"There were fears that Charlton's funding would run out before the end of the season - even before the full extent of the coronavirus hit home to football clubs"
"In terms of Nimer's Instagram post, I was led to believe that Matt Southall had stepped aside and effectively was executive chairman in name only. Had been mentioned to me that he was happy to walk away if/when Nimer satisfied EFL and completed his takeover.
"For those in doubt about what has prevented the EFL from approving the deal - it's been the same sticking point from January. Source and sufficiency of funding. What isn't in doubt is this situation can't continue without it having serious consequences for CAFC.
And then this evening, the club's lawyers are gone
"Just had confirmation that JMW are no longer the club's lawyers. Had been employed by ESI in takeover negotiations. They say decision to step away was because of "lack of cogent instruction from the board"."
"Put another call in to Tahnoon Nimer's lawyer Chris Farnell to ask some questions about progress with EFL and if he can say who is now the club lawyer. Also wanted to know who paid the consultancy fees of ESI, which have been in the public domain. No answer. Left a voicemail."
"Understand that could be a challenge by a third party over the transaction between ESI and Roland Duchatelet in terms of the deal agreed. Only people mooted before as potentially being in a position to do that are the ex-directors."
"Always big questions over how the ESI #cafc deal - particularly the division of the assets and charge in favour of Duchatelet - was possible in the context of the existing ex-directors’ charges and without their consent to these changes."
Understand former #barnsleyfc CEO Gauthier Ganaye has been approached by representatives of Charlton majority shareholder Tahnoon Nimer over taking a similar role at #cafc. Nimer has asked chairman Matt Southall to resign.
Matt Southall returned to twitter to post a statement about today's board meeting of East Street Investments (and no, I don't know where it was held, or whether it was just a conference call)
Southall refers again to his commitment to secure the long term of the future but makes no reference to the £12.5k pcm flat, Range Rovers and consultancy fees paid to himself and others. #cafc
I’m puzzled that Southall says there “shall be no discussion” about him stepping down from his “day to day” role. I think we all saw his “day to day” involvement end a week ago. #cafc
Friday 20th March - Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the internet...
Another Instagram post from Nimer
With reference to the police enquiry mentioned, there was also a twitter post purporting to be from a legal firm, making some pretty serious
allegations about Matt Southall. Since then, the original twitter poster
has taken the tweet down, presumably because they were told to by
another account seemingly belonging to Chris Farnell (Nimer's lawyer). For obvious reasons, we aren't going to be sharing that here.
"The EFL definitely take some heat on this too. How can you have people passing the owners’ and directors’ test but not proving source and sufficiency of funding? All three obstacles should need to be cleared before you can get your hands on a football club."
"EFL indicating privately that their test to run a football club needs changing - and they say privately that set to be something they can resolve at next AGM."
"EFL have also made it clear that after passing the directors' and owners' test you have 10 days after to satisfy funding tests. If you don't then the other sanctions come into play (Charlton not being able to sign players in Jan)."
I didn't get the chance to meet with JH he called me explaining his reasons which I totally understand,
over the past week or so I've diluted down many Questions and concerns regarding the club and JH has agreed to answer
here are the questions (EMAILED) sorry if I've missed any
I can confirm I've had a conversation with @dodgercafc and also seen some very, very interesting documentation. Can't say any more at this moment but - as always - when I can it will be in the SLP and on our website.
"Plenty of interesting costs listed in there. Modish Decor, a Cheshire based design company being one.
No idea if that can be linked to this house, currently being refurbished https://instagram.com/merlewoodhouse?igshid=9po3kqpl0z9c #cafc"
More allegations from Southall There's a long detailed piece in Gazeta Sporturilor in Romania, with a lot of quotes from both Southall and Heller, including Southall claiming that the plan was to demolish the Valley to build housing, and move us to share with Palace while they built a new stadium on the Peninsula. Also publishes a letter supposedly confirming proof of funds, documents some of Nimer's supposed expenses claims, and confirms the Southall teenage theft conviction.
@77redarmy77 kindly provides an English translation here, and @Cosmin provides some background info on the journalist that wrote the piece
"Companies House has just been updated to show Claudiu Florica and Marian Mihail as #cafc directors and Matt Southall and Jonathan Heller removed from the board"
"This doesn't mean, it should be added, that they have passed the EFL's owners' and directors' test, although I wouldn't reply much on that as a measure of scrutiny."
"Southall and Heller remain two of the three directors of East Street Investments, which *currently* owns the club, although as Nimer controls the majority of shares they have limited power #cafc"
These are the Companies House details for CAFC Ltd:
More From The Gazeta Sporturilor Investigation In the second part of the Gazeta Sporturilor investigation
Southall claims to have recorded the conversation that led to the allegation he was trying to hire someone to do harm to Nimer's lawyer (this was the letter we have been treading carefully around over the last few days), and this recording shows it was nonsense. He also says he agreed not to come into the club providing funds were quickly injected to pay wages, but he rejects the suspension. Meanwhile Heller claims that Nimer and co broke Company
Law in the UK in the way they reconstituted the board, and provides more background on ADBD. Southall provides more information about the issues with the EFL, and has a theory about the link to Dinamo Bucharest which doesn't really stack up.
Twitter spat
Southall apparently reappeared on twitter this afternoon, and suffice to say he did not get a warm welcome. Will deal with that separately as it's going to be screenshot heavy, particularly as he's now claiming his account was hacked at 13:36 this afternoon.
As mentioned earlier, Matt Southall apparently reappeared on twitter, although later claimed that his account was hacked, and a number of the tweets (but not all) from that time have been deleted. The links I've included are for the tweets of people interacting with his account in the screenshots, so you can check the progress of the conversations for yourself, even if his tweets have gone by the time you read this.
Unsurprisingly this enraged the Charlton fans even further, and while the 3 members of staff he was referring to didn't respond directly, they were clearly unimpressed.
At 7:08pm Southall tweeted This tweet has now been deleted.
This led to a veritable barrage of derision - I think it had 178 replies last I looked, and this was one of the politest ones:
https://twitter.com/Montague_Streek/status/1242583473480699912 "'Er Twitter, someone has hacked my account. They have said really nice things about me and defended my indefensible behaviour’
Shut up you absolute moron."
These are only a selection of the tweets flying back and forth. There are more between p266 and 269 of the main thread, or you can search for mattsouthall84 on twitter if you're keen on vulgar abuse and creative invective. A number of fans have also changed their twitter bio to include "Owner of @CAFCOfficial" in order to ridicule Southall doing so.
An English translation of the report (via Google Translate) is here.
Meanwhile the criminal case against Claudia Florica has been stopped, but he's been ordered to pay roughly $10m and has had an order to have his assets seized made against him, although this is appealable. Whether this is sufficient for him to fail the EFL's OADT we wait to see.
An English translation of this report (via Google Translate) is here.
The Evening Standard are claiming Nimer is trying to sell up?! In an exclusive article, the Standard says Nimer has held preliminary talks to sell the club, and is apparently looking for at least £2m. Chris Farnell (Nimer's lawyer) has denied Nimer is looking to sell, as has Nimer himself on Instagram.
This prompted another rant from Southall on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MattSouthall84/status/1242810447570653186 "1/2 I may not be the fans favourite because of your personal attacks on me. But Im telling you now Nimer, there’s no way you’re selling the club and flipping it for your own personal gain, because all allegations you have made against me you still can’t substantiate."
Progress of the legal moves by the ex-directors https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1242769772267409408 "VOTV has learned that the #cafc ex-directors have received no response to their legal letter and that there is a second deadline next week at which point they will seek an injunction to reverse the sale of CAFC Limited. Source is adamant they will proceed."
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1242776285736304640 "Can also now confirm that the three #cafc ex-directors set to seek the injunction are Derek Chappell, Bob Whitehand and David Sumners, whose outstanding loans total £2.65m. They are also likely to seek costs. Others not involved at this stage."
More "leaks" of financial documents Another recently created twitter account (@laracafc) is tweeting what appears to be invoices from a company called Bloom Properties Ltd to Matt Southall at CAFC for hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of consultancy fees, supposedly for "the introduction and assistance in the purchase of CAFC". (I'm not going to include the images here, as if they are real they contain the bank details of the company issuing the invoice, and the 3rd in the series of 4 is missing). If real, it is also unclear whether these invoices have actually been paid by the
club. As with the consultancy fees that Southall is supposed to have
been paid, I would have thought that this is a liability that applies to
ESI, not the football club.
And who are Bloom Properties Ltd? A bit of digging on the Companies House site yields a familiar name to those who've been following the stories of failing football clubs in recent years:
"Laurence Bassini says he is set to commence legal action tomorrow against CAFC and Matt Southall over consultancy fees he alleges he is due in regard to the takeover of the club."
"Laurence Bassini says he is ready to buy Charlton Athletic and has submitted proof of funds to Chris Farnell. Says he is ready to spend around £40million to purchase the club and freeholds of land."
And Nimer's back on Instagram again
More on the "obligation" for ESI to purchase The Valley and Training ground
"My understanding of the "legal obligation" for ESI to purchase The Valley and TG is that the six months mentioned is when the option starts. It then runs until 2025. So a five-year window before Duchatelet is able to force the completion through."
"If there is no obligation - and I know Rich has a very good source on this - it makes CAFC Limited's position more favourable to a buyer not less. I wonder how good Nimer's guarantee on RD's loan is looking right now... #cafc"
Bitesize inception If you're wanting something a little less detailed to explain what's been happening to your friends without their eyes glazing over, CAST have produced a bitesize post of their own, summarising the week's events.
Monday 30th March - nothing much to report today, as the thread has mainly been speculation about what happens next, but this tweet may be of interest.
"Annual accounts for Charlton Athletic Holdings Limited to June 30th 2019 have been published - little of interest in them. Annual rent of £50k from CAFC Ltd added to amount due; increase of £4m in cash held. Signed off by RD. #cafc"
Charlton Athletic Holdings is the entity that owns The Valley and Training Ground (owned by Staprix iirc) while CAFC Ltd is the club (owned by ESI), and we assume that the rent remains the same since the club was taken over. I'm not sure whether the commitment from Nimer is to purchase the relevant assets from Charlton Athletic Holdings, or to buy Holdings itself, in which case the cash held value becomes relevant.
ETA 31/03/2020 Rick's tweeted to correct a typo in the above, which overstated the value of cash held by several orders of magnitude. Oops.
"Sorry - that should have been "increase in £4k in cash held" - slight difference! To be clear, this company doesn't actually do anything except hold the assets and accumulate notional rent as money that it is owed."
We appreciate this is a difficult time, the COVID-19 crisis has changed the world for everybody.
For Charlton fans, there has been uncertainty around the future of the club
with a lot in the press and posted on social media. Going forward, the
Board of Directors will look to keep you as up to date as we can through
the club’s official media channels.
We must begin by reiterating
that our commitment is to Charlton Athletic. The club is not for sale
and the majority shareholder, His Excellency Tahnoon Nimer, is not
looking for a buyer. These are tough times for any professional football
club and we are 100 percent focussed on seeing Charlton through this
difficult period. This will require investment and the first instalment
of that investment will come in April.
The club has submitted
documents for EFL approval to demonstrate the source and sufficiency of
funds. The club has also submitted documentation for the new directors,
Claudiu Florica and Marian Mihail, for the Owners’ and Directors’ Test.
The EFL remain supportive and have informed us what remains outstanding.
The club will remain in contact with the EFL with the aim of providing
the necessary information as required by the League as soon as possible,
so we can successfully conclude matters.
We will get everything
sorted and football will return but, until then, we wish all Charlton
players, staff, fans and their families the very best in these trying
times.
"The club have also indicated they will be paying existing creditors but will be reviewing all new creditors from the start of this season on a 'case-by-case basis'."
"Of course, even if you were looking to sell a club then you wouldn't necessarily shout it from the rooftops.
I'd also say that any serious buyers would surely factor in current situation globally. Plenty of wealthy people seen huge sums wiped off stocks and shares."
"Understand Roland Duchatelet’s lawyer has now acknowledged the letter before action from the #cafc ex-directors two weeks ago, but still no response from Tahnoon Nimer or his reps, despite the latter issuing a club statement today claiming to remain in discussions with the EFL."
"I'm not, but you'd think if you were planning to put money into a business you'd want to clarify whether you actually own it first."
Club Accounts to June 2019 According to this post on the OS,the club have applied for an extension for filing their accounts due to the Covid 19 crisis, but have supplied a copy of the accounts here.
@Airman Brown has summarised some of the important points.
"Usual caveat - this includes what he paid the previous owners for the club in January 2014. RD left that sum on the books as debt and charged the club interest on its own purchase price."
"Operating loss for 2018/19 was £11.9m compared to £13.3m in 17/18, mainly the result of additional income from play-offs and reduced operating expenses. Turnover was £7.9m, up from £7.3m. Staff costs were £10.4m from £10.2m, probably reflecting player bonuses"
"Club reports it has received £4.2m for player disposals since June 30th last year and paid out £221k. This is up to date as the accounts were not finalised until March 24th."
Wednesday 1st April - "Who is more a fool, the fool or the fool who follows the fool?"
April Fool's Gag I'm not sure whether this was actually a gag from the Comms Team on twitter, or a @Dizzle original specially for the Shenanigans thread (although I suspect @Ollywozere wouldn't have risked the explosion of notifications it would've caused)
@CAFCOfficial: The board of directors are delighted to announce the re-instatement of Matthew Southall to the board. He has also resumed his role as Chairman with immediate effect. #cafc
Some unofficial info from Mihail A Charlton fan on twitter has been in contact with Marian Mihail
https://mobile.twitter.com/12roundswithRe1/status/1245234772391022592"Myself others and in particular Dodger have been very vocal regarding this and shot down numerous times by voicing disapproval of the current regime. Last night I contacted Marian Mihail whom has recently become a director at CAFC. He was very open and honest with his answers."
https://mobile.twitter.com/12roundswithRe1/status/1245234785498173440"Below are the messages I received and I feel it is fair and open for every other fan out there to be included. Please make of this what you will but my rational behind this is I has serious doubt that anything we have been told regarding funds, on goings at the club public spats."
More Bitesize Inception CAST have published their weekly summary of events here:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/whats-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update Most of it will be familiar to regular followers of this post or the Shenanigans thread, but there are a couple of new bits that relate to their own contact with various parties.
"The EFL have also (on Wednesday) replied to CAST confirming that:
they
are currently engaged with CAFC to acquire the relevant information to
satisfy ODT requirements with respect of the new directors
CAFC
remain under a registrations embargo while dialogue continues as the EFL
seek assurance that the necessary finances are available to fund the
club until June 2021.
(We are disappointed that the EFL did
not respond to our specific question about whether new documentation had
been submitted. We also are not sure whether there is any significance
in the fact that they say "assurance that the necessary finances are
available" rather than making any reference to the source of funds.)
CAST
have also been in contact directly with Director Marian Mihail who
claims that "Tahnoon has confirmed that a £1m injection will come at the
end of the month for the April expenses" and that "at least until the
league is resumed we will work like this, month to month, in order to
prioritise paying salaries and actual debts like loan fees instead of
financing the bogus debts that keep appearing". He added that "we are
still waiting for some guidelines from the EFL and the PFA about
players' salaries and we are consulting with other clubs to see what
measures they are taking"."
CAST have also produced a summary of the official report into the Bury debacle commissioned by the EFL, and discuss how it may be relevant to our current situation. (This was actually produced last week, but didn't get flagged up in the thread at the time) https://www.castrust.org/2020/03/what-can-we-learn-from-bury/
Tuesday 7th April - signs of background manoeuvres
ESI Board appointments There have been 2 new appointments to the ESI board since the weekend - Chris Farnell (see previous posts on this thread) and Andrei Mihail, who may be Marian Mihail's brother.
"Farnell, who previously acted for deposed #cafc chairman Matt Southall and has recently represented majority shareholder Tahnoon Nimer, was Bury's lawyer in the run-up to their expulsion from the EFL last year."
A bit more on the Owners and Directors Test
CAST have produced a summary of the EFL Owners and Directors test that may come in handy over the weeks ahead. Of particular interest is the bit that says disqualification would follow if the person concerned "in the reasonable opinion of the EFL has engaged in conduct outside the
United Kingdom that would constitute an offence of the sort described
in this definition (i.e. dishonesty, corruption etc) if such conduct had
taken place in the United Kingdom, whether or not such conduct resulted in a conviction".
They conclude "We are not clear what the implications would be for CAFC if Claudiu
Florica or Marian Mihail were disqualified by the EFL and we will be
seeking clarification on this."
"NEW VOTV159 is currently being put together and is set to be posted out at the back end of next week. The limited print run is only available for home delivery and copies are available to order online, together with more info, at http://votvonline.com #cafc"
This is likely to have a more coherent overview of events so far, as well as the regular features I should imagine.
Over the last few days, all that's happened is Matt Southall has gone on a blocking spree on Twitter and then locked down his account, and the club have furloughed a number of staff but are not topping up the last 20% of their pay so they'd be on full pay. Some people are assuming that means that no further funding has been forthcoming from Nimer, but we have no evidence one way or the other as far as I'm aware.
For those wondering why certain questions weren't asked, it may be that they were held back for future weeks as explained here:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/keep-the-questions-coming/ However if the answers to the first set of questions has triggered more questions for you, or you want to be sure that a specific concern of yours is dealt with, it's best to email these questions to the address at the bottom of that page, rather than assuming that someone else has already asked the same question.
"Biggest ever VOTV mail out of about 600 copies now safely in the post. I’ll be walking past the local pillar box on my daily exercise (!) at 4pm so still a chance to get a copy out tonight. http://www.votvonline.com/
For those of you that don't have a subscription and normally purchase at the ground, you can buy one-off copies on the VOTV site.
"The EFL has launched an investigation into potential misconduct with regards to the takeover of Charlton Athletic by East Street Investments.
Tahnoon Nimer has still yet to satisfy EFL requests for proof of funds.
Matt Southall and Jonathan Heller also being investigated #cafc"
"Tahnoon Nimer to @SkySportsNews:
“I can confirm I have received correspondence from the EFL and I have
already provided an initial response, and I intend to co-operate fully
with them in order to ensure clarity on this matter.” #cafc #Charlton"
Richard Cawley is not surprised, and has further commentary
"ESI made it sound like they had completed their takeover completely at the start of January when they didn’t have full EFL approval. Farce from the word go."
"I made repeated calls to the EFL, but they refuse to discuss individual clubs. That was part of the biggest frustration covering this - they have conceded that in future they need rule change so have to satisfy all of their tests before you can run a club."
Louis Mendez attempts to clear up a common misunderstanding
"Think there’s a bit of misunderstanding out there - EFL never approved the takeover. People involved passed fit and proper test but source and sufficiency of funding was never proved which is why takeover isn’t ratified by EFL and #CAFC were punished via a transfer embargo."
"EFL couldn’t stop Duchatelet selling the club to ESI - it was Roland’s business to do what he wanted with - they can only then hold new owners to account and issue punishment to the club when ESI couldn’t pass their S&S test. #cafc"
"A #cafc player has got into contact with TalkSPORT, saying £3mil was left in the bank from Roland and it’s now gone. They’ve signed a 25% deferral but told they won’t get it back. They’ve called the club currently a mess and no one is happy."
Some commentary on the TalkSport call Louis Mendez has also summarised the call in
a twitter thread and points out the following:
"Listening to @talkSPORT and Tahnoon Nimer & @MattSouthall84 are both absolutely in this for themselves.
No one has the best interests of Charlton Athletic Football Club here.
@Sjopinion10 has just excruciatingly exposed Southall’s ineptitude live on air. #cafc"
"Charlton Athletic are in real danger of being in a similar situation to Bury.
This is 115 years of history being destroyed by a group of complete crooks.
The only hope is that the club’s ex-directors can reverse the sale. #cafc"
Lyle's back on Instagram again. Not sure any of us can really disagree with that (and that was before the Talksport thing this morning)
Southall's re-opened his twitter I could spend all day on the various comments and responses (and might do later if things quieten down) but probably the most important bits are:
"I’m getting alot of questions, which I completely understand, along with all of the fans frustration at this extremely testing time both at the club and in the wider world, which is understandable as accusations have been made."
"So I’m prepared to have zoom call with 3 nominated fans, and once nominated, I will DM the the link to the call to take place Friday. Please decide amongst yourselves who you want to be on the call. I won’t be answering any further questions at this time.
#cafc"
Snippet of Nimer recording published The CAFCFansForFans twitter account has published a recording allegedly of Nimer talking about the money he has available to invest in the club. It's not clear at this point when the recording was made or what context the remarks were made in.
Mihail on the OS re the EFL case At about 6pm this evening, an open letter from Marian Mihail to CAFC fans was published on the official Charlton website. I think it's safe to say this has not been met with universal acclaim.
"Really not that bothered about the behaviour and intentions of various individuals anymore. Want to see some actions now. Actions like proving the source and sufficiency of funding properly. #cafc "
In addition, it's been alleged that Mihail and Florica failed to attend a club Senior Management Team meeting today, which given the current circumstances is surprising to say the least.
"UPDATE: the three former #cafc directors have now told ESI, CAFC and Roland Duchatelet that their legal action to reverse the takeover is proceeding. Only Duchatelet's lawyers ever responded to the letter before action."
"My understanding is that the case is that sale was not valid in the first place because it involved a contract the seller was not entitled to enter into. Duchatelet could make it go away by paying out £2.65m plus costs, but then other claimants might appear, so potentially £7m+."
"Can only report that the ex-directors are very confident of their case - the time it will take and what the resolution might be are not things I can usefully comment on, but will hopefully help concentrate some minds."
Voice of the Valley also has a new blog post arguing that the situation we're in is quite different from 1984.
"Jim White on @talkSPORT
has said that "Matt Southall's company East Street Investments has terminated the appointment of IPS Law, the company used by Tahnoon Nimer ... to prevent Charlton from, would you believe it, becoming another Bury.."
Not sure this means much at all #cafc"
"IPS Law is the company of lawyer Chris Farnell (who Southall owed money to and isn't a big fan of) and is now used by Nimer. Think what we've seen here is just more of the nonsense game playing we're getting from both sides in this farce. #cafc"
"Both sides have been leaking all sorts of shite throughout this whole thing. Trying to make each other look bad. Long and short of it is there's the future of the club up in the air whilst these guys play stupid games. #cafc"
Around lunch time @idealworld summarised the situation (possibly not entirely accurately) as follows:
So let's get this clear, Chris Farnell who was Matt Southall's lawyer before taking him to court has been sacked by Matt Southall who was sacked by Tahnoon Nimer who in turn was also sacked by Matt Southall with doubtful authority or power to do so, and Nimer then appointed Chris Farnell before being sacked today by Southall who is in the process of trying to sack Nimer again, and Nimer is still attempting to fully sack Southall!
However in response to a fan tweeting about the story, Farnell himself said:
"More sides than a nonagon is this latest Charlton saga. What I do know is we should all be behind the 3 ex Directors who are taking positive action and huge kudos to them #cafc"
When asked why he isn't participating in the legal action he replied
More from Talksport on Farnell/IPS Law Presumably Farnell demanded a right of reply from TalkSport after they broadcast claims that he'd been ousted from "Matt Southall's company" as he showed up on the Jim White show this morning. Audio starts at about starts about 19:25, or you can just read the summary of what was said
This appearance on TalkSport triggered a reaction from one of the Southall camp
As I can't read arabic, I have no clue as to what the first one says, and while it's been circulating for a few days, I'm not sure if we've nailed down exactly who the other owner/partner is.
More on the former directors' legal action Bob Whitehand, one of the directors involved in the suit, responds to David White's comment from yesterday
"Cheers mate. Thanks for the support. We will continue to do all we can to protect our position."
And what about the proposed zoom meeting with Southall? Well dodgercafc has locked his twitter account and CAFCfansforfans have gone quiet, and there's no sign of Southall indicating which fans he would be talking with, so at the moment the only definite outcome is that I've had that flaming Fat Larry's Band song going through my head all bloody day.
Monday 27th April - and it's all gone quiet over there...
Since Friday nothing much of interest has happened on the main thread, unless you're a fan of limericks of varying quality, discussion of whether being owned by Mike Ashley would be preferable to our current situation*, and references to early 90s kids TV shows. Fortunately CAST have saved me from posting an update with just a single link to an SLP article by publishing their weekly set of questions for Marian Mihail here:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/more-questions-for-the-directors/
*For the avoidance of doubt, it's not being seriously suggested that he is wanting to buy us, as far as I can tell.
A payslip is a legal commitment to pay tax/NI on your behalf, so legal repercussions start 21st May. All made more poignant by recent HMRC advances on MTD where pay and deductions need to be filed by date above. Big penalties for non-compliance, not sure how long can be stalled before becomes criminal.
In addition, if you're assuming that if they do get paid that money has actually been forthcoming from Nimer, it's also not clear whether this is largely due to the Government's furlough scheme coming up trumps.
Confirmation this morning that Charlton’s staff were paid for the month of April.
A shame this needs to be tweeted as it’s the bare minimum you’d expect from an owner. A relief none the less. #cafc
"Now being said the money will be injected in May instead. They don’t comment much about Shaun McHugh (the Finance guy) but he was one of the guys lead out of The Valley on that night of the Southall stand-off and is currently suspended. #cafc"
"Interesting that Mihail claims to know nothing about Van Seventer and Hirst. Bear in mind these were long-term ADBD associates of Nimer and the former, at least, was at the O2 with Florica and Nimer on February 1st. #cafc"
"Also interesting that Mihail won’t explain why Shaun McHugh is still listed as chief financial officer on the club website, even though he went with Southall. It’s unlikely he accrued any employment rights with #cafc in three months."
In addition, another leaked document is being circulated, this time apparently the letter sent by the EFL in April requesting a load of information about the progress of the takeover and the submission of various documents relating to earlier ODT applications. The segments shown below were posted by Dodger on twitter, who’s made his profile private so I can't link to it directly. It's being assumed he's been fed this by someone in the Southall camp, possibly Amis or Heller, but I've not seen any evidence for that at this point.
Comments
https://charltonlife.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/3841748/#Comment_3841748
"My understanding is that the new division of the assets and Roland’s charge on CAFC Limited both required the consent of the ex-directors individually. That consent was neither sought nor provided, at least in the case of several individuals."
https://charltonlife.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/3841773/#Comment_3841773
"This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, unless you’re convinced by Nimer. If the deal is overturned, Roland is back on the hook for the club’s liabilities and he can’t afford to put it into administration as his Staprix loan could get wiped out."
The SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/salary-fears-for-charlton-athletic-staff-as-coronavirus-puts-extra-strain-on-funding-for-championship-campaign/
Talksport - Lee Bowyer calls in: https://talksport.com/football/efl/683780/charlton-lee-bowyer-row-owner-tahnoon-nimer-chairman-matt-southall/
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/charlton-atletic-tahnoon-nimer-matt-southall-a4389736.html
Voice of The Valley has more details about the former directors' challenge to the ESI takeover.
http://www.votvonline.com/home/the-2019-20-blogs/19-3-ex-chairman-in-bid-to-rewind-charlton-takeover/
https://www.castrust.org/2020/03/tahnoon-replies/
https://thefsa.org.uk/news/charlton-fans-fear-for-clubs-future/
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5e747a1e6a5ff/matt-southall-and-jonathan-heller-removed-from-the-clubs-board
https://www.cafc.co.uk/club/club-overview/ownership
BBC Sport:
After Southall's statement: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51968452
After the statement on the OS: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51974845
@Cosmin (one of our Romanian correspondants) has some background info on Marian Mihail and provides translation of part of a newspaper article about him today. There's also snippet of an interview with Florica.
https://www.castrust.org/2020/03/marian-mihail-update-from-esi/
From Romania:
ProSport interview with Marian Mihail: Original & Google Translate version
GSP.ro interview with Claudiu Florica: Original & Google Translate version
The Sunday Times: A surprisingly sympathetic article from Rod Liddle - paywalled & local text version
There's a long detailed piece in Gazeta Sporturilor in Romania, with a lot of quotes from both Southall and Heller, including Southall claiming that the plan was to demolish the Valley to build housing, and move us to share with Palace while they built a new stadium on the Peninsula. Also publishes a letter supposedly confirming proof of funds, documents some of Nimer's supposed expenses claims, and confirms the Southall teenage theft conviction.
@77redarmy77 kindly provides an English translation here, and @Cosmin provides some background info on the journalist that wrote the piece
Sky Sports: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12040/11962555/charlton-owner-tahnoon-nimer-looks-to-assure-clubs-future-through-coronavirus-crisis
ProSports (Romanian): https://www.prosport.ro/fotbal-extern/mega-scandal-la-clubul-din-anglia-preluat-de-claudiu-florica-ce-a-descoperit-romanul-in-contabilitatea-celor-de-la-charlton-fostul-presedinte-e-anchetat-pentru-comandarea-unui-asasinat-foto-19004180
In the second part of the Gazeta Sporturilor investigation Southall claims to have recorded the conversation that led to the allegation he was trying to hire someone to do harm to Nimer's lawyer (this was the letter we have been treading carefully around over the last few days), and this recording shows it was nonsense. He also says he agreed not to come into the club providing funds were quickly injected to pay wages, but he rejects the suspension. Meanwhile Heller claims that Nimer and co broke Company Law in the UK in the way they reconstituted the board, and provides more background on ADBD. Southall provides more information about the issues with the EFL, and has a theory about the link to Dinamo Bucharest which doesn't really stack up.
@SWEnglandAddick kindly provides an English translation here and here
Southall apparently reappeared on twitter this afternoon, and suffice to say he did not get a warm welcome. Will deal with that separately as it's going to be screenshot heavy, particularly as he's now claiming his account was hacked at 13:36 this afternoon.
Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8144329/Unhappy-Valley-Sacked-Charlton-board-members-hit-cash-strapped-club-huge-bills.html
The tweet from Southall's account has now been deleted
These tweets from Southall's account have now been deleted.
As of Wednesday morning, these tweets are still up.
In the mean time, the stream of self-justifying tweets continued.
https://twitter.com/MattSouthall84/status/1242465692944699397
As of Wednesday morning, these tweets are still up.
The tweet from Southall's account has now been deleted.
At 7:08pm Southall tweeted
This tweet has now been deleted.
https://twitter.com/Montague_Streek/status/1242583473480699912
"'Er Twitter, someone has hacked my account. They have said really nice things about me and defended my indefensible behaviour’ Shut up you absolute moron."
This time it's ProSport, with a report that features a video taken in the controversial riverside flat, apparently after Southall has vacated the property. I wonder who could possibly have given them that?
In an exclusive article, the Standard says Nimer has held preliminary talks to sell the club, and is apparently looking for at least £2m. Chris Farnell (Nimer's lawyer) has denied Nimer is looking to sell, as has Nimer himself on Instagram.
https://twitter.com/MattSouthall84/status/1242810447570653186
"1/2 I may not be the fans favourite because of your personal attacks on me. But Im telling you now Nimer, there’s no way you’re selling the club and flipping it for your own personal gain, because all allegations you have made against me you still can’t substantiate."
"2/2 as I said to you over the phone many times Nimer, allow INDEPENDENT auditors to come in and audit your accusations against me."
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1242769772267409408
"VOTV has learned that the #cafc ex-directors have received no response to their legal letter and that there is a second deadline next week at which point they will seek an injunction to reverse the sale of CAFC Limited. Source is adamant they will proceed."
"Can also now confirm that the three #cafc ex-directors set to seek the injunction are Derek Chappell, Bob Whitehand and David Sumners, whose outstanding loans total £2.65m. They are also likely to seek costs. Others not involved at this stage."
Another recently created twitter account (@laracafc) is tweeting what appears to be invoices from a company called Bloom Properties Ltd to Matt Southall at CAFC for hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of consultancy fees, supposedly for "the introduction and assistance in the purchase of CAFC". (I'm not going to include the images here, as if they are real they contain the bank details of the company issuing the invoice, and the 3rd in the series of 4 is missing). If real, it is also unclear whether these invoices have actually been paid by the club. As with the consultancy fees that Southall is supposed to have been paid, I would have thought that this is a liability that applies to ESI, not the football club.
And who are Bloom Properties Ltd? A bit of digging on the Companies House site yields a familiar name to those who've been following the stories of failing football clubs in recent years:
For those not familiar with Bassini's shenanigans at Watford and Bolton, @WRICURKINCAM provides a bit of a summary, and @Airman Brown helpfully provides a photo, which also features a familiar face.
If you're wanting something a little less detailed to explain what's been happening to your friends without their eyes glazing over, CAST have produced a bitesize post of their own, summarising the week's events.
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5e830e88a814e/a-statement-from-the-board-of-directors
Please see below a statement from the club's Board of Directors, HE Tahnoon Nimer, Claudiu Florica and Marian Mihail.
We appreciate this is a difficult time, the COVID-19 crisis has changed the world for everybody.
For Charlton fans, there has been uncertainty around the future of the club with a lot in the press and posted on social media. Going forward, the Board of Directors will look to keep you as up to date as we can through the club’s official media channels.
We must begin by reiterating that our commitment is to Charlton Athletic. The club is not for sale and the majority shareholder, His Excellency Tahnoon Nimer, is not looking for a buyer. These are tough times for any professional football club and we are 100 percent focussed on seeing Charlton through this difficult period. This will require investment and the first instalment of that investment will come in April.
The club has submitted documents for EFL approval to demonstrate the source and sufficiency of funds. The club has also submitted documentation for the new directors, Claudiu Florica and Marian Mihail, for the Owners’ and Directors’ Test. The EFL remain supportive and have informed us what remains outstanding. The club will remain in contact with the EFL with the aim of providing the necessary information as required by the League as soon as possible, so we can successfully conclude matters.
We will get everything sorted and football will return but, until then, we wish all Charlton players, staff, fans and their families the very best in these trying times.
The Board of Directors"
I'd also say that any serious buyers would surely factor in current situation globally. Plenty of wealthy people seen huge sums wiped off stocks and shares."
According to this post on the OS,the club have applied for an extension for filing their accounts due to the Covid 19 crisis, but have supplied a copy of the accounts here.
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/tahnoon-nimer-promises-to-invest-funds-in-april-and-denies-any-intention-to-sell-charlton-athletic/
I'm not sure whether this was actually a gag from the Comms Team on twitter, or a @Dizzle original specially for the Shenanigans thread (although I suspect @Ollywozere wouldn't have risked the explosion of notifications it would've caused)
A Charlton fan on twitter has been in contact with Marian Mihail
https://mobile.twitter.com/12roundswithRe1/status/1245234772391022592 "Myself others and in particular Dodger have been very vocal regarding this and shot down numerous times by voicing disapproval of the current regime. Last night I contacted Marian Mihail whom has recently become a director at CAFC. He was very open and honest with his answers."
Sky Sports: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11684/11967105/gauthier-ganaye-former-barnsley-ceo-cools-charlton-speculation
CAST have published their weekly summary of events here:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/whats-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update
Most of it will be familiar to regular followers of this post or the Shenanigans thread, but there are a couple of new bits that relate to their own contact with various parties.
"The EFL have also (on Wednesday) replied to CAST confirming that: they are currently engaged with CAFC to acquire the relevant information to satisfy ODT requirements with respect of the new directors CAFC remain under a registrations embargo while dialogue continues as the EFL seek assurance that the necessary finances are available to fund the club until June 2021.
(We are disappointed that the EFL did not respond to our specific question about whether new documentation had been submitted. We also are not sure whether there is any significance in the fact that they say "assurance that the necessary finances are available" rather than making any reference to the source of funds.)
CAST have also been in contact directly with Director Marian Mihail who claims that "Tahnoon has confirmed that a £1m injection will come at the end of the month for the April expenses" and that "at least until the league is resumed we will work like this, month to month, in order to prioritise paying salaries and actual debts like loan fees instead of financing the bogus debts that keep appearing". He added that "we are still waiting for some guidelines from the EFL and the PFA about players' salaries and we are consulting with other clubs to see what measures they are taking"."
@EricBanterna received a very similar email from the EFL today, which suggests nothing has changed in the last few days since they responded to CAST, but if you're interested, you can see it here:
https://charltonlife.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/comment/3858485/#Comment_3858485
https://www.castrust.org/2020/03/what-can-we-learn-from-bury/
There have been 2 new appointments to the ESI board since the weekend - Chris Farnell (see previous posts on this thread) and Andrei Mihail, who may be Marian Mihail's brother.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2551152/Massimo-Cellinos-lawyer-shown-red-card-GFHs-David-Haigh-stands-Leeds-Uniteds-Brian-McDermott.html"
CAST have produced a summary of the EFL Owners and Directors test that may come in handy over the weeks ahead. Of particular interest is the bit that says disqualification would follow if the person concerned "in the reasonable opinion of the EFL has engaged in conduct outside the United Kingdom that would constitute an offence of the sort described in this definition (i.e. dishonesty, corruption etc) if such conduct had taken place in the United Kingdom, whether or not such conduct resulted in a conviction".
The Supporters' Trust have arranged to put fans' questions to the club on a regular basis, and are canvassing for the first load of questions:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/put-your-questions-to-the-club/
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/whats-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update-2/
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/charlton-chairman-nimer-has-promised-bowyer-that-clubs-future-is-secure/
(ETA 13/04/2020 - photo of the paper removed, and link added instead)
The Supporters' Trust have published the answers received from Marian Mihail to the first set of questions sent to the club here:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/what-is-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update/
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/keep-the-questions-coming/
However if the answers to the first set of questions has triggered more questions for you, or you want to be sure that a specific concern of yours is dealt with, it's best to email these questions to the address at the bottom of that page, rather than assuming that someone else has already asked the same question.
Tahnoon Nimer has still yet to satisfy EFL requests for proof of funds.
Matt Southall and Jonathan Heller also being investigated #cafc"
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11976052/charlton-athletic-takeover-by-east-street-investments-under-investigation-by-efl
A new fans group has launched on twitter: @CAFCfansforfans
The audio is in two bits - starts at 19:20 in this one and then continues here
Louis Mendez has also summarised the call in a twitter thread and points out the following:
No one has the best interests of Charlton Athletic Football Club here.
@Sjopinion10 has just excruciatingly exposed Southall’s ineptitude live on air. #cafc"
This is 115 years of history being destroyed by a group of complete crooks.
The only hope is that the club’s ex-directors can reverse the sale. #cafc"
Not sure any of us can really disagree with that (and that was before the Talksport thing this morning)
CAST have posted up the questions sent to Marian Mahail yesterday re finances and the EFL process here:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/questions-for-the-directors/
plus an update on the work going on in the background to try to deal with the current crisis:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/protecting-the-future-of-charlton-athletic/
I could spend all day on the various comments and responses (and might do later if things quieten down) but probably the most important bits are:
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/charlton-efl-investigation-takeover-east-street-investments-a4419836.html
The CAFCFansForFans twitter account has published a recording allegedly of Nimer talking about the money he has available to invest in the club. It's not clear at this point when the recording was made or what context the remarks were made in.
Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8241189/Charlton-fans-demand-reassurance-clubs-future-amid-EFL-investigation-January-takeover.html
BBC Sport: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52372531
At about 6pm this evening, an open letter from Marian Mihail to CAFC fans was published on the official Charlton website. I think it's safe to say this has not been met with universal acclaim.
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/charlton-exclusive-takeover-efl-tahnoon-nimer-matt-southall-a4420886.html
Sky Sports:https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11684/11960877/charlton-athletic-what-is-happening-with-the-recent-takeover
Not sure this means much at all #cafc"
Sky Sports have an interview with Lee Bowyer and Scott Minto as part of their "At Home With..." series, and they've tweeted out a segment where Bowyer is talking about the experience of being under transfer embargo if you've not got time to watch the whole 25 minute piece.
CAST have published the replies to the latest set of supporters' questions they've collated and sent to the club.
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/marian-mihail-responds-to-supporter-questions/
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/what-is-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update-2/
Presumably Farnell demanded a right of reply from TalkSport after they broadcast claims that he'd been ousted from "Matt Southall's company"
As I can't read arabic, I have no clue as to what the first one says, and while it's been circulating for a few days, I'm not sure if we've nailed down exactly who the other owner/partner is.
Bob Whitehand, one of the directors involved in the suit, responds to David White's comment from yesterday
Well dodgercafc has locked his twitter account and CAFCfansforfans have gone quiet, and there's no sign of Southall indicating which fans he would be talking with, so at the moment the only definite outcome is that I've had that flaming Fat Larry's Band song going through my head all bloody day.
BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52413943
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/charlton-matt-southall-misconduct-championship-news-a4423386.html
https://www.castrust.org/2020/04/more-questions-for-the-directors/
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/charlton-boss-bowyer-timing-of-efl-investigation-is-disappointing/
Jimmy Stone (ex CAFC Comms) tweeted
A big relief to many of them. #cafc"
ETA 30/04/2020 - Wages _have_ been paid
A shame this needs to be tweeted as it’s the bare minimum you’d expect from an owner. A relief none the less. #cafc
Media Coverage:
Daily Mail:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8262509/MARTIN-SAMUEL-Tahnoon-Nimer-taking-Charlton-way-Bury-EFL-change-rules.html
The Supporters' Trust have published the latest set of answers received from Marian Mihail to their weekly questions here:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/05/marian-mihail-responds-to-more-supporter-questions/
https://www.castrust.org/2020/05/what-is-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update-3/.
Responses to the latest Mihail answers
More re the EFL
Alan Nixon, who is apparently a Sun journalist, seems to think more is happening there
Media Coverage:
Nothing's been flagged up, and I've not spotted anything myself, but if anything does show up over the weekend I'll add it here.
According to the OS, both Mihail and Florica have now had their applications under the Owners and Directors Test approved:
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5eb04bdd27b94/owners-and-directors-test-update-claudiu-florica-and-marian-mihail
The Charlton Live podcast had an interview with Johnnie Jackson in this week's show, and they've tweeted out a segment where he talks about the first signs that all was not right with the new owners, if you've not got time to listen to the whole show.