Exeter City Supporters' Trust
The Exeter City Supporters' Trust logo
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| Abbreviation | ECFCST, ECST or The Trust |
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| Established |
6 May 2000 Purchased the club 5 September 2003 |
| Founded at |
St James Park, Exeter |
| Type | Official Supporter's Club |
| Legal status | Constitutional Supporters' trust |
| Purpose | "To make Exeter City an outstanding community-owned club, playing football at the highest sustainable level" |
| Location | |
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Membership (2015)
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3,329 |
| Leader | Laurence Overend |
| Affiliations | Football Supporters' Federation, Supporters Direct |
| Website | Official website |
Coordinates: 50°43′51″N 3°31′15″W / 50.7307°N 3.5208°W
6 May 2000
The Exeter City Supporters' Trust, abbreviated as ECFCST, ECST or simply The Trust, is a supporters' trust consisting of fans of Exeter City, an English professional football club based in Exeter. It is the majority shareholder of Exeter City, controlling 53.6% of the voting shares in the club. Since taking control, the Trust has handed over more than £1.75 million to the club.
The Exeter City Supporters' Trust was formed on 6 May 2000, following the club's 2-1 home defeat to Shrewsbury Town, after hearing of the work of the Northampton Town Supporters' Trust. However, it soon became obvious that the directors of the club only saw the Trust as a "cash cow" and had no intention of giving up any real power or allowing any insight into how the club was being run. This led to a change of the Trust's constitution in February 2003 from supporting the club to owning it. The Trust had originally been set up to raise enough money to sign forward Gary Alexander, who had previously been at the club on loan. At the time of the change, the Trust had 211 members and around £11,000.
On 14 May 2003, shortly after Exeter City's relegation to the Conference, John Russell and Mike Lewis (the chairman and vice-chairman at the time) were arrested over allegations of financial irregularities at the club. It later emerged that Uri Geller (who was co-chairman of the club at the time) was one of the people who had contacted the police. After Russell and Lewis' arrest, then Trust chairman Ian Huxham, chief executive Terry Pavey and Julian Tagg, all of which were prominent members of the Supporters' Trust at the time, were appointed as directors of the club. At this point, it seemed likely that then owner Ivor Doble would be asked to hand over his shareholding to the Trust. Shortly after, Doble asked the Trust to take over the day-to-day running of the club.
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