Tonight (Tuesday 20th May) at our club’s AGM we announced the resignation of club Chairman, Terence Brannigan, after 3 years in the role.
On his resignation Mr Brannigan stated “When I was asked to join the Board as Chairman in 2011 Glentoran was faced with two severe challenges; that of the club’s perilous financial position following years of overspending, and the need to make progress towards safeguarding the club’s long term future through relocation to a new stadium in East Belfast.
On the first and most pressing matter of ensuring financial survival, I stated at last year’s AGM that our objective for 2013/14 was for the club to achieve break-even on the season’s trading. I am pleased to report that we not only achieved this but, due to our success on the pitch and by making a further reduction in our overheads, we delivered a trading profit of £83,000. Indeed, even whilst imposing continuing constraints on our budget, we did win last season’s Irish Cup and managed to achieve a Top Five finish in the Irish Premier League this year. Whilst this does not satisfy the ambitions of this great club, given that our initial key objectives were to ensure financial survival and then to create stability, it does point toward a better on-field future for our club.
As with almost every other club in the Irish Premier League, Glentoran continues to face financial challenges and we will do so until our stadium goal is met. However, I feel that, now that we have clearly demonstrated that our club can not only remain in existence, but can enjoy some measure of success whilst operating within its means, the time is right for me to formally hand over leadership of our club to other individuals within Glentoran who have helped play a major role in improving our position and who are prepared to fully commit themselves to further building upon these improvements.
From a personal perspective, given the demands that my other commitments put upon me, I feel that I can no longer deliver the level of time that the next phase of our development requires and would not wish that to impede our progress. My focus upon the creation of an enduring and stable financial position for our club has meant that the relocation to a new stadium has not developed as quickly as I had planned and would have wished. This is a great personal disappointment to me and, I feel sure, to the club at large. However, after some delay, progress is now being made on this important matter and I am confident that the Board will be in a position to make a positive announcement in the near future.
When I was appointed as Chairman of Glentoran it was with a great sense of pride and honour that I accepted the position. As I now step down I wish to place on record my personal thanks both to those who put their faith in me and to those who supported me in facing some extraordinary challenges - my fellow Board members, our Director of Football, Roy Coyle, our Manager, Eddie Patterson and our legion of volunteers. Most importantly, I wish to thank the Glentoran Supporters Clubs and the wider Glentoran family for their unwavering support of our club and for their enduring patience. Whilst not delivering everything that I would have wished, I do hope that I leave our club in a better place than I found it and I have pledged to our Board that I will continue to support them, in any way that they believe would prove helpful, in ensuring that the journey that we embarked upon together is successfully completed.”
Terence will be succeeded by Stephen Henderson, previously Vice Chairman. On his election as Chairman and to his appointment as a director on behalf of the Coates Trust Stephen said: “As a lifelong Glentoran supporter I am honoured to take the chair of the club and to thank Terence Brannigan for all his input, guidance and hard work over the past 3 years, during which the club has come through some very difficult challenges. This remains a challenging time for Glentoran but I and the rest of the Board will continue to ensure stability and complete commitment to both the day to day running of the club and to securing the club’s long term future in a new stadium within East Belfast.
“On the issue of relocation, I have met directly with those individuals who since 2011 have supported our efforts to stabilise the club, who have helped progress the stadium plans and who will help secure the necessary funding. I am pleased to confirm to our supporters that these key individuals have confirmed that their commitment to securing these goals remains as strong as ever. This is positive news and we are committed to keeping the supporters fully informed at every step in this process, a process that we recognise has seen limited evident progress in recent times”.
“In the short term I and the board fully understand that the expectation of Glentoran FC is a successful team on the pitch. I appreciate the patience and understanding shown by our loyal supporters as we have had to significantly reduce the playing and coaching budget in recent years. This has not been an easy journey and we would like to thank the supporters for remaining patient as Eddie Patterson and his coaching staff have continued to build a strong squad, primarily through development of our young players. We have seen with the emergence of so many young players that we are clearly on the right lines. We recognise that the board and the broader Glentoran family need to work together more closely than ever to provide support to Eddie as he now commences his new 2 year contract as Team Manager. We have every confidence that through Eddie, Spike Hill and his coaches of the Seconds and the unsung heroes of the Academy coaching staff, the long term playing future of Glentoran is in safe hands.”