Katharina Liebherr has resigned from the board of Southampton Football Club as part of a restructuring

Katharina Liebherr has resigned as a Saints director following a major board reshuffle.

The Swiss owner will still operate as a director of Saints’ parent company, which acts as an umbrella for both the club’s football and non-football operations.

But she no longer has a place on the board of the football club itself, leaving major decisions and day-to-day operations to others.

Chairman Ralph Krueger, vice chairman of football Les Reed and vice chairman of business Martin Semmens will lead the club as part of a three man strategic board.

There is also now an operational board that sits below that, responsible for running the club on a daily basis.

Finance chief Toby Steele, legal expert Tim Greenwell and commercial boss David Thomas have all been officially confirmed as the first raft of directors to sit on it.

The moves are unconnected with potential investment in the club.

Saints have been the subject of strong interest from Chinese firm Lander, but things have gone very quiet once again with the ball very much in their court to complete a potential £210m deal with negotiations having ended some time ago.

Regardless of whether that deal happens or not, the new structure, which is believed to be part of the reason for the departure of former CEO Gareth Rogers, will remain in place, with Saints believing it will help them progress more effectively.

Explaining the rationale behind the decisions in an interview with the Daily Echo just before the end of last season Krueger said: “In the reorganisation we will not have a CEO anymore and we are not looking to hire anybody.

“We have an extremely strong, young, dynamic, very intelligent, well-educated group of operational managers.

“We will have an interim managing director in Toby Steele, who will retain his CFO role.

“At the strategic board level we now have a three person strategic board. That is myself as chairman, Les Reed will be elevated to vice-chairman of football, and Martin Semmens, who has been key in forming our strategy, in particular with commercial and the way our brand is developing, will take the vice-chairmanship of business.

“We will be the strategic board of the club and Toby Steele will be the connection as the CFO/interim-MD to the operational management, which is very youthful and dynamic.

“I think it will give people comfort to know we have that strategic board and the operational board, which is something we are developing the final steps in right now.

“We have built a foundation as a business, and like on the pitch we never want to let our guard down, we always want to look at ways to improve and to get stronger, and that’s what we are doing at the moment here internally.

“No matter the ownership position moving forward, this is the group driving the club forward, and this management team will stay intact.”