FC United appoint new recruits including Commercial Manager

FC United of Manchester has made a series of new appointments over the past few weeks including the key role of Commercial Manager.

Frances Fielding joins the club on Monday (August 15th) with a brief to be responsible for all commercial aspects of the club, including advertising and sponsorship, season ticket sales and developing long-term partnerships.

She has a wealth of commercial experience in football, with 10 years as Commercial Director at Rochdale AFC where she led on all commercial activity for the club, including campaigns to sell season tickets, advertising and events.

More recently Frances worked as Head of Commercial at Blackburn Rovers where she sold hundreds of thousands of pounds of advertising and sponsorship deals.

FC’s Chief Executive Officer Natalie Atkinson said: “I’ve known Frances for some time and her experience and capability is just what we need.

“Frances has been following FC’s fortunes for some time and when the role came up with us, she felt it was the right move at the right time for her.

“She transformed the commercial approach at Rochdale and made a big success of the role. So of course we are looking forward to her doing the same here, and bringing in additional income to help us fund our promotion push over the next two to three years.”

Frances is one of a number of new appointments made as part of the club’s new staffing structure. The recruitment of new people is aimed at driving delivery of the targets in our business plan and ultimately achieving promotion to the National League North, to meet the aspirations of co-owners as set out in FC United’s Vision.

“I understand some supporters will wonder why we are spending money on salaries now rather than investing every penny we have into the playing squad,” said Natalie.

“If we were to spend everything we have now on the squad, we wouldn’t have anyone in place to generate higher levels of income next year and the year after for the playing budget and we’d end up stagnating.

“By investing in senior roles now we are planning for the longer term. The additional revenue brought in by our new employees will mean we have more money to spend in the coming years, allowing us to be more competitive on the pitch and achieve sustainable success.”

Other key appointments include Rachel Hughes, who joined us this week as Events & Hospitality Manager. 

Rachel, who lives near Broadhurst Park in Moston, and whose partner is a season ticket holder, joins us from Costco where she worked in membership and event sales for the global wholesaler.

She will be responsible for marketing Broadhurst Park as an events and functions venue, while making sure these are profitable. Rachel is already working on a new Events & Hospitality Brochure and will be spreading the word about our facilities to businesses and organisations across Greater Manchester.

Frances and Rachel join us on permanent, full-time paid contracts.

Steve Clarke joins FC United as Health & Safety Officer. Steve has achieved his Level Four qualifications in Health & Safety in the Workplace and has previously worked with Natalie at Oldham Athletic FC.

Iain Slack is our new matchday co-ordinator, working closely with our team including volunteers to ensure everything runs smoothly. He is a season ticket holder and co-owner of FC United.

Steve and Iain join us on permanent, part-time paid contracts. Steve will work matchdays plus one day per week, and Iain on matchdays only.

Meanwhile for the women’s team, FC United fans Matt Crane and Gareth Townsend have taken up voluntary roles as media and marketing manager and secretary respectively.

Please join us in welcoming all our new recruits and wishing them all the very best in their new roles!