Kieran Maguire shames unprofessional West Brom board for ‘ignoring’ Shareholders4Albion
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire has been left bemused by the latest twist in the ongoing West Brom and Guochuan Lai saga; something which seems to be never-ending.
Albion fans lost faith in Lai a long time ago and his poor leadership of the club has started to seep down into performances on the pitch this campaign.
Maguire has highlighted that a group of minority shareholders, called Shareholders4Albion, have made attempts to reach the West Brom board by sending 40questions; an approach that was completely ignored.
Speaking on the Price of Football podcast (29m 50s) Maguire expressed his anger at the way Lai and the West Brom board have been dealing with matters concerning the club.
“When a company makes a decision at the board level you have something called a fiduciary decision, that duty is that you must act in the best interests of the company; which is here West Bromwich Albion,” said Maguire.
“Now, is it in the best interests to lend money to somebody, when it could be argued that money would be better spent on signing players, investing in infrastructure, and so on in respect of West Bromwich Albion?
“There’s also an organisation called Shareholders4Albion, that represents a lot of individual shareholders who have collectively come together and are flagging some of their concerns about the governance and operational activities of the club.
“They wrote to the board, which they’re entitled to do as shareholders, a few months ago with 40 questions which were pretty detailed and the response of West Bromwich Albion is to completely ignore them, which I think is a sign of unprofessionalism.
“If the club can’t find the time to respond to shareholders, then who can it find the time to respond to.”
Fiduciary decision.
The most interesting factor to take from Maguire’s wise words is the “fiduciary decision”; this could be a huge turning point in matters concerning the board and Shareholders4Albion.
It leaves Lai and the West Brom board with a duty to act in the best interests of the club and not themselves; the owner has failed to put a penny in the club since taking over from Jeremy Peace in 2016.
Taking money out of the club – when the club needs it – and not paying it back on time is wrong and there is little that can be done now to redeem or save the relationship between Lai and the Albion fans.
There are problems up and down the club right now, but matters at the very top need to be sorted out promptly to make any progression on the pitch; this is vital.
It’s laughable how they are running a football club like a relationship between two secondary school friends and hopefully, resolutions can be made sooner rather than later.
In other West Brom news, a different finance expert is baffled by another issue that’s cropped up with the Albion lately.