Everton’s Fan Advisory Board has declared no confidence in Bill Kenwright.
With the club facing an increasingly difficult challenge to stay in the Premier League following a dismal collapse against Newcastle United, the representative group has publicly expressed its lack of faith in the chairman.
In a statement it also urged majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri to add expertise to the board of directors.
The FAB’s comments are set against the backdrop of a second consecutive relegation battle and with the Premier League having referred Everton to an independent commission over an alleged breach of financial regulations.
READ MORE: Everton hero has unfairly become a symbol of Farhad Moshiri's disastrous reign
READ MORE: Newcastle leave Dyche fuming as Anthony Gordon boisterously celebrates in tunnel
The FAB has been among those calling for greater communication for the club amid its descent into chaos over recent months. In Kenwright’s surprise letter to supporters last week, in which he insisted those on the board cared deeply for the club and struck a controversially defiant tone about the issues facing Everton, the organisation said he did the opposite.
The statement explained: “Over the past number of weeks and months, the FAB has expressed its own concerns about the predicament our club finds itself in, and the challenges it faces. The FAB has held open meetings with supporters to listen to their views, attended meetings held by fan groups and taken soundings from Evertonians through the representative organisations and individuals that make up the FAB. These have been shared directly and unfiltered with senior officials at the club. In sharing this feedback, the FAB and its members have also consistently called for proactive leadership, communication and engagement from the club hierarchy at a time when the relationship between large parts of the fanbase and the board has become fractured, and for some, irreparable.
"The chair of any organisation has a core responsibility for leading the board, ensuring its focus on strategic matters and direction, overseeing the company’s business, and setting high governance standards. We were therefore hugely disappointed at the chairman’s statement last Friday.
"At a critical time for our club, when we most needed leadership, understanding, accountability and a recognition of the strength of feeling and concern across large parts of the fanbase, we got the absolute opposite. The situation as it stands is not sustainable, not befitting of our great club and as Evertonians we do not deserve it. After careful consideration, we are therefore making a call of no confidence in the current chair of Everton Football Club.”
The FAB has also gone on record with a call to Moshiri to implement change and bring in expertise to the club. It said: “The FAB is also calling on the majority shareholder to urgently take charge of securing stronger expertise, experience and more appropriate leadership for our club and ask that he be ready to explain to fans the action and timetable for making this happen. Finally, we want to acknowledge the work of those doing the day to day work within the club in what must be extremely difficult circumstances, as well as Evertonians who have shown time and time again that they will stop at nothing to support our club.“
READ NEXT
Everton analysis - Fan banner points to huge problem as two players run out of excuses
'Deluded chairman and abject board' - National media slam Everton after Newcastle thrashing
Everton fans cannot save this team alone as cruel truth shown to fanbase desperate for better
'Move on now' - Eddie Howe reveals Anthony Gordon message after Everton return
Everton player ratings as seven men abysmal on harrowing night against Newcastle
