For the best part of a decade, our fortunes have been decided by deluded egotists ,so I welcome the dilution of power sharing. If it proves cumbersome and unwieldy in operation, we'll find out soon enough, but let's not call "too many cooks" until then.
I tend to agree
"Too many cooks" v "Many hands make light work"
And if one group drops out the gap left isn't too big.
But a small stake could mean being an insignificant and so not much cared about investment.
Palace have a wide group of owners and have, spit, done well in recent years.
Millwall had one owner and, spit spit, have done very well in recent years.
Ultimately it's about good or bad owners not how many of them there are.
Well it’s certainly different than we’ve had before and has the potential to be a roaring success or a stinking failure. I hope expectations have been realistically set with the various part owners as they are going to be asked to put their hands in their pockets a lot over the next few months. Strong communication will be vital along with this ongoing expectation management.
I suspect we won’t be told a clear and full strategy at this stage - we’ll have to piece that together as things happen. Particularly interested to know what ACA Football Partners are looking for out of the deal.
Well it’s certainly different than we’ve had before and has the potential to be a roaring success or a stinking failure. I hope expectations have been realistically set with the various part owners as they are going to be asked to put their hands in their pockets a lot over the next few months. Strong communication will be vital along with this ongoing expectation management.
I suspect we won’t be told a clear and full strategy at this stage - we’ll have to piece that together as things happen. Particularly interested to know what ACA Football Partners are looking for out of the deal.
The 7 named investors each have 5%+, Ali. Much more than 5 in some cases. The % held by small investors is much less than 65%.
Thanks @gilbertfilbert. So is it that the 5% figure is the threshold that requires clearance of ODT and source and sufficiency of funds from the EFL then? (Although I'm dying to know how all that worked for the Singapore group, ). While I can understand why there may be good reasons for not going into too much detail at this stage, it would be helpful to have confirmation of what the balance of the ownership is, and what proportion the small investors have invested. The latter point is particularly important I think, as they are likely to have less scope to put in additional investment if required to improve the team, buy the ground etc. Do investors A & B have enough shares between them that they can override the wishes of the others, would there ever be a situation where the small investors have a casting vote if the major ones disagree, and how would that work? I know it's early days yet, but my gut feeling is that this is a "too many cooks" situation in the making.
There’s been two different stories on this I think.
Some have said that Friedman and Brener own two thirds of the club and therefore, with 65-70%, they have control and all other parties will fall in line.
The other story is that Friedman and Brener own two third of the 70% slice not owned by the minority investors. Two thirds of 70 puts them collectively at 46% ownership so a little under half.
It would definitely be good to get clarity on this ASAP.
What does "control" mean. If the controlling shareholders are not on the club board they have no "control" over football decisions made by the board.
What they have is control over who is appointed and removed from the Charlton board, effectively the SMT and the two non-exec directors.
The non-exec directors are, in theory independent, but as they are appointed by the shareholders they are regarded as being the shareholders' voice on the board, assuming they want to keep their job. Gavin Gardner will be walking the tightrope between staying in place at the grace of the shareholders and speaking out in favour of what supporters want.
CM has a key part in being the conduit between informing the Charlton board of the shareholders views and reporting back to the shareholders on the performance of the directors. CM has significant soft power, we shouldn't ignore that.
f he is "advising" the shareholders it means it results in missives from the shareholders being relayed down to the Charlton board which are CM's ideas, not the shareholders.
If he is reporting back to the shareholders on Charlton board directors' performances he can determine who stays on the board and who is appointed.
He has the power to be a de-stabling force if he distorts the messages coming from the shareholders or manipulates his authority in order to undermine Charlton board directors in the eyes of the shareholders for personal reasons.
CM has a seemingly benign position but it comes with significant powers at his disposal. We have no way of knowing whether he will act with integrity as an honest broker or stoke his personal ambition. I have not formed any opinion on what to expect, but I would like to see regular communications between him and CAST and supporter groups in order to monitor his words against actions.
Focussing on the shareholders, how many shares they have, and how many votes they have is not really important in my view, they will all be taking their lead from CM.
Well it’s certainly different than we’ve had before and has the potential to be a roaring success or a stinking failure. I hope expectations have been realistically set with the various part owners as they are going to be asked to put their hands in their pockets a lot over the next few months. Strong communication will be vital along with this ongoing expectation management.
I suspect we won’t be told a clear and full strategy at this stage - we’ll have to piece that together as things happen. Particularly interested to know what ACA Football Partners are looking for out of the deal.
I would hazard a guess and say money!
And an association with a relatively prestigious club that people may have heard of. It's already on their website but I stopped reading very quickly because of the way they combine words to make shitty new ones (glocal = global/local) but stayed just long enough to lift this from their news page:
ACA Football Partners Pte. Ltd.
(Singapore, CEO: Hiroyuki Ono, hereinafter ACAFP) is delighted to
announce that it has reached an agreement to join Global Football
Partners (GFP), the new ownership group of English League 1 club
Charlton Athletic. ACAFP will be one of seven minority shareholders in
the London-based former Premier League club, and CEO Hiroyuki Ono will
join the Board of GFP alongside other experienced football club owners.
The
acquisition of a stake in Charlton Athletic is Stage three of the ACAFP
project since it launched in July 2021 to form a multi-club ownership
model from Asia. First ACAFP bought Belgian 2nd
division club KMSK Deinze in February 2022, and then Juventud
Torremolinos CF, a Spanish fifth division club, in February 2023.
Having
a solid base in Belgium and Spain, ACAFP has been building its
borderless network and developing projects globally by collaborating
with clubs from Asia such as PVF Football Academy (Vietnam), Albirex
Niigata Singapore (Singapore), and Imabari FC (Japan), to provide
opportunities especially for promising young players from these
geographies.
The signing of
18 year-old Indonesian international Marselino Ferdinan to KMSK
Deinze, is an example of this strategy: giving an opportunity for a
young player from East Asia to develop his career in Europe from an
early age, and then bringing the value of those experiences back to his
national team. The Indonesian national team won the gold medal after 32
years at the SEA Games in 2023.
Gaining
a place in the world-leading English football market is a major
milestone for ACAFP. Charlton is a historic, central London club
established in 1905. After a lengthy stay in the Premier League, the
club has had a less successful last decade at first team level, but its
youth academy has remained one of the leading such institutions in the
UK, providing a stream of major international players. It is envisaged
that by Charlton becoming part of the ACAFP family, further
opportunities for the development of Charlton youngsters will open up,
through access to the Belgian and Spanish leagues. Meanwhile, in
reverse, players from ACAFP’s system will have a clear opportunity to
move to the English leagues, if they are suitably proficient.
Work
is already underway between ACAFP executives and the prospective
Charlton Athletic management team to share Scouting networks, data
systems and coaching structures/ techniques. Likewise, on the media side
discussions are occurring about the sharing of audio-visual and other
content through ACAFP’s OTT platform Playsia TV and Charlton TV.
Comment from Charlie Methven, Global Football Partners BoD We
at GFP are delighted to welcome ACA as a partner in our project. The
two main challenges of modern football clubs are the increasingly global
search for talent and the growth of a worldwide digital audience to
complement the local fans who attend the stadium. After many months of
detailed discussions with Hiro Ono and his executives, our Senior
Management Team felt that ACA would be a perfect strategic fit in
helping GFP achieve its objectives for Charlton Athletic in these two
critical areas. We look forward to working intensely with ACA to make
the partnership work for both parties and to create success across all
our clubs.
Comment from Hiroyuki Ono, ACAFP CEO We
are very pleased to be a part of the club which is composed of a rich
history and passionate fans, and I would like to show my deep gratitude
to Charlie Methven and Jim Rodwell, who welcomed us to the group. You
may be skeptical about who we are and what strategies we have. Over the
past year, we have focused on connecting Asia and Europe with football
through the multi-club ownership model, but we are also aiming for
releasing the value of sports and create a borderless community. Our
door is always open, we want to learn a lot from England, the home of
football, and also to expand Charlton’s appeal more globally.
Good to get some names confirmed although the lack of information on who exactly owns what % of the club is not indicative of the group being totally open with fans, at least not yet.
Some will say "so what, none of our business who owns how much" and legally we have no right to know.
But it does beg the question "Why aren't you telling us?"
The rumours from a month or more ago were that Friedman, Brener and Rosenfeld all have something like 23% each.
ACA, the Singapore soccer group have 10 or 11%.
Munir Javeri and
Marc Boyan have just over 5% while Methven, I was told, has a similar percentage but his holding is part settlement for brokering the deal.
That was just a rumour and was a few weeks ago so it subject to change.
The wording of "5%+" implies there are others under that threshold who are deemed to small too bother the EFL.
If my maths is correct the big three own 70% between them.
MJ, MB, CM and ACA hold something like 25% between them so that leaves a number of smaller investors with relatively tiny stakes making up the remaining roughly 5%, perhaps £75k each if the Texas prospectus story is to be believed. (I've never seen it but trust Cardinal Sin and Airman Brown haven't made it up although Methvan has denied it had anything to do with him.)
No idea if Gavin Carter has a financial stake but while I don't doubt he's a life long Charlton fan I don't think that will have the positive impact that perhaps CM expects as very few had ever heard of him. But then again, as we know only too well, picking a well known UK Addick would have been controversial whoever it was as, sadly, some part of the fan base would mistrust (see what I did there) them.
Paul Elliott is a clever move IMHO. Well known in the game with lots of connections and a long association with the club and the community trust, he will present a good public face and brings some welcome diversity to the board, although the ownership is actually quite diverse. Cynics will say it is window dressing and that PE has long wanted a place at the top table (he was involved with the Australian bid) but personally I disagree. Football clubs should have ex-players and especially Black players involved in senior roles. Plus he lives in Bromley so any supporters groups in that area might persuade him to pop along for a Q&A.
PS Rosenfeld is in recycling and so is, I suspect, the member of the consortium that CM said Spiegel was trying to persuade to join his group.
Yes, yes, yes that's all very well...but what's their exit strategy?
I guess the main question I’d have is how much would each investor be willing to put in to pay for players/ coaches etc? Who decides how much is spent by everyone and when?
It seems to me - I could be wrong - that, at least initially, it is possible that none of the members of GFP will be asked for very much money at all.
We all recall Roland loading up his holding company with debt and, on a much larger scale, we have the Glazers at Man Utd. I would speculate that the big players here have got a loan from somewhere secured on their own assets. That will have been enough to buy the club and provide the working capital to run it for the next couple of years. After that, who knows? It will depend upon success. And by that I mean not just on the pitch but also commercially. That is why I am not absolutely euphoric about the future because we all know that commercial success is not achievable anywhere but in the Premier League. And getting there is a long and hard slog.
Good to get some names confirmed although the lack of information on who exactly owns what % of the club is not indicative of the group being totally open with fans, at least not yet.
Some will say "so what, none of our business who owns how much" and legally we have no right to know.
But it does beg the question "Why aren't you telling us?"
The rumours from a month or more ago were that Friedman, Brener and Rosenfeld all have something like 23% each.
ACA, the Singapore soccer group have 10 or 11%.
Munir Javeri and
Marc Boyan have just over 5% while Methven, I was told, has a similar percentage but his holding is part settlement for brokering the deal.
That was just a rumour and was a few weeks ago so it subject to change.
The wording of "5%+" implies there are others under that threshold who are deemed to small too bother the EFL.
If my maths is correct the big three own 70% between them.
MJ, MB, CM and ACA hold something like 25% between them so that leaves a number of smaller investors with relatively tiny stakes making up the remaining roughly 5%, perhaps £75k each if the Texas prospectus story is to be believed. (I've never seen it but trust Cardinal Sin and Airman Brown haven't made it up although Methvan has denied it had anything to do with him.)
No idea if Gavin Carter has a financial stake but while I don't doubt he's a life long Charlton fan I don't think that will have the positive impact that perhaps CM expects as very few had ever heard of him. But then again, as we know only too well, picking a well known UK Addick would have been controversial whoever it was as, sadly, some part of the fan base would mistrust (see what I did there) them.
Paul Elliott is a clever move IMHO. Well known in the game with lots of connections and a long association with the club and the community trust, he will present a good public face and brings some welcome diversity to the board, although the ownership is actually quite diverse. Cynics will say it is window dressing and that PE has long wanted a place at the top table (he was involved with the Australian bid) but personally I disagree. Football clubs should have ex-players and especially Black players involved in senior roles. Plus he lives in Bromley so any supporters groups in that area might persuade him to pop along for a Q&A.
PS Rosenfeld is in recycling and so is, I suspect, the member of the consortium that CM said Spiegel was trying to persuade to join his group.
Yes, yes, yes that's all very well...but what's their exit strategy?
🤨
......further important questions, how tall are they?, whats their favourite train? and in their view what constitutes an adequate portion of chips (or should that be Fries)?. AND wheres all their pictures with Scarfy?!
Good to get some names confirmed although the lack of information on who exactly owns what % of the club is not indicative of the group being totally open with fans, at least not yet.
Some will say "so what, none of our business who owns how much" and legally we have no right to know.
But it does beg the question "Why aren't you telling us?"
The rumours from a month or more ago were that Friedman, Brener and Rosenfeld all have something like 23% each.
ACA, the Singapore soccer group have 10 or 11%.
Munir Javeri and
Marc Boyan have just over 5% while Methven, I was told, has a similar percentage but his holding is part settlement for brokering the deal.
That was just a rumour and was a few weeks ago so it subject to change.
The wording of "5%+" implies there are others under that threshold who are deemed to small too bother the EFL.
If my maths is correct the big three own 70% between them.
MJ, MB, CM and ACA hold something like 25% between them so that leaves a number of smaller investors with relatively tiny stakes making up the remaining roughly 5%, perhaps £75k each if the Texas prospectus story is to be believed. (I've never seen it but trust Cardinal Sin and Airman Brown haven't made it up although Methvan has denied it had anything to do with him.)
No idea if Gavin Carter has a financial stake but while I don't doubt he's a life long Charlton fan I don't think that will have the positive impact that perhaps CM expects as very few had ever heard of him. But then again, as we know only too well, picking a well known UK Addick would have been controversial whoever it was as, sadly, some part of the fan base would mistrust (see what I did there) them.
Paul Elliott is a clever move IMHO. Well known in the game with lots of connections and a long association with the club and the community trust, he will present a good public face and brings some welcome diversity to the board, although the ownership is actually quite diverse. Cynics will say it is window dressing and that PE has long wanted a place at the top table (he was involved with the Australian bid) but personally I disagree. Football clubs should have ex-players and especially Black players involved in senior roles. Plus he lives in Bromley so any supporters groups in that area might persuade him to pop along for a Q&A.
PS Rosenfeld is in recycling and so is, I suspect, the member of the consortium that CM said Spiegel was trying to persuade to join his group.
Yes, yes, yes that's all very well...but what's their exit strategy?
🤨
It's the $64m question but for some reason a lot of lifers get upset if I mention it. : - )
The complication is that each owner may have a different exit strategy and time scale.
ACA may well see entry into the UK football market as more important than a quick flip, small investors might just fancy owning a football club, big investors might just be looking at a high risk, high return over five years.
We can only ask but I doubt we'd ever get a full answer
Good post, @Dippenhall, especially re Methven. When he suddenly threw Gavin Carter into the mix, I was quite thrown, not so much because no one had mentioned his name, but because Carter appeared to be lined up to play the role that in the main interview Methven suggested he himself would play, but only by default. I'm left wondering how it came about in the last 6-8 weeks that the consortium decided it needed someone like Carter positioned that way. After all CM had said (on the record) that he himself could play that role because he "had more time on his hands" than other consortium members.
A possible indication of trouble ahead is how CM handled things re the interview release as we got to mid July. Briefly it went like this:
- we had held the interview back at his request so as not to disturb the EFL and risk the result. - in early July someone briefed out details of the expanded consortium. We got them, as clearly did @Henry Irving and probably Reams - I went back to CM and asked him if the interview needs updating,as we'd heard rumours of an expansion of the consortium, and would he like to re-do it as a video release. - His reply was "Consortium is the same, but think a revised and possibly audio-visual interview will enable total candour" - So I said that if it's the same make-up, then the interview is pretty much OK as it is. - then on 16th July I suddenly got this: "Just had a look through the interview, and these are the areas that seem to have been overtaken by events of the last 2 months. For EFL and legal structuring reasons, we do now all sit in Global Football Partners (by the way, Lenagan is spelled thus) and Global Football Partners does include a Charlton fan, Gavin Carter, who is going to sit on the CAFC Board. How do you wish to deal with those matters? Could you potentially just ask me those questions again, and re-draft?"
Well. He may now explain that by saying that the consortium is essentially the same, in that Friedman and Brener remain with the largest holdings, but I'd say that's a pretty loose version of the facts.
So we will have to see how CM wields his "soft power" and whether Gavin Carter has the soft power to match.
Well it’s certainly different than we’ve had before and has the potential to be a roaring success or a stinking failure. I hope expectations have been realistically set with the various part owners as they are going to be asked to put their hands in their pockets a lot over the next few months. Strong communication will be vital along with this ongoing expectation management.
I suspect we won’t be told a clear and full strategy at this stage - we’ll have to piece that together as things happen. Particularly interested to know what ACA Football Partners are looking for out of the deal.
I would hazard a guess and say money!
And an association with a relatively prestigious club that people may have heard of. It's already on their website but I stopped reading very quickly because of the way they combine words to make shitty new ones (glocal = global/local) but stayed just long enough to lift this from their news page:
ACA Football Partners Pte. Ltd.
(Singapore, CEO: Hiroyuki Ono, hereinafter ACAFP) is delighted to
announce that it has reached an agreement to join Global Football
Partners (GFP), the new ownership group of English League 1 club
Charlton Athletic. ACAFP will be one of seven minority shareholders in
the London-based former Premier League club, and CEO Hiroyuki Ono will
join the Board of GFP alongside other experienced football club owners.
The
acquisition of a stake in Charlton Athletic is Stage three of the ACAFP
project since it launched in July 2021 to form a multi-club ownership
model from Asia. First ACAFP bought Belgian 2nd
division club KMSK Deinze in February 2022, and then Juventud
Torremolinos CF, a Spanish fifth division club, in February 2023.
Having
a solid base in Belgium and Spain, ACAFP has been building its
borderless network and developing projects globally by collaborating
with clubs from Asia such as PVF Football Academy (Vietnam), Albirex
Niigata Singapore (Singapore), and Imabari FC (Japan), to provide
opportunities especially for promising young players from these
geographies.
The signing of
18 year-old Indonesian international Marselino Ferdinan to KMSK
Deinze, is an example of this strategy: giving an opportunity for a
young player from East Asia to develop his career in Europe from an
early age, and then bringing the value of those experiences back to his
national team. The Indonesian national team won the gold medal after 32
years at the SEA Games in 2023.
Gaining
a place in the world-leading English football market is a major
milestone for ACAFP. Charlton is a historic, central London club
established in 1905. After a lengthy stay in the Premier League, the
club has had a less successful last decade at first team level, but its
youth academy has remained one of the leading such institutions in the
UK, providing a stream of major international players. It is envisaged
that by Charlton becoming part of the ACAFP family, further
opportunities for the development of Charlton youngsters will open up,
through access to the Belgian and Spanish leagues. Meanwhile, in
reverse, players from ACAFP’s system will have a clear opportunity to
move to the English leagues, if they are suitably proficient.
Work
is already underway between ACAFP executives and the prospective
Charlton Athletic management team to share Scouting networks, data
systems and coaching structures/ techniques. Likewise, on the media side
discussions are occurring about the sharing of audio-visual and other
content through ACAFP’s OTT platform Playsia TV and Charlton TV.
Comment from Charlie Methven, Global Football Partners BoD We
at GFP are delighted to welcome ACA as a partner in our project. The
two main challenges of modern football clubs are the increasingly global
search for talent and the growth of a worldwide digital audience to
complement the local fans who attend the stadium. After many months of
detailed discussions with Hiro Ono and his executives, our Senior
Management Team felt that ACA would be a perfect strategic fit in
helping GFP achieve its objectives for Charlton Athletic in these two
critical areas. We look forward to working intensely with ACA to make
the partnership work for both parties and to create success across all
our clubs.
Comment from Hiroyuki Ono, ACAFP CEO We
are very pleased to be a part of the club which is composed of a rich
history and passionate fans, and I would like to show my deep gratitude
to Charlie Methven and Jim Rodwell, who welcomed us to the group. You
may be skeptical about who we are and what strategies we have. Over the
past year, we have focused on connecting Asia and Europe with football
through the multi-club ownership model, but we are also aiming for
releasing the value of sports and create a borderless community. Our
door is always open, we want to learn a lot from England, the home of
football, and also to expand Charlton’s appeal more globally.
Well there isn’t much to complain about in that statement as far as I’m concerned. What’s not to like ?
One of the new people had similar business interests to Tony Soprano it sounded to me, from a similar part of the world. Let’s hope nobody is gonna break anybody’s balls.
I am pleased that Sandgaard has gone. It's a shame he couldn't have built on his early victories against ESI, but we were going nowhere under him so sooner or later, this had to happen. I guess the normal etiquette would be to welcome the new regime, but frankly after years and years of mismanagement I'm a little cynical. The best I can say is that if this new lot have good intentions for the club, then I wish them well. I do have some questions though.
I know that for many years we've taken pride in calling ourselves a family club, but what's with all this "and family" stuff on the investors list? I don't remember ever seeing that before, is it an American thing? I just hope they don't expect scouting and coaching roles for all the little Brener, Friedman and Rosenfeld children.
What's with the name Global Football Partners? Does it just reflect that they are geographically diverse, or does it give a hint at international aspirations. I believe Methven has mentioned something about digital assets. I hope that doest mean asset stripping Charton TV, because in the last couple of years Minto and Curbs have been the biggest assets we've had. I wondered if this might give a clue to them owning or buying other clubs and forming some sort of alliance. If so, I hope we do it properly and don't end up with another mad Duchatalean style experiment on our hands.
Talking of Old Yellowtooth, what plans do our new owners have for The Valley and Sparrows Lane. Will there be any attempts to get them back? Are they happy with long term leasing or are they not hanging around long enough to care?
I'm pleased to see that there's a proper board for making decisions and most pleased to see that their Paul Elliott is a centre half by trade and not a professional swindler. I'm still uncertain as to why any sane investors would choose.the money pit that is CAFC. I guess that overall my mood could best be summed up as cautiously pessimistic.
I guess the main question I’d have is how much would each investor be willing to put in to pay for players/ coaches etc? Who decides how much is spent by everyone and when?
It seems to me - I could be wrong - that, at least initially, it is possible that none of the members of GFP will be asked for very much money at all.
We all recall Roland loading up his holding company with debt and, on a much larger scale, we have the Glazers at Man Utd. I would speculate that the big players here have got a loan from somewhere secured on their own assets. That will have been enough to buy the club and provide the working capital to run it for the next couple of years. After that, who knows? It will depend upon success. And by that I mean not just on the pitch but also commercially. That is why I am not absolutely euphoric about the future because we all know that commercial success is not achievable anywhere but in the Premier League. And getting there is a long and hard slog.
You can load up what ever holding company you like with loans, it's irrelevant unless either A N Other comes along and pays them off OR the club is in the Premier League for an extended period of time.
Roland hasn't, and never will, get all his loans back. Manchester United generate eye watering revenues that the Glazer's have been able to skim off.
They is no way the club can absorb any intrest, let alone repayment, as it exists on owner funding.
In respect on Munir mate the Greenwich he is from is in the States not Seth London. I hope he is aware and does think he has bought shares in his local team 😂
In respect on Munir mate the Greenwich he is from is in the States not Seth London. I hope he is aware and does think he has bought shares in his local team 😂
Seth London. I like it. ‘I swear allegiance to the Peoples Republic of South East London. One nation under the Catford Cat.’
In respect on Munir mate the Greenwich he is from is in the States not Seth London. I hope he is aware and does think he has bought shares in his local team 😂
Seth London. I like it. ‘I swear allegiance to the Peoples Republic of South East London. One nation under the Catford Cat.’
😂 mate I’ve no idea how that happened and I was going to edit it but then thought it was quite apt so left it 😂
In respect on Munir mate the Greenwich he is from is in the States not Seth London. I hope he is aware and does think he has bought shares in his local team 😂
Seth London. I like it. ‘I swear allegiance to the Peoples Republic of South East London. One nation under the Catford Cat.’
Good post, @Dippenhall, especially re Methven. When he suddenly threw Gavin Carter into the mix, I was quite thrown, not so much because no one had mentioned his name, but because Carter appeared to be lined up to play the role that in the main interview Methven suggested he himself would play, but only by default. I'm left wondering how it came about in the last 6-8 weeks that the consortium decided it needed someone like Carter positioned that way. After all CM had said (on the record) that he himself could play that role because he "had more time on his hands" than other consortium members.
A possible indication of trouble ahead is how CM handled things re the interview release as we got to mid July. Briefly it went like this:
- we had held the interview back at his request so as not to disturb the EFL and risk the result. - in early July someone briefed out details of the expanded consortium. We got them, as clearly did @Henry Irving and probably Reams - I went back to CM and asked him if the interview needs updating,as we'd heard rumours of an expansion of the consortium, and would he like to re-do it as a video release. - His reply was "Consortium is the same, but think a revised and possibly audio-visual interview will enable total candour" - So I said that if it's the same make-up, then the interview is pretty much OK as it is. - then on 16th July I suddenly got this: "Just had a look through the interview, and these are the areas that seem to have been overtaken by events of the last 2 months. For EFL and legal structuring reasons, we do now all sit in Global Football Partners (by the way, Lenagan is spelled thus) and Global Football Partners does include a Charlton fan, Gavin Carter, who is going to sit on the CAFC Board. How do you wish to deal with those matters? Could you potentially just ask me those questions again, and re-draft?"
Well. He may now explain that by saying that the consortium is essentially the same, in that Friedman and Brener remain with the largest holdings, but I'd say that's a pretty loose version of the facts.
So we will have to see how CM wields his "soft power" and whether Gavin Carter has the soft power to match.
I very much doubt he has any power, soft or otherwise.
Seems like a PR exercise, but very pleased if I am wrong.
It is good that the consortium have a fan on the board just a pity that instead of Mr Carter we had a member of CAST on the board. Mr Carter is an "investor" but surely us fans could have raised some finance to invest as a board member from CAST.
In respect on Munir mate the Greenwich he is from is in the States not Seth London. I hope he is aware and does think he has bought shares in his local team 😂
Seth London. I like it. ‘I swear allegiance to the Peoples Republic of South East London. One nation under the Catford Cat.’
I thought you were against nationalism
Seth is against all ‘ism’s, ‘ism’s are mostly not good, however he does believe that if you get an ‘ology you’re a Scientist…
Comments
"Too many cooks" v "Many hands make light work"
And if one group drops out the gap left isn't too big.
But a small stake could mean being an insignificant and so not much cared about investment.
Palace have a wide group of owners and have, spit, done well in recent years.
Millwall had one owner and, spit spit, have done very well in recent years.
Ultimately it's about good or bad owners not how many of them there are.
Of course they do - and in most cases in private companies that results in one buying the other out.
I suspect we won’t be told a clear and full strategy at this stage - we’ll have to piece that together as things happen. Particularly interested to know what ACA Football Partners are looking for out of the deal.
What they have is control over who is appointed and removed from the Charlton board, effectively the SMT and the two non-exec directors.
The non-exec directors are, in theory independent, but as they are appointed by the shareholders they are regarded as being the shareholders' voice on the board, assuming they want to keep their job. Gavin Gardner will be walking the tightrope between staying in place at the grace of the shareholders and speaking out in favour of what supporters want.
CM has a key part in being the conduit between informing the Charlton board of the shareholders views and reporting back to the shareholders on the performance of the directors. CM has significant soft power, we shouldn't ignore that.
f he is "advising" the shareholders it means it results in missives from the shareholders being relayed down to the Charlton board which are CM's ideas, not the shareholders.
If he is reporting back to the shareholders on Charlton board directors' performances he can determine who stays on the board and who is appointed.
He has the power to be a de-stabling force if he distorts the messages coming from the shareholders or manipulates his authority in order to undermine Charlton board directors in the eyes of the shareholders for personal reasons.
CM has a seemingly benign position but it comes with significant powers at his disposal. We have no way of knowing whether he will act with integrity as an honest broker or stoke his personal ambition. I have not formed any opinion on what to expect, but I would like to see regular communications between him and CAST and supporter groups in order to monitor his words against actions.
Focussing on the shareholders, how many shares they have, and how many votes they have is not really important in my view, they will all be taking their lead from CM.
ACA Football Partners Pte. Ltd. (Singapore, CEO: Hiroyuki Ono, hereinafter ACAFP) is delighted to announce that it has reached an agreement to join Global Football Partners (GFP), the new ownership group of English League 1 club Charlton Athletic. ACAFP will be one of seven minority shareholders in the London-based former Premier League club, and CEO Hiroyuki Ono will join the Board of GFP alongside other experienced football club owners.
The acquisition of a stake in Charlton Athletic is Stage three of the ACAFP project since it launched in July 2021 to form a multi-club ownership model from Asia. First ACAFP bought Belgian 2nd division club KMSK Deinze in February 2022, and then Juventud Torremolinos CF, a Spanish fifth division club, in February 2023.
Having a solid base in Belgium and Spain, ACAFP has been building its borderless network and developing projects globally by collaborating with clubs from Asia such as PVF Football Academy (Vietnam), Albirex Niigata Singapore (Singapore), and Imabari FC (Japan), to provide opportunities especially for promising young players from these geographies.
The signing of 18 year-old Indonesian international Marselino Ferdinan to KMSK Deinze, is an example of this strategy: giving an opportunity for a young player from East Asia to develop his career in Europe from an early age, and then bringing the value of those experiences back to his national team. The Indonesian national team won the gold medal after 32 years at the SEA Games in 2023.
Gaining a place in the world-leading English football market is a major milestone for ACAFP. Charlton is a historic, central London club established in 1905. After a lengthy stay in the Premier League, the club has had a less successful last decade at first team level, but its youth academy has remained one of the leading such institutions in the UK, providing a stream of major international players. It is envisaged that by Charlton becoming part of the ACAFP family, further opportunities for the development of Charlton youngsters will open up, through access to the Belgian and Spanish leagues. Meanwhile, in reverse, players from ACAFP’s system will have a clear opportunity to move to the English leagues, if they are suitably proficient.
Work is already underway between ACAFP executives and the prospective Charlton Athletic management team to share Scouting networks, data systems and coaching structures/ techniques. Likewise, on the media side discussions are occurring about the sharing of audio-visual and other content through ACAFP’s OTT platform Playsia TV and Charlton TV.
Comment from Charlie Methven, Global Football Partners BoD
We at GFP are delighted to welcome ACA as a partner in our project. The two main challenges of modern football clubs are the increasingly global search for talent and the growth of a worldwide digital audience to complement the local fans who attend the stadium. After many months of detailed discussions with Hiro Ono and his executives, our Senior Management Team felt that ACA would be a perfect strategic fit in helping GFP achieve its objectives for Charlton Athletic in these two critical areas. We look forward to working intensely with ACA to make the partnership work for both parties and to create success across all our clubs.
Comment from Hiroyuki Ono, ACAFP CEO
We are very pleased to be a part of the club which is composed of a rich history and passionate fans, and I would like to show my deep gratitude to Charlie Methven and Jim Rodwell, who welcomed us to the group. You may be skeptical about who we are and what strategies we have. Over the past year, we have focused on connecting Asia and Europe with football through the multi-club ownership model, but we are also aiming for releasing the value of sports and create a borderless community. Our door is always open, we want to learn a lot from England, the home of football, and also to expand Charlton’s appeal more globally.
🤨
We all recall Roland loading up his holding company with debt and, on a much larger scale, we have the Glazers at Man Utd. I would speculate that the big players here have got a loan from somewhere secured on their own assets. That will have been enough to buy the club and provide the working capital to run it for the next couple of years. After that, who knows? It will depend upon success. And by that I mean not just on the pitch but also commercially. That is why I am not absolutely euphoric about the future because we all know that commercial success is not achievable anywhere but in the Premier League. And getting there is a long and hard slog.
The complication is that each owner may have a different exit strategy and time scale.
ACA may well see entry into the UK football market as more important than a quick flip, small investors might just fancy owning a football club, big investors might just be looking at a high risk, high return over five years.
We can only ask but I doubt we'd ever get a full answer
A possible indication of trouble ahead is how CM handled things re the interview release as we got to mid July. Briefly it went like this:
- we had held the interview back at his request so as not to disturb the EFL and risk the result.
- in early July someone briefed out details of the expanded consortium. We got them, as clearly did @Henry Irving and probably Reams
- I went back to CM and asked him if the interview needs updating,as we'd heard rumours of an expansion of the consortium, and would he like to re-do it as a video release.
- His reply was "Consortium is the same, but think a revised and possibly audio-visual interview will enable total candour"
- So I said that if it's the same make-up, then the interview is pretty much OK as it is.
- then on 16th July I suddenly got this: "Just had a look through the interview, and these are the areas that seem to have been overtaken by events of the last 2 months. For EFL and legal structuring reasons, we do now all sit in Global Football Partners (by the way, Lenagan is spelled thus) and Global Football Partners does include a Charlton fan, Gavin Carter, who is going to sit on the CAFC Board. How do you wish to deal with those matters? Could you potentially just ask me those questions again, and re-draft?"
Well. He may now explain that by saying that the consortium is essentially the same, in that Friedman and Brener remain with the largest holdings, but I'd say that's a pretty loose version of the facts.
So we will have to see how CM wields his "soft power" and whether Gavin Carter has the soft power to match.
What do you think of a Charlton fan in the board room or the Zoom calls🧐
It always felt a positive in the past even if just for some transparency.
Good to have you back H.
What is known about Gavin Carter 🤔
Let’s hope nobody is gonna break anybody’s balls.
If all the owners turn up, it'll look like Band Aid 3.0
I know that for many years we've taken pride in calling ourselves a family club, but what's with all this "and family" stuff on the investors list? I don't remember ever seeing that before, is it an American thing? I just hope they don't expect scouting and coaching roles for all the little Brener, Friedman and Rosenfeld children.
What's with the name Global Football Partners? Does it just reflect that they are geographically diverse, or does it give a hint at international aspirations. I believe Methven has mentioned something about digital assets. I hope that doest mean asset stripping Charton TV, because in the last couple of years Minto and Curbs have been the biggest assets we've had. I wondered if this might give a clue to them owning or buying other clubs and forming some sort of alliance. If so, I hope we do it properly and don't end up with another mad Duchatalean style experiment on our hands.
Talking of Old Yellowtooth, what plans do our new owners have for The Valley and Sparrows Lane. Will there be any attempts to get them back? Are they happy with long term leasing or are they not hanging around long enough to care?
I'm pleased to see that there's a proper board for making decisions and most pleased to see that their Paul Elliott is a centre half by trade and not a professional swindler. I'm still uncertain as to why any sane investors would choose.the money pit that is CAFC. I guess that overall my mood could best be summed up as cautiously pessimistic.
Roland hasn't, and never will, get all his loans back. Manchester United generate eye watering revenues that the Glazer's have been able to skim off.
They is no way the club can absorb any intrest, let alone repayment, as it exists on owner funding.
I like it.
‘I swear allegiance to the Peoples Republic of South East London.
One nation under the Catford Cat.’
I thought you were against nationalism