Thistle chairman defends share handover

JAGS CHAIRMAN JACQUI LOW IS DEFIANT ON SHARES DECISION AMID BATTLE FOR CLUB’S SOUL

PARTICK THISTLE chairman Jacqui Low has dismissed complaints about the handover of club shares to a fans’ group, insisting that the decision met the wishes of multi-millionaire benefactor Colin Weir. Low oversaw the transfer of a 55 per cent stake to Partick Thistle Football Club Trust this week. But a supporters’ group, The Jags Foundation, claimed the transfer had been ‘designed to marginalise rather than empower fans’. The Trust now owns almost 75 per cent of shares. Low, part of the Three Black Cats group that handled the disposition of the majority shareholding, said of Weir, who died in 2019: ‘This is what he wanted, I am in no doubt. If I had to justify this to Colin today, he would be happy with the decision to give the majority shareholding to the Trust.’ Low said the matter had been discussed extensively with Weir, who won £161million in the EuroMillions lottery in 2011.

IT was a revolution that started with a single, devastating death. It has subsequently been fractious and divisive. It has resembled a battle for the soul of Partick Thistle. But Jacqui Low remains serene at the heart of the battle.

It seems all over, bar the shouting, though there might be more of that.

The Thistle chairman oversaw the transfer of shares to the Partick Thistle Trust this week. This announcement did not signal a ceasefire for some fans.

A supporters’ group, The Jags Foundation, claimed the awarding of the shares to the Partick Thistle Football Club Trust had been ‘designed to marginalise rather than empower fans’. The row rumbles on but Low believes she has fulfilled her mission.

The 55-per-cent stake in the Firhill club was transferred by Three Black Cats (3BC), the vehicle set up to pass on the majority shareholding from the late Euromillions winner Colin Weir. The Trust now owns almost 75 per cent of shares.

These prosaic details give no hint of the conflict that has raged throughout the process.

‘This is what he wanted. I am in no doubt,’ Low says of Weir, who died in December 2019, aged 71. ‘If I had to justify this to Colin today, he would be happy with the decision to give the majority shareholding to the Trust.’

This is said calmly in an exclusive interview where she answered all questions and sought to banish the explosive language of ‘financial black holes’ and ‘secret talks’.

‘The club did not need to be saved,’ she says, citing audited figures that will soon show its robust financial health. ‘Three Black Cats is a private company. It had its obligations to Colin Weir to fulfil. That was its objective. It needed to do what it needed to do without sharing every move with the rest of the world.’

The story is one of a possible threat to the future of the club, an untimely death and then the wrangling over the future of fan ownership.

The threat was identified in 2018 when there was an approach to the Thistle board to buy a majority shareholding.

‘I looked at it and, along with the rest of the board, declined to authorise the sale of shares if asked,’ said Low. ‘I do not know if we even got to that point.

‘Unfortunately, the then majority shareholders thought it was right for the club and removed us (the board). I sat out for four months. I went to games home and away. I paid for my tickets.’

The deal then seemed to flounder. ‘Then we heard a rumour that the club was being touted in the Middle East. I don’t know if that was true. But it was enough for Three Black Cats (set up to enable Weir’s dream of a Thistle academy) to discuss whether there was an opportunity to buy the majority shareholding.

‘Colin’s concern was that he did not want the club to fall into thirdparty hands. If that happened, then the future of the club was not guaranteed. For him, he believed the fans, who loved the club, would never let that happen.’

The shareholding was bought by Weir, who won £161million in 2011, and a strategy set up for fan involvement in the club.

‘Then out of the blue, Colin died,’ says Low. She had known the benefactor for ten years and become close to him. ‘Frankly, I was shocked at the speed it happened.’

She was also aware of the task he had bequeathed her. She was party to talks with lawyers over his plans for the shares long before his death and was shown the relevant passages in his will before he died. She discussed them with Weir. ‘Colin laid out exactly what he wanted.’

There was laughter in those moments, with Low believing she had been saddled with something to do in her old age. The tragic events of December 2019 proved otherwise.

‘It has been the longest three years of my life,’ she says. ‘It has had every emotion known across a range of people and entities. If you asked three years ago what was coming, I don’t think I could have even touched on it.’

She was handling a holding worth ‘a seven-figure sum’. She had precise instructions but had to find the road map.

First, identifying a vehicle to accept shares was a priority. But financial and legal implications meant it would be two years before shares could be handed over. By May of this year, both the Trust

and the Foundation were in the frame. What about claims of preferred status? ‘We were very clear to TJF (The Jags Foundation) on a number of occasions to take great care in how they were presenting themselves and their relationship with Three Black Cats to the fan base,’ explains Low. ‘We reminded them they were not the preferred bidder until they were the preferred bidder. They never became preferred bidders.

‘We were very diligent in how we considered the proposals from TJF and the Trust. We were quite happy that if neither met the criteria, we would have simply passed and waited for someone else.

‘We did not compare the two. We

took each on their own merits and measured them against what it was Colin wanted to achieve.’

Three Black Cats decided that the Trust satisfied the priorities held by Weir. These were the safety of the shareholding and the impossibility of selling it to a third party; the understanding of the need for stability at the club; the enthusiasm shown for being representatives of the fans.

‘We were comfortable that they met all of Colin’s wishes and aspirations. The Trust must now show the fans what we saw in them.’

There will be seats on the board for the Trust. ‘We did have the TJF on the board at one point,’ she says.

It has been a period of turmoil, though Low is philosophical about the trials.

‘Some of the things that have been said and done in the name of TJF, but not necessarily driven by TJF, have been disappointing,’ she says, referring to approaches to sponsors. ‘There could have been repercussions from that and any responsible entity that was hoping to take on shares would never condone such behaviour.’ She insists the issue was just part of her working life as Thistle chairman. She points out that, during the Covid emergency, the biggest priority was ensuring the club could carry on, as the impact of the pandemic was exacerbated by a cruel relegation as the season was called early.

‘The majority shareholding had to take a back seat at this time,’ she admits. ‘As a chairman, I have legal and financial responsibilities. I could not set aside that to prioritise fan ownership. The club had to carry on.’

She adds: ‘The reason Thistle is widely admired and respected by other clubs is that we came through a period where everything was against us. We were faced with a set of circumstances that if we had been a poor board then we might not have come through in the way we have.

‘I am very proud of the directors, CEO, staff, players, manager and fans, everybody stuck together through that period. We came into our own and we showed professionalism, competence and capability in running the club during that crisis.’

There is a concern that the fan ownership is not as strong as some supporters wanted but Low answers: ‘It is what Colin wanted. I am in no doubt. We had very detailed discussions on this.’

Talk of ‘financial black holes’ and a ‘struggling club’ irritate her. She contests: ‘We have a club with a strong work ethic on the park and off the park. We are debt-free and we can fund ourselves. Colin never funded the club despite claims otherwise.

‘This is partly why the Premiership is the aim,’ she adds, with Thistle currently sitting at the top of the Championship. ‘We have lived with a restricted budget and achieved so much so it would be exciting to use a budget based on Premiership income.’

Has there been a moment when she has felt wearied and dismayed by the controversy? ‘Not. In. The. Least.’ The staccato but strong utterance of four words is amplified by a reflection. ‘This has been a moral duty for me. I do believe in doing the right thing, not the easy thing. It has come at a cost but I have been guided by knowing that Colin’s wishes — explicitly expressed — have been met. It has taken longer than I thought but we have got there. We are in a very strong position on the pitch with the prospect of a better relationship with fans off it.’

The club will go on, of course, and so will Low. ‘I am not a quitter. Never.’ She has been strengthened by her faith in the validity of the outcome.

‘It is what Colin wanted,’ she says. ‘That is, he did not think Partick Thistle was a failing club. He did not think Partick Thistle needed saved. And neither do I. It doesn’t.’

This has been a moral duty for me. I do believe in doing the right thing, not the easy thing