CHAIRMAN: Tim Clark
SECRETARY AND VICE CHAIRMAN: Keith Vaughan
Steeped in local and county football. Involved in youth football administration for twenty years. Canterbury and District League Secretary for ten years. County F.A Council member. Involved in youth development for the FA.
DIRECTORS: Keith Vaughan, Keith Longley.
Phil Knight, Founder Chairman of the committee, explains:-
“With the demise of Canterbury City Football Club in 1999, an unbroken record of almost 100 years of competitive senior football came to an end and left the city of Canterbury without a senior representative football team.
In 2007 Canterbury was the largest metropolitan region in the UK without a Senior representative football team. Canterbury City Football Club CIC* was set up to put that right. But there is more to it than that. The club has been established in a way that is unique in British football, being the first in the country to be formed from scratch as a Community Interest Company. The aim is to provide Canterbury with a club that the great city deserves and make it an asset for the community.
With the demise of Canterbury City Football Club in 1999, an unbroken record of almost 100 years of competitive senior football came to an end and left the city of Canterbury without a senior representative football team.
A group drawn widely from the local football community worked resolutely behind the scenes to explore the possibility of re-launching the club and continues to be in discussion with the Canterbury City Council as to the establishment of a new home ground for the Club in the conurbation of Canterbury. In order to embed the club within the local community it has been incorporated as a Community Interest Company and operates within pre-agreed community objectives which are monitored annually. Ownership of the club will remain firmly within its membership, with all corporate and individual members enjoying identical voting rights.
*What is a CIC?
Community Interest Companies are a new form of non-profit distributing organisations that have community objectives at their core and can prove each year that they have worked towards and met these objectives. Canterbury City FC decided to incorporate as a CIC because:-
- It meets the club’s determination to involve itself deeply in the community. The club and Canterbury City Council are in full agreement that the Canterbury City FC project starts from the community and works upwards towards senior football.
- Asset locks the club, ensuring that no one individual can take control of the assets enjoyed by the club or its membership.
- Allows the club to be owned by its membership – with private and corporate members having identical voting rights – including the make up of the Board.
- Allows the club to form Charitable Partnerships. The club has identified the local Pilgrim’s Hospice, Stroad Park Foundation and Porchlight among their key partners and is working on a number of initiatives with them.
- Gives confidence to members, the Council and other partner agencies that the club has been built on firm foundations.