SU Glovers, a business set up by the son of a multi-millionaire and his mother, has confirmed they have “taken on the stewardship” of Yeovil Town.
In a statement made an hour before the National League home match with Altrincham on Tuesday night, a statement was issued confirming what we believe to be the acquisition of a majority shareholding in Yeovil Town Football & Athletic Club, the company which has historically run the club’s football operations.
The company, SU Glovers Limited, has two directors, Matt Uggla and his mother Julie-Anne Uggla, the son and ex-wife of Lance Uggla, a businessman who is understood to have made in excess of £300m when his business IHS Markit was sold in 2020.
The statement makes no reference to any of these parties or former England rugby union star Paul Sackey who is understood to be involved in the takeover as well.
In the statement, the company said: “SU Glovers are thrilled to announce that we have taken on the stewardship of Yeovil Town Football & Athletic Club Ltd and we are committed to working with the community to build a successful and thriving club. We recognise that there have been historical tensions and issues, and we aim to work together with the community to address and fix those issues.
“Our vision for Yeovil Town is to create a club that is not only successful on the field, but also plays an integral role in the community. We believe that football has the power to bring people together and create positive change, and we are committed to making a positive impact in the Yeovil community.
“We understand that building trust and positive relationships takes time, and we are committed to being patient and persistent in our efforts. We are looking forward to working with the community and our fans to achieve our shared goals. We hope that you will join us on this journey.
“Thank you for your support and we can’t wait to see what we can achieve together.”
The use of language “taken on the stewardship” is bizarrely ambiguous; only definition of the word stewardship is: ‘the job of supervising or taking care of something, such as an organisation or property’. It does sound like a takeover, but does the absence of the actual word ‘takeover’ mean anything or not? Thoughts?
Notably there is no reference chairman Scott Priestnall who previously held the majority shareholding in Yeovil Football & Athletic Club – we can only hope (assume?) further details will emerge in due course.
However, the fact the acquisition is of Yeovil Football & Athletic Club tells its own story. That business was previously owned by Yeovil Town Holdings Limited, the company which has exclusive rights to develop Huish Park and the land surrounding it, which has one director – you guessed it, Scott Priestnall.
The last time we heard from the Chairman – or at least the person listed as Chairman at the time of writing – was New Year’s Eve 2022 when he confirmed he had “entered in to a period of exclusivity with a preferred party to become a majority shareholder.”
One assumes (and what else can we do other than assume right now?) that the preferred party that statement reference was indeed SU Glovers.
“Stewardship” and not “Ownership”. An interesting one – but, hopefully, a really positive step forward for The Glovers.
But not Yeovil Town Holdings which own all the infrastructure. Hmmm
Holding company don’t own anything SSDC own land and ground
“Stewardship” is the word that I worry about. I can still smell Mr Priestnall in the background. The most important thing is saving us from the drop first. We need a big cash injection immediately
Holding company do not own anything is a correct statement. But they do have exclusive rights to buy it all back.