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Cathy Won't Bin Season Ticket


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Really good article in the Daily Record/Killie Standard by Davie Wren...

 

New Kilmarnock director Cathy Jamieson has revealed she won’t give up her season book at Rugby Park as she looks to split her time between the director’s box and the East Stand next season.

The club announced the appointment of the former Labour MP on Thursday as the Killie Trust’s representative following the success of their Trust in Killie campaign to raise £100,000 for a seat on the board.

The announcement did not come before Cathy had bought her season ticket for the new campaign though – and she admits she wouldn’t get away with spending all her time in the posh seats.

Cathy said: “I’ve bought my season ticket again this year. My grandson, who is only a year old and hasn’t been yet, we’ve got his season ticket as well.

“While I might sit in the directors box part of the time, there will be occasions when I’ll be over in the East Stand – I don’t think I would have got away with anything different.”

The ex-Kilmarnock and Loudoun MP was once a cabinet member in Westminster – and Cathy admits she never envisaged becoming a director of her childhood football club.

The 61-year-old said: “I’ve done a lot of different things. I never thought when I was a kid I’d ever see the day when I was a director of Kilmarnock Football Club.

“I always saw myself as a supporter, I’m still a supporter but being a director would certainly have been high up on my wishlist in the past.”

Cathy has done the hard yards as a Kilmarnock fan. She was there for the relegations in the 80s and the cup wins in 1997 and 2012.

Put simply, the new Kilmarnock director is well aware of the highs and lows involved in following the club.

But, that said, after spending the majority of her working life in the mad world of politics, now Cathy must face up to joining a world just as crazy – if not more.

Asked if she was ready to take on the world of football, Cathy said: “I had to think long and hard about this. As a football fan I enjoy coming to the games, I always described it as my 90 minutes of sanity on a Saturday afternoon when I worked in politics.

“I work in a high pressure job, so all of that doesn’t trouble me. The important thing for me is to bring the fans’ perspective to this.

“I still intend to be a supporter because that is essentially what I am, but also to pave the way for future candidates to come on to the board at a later stage.”

As a bonafide Killie fan, Cathy’s appointment at Rugby Park is a landmark moment – not only for the club but for its supporters who now have someone directly in place to represent their needs.

“This is just absolutely amazing,” said Kilmarnock’s latest director after her new role was made official.

“It’s a real honour to be a director in any event but particularly, for me, the fact the Killie Trust have nominated me and asked me to do this.

“And the fact the club have accepted that is absolutely brilliant.

“It forges a new relationship with the club and the Trust – I will give a voice to the fans on the board which is the primary aim of my role.”

The Trust in Killie movement has made this appointment happen.

When it was launched last April, there were critics who wrote off the notion that they could achieve their goal – nevermind have it done in just over a year.

But the Killie Trust – the group behind the initiative – have seen their hard work pay off.

A whopping £100,000 has been transferred to the club directly and Cathy’s appointment heralds a new era for the fans’ group.

Cathy said: “It has been a long road in terms of the supporters trust movement generally.

“My links go back to 2002 when I was still in politics and I attended the big conference at Tynecastle, when it brought all the interested parties together and the first funding was announced for Supporters Direct.

“The Killie Trust have been working on a number of initiatives over the years but, especially in the past year, they have really focused on Trust in Killie to get to this stage where we’ve actually been able to raise the funds to ensure that this happened.

“And, for me, it’s particularly good that we’re able to do this at a time when the club’s on the up.
Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke with a thumbs up to the support at full-time.

“We’re seeing good results on the pitch, there’s a better relationship between the fans and the club.

“Often supporters trusts and supporter directors get involved at a point of crisis in a club – but we’re not in crisis.

“We’re on the up so this is a really positive move.”

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