The club is announcing organisational developments to better support the success of our elite teams, the ongoing growth in the Academy, Youth and Grassroots sections and our progressive commitment to Equality, Inclusion and Diversity.

Club Secretary and Business Manager Alicja Holland has been promoted to CEO, with Patrick Bell remaining on the Board as Director of Partnerships, working on numerous projects.

Bell says “I am thrilled that Alicja has accepted the opportunity to step up to this role which she richly deserves. Since joining early this year, she has been a breath of fresh air! She has transformed our finance function, digitized core aspects of our operations and impressed all of us who care for the organisation. With a broad, contemporary skill-set, Alicja is ideally suited to lead our club into its future.”

Chair Andrew Long adds “Patrick has been tireless in addressing systemic challenges over the past two years. He is the architect of Alicja’s promotion to lead the continuation of the progress which I fully endorse. He steps down with our two first teams at their historical highest ever league positions, but also having helped us to continue to benefit from our ability to leverage football to improve public health outcomes across the whole community. He has also developed a really talented team off-pitch; from Isaac Mennie, to Ash Webb to Bubs to Andy Message and Andy Harvison to Alicja and others as we focus on continuing to unlock the club’s potential. He was also a key part of the Men’s First Team recruitment process resulting in the successful appointment of Marc Abbott.”

Alicja adds “I am thrilled to accept the position of CEO at our wonderful club. I hope that I can both be of service to all 35 teams we have affiliated at Brundon Lane, plus our hundreds of youth players and their parents/guardians and managers, our hirers, community groups, tenants and partners, as well as continuing to support the ambitions of the club’s elite teams. There is much still to improve upon Patrick’s head start to lead the club forward as the teams progress.”

Separately, a Vice Chair is also being recruited to help propel the next phase of development and governance. Parties interested in this exciting leadership opportunity should contact Andrew Long via email at aglong57@icloud.com for a Candidate Pack. Applications from those who meet the strict professional criteria will be welcome.

In a separate matter, the club is sad to announce that it has parted company with former Head of Media, Steve Screech. This follows Steve’s relocation some 300 miles away so would struggle to continue to meet the ever-increasing obligations of this key role. For now, tasks are being shared across the team and any media enquiries should be sent to ash.webb@afcsudbury.co.uk in the first instance.

Andrew Long concludes “Steve has been a passionate supporter for many years and a valued employee over the past year. I would like to put on record our gratitude for the firm commitment and creativity he provided in the past. He is always welcome at our club. We wish him nothing but success with his new life and new role elsewhere.”

Finally, the club is also hoping to be able to announce a positive decision regarding the funding of the second 3G facility in the near future. We hope to be in a position to add the UK’s newest 3G facility early next year and thereby create the best non-league football facility in East Anglia for our club and our wider community.