This was first released as a members-only update. In response to feedback it has been made available to the wider Thistle support. If you want to be kept in the loop, and to have your say in the future direction of our Club, you can join The Jags Foundation today.

On Tuesday 1st November, five of the TJF directors met with all five of the PTFC Trust trustees. It was a robust but respectful meeting. We have sought to summarise the key points, so that our members have a sense of where things are and what the road ahead might involve. You can read this using the button below.
Read the full summary

Our red lines

In short, we set out three red lines, which we saw as a necessary precondition for cooperation between the two organisations. We were prepared to work with the Trust if:

  1. It held trustee elections no later than May 2023
  2. The majority of trustees are to be democratically elected in that first set of elections
  3. It carries out an open consultation on reform of the trust deed (including the definition of a beneficiary) and commits to implement the most important of these changes well in advance of the end of the current season.

The trustees were prepared to give assurances about the first and third of these red lines, but outright rejected the second.

Our response

Our view is that this is not good enough. Unless the PTFC Trust is majority elected, it cannot be regarded as a fan ownership vehicle, and it does not give fans meaningful control or make the trustees meaningfully accountable.

What do you think?

We would like to hear Thistle fans’ views about the way forward, and particularly our position on the three “red lines” we set out to the PTFC Trust.

We think these are fundamental to the values of our organisation, and what fan ownership necessarily must involve.

We find it very difficult to envisage a set of circumstances in which we can agree to work with an organisation that is not, or will not very soon be, majority democratically elected, and which therefore lives the values of representation, transparency and accountability.

But equally, we are ultimately trying to advance the interests of Thistle fans, and are accountable to our members. If they take a different view, we have to respect that.

Please get in touch giving your views, including of our red lines. You can do this by email to contact@thejagsfoundation.co.uk.