It has been a busy few weeks on a number of fronts since i last wrote to you all, both on and off the pitch.

On the park we find ourselves in the well deserved heady heights of 2nd place. 7 games into the season and still undefeated in the league is a terrific achievement and both the players and Directors of the club deserve much credit for this.

The support and their numbers at the SMISA stadium has been terrific and over 7500 at home to Hearts is testament to the way the team is performing.

We were very unlucky through in Edinburgh against Hibs. A great start to the game, leading at half time, came to an abrupt halt early in the second half. Even in defeat we hope the players can take positives from the performance.

The performances both home and away this year have been very encouraging and the manner in which we are winning games is both pleasing on the eye as well as demonstrating how much effort the players are giving for the jersey, Alex Gogic at Motherwell being a great example.

The early form is on the back of increased season tickets sales, again very encouraging for the club finances and for the support of the team. It is great to see the 3 stands full for our home games and long may it continue.

Whilst the home support is increasing at SMISA we need your help to continue to grow our membership. The more people we can attract to SMiSA the more we are able to support Stephen Robinson and the club.

If you have a friend or family member who is not a SMiSA member then have a conversation with them to join.

We are currently conducting a review of the membership tiers, to ensure benefits are proportionate to their contribution. More information will be disclosed on this in the near future.

At the end of August we had our quarterly members meeting with club update from John Needham and an update from Womens team manager Kate Cooper.

The great news from Johns update was the much improved financial position our club is in. There has been a lot of great work behind the scenes over the last year and SMISA continue to be part of that ensuring the appropriate governance is in place to support the club.

Kate highlighted the commercial opportunity that exists by embracing women's football and it was brilliant to see SMiSA become the largest sponsor of the women’s team thus giving our commitment to the development of our relationship.

 

At the meeting I expressed my disappointment at the discovery of court actions taken out by the Kibble representatives on the SMFC board against SMiSA.

I said that I was waiting on dates to meet up with Jim Gillespie & Mark McMillan to develop the relationship between the 2 main owners of the club.

The good news was Jim and I finally caught up and spent a couple of hours starting to build a relationship that can work in the best interests of St Mirren. We have agreed to having regular meetings and where appropriate work collaboratively on projects for the club.

As we acknowledged on the night of the event, we are in what John Needham has accurately described as an arranged marriage. We have found that the Shareholders Agreement would make it extremely difficult for SMiSA should we wish to get out of it at this time, so we need to work alongside the Kibble Directors and create a more productive future for the club.

 

In September we had our first Legends Q&A night and what a night it was. 2 legends of the club, Danny Lennon and Tony Fitzpatrick were superb company.  For over 2 hours they entertained us with stories and anecdotes of their playing and management days.

Both stayed behind and spent time chatting to fans as well as signing autographs for many. We appreciated the time they gave to do this. Other clubs may do similar but will charge a huge amount for the privilege, again a huge benefit of being a SMiSA member.

 

Member voting is now open for the next SMiSA appointed SMFC Director, and i'm delighted that Jim Irvine is SMiSA's preferred candidate.

Jim has a wealth of commercial and financial experience and I wish him well in his role, should his appointment be endorsed by our members.

Jim joins John, Alex and Paul and together i'm sure they will continue to support all at the club to continue the great start we have made to the season.

 

This weekend brings our latest test with our first game against one of the Old Firm this season.

 

Get behind the team from the off and enjoy the game

 

Alex

 

SMiSA would like to thank all members and non-members who attended our first Legends Q&A Night. The evening featured two undeniable legends of St Mirren Football Club, Tony Fitzpatrick and Danny Lennon. Both of our legends were on top form as they shared many anecdotes, memories and answered questions from the fans who attended. Tony, a man who has done it all for our football club and Danny our first and only League Cup winning manager were responsible for a great evening and we couldn't have asked for better guests to be part of the inaugural SMiSA Legends Evening.

The evening also featured a quiz specifically based on the two legends in attendance. The winners got themselves a total of £60 in vouchers for the St Mirren club shop.



SMiSA are currently trying to provide members with even more exclusive events and incentives, that will make a SMiSA membership feel more valuable and can provide free access to some great social evenings for fans of St Mirren. We are happy to confirm that our next event will be our second 'Meet the Manager' evening with Stephen Robinson, and we have already confirmed the next two legends for our second SMiSA Legends Q&A Night, Hugh Murray and Mark Yardley. Dates and more information will follow in due course.

Remember, YOU can sign up today from only £5 per month if you are not already a SMiSA member!

At the SMiSA AGM in May 2023 a member raised an issue regarding a Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RGGF) application submitted to the Scottish Government in or around June 2022.

The application concerned a proposal to build a Wellbeing Centre in Ferguslie Park. We understand the amount of the grant sought was £2.65m and that the application was described as the ”St Mirren Wellbeing and Regeneration Masterplan.”

The application referred to the Kibble Organisation, the St Mirren Charitable Foundation (“the Foundation”) and Renfrewshire Council, as all leading it.

Another member at the end of the debate at the AGM suggested the need for an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding this application and members present indicated overwhelmingly in favour of this proposal via a show of hands.

The SMiSA board has since reached out to those involved in the application process receiving varying degrees of cooperation; namely The Foundation, Renfrewshire Council and Kibble representative Mr. Jim Gillespie, (Chief Executive, and Director/Trustee of The Kibble Organisation and director of SMFC) .

We also reached out to Mr. John Needham, Chairman of The St Mirren Football Club Limited and Mr. Alan Wardrop (the SMiSA member referred to above).

Many of you will be aware that, regrettably, a court case has commenced at the instance of Mr Gillespie and Mr MacMillan against Mr Wardrop and we must remain mindful of the importance of those proceedings which impact on the information that can be shared. We have received very little from SMFC board members in contrast to the extensive information received from Mr Wardrop.

 Members should be aware that the court action seeks two orders directed towards SMiSA, although SMiSA has not formally been called in the proceedings.

We are once again having to receive legal advice to protect SMiSA and its members.

There were in fact two applications prepared in connection with the proposed Wellbeing Centre, one in June 2021 and the other in June 2022, referred to above. Only the June 2022 application was actually submitted to the Scottish Government for the funding package. The Foundation’s name was referred to in both applications.

The Foundation insists it was not aware that any application had been submitted.

In May 2021 the Foundation’s CEO was contacted by a Kibble representative about an application for funding but she was subsequently assured that if there were any developments in connection with any such application that she would be kept updated by Kibble. No such update was ever provided to the Foundation. We are advised that the SMFC Charitable foundation subsequently became aware of the June 2022 application but only after it had been contacted by another football club trust in September 2022 to congratulate it on getting through the Stage 1 process and progressing to Stage 2.

Had it not been for this contact they would have been unaware of the application having been submitted using their name.

It is important to recognise there are presently differences of opinion with regards the application submitted in June 2022 between The Kibble organisation and Renfrewshire Council as to who submitted the land development plans as part of the application process. We understand that Kibble have stated that the Council made an error with the land drawings however this was firmly disputed by the Council in emails obtained by SMISA and indeed a senior official stated that the Council: “refutes entirely the suggestion there was an error on our part. It may be of interest to you to note that I have written to Kibble querying their public comments in this regard and requesting that they desist from such further comment”

You will recall the SMFC board issued a statement on 5th May 2023 in which it revealed that neither the Club nor the Foundation “had been engaged prior to the submission” of the application, suggesting that the reason for this was because the application was in “the very early stages of the process”.

At this stage, we are drawing this matter to your attention and look forward to the forthcoming quarterly members’ meeting in the SMiSA Stadium Hospitality Suite on Tuesday 29 August 2023 at 7.00pm.

Date:            Tuesday 29th August 2023 
Location:  SMiSA Stadium Hospitality Suite
Time:           Doors 18:30, Start 19:00

The second SMiSA members meeting of 2023 is scheduled to take place at the SMiSA Stadium on Tuesday 29th August, with doors opening at 6:30pm.

This meeting will allow the SMiSA board to provide an update on developments over the past few months. Members are also encouraged to share any queries, concerns or comments at the meeting, which will be kindly accepted and answered by the board as fully as possible. 

Should you wish to attend the meeting, please book your place through the members platform. This can be accessed through the link included in the recent email to all members, or at https://www.members.smisa.net.

We hope to see you there!

The SMiSA Board