Inglewood United has reduced the size of its Executive Committee and provided itself a level of off-field stability that will ensure continued growth throughout the club.   The weekend’s Annual General Meeting saw a number of Executive Committee changes following the decisions of Mark Marazis and Declan Kelly to stand aside.

The Life Membership gave Ces Colli a resounding thumbs-up by voting him in as President, a position he has held in an interim capacity for the past six months.   Lea Stinton, Karl Kramer and Emmanuel Takionitis were returned to the Executive Committee where they were joined by Sean Cross, who was appointed to the Football Operations department.

“This gives us the opportunity to refresh and reset the leadership of our club, to ensure we have the best structure in place at the top to take Inglewood forward,” said Colli.   “I would like take this opportunity to extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you Mark Marazis and Declan Kelly for their loyal service to the club.”

2015 was a year in which the club further improved its position, from player registrations being up to our Under-16s winning the league, enhancing ‘the club of choice’ philosophy.   Our senior team may have performed below expectation but the Under-18s were in trophy contention right up to the final game of the season.

Two members of that young squad played a handful of first team games and will be part of senior squad in 2016, something we can all be very proud of.   The roots of these successes were set in April when a party of sixteen players and three officials spent ten life-changing days at Spanish club Real Valladolid.

The past twelve months has been some major improvements made away from the field of play.   The main pitch was resurfaced, lights upgraded, reticulation enhanced on training pitches, the car park was resurfaced and new portable training goals were purchased.   Major benefits have also been realised from improvements to our back office reporting and auditing.

We reopened the Junior Canteen, which was run by Jenn Woods and assisted by the Junior Committee and parents, providing a service lacking in previous years along with much needed income.   Our Inglewood Football Institute has come on in leaps and bounds this year, providing blossoming young footballers a high quality of coaching.

2015 has also been a time of change, most notably with Luke Martin stepping down from the presidency in June.   Luke was instrumental in ensuring Inglewood became one of the inaugural National Premier Leagues club and was a major driving force behind restructuring the club and its finances.   We acknowledge and thank Luke for this.

It is also appropriate that all those who ‘make the club tick’ are thanked.   Lea Stinton, Karl Kramer and Emmanuel Takoniatis from the Executive Committee, David Ewen, Nick Woods, John Papadopoulos, Aldo Aliphon and Rod Njirich from the Junior Committee along with our staff Donna Kelly, Gianni Grassi and Florian Tigan – thank you all.

Of course, there are many other people behind the scenes that have and continue to contribute to this great club and I thank each and every one of you for your loyalty, time and efforts.   Without you Inglewood United would not be where it is today.

We look forward to a bigger and better 2016.

2016 Executive Committee

President: Ces Colli
Secretary: Lea Stinton
Treasurer: Emmanuel Takionitis
Governance, Bar and Facilities: Karl Kramer
Football Operations: Sean Cross