Blues legend Matt Holland says he’s excited by the challenge and honoured to have been given seats on the boards of both Ipswich Town and Gamechanger 20 Ltd.
The club announced the former skipper’s appointments last week when revealing new Bright Path Partners investors Marc Lasry and Travis Viola had joined the Town board and Gamechanger board respectively.
Holland, 50, who has forced strong links with the new ownership since the takeover in 2021 and was already a trustee of the Ipswich Town Foundation, says the offer of a boardroom role from CEO and now chairman Mark Ashton was a surprise.
"It came out of the blue really, a bit of a shock,” he told TownTV. "The season had finished and he asked me if I’d like to join the board.
"It’s a step into the unknown, a real challenge, something that is very different. I obviously know the playing side of things, I know the media side of things because I work in the media, but in terms of the business, it’s something that’s very different and something that I’ll have to learn.
"But I’m very excited by the challenge and really honoured that Mark has put that faith in me to become a board member.”
Although Holland is the first player to join the Town board, there are others at other clubs, including a former Blues loanee.
"It’s unusual to have an ex-player in the boardroom,” he reflected. "But it does happen, Mark Noble at West Ham and I was here on Saturday and Richard Hughes, who played at Bournemouth where I did as well, he’s involved at Liverpool. I saw him after the game on Saturday, so it does happen.
"I suppose I do bring a different skillset. My knowledge is more the football side of things and not necessarily all board members have that knowledge and have that understanding. I guess I do have my strengths, but you’d have to ask Mark those.”
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Holland will be part of the Fan Advisory Board, a role he explained: "The Fan Advisory board is something that all Premier League clubs have. Ultimately, players will come and go, owners will come and go, chief executives will come and go but the supporters will always be there. So for them to have a voice, and at the top level is something I think is really important.
"There has to be a two-way dialogue, ultimately we’re never going to get everything right. We’re not going to make every decision that supporters enjoy or think is right but all the decisions will be made listening to the supporters and trying to make the best decisions for this football club.
"Not always going to be perfect but hopefully we’ll make more decisions that are right than are wrong.”
The former Republic of Ireland international will sit round the boardroom table for the first time next month.
"Looking forward to that, September is the first one,” he said. "Do you know what I’m really looking forward to? Seeing the other side of the business.
"I know the football side of things, I know the media side of things, I don’t know the business side of things in any way, shape or form.
"It’s not one of my strengths but over the next six months I think the idea is that I’m going spend time in all different departments at the football club and try and see how the inner workings of Ipswich Town go about things.
"I’ve spent lots of time in the media department, but the commercial department, marketing departments, the financial department, every single department, I want to see the business, I want to learn the business and by doing that I think I can have even more input.
"Obviously, initially it’s a steep learning curve for me, something totally different, totally alien, but I’m really excited by the opportunity and hopefully I can play a part, hopefully I can make a difference and I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”