More on Moore

The announcement came as a surprise really, do you see it as a negative move for yourself?

“No not at all, you know I mean what's the title, it's Honorary President is the announcement, no I am here for a long time yet, it's not a negative move at all.”

You certainly remain committed to the club, you are still the majority shareholder and you have no intentions of giving that up at all?

“No, no intentions whatsoever as I own 95% of the club now and I have put in a massive financial commitment to the club, we are still in a very precarious financial position and I cannot keep on funding it for ever, and as anyone who
has seen the Torex share price go down it has put an immense pressure on me, and it has put me in a position where I can't just keep on writing cheques out. The financing of the club is secured, so no one will have to worry about that for
the immediate term, the various schemes that we have run, the Sponsor a Seat, the selling of season tickets now is going absolutely fantastic and that is helping immensely and I would like to say thanks to all our fans who have
contributed and to those who haven't already please do so, we still need your help, it's not over yet this financial problem that we have got.”

You mention the Sponsor a Seat campaign there and season ticket promotion is underway, seats still available for sponsorship, and a great deal on season tickets on season tickets we still have a good chance of First Division football
next season?

“Absolutely, I mean there is no guarantees but we are doing really well, you know Iain and the lads are working like billyo to make sure that we get promotion, there wouldn't be a Latics fan alive if you ask them the question "do you think we are going to get promotion?" they are going to say "yes" aren't they, they are bound to, we all are, but on that basis I think it is a very, very shrewd move to buy your season ticket now at Division Two prices when you could be watching Division One football next year, with a massive discount effectively and that cash flow helps us immensely, it really, really does, I can't emphasise enough as how much help that is for us.”

You mention you company Torex there, that I guess is the driving reason why they need to change roles. You can't afford to devote time to the club because of the situation that Torex is in at the minute?

“Yes, absolutely I am the Chairman of Torex and certainly since Christmas we have been working so hard, and I work 14/16 hour days every single day for five days, at the weekends I tend to come watching footy. But we are working so hard, not just me the whole team there, the share price plummeted with the world crisis and everything last year, which in turn put me in a very, very difficult position financially, I can't simply keep on writing cheques out, my main
job obviously is to get that Torex share price back up, and that in turn puts me in a better position, and in turn puts me in a better position to carry on helping Latics, but the time it takes, and that's down in Oxfordshire, you know I am not
even up here that often, I can't spend time Monday to Friday helping Alan Hardy the Chief Executive to look after the club, to come up with good ideas of raising money and to keep the costs down and everything, and really the move to
President leaves the Chairman's role vacant and the idea behind it is to advertise for, hopefully, for a rich and wealthy and committed Latics fan who is going to come in and be the Chairman of the Board of Directors, and hopefully
spend some time helping Alan to run the club even better than Alan already does, because you know we really do need a lot more work on that side that I can't put in myself, and hopefully put some money into the club as well, that will
then obviously help me, it helps the club and in turn I wouldn't rule out them having some shares in the club, and I would give them some of my shares, I wouldn't expect any money for that, the money that they would pay would go
straight into the club, but I would give them some of my shares if that was what was needed to get the right man or woman as the case may be.”

You spoke briefly before about when you actually joined the club, and that the main thing you wanted was to be able to come and watch you team play football on Saturday and you didn't want to get involved on the day to day running of it, so we are looking at somebody who can come in and get involved on that day to day basis.

“Absolutely they don’t have to have any previous experience, although previous experience would help, they don't necessarily have to be Latics fans or love Latics because I wasn't before I came being honest about it, but it doesn't
take too long to all of a sudden wake up one morning and you think it's in your blood straight away, so if they are not a Latics fan when they come they soon will be, but experience in this area would help but not essential, they would soon pick it up, it's not that difficult, it's just a question of time and some imagination, as I say Alan and Sean and the rest of the staff here at Boundary Park really do a good job, it's just an extra pair of hands really and some ideas around the table.”

Arguably the club is in a stronger position than when you arrived in terms of the fact that they are challenging for First Division football and it makes us maybe a more viable prospect?

“It is certainly more attractive for somebody to get involved in I would have thought. Certainly since I came last year was our best season for about 10/12 years, this season is even better than that and like I say if we keep touching wood we may well end up in Division One for next season, which would absolutely phenomenal, in fact fantastic, and we are trying very, very hard at the moment to make sure the finances are in place so that we can carry on doing that and there isn't any problems which you know, I am still very, very hopeful for, but it does take a lot of hard work and as much help as we can get from everybody to every single last fan, coming on a Saturday afternoon and paying their gate receipts, and buying a programme and everything. I cannot say enough about that, how much that means and how much that helps us.”