Fans Forum-27/2/19- Minutes released

SDAddick said:

stonemuse said:

SDAddick said:

PWR, so apologies if this has been covered.

One for the trust members, but has a fans consortium ever been seriously considered for buying the club? I know there are a lot of things we'd need to go through, and raising the money to maintain the operating costs, let alone the asking price, would be difficult and I don't know that we could do it. 

It might be worth it to try and force Roland's hand. He is not negotiating from a position of strength. His only ploy seems to be to hold the land (which he can't develop anything drastically different on) hostage until we're in a better position financially. But I feel like a fan consortium would really put him under pressure to just give it all away and walk away. 

Even if we could get to a purchase price, the operating costs would be impossible without a serious backer. 

Yeah, you're probably right, it's a pipe dream. 

stoneroses19 said:

Valley11 said:

Why the hell isn’t he cutting his losses and selling on the cheap if it’s been the regret of his life and he’s so desperate to get out?
You’d surely take £15m or whatever and run

His ego won’t let him walk away with £15m. 

razil said:

we pointed out the likely conflict of interest as a starting point, but to be honest it was so utterly bizarre and almost surreal, it was hard to know what to say/where to look..

Blucher said:

A quite incredible 'proposal', which really beggars belief. How can LDT keep a straight face whilst putting that forward ? It will surely prompt further incredulity and contempt for Duchatelet in the football world and media - including, hopefully, in his own back yard. For me, this demonstrates the benefit of the FF meetings, however frustrating the ongoing impasse is and I'm grateful to the supporters who devote time and energy to it.

The thought did cross my mind that Roland was taking the piss but I then reminded myself that he has no sense of humour. His insidious plan to retain The Valley and Sparrows Lane has at last been made public. It's also consistent with Cohones' trip to Brisbane Road to see how they managed to incorporate flats in the ground's footprint.

As representatives of the FF made abundantly clear, a separation of the club and its ground is an absolute non-starter. We've been down that road before and any attempt to conclude a deal on that basis would be met with a furious response from Charlton supporters - something which must be made clear to any potential purchaser idiotic enough to give the idea a second thought.

I don't believe for a moment that there are any serious buyers at present. Football clubs always attract 'expressions of interest' and what we are being fed by LDT is Duchatelet's wishful thinking. As has been correctly pointed out by Henry Irving and others, this is entirely inconsistent with the TalkSport interview, when Duchatelet himself said that "there are no negotiations". I interpret that as meaning that he agreed an inflated price in principle a year ago and he is not now prepared to budge from that.

If this situation rolls into the summer, the consequences for the club will be very serious and I think there is likely to be more widespread support for further concerted protests and a Blackpool style boycott.

Redrobo said:

At least we can now all agree that Fans Forum meetings are a good thing, after all, how much would you pay to go to Mondays meeting?

TEL said:

Ironically this bonkers scenario isn’t uncommon here in Australia. The Australian Football Federation has owned clubs here in the effort to establish regional football clubs. Once they are viable, they get passed on to “new” owners.  I find it laughable myself but here things are a lot different in many ways including clubs not owning their own grounds. Is it possible that the Australian model also exists within Belgium and this is perhaps the nutbags reason for suggesting it?