The 111th Aberdeen Football Club AGM was possibly the most historic one since 1903.
REDTV | After Resolution 5 was passed which means Aberdeen Football Club is debt free, Chairman Stewart Milne spoke to RedTV. To watch the interview please click here Stewart also spoke to the media. To listen to that interview please click here
QUOTES FROM THE CHAIRMAN |
“I think it is a massive Christmas present for the club and hopefully it is a bit of pay back for a lot of people who have made a huge commitment to help shape the club over a long period of time. I think we have put ourselves in a good position to go forward. The challenge for us now is to build on that.
On Being Debt Free
“It is massive for the club. We have come through probably a massive challenging period for the club and for Scottish Football. Carrying that amount of debt was a major burden and would have been very difficult going forward. It has been difficult in recent years to see how we could get it substantially reduced but we came up with an idea and we have been working on this particular plan for the best part of a year. It was only in recent weeks that we were able to finally bring it all together.
“It is a massive step forward for the club and we can know concentrate on delivering the other two key elements for the club; the new training facilities which I know Derek and Tony are desperate to get and then once we have completed the training complex we need to follow through with the new stadium.
“Being debt free will give us momentum and hopefully attract other investment but I have always said what gives us real momentum is what happens out there on the pitch every Saturday. It is fairly evident to everyone who follows the club that we have made serious progress on that front since Derek arrived. He has put together a squad that has a lot of belief and it is a squad that is starting to deliver results on a constant basis. The League Cup win was reward for everyone for all the hard work that has been put in. The challenge now for us all is to keep the momentum going so we can deliver more success.
On the New Shareholders
“Willie and Elaine have built up a very successful business over the past twenty plus years or so and they were very keen to put something back into the community. They have always been very good supporters of the club.
“It is a fantastic thing that they have done for the club and the community.
“They were able to see that the investment that they put in enabled us to put all the other elements (of the financial plan) together and their crucial injection of new cash enabled us to deal with effectively (getting rid of) £14.5 million of debt in one fell swoop.
On the Football Budget
“One of the things that people do need to appreciate is that we were only able to pull off this deal because of the way we were running the club over the past six or seven years. We have been trying to get the club knocked into shape so that we were able to live and operate within our means. Because we were in that position a door opened and we were able to put the debt deal together.
“Over the past five or six years when Scottish Football was going through some of its most challenging times and we were operating in a world that was struggling financially, we worked very hard to make sure we did not have to cut the football budget.
“Now that we are debt free we are not going to change all the disciplines that we have driven into the club over a long period of time.
“That does not mean that we will not pull out all the stops and do everything we can to provide and support the manager in any way we can to keep this momentum going on the football side. That is the driver for everything within the football club.
On the Management Team
“I am no different to all the fans out there – we would love to see them being here for as long a period as possible. I know we will probably lose them one day but hopefully that is some way down the line. I think when Derek took on the job some 18 months ago he appreciated the scale of the task he was taking on. He did not come on board for a couple of seasons to deliver a bit of silverware – it was to re-establish Aberdeen Football Club at the top of Scottish Football and to do it in a way that we could sustain it going forward.
“Everyone out there acknowledges what Derek and Tony and the whole footballing operations team have done over the past year and a half but we are still at the early stages of the journey and I have every reason to believe the manager wants to see that journey through.
On the future
“We have made serious progress in a lot of fronts over the past period. We know however that there are still a lot of obstacles in our way and we have to make sure that we are ready and prepared to deal with them, whatever they might be.”
