Jacqui Forster RIP

Prestwich_Blue

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 Jan 2006
Messages
57,492
Location
Wherever I lay my hat that's my home
The name probably won't mean anything to most of you but Jacqui almost certainly played a unsung part in getting us to where we are now as a club. She was the tireless caseworker for Supporters Direct, the organisation that promotes and supports fan ownership of and invovlement in their clubs via Supporters' Trusts. Sadly she died on Sunday after a long battle with breast cancer.

A few of us tried to set up a trust at City around 2006 when there were concerns about where we were going as a club. We were being kept afloat solely by the generosity of John Wardle & Dave Makin, despite even then having one of the highest revenues in the PL (we were 7th in the Deloitte list I think). There was no accountability or ambition, as I'm sure many of you remember. We turned to SD for help and Jacqui was the cavalry who rode to our aid. We were obviously quite a prestigious club to have on board the the Trust movement but Jacqui gave equal time to all the smaller clubs she also had responsibility for, despite our seemingly constant demands on her time.

She was a tireless bundle of energy and the amount of work she put in was phenomenal but she was also a really nice person, who despite her own troubles, was always warm & friendly and someone you could have a good laugh with.

We were very, very close to getting hold of a significant bloc of shares in late 2006 and that certainly concentrated minds in the boardroom wonderfully and definitely put some urgency into finding a buyer, urgency that wasn't there before. That whole period would not have been possible without the help and support that Jacqui gave us so she should certainly get some of the credit for the subsequent events, including the momentous takeover in 2008.

She was a devoted Altrincham fan (a real one unlike a certain referee) and the irony is that she died just as Alty got promotion after something of a decline. She was a true friend of the ordinary football fan and a sworn enemy of those owners who dismissed their clubs' fans as an irritant.
 
What a shame .... R.I.P. Jacqui

Huge thank you to Prestwich Blue for taking the time to highlight everything she gave to supporters of the game so she didn't pass away unnoticed!!! So many unsung heroes/heroines sadly do .... but not this time.
 

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.