Most Saints fans are confused by the way that the club is set up these days, who is responsible for what, now there is a big announcement from St Mary’s, find out more here.
According to the Daily Echo, Southampton FC Chairman and Sport Republic co-owner Henrik Kraft will step down from his position as Saints Chairman.
Kraft has controlled the club’s operations since Sport Republic acquired Southampton in January 2022, and he will continue to be a shareholder and board member; he is simply stepping back from operating the club.
Saints fans are frequently perplexed about the role of the Chairman, as in corporate governance, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) runs the club on a daily basis, while the Chairman oversees the operation, with the CEO reporting to them, rather than taking a hands-on approach. We assume this was true for Henrik Kraft.
But, beginning with Rupert Lowe and later duplicated by Nicola Cortese, corporate governance at Southampton FC went out the window. Both were the club’s CEOs, but they were also its own Chairman, so they reported to themselves and effectively had free license.
Kraft will be succeeded by Sport Republic’s largest stakeholder, Dragan Solak, who stated:
“I’d want to congratulate Henrik for his dedication and passion in his role.
“While I am delighted with many areas of the club’s management, I am quite disappointed with this season’s football performance.
“We will be boosting our football management team in the near future, and we will announce the details as soon as they are confirmed.
“Our goal at the outset of the season was to stay in the Premier League, and I know our fans share my unhappiness with how the season has progressed thus far.
“I ask everyone to continue supporting the club with as much passion and dedication as they have shown all season as we navigate the rest of the season together.”
Solak was initially chairman of Sport Republic and a member of the Saints board of directors since the club’s acquisition almost three years ago.
Rasmus Ankersen, CEO of Sport Republic, is also selected to the board, along with Saints CEO Phil Parsons and Ralf Bogli, a director chosen by Katharina Liebherr.
Andy Young is also listed as an independent director, having been appointed after the club’s relegation from the Premier League in 2023.
This is good news, and it is a rare piece of news from those running the club. Those Southampton fans who look closely at the club off the pitch as well as on it will blame our decline on CEO Parson and Chairman Kraft’s failure to replace Director of Football Jason Wilcox, who effectively left the club around ten months ago.
Since then, we appear to have lacked direction; neither Kraft nor Parson’s appeared to have the courage to stop Russell Martin’s determination to continue playing a failing tactical game; they were indecisive, and from the fans’ perspective, demonstrated a complete lack of leadership, both in dealing with what most saw as only ending in one way, and in the lack of communication between the club and its supporters in all areas.
Now it appears Dragan Solak has had enough and is taking personal responsibility of matters; he has emphasized the mistakes of the previous year and verified that in his statement.
“We will be strengthening our football management team in the near future, and we will share details of that as soon as things are confirmed.”
That demonstrates that he, like the fans, sees the problem and is not going to let it go any longer. The first signs of this were last month, when Russell Martin was replaced by Ivan Juric, but it goes deeper than that; we need a Director of Football, and we need to support Juric with a larger coaching team, particularly coaches with experience.
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