The club can confirm that Mark Allitt is standing down as a Director of Banbury United Community Football Club Ltd, the board elected by members to manage the club. However he will retain a role within the club’s Commercial team. Additionally Kevin Healey is co-opted onto the Board.

Mark has been a member the Board since its inception in 2015 and has taken this step to focus on his business, Revival MK2, the Terrace Casual, Retro and Iconic clothing shop he has run for just over a year and, like many other businesses, faces the challenge of coping with the global pandemic.

Mark’s contribution to the club has been enormous and his energy and drive along with others saw the club move into supporters’ ownership in 2015. Mark took on responsibility for commercial matters and has seen spectacular results with the club’s annual income from this now annually in advance of six figures. This is an amazing achievement for a club at our level and reflects the support and confidence in the club that has been built up with the local business community thanks to Mark’s work. In the absence of the private individual investment so prevalent at our level of football it is only through this commercial support that we are able to compete at the level we do.

Mark said "I've thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of being part of making Banbury United a supporters’ owned club and seeing it make such great progress over the past 5 years. I would like to thank all the board members I have worked alongside, my Commercial Team who have been such a great support to me and the fans for the huge encouragement they have always given. We are truly blessed as a club to have such great sponsors, there are too many to mention, but I would like to thank them all for their generosity, loyalty and belief in what the club has achieved and will continue to do so. I will still be an intrinsic part of the Commercial team and look forward to working with all our sponsors in the future as we look to progress the club further. I strongly believe that Banbury United has nowhere near reached its considerable potential and we must continue to strive to get into the Conference as well as securing a permanent new home"

Commenting on Mark’s decision club Chairman Phil Lines said “Mark’s support and work for the club has been exceptional. The club owes a great debt to Mark for his outstanding contribution which has been key to the club coming so far in the past five years and being in the strong position it is in today. We fully respect and understand Mark’s decision and we are sure that his business will continue to flourish once current restrictions end.”

Mark will retain a sponsor liaison officer role within the club’s Commercial team but withdrawing from the Board means that frees up the time required for the overall management of the club and the strategic work which is undertaken to ensure that the club continues to move forwards. Existing members of the team Warren Bartlett and Kirsty Sims will continue in their roles of sponsor liaison officer and commercial administrator respectively and Marc Wheeler has also been added into the team as an additional sponsor liaison officer allowing extra resources to work on new sponsorship leads.

We are pleased to confirm that Kevin Healey, who has also worked alongside Mark, has agreed to be co-opted onto the board and will take Director level responsibility for commercial matters. The Commercial team will be taking a more collaborative approach with sponsorship liaison and any of the team will be available to discuss sponsorship opportunities and queries.

We are delighted to welcome Kevin to the board. He is a well-known figure at the club, on the terraces both home and away and lately in the bar managing table service in line with Covid restrictions. He will bring considerable skills to the Board from his professional life as Agent/Manager at International Sports Management, a company that has represented leading figures from football, golf, cricket, snooker, rugby and horse racing, where he has worked alongside well known agent Andrew “Chubby” Chandler for many years.
Kevin says “I feel incredibly honoured to be joining the board at my home-town football club of Banbury United at a very exciting time for everyone, following our historic FA Cup run. I’ve had a career in sport since leaving school nearly 30 yrs ago, firstly as a professional golfer & coach and secondly in the sports management world. I’m excited to be able to offer my knowledge and experience from all aspects in professional sport and business with my role on the board and I’m really looking forward to the challenge of getting our club to the next level. “

As well as managing the club’s response to the implications of Covid-19 the main strategic focus of the Board remains endeavouring to secure a new ground for the club. The club were pleased to be very much part of the recently published Football Facility plan for Cherwell, see https://localplans.footballfoundation.org.uk/local-authorities-index/cherwell/cherwell-local-football-facility-plan/ and are looking to meet with relevant officials from CDC in the near future, to discuss how we can work towards our aim.

In footballing matters we have a friendly against Daventry Town on Saturday 5 December with a 2.30 pm kick off before we return to league action on 12 December with a trip to Hitchin. Our home game against AFC Rushden & Diamonds on Tuesday 15 December is provisional, Rushden may be in the FA Trophy that evening. We welcome Bromsgrove Sporting on Saturday 19 December. All of this is of course subject to any Government restrictions that will be in place post lockdown. Please check our website and social media for updates.

Photo above shows on the left Kevin Healey with Mark Allitt