Swindon’s new owner Clem Morfuni wants to “build a sustainable Championship club” and promised “full transparency” of its finances.
Sydney-based Morfuni has announced his takeover of the Robins has been completed after being given the go-ahead by the English Football League on Tuesday night.
In a statement on the club’s official website, Morfuni said: “Firstly I would like to say how excited, relieved and proud I am to be the new owner and chairman of this fantastic Swindon Town football club.
“I hope that under my tenure as custodian of this club that the day that I leave the club it is in a much better place than it is today.”
Swindon were relegated from Sky Bet League One at the end of last season and Morfuni’s bid for ownership has been played out against the background of threats of legal action from the town’s borough council over outstanding rent on the County Ground and reports of staff and players going unpaid.
Morfuni, who revealed his plumbing business turns over $200million (Australian dollars) a year, said: “I will not take any money out of this club, I don’t need to.
“My aim isn’t to use the club as a vehicle to pay for my lifestyle. I will provide full transparency of the financial position of the club at all times.”
In a lengthy statement, Morfuni said he was “fully aware of how difficult the situation that I am inheriting is”.
“We have no management team, we have hardly any players, we have no infrastructure and a large number of creditors with potentially large debt (much of which is unclear and will need to be resolved quickly),” he added.
“Also, we are just over three weeks away from the start of the season. But I am so excited. What a challenge we all have on our hands to turn this great club around.”
He added his “minimum aims” were “to build a sustainable Championship club; to own the 50/50 County ground with the fans; to very significantly improve and fully modernise the County Ground; to find and fully develop our own training ground (and) to have the best academy outside of the Premier League.”
