The Kuwaiti businessman’s arrival as Slough Town chairman connects him with a club whose story runs through years of ground-sharing, a return to its hometown and a football ground serving far more than the first team.
Talal Al Ajmi’s introduction to Slough Town supporters came with a promise to build on what he had found. The Kuwaiti businessman has become chairman of the English club, stepping into a story shaped by supporters who followed their team through years away from home and watched it climb back through the football pyramid.
For readers in Kuwait, the appointment gives a familiar business name a new sporting connection. For Slough, it brings a new chairman into an institution with its own memories, expectations and unfinished ambitions.
The club’s announcement on 23 October places immediate emphasis on the first team, alongside longer-term plans for its ground, academy and community programmes. Understanding what Al Ajmi is joining, however, requires looking beyond the announcement to the years that brought the Rebels back to Arbour Park.
A football club that had to find its way home
Slough’s recent history contains a prolonged period in which its name and its home address belonged to different places. After leaving Wexham Park, the club spent years sharing grounds outside the town before moving into Arbour Park in August 2016.
The return gave supporters a home within Slough again. It also preceded a significant sporting breakthrough. In May 2018, the Rebels beat King’s Lynn 2–1 in the Southern League Premier Division play-off final to reach National League South.
Football in Berkshire’s contemporary account traced that recovery under joint managers Neil Baker and Jon Underwood, who had also led the club to promotion in 2014. Their progress included a televised FA Cup second-round meeting with Rochdale.
Those achievements explain why the new chairman’s language of continuity matters. Slough’s current position emerged from a recovery already years in the making. Al Ajmi is arriving after the return home and the promotions, joining a club whose supporters have experienced both the vulnerability of losing a ground and the possibilities created by getting one back.
Arbour Park serves more than Saturday’s crowd
The stadium’s importance extends beyond the men’s first team. In April 2024, Slough announced a revised 50-year lease with Slough Borough Council, giving the club a longer horizon at Arbour Park after the uncertainty of its ground-sharing years.
That agreement provides context for the development plans now associated with Al Ajmi’s arrival. A long-term home makes questions about maintenance, facilities and access part of the club’s everyday responsibilities, alongside results on the pitch.
The scale of that role became clearer in a March 2026 announcement about replacing the playing surface. Slough said Arbour Park was home to more than 40 club teams, as well as community initiatives and a schools programme.
The club appointed PST Sport to deliver the new surface, with work then scheduled to begin in June. The announcement linked the project to player development, community use and maintaining the requirements for National League competition.
For a new chairman, that is a different set of responsibilities from overseeing one squad. Decisions about a shared ground affect academy players, local teams and schoolchildren as well as the supporters arriving for league fixtures.
From Kuwait’s business community to the Rebels
Al Ajmi’s professional background began in financial markets. In his introductory message to Slough supporters, he recalled founding VI Markets in 2010 with a small team before establishing Development Holding and expanding into other industries.
His account emphasised the importance of experienced colleagues and allowing people to work within their areas of expertise. He presented that approach as the basis for his involvement at Slough, where he said the attraction included the club’s identity, history and relationship with its community.
“I am not coming here to start again. I am coming here to build on what is already here,” he wrote.
The move follows other developments in his Kuwait-based business interests. In July, Entrepreneur Middle East reported Development Holding’s acquisition of Massaleh Investment Company, alongside its existing activities across financial services and consumer businesses.
Football introduces a more publicly visible relationship with a local constituency. Supporters will encounter the consequences of decisions through the team they watch and the ground they use. Al Ajmi’s opening message acknowledges that relationship by placing the existing club, rather than a proposed reinvention, at the centre of his introduction.
A new chairman and a new dugout
The boardroom announcement arrives during a change on the touchline. Two days earlier, Slough appointed Steve McKimm as first-team manager, with Barry Moore as assistant manager and Mark Watson as first-team coach.
The three previously worked together at Cray Valley Paper Mills. McKimm’s first season there brought the Isthmian League South East Division title with 95 points and only one league defeat. The same campaign included an FA Cup draw away at Charlton Athletic, before Cray Valley’s run ended in the replay.
That record gives Slough’s next phase a concrete footballing dimension. The club is bringing in a coaching group with shared experience while introducing a chairman whose stated priorities include supporting the people already responsible for its development.
The ownership transition will also be phased. According to the club, Development Holding will initially acquire 25% of A23 Football Group, Slough’s ownership company, with subsequent acquisitions intended to take that holding to 70%.
For supporters, the next opportunity to hear directly from Al Ajmi is already scheduled. He is due to join club representatives at Arbour Park on 19 November for an evening meeting with fans. The setting is appropriate: the ground Slough spent years trying to return to will host the first conversations about what its new chairman intends to help build next.
