I’m sure I will have missed some stuff but off the top of my head the main points covered were -
1. MCT has been notified that an individual intends to take legal action against them. For obvious reasons no more info could be disclosed or questions answered, but it was stated that the legal costs, and any other payouts if the verdict goes against MCT, would need to be covered by MCT funds (so in other words would come at the cost of payments to the club).
2. Update on the first few months in role for the newly elected MCT board, and on the changes to the club board since the last meeting.
3. Dalrada funding - due to end after next season. Next seasons funding will be reduced to £288k. This sum is dependent upon renewals of certain players contracts which had an extension option. 5 out of (I think 8 or 9 in total) are ones that the club are in control of (eg if we take up the option then the players cannot opt out) and Murray has said he wants to take up all 5 of these. Depending on the outcome of the other pending renewals, the funding may decrease. Even if we only end up renewing the 5, the total amount will still be significantly above the going rate for a main sponsor at our level. It was stated that the gaffer also has a playing budget for next season which is independent of this arrangement. When asked why Dalrada are pulling funding, the major reason given was that Brian felt there had been a lot of negativity about the sponsorship and that it was a good time to end it (I highlighted that people were grateful for Dalradas involvement and that the negativity was about his insistence on Laird & Robinson being in place, and on how wasteful the spending had been, leaving us with nothing to show for the money spent). Also next season Dalrada will only have home shirt sponsorship so there’s an opportunity for the club to find new sponsors for 2nd kit & stadium naming. Hope was also expressed that we might be able to get Dalrada back to the table - either to reconsider and extend beyond next season, or to put some funding into capex projects like stadium development (so that a lasting legacy would be there).
4. Cappielow 150 - creation of a new fund & money raising campaign to do some upgrades on Cappielow in time for the 150th anniversary of the stadium in 2029. Also some good updates here from Paul Farren on work that’s being done to make maintainence & upkeep costs more predictable and ensuring they are fully budgeted for).
5. External funding/potential sale of GMFC shares. The company was not named but it was stated that the investment was “significant, but not quite Dalrada levels”. It was mentioned that the company is involved in the sports management/analytics space and that more details will be disclosed in the next 1-2 weeks prior to a member vote on the proposal in early March. Obviously more information has come out since then in the tele and via the Estrella website and socials.