Another Blunder by Bolton Wanderers Supporters’ Trust

So as as well know, Bolton Wanderers is back.

Back in the Championship? Well yes, but also back in the murky world of winding up orders and rumoured financial strife. So how do we cope with these most rough of waters? You’d want everyone to band together behind the cause, no matter what you thought or felt about the ship’s captain, right?

Well, if you run the Bolton Wanderesrs Supporters’ Trust, then the answer is apparently a big fat ‘no’.

Not quite a fortnight removed from the joyous scenes of our promotion party, there has emerged another growing sense that the Trust are acting not in the interests of their members, but more in terms of serving their own vanity.

That we need, and should have, a Supporters Trust, is not in question. The activities of the Trust however are, to me, very questionable.

There is an argument to have them sit in the background, lobbying for fan interests using the mandate they were given upon inception - but what we seem to have, judging from the contents of the Chairman’s latest column, is a group of people who were appointed without challenge, who want to run a football club.

Offering £140,000 in return for 10% equity is an opportunistic move, which some may see as shrewd business, but I would contend that it is more like taking advantage of the club’s financial misfortune.

I wonder whether the Trust hierarchy regret making those demands, in light of the almost universally negative response to the news being leaked out by Ken Anderson - a move which undoubtedly strengthens his own position whilst weakening that of the Trust.

Is the Trust acting ‘for the fans’ im this moment? Not in my opinion.

It’s another embarassing PR gaffe from them, one that seriously undermines member confidence, I would contend. As far as I am concerned the board of the Trust should be looking inward right about now and have a huge decision to make.

Are they in it for the fans, for the club, or are they in it for different reasons? I think things need to change, as if you were to ask me then it seems that the latter is the case, which is fundamentally against the very principles of a collective supporters’ group.

We already have a weak and toothless supporters’ association. As a believer in the Trust, it’s sad to acknowledge that BWSA is currently more representative of fans than our own Supporters’ Trust.

It was never meant to be like this, and it is up to the powers within the Trust to shape up and start acting in the manner we woukd expect, Club first, personal gain second.

It can be done.