NCFC
Hello and welcome to the third live webchat on canaries.co.uk. Today's chosen director is Stephan Phillips, who is also Managing Director of Archant.

Stephan Phillips
Good afternoon everyone, thanks for being on this webchat. Send your questions in and I will answer as many of them possible.

Halifax Canary Luke
Is it true Norwich are getting the liquidators in?

Stephan Phillips
Hello Luke, this is the first question and quite an easy one to answer actually. The answer is no, which I hope you'll be pleased to hear. As you know the Club is working hard to reduce its debt, which is not a dissimilar situation to many other businesses I know of.

NCFC
A question we received on email during the week:
Hi Stephen,

Thanks for your time in answering questions from fans today. I would like to know how you think the season so far at Carrow Road has gone for you personally and for the club in general, both from a football and a business point of view?

The football has been great to watch both home and away this season, and it really does look like yourself and the rest of the board made an excellent decsion bringing Paul Lambert in, lets hope we can finish the job this season and secure promotion.

Best Wishes for the future.

Darrell Allen

Stephan Phillips
Hi Darrell,

many thanks for your question and the sentiments you express. The first game of the season was a bit of a blur, great atmosphere at the start but obviously a shocking result for us. Since then the results on the pitch have been great. Like you, I've really enjoyed the football and one of the fans I sit next to said to me that they are watching some of the most enjoyable football they have seen here in many years. As you can imagine I was very proud to be invited on to the Board and I hope in some way I am being helpful. I'm sure we can finish the job this season and hopefully we'll be in the Championship next season. Certainly everyone here is working hard to achieve that.

bbb
Is the board going to back Lambert when we get promotion to Championship?

Stephan Phillips
Hello BBB, as we've said there's a lot of work still going on to make sure we get to the Championship - we're not quite there yet! Paul's been a breath of fresh air and I hope that he feels he's received the full backing and support of the Board. Certainly where he has needed to strengthen certain positions, he has been able to do so. What works well is when the Chief Executive and the Manager work well together and I think we can see the benefits of that here.

Adam
'Investment from Amercia?' was a headline in todays papers, what can you tell us about this?

Stephan Phillips
Hi Adam,

the search for new investment is something all fans know about. As you know Deloittes have been retained by the Football Club to mount a professional search for the right sort of investment for our club. The Club were approached by an agent and we have refered them to Deloittes.

CanaryFan
Being the MD of Archant, do you verify what is written in the Evening News and EDP before it is published for factual content? Is there any truth about the head of Lotus F1 investing in City? Would City be interested in either contacting him for investment or if he said he wished to invest in the club?

Stephan Phillips
Hello CanaryFan,
I was expecting a question along these lines. The editorial content of our newspapers is under the control of our editors, who are technically legally liable for its content. So whilst mistakes do occasionally occur, you might imagine that there is a considerable amount of checking to make sure that we are factually accurate in our news stories. So whilst I am the Managing Director, I rely on our editors to be responsible for their area of operation. I should point out I have the greatest confidence in our editors, who I think do a really good job in sometimes difficult circumstances. They, like me, see the benefit of being supportive of the football club when they can without their integrity being compromised.
As far as Mr Fernandez is concerned in some ways it might be nice to see a tie-up between two iconic brands, namely Norwich City Football Club and Lotus F1 but as I've said before Deloittes are handling the aspect of any potential future investment in the Club, which may or may not include Mr Fernandez.

SuperDan
Hi Stephan, can you explain what your role as an NCFC director entails please?

Stephan Phillips
Dear SuperDan,
the role of a Director of the Football Club is in some ways similar to the role of a Director of a newspaper company in that although there is a business to be run, most fans of the Football Club (and most readers of a newspaper) would quite rightly feel that they 'own' the Club. In the main, a non-executive Director's role is to support the Chairman and the Chief Executive to make sure that the football club functions well. That means making some tough decisions where necessary and thinking about the activities to help the long-term development of the Club.
There are also some really nice bits too, like being able to host important guests and in helping to organise the smooth running of the Club. The Norwich City Football Club Board is slightly unusual in that it is a very closely-knit Board and the harmony amongst Board members is a huge strength to the Club.

Luke the Halifax Canary
Is there a long term plan to get back in the Premiership? If so what is it? OTBC

Stephan Phillips
Dear Luke,
we do indeed have a plan to get into the Premiership. Our long-term aim is to be a team which plays continually in the Premiership and we are giving ourselves seven years to achieve this. The seven years breaks down into two years to get out of our current league (maximum, although we might not need it all!), three years to get out of the Championship, a year to perhaps bounce in and out of the Premiership, before being a stable team consistently playing in what we consider to be our rightful league. There's an awful lot of work to be done to achieve this and the search for additional investment is a key part of the plan.

Ralf Scrampton
Do you ever read the Pink 'Un's messageboards?

Stephan Phillips
Hi Ralf,
I do read the Pink Un messageboard, particularly on my iphone. The Pink Un messageboard is one of the best social network sites around and whilst some of the postings are very funny it is sometimes uncannily accurate. It's always good to understand the viewpoint of the fans, from whatever source and I find the Pink Un a very enjoyable way of doing that.

Charlie Mack
Norfolk is a prime area for hosting large entertainment events such as the concerts at Blickling Hall or Holkham Hall. Why do the club not use the stadium for events such as this or other event such as boxing. This would bring extra revenue into the club and should help bolster Lambert's coffers. Or do you feel such events would run at a loss?

Stephan Phillips
Hello Charlie,
the Football Club is indeed looking at things like concerts and using the venue for things other than football. As you know in the past we've run very successful concerts for Elton John and George Michael. The Football Club itself is an excellent venue for organisations to host events and certainly at Archant we host as many events as we can here. Good management would make sure that the events are profitable and one of the areas which I can help with is making sure that we support local events at the Football Club with our local newspapers and websites.
One thing I should say is that the restaurants here - Delia's, Yellows and indeed The Business on match days - are excellent and I would encourage anybody in business to think about these venues for their corporate hospitality. We certainly get a lot of value out of bringing clients here. As an example, Archant is bringing our senior bankers here to thank them for the help they've given us and I know that they are really looking forward to the event.

JCF
What was the first NCFC game you went to?

Stephan Phillips
Hi JCF,

my first game was in September 1986 against Newcastle, which I think from memory we won 2-0. It was the first time I'd been in the Archant box and my boss at the time was a Geordie, so you can imagine I really enjoyed myself! I thought the whole thing was really first class - Norwich played really well. The facilities were absolutely stunning and I'd just recently moved to Norwich from Nottingham. Following that first game I was really hooked on Norwich City Football Club.

Elderly Female Canary
Are there any plans for another Carrow Road training session which fans can come and watch, as we had last year?

Stephan Phillips
Hello,
yes there are and we'll be announcing something shortly. One of the things about Norwich City Football Club is its close links with the community and things like this really do help people to understand what Norwich City Football Club is all about.

Alan
Can you confirm what the current situation is with the ongoing Paul Lambert/Colchester compensation saga and the News of the World article?

Stephan Phillips
Hello Alan,
as you know, both matters are in the hands of respective solicitors. From a newspaper point of view I perhaps can comment on the News of the World article. We would expect a newspaper to write accurate articles and this one clearly wasn't, which is the reason why solicitors are involved. The reputation of the Football Club is really important to us all and stories like the one which appeared in the News of the World are not helpful and don't accurately reflect quality journalism.

paulncfc
Wish the Pink 'Un could be printed again, not just as an insert.

Stephan Phillips
Hi Paul,
the harsh realities of costs of printing mean that unless there is sufficient income printing the Pink Un as a stand-alone publication is not commercially viable. However the Pink Un brand on-line goes from strength to strength. It's the most popular website of all websites produced by Archant. We also use the Pink Un brand in print in both the EDP and the Evening News, so that the content which would have been available to a select few is now available to a much wider audience. The Pink Un was selling less than 2,000 copies when we stopped it which is the reason why we unfortunately had to close the stand-alone title. By contrast the Pink Un mobile website already has over 32,000 unique visitors a month and a quarter of a million page views in only a month after launch.

Daz
Hi Stephan, which match have you enjoyed watching most this season either home or away?

Stephan Phillips
Dear Daz, this is an easy one! You probably won't be surprised to hear that it's the Colchester game (away!). The conditions were dreadful but I thought we played so well. I think Colchester played quite well although they lost but I suspect the result reflects the fact that we were better at adapting to the conditions. I was particularly pleased for Chris Martin who obviously enjoyed himself! Their Directors entertained us really well and it was good to catch up with somebody who had spent some time in the Armed Forces in Germany where my father had been stationed.

Dominick_in_Tokyo
Are there any plans to offer Darren Huckerby a position at the club, either in an ambassadorial role or on the coaching staff once he gets his qualifications? Either that or simply involve him in the Canary Experiences?

Stephan Phillips
Hi Dominick,
I hope the weather in Tokyo is a bit warmer than here! Yes there are some exciting plans involving Darren on match days here at Carrow Road which we hope to announce shortly. We all know Darren was a legend and a firm friend of the fans.

Stephan Phillips
Thanks for all the questions everyone, sorry I haven't answered them all. I've really enjoyed this webchat and hope you found it useful too. Thank you particularly to all those who sent in questions and I'm sorry some of you have sent questions in which weren't answered. See you all at Carrow Road on Saturday for our game against Southampton, another bumper crowd expected and hopefully three more points!