Pym appointed new Exeter City chairman

Richard Pym was previously chairman of Exeter City from June 2020 to December 2021

Exeter City have appointed Richard Pym as their new chairman.

He takes over from interim club board chair Clive Harrison, who has been in the role since June when Nick Hawker stepped down.

Pym previously served as chair of Exeter City Supporters' Trust - which owns the club - from June 2020 to December 2021.

Harrison will remain at the League One club in the role of general manager until the end of the 2025-26 season, assisting the board.

Another change at board level saw the trust vote to approve the appointment of Laurence Overend as a director, taking up the role of club board vice chair.

Overend is a solicitor and was previously chair of Exeter City Supporters' Trust from 2012 to 2016, whilst also serving as a director.

Upon his appointment, Pym said: "I am pleased to have been invited to rejoin the board as the new independent club chair and am determined to resolve the current issues at Exeter City Football Club.

"First of all, I want to thank outgoing interim chair Clive Harrison for the way he has professionally handled the club, and for what is going to be his ongoing assistance as general manager for the remainder of this season.

"On behalf of the club board, I want to thank Exeter City Supporters' Trust and all fans for their patience over the last few months whilst both the club and trust boards worked together on a number of issues that arose this summer.

"As the incoming new Independent club chair, I want to provide you with greater insight into these issues, what has been happening behind the scenes, and how the club board intends to fully resolve them."

The club statement added that in early June, they became concerned about certain operational matters with three main issues arising.

"Firstly, financial forecasts which the club and Trust boards relied upon to make decisions for future years were found to have been overstated," the statement said.

"Secondly, the club and Trust have an agreement to ensure that contracts costing £50,000 or over per annum or in total, including management staff but excluding players' contracts, are all approved by the Trust board.

"The investigation found that one material transaction had breached this agreement.

"Thirdly, there is one further matter which at this time is still subject to legal process. We anticipate this will be resolved in the coming weeks, and as soon as it is we will explain that in detail."