In news that is sure to delight all City fans the Football Club are delighted to confirm that the transfer of the shares from the Supporters Trust (ST) to Simon Lancaster has now been fully signed and completed.

Members of the Trust voted last May to transfer their controlling shares to Simon subject to legal agreements. Bearing in mind there were genuine concerns for the financial viability of the Club, Simon agreed to not wait for the legal agreements to be signed before investing into the Club and implementing his strategy which he has been doing over the last 8 months whilst he, the Trust and their solicitors simultaneously finalised the agreements. These agreements were signed and completed today.

Upon completing the takeover Simon commented:

‘I always take every opportunity to thank the ST, Rob Crean, Rich Widdowson and Dave Wood et al for saving the club, bringing us back to Worcester and enabling something like this transfer to take place, they deserve huge credit.

This has obviously taken around 8 months to complete since it was voted for at the Trusts EGM back in May, but to be fair it is a big and important deal for all parties where a single person has majority control for the first time in the clubs history whilst enshrining protections promised to the Trust.

So it has been a complex and detailed negotiation. I have to say in all fairness it has all been conducted in extremely good faith by both sides and with the Clubs best interests always at heart. I would again like to thank the ST and particularly Rob for his considerable efforts on this. I look forward to continuing to work with them and all of our incredible volunteers.

Whilst this has been taking place I have been working hard with the board, our commercial manager Ryan, our first team manager Chris and others to get to work on driving the club forward, so no time has been lost.

If we look back to where we were when we started this process -, fighting relegation to step 6, and financially struggling - I strongly believe this is a fantastic result for all parties to ensure the sustainability of our club, most importantly for our amazing community of fans. Thank you humbly for the support that each one of you continues to give me, I really do appreciate it.

Let’s continue to move on up this mountain together. UTC’

The Chairman of the ST Rob Crean commented 'The decision made by members of the Supporters’ Trust to transfer ownership of the Club from the fans to Simon was taken in the knowledge that a fresh input of finance and new ideas was the only way to ensure the survival of Worcester City FC.

We still maintain fan involvement is key to making the club successful, an example being the volunteers who work so hard each week to get games on. Simon’s involvement is both timely and welcome, but we should remember that the clubs long term future will depend on hard work and determination from us all. We believe the working relationship between Simon; the Supporters’ Trust and the Football Club board is the key to securing that future'.

Board of Directors
Worcester City Football Club