## **EXETER CITY FOOTBALL CLUB MUSEUM TRUST** ## **TRUSTEES REPORT** ## **YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2025** ## **Structure, governance and management** The Museum was established as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation by a constitution dated 11 July 2018. The Charity’s registered number is 1180297. ## **Trustees** The Museum is governed by the Trustees who oversee the management of the Charity and decide its strategic direction with regard to its charitable objectives. The number of Trustees shall be not less than three or more than six appointed trustees and one ex officio trustee. Trustees are identified and appointed according to their skills and abilities in relation to the effective direction of the Museum’s activities. ## **Risk management** The Trustees regularly review the major risks to which the Charity is exposed, in particular those related to its operation and finances and are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to those risks. ## **Objectives and activities** The objects and principal activities of the Charity are to advance education for the public benefit in the history of Exeter City Football Club by the establishment of a museum and the collection, safeguarding and display of historical items, both tangible and intangible, related to the history of Exeter City Football Club. ## **Public benefit** The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the guidance provided by the Charity Commission with regard to public benefit. All our activities are planned and executed in line with our charitable objectives and access to and use of the Museum’s collections is free to all members of the public. ## **Achievements and performance** Another busy and productive year has been overseen by the Museum Trustees and supported by an active group of volunteers. The biggest challenge over this period was moving our Museum Room from the first floor to the ground floor of the main Football Club building in February 2025. This was efficiently, safely and securely carried out and now offers better accessibility. It is also much more visible to supporters on match days and visitor numbers have increased significantly. We were very grateful for donations from the Cans4City scheme and the Exeter City Senior Reds towards the costs involved. ## **EXETER CITY FOOTBALL CLUB MUSEUM TRUST** ## **TRUSTEES REPORT (continued)** ## **YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2025** ## **Achievements and performance (continued)** Behind the scenes various governance issues have been addressed including progressing the necessary work required to achieve full Museum Accreditation. We have been very grateful for the support from Jo Cairns, the Museum Development Officer from Museum Development SW. Trustees continued to attend training courses and we benefitted from a visit by Helena Jaeschke, the SW Conservation Development Officer. We are active attendees at meetings of the Devon Museums Group and the Mid Devon and Exeter Group. We have continued to add to and refine our physical collection and on-line archive. Donations have ranged from a signed first edition autobiography by Pele (which enriches our Brazil collection) to the shirt worn by Josh Magennis when he scored two goals against Premier League Nottingham Forest in a televised Fourth Round FA Cup match on 11 February 2025. The online Grecian Archive grows almost daily and now contains nearly 21,000 items. We have also made further deposits to our paper archive held by the Devon Heritage Centre. Special publicity was given to three major anniversaries during the year. These were the 110[th] anniversary in July 2024 of Exeter City being Brazil’s first ever opponents; the centenary in March 2025 of the Club’s visit to Amsterdam and the 90[th] anniversary of winning our first ever major professional trophy – The Division Three South League Cup. We have also curated special displays on the history of our Women’s team including their promotion to the third tier for the first time at the end of the 2023/4 season. The Museum is regularly visited by relatives of former players and it was fitting that during this year we were honoured to host the granddaughter of Reg Loram, who played in goal against Brazil in 1914. We were also delighted to host a visit by a member of the Brazilian Women’s cricket team who was playing for Exeter CC during the summer. Visitor numbers are at a record level. In addition to hundreds of match day visitors, 1163 people visited the museum as part of a stadium tour. We worked with a number of other organisations on areas of common interest. This included Topsham St James Cricket Club for whom an information board was added to our history timeline in the Adam Stansfield Stand. The Club had played at St James Park (Exeter City’s current home) as early as 1875. We teamed up with Topsham Museum to give a talk about Exeter and Bolton Wanderers legend Dick Pym to the local primary school. And in September we co-hosted a talk on ‘Football and Prisoners of War’ with the national Football and War Network and the Exeter City Senior Reds. A new initiative this year was the production of an Exeter City FC Museum Calendar. This was done in association with the Exeter City Supporters Trust as a fundraiser for a club project and an awareness raiser for the Museum. The calendar featured key items of memorabilia in our collection and proved very popular. Throughout the 2024/5 season a museum page was contributed to the match programme featuring historic links with the visiting team. ## **EXETER CITY FOOTBALL CLUB MUSEUM TRUST** ## **TRUSTEES REPORT (continued)** ## **YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2025** ## **Achievements and performance (continued)** As always we thank our wonderful group of volunteers who give so much of their time to helping the museum develop. From maintenance of the Museum Room to sorting and cataloguing our collection their contribution is invaluable. Looking ahead we will continue our drive to achieve accreditation and work on celebrating the 125[th] anniversary of the Club in 2026. ## **Financial review** In keeping with the small size of our organisation the accounts have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis. There were no major projects during the year but thanks to some generous donations from allied Club supporters groups our income increased from £1037 to £1883. We have continued the process of fitting out of the Museum room and cataloguing and archiving the items in our collection. Total expenditure in the year was £2815 (2024 £1936) with the increase largely attributable to additional costs associated with our move during the year which will not need to be repeated. At the end of the year we had £10074 in our general funds all of which are unrestricted as to their future use. The current financial year has continued the general trajectory set in the previous year with an emphasis on expanding, improving and promoting our activities. We remain comfortably solvent. ## **The Trustees annual report was approved by the Trustees of the Charity on 10 December 2025 and signed on its behalf by:** ## **RICHARD KNIGHT** **Secretary** ## **EXETER CITY FOOTBALL CLUB MUSEUM TRUST RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2025** |**RECEIPTS**
Donations from individuals
Donations from organisations
Donations from talks
Donations box
Gift Aid
Sale of surplus artefacts
**TOTAL RECEIPTS**
**PAYMENTS**
Purchase of artefacts
Museum display cases etc
Museum signage
Museum display sundries
Computer equipment
Sundry small items
Subscriptions
Volunteer expenses
Website hosting
Badges for resale
**SURPLUS OF RECEIPTS OVER PAYMENTS**
Transfer between funds
**Balance at Bank brought forward**
**Balance at Bank carried forward**|Unrestricted
Funds
£
490
1100
10
47
64
172
1883
673
84
591
707
366
66
260
28
0
40
2815
-932
11006
10074|Restricted
Funds
£
0
0
0
0|**2025**
**2024**
Total
Total
Funds
Funds
£
£
490
320
1100
0
10
0
47
2
64
53
172
662
1883
1037
673
655
84
0
591
0
707
1046
366
0
66
0
260
235
28
0
0
0
40
0
2815
1936
-932
-899
0
0
11006
11905
10074
11006| |---|---|---|---| ## **EXETER CITY FOOTBALL CLUB MUSEUM TRUST** ## **STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES** ## **AS AT 30 APRIL 2025** |**2024**
£
Santander Current Account No 37053105
10074
Other Assets:
No acount is taken of the stock of memorabilia or conservation
materials held for sale or future use.|**2024**
£
11006| |---|---| ||| The artefacts in the museum have either been donated or purchased with the cost treated as an expense in the year of purchase. **These financial statements were approved by the Trustees on 10 December 2025 and signed on their behalf by:** **PAUL FARLEY** **Chairman** ## **EXETER CITY FOOTBALL CLUB MUSEUM TRUST** ## **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS** ## **YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2025** ## **1. General information** The Charity is an Incorporated Charitable Organisation and a registered charity in England and Wales. The address of its principal office is St James Park, Stadium Way, Exeter, Devon EX4 6PX ## **2. Accounting policies** ## **Basis of preparation** These financial statements have been prepared on the Receipts and Payments basis as permitted by S.133 of the Charities Act 2011. ## **Going concern** There are no material uncertainties about the Charity's ability to continue. ## **Fund accounting** General unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees to further any of the Charity's purposes. Restricted funds are those donated for use in a particular area or for a specific purpose. ## **Income recognition** Income from grants and donations is recognised in the financial statements when they are received. Income from donated goods is not recognised unless it can be measured reliably at its fair value. Donated facilities and services are recognised in the financial statements when received to the extent that they can be acurately evaluated. No amounts are included for the contribution of the general volunteers. ## **Resources expended** Expenditure is recognised in the financial statements when it is paid. Expenditure includes irrecoverable VAT and is classified under the heading to which it relates. All costs are allocated to expenditure categories reflecting the use of the resource. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated to that activity. Shared costs are apportioned between the activities to which they contribute on a reasonable, justifiable and consistent basis. ## **EXETER CITY FOOTBALL CLUB MUSEUM TRUST** ## **NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (continued)** ## **YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2025** ## **3. Trustee remuneration and expenses** No Trustee, nor any persons connected with them, have received any remuneration from the Charity during the year (2004 - £Nil) During the year the Charity received £4.90 from P D Farley for the sale of surplus and duplicated artefacts (2024 - £263.34) and £ 20 (2024 - £180) from M J Weiler The Charity also reimbursed P D Farley £1725.97 (2024 - £968.36) for authorised purchases made on its behalf. ## **4. Related party transactions** The Charity occupies under licence a room free of charge at St James Park stadium, the home of Exeter City Football Club and has permission, with prior consent, to mount installations elsewhere in the ground. These arrangements may be terminated by either party at any time subject to reasonable notice. During the year the Charity received donations of £1100 (2024 - £Nil) from other supporters groups associated with the Club.