NEW Ipswich Town owner Marcus Evans will not take a place on either of the two boards being put in place by Ipswich Town.

By Derek Davis

NEW Ipswich Town owner Marcus Evans will not take a place on either of the two boards being put in place by Ipswich Town.

Mr Evans will officially become the club's majority shareholder with 87.5% of the holdings when the deal is ratified at the club's AGM, which will be held at the Ipswich Corn Exchange on Monday, December 17.

It is expected that Evans will be represented on the Plc board by a high-ranking employee within his group, understood to be Martin Pitcher, although that also has to be passed by a vote. The reclusive Mr Evans, who was in negotiations to buy Southampton earlier this year, will not even attend the AGM and is not believed to have been to a Town game this season.

Mr Evans has paid less than £20million to take a controlling interest in Ipswich Town after agreeing to pay £12m for new shares and has paid around £6m to purchase the £28m debt from Norwich Union, through Morley Fund Management, and Barclays.

David Sheepshanks will remain as chairman and the make-up of the Plc and the football boards will be unveiled later today.

It is understood that all of the existing directors will remain with the club, at least for the time being, and at least one new director will be appointed.

Blues staff will be briefed this morning, with concerns that more redundancies will follow expected to be allayed.

Letters have also been sent out to shareholders along with the 2007 report and accounts which will include a letter from Mr Evans, similar to the open letter he made public last month.

The accounts will show Town have made an operating profit of less than £1m and this has come from the bonus payment made to Ipswich from Charlton Athletic as part of the transfer fee for Darren Bent.

derek.davis@archant.co.uk