Katrien Meire

Early career

Meire studied law at University of Leuven, completing her LLM in 2007. She continued her studies in Competition Law at University College London for a further year. She has worked for law firms Olswang and Baker & McKenzie in the area of competition law, particularly mergers and acquisitions and cartels.

Football

In 2011, Meire provided legal advice to Roland Duchâtelet, involving TV rights issues with Sint-Truidense V.V.; Meire is a supporter of Sint-Truiden. Meire's involvement in football continued when she worked as the "Legal and International Relations Manager" for Standard Liège, another club owned by Duchâtelet.

After Duchâtelet's purchase of Charlton Athletic in 2014, Meire was appointed as the Chief Executive of the club. She is one of only a few female club executives; as of 2016, the only other females in English football club board rooms are Margaret Byrne, the chief executive of Sunderland, and West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady. Meire has said that she doesn't believe she is treated differently for being a female chief executive, adding that "people are quite receptive to the idea of a woman chief executive."

During her time running Charlton, the club has undergone eight managerial changes and been relegated to League One, the third tier of English football.

Controversy

Supporters have been reported as being "in despair" at Duchâtelet and Meire's running of the club. In September 2016, season ticket sales had fallen to 6,297, from 10,278 at the same time the previous year. “Supporters will never take Meire seriously,” The Guardian quoted fanzine editor Rick Everitt as saying. “[She will] never be accepted, never be respected, never be believed.”

In January 2015, Meire was confronted on a train about the appointment of manager Guy Luzon after Charlton lost 5–0 to Watford; Meire claimed that there were 20 applicants for the job, including former Charlton manager Alan Curbishley. After the incident, Meire said fans should "accept how we run the club".

In February 2016, a fake document claiming that Meire had left the club was published by the Companies House website, amid protests against Duchâtelet's ownership and her running of the club. The document was believed to have been created by a Charlton supporter and protester.

In May 2016, Meire claimed she had received "extreme abuse" from Charlton fans, particularly after the club's relegation to League One for the 2016–17 season; some fans turned up to Meire's parents' house in Belgium, and she also claimed some supporters had committed criminal offences against her. A few days beforehand, there had been protests aimed at Meire during Charlton's last match of the 2015–16 season.

Meire was threatened with legal action in June 2016 after claiming a takeover bid brokered by a former chief executive of Charlton would lead to the club leaving its home, The Valley.