Rupert Lowe
Encyclopedia
Rupert James Graham Lowe is a British businessman, who was the chairman of Southampton Football Club from 1996 to 2006. He regained his power in May 2008, teaming up with Michael Wilde, who had previously forced Lowe out, becoming chairman of the club's parent company, Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC
, before resigning on 2 April 2009 after the company was placed into administration.
and Reading University before gaining a reputation working in the city for companies such as Morgan Grenfell and Deutsche Bank
. He was also a board member of the London International Financial Futures Exchange. He founded Secure Retirements, a quoted care home provider, with Andrew Cowen, the former Southampton F.C. Vice Chairman.
, a long and costly procedure. Therefore they attempted a 'reverse takeover
' as a way to reduce costs. They needed to find a company that had already floated and take it over while effectively being taken over themselves. Lowe's Secure Retirements, which ran Nursing home
s, was a perfect candidate. The resultant group was renamed Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC.
After the deal was completed, Lowe became chairman of the football club. This was despite him being an avid rugby union
watcher and hockey
player, who had only seen his first professional football game six months previously.
Fans' groups were initially undecided about Lowe. He had vast business expertise, a vital trait for any chairman of a football club, but he also knew hardly anything about the game. Soon after the takeover, Graeme Souness
and Lawrie McMenemy
left the club, citing 'difficulties' with the new owners. This came as a huge shock to many fans and to the local press, who regarded McMenemy as 'Mr. Southampton'.
Lowe, however, did much to improve his image in the eyes of Saints' fans and the media. He guided the club from their old stadium into the St Mary's Stadium
and the club continued to follow a long-standing policy of selling players to clubs for high prices. Dean Richards
, who was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £8 million, and Kevin Davies
, who was sold to Blackburn Rovers for £7 million, are good examples. Davies was subsequently bought back by Southampton for a much smaller fee. James Beattie
joined the club for £1 million from Blackburn Rovers, enjoyed great form at Southampton, and later joined Everton
for £6 million.
His timing of managerial decisions were somewhat alarming and inconsistent, however, as there were eight managers during his tenure, a very high turnover rate. Dave Jones was forced out when faced with a criminal investigation, even though Jones was later exonerated of all charges. Jones' replacement, Glenn Hoddle
, left to join Tottenham Hotspur in 2001. Lowe then appointed a talented coach, Stuart Gray
, but Gray was swiftly replaced by Gordon Strachan
after a disastrous start to the 2001-02 season.
In 2003, Saints went on to reach the FA Cup
Final
and qualified for the UEFA Cup
for the first time in nearly 20 years. In the following season they were lying fourth in the league at Christmas
, but it soon emerged that Gordon Strachan was refusing to extend his contract citing "personal reasons". Lowe and the board took the decision to replace him with Paul Sturrock
before the end of the season. Sturrock himself left the club by "mutual consent
" within six months of being appointed.
Lowe seemingly made the same mistake as he did with Stuart Gray by employing a good coach (Steve Wigley
), who seemed to lack the steely will needed for a manager of any business. Like the appointment of Gray three years earlier, Lowe appeared to be taking a huge gamble by employing another untested coach, and allegedly exploited his own influence by indulging himself more and more in team affairs, including the much documented "Delgado
Affair". The appointment of Wigley also broke Premiership rules requiring all managers to have the relevant coaching qualifications. With the team's form deteriorating, Lowe sacked Wigley in November of the same year.
Wigley was replaced, to much furore, by former Portsmouth
manager Harry Redknapp
. The appointment of an experienced manager in Redknapp led to expectations that results would improve, but they were actually worse in the second half of the season than in the first, and the club was relegated to the Championship.
With relegation, a 50% wage cut was imposed on most players and staff, after a mediocre start to the new season, Redknapp resigned as manager citing personal reasons and a wish for a break from football, but he quickly re-joined Southampton's rivals Portsmouth. George Burley
was appointed as manager in December 2005, while former England
rugby union coach Sir Clive Woodward, who had been brought into the club only a year beforehand, was promoted to the senior position of Director of Football
. Although supporters approved of bringing in new techniques that had worked in other sports, this move was once again seen by many fans as gambling the club's status with another experiment. The club were unable to mount a push for promotion back to the Premiership.
On 30 June 2006, Lowe resigned under huge pressure from club supporters, including the newly formed Saints Trust, following the club's failure to win promotion back to the Premiership. Michael Wilde
, a new investor in Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC, led a new team of directors in taking over the club.
In July 2008, Lowe returned as Southampton Leisure Holdings plc Chairman. At an AGM
on 23 December 2008, Lowe received several calls to resign from former Chairman Leon Crouch
and from fans and shareholders at the meeting. Also, 30 silver coins were thrown in the direction of Lowe by fan Richard Chorley (who was thrown out of the meeting). Since his return, protests have taken place against his role at the club
.
On 2 April 2009, Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC was put into administration, resulting in Lowe's resignation from the board.
Board as a Premier League representative and as an FA Councillor.
candidate for Cotswold to the House of Commons
in the 1997 general election
.
Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC
Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC was the parent company of Southampton Football Club Ltd and was listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. The company was placed into administration on 2 April 2009.- Subsidiaries :...
, before resigning on 2 April 2009 after the company was placed into administration.
Biography
Rupert Lowe was educated at Radley CollegeRadley College
Radley College , founded in 1847, is a British independent school for boys on the edge of the English village of Radley, near to the market town of Abingdon in Oxfordshire, and has become a well-established boarding school...
and Reading University before gaining a reputation working in the city for companies such as Morgan Grenfell and Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
. He was also a board member of the London International Financial Futures Exchange. He founded Secure Retirements, a quoted care home provider, with Andrew Cowen, the former Southampton F.C. Vice Chairman.
Southampton Football Club
In the mid-1990s, the Saints board were looking to float the club on the London Stock ExchangeLondon Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
, a long and costly procedure. Therefore they attempted a 'reverse takeover
Reverse takeover
A reverse takeover or reverse merger is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public...
' as a way to reduce costs. They needed to find a company that had already floated and take it over while effectively being taken over themselves. Lowe's Secure Retirements, which ran Nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
s, was a perfect candidate. The resultant group was renamed Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC.
After the deal was completed, Lowe became chairman of the football club. This was despite him being an avid rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
watcher and hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
player, who had only seen his first professional football game six months previously.
Fans' groups were initially undecided about Lowe. He had vast business expertise, a vital trait for any chairman of a football club, but he also knew hardly anything about the game. Soon after the takeover, Graeme Souness
Graeme Souness
Graeme James Souness is a Scottish former professional football player and manager.Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s and player-manager of Rangers in the late 1980s as well as captain of the Scottish national team. He also played for Tottenham Hotspur,...
and Lawrie McMenemy
Lawrie McMenemy
Lawrie McMenemy MBE is a retired English football coach, best known for his spell as manager of Southampton Football Club...
left the club, citing 'difficulties' with the new owners. This came as a huge shock to many fans and to the local press, who regarded McMenemy as 'Mr. Southampton'.
Lowe, however, did much to improve his image in the eyes of Saints' fans and the media. He guided the club from their old stadium into the St Mary's Stadium
St Mary's Stadium
St Mary's Stadium is the home of Southampton F.C., in the city of Southampton. It is a UEFA 4-star rated stadium and with a capacity of 32,689 is the largest football stadium in the south of England, outside of London.-History:...
and the club continued to follow a long-standing policy of selling players to clubs for high prices. Dean Richards
Dean Richards (footballer)
Dean Ivor Richards was an English footballer who played as a defender. He began his career at hometown club Bradford City before a four year stay with Wolverhampton Wanderers. He left to play Premier League football with Southampton and finally Tottenham Hotspur...
, who was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £8 million, and Kevin Davies
Kevin Davies
Kevin Cyril Davies is an English footballer who currently plays for Bolton Wanderers and the England national football team as a striker. He was made Bolton team captain in January 2009....
, who was sold to Blackburn Rovers for £7 million, are good examples. Davies was subsequently bought back by Southampton for a much smaller fee. James Beattie
James Beattie (footballer)
James Scott Beattie is an English footballer who currently plays for Sheffield United as a striker.Born in Lancaster, Lancashire he came through the ranks at Blackburn Rovers eventually signing professionally for them in 1995...
joined the club for £1 million from Blackburn Rovers, enjoyed great form at Southampton, and later joined Everton
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
for £6 million.
His timing of managerial decisions were somewhat alarming and inconsistent, however, as there were eight managers during his tenure, a very high turnover rate. Dave Jones was forced out when faced with a criminal investigation, even though Jones was later exonerated of all charges. Jones' replacement, Glenn Hoddle
Glenn Hoddle
Glenn Hoddle is an English former footballer and manager who played as an attacking midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, AS Monaco, Chelsea and Swindon Town and at international level for England....
, left to join Tottenham Hotspur in 2001. Lowe then appointed a talented coach, Stuart Gray
Stuart Gray (footballer born 1960)
Stuart Gray is an English former footballer and manager, who is the former manager of Football League Two side Northampton Town. On 30th December 2010 he was appointed the caretaker manager of Burnley following the sacking of Brian Laws, reverting to his role as first team coach when Eddie Howe...
, but Gray was swiftly replaced by Gordon Strachan
Gordon Strachan
Gordon David Strachan OBE is a Scottish football manager and former player. He is currently without a club, having last managed Middlesbrough. Strachan played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. Prior to Middlesbrough,...
after a disastrous start to the 2001-02 season.
In 2003, Saints went on to reach the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
Final
Final (competition)
The final of a competition is the match or round in which the winner of the entire event is decided.In sports competitions following a knockout system, where only two individuals or teams compete in each match, the final is usually played between the winners of two semi-finals...
and qualified for the UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
for the first time in nearly 20 years. In the following season they were lying fourth in the league at Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, but it soon emerged that Gordon Strachan was refusing to extend his contract citing "personal reasons". Lowe and the board took the decision to replace him with Paul Sturrock
Paul Sturrock
Paul Whitehead Sturrock is a Scottish football manager who, since July 2010, is the manager of Southend United. Until this appointment, Sturrock had most recently been at English League 1 club Plymouth Argyle in a business support role, having been relieved of his managerial duties, until he quit...
before the end of the season. Sturrock himself left the club by "mutual consent
Consent
Consent refers to the provision of approval or agreement, particularly and especially after thoughtful consideration.- Types of consent :*Implied consent is a controversial form of consent which is not expressly granted by a person, but rather inferred from a person's actions and the facts and...
" within six months of being appointed.
Lowe seemingly made the same mistake as he did with Stuart Gray by employing a good coach (Steve Wigley
Steve Wigley
Steve Wigley is an English football coach and former player for Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United, Birmingham City, Portsmouth and Exeter City. He made 340 appearances in the Football League. He is the former manager of Southampton and the former assistant/caretaker manager for Bristol City...
), who seemed to lack the steely will needed for a manager of any business. Like the appointment of Gray three years earlier, Lowe appeared to be taking a huge gamble by employing another untested coach, and allegedly exploited his own influence by indulging himself more and more in team affairs, including the much documented "Delgado
Agustín Delgado
Agustín Javier Delgado Chalá is a retired Ecuadorian footballer. Nicknamed Tín, Delgado is the all-time top scorer for the Ecuadorian national team with 31 goals in 71 games. He played professional club football in Ecuador, Mexico and England.-Southampton:Delgado moved to Southampton in 2001...
Affair". The appointment of Wigley also broke Premiership rules requiring all managers to have the relevant coaching qualifications. With the team's form deteriorating, Lowe sacked Wigley in November of the same year.
Wigley was replaced, to much furore, by former Portsmouth
Portsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...
manager Harry Redknapp
Harry Redknapp
Henry James "Harry" Redknapp is a former English footballer who has enjoyed a long career in football management starting in 1983 with Bournemouth. He is the current manager of Tottenham Hotspur....
. The appointment of an experienced manager in Redknapp led to expectations that results would improve, but they were actually worse in the second half of the season than in the first, and the club was relegated to the Championship.
With relegation, a 50% wage cut was imposed on most players and staff, after a mediocre start to the new season, Redknapp resigned as manager citing personal reasons and a wish for a break from football, but he quickly re-joined Southampton's rivals Portsmouth. George Burley
George Burley
George Elder Burley is a Scottish football manager and former player and manager, formerly the manager of Crystal Palace Football Club. Burley had a professional career spanning 21 years as a player making 628 appearances and earning 11 Scotland caps...
was appointed as manager in December 2005, while former England
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...
rugby union coach Sir Clive Woodward, who had been brought into the club only a year beforehand, was promoted to the senior position of Director of Football
Director of football
"Director of football" is a term describing a senior management figure at a football club, most commonly used in Europe. The exact nature of the role is often unclear and extremely variable and causes much debate in the sports media...
. Although supporters approved of bringing in new techniques that had worked in other sports, this move was once again seen by many fans as gambling the club's status with another experiment. The club were unable to mount a push for promotion back to the Premiership.
On 30 June 2006, Lowe resigned under huge pressure from club supporters, including the newly formed Saints Trust, following the club's failure to win promotion back to the Premiership. Michael Wilde
Michael Wilde
Michael Wilde, born on the Wirral, Cheshire in 1952, is a businessman who became Chairman of Southampton Football Club for two periods after the Club's relegation from the Premiership, resigning on 2 April 2009, the day after the Club's holding company, Southampton Leisure Holdings Plc, went into...
, a new investor in Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC, led a new team of directors in taking over the club.
In July 2008, Lowe returned as Southampton Leisure Holdings plc Chairman. At an AGM
AGM
-Military and navy:* Air-to-ground missile, a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft* Artillery Gun Module, an air-portable self-propelled howitzer...
on 23 December 2008, Lowe received several calls to resign from former Chairman Leon Crouch
Leon Crouch
Leon Crouch is an English businessman, who was formerly chairman of Southampton Football Club.Crouch is the founder and chairman of the "Fullers Group" of companies which specialise in the manufacture, inspection and supply of precision engineered products, including machined components,...
and from fans and shareholders at the meeting. Also, 30 silver coins were thrown in the direction of Lowe by fan Richard Chorley (who was thrown out of the meeting). Since his return, protests have taken place against his role at the club
Southampton F.C.
Southampton Football Club is an English football team, nicknamed The Saints, based in the city of Southampton, Hampshire. The club gained promotion to the Championship from League One in the 2010–2011 season after being relegated in 2009. Their home ground is the St Mary's Stadium, where the club...
.
On 2 April 2009, Southampton Leisure Holdings PLC was put into administration, resulting in Lowe's resignation from the board.
Football powerbroker
Lowe has served as a member of the Football AssociationThe Football Association
The Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of football in England, and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...
Board as a Premier League representative and as an FA Councillor.
Political career
Lowe stood for election as the Referendum PartyReferendum Party
The Referendum Party was a Euro-sceptic, single issue party in the United Kingdom formed by Sir James Goldsmith to fight the 1997 General Election. The party called for a referendum on aspects of the UK's relationship with the European Union.-Policy:...
candidate for Cotswold to the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
in the 1997 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
.