warrant some kind of official inquiry.

In other news, the Premier League continues to do its best to alienate its confreres as Bruce Buck, the Chelsea chairman, laughably asked all the other chairmen of top-flight clubs to donate £250,000 each to their outgoing league chairman as a retirement gift. And Notts County have sacked Harry Kewell after just over two months in the job.

I thought silly season was supposed to be over?

UTM