COLCHESTER United will give supporters who are due refunds for this season the chance to decide how to spend the cash in a ‘Club United’ fund.

In an innovative move, U's chairman Robbie Cowling has announced they will create the system to allow fans to divert their refunds into a ring-fenced fund - and then propose how it is spent by the club.

The Colchester supremo says he came up with the idea after some U's fans signalled their desire to donate their refunds to the club following the early finish to the 2019-20 League Two season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cowling, who says he has been putting in the 'extra hours' to design and develop the system, hopes that the new 'Club United' fund will be fully available in September.

Speaking to the U's website, Cowling said: "The idea for Club United came to me because so many Colchester United fans who are due refunds have been in touch to say they want to donate their refund to the club.

"I feel uncomfortable just taking these funds because it’s a fantastically generous offer and I’m bound to spend it in ways that will infuriate some supporters.

"Therefore, I would prefer to ring-fence the money and let those that contributed decide how to spend it.

"The Club United Fund will hold a pot of money that belongs to the club, but the releasing of the funds will be determined by whichever fans have placed the funds with Club United.

"For example, if 1,600 fans add £60 each to the Club United Fund, then it will have a balance of £96,000 and they will each have a 0.0625% fan share.

"The full value of the fund and a particular fan’s share of the fund will be available via the dashboard once a fan logs in to their account on the tickets.colchesterunited.net website.

"The club or anyone with any Club United shares can propose something that they want to be purchased by the funds lodged in the Club United fund.

"If the club approve the proposal, then those with Club United funds can choose to pledge all or some of their funds to that proposal.

"For example, if a proposal is approved to raise £30,000 for some safe standing in the South Stand and £30,000 gets pledged then the club will arrange for £30,000 of safe rail seating to be fitted in the South Stand.

"I’ve put in some extra hours in the evenings to design the system and development is due to begin in July.

"I expect the system to be fully available in September so a bit more patience is requested.

"However, the system we are developing to manage the refunds should be available beforehand, probably in August.

"That is when those entitled to refunds will have the ability to select option (d) above if they wish to and divert their refund money to this very unique system.

"Once again, I would like to reiterate that I also understand that these are difficult times so if anyone simply wants a full refund and needs it ASAP, then please email us at ticketing@colchesterunited.net and we will deal with the request as soon as we can."

Colchester have confirmed that supporters owed refunds for the games that did not take place in the 2019-20 season will have other options to reclaim their money.

They can convert the cancelled fixtures into Match Credits, transfer the refund value to a Privilege Card so that funds can be used towards the purchase of future tickets or alternatively, receive a full refund.