WITH the meeting for Charlton fans to decide whether to set up a Supporters' Trust taking place tomorrow, one fan has already stepped forward and offered over half a million shares in Charlton Athletic PLC to the Trust should it be established.

The anonymous fan has offered voting control over his shares - a proxy vote - to the Trust if and when it is set up.

He said: “Assuming a decision is made to establish the Supporters' Trust, we will grant it voting control in respect of the 524,894 shares that we own.

“As I mentioned before, if it were necessary or beneficial to the ST, we would be prepared to go further and actually donate the shares to the ST.

“This is providing that, in the event of a financial return upon the shares, the net proceeds of that return were donated to a charity like Demelza House, assuming the legal advisers to the ST don’t see any difficulty with that.

“To avoid doubt, I would not wish to have any role in or exercise any influence over the ST but I certainly wish to see it succeed.

“My reason for doing this is not per se to encourage opposition to or criticism of the current or any future Board.

“The ST needs to be inclusive and democratic and objectively to voice concerns, criticism and support to the club as it considers them merited.”

The anonymous fan added: “My motive is simple. While, in my view, my shares now have limited economic value they can regain meaningful value if they can be combined with significant voting proxies and/or share donations from other shareholders, large and small.

“The aim is to empower supporters collectively with a permanent and independent voice with the owners of the club, whoever they may be.

“If this were achieved, in current circumstances I am sure all who contribute their voting proxies or make share donations to the ST would, like me, consider it a very satisfactory ‘return’ on our shares.”

The Supporters' Trust is meeting at the Conservative Club at 51 Charlton Church Lane on Tuesday at 7.30pm.

Former AFC Wimbledon Chairman Kris Stewart, as well as a representative from Supporters’ Direct - the funded body that overseas 140 such Trusts across the UK - will be answering questions.

All Charlton fans are encouraged to attend and make their views heard on if a Trust should be set up and what the aims of any future Trust should be.