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Duchatelet quotes on the FL's fit and proper person's test

Interesting piece, with the Yorkshire Post getting some quotes from Roland whilst looking at the leeds takover

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-utd/cellino-s-deal-delayed-further-but-charlton-owner-is-proof-things-can-be-settled-quickly-1-6462544

Charlton Athletic were taken over last month by Belgian businessman Roland Duchatelet, who made his fortune in electronics.

He owns a number of clubs across Europe including Standard Liege. Duchatelet, who bought the London club outright, passed the League’s Fit and Proper Persons’ Test just four weeks after first showing concrete interest in Charlton.

To gain an insight into the process that Cellino and Leeds are currently embroiled in, the Yorkshire Post spoke exclusively to Duchatelet about his own experiences of satisfying the criteria laid down by the governing body.

Fresh from his club’s impressive FA Cup win at Sheffield Wednesday on Monday, the Charlton chief last night said: “The process was actually quite straightforward, as long as you have the answers to the League’s questions. None of them were particularly difficult. They (the League) just want to understand whether you have got the money to finance the club’s business plan, as they don’t want their clubs to end up in administration a few months after they have approved a takeover as it would be very embarrassing for them.

“Nearly all Championship clubs need extra funding to help them balance their books. So, the League doesn’t sign off any takeovers unless you can show them that you have got enough money to meet the club’s financial commitments, as well as showing them where that money has come from.

“This meant us providing financial details of all the companies involved in the group so that we could prove that we could meet the financial projects we gave to the League.

“We also had to provide letters showing that we could call upon that funding, as and when the club needed it. You have obviously got to meet the fit and proper persons’ test too, but that’s essentially self-certification against published criteria.

“As long as you haven’t got anything in your background that would lead to you being disqualified, it is relatively simple.

“In our case, we could supply everything the League asked for pretty much straight away and the takeover was approved in around a month.”

Comments

  • Good to hear how comfortable Duchatalet felt about passing the 'test'
  • Would TJ & MS had to of passed this test, if so, was it as straight forward as it seems it was for Duchatalet?
  • CafcCrazy said:

    Would TJ & MS had to of passed this test, if so, was it as straight forward as it seems it was for Duchatalet?

    When they took over, they had the backing of the real money men/man (most likely Kevin Cash if rumours were accurate) so yes, they could just get credit from him - they simply 'ran' the club rather than funded it. Problem was that when they had the falling out, suddenly the money stopped - but they'd already passed so fit and proper persons rulings had no influence.
  • Other than the financial side the F & PP paperwork takes about 10 minutes to complete. Are you disqualified from being a director? Have you ever been declared bankrupt? Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence? That sort of thing.
  • Other than the financial side the F & PP paperwork takes about 10 minutes to complete. Are you disqualified from being a director? Have you ever been declared bankrupt? Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence? That sort of thing.

    Is your name Simon Jordan ?

  • thenewbie said:

    CafcCrazy said:

    Would TJ & MS had to of passed this test, if so, was it as straight forward as it seems it was for Duchatalet?

    When they took over, they had the backing of the real money men/man (most likely Kevin Cash if rumours were accurate) so yes, they could just get credit from him - they simply 'ran' the club rather than funded it. Problem was that when they had the falling out, suddenly the money stopped - but they'd already passed so fit and proper persons rulings had no influence.
    RD said: "the League doesn’t sign off any takeovers unless you can show them that you have got enough money to meet the club’s financial commitments, as well as showing them where that money has come from. "

    I'd have thought the Mysterons in BVI would have found that something of a nuisance, otherwise they wouldn't have been Mysterons.
  • The scary thing about that Fiiish is that the beeb will probably use your comment as a source...........
  • They've gave away a bit too much there... We get Standard Lieges unfit and not good enough players, they take our best instantly. Brilliant.....
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  • The interview simply expands on statements RD has already made. What is interesting is the fact that our management and that of SL are meeting this week to discuss the way forward. Makes sense to me.
  • He will pump money into our academy to take the players out of it for Liege, or sell them on elsewhere for more than he has invested. Poor Chrissy is going to look a bad manager if RD takes away his key young assets such as Diego, Jordan..but what can we do? No point getting excited when we have a magic player because he won't stick around for the long term, not a chance
  • He will pump money into our academy to take the players out of it for Liege, or sell them on elsewhere for more than he has invested. Poor Chrissy is going to look a bad manager if RD takes away his key young assets such as Diego, Jordan..but what can we do? No point getting excited when we have a magic player because he won't stick around for the long term, not a chance

    Our players could always refuse to move to Liege and refuse to sign a new contract. RD is then forced to sell them to a club outside his network or risk losing them for nothing at the end of their contract. Or, this a novel idea, leave them at Charlton and let them play for the club they are contracted to.
  • He will pump money into our academy to take the players out of it for Liege, or sell them on elsewhere for more than he has invested. Poor Chrissy is going to look a bad manager if RD takes away his key young assets such as Diego, Jordan..but what can we do? No point getting excited when we have a magic player because he won't stick around for the long term, not a chance

    Our players could always refuse to move to Liege and refuse to sign a new contract. RD is then forced to sell them to a club outside his network or risk losing them for nothing at the end of their contract. Or, this a novel idea, leave them at Charlton and let them play for the club they are contracted to.
    I suspect any new contracts will include a paragraph stating they have to be prepared to be loaned/sold between parent clubs. If the players sign it they will be in breach of contract if they refuse later down the line. I doubt RD will be that dumb not to get this clause sorted out, in fact it probably already exists amongst his other clubs.
  • surely a restraint of trade?
  • Players in the English leagues are on PFA template contracts - and the PFA would not allow such clauses (let alone the agents!!). Loans yes, clause that says sell to a named club - no way.
  • I would be amazed if any player signed a contract requiring him to accept a permanent transfer to an unnamed club in the future. Even if they did it would probably be unenforcable - there are strict rules in this country around transfer of employment.
  • He will pump money into our academy to take the players out of it for Liege, or sell them on elsewhere for more than he has invested. Poor Chrissy is going to look a bad manager if RD takes away his key young assets such as Diego, Jordan..but what can we do? No point getting excited when we have a magic player because he won't stick around for the long term, not a chance

    Our players could always refuse to move to Liege and refuse to sign a new contract. RD is then forced to sell them to a club outside his network or risk losing them for nothing at the end of their contract. Or, this a novel idea, leave them at Charlton and let them play for the club they are contracted to.
    I suspect any new contracts will include a paragraph stating they have to be prepared to be loaned/sold between parent clubs. If the players sign it they will be in breach of contract if they refuse later down the line. I doubt RD will be that dumb not to get this clause sorted out, in fact it probably already exists amongst his other clubs.
    I assumed that as well. Nothing to stop them turning that down though.
  • Two interesting comments I saw today - one being that RD's interest in CAFC was to find the cheapest route to securing the 120m knicker that Charlton will get if they go up to the Prem. Apparently he was sniffing around and was told a London club was his best bet.

    The other quote was something we already knew/feared - two clubs cannot play in European competition if they have the same owner.

    Obviously, in the short term it isn't likely we will see the Premier League for at least 4-5 years even by optimistic standards. It is even less likely we will have the chance to play in Europe in the next 10-15 years (barring non-League routes to Europe). So we're looking at the long-term - if Charlton are denied our rightful place to Europe in 2030 due to finishing in the top 5/6 of the Prem because the owner ushers through his pet team SL, then the fans cannot rightly stand for it and there would need to be some effort to either change the UEFA rules on this front, or else petition the owner to sell us or Liege.

    Obviously a lot of what ifs here, and it is unlikely we will get to that stage, but it's worth thinking about now. I imagine the most likely scenario is that RD will sell us long before we even sniff European competition. However, it would appear RD's main goal with Charlton is to make us into a team that can have a serious stab at promotion, and to stay up. He isn't going to do this quickly, and he isn't going to do this by forcing our best players to play for Liege. But what we do need is a balanced team, rather than having 2 or 3 game changers and 12 other players who would struggle to make the team sheet for any of the other 23 teams in our division. That will take time.

    We also have to be mature about sacrificing players that our owner feels would be better placed elsewhere in the Network - we can't have it both ways, since we will benefit from this network by receiving the talent of our fellow clubs. It's early days to say how this will turn out, and considering we looked like drop candidates well before RD sniffed in our direction I would be cautious in throwing the blame his way if we do end up in League 1 next season. My expectation would be then for us to have won League 1 before April 2015.
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Roland Out Forever!