Charlton & lack of protection of football heritage - Spanish article

Weegie Addick · February 2018

I spoke a short while ago with a Spanish journalist on behalf of the Trust. He also attended the Oxford match (poor thing).

Here is his original article on the largest Spanish language website in the world re English football (500k unique annual visitors):

lamediainglesa.com/articulo/el-charlton-athletic-y-la-desproteccion-del-patrimonio-futbolistico

For those like me who don't understand Spanish, here's a rough translation courtesy of Google and a bit of my own tidying up (NB, for pedants, I'm not Secretary of the Trust, just a humble board member). BTW, anyone on here own up to being Ted or Jeremy?

Charlton Athletic and the lack of protection of football heritage

The historic club in southeast London is currently experiencing the worst times in its history. However, the possible departure of the current owner of the team makes fans begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

By Juan Corellano | 02/05/2018 CHARLTON ATHLETIC LEAGUE ONE

It's Saturday, match day in The Valley. In a busy neighbourhood, Ted and Jeremy, dressed in the red and white characteristic of Charlton Athletic, rush a cigarette five minutes before the game against Oxford United begins. They are lifelong fans, however, this is an occasional visit, because a while ago they stopped being regulars at the stadium. "I used to be a Charlton season ticket holder but I am no longer one due to our glorious leader (owner Roland Duchâtelet). No doubt the club is experiencing the worst period of its history, the actions of its current owner do nothing but harm the team" says Jeremy. Like him, there are many who have been forced to abandon the team they love, not because of their results but as a protest against who runs it. In spite of everything, today they are again on the threshold, because a victory could mean entering playoff positions and, in addition, the departure of the owner that forced them to leave their stadium seems closer than ever. "We have been told that the sale is going to take place in February, so I hope so and it leaves us the football world and everything that surrounds it," says Ted.
In the end Charlton lose to a goal in the last minute, after leading 2-1 in the 80th minute, and the possibility of settling in a playoff positions vanishes. A cruel outcome that silenced more than 10,000 Addicks who, regardless of the rain, had filled The Valley with chants trying to push their team to the exit of the third division. However, the general feeling after the final whistle is not anger but resignation. "Better times will come", resonates in the minds of many. It is a worrying fact that five of the last ten seasons in League One for the team has resulted in acceptance of the hopeless situation facing the club. Especially if you consider that Charlton Athletic is not just anybody, but a true and proper member of the history of English football.

Charlton, from the humble background that characterizes southeast London, has to its credit an F.A. Cup victory. And, just 15 years ago, in the 2003/04 season, finished seventh in the Premier League, even sitting in a Champions League place for much of the season. The drift of the club began after the departure of Alan Curbishley, technician who provided great stability to his management in the dugout for 15 years, stability that was lost with his departure. That very season, in 2006/07, the team was relegated to the second division. A bad year to do so, because an increase in the economic distribution in the Premier League multiplied the difficulty of a possible return, already complicated by the economic problems facing the club. The turbulence for the Addicks continued, as two seasons later they suffered another relegation, this time to the third division. However, shortly thereafter, Charlton fans regained happiness for a while with the arrival of Chris Powell, a much-loved figure, not only for having nutmegged Pep Guardiola, currently the top Premier League manager, in his time as a player, but for being a former Charlton player and ex-pupil of Curbishley. Under Powell, the team returned to the Championship and by the 2013/14 season was stabilized in the second division. However, when everything pointed to the recovery of the club, Charlton's fate was about to change again.

In January 2014 Roland Duchâtelet became the new owner of the club. The initial hope provoked by the fact that this arrival could be an end to the club's economic problems soon dissipated. Just a couple of weeks after his arrival, several important players of the first team were sold, as well as the appointment of his right-hand woman, Katrien Meire, as CEO of the team. At the age of 29 years, albeit with a degree as a lawyer, she had no experience in sports management. In the following seasons there was a great turnover in both playing and coaching staff, including the arrival of players and coaches from the Belgian lower divisions, Duchâtelet's place of origin where he has also owned several teams, many with no experience in English football. All this truncated the upward trajectory that the team had until then and finally caused a new relegation to League One in 2015/16.

Cont'd...

Weegie Addick · February 2018

Beyond the competitive drifting of the team, the unpopular measures of the owner caused an even greater damage: the distancing between club and support. This cooling of relations also occurred between the board of directors and the Charlton Athletic Supporters' Trust, an organization that is also present in many English teams since the launch of the Supporters Direct platform by the British government in the 1990s. in general, and Charlton in particular, Trusts are responsible for ensuring the involvement of fans in the decision-making of the clubs, acting as a link between them, the fans who they represent, and the board. This relationship between club and support was especially strong in the case of Charlton, a popular club that even in its best years had the vote of its fans in the club's executive meetings. However, after his arrival, Duchâtelet decided to end this link, claiming that all fan groups should be treated equally, even though the CAST had the most members and the only one with a constitution and structure. who support it. "We did our best to co-operate with the new board, but we had very different views on how to run the club and the relationship broke down," says Heather McKinlay, secretary of the organisation.

The club was back in the third division, but now also had lost the link with the supporters. "The year of relegation, we lost around 40% of season ticket holders and there are no signs that those people are going to come back, that distancing is what worries me the most," says McKinlay. "If you look back, when we were in the third division with Chris Powell as coach, people felt linked to the team and had a good relationship, we still had about 10,000 season ticket holders. Even when things were not going well on the pitch, if you looked around we were still a happy club, " she adds.

However, despite all the clouds, it seems, that in Charlton the sun rises again. At the end of December Katrien Meire resigned as CEO of the team to go to Sheffield Wednesday. Then, after the loss of his right hand person, Duchâtelet revealed, through an official statement on the club's page, his intention to sell the club. It is not yet known with certainty when this sale will take place, complicated even more if possible because the Belgian wants to recover the investment he made when buying the club despite having tripled the debt during his passage through it. However, this news has thrown a bit of hope to the fans of the team, who are still cautious, because they do not know who the new owner will be. "We will try to build a fruitful relationship with whoever comes in. As a fan I feel a lot of respect for whoever arrives to put the money on the table that we do not have and works to build the squad. But also as a fan linked sentimentally with the team one hopes that that the relationship is based on mutual respect. Fans respect the money the owners bring to the club, but in return we expect them to respect the emotional investment we make in the team, "says McKinlay.

In conclusion, I cannot resist stealing an analogy from Heather, who in turn stole it from an anonymous Addick aficionado. Just as there are laws in many countries that guarantee the protection of historic buildings, there should be a similar system to do the same with football clubs, as these are also part of our collective culture. Cases like Charlton, of which unfortunately there are too many examples, testify to the lack of protection suffered by these entities and, by extension, their fans. No matter how long someone's time lasts as a club owner, this will only be a small portion of the club's history. In short, the teams do not belong to those who buy them, nor to those who wear their jerseys in matches, but to the thousands of anonymous fans who fill their stands on the weekends and defend and suffer for the colours. All the others are passing through.