Lowe's Southampton future in doubt

Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe will face a vote for his removal at an upcoming extraordinary general meeting of the club’s parent company.

Michael Wilde, the largest individual shareholder of Southampton Leisure Holdings, has proposed the removal of Lowe, managing director Andrew Cowen, Michael Richards, David Windsor-Clive and former chairman Guy Askham as directors.

Wilde proposes himself, Ken Dulieu, Jim Hone, Lee Hoos and Patrick Trant as replacements.

The board now have 21 days to fix a date for the meeting.

Wilde said: “It has been clear for some time that a wide body of shareholders and supporters of Southampton Football Club believe that fundamental change to the senior management of the company is required to get the club moving again in the right direction.”

Lowe said: “It is premature to voice any opinion as to whether the changes proposed are in the company’s best interests or not.

“To help in this process, we may ask Mr Wilde to set out the detail of his proposal as this is not present in the notice.

“The removal of five out of nine directors from the plc board is a major change for the company and it is our intention to make sure that shareholders have the full story at the earliest possible opportunity.”