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Tottenham Supporters' Trust calls on board to resign

Tottenham Supporters' Trust calls on board to resign
© Reuters
The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust said the board had "not acted in the best interests of the football club".

The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust has called on the club's board to resign, saying their actions had "shamed and humiliated the club" and the relationship with fans is "irreparably broken".

In a vote on Friday evening, 90 per cent of the trust's membership voted in favour of a motion calling for Spurs' executive board to go, and for the ownership to work with the trust to elect a new board including fan membership.

In a lengthy statement, the trust said the current board had worked against the club's own interests in signing up to the doomed European Super League project.

The statement said: "The consequences of their decision to attempt to launch this breakaway league could now lead to substantial penalties against Spurs – points deductions, suspension from competition, financial penalties, other sanctions.

"They signed up to this plan knowing they risked all that, and knowing they risked their players being banned from international competition.

"The responsibility of the club's board is to always act in the best interests of THFC. The current board clearly has not acted in the best interests of the football club. In fact, its action could still lead to outcomes that are in the worst interests of THFC.

"We think their relationship with us is irreparably broken. And we think their continued presence risks punitive action being taken against the club."

Spurs were one of six English clubs to sign up to the Super League last weekend, a venture which took just 48 hours to unravel in the face of huge opposition.

Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton – Premier League – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Protests against the club's ownership took place earlier this week (Adam Davy/PA)

Protests have continued even after the project collapsed, with thousands of Arsenal supporters marching on the Emirates Stadium on Friday night while a group of fans entered Manchester United's training ground a day earlier.

Those fans are now demanding a greater voice in the running of their clubs, thoughts echoed by the Tottenham Supporters' Trust.

"The actions of the current board have shamed and humiliated the club, and wilfully risked its competitive wellbeing," the statement said.

"It's a sad day for this great club, but it is also a watershed moment. We can show that our clubs can only be run with the consent of the fans."

The statement added that the trust did not expect Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy, as owners of the club, to step down, but instead called on them to work with supporters in the future – with a risk of further fan revolts if their views were not taken into account.

Daniel Levy File Photo
Daniel Levy said he regretted "the anxiety and upset" caused by the Super League plan (Peter Byrne/PA)

"Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy will have a choice," the statement said. "Make those changes or refuse and risk the club becoming unmanageable because the owners and board do not have the consent of the fans.

"We have shown the influence we can have in the past week, just as we did over furlough and over the proposed move to east London.

"If the owners do not make the changes we demand, we will then have to consider how we practically encourage new buyers to take over and work with the fans in the best interests of the football club."

The trust said the board had offered a meeting to discuss the situation 24 hours after withdrawing from the Super League, but the trust declined and asked for a written statement instead.

"They told us that given the current situation, and on legal advice, it wasn't possible to put anything in writing and that they were disappointed we didn't want to meet but did appreciate the difficulties," the trust's statement said.

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