Kind blasts Kinch over foxes EGM

Leicester City chief executive Steve Kind has accused shareholder Gilbert Kinch of dealing the club another damaging blow after suffering the agony of relegation.

The club have announced to the Stock Exchange that they were to hold an extraordinary general meeting.

Former director Kinch, along with Denis Cassidy and Freddie Fletcher, are behind a move to oust current non-executive directors Sir Rodney Walker, Greg Clarke, John Elsom, Martin George, Bill Shooter and Brigid Simmonds.

But Kind insisted that was the last thing the board needed to deal with after a miserable season which ended with relegation to the Nationwide First Division.

He said: ‘‘All my staff have been through an uncertain time over the last few months.

‘‘Clearly, in the light of relegation, we have had to make cutbacks in certain areas across the club, so from the staff’s point of view this is the second piece of unwelcome news that has come in over the last few months. It is very unhelpful.

‘‘This is a critical time for the club. In the next two to three weeks we actually start decamping over to the new stadium.

‘‘It is a difficult logistical operation, as everyone knows, and it is going to take a lot of resource from the club, and for it to happen now is certainly most unwelcome.

‘‘This is unhelpful at the moment with involvement with third parties and the stadium move.

‘‘We are dealing with banks and other potential funding sources at the moment and clearly, while we have all this financial uncertainty, there is not a lot that can be sorted out over the next few weeks until the EGM.

‘‘From the manager’s perspective and the players they will be wondering exactly what is going on.

‘‘The club has had to deal with rumours and speculation for the last couple of years and, to be honest, it is something that the club would like to move away from and move forward.’’

Kind, however, is remaining defiant despite the bold bid by Kinch to oust six members of the current board.

But even though the name of the Leicester chief is not involved in this attempted overhaul, he has jumped to the support of his fellow board members.

Kind added: ‘‘I am one of the two executives that is not part of this action but clearly I am an integral part as chief executive of both the club and the plc.

‘‘My major concern at the moment is to ensure that the board stays unified and to work with the six non-executive directors to ensure that we remain intact.

‘‘I have been at the club for some nine years now and this is by far the strongest board we have had in that period, and also the most unified.

‘‘Despite the poor season we had on the field of play I still feel we are placed well in the infrastructure of the club and the recent acquisition of a new football manager gives us tremendous optimism for the future.

‘‘From a personal perspective I have had no contact with Gilbert Kinch since August or September last year so I have no idea what plans he would have for me and Mark Fenoughty, the club’s finance director, so clearly there is some uncertainty with regards to that.’’

The EGM will be held at the Walkers Stadium on July 11.