Yeovil Town has issued a public response in the increasingly bitter war of words which has seen them split away from the Yeovil Town Community Sports Trust.
On Thursday, the Trust issued a lengthy statement revealing they had been asked to stop using the club’s name and branding in any communications, effectively cutting ties between the two organisations. Read more about that – here.
A further development made later on Friday is that Yeovil Town Women will also come under the club having previously operated under the Trust, led by CEO Jamie Phillip, who previously coached Cardiff City Ladies.
In the first update on Friday, the club responded to a number of claims by the Trust that the club’s owners Prabhu and Bhavna Srinivasan had “chosen a path of division” with the Trust, the club has claimed that “a shared way forward” could not be agreed between the two parties.
In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, the club said: “The club and the Trust had worked together under a formal service agreement, one the club was willing to continue to honour.
“When a shared way forward could not be agreed, we concluded that the club’s community work and effort are now best delivered directly by the club to honour the Yeovil Town brand ethos.
“That formal relationship will therefore come to a close, and we thank everyone who contributed to the Trust’s work over the years and wish them well.”
The split follows the establishment of a partnership with Yeovil College to set up “an elite player pathway” which will see the college, led by manager Roy O’Brien, run the Glovers’ under-19s side, which previously came under the Trust.
The Trust accused the club of “undermining it” by establishing the programme with the college which “directly competes with the programme the Trust has been successfully running for the last two years.” It adds: “These negotiations and subsequent agreements have been ongoing without informing or consulting the Trust in advance.”
The Trust has said it will continue to operate without the Yeovil Town name, and the split had doubt around where Yeovil Town Women would fit in the new structure. That was until Friday evening when the club issued another statement saying confirming the team had “returned to the ownership of the football club.”
The women’s team won South West Regional Division One South and will play in the fifth tier of the women’s game next season.
The club’s statement added: “With a proud history and a successful women’s side in previous years, we are committed to building on that legacy and continuing the journey back to where this team belongs. Bringing the women’s team back under the club’s ownership marks an important step in strengthening the connection between every part of Yeovil Town Football Club and creating a clear pathway for the future.”
Following the demise of Yeovil Town Ladies, who competed in the top flight of women’s football, in 2021, the women’s set up reformed in 2023 as Yeovil Town Women and have competed in the Somerset County Women’s league for the 2023/2024 season.
With that part clarified, the big outstanding question remains the future of the community activities, including summer soccer schools, undertaken by the Trust using the Yeovil Town name.
In its first statement on Friday, the club said: “We will share more about our community plans in the coming weeks.”
Overall, neither the club or the Trust has come out of this situation looking good and the public exchange of statements and social media posts has caused a seemingly unnecessary swirl of confusion.
It is the hope of us at the Gloverscast that this can be the end of this undignified behaviour on both sides and both the club and the Trust can get on with doing what they both claim is their main focus – supporting the football-loving public of Somerset.