Chelmsford City chairman confirms his future

By dward

CHELMSFORD City chairman Peter Webb has poured scorn on rumours the club's financial future could be in jeopardy.

In an exclusive interview with the Chronicle yesterday (Wednesday) Webb allayed supporters' fears over the club's financial future following his sudden resignation as founder and major shareholder of the city-based Unicorn Asset Management Fund.

“My decision to leave Unicorn will not affect City's long term ambition to reach the Football League,” he declared. “Unicorn will remain the main club sponsors for this season as part of the original deal but we will have new sponsors for the following season.

“City fans should not be worried about me leaving Unicorn as I wanted to branch out and try other things and broaden my business horizons.

“In terms of money for players I am as committed as ever to ensure the right financial package is there and we can continue on from last season's promotion to do it again this coming season.”

Webb is in the process of setting up another new, what is called in the city, micro-cap fund under his role as chairman of FinnCap, the corporate finance arm of stockbrokers JM Finn.

But importantly for Clarets fans he says he will also be looking to attract three or four like-minded local businessmen to join the board at the end of this next season.

“Football is a business as everyone knows and I will be looking to attract extra investment to the club in this way so we can carry on making the progress we've made so far,” Webb explained. “We will need to re-capitalise as it were and I'm sure there are other business people locally like myself who can come on the club's board.”

“It's taken my first year as chairman, along with the board, to clear the financial legacy of the past and structurally and operationally we are now in a much better position but we will still need more investment for the future.

“It's been a major challenge both on and off the field for us and will continue to be so but we are making the right progress and going in the right direction yet it remains an on-going challenge.

“The objectives still remain the same but we will need more investment in the future.”

Webb confirmed that with the continued excellent support of Chelmsford Borough Council, necessary improvements will be made to Melbourne Stadium to make it fit for the Blue Square Premier if the club achieves promotion.

“The board is in constant dialogue with the council and their response remains positive which is tremendous, so I don't see any problems in making the necessary changes to play there if promoted,” Webb revealed. “These are challenging times for everyone in the current credit crunch but the club is now on a solid foundation, debts have been cleared and we will continue to develop stronger local community links.”