Sahil Prabhu has spoken about his family’s takeover of Yeovil Town, this summer’s recruitment and the ambitions of the owners to reunite ownership of Huish Park with the football club.
The son of chairman Prabhu Srinivasan was appointed a director of the club as part of a boardroom reshuffle announced earlier this month which also saw solicitor Ian Scobbie join the board whilst Executive Chairman Stuart Robins stepped in to a non-executive role.
Speaking to the Gloverscast in our latest podcast episode, the son of chairman Prabhu Srinivasan revealed the club was just seven days from going in to administration when the family acquired it in May 2025.
He described the Huish Park finances as “a lot worse than initially anticipated” when the takeover was completed, adding: “It was a little bit of a twist to that because we had seven days till the club went into administration. So there were decisions which need to be taken in terms of ‘are we gonna commit to an exclusivity period’, which then adds probably two more weeks for us to make the decision of whether we want to buy the club. So it was definitely an interesting one.”
The director spoke at length about the “blueprint” the owners had developed to improve first-team recruitment starting with the appointment of Head of Recruitment Jamie Hedges last November. This was followed by a major increase in the budget for manager Billy Rowley which was followed by a busy summer with 15 players arriving at the club.
Sahil added: “We looked at teams coming down from League Two and the teams coming back up from the National League North and South, and we thought it was a real advantage for a club like Yeovil. We think we can really put ourselves back out there, which is why we had a 30% increase in budget, and with that comes (the question) ‘have we justified the spend which we have?’ That’s my main objective and I think we definitely have done that, but I think only time will really tell with that.”
Having spoken to the new director about on-the-pitch matters, we discussed the important issue of the ownership of Huish Park stands and the land surrounding it. Owner Prabhu Srinivasan has spoken recently about how reuniting the ownership of the stadium remains a priority for the ownership, whilst admitting investment in the first-team was the current top priority.
Sahil praised the work of his mother, director Bhavna Vohra, who he said had got into “a great place” in discussions about the long-term future of the land with current ownership, Somerset Council, but he admitted the financial realities of acquiring it in the short-term were very real.
He said: “Even before we came into the club, the majority of what we wanted to do long term included the stadium and the land coming back to the club. However, the reality of the economics of what’s happened with things such as inflation and where the actual capital cost of acquiring the land back has gotten to for us right now, there needs to be plans in place right after you acquire the land.
“Even though it might not seem like there’s been any progress done, in the background, this has been one of maybe four key performance indicators which we have as an ownership group. So there is enough work going on, and we hope, and we are confident that there will be a solution within a given amount of time. I’m not gonna set a time limit on it.”