New arrangement pleases Gills Chairman.
Chairman Paul Scally discusses the new sponsorship arrangement with Medway Council:
“We do work with Medway Council anyway and have done for many years with lots of joint initiatives launched but this is our 125-year anniversary. We have a kit that was worn by our predecessors 125 years ago and it’s not about money; it’s about relationships and about building Medway. It’s important for us and it’s important for everyone who works and lives in Medway that Medway has a higher profile.
“I approached the council with the idea we do more joint initiatives this year, we do more in the community, we do more in the schools and we put Medway Council on the shirts to try and give them a higher profile for the benefit of everyone, for the residents and for the skills and education sectors and of course for industry and for the people that come and work here.
“The better Medway does the better we do, that’s very obvious. We do a huge amount of work for the education sector in Medway, we do a lot of community work and we know the branding on our shirt will give profile, it did so for MEMS and it’s in our interest to develop Medway for everyone who lives and works here.
“I’ve seen comments about tax payers money funding a lifestyle I have in Dubai. It’s embarrassing to come out with stuff like that and it’s disappointing but that’s a very small minority and people who are out to make mischief, probably opposition parties I suspect but it’s nothing like that at all, they [the comments] are unnecessary and misinformed. This isn’t a political move. This is straightforward.
“We are very big in the community, we are very high profile and we want Medway to do well and the people within Medway to have a better standard of living and we want the educational sector to get better, and we want more people to come in with more businesses to create more jobs. I think the council are doing a very good job and if Medway does well we do well as a Football Club.”