Some good quotes from PV here, also spelling out the economic relationship between club and fans for those needing to be told;
http://www.southlondonpress.co.uk/article.cfm?id=115406&headline=Peter Varney's takeover proposal for Charlton Athletic looks dead&sectionIs=sport&searchyear=2016Peter Varney's takeover proposal for Charlton Athletic looks deadPeter Varney’s hopes of bringing in a new investor to buy Charlton Athletic off owner Roland Duchatelet look dead.
It was recently revealed by the Voice of The Valley fanzine that Varney - formerly the Addicks chief executive - had approached the club’s hierarchy in August to try and arrange a meeting to discuss a potential sale which never materialised.
The South London Press was recently told that Charlton are not for sale.
We requested an interview with Varney yesterday after he conducted one with BBC Kent, but instead he chose to issue a statement.
And in it he revealed that he had made a fresh attempt to arrange a sitdown with Duchatelet.
But it looks as if the Belgian tycoon is not prepared to consider parting with the Championship club, who he bought two years ago.
Varney said: “Between 1997 and 2008 I managed nine share issues at Charlton, raising some £25m and introduced a host of new investors to the club. I raised £1m from the north stand patrons scheme and £1m via Greenwich Community College, in order the north stand development could proceed.
“I came back in 2009 at Richard Murray’s request to manage a £7m bond issue. I sought and introduced new owners in 2010, again at his request, after he was left as the sole funder of the club.
“Yet following recent disclosures about my attempt to introduce new investment to Charlton over the closing months of last year, the briefing from the club is that they get lots of time wasters offering investment and hence their failure to meet me.
“Is that really the best explanation that chief executive Katrien Meire and chairman Richard Murray can offer? Seriously?
“For the record, I wrote again to owner Roland Duchatelet recently offering to meet him in Belgium with the investor so he could satisfy himself with both the credentials and wealth of that investor.
“I have never met Mr Duchatelet and I have only had the very briefest of conversations with Ms Meire some 18 months ago in the Millennium Lounge at The Valley. So you have to ask yourself why they have decided I am not worthy of any form of engagement, even before the recently published email exchanges.
“Football is an integral part of the social infrastructure of this country. To suggest that the views of supporters must be considered relative to the amount of money they pay into the club is to totally misunderstand both the tribal nature of the game and the importance of a club to supporters’ everyday lives. It makes no business sense either.
“The relationship between football and supporters extends way beyond the price of a ticket. For the majority it is a near-unbreakable emotional bond.
“As a business football has so many strands and supporters are a key part of each one. Apart from the relationships they form with the players on the pitch, there is sponsorship and advertising income, which is heavily dependent on the level of support for a club and its resulting wider media exposure.
“Increasingly, businesses are supporting stadium naming rights deals and stadia events, and again it is the support for a club which dictates the income that can be earned in these areas.
“It is the supporters who buy replica shirts and merchandise, supporters and their businesses who hire facilities to generate conference and banqueting income, and supporters who generate income from programmes sales, the club website and much more.
“When supporters feel negative about their club, these revenue streams decline.
“Yes, they may be customers as well, but they are supporters first and foremost, and if none of the other micro-businesses existed they would still support their team.
“And you know what? If I did have a bad meal in a restaurant I wouldn’t shout at the waiter, I just wouldn’t go back. As the owner of the business I would prefer that you did complain or shout, as I could then do something to resolve the problem.
“Apathy is the biggest enemy, as it represents the silent loss of revenue and means a struggle to recover business lost.
“Instead of alienating football supporters and challenging them, you need to encourage them and give them a vision to support.
“In a professional league structure of 92 teams only a few can be successful in any given season, but supporters must have hope and belief in what you are doing. If that is lost you move into a negative cycle, which can be difficult to reverse.
“In 2010 Charlton was such in a negative cycle, but working with the supporters I believe we gave it renewed hope. Everyone rallied around Chris Powell and the team duly won the League One championship with a record points total and healthy attendances. The team then went on to finish ninth in the Championship.
“The supporters regularly sang “we’ve got our Charlton back” and there was a sense of pride and hope restored for everyone connected with the club.
“Now more than ever supporters need that trust and hope back, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later, either through a dramatic change of direction from the current owner or through new ownership.
“It must happen soon or the apathy of which I spoke earlier may cause such a decline in support and attached revenue that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.
“As a supporter of 56 years standing, concerned about the future of the club, I tried to provide an option of new investment if that was of interest. I thought that my past history with the club would allow me at minimum a brief audience, and in a quicker time frame than three months. I was wrong and it is clear that the proposed investment put forward through me will not be considered.
“Like many reading this, I am just a supporter at heart. And whatever the outcome of the current fracture between club and fans, at least I will be able to look back in the future and say that I tried.”
Comments
Good job, Peter.
I hope your investor doesn't give up Peter. We won't!
Well I have to thank PV for trying and only hope they are as stubborn and arrogant now as they have been for the last 2 seasons with a determination to prove PV wrong. Somehow though, I think i'm going to be disappointed.
Well done Mr Varney for issuing that statement and showing those idiots how a football club should be run.
Just like someone said in the other thread, the last two paragraphs are indeed very well written and depressing to read. My heart sank when I saw the photo of PV and SCP on that page. How much I wish the two were still here at Charlton!!!
Can he not get to someone who mixes in Roland's Belgian business circles who could let him know more detail of the deal being offered?
He's wasting his time with the two muppets running things here.
Who knows, trying to second guess these people is very difficult when they are clearly incapable of even the kind of logic you would expect from primary school children. They are alienating their customers and actively making the situation worse as time goes on - and our very own CEO has got so bored of people bullying her for being a moron, that rather than trying to avoid sounding like a moron, she's taken a bow of silence.
I remember he had some reservations when all this first appeared with Reg
What say you our leader ?
Ex players now getting in on it apparently.
Although, the thought of the deal being dead and Varney just twisting the knife a few times and underlining what a shower of shiite we have running the club.. well, it's not a bad thought either to be honest. The man clearly still cares, and could be understandably upset at being treated so poorly.
Makes Murrary sound like a complete prat now.