Five directors quit Whitehaven

Whitehaven have confirmed chairman Tom Todd and four other directors have resigned with immediate effect.

The board room was thrown in to turmoil last week when popular figure Todd submitted his resignation, with the club initially saying they hoped to persuade him to change his mind.

TRIGGER: Whitehaven chairman resigns amidst ‘ongoing situation’

It is believed there have been disagreements between shareholders at the club, which had 11 directors before this latest news.

Steve Nicholson, Peter Boyle, Andrew Airlie and Paul Shepherd have all departed with immediate effect.

A club statement said: “Once again, we ask for time to rectify and move forward. We would like to assure fans that
Sunday’s game will be going ahead as planned. We will comment further in due course.”

There are around 35,000 shares in the club, with the largest shareholding just 8,000, meaning no one has a controlling interest.

The remaining six directors are Jason Ball, Andrew Canavan, Gary Eilbeck, Dean Fearon, Ashley Kilpatrick and Michael Wood.

Todd took over as chairman in 2015 after Barry Richardson stepped down as a director and chief executive.

Whitehaven were nearly taken over in 2018 by controversial businessman Stuart Harvey, who led a consortium that pulled out of a takeover at the eleventh hour.

Harvey was the brainchild of the fan ownership scheme OWNAFC, which was later closed down and investigated for fraud.

The club raised enough money to stave off the threat of administration, and earned a return to the Championship by winning League 1 in 2019.