Henrik Kraft Resigns As A Director Of Sport Republic Thursday, 27th Feb 2025 10:04 According to Companies House, there has been a major change made on the board of Sport Republic, so what does this mean for Southampton Football Club and indeed Sport Republic itself. Although Rasmus Ankersen seemed to have born the major brunt of Southampton supporters ire for the situation at St Mary's this season, it seems that he had little to do with the actual running of the club, his task was Goztepe not Saints, the man tasked with that was co -owner Henrik Kraft. Kraft as we know stood down as Chairman of Southampton FC a few weeks ago and now it has been revealed that shortly after he resigned as a director of Sport Republic. That does not necessarily mean that he has sold his shares in Sport Republic, although that could also be the case, just that he will no longer be involved with running the company, that is now solely down to Rasmus Ankersen. On companies house there has only been two directors listed, Ankersen & Kraft, there is no mention of Dragan Solak who is the major shareholder.
This is nothing strange, in major companies owners do not often get involved with the running of the company, they leave that to the professionals, however it is slightly worrying that Sport Republic now seem to be run by one man and not a board of directors. It should also be noted that Sport republic are the holding company, on a day to day basis, there is not a lot to do, the football clubs they own are separate entities, owned by Sport Republic. To clarify Southampton FC is owned by Sport Republic, they are not one and the same company, Sport Republic could sell off Saints for instance and continue to run Goztepe or vice versa. Sport Republic's business is investing in football clubs, not running them, yes ultimately the buck stops with Dragan Solak & Rasmus Ankersen, but technically they are reliant on their company CEO's to pick the right people. Kraft seems to have fancied his chances of running a football club and therefore was appointed Chairman of SFC, that meant he was tasked with the overall overseeing of the running of the club. So the board of Southampton FC with the resignation of Henrik Kraft now consists of 6 people, Dragan Solak & Rasmus Ankersen are still there and the rest of the board is made up of the following. Tim Greenwell - Company secretary. Rolf Boegli - Representative of Katharina Liebherr Phil Parsons - CEO Andy Young - Independent Director - Chairs Audit Committee. As you can see Phil Parsons is the man charged with overseeing the club on a day to day basis and he will report to the others on the board on the progress. The board will review the progress that is being made (or lack of it) and then they decide what they want implemented etc to Parsons as CEO. Under Parsons are several Executives who currently do not sit on the board itself . Michael Fenn - Chief Financial Officer Tim Greenwell - Chief Operating Officer Michelle Butler - Head of HR Greg Baker - Chief Revenue Officer Marieanne Spacey Cale - Head of Womens Football These are the people who report directly to Phil Parsons as they cover all the different side of the club, there is no mention of Johann Sporrs (Technical director) or Mark Bitcon (Head of Football Operations) so presumably they report to Tim Greenwell, although it is surprising they are not also named above.
Where Sport Republic perhaps appear to have gone wrong is that in appointing Henrik Kraft as Chairman they put in place someone with no real experience in running a football club and below him was Phil Parsons, again a man with little experience of running a football club. We had in place people with extensive business experience and in running a company, but not in football and after the departure of Jason Wilcox, we had no one strong enough to run that side of things. The feeling is that when Sport Republic bought Southampton FC in the main they left the running to the then CEO Martin Semmens, assuming that as he had kept the club in the Premier League on a shoestring, given that Gao could not get money out of China, that giving him money would mean we could prosper.
Therefore we did not get the man on the Sport Republic board with experience in football in Rasmus Ankersen, he was tasked with Goztepe, who seem to have prospered under his tutelage, understandable given his previous success with both Midtjylland & Brentford. So here we are 3 years in to Sport Republic's ownership and we are back to square one, indeed some would say back to square - one. But on the bright side of things, it seems that now Sport Republic are waking up to their mistakes, they are now putting in place at St Mary's people who are experienced in their own fields. It would be easy to say that the club is rotten from top to bottom, but that might not be the case, to succeed a modern football club has to have many other areas of operation, of course the fans base their view purely on how well the team is doing on the football field, but that is not a good indication on how the club is run, just how the football side of things is doing.
So Phil Parsons might not be experienced in football, but he is experienced in business and running a company, the building of fanzones and sponsorship deals don't interest fans, but it is what differentiates a club's ability to be successful, it has to generate income off the field. Clubs like Bournemouth and Brentford can survive for relatively short periods by being propped up by income derived from football only ie Premier League & TV income, but ultimately they can't move forward unless they exploit commercial opportunities. Fanzones might be a small part of the income, in terms of beer sales, but it creates other income, merchandising sales increase, advertising increases, sponsorship increases and it all adds up. What puts Liverpool & Manchester United at a big advantage is their global fanbase, that gives them the money to make big signings and thus a better chance of success, it keeps them within financial fair play, but as United are showing that does not mean that they will succeed on the pitch. There is a lot of call on social media for Sport Republic to go, but this is not 1994, the board is not made up of local businessmen who can just sell a few shares and step down, this is 2025 where football clubs are owned by companies, they just can't walk away, they have to sell and that means finding a buyer with big money.
It could also be said that in Rasmus Ankersen, they have a man who built Midtjylland up from nothing and took Brentford from a Lower league club to the Premier League, on paper Sport Republic should be succeeding at Southampton FC, would we find a better owner than Sport Republic, or just another company who know nothing about football, the Championship is full of club's with owners like that, or ultimately don't have the experience to build a club up. No one can deny that Sport Republic have made major mistakes, but not everything is their fault, the appointments of Joe Shears & Jason Wilcox were good moves, but they could not stop them leaving for bigger clubs and that is a problem for a lot of clubs these days. So as it stands we have to real choice but to stick with them and hope that they get things right and they do have a good chance of doing that given their experience. That is perhaps something that most Southampton supporters want to hear, nor do they want to hear that it might take a year or two, but we don't have a choice in the matter, the best chance of Sport Republic selling the club is if they make a success of it, then we probably wouldn't want them to sell, its a catch 22 situation. All Photos Via Reuters Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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