10:01am Thursday 15th May 2008
By Gordon Simpson
THE remaining directors on Southampton Football Club's PLC board have this morning resigned, completely clearing the path for Rupert Lowe and Michael Wilde to return to St Mary's.
Leon Crouch, Patrick Trant and Keith Wiseman confirmed to the Stock Exchange at 10am they had stepped down from their posts.
They follow chief executive Lee Hoos out of the door at St Mary's, after he officially resigned on Tuesday.
Crouch has also quit his post on the football club board.
Today's announcement means the EGM, which was scheduled for tomorrow, will no longer be required, with Lowe and Wilde free to take power today.
Wiseman, who had served on the board for 21 years, this morning issued a statement, on behalf of himself, Crouch and Trant.
It said: "On behalf of Leon Crouch, Patrick Trant and myself I confirm that as at 10am on Thursday the 15th May 2008 we have resigned from the Board of Southampton Leisure Holdings and in Leon's case from the Football Club Board as well.
"I particularly regret that Leon and Patrick have by force of circumstance had a relatively limited period of involvement at board level although they have both very much made their mark and have been a pleasure to work with.
"Lee Hoos of course resigned on Tuesday from his executive position on the board and I would like to thank him for his hard and ultimately successful work this season in very difficult circumstances.
"Real success will hopefully return for the club sooner rather than later.
"From a personal point of view I have had the great privilege of board membership for the last twenty one years and it is now over fifty years since I first started to support the club.
"The club has been through difficult times in recent years, a situation created almost entirely by the loss of premiership revenue and the failure to return immediately to the top division.
"The effort made in the season before last brought us agonisingly close but the complete absence of parachute payments during this last year has placed enormous constraints upon what we have been able to deliver.
"The form of the team fell away alarmingly in the early weeks of 2008 and I would like to pay heartfelt tribute to Nigel Pearson for his sterling work in the last period of the season that saw us finally into a safe position after the memorable last match against Sheffield United. He deserves every opportunity to remain with us.
Click here to read Leon Crouch's statement
"The board came under pressure from Rupert Lowe and Michael Wilde to resign long before the end of the season; we resisted that pressure because although they hold significant shareholdings we did not believe that any further disruption at the club before the end of the season could possibly be to the benefit of the team.
"We now feel therefore that our approach in that respect was entirely justified.
"We have also been aware for many months that there has been the prospect of significant financial investment in the club.
"We have remained in office right up to the day before the Extraordinary General Meeting because we felt that negotiations were going well and it would have been a great pleasure to have been able to place the club into the care of those who hopefully will have the financial muscle to return us again to the Premiership place that the club is geared up for in so many ways particularly our magnificent ground.
"As far as we are aware neither Rupert Lowe nor Michael Wilde have financial resources that can be used to benefit the club and we are well aware that the vast proportion of the shareholding they can at present command is in the hands of a very few close friends and does not in any way reflect the views of most of the fans of the club.
"However in legal terms we have no choice but to stand down.
"We sincerely hope that the period in office of the incoming board will be very short; not so much because of our personal views but because that would mean that significant resources were being made available to take the club forward.
"We shall of course remain devoted on a personal basis to the best interests of the club and will continue our lifelong support of the team."
Log onto the Daily Echo website at 10.30am for a full statement from Leon Crouch.
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