CHRIS Pugsley has revealed that he will be stepping down as chairman of Weymouth Football Club at the end of the month.
The Terras’ director, who took over from Nigel Biddlecombe as chairman in September 2014, also insisted his position to stay and fulfil a different role on the club’s board remains up in the air.
Pugsley is set to officially resign as chairman on Sunday, April 30 – just more than a week after the Terras’ Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division campaign ends.
“I have notified the board that I will be stepping down at the end of April as chairman,” Pugsley said in an exclusive interview with Echosport.
“It is a massive commitment and it’s a commitment I have done for almost three years now. I just need to take a back seat and do other things in life which I enjoy doing.
“Going on from there I don’t know, I have offered my services in other roles within the club but, at this moment in time, I don’t know whether that will happen or not. That will be decided over the next few weeks.”
Asked how he thought the current board will re-form, Pugsley said: “I don’t know, I would assume they will have a chairman in place.
“Different people seem to be taking different roles and different leads down there since I have let it be known that it’s definitely happening.
“I am guessing they have got someone in mind to take the chair and to take different roles within the club.”
Asked what role he would be open to if he is to remain on the club’s board, Pugsley replied: “I offered working on the football side of things, controlling the financial expenditure on that, looking after the contracts and working with the manager in the future and Pete Saxby, who does a great job on the secretarial side of it.
“I was told that there could be issues with me doing that, as to what those issues could be I don’t know. At the moment I don’t know what I might or might not do.”
Pugsley has worked closely with current Weymouth boss Jason Matthews since he took up the chair three seasons ago.
Quizzed on whether his decision to step down will have an impact on the manager’s position at the club, Pugsley replied: “I don’t think my decision to step down as chairman should have an impact on Jason’s role whatsoever.
“I don’t see that Jason’s role should change, if he has got the personnel to work with and they give him the ability to continue, then there is no reason why it should have much of an affect at all.
He added: “It would be nice if I stayed involved with Jason and the football but, if it’s not to be it’s not to be, that’s for the new board to decide and the new chairman.
“If they want it, I’m available, if they don’t want it then so be it.”
Asked if there was anyone on the current board he would back to fulfil the chairman’s role, he said: “Someone’s going to have to step up. There is nobody in particular I would back.
“I sincerely hope somebody steps up and the football club moves forward, I have just given them three years of my life to move it forward and they have had three good years out of me.
“I would hate to see it go backwards and I think they should be kicking on again from here.”
