http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/sport/charlton/14733697.Charlton_Athletic_Supporters____Trust____disappointed____by_owner___s_snub/Roland Duchatelet has reportedly snubbed an offer from the Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust to be the guest speaker at the organisation’s AGM.
Addicks fans wrote to Duchatelet on August 22, asking the Belgian tycoon whether he would be willing to attend the event.
But Duchatelet, who bought the club in January 2014, is yet to reply to CAST and chief executive Katrien Meire instead contacted the group.
CAST say the email from Meire was in response to their request to Duchatelet, although it made no reference to it.
“The email highlighted a number of meetings with supporters which the club are currently arranging,” CAST said.
“We have made what we think is a reasonable assumption from this that Duchatelet is not going to take up our invitation.”
The group say that while Duchatelet’s presence would have raised logistical problems, they are disappointed by the outcome of their request.
The statement added: “We are disappointed. Although his presence at our AGM would have no doubt raised a number of logistical difficulties we nevertheless think the meeting would have been an ideal opportunity for Duchatelet to demonstrate a genuine interest in meeting a wide range of supporters to explain first-hand what his vision and plans are for the club.
“At a time when many remain sceptical about his ability to remedy his mistakes of the past two years and to turn the club's fortunes around, he might have been able to inspire some confidence and support by taking the opportunity to meet concerned supporters face to face.”
Comments
Who would voluntarily go somewhere where there us a good chance of meeting a torrent of abuse?
According to this article he did. I would assume their NAPM stance from their fans have forced him to actually attend this meeting.
What is his excuse for not even replying to an invitation from the largest properly constituted supporter group, a member of Supporters Direct?
Wait a minute.
Got it!
The meeting must be conducted in Flemish, with a translator on hand, everybody wearing headsets.
Alan Turing would have loved it Roland, you know it makes sense.
To suggest that CAST would allow any meeting to degenerate into a one sided slanging match, given the difficulty in getting anything out of him at all, is a nonsense imo.
If you want meaningful dialogue with any organisation it nearly always involves hearing things you don't want to hear. That goes for both sides but in this case there maybe an exception.
Let's be clear that CARD stands for Campaign Against Roland Duchatalet. The key word being "AGAINST". Whatever may be the agenda, if you have That as part of your slogan, he would have to be bonkers to turn up...
To be fair, Roland has already communicated directly with us once this year - http://www.cafc.co.uk/news/article/statement-3009419.aspx
Sell up, f#ck off.
They club are calling fans and asking why they haven't renewed season tickets. Yet he refuses to man up and face a few supporters because he might get a bit of abuse. People could tell him to his face if he grew a pair.
The fact that he hides behind a woman and let's her take all the flak tells you what sort of man he is.
If he can't be bothered, he could always f*ck off and get out club, become normal again.
If the majority of these are opposed to RD, then they should sign up to CARD or any LEGAL opposition the members support.
Which raises another question. Shouldn't the board of CAST not have polled their members if they WANTED RD to be invited to their AGM? Because, surely, the AGM MUST be open to all members?
And, if the majority of those members there, wanted to shout at the top of their voices "F*CK OFF!!!!" every time RD was to open his mouth, how could the Board stop that? That would just be going against what a democratic organisation was all about?