York City’s new chairman has told YorkMix: ‘We can go all the way.’
Glen Henderson has taken over as chair and majority shareholder at the club, buying 51% of the shares from York City Supporters’ Trust.
As we reported earlier, the trust had earlier purchased previous chairman Jason McGill’s 75% shareholding in City, as he stepped down alongside the previous board.
Now the trust has sold 51% of the football club to their investor partner, Glen Henderson. Glen takes over as chairman, but both he and the trust will work together to run the club in a relationship “built around mutual trust and a strong emphasis on customer service”.
Supporters’ Trust board member Alastair Smith is the new chief executive.
Glen first approached the trust in 2018. But any chance of an early deal was delayed by Covid.
Trust chairman Mike Brown said: “As we’ve developed our partnership with Glen it’s been increasingly clear that he has all the right skills, business experience, football knowledge, resources, personality, and energy to help us take the club forward.
“We look forward to working with him and everyone associated with the club to bring about a new, refreshing chapter in the club’s history.”
Glen, a Hartlepool-based businessman, said he had developed a “deep affection for York City”.
“Throughout that time, I have watched my son play in the York City youth team and sit on the bench for the first team numerous times,” he said.
“I have seen ups and downs, managers change and have identified a wealth of opportunities for improvement across every department of the club.”
Aiming to go up
He joins as the club is on a high, having won promotion to the National League in the play-off final in May.
Glen told YorkMix: “I think we could go all the way. I’ve been to Bournemouth and they’re a 12,000 seater stadium and they’re back in the Premier League.
“We’ve got a good squad again, we’ve got a great manager. He’s been there before. He knows how to get teams out of leagues. He knows how to play good football.
“We’ve got a great backroom staff. If we can do the business on the field, and the fans will come and support them, then I think we have a shot.
About Glen Henderson
Glen was born in Hartlepool and raised in South Africa where he played football at national level throughout his youth career and represented the U19 national team. He played semi-professionally for Benoni Northerns and Boksburg FC, before getting a 4-year scholarship in Atlanta, USA. In addition to his football experience, he holds an International Marketing Management Degree and BA in Business Administration.
Glen is married to Dr Janee Henderson who is a chiropractor and has three children. They are a massive sporting family, with Ethan (20) playing football in the USA, Peyton (16) playing for Everton FC and Claira who aspires to be a professional tennis player.
Glen has an impressive business background, having co-founded Amazing Athletes Inc, a children’s multi-sport programme with franchises across the USA, which he sold to Youth Athletes Ltd in 2018.
He has also owned and operated two restaurants and a taproom bar in the USA, which sold in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
“I’m not going to say promotion. I’m going to say, Let’s aim for promotion. It’s the first year back and we want to show people that York City’s back. That’s the goal.”
He said fans can rest assured that money is being invested.
“There’s been significant investment made into the football club, obviously having to buy the club.
“We are looking at a model of a sustainable football club, because for 15 years, people have just been throwing money at a dartboard. And finally it stuck.
“We’re looking to build a culture. We’re looking to build an academy, we are looking for people to come back to this club and for us to groom and raise our own players.
“But as far as budgets go, we feel that we have things right, we’re on track, we’ve assembled a good squad to start the season and everything’s looking positive.”