"Some supporters share this view" - Swindon Town claim made on Clem Morfuni's ownership | OneFootball

FLW's Swindon Town pundit gives his take on Clem Morfuni's transparency.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Swindon Town have been plagued by ownership issues for years now and, despite improvements on the pitch under Ian Holloway, concerns remain about those in charge at the very top of the club.

Australian businessman, Clem Morfuni, took over the Robins in 2021 from former owner Lee Power, with hopes that he would resolve the issues left behind by his predecessor.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case, as the majority shareholder has been underwhelming since his arrival, failing to demonstrate professionalism through late payments to HMRC and third parties and even breaching EFL rules in an attempt to erase the club’s debts.

This lack of foresight from the Australian has led to the formation of a peaceful protest group, 'Spirit of '69,' which is urging their owner to sell the club. Whether this outcome comes to fruition remains unclear, but all the Robins supporters can hope for now is increased transparency and improvements across the club from Morfuni while he is in charge.

Clem Morfuni urged to increase transparency to Swindon Town supporters

To get a County Ground point of view on the current transparency of Swindon's ownership, Football League World spoke to their resident Robin, Ciaran Daniel, who revealed that the word transparent is something that he cannot associate with Morfuni and Co.

"They're absolutely not transparent enough in my eyes," said Daniel. "I know some supporters will share this view and some won't.

"There is some information they can't share with the fans because it would be commercially sensitive, but they could be a lot more open about very basic things.

"Some clubs provide very detailed accounts. We have provided the most undetailed accounts in this regime, and less detailed than the former owners' final accounts.

"We don't give deadlines for things. For example, the club shop at the start of the season, they wouldn't give us a deadline for it to be sorted, and when they did, they missed their own deadline. Three or four times they have done it with various other projects on the ground as well. They haven't been open about how they will get funding for ground redevelopment.

"Once, when Clem Morfuni said there had been an error on Companies House with shares allocated to some people's names, he got the former CEO to read a statement to that effect. And then, three or four days later, he admitted what it was. That isn't open and transparent; that is throwing someone under the bus, and the old CEO was a Swindon fan and still goes to games now."

Swindon have set up an advisory board to try and help with fan engagement, but as detailed by Daniel, it doesn't appear to have worked.

"They have an advisory board that I have seen more open and transparent than bathroom-glossed windows," said the Robins fans.

"Their advisory board doesn't even answer questions; they avoid questions and answer them with one-word answers. Someone asked if Clem would consider selling this club, and he replied with, 'I love this football club and I love Swindon Town.' It was a non-answer. There are so many non-answers; they don't respond in any way to fans' queries.

"At the moment, they said the fans' forum would be arranged in March, and we're midway through March with no suggestion of it yet. Now, they're saying it is going to be in April – one of the busiest periods in football. The season ends in May. Are we going to get a fans' forum before the season is out? I wouldn't count on it. Is the owner even going to be there? We don't know.

"We aren't open and transparent. When the owner is back in the country, he agreed to meet a fan protest but did it at a moment's notice.