Well To Do, Gulls To Ponder

Motherwell have made the move into fan ownership with a 76% holding in the club now resting with the supporters trust, the Well Society, four years after the plan was put into place.

The £1 purchase from current owner Les Hutchison came after the Trust was conceived in 2012 to take over the club from previous owner John Boyle. Losses at the Fir Park club ran at around £500,000 a season since 2012, leading to Barbados-based Hutchison having to rescue the club in 2015 from the threat of Administration before the Trust were ready.

Hutchison will now see his loans repaid via extraordinary income - transfer fees, basically - over the next three years before a fixed payment schedule kicks in. For their part, the Well Society are fully aware of the scale of the task to hand, with a statement noting:

"Our ongoing responsibility as fans, through the Well Society, will be to generate additional income for the running of the football club through monthly direct debit payments of £10 or more. The income generated by our fans via the Well Society will be crucial to our financial stability over the coming years."

While Joint Chairman Douglas Dickie added: "Fan ownership has responsibilities and we all need to realise that continued and growing financial support from all fans will be required."

Meanwhile, at Torquay United, their Supporters Trust is on standby to avert the club's looming collapse. Club Chairman David Phillips has acknowledged that the financial implosion could happen in January with financial forecasts proving grim reading.

"When Wrexham went bust, their Supporters' Trust were able to step in because they already had £400,000 in reserve." Said Phillips to the local press,

"Our Trust haven't got themselves into that situation. They are fans of the club, like we are, and we all want what is best for the club. But you would be talking about significant amounts of money needed to run the club and take it forward, not just this year, but next year and the year after.

"It would be a mammoth task. It's a very tight schedule, but TUST have insisted that, if it did come to Community Ownership, they would need that sort of time to set things in motion. Hopefully, by the end of Monday we will give them some sort of decision."

A Fans Forum is currently set for Wednesday.