The Stalybridge Celtic Supporters Association have already begun their planning for next season, including their plans for increasing shares, and potential fundraisers.

The supporters association have had some time to reflect on last season’s disappointing campaign, where they were relegated to the Northern Premier League West, and have just begun planning for next season, with the main plan being to increase the shares that they own in the club. 

Reflecting on last season, Shaun Bishop, the chairman of the Supporters Association said, “It’s been a bit of a whirlwind to be fair, on the pitch we’ve obviously not been great and relegation has been a long time coming, it feels like the end of a ten-year relegation battle”.

“Off the pitch we’ve been very successful though, the fanbase seems as united as ever and we feel we’ve helped with that, we wanted to be able to give fans a voice that’s why we set up the supporters association”, he added.

When asked about the main thing that needs to change about the club, Shaun said, “Hopefully we’ll have a new majority shareholder soon, and that in itself will freshen up the club, which has stagnated for a while. Off the pitch, things are already quite positive and if we can get everyone singing off the same hymn sheet things can only get better”.

Through the help of the Community Benefits Society (CBS), the transferring of shares has already begun. Shaun says this is crucial if the club is to move forward, “We’ve got the CBS now, so we’ve started to transfer shares over, we’ve been donated 10% so far so the fans currently own 10% of Stalybridge Celtic which is big for us”. “We want to increase that though, and the long-term aim is to get to 25% ownership, so we’re currently in touch with shareholders trying to make that happen”, added Shaun.

“This 25% would give us a big say in how the club is run, and we also want to have more fan representation on the board, we’re looking for at least two from the Supporters Association to join the board and this would be massive for us”, noted Shuan.

Shaun was also keen to highlight that the rebuild will take time, and that patience is key, “Promotion is not our main focus at the moment, our focus is to steady the ship, obviously it would be nice to win the league but if the club is steady off the pitch, then on the pitch things will sort themselves out eventually”.

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