ESI Ownership shenanigans bite size thread - now dormant
Comments
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Saturday 27th June - Quick Saturday Night UpdateSome Interesting Faces At The QPR Game
While most of us had our eyes on the pitch, those who were lucky enough to actually be at The Valley also had their eyes on those in the stands:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1276833446283878400
"Paul Elliott has just arrived at The Valley #cafc" (with the following pictures attached)
(I think the other person with Elliott and the Parkes in the second photo is Chris Farnell)https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1276835569113403393
"I believe that this may be Mohamed el Kashashy. #cafc" (with the following pictures attached)
In addition, after the match Dodger from Twitter confronted Elliott and Farnell on their way out of the ground, and posted video of it on his twitter feed. However he's now locked down his account again, so we can't post that here.3 -
Wednesday 1st July - Quick midweek updateMore From CAST
As we are still no closer to finding out any more details about the ownership of the club, on Tuesday CAST wrote to Paul Elliott with a number of further questions :
https://www.castrust.org/2020/06/questions-for-paul-elliott/Reaction To Wigan Going Into Administration
I'm not sure if this is technically a reaction to the news today that Wigan are going in to administration, but Peter Varney's thoughts on the role of the EFL are very timely:
https://twitter.com/_PeterVarney/status/1278316860598038529
"At the end of this season, I hope football’s governing bodies will thoroughly review the rules of ownership of clubs and make whatever changes are necessary. We need to protect clubs at all levels. My full take on it here > https://integralsportsmanagement.co.uk/fit-for-purpose/ @integsportsmgmt"And one of the ex-directors responded to the news by lobbying the EFL on twitter, which led to a conversation about their court case:
https://twitter.com/BobWhitehand/status/1278370000357769216
"@EFL Wigan in admin, please be very careful in studying current buyers of Charlton Athletic!"https://twitter.com/Rogertan51Roger/status/1278380468040282112
"Can’t you and the other ex directors get together and sort this mess Bob. We’ve no idea who’s involved, everything has gone quiet and it’s very worrying"https://twitter.com/BobWhitehand/status/1278401941974941698
"Working on it for a while, Lawyers written to ESI and Rolands Lawyers multiple times. Injunction pending."Media Coverage:
BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53256015 (mainly about the Wigan admin, but the Charlton situation gets a mention)4 -
Friday 3rd July - Got that Friday feeling? Me neither...More From CAST
CAST have relaunched their season ticket survey here:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/its-time-for-our-season-ticket-survey/They've also posted their weekly update, including Paul Elliott's answers to their questions from earlier in the week, here:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/what-is-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update-11/Elliott's answers were treated with a fair amount of scepticism, particularly his explanation as to why the Companies House details for ESI have yet to be updated.Airman Brown responded
I can't see how this is lawful. If you control the business you have to register that interest by law. It has nothing to with the EFL and the law doesn't recognise their role.3. Why has the ownership of ESI not yet been updated on the Companies House website?
Until we get EFL approval, this won’t be updated, it is important to us that we follow the appropriate protocol.
The restructuring will take effect through the correct channels once everything is finalised with the EFL.He tweeted a screenshot of that on twitter, and Heather Alderson replied with a possibly helpful screenshot:
https://twitter.com/WRENSHIP/status/1279071182113865728
"Nor can I Rick. 21 days is up"
@cafcfan suggested a hypothetical reason for the delay (but doesn't claim to know whether this is actually the case):I wonder if it is possible that the takeover has a clause in it saying "subject to passing the EFL ODT and source and sufficiency of funds tests". And that technically we still have the same set up.
To drag out the house analogy again. I wonder if contracts have been signed and exchanged but we are awaiting completion.More From Varney and Barclay
With more coming out about Wigan's plight, Peter Varney tweeted the following:
https://twitter.com/_PeterVarney/status/1278739528937848832
"(1/2) Thank you to everyone for the many positive messages of support both here and directly. We await the EFL’s decision on ownership and funding and are sad to see the events at Wigan and feel for the people involved and particularly the fans."https://twitter.com/_PeterVarney/status/1278739838133559296
"(2/2) I was heartened to hear Greenwich Council’s decision to take steps to strengthen their core strategy to protect The Valley and frustrate any future residential development of the site. Everyone is giving 100% at the club to retain Championship status and are to be applauded"This caused a little confusion, as some thought the reference to "ownership and funding" referred to a bid from Barclay and Varney, but the general consensus is it was regarding how the EFL handles the change of ownership at ESI.Meanwhile Andrew Barclay seems to be unimpressed with the prospect of Wigan's points deduction:
https://twitter.com/andrewdbarclay/status/1278478552623611904
"There is ZERO logic in football authorities punishing teams with a points deduction because of ownership related offences
Points deductions punish the fans more than owners."Opinion on this was somewhat dividedbobmunro thought:
I have some sympathy with that view.
Financial penalties for financial breaches, sporting sanctions (points deduction) for sporting breaches e.g. playing an unregistered player or failing to fulfill fixtures.ColinTat disagreed though:
No it comes from Leicester getting promoted whilst in admin. They gained an unfair advantage by paying prem wages, whilst stripping away other debts. If a club operates way past their viable economic model they should always be punished by a performance penalty.
Media Coverage:
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/charlton-news-paul-elliot-takeover-championship-a4488436.html (mostly based on the reply to CAST)6 -
Friday 10th July - Catching up on the weekCAST's Regular Friday Update
For those of you who don't fancy wading through all the stuff below, you might prefer CAST's weekly update:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/what-is-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update-12/The main new piece of information there is that they have written to Paul Elliott again about why ESI have not complied with the legal requirement to register changes at Companies House within twenty one days, but have not yet received a replyAnything Happening With The EFL?
Richard Cawley is back from furlough and has been trying to find out without much success:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1280809595510894592
"Contacted the EFL earlier this week about the latest on Charlton Athletic's ownership. They say they cannot comment on the change of control at any club and that there is no update at this stage."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1280809597289324544
"I'd asked if there had been any response from them regarding the owners + directors test and the source and sufficiency of funds. Paul Elliott said that an application had been made for EFL approval."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1280809599105404928
"My understanding is that the EFL are expecting a figure between £15m-17m to be available to cover the club's running costs for the next couple of seasons."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1280815309633523713
"I wouldn't be surprised if the EFL park making any kind of decisions until the end of the season. In terms of what happens if the deal is not agreed, it's guesswork at this stage."A Brief Flurry of Excitement About Varney and Barclay
On Thursday morning @Bobmunro posted thisI'm not directly in the know on this but based on a discussion passed on to me this morning with someone who most definitely is in the know.
I quote: "Varney is virtully a done deal".and the reaction was a mixture of excitement, hope tempered with caution, good natured scepticism plus the obligatory "it's Happening" gif.@Fanny Fanackapan got overexcited:
Tingle alert ! Tingle alert !@dickplumb was more cautious:
Virtually a done deaI? I won't hold my breath until it has been announced. But thanks for the info. Bob. It would be great to be playing in the Championship under the ownership of Barclay and the stewardship of Varney.Alas It Was A False Dawn
Sadly, by lunchtime @Airman Brown had put a damper on all the speculation
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1281188482640158720
"Post on @CharltonLife that the Varney/Barclay deal for #cafc is virtually done isn’t accurate, unfortunately. Interest is very much ongoing but until the @EFL gives a decision on the current “owners” the approach can’t progress."The disappointment was evident particularly from one of the mods:@Cabbles wrote::
Ffs - I’ve just amended the title of the thread and handed Bob a promote
I don’t have enough characters in the title thread, but if I did it would
read EDIT, bottom of page 767 Fanny’s tingle is extinguished and Bob loses promoteI can confirm that Mr F has now thrown a bucket of cold water over Fanny.
:-(Richard Cawley backed Airman's take, but hinted at possible developments
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1281192510476427269
"Talk that a Charlton takeover involving Andrew Barclay and Peter Varney is a "done deal" is wide of the mark. But some interesting days ahead."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1281192512850460672
"The EFL have to make a decision publicly on whether Paul Elliott's consortium are able to pass their various tests and I'd say next week could be very, very significant in that respect."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1281192514549092352
"At the moment Roland Duchatelet's stance is that he has a deal in place - with ESI - so he doesn't need to come to the negotiating table. But if PE's group did not get EFL approval then I'd imagine Duchatelet would sit down with Barclay and Varney."And when asked if the ex-directors would be amenable to a Varney/Barclay bid
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1281206018106679296
"I don't know. I think the ex-directors probably want good owners who improve their chance of their loan being repaid. Obviously has to be in club reach Premier League. Don't believe RD or ESI in their various guises ever had a discussion about paying them up."@Bobmunro responded to the ribbing he was getting as a result of the Cawley tweets:I never said 'done deal' - I said 'virtually done deal'. If and when the EFL process is resolved then perhaps the 'virtually' can be dropped! Which isn't a million miles away from what Cawley and Airman have said.
As a betting man - PV/AB are favourites.And Airman Brown replied:That’s when the talking starts, I agree. At present there is no clarity that ESIv2 actually own anything, so it’s hard for anyone to buy it from them.This triggered another round of discussion about what would happen if ESI fail the EFL tests, and why the ownership details on Companies House still hadn't been updated. More on that tomorrow
Media Coverage:
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/charlton-boss-lee-bowyer-on-birmingham-city-job-link-why-it-is-a-waiting-game-for-next-seasons-playing-budget/ (includes a bit about the impact the ownership uncertainty is having)3 -
Saturday 11th July Part 1 - Companies House ShenanigansA Companies House Update, But Not The One We Were Expecting
On Friday afternoon @kidbrookeaddick posted a link to a screenshot of the address details on Companies House, which he'd just been emailed had been updated:
A bit more information about the location came courtesy of @killerandflash:A building called Regency Court is based at that address
Various business are located there, notably Sedulo, a firm of accountants
https://www.sedulo.co.uk/
Some digging about on Googlemaps along with the websites of nearby business identified the likely location, which is between/above two pubs. (The Wetherspoons is 68-74 and the Slug and Lettuce is 64-66, and the ornate lettering above the door looks like it could be RC for Regency Court).Just 309 Companies registered at Montpelier House, 62-66 Deansgate.
https://suite.endole.co.uk/explorer/postcode/m3-2en
Although I should add that some of those are dormant or in liquidation, and as @Cafc43v3r pointed out:Most of them seem to have c/o addresses at the above mentioned accountants.Maybe we’re changing our name to Chorlton Athletic.
and CAST wondered whether this was a ploy to avoid further scrutiny of the ownership details:
https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1281900715535998976
"COINCIDENCE? We'd just sent a letter asking to inspect the register to find out who really owns ESI and therefore #cafc. If we can't look at it at The Valley, we'll just have to go to Manchester..." (with a link to @LouisMend's tweet on the subject)
The Plot Thickens
Then @"J BLOCK" spotted a familiar name in the directors of one of the companies listed with that correspondance address:Southalls wife also registered there ..
Of course, as @MattF reminded us, it's not the first time there has been a dodgy Companies House updateSomething tells me it's not a Charlton fan messing with Companies House this time...
I suppose you could say that at least Southall learned something from us in his time here, but as @Airman Brown and others pointed out, this could all have been avoided if they'd updated the Companies House details already.https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1281695402987859990
"Who do we know that could have changed ESI’s registered address from The Valley to a Manchester one also used by Matt Southall’s partner? #cafc"https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1281696550511575043
"Surely not someone ESI v2 says is no longer involved yet is still listed as a director at Companies House, because ... er... the new “owners” haven’t actually filed any documents to register their “ownership”."Unless they can't because the sale hasn't actually been completed yet, and as @Leeds_Addick asked:Other than a statement he wrote himself, there's no proof PE owns anything at all is there?
@"Airman Brown" had a possible answer to that, but it's not very reassuring.It may well be that the sale of ESI and hence CAFC is contingent on EFL approval so isn’t complete. However, this makes the current control of the club another breach of EFL rules and the ownership statement on the website - itself regulated by EFL rules - at best misleading.
As you might expect, the lack of clarity about what was going on meant our fans were bombarding Farnell with questions on social media, and a couple of his responses are shown below
Although I don't think anyone was suggesting that Jade Katy was the one that had actually made the change, and as @"Athletico Charlton" observed:Carefully chosen words about Jade Katy not being authorised but no mention of Matt Southall not being authorised...?3 -
Saturday 11th July Part 2 - More Companies House ShenanigansFirst the Address Change, Now The Director Cull
On Saturday afternoon, while we were in the throes of post-match angst, another bunch of Companies House notification emails came in
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1281950884709244928
"Chris Farnell has just been terminated as a director of ESI on Companies House, along with the Romanians. #cafc"
Unsurprisingly this triggered another flurry of questions to Farnell
Some posters were questioning why Farnell was describing the changes as unauthorised rather than illegal, and @SomervilleAddick explainedAssuming there has been no change in ownership, Southall, as a director, is allowed to submit filings. It unauthorized because he doesn’t have ability to add/ remove directors under the companies rules. But I see Nimer has also been removed, so now it’s just Southall & Heller
Or as @LouisMend rather memorably put it:
"Tahnoon Nimer is the latest victim of the Companies House massacre #cafc"
For those still clinging to the philosophy of things only being true "When It's On The Official Site", the club posted up a brief statement:The club is aware of the recent, unauthorised filings at Companies House relating to East Street Investments.
The club is investigating the matter and will take the necessary action.
However, as @Airman Brown pointed out, there may be a slight flaw in that plan:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1282055340029366272
"“The club is investigating the matter and will take the necessary action." I don’t think so. This is about the ownership of ESI, which owns the club. “The club” can’t investigate its own ownership."Curiouser And Curiouser
The motives behind all this Companies House activity became a bit clearer with this tweet:
https://twitter.com/BenRansomSky/status/1282030503747624961
"Matt Southall has made his move to remove the current board from ESI, and he aims to sell Charlton within 28 days. He tells @SkySports talks are planned with interested parties next week. Full article:
https://skysports.com/football/news/11684/12026572/charlton-ownership-crisis-matt-southall-moves-to-retake-control-of-addicks via @SkySports"The linked article has mysteriously disappeared, probably as a result of conversations following this tweet from Farnell:
but fortunately @MattF saved an archived copy
Marian Mihail provided a slightly more detailed response to the latest developments to Sky Sports News:
Certain details in this statement led to the following thoughts from @Airman Brown
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1282065322841976834
"So we now have confirmation from Marian Mihail that ESIv2 do not own ESI or #cafc, as that transaction is dependent on @EFL approval of them. That was always likely - but another question is whether the same clause was in the sale by Staprix to ESI?"https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1282066202345472010
"At some point Roland is going to realise that his deal with ESI is a fantasy that will never be fulfilled. Let’s hope it doesn’t require #cafc going into administration to get him there, but it looks increasingly likely."Final word today goes to @Off_it, who probably sums up our collective frustrationBy my reckoning we've been "waiting to hear back from the EFL" for about six months now. Doesn't matter whichever clown has got hold of the microphone at the time, the reason for the delay keeps being put squarely on the EFL.
Except these EFL tests aren't really difficult to pass. Proof of ownership and funds isn't really a difficult thing to be able to provide.
[SNIP].
Six months of total bollocks, following hot on the heels of years and years of incompetently run shit. What an absolute joke.
Media Coverage:
BBC Sport: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53377527
Sky Sports: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11684/12026757/former-charlton-chairman-matt-southall-attempting-to-retake-control-of-club (updated version of of this)5 -
Sunday 12th July - A few bits and bobs in preparation for Monday's madnessMore From Richard Cawley
After being bombarded with questions from us when he first went on furlough, it looks like Richard Cawley has resumed his digging now he's back, although so far there's a distinct reluctance to provide answers to his questions from various quarters:
https://twitter.com/richcawleyslp/status/1282225736653377538
"Will try and dig a bit deeper on the Charlton Athletic 'ownership' tomorrow - but the Companies House shenanigans just underlines the absolute lack of clarity"https://twitter.com/richcawleyslp/status/1282225738217914374
"I'd ask earlier this week if there was a chance of speaking to Charlton's new 'owner' Paul Elliott but was told it wasn't the right time as they go through the EFL process."https://twitter.com/richcawleyslp/status/1282225740273131520
"I'd contacted the EFL, who said they weren't able to comment. The indications I've had is that might change at some point next week."https://twitter.com/richcawleyslp/status/1282225741648859137
"I did submit some questions for ESI and they decided not to respond, using their application to the EFL as the reason for radio silence."https://twitter.com/richcawleyslp/status/1282225742856761344
"The questions I'd submitted were:
1. Have ESI had correspondence back from the EFL regarding the owners and directors test + source and sufficiency of funds?
2. Is it lawful to own a football club and not inform Companies House?"https://twitter.com/richcawleyslp/status/1282225744492494848
"3. Was Mohammed El Khashasy involved before the recent ownership change, when Tahnoon Nimer was in control?"https://twitter.com/richcawleyslp/status/1282225745662705664
"My understanding is that the EFL have gone back to ESI. I'm not sure what they have said. But I do think they have had correspondence back."Other Media Stuff
Ben Ransom from Sky had a second go at tweeting out his Charlton story, after the first one got taken down, presumably for legal reasons.
https://twitter.com/BenRansomSky/status/1282225497179553792
"ICYMI - The latest twist in the ongoing saga behind the scenes at Charlton @SkySportsNews:
-Southall makes play to retake control
-ESI board members changed
-Mihail threatens retaliatory legal action
-officially club say they’re ‘investigating’ #cafc
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11684/12026757/former-charlton-chairman-matt-southall-attempting-to-retake-control-of-club"Also tonight's Charlton Live had a segment discussing their take on the latest shenanigans, at about the 1h 7 mins mark.And Finally...
@RedRyan took a trip to ESI's new registered address today, and it's definitely the one we thought yesterday (although I am wondering whether this was just an excuse to spend time in the neighbouring pubs)
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Monday 13th July - Developments both unexpected and expected.Another Knock-On Effect Of The Ownership Uncertainty
Apparently this snippet appeared in the Sun On Sunday:
and Bowyer was clearly unhappy about it:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1282594005755269120
"Lee Bowyer not impressed at a weekend report that claimed Charlton wanted £750k in compensation for him.
He's been linked with Birmingham City. The two clubs play each other on Wednesday night.
https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/its-wrong-charlton-boss-lee-bowyer-reacts-to-story-claiming-he-is-available-for-750k/"https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1282594009546993665
"LB: “Are people trying to disrupt the camp? There is no reason to do that. I just hope this is not coming out from our camp."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1282594011425972225
"LB: “For someone to have said this is the compensation …why is anyone even getting involved in the conversation, that’s if we are. I don’t know if there is any truth. It could just be people trying to rock the boat.""Of course, in normal times if the club had stated that compensation figure we'd know where it had come from, but as @Airman Brown points out:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1282624242442473472
"Who would be putting out such a detail? Surely not Elliott/Farnell/El Kashashy as they are not @efl approved owners and can’t make decisions on #cafc’s behalf." (with a link to Richard Cawley's tweet about the story)More On The Recent Companies House Shenanigans
Richard Cawley's dogged attempts to get the EFL to publicly address our ownership situation may slowly be bearing some fruit:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1282626685486211073
"The EFL are aware of the Companies House developments over the weekend regarding Charlton Athletic.
Indications are that they could make a statement this week."No rush lads, it's not like the ongoing uncertainty is having a detrimental effect on the club.Then this evening Alan Nixon from the Sun tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/reluctantnicko/status/1282713278389657612
"Charlton. Court rule that Southall should not have changed companies house website. All directors removed will be back on."The initial reaction was it would be nice to have this from a more reliable source, given he was the one insisting that Lyle had had a change of heart and would be coming back after the restart, so it was reassuring to see that @LouisMend also had the same information:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1282749304814407688
"Been sent this statement #cafc"
Although whether Florica should be considered a reliable source seems to be a matter of debate, and not everyone was convinced by that:
https://twitter.com/JimmyStone_/status/1282759953195978752
"Funny, here’s the one I got. #cafc"
As yet, the East Street Investments entry on Companies House hasn't been updated.Meanwhile Airman Brown revealed the following:More competitive leaking going on. It is categorically certain from something I’ve seen that Nimer (Panorama) and Southall still own the club. We knew that from Companies House really, but still.
As for why Southall can’t delete directors, it’s because they have been appointed directors - lawfully or not- and he can’t unilaterally remove them just because he feels like it.7 -
Tuesday 14th July - Bastille Day. Have any heads rolled?Some Companies House Updates
After the reports of a court order to force Southall to change the Companies House details back, some actual concrete evidence emerges:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1283044637138092035
"ESI’s registered address has changed back to The Valley #cafc"
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1283045039975862272
"If only getting EFL approval was as easy, they'd be laughing."https://twitter.com/JackMac04/status/1283047478246420480
"Got the postcode wrong as well. That’s gonna be somewhere in Sheffield"As of this evening the incorrect postcode has now been corrected, but it looks like the removed directors have yet to be reinstated.
More Fallout From The Weekend
A report in today's Sun is claiming that Southall will be up in court this Friday as a result of the weekend's shenanigans.
It's unclear at this point, as to who has initiated the court action; the wording of this piece suggests it's not Southall himself, but that may just be the spin applied by the source of this story. We shall have to wait and see.There's been some discussion in the main thread since the weekend as to whether making a fraudulent amendment to the Companies House Register is a civil or a criminal matter. @HardyAddick posted a link to an article that might be helpful:This Companies House article is about changing company records. Says it must be reported to the Police but It’s up to the company to do it, not them, but they will assist if requested.
https://companieshouse.blog.gov.uk/2016/02/17/fraud-what-we-can-and-cant-do/but @Rock Spectacle wasn't sure whether it still applied:This was written pre SBEEA 2015 being implemented in June 2016 when Persons of Significant Control had to be declared.(For those of you like me who have no idea what SBEEA is, @swords_alive kindly enlightened us that it's the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act. In further legal discussion:Scratchingvalleycat said:
Section 1112 Companies Act 2006ross1 said:Is there no punishment in law for those who falsifies the CH website?And what's that? Well you can read it here, but basically if you knowingly make a false declaration to the registrar you can get up to two years in prison, a fine or both. OopsSouthall can make changes to the CH information, but only where those changes have been agreed by the board. I’m sure that’s not happened, unless he’s going to argue there was a board meeting, but he was the only one who showed up.We May Also Be In More Trouble With The EFL
The events over the weekend seem to indicate that the Elliott takeover is dependent on the EFL approval of the "consortium" and has not actually yet gone through. This would explain why Companies House has yet to be updated, but may mean the club is in breach of EFL rules
As @Airman Brown points out, the ownership page on the OS doesn't quite meet these criteria:
It’s this statement which is the root of the problem. The second paragraph is untrue, and the third doesn’t fully negate it.It's all a bit of a mess really.2 -
Wednesday 15th July - A few bits of catching up after yesterdayCompanies House Corrections Completed
At lunchtime, Richard Cawley tweeted out the following:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1283387938294894592
"Chris Farnell, Marian Mihail and Claudiu Florica now back listed as directors of ESI."And as of this evening, all of the former directors have now been reinstated on Companies House, although to make things a bit confusing they seem to have new entries rather than their existing ones being updated.
From the spelling I'm guessing that Southall has done the updates himself rather than unlocking the other directors' access to the site. Interesting that Nimer is the only one of the reinstated directors whose contact address isn't shown as The Valley either.More From CAST
CAST have published the results of their latest survey, and it's not especially happy reading, although hardly surprising:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/charlton-fans-fearful-for-the-future/Bottom line, I don't think any of ESI v2 come out of this smelling of roses and none have done anything positive for the club other than getting rid of Southall and Amis.
But someone is paying the wages? Who, how and why?
Just can someone please just clean up the whole mess and start on the other problem which is the ownership of Sparrows Lane and the Valley.
Media Coverage:
Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/15/labour-asks-government-to-deliver-manifesto-pledge-of-fan-led-review (not specifically about us, but calling for a review of the ODT amongst other things)1 -
Sponsored links:
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Thursday 16th July - "...I'll see you in court..."More On Football Governance Issues
Matthew Pennycook (the MP for the constituency that the Valley is located in) has become more vocal about football issues recently. He tweeted in support of the push from the Shadow Sports Minister for a fan-led review as mentioned in the Guardian piece from last night:
https://twitter.com/mtpennycook/status/1283691941776039936
"With so many unanswered questions about Charlton Athletic’s ownership and the EFL's regulatory tests, fans are rightly worried about our club's future.
What happened at Wigan Athletic is a warning.
@alison_mcgovern right to call for a fan-led review."
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/15/labour-asks-government-to-deliver-manifesto-pledge-of-fan-led-reviewand has also written to the EFL about Charlton's specific case:
https://twitter.com/mtpennycook/status/1283726088108232705
"I've written to the @EFL this morning regarding #CAFC requesting they provide:
- An update on their investigation into ESI's takeover;
- Clarity on when we can expect a decision on tests; and
- A commitment to greater transparency and engagement with supporters." (with the images below attached)
I'm not holding my breath for any useful answers from the EFL though.
ESI vs Southall Back In Court
Amazingly, Alan Nixon has turned out to be right about something, as this evening CAST tweeted:
https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1283852327921672192
"COURT CASE #cafc
In the High Court of Manchester
Before His Honour Judge Pearce (surely not @jpearce05???)
Sitting in Court 47 remotely
On Friday 17 July 2020
In Public
10:00
BL-2020-MAN-000063 Eaststreet v Southall (Microsoft Teams)"https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1283852733569785858
"We understand this is a hearing to decide whether the urgent injunction obtained by ESI against Southall last week, requiring him to undo the changes made by him to ESI's entry on the Companies House website, should continue. #cafc"https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1283854061058523138
"If you wish to dial-in to view / listen to proceedings, email manchester.chancery@justice.gov.uk with the case number (BL-2020-MAN-000063). You'll be sent a Microsoft Teams link. Keep your video off and microphone muted at all times. #cafc"It'll be interesting to see what arguments are presented by both sides, but I don't know if there'll be a resolution tomorrow, or it'll just be a short hearing mainly for initial arguments and scheduling purposes. Hopefully there'll be a few people taking notes as @Weegie Addick revealed:I pondered the idea of Facebook Live. Fortunately the barrister on CAST Board gently reminded us that it is illegal to record or broadcast court proceedings. Note-taking it is, then!although @Cafc43v3r reckonsThe judgement will be available on Monday, if there is one.so those of us unable to dial in hopefully won't have too long to wait to pore over the details.
Media Coverage:
Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/wigan-athletic-efl-fit-and-proper-persons-test-championship-league-one-two-a9622421.html (again, not specifically about us, but general football governance)2 -
Friday 17th July - "... I fought the law and the law won..."This is late up because of a few technical issues on the site last night. I'm just going to deal with the details of the hearing itself in this one, and the reaction to it and possible consequences will be rolled into Saturday's one. If you don't fancy wading through the whole thing, @fmaddick did a good summary on the main threadPre-hearing Issues
As publicised by CAST last night, the hearing was being carried out over a Microsoft Teams connection, and members of the public were allowed to observe. A number of fans made use of this facility, including Martin Pezet who lived tweeted the hearing, so if you want to read a detailed overview of events as they happened you should probably start from here:
https://twitter.com/mpezet/status/1284047298251677697
"We are getting underway, all observers asked to switch off microphone and camera. Approximately 25 on the call including observers. Technical difficulties from one of the counsels causing a short delay #cafc"Unfortunately not everyone was familiar with the appropriate etiquette for remote court hearings, as ESI's barrister recounted later:
https://twitter.com/SteveFlynnBar/status/1284078274759536640
"Dealing with an injunction this morning that had 60 or so fans of the football club watching on Teams. Giving directions at the outset, the Clerk has to say, ‘Mr X, this hearing should be treated as if you were attending at Court. Please can I ask you to put a t-shirt on?’
"
Evidence Presented and Judgement
A few selected highlights from the evidence presented and the judge's comments about them and the verdict here. @Fmaddick's summary gives a run down of the events that lead to the hearing as follows:Saturday – Southall changed company address and removed directors from Companies House website using the ‘authentication code’
It was also stated that he emailed director (s) informing them what he had done
At this point, ESI sought legal advice – legal team had extensive phone calls with directors, the original company rules are consulted etc. (this was explained to justify costs later in the hearing)
An injunction is sought at a preliminary hearing on Monday, which is granted. Subsequently, Southall returned the authentication code, or at least surrendered it, as ordered.
https://twitter.com/mpezet/status/1284054323668955136
"Southall says via counsel he "knows he did wrong and admits acting as a rogue actor to disrupt the sale of ESI" #cafc"https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1284058326976933894
"“Not in dispute that Mr Southall acted unlawfully” in making ESI Companies House changes last weekend, judge notes in Manchester Civil Court. #cafc""https://twitter.com/GSYAddick/status/1284059288030384131
"Judge imposes a 12-month ban restricting Southall from being able to repeat his actions.
Notes that a repeat in 12 months and 1 day would still be unlawful. #CAFC"For those of you wondering why that distinction was made, presumably if he tried to do it after a year was up it still wouldn't be legal, but if he does it before then, he is in contravention of a direction from the judge so gets done for contempt of court. Unlike this hearing, contempt is a criminal not a civil matter, so if he does it again in the next year he could go to prison.Costs Discussion
So far, all pretty straight forward. It was the discussion of whether Southall should pay ESI's costs, and how much, where things got interesting, as ESI appear to have really tried to hammer him on this:
https://twitter.com/mpezet/status/1284059507879022592
"Applicant Counsel speaking around indemnity costs relating to "disparaging remarks made by Southall to directors" but judge is reluctant to do this as it would require a mini-trial #cafc"Meanwhile the judge's response to certain submissions from Southall's side seem to confirm our recent suspicions about the Elliott takeover.
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1284062287620460545
"Counsel for Southall arguing that ESI has misled public about sale to Elliott as part of discussion about costs"https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1284063595559559169
"#cafc’s false public statement of June 10th that ESI “have been taken over” being cited in court by Southall’s counsel."https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1284064476480888832
"Judge says full reading of the #cafc press release confirms that deal is not complete."Southall's barrister seems to have been handed a tricky job here, as @Addickted describes:Judge slagging off Southall's Solicitor. Southall's Barrister is struggling to respond.https://twitter.com/mpezet/status/1284064832921182208
"The claim that Mr Southall says he "has been lied to" described as speculation by judge and is not how witness statements should be used. #cafc"The costs claimed by ESI were pretty hefty, and as they were itemised in court, @Addickted had a go at totting up what the total might be:Major costs are;
13 hours @£315 an hour
Attendance on others 14 hours of letters
9 Hours on telephone split between participants
13 hours of drafting
3 witness statements (Florica's statement being one, is just a copy and paste of one of the other statements from Mihail and Nimers)
So that's at least £15.5k + VAT for Southall on top of his own legal costs.In the end what they were claiming for turned out to be even higher than that:
https://twitter.com/mpezet/status/1284066980656558080
"Judge has (apparently) already agreed costs will be calculated on a standard basis according to counsel. The claim though is for £32k worth of costs against the respondent #cafc"However, the judge wasn't happy with some of the costs that ESI was claiming for:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1284067403274563584
"ESI costs claim appears to include handling media enquiries - judge says he is “troubled” by this submission."https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1284068659175084032
"ESI counsel argues that legal costs incurred in understanding and responding to what Southall had said to media about his actions."In the end the judge opted for a reduced but not insignificant figure:
https://twitter.com/mpezet/status/1284070419679588364
"Judge feels proportionate figure £17,500 + VAT = £21,000 #cafc"Reaction to follow in the next postMedia Coverage:
BBC Sport: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53449265
Sky Sports: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11684/12030840/charlton-ownership-crisis-court-finds-matt-southalls-attempt-to-retake-control-is-unlawful
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/unanswered-questions-charlton-ownership-fans-fearing-worst-a4501801.html5 -
Saturday 18th July - Court Hearing Aftermath Edition.Reaction To Yesterday's Court Hearing
For those of you needing a quick refresher on the details of the hearing I'd suggest looking over @fmaddick's summary on the main threadReaction From ESI
ESI issued a press release about the judgement as follows:
@Airman Brown wasn't impressed with certain bits of the statement
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1284144269951983621
"Don’t the people responsible read these things and don’t the journalists who report them realise they are nonsensical? How can the club usefully confirm its owners haven’t misled the court and even if it did what weight could that possibly have?"Reaction From CAST
https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1284088895848820737
"WHO OWNS CAFC? Following today's court case, we ask @cafcofficial urgently to clarify the exact status of the "sale" of ESI, and to correct or remove the website statement of 10 June, which clearly misled both #cafc fans and the media."And despite the fact that the court case confirmed that Elliott and co do not currently own the club, they were sat in the Directors' Box today:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1284457012848472064
Reaction From Andrew Barclay
https://twitter.com/andrewdbarclay/status/1284412689389965312
"Details in the court hearing were very very concerning. EFL need to make a statement soon to give everyone some clarity over what is going on and how it can be resolved."https://twitter.com/andrewdbarclay/status/1284414527279333377
"EFL need to make a statement on CAFC situation ASAP and most importantly FOLLOW IT THROUGH with action"https://twitter.com/andrewdbarclay/status/1284426332554833920
"Too much attention being placed on people who have no power or say. Most of the focus and debate has shifted towards them. It’s a waste of time. There are two groups who ultimately have control here and we need them all at the table to move forward from this"This seems to have struck a nerve with Farnell:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1284468607242711042
"Farnell has time to argue with Andrew Barclay during the game I see #cafc"
Reaction From CharltonLife - On Southall
There was a lot of discussion about the costs Southall would end up paying. @CL_Phantom speculated:Judge feels proportionate figure £17,500 + VAT = £21,000 #cafc
Bankruptcy claim in 5,4,3....and @jacob_CAFC wondered:Is there anyway he can get out of not paying?He could file for bankruptcy claiming he has no assets from which he can meet the liability
Bankruptcy should normally see grounds for his removal as director of any UK companies.
If he remains the legal owner of any shares in any UK companies, he could be compelled to liquidate (sell) them to fund his obligations.
That's all win, win, win for CAFC and its supporters.while @bobmunro advised:Yes he could present a debtor's petition - although it would not be in his best interests to do so.
There is, however, now an enforceable debt owed to ESI (the award of costs) - so not entirely outside the bounds of possibility that ESI could present a creditor's petition.There is an additional complication though. It's previously been mentioned (although I can't remember exactly where) that Southall may have transferred his house into his partner's name not long before the takeover was proposed, which you might think would make that safe from a forced sale due to any bankruptcy proceedings. However @Redchaser suggested:And if his actions to transfer assets (the house) into his wife's name was to avoid creditors this could be sequestrated is my understanding.Yes, the Official Receiver would almost certainly be able to reverse that transaction. They would also likely delay any discharge from Bankruptcy beyond the 12 months norm, and even then apply for a Bankruptcy Restrictions Order meaning the general restrictions that apply in Bankruptcy (can't be a director, can't obtain meaningful credit without informing lender etc...) would continue to apply beyond discharge - perhaps for many years afterwards.
But this is all getting ahead of ourselves a little. As @Blucher explains the next stage will be:Southall will have 14 days to pay the £21,000, failing which, enforcement action can be taken against him. If he defaults, it would be interesting for ESI to obtain an order for Southall to be orally examined as to his means for the purposes of satisfying the costs order. This would require him to attend court, produce documents described in the order and answer on oath such questions as the court may require.Of course, we haven't even mentioned how much Southall will have to pay for his own representation as well. Various figures were bandied about on the thread, and I have no idea which is most accurate, but I'll go with Blucher's assessment in that same post:The fees of ESI's barrister for advice in conference and the two hearings were said to be £5,000. Southall's barrister only had the one hearing, so they are bound to be less, although he is quite senior. Overall, I'd expect Southall's total costs, including those of his solicitors, to be at least £10,000 plus VAT.
Reaction From CharltonLife - On ESI
The evidence regarding the current ownership status of ESI also triggered a lot of discussion, such as this from @Henry Irving:A few people seem to be saying that this proves Farnell/Elliot etc lied in saying they owned the club but from what I read the judge agreed that the press release was clear that that wasn't the case and the sale was subject to EFL approval.
Misleading? Yes. A lie? The judge seemed to think not.@Airman Brown pointed out a possibly important distinction:There’s a difference between the press release issued at the time and the lie on the club website now. It is categorically untrue that ESI was taken over on June 10th and all parties to the court case accept that.
[snip]
Indeed, the club is currently telling the EFL that Elliott, Farnell etc are not in charge, as it must do to comply with EFL rules.@AndyG has a lot of hope (although I'm not sure how well founded it is):I'm rather hoping that this will all be resolved by this time next week. By then we will know what league we are in next year leaving the field clear to agree a price and the sale to go through. Then hopefully that will also allow all these current twats to fight it out among themselvesbut @Airman Brown has concerns about what happens if this isn't sorted out soon:I can’t see the EFL allowing Charlton to kick off next season without owners who have passed all the tests or with the historic issues unresolved. They have already written to the club seeking assurances that Elliott etc are not currently involved in the oversight of the club.
Charlton claim they aren’t as it is being run by the “senior management team” but that is a non-answer really. Hence Florica and Mihail still being active - at least in name as far as the former is concerned.
It's possible that the hearing will allow us to understand in more detail what has gone on with ESI so far, as according to Blucher:Reference was made in the hearing to various witness statements. These should be obtainable from the court file (for a fee) provided the non-party can demonstrate that it is in the interest of open justice to do so and/or that the applicant has a legitimate interest in obtaining the documents.From comments on the main thread, it appears that some of the documents are already starting to leak, but I've not actually seen any of them myself yet. Blucher goes into more detail about how we might obtain them legitimately here.
Other News - More From CAST
CAST have published their weekly update:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/what-is-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update-13/Again, most of it is familiar, apart from the detail that just before all the Companies House shenanigans occurred, CAST wrote to the directors of ESI requesting to inspect the Register of Members and The Register of Persons with Significant Control - both of which have to be maintained at the company's registered office (The Valley) - so they could establish whether control of ESI had passed to Paul Elliott and his consortium or not.They've also published a copy of the letter that Eltham MP Clive Efford has written to Rick Parry at the EFL about the Charlton situation:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/clive-efford-fans-are-forced-to-watch-powerlessly-from-the-sidelines/
And Finally...
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse... @clive informed us we're going to be treated to more searing insights from TalkSport:Jim White has just said he will be attending The Valley tomorrow to investigate the takeover issues & will inform us the outcome on Monday mornings show on Talksport.
Media Coverage:
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/andrew-barclay-efl-need-to-make-statement-now-over-charlton-athletic-ownership/
The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/1930889/ (paywalled) - another piece about football governance generally rather than just us4 -
Monday 20th July - "...may I be excused? My brain is full..."Transfer Embargo News
Just when you thought things were difficult enough for the club as it is, Richard Cawley tweeted out another bombshell this morning:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1285189257699753984
"Lee Bowyer says Charlton Athletic are unable to offer new contracts to senior players because they are under an embargo.
https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/lee-bowyer-embargo-means-charlton-athletic-cannot-offer-contracts-to-senior-players/"This caused a degree of confusion, typified by this comment from @ElliotCAFC:What sort of ridiculous embargo doesn’t allow you to sign up players already registered to the club? I thought the embargo meant we couldn’t spend any more than what we did at the time of the penalty - effectively ruling out new (paid) transfers.It would seem that the transfer embargo that was imposed as a result of the irregularities in the original ESI takeover is more stringent than we originally thought, or as @Airman Brown suggests:It’s quite possible that the EFL have tightened their embargo on Charlton in the last few months in response to continuing non-compliance.Unfortunately we're not likely to know whether that's the case before the Leeds game by the sound of things:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1285200029473550336
"In terms of the EFL, the indications are they won't be making any statement on Charlton until after Wednesday night. Just in case people were waiting for one."
More EFL Stuff
And then this evening just to make things a bit more nerve-jangling, the EFL finally made a statement regarding the points deductions:
https://www.efl.com/news/2020/july/efl-statement-ongoing-disciplinary-proceedings/As with most pronouncements from the EFL, it was hardly the model of clarity, and still left a degree of confusion as to exactly what was going to happen after Wednesday night. The more pessimistic amongst us were worrying whether the investigation of potential misconduct regarding the original ESI takeover was going to result in a points deduction, and @Cafc43v3r linked to a site that lists all the various reasons teams have had point deductions, and it looks like at present our situation doesn't have much in common with prior cases. However, if @Airman Brown is right, I wouldn't get too comfortable yet:I suspect a threat of expulsion is next up, if the ownership isn’t regularised by the start of next season.
Farnell's Social Media Commentary
In the meantime, I'm not sure whether Farnell's social media activity is necessarily helpful at the moment. As @calydon_road says:It is 100% strange behavior from a lawyer acting for a party in a corporate transaction to make those statements published this weekend. Perhaps he thought it was in privateThat would be because Farnell hasn’t produced any documents to show what he is supposedly selling. It’s like being asked to offer on a car where the seller not only can’t show he owns it or its service history but has also removed the number plate to avoid you doing any checking.Farnell also seems to have got into a bit of a spat with Darren New (occasionally of this parish) on twitter regarding one of the infamous range rovers:
If nothing else this seems to confirm that it is Lee Amis who's the source of at least some of the information that's leaking out.
And Finally...
Remember that Talksport expose that was supposed to be happening on Monday? Apparently it's due to be happening on Tuesday instead:White has just said that they are doing a 'big' piece on Charlton tomorrow, with Simon Jordan. White said he spoke to fans outside the ground on Saturday.
Media Coverage:
Voice of the Valley: http://www.votvonline.com/home/the-2019-20-blogs/19-7-end-game-for-the-addicks-and-not-just-at-leeds/
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/lee-bowyer-embargo-means-charlton-athletic-cannot-offer-contracts-to-senior-players/
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/lee-bowyer-charlton-sheffield-wednesday-wigan-championship-a4503831.html
Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/20/relegated-clubs-could-earn-reprieve-amid-championship-chaos-wigan-sheffield-wednesday-derby (about the points deduction issues rather than us specifically)
Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8542283/Wigan-Sheffield-Wednesday-AVOID-relegation-Championship.html (again about the points deduction issues)
Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/wigan-athletic-news-points-deduction-champtionship-efl-finances-a9629421.html (again about the points deduction issues)3 -
Tuesday 21st July - Another TalkSport TuesdayTalkSport Interviews
Charlton content featured a couple of times on the morning shows on TalkSport. Lee Bowyer called in to the TalkSport Breakfast Show to talk about the points deduction issues, and you can read/listen to what he said here:
https://talksport.com/football/efl/735372/charlton-lee-bowyer-efl-points-deduction-relegation/Then later on the much vaunted "big piece on Charlton" was on the Jim White show. For those that missed the discussion or want to hear it again, you can listen to the audio of the main discussion, which begins after about 5 minutes here, and a further quick response from White and Jordan to the fans that had contacted the show after it, which begins after about 7 minutes here. You should be prepared for a distinct lack of shocking new revelations, as well as Jim White's usual tenuous grip on the actual facts of the matter though.Reaction To The Jim White Show
Of course if you want to know what's going on at Charlton, you're far more likely to get an informed view from Richard Cawley and @Airman Brown than Jim White:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1285526980201512962
"Listening to the talkSPORT piece on Charlton now. I don't know how it can be tossed out there that Andrew Barclay isn't committed to buying the club. First point is that you need to know who owns the club first of all."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1285527275627307008
"I also don't think anyone needs to give anyone the benefit of the doubt. What has happened at Charlton in recent times shows that every single owner should be under the utmost scrutiny from media and supporters."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1285531255375831040
"Peter Varney: "We haven't been asked [by talkSPORT] for any comment yet people are speculating about Andrew's involvement. Wouldn't you want to do that to balance the piece?""https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1285531256751566848
"PV: "We signed an NDA [non-disclosure agreement] but haven't had a single document. So what did we sign an NDA for? What is the purpose of the NDA?""https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1285531258051866625
"PV: "The EFL decision is key because if they are not approved then they are not the people we'll be dealing with. If they are approved we will be dealing with them. It's not our fault the process has taken so long."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1285531259339513858
"PV: "It is not of our making, because the EFL don't want to make a call before the end of the season.""And @Airman Brown followed up:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1285546758240600064
"It's worth underlining this point. Farnell says Barclay hasn't progressed matters. They signed an NDA weeks ago, but report Farnell hasn't supplied a single document. Yet CF is seeking to undermine Barclay with nonsense about AB/PV's intentions. Why? #cafc (with a link to Varney's NDA tweet above)"https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1285547476322312193
"Remember that ESI/CAFC director Marian Mihail - representing Nimer at the club - said he had never even heard of the PV/AB approach to buy #cafc, despite Farnell having already been in discussions with Varney for weeks before VOTV made it public."More On The MPs' Intervention and The EFL
It seems that Clive Efford's letter to the EFL wasn't his first intervention on the subject of our problems last week. He also raised it in a debate in Parliament, and can get away with describing those involved as "dubious characters" because MPs can't be sued for things they say in the House of Commons:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1285597089188188163
"Dubious characters” involved with #cafc “undermining the future of the club” says @CliveEfford under protection of parliamentary privilege."
(This is taken from the Business of the House Debate on 16th July.)In addition, CAST have followed up Pennycook and Efford's letters to the EFL with one of their own, highlighting their repeated unsuccessful attempts to meet with EFL to discuss the issues surrounding the ownership of the club, and stressing the urgency with which it needs to be resolved:
https://www.castrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ParryJULY20.pdfMore Twitter Spats
A new character weighed in to the twitter spat between Darren New and Farnell yesterday, by the name of John Burke (you can see his name mentioned in one of Farnell's replies in yesterday's bitesize). I have to admit I wasn't really paying much attention to him, but he managed to unite several varying factions of Charlton fans on twitter by being patronising to Darren personally as well as about the fans' ability to take on Farnell:
https://twitter.com/itsagoldfinch/status/1285245845097644033
"I never questioned your business acumen however considering I’ve never heard of you I would argue it’s as insignificant as you are & if you think a couple of everyday fans can beat lawyers in their own game then you are truly deluded by your desire to disrupt the fanbase & cafc
"
After a fair amount of back and forth from various quarters, including Burke calling Varney a "fake", which endeared him even less to the Charlton fans weighing in, it was left to Ben Hayes (also of this parish) to attempt to ascertain why Burke had such faith in Elliott to be a good owner of the club, and culminated in Ben testing Burke's claim that he'd followed Charlton as a youngster because he'd grown up locally:
https://twitter.com/BenHayes77/status/1285570988181196810
"Oh come on, you can't believe that anyone was asking for the number and street name. Really, you know that wasn't what was being asked. And anyway, you moved decades ago.
You could have just said Thornton Heath or Elephant and Castle, well known #cafc supporting heartlands"I admit of itself it isn't really relevant, but somewhere in these exchanges Burke obviously did something that annoyed Lee Amis enough to make him break cover briefly:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1285605035330678785
"Lee Amis has broken his silence on twitter & says he is “fed up with people thinking they know what has gone on at this club and having there (sic) say on what they think I’ve done”
Amis’ name came up on that consultantancy fee & Range Rover list back in the glory days #cafc
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1285607054229544964
"Praying the meeting takes place in Makro’s car park. Has been a traditional showdown location on the @CharltonLife forum for years and is relevant after the @talkSPORT feature today #cafc"It'll be interesting to see if anything actually comes of this but as ever I'm not holding my breath.
Media Coverage:
The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/07/21/even-championship-season-has-finished-relegation-chaos-still/ - about the points deductions and relegation battle
The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/fears-that-lawyers-not-players-could-decide-who-goes-down-nf2xz9b8v (paywalled) - about the points deductions and relegation battle3 -
Thursday 23rd July Part1 -"...and everybody hurts sometimes, so hold on..."Unsurprisingly I had neither the time nor the inclination to do this last night, so there's quite a bit to catch up on.Some Pre-game Cheer
After Jim White's slightly odd comments about Andrew Barclay on TalkSport on Tuesday, it was quite cheering to see this before the game:
https://twitter.com/andrewdbarclay/status/1285880328494645252
"I wish Lee Bowyer and the team all the best for the game at Leeds this evening.
Whatever the outcome, our interest in acquiring The Valley, Training Ground and Club remains."While I'm wary of pinning my faith on any prospective owner, I think ex Comms guy Jimmy Stone sums it up best:
https://twitter.com/JimmyStone_/status/1285888271365611525
"There are people who want you to believe this isn’t true.
Whatever Chris Farnell or Richard Murray say, Peter Varney isn’t messing around, he’s capable of rebuilding a football club and has Charlton’s best interests at heart.
Varney and Andrew Barclay offer #cafc hope." (with a link to the Barclay tweet above)A little later he also tweeted out this rallying cry to the Charlton fanbase:
https://twitter.com/JimmyStone_/status/1285923703470129155
"Clearly, whatever happens tonight, yet again Charlton fans are going to have a fight on their hands.
There’s a lot of nonsense about fans and groups having ‘agendas’. It’s aimed to split us. Now’s the time for unity. We’ll mobilise again and together we’ll win again. #cafcPost Match Dejection
The post match press conference with Lee Bowyer had quite the opposite tone:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1286040235600642054
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1286039699904245760
"Asked Bowyer if today's relegation changes his situation with the club and he says now is not the time to talk about it. "More things of late have happened recently that have made me even more so not happy with what's happening here" @BBCLondonSport #cafc"https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1286041610468364288
"Asked LB how easy it is to rebuild: "What I do know is we're still under embargo. Again it's too early to start on who is staying and who is going. But it's going to be a lot that are going to go.""https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1286041875657437184
"LB: "To try and work miracles again - like we did last summer and probably in half the time? I don't know if that is going to be possible - to bring in enough players. That's if we're allowed to. I don't know what is happening behind the scenes.""https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1286040497115615233
"Bow is distraught and he's angry. "This job has been impossible at times, but even with all that we had the chance of staying in the division." @BBCLondonSport #cafc"So that was Bowyer's take, and pretty much everyone was convinced that the blame did not lie with him:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1286048800042373123
"You know it's bad when you can say that Charlton are worse off with ESI at the helm than they were with Roland Duchatelet."https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1286043153854857216
"So grim. The Spivs, Duchatelet, ESI 1 and ESI 2. It's like a conveyor belt of absolute plebs leads to the boardroom at The Valley.
The Powell years, the Bowyer years. So much potential snuffed out by moronic owners. Horrible. #cafc"https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1286043766089015303
"What's going to be left of this Charlton side in League One next year? The manager...wouldn't count on it for sure. Most the squad out of contract. Under an embargo. We're basically screwed.
Ownership change must come ASAP. #cafc"(And just to add to our squad problems:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1286191501794594825
"Tom Lockyer has got a relegation release clause in his Charlton contract.
It means the Wales international can leave for nothing this summer.
https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/charlton-athletic-defender-has-relegation-release-and-can-leave-for-nothing/" )https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1286046338405355520
"Truth is, we never really stood a chance. But this club has heart and soul, whatever division we are in. #cafc #ESIOut #ESIpretendersOut #RolandOut #EFLNotFitForPurpose"https://twitter.com/CAFCfansforfans/status/1286039801175523329
"Let's remember Charlton. The real problems here ? Lack of investment, failed promises, chancers who are only after personal gain in a ponzi style scheme. ESI, Lyle Taylor the list is endless. @Chris_Farnell all Charlton fans are coming for you chancers. #ESIout."If you're in need of a silver lining, @Airman Brown has a small one:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286067956884090886
"I’m struggling for a silver lining tonight, but I’ll give you one small positive. As a result of #cafc going down that’s another £1.5m greedy bastard Duchatelet will never see."More TalkSport Coverage
TalkSport had a couple more Charlton interviews this morning. First up was Farnell, (from 22mins here), who was subjected to the usual Jim White grilling ie one that would struggle to melt DairyleaScepticism abounded in the listening fans:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1286289510117126145
"Can someone order a mountain of salt for us all to take this with please
A pinch won’t hack it."
(with a link to the TalkSport tweet including a couple minutes of the interview)https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286571407019855873
"BREAKING: Lawyer vouches for client as two men with no prior affiliation to #cafc purport to care about something other than their own greed."
(with a link to the same TalkSport tweet as above)Bowyer called in later on, and starts at about 8min 30secs here. It's very similar to his post match press conference comments, and from his voice he is just as gutted as we are.An Unorthodox Communications Strategy
Given the uncertainty over the ownership and the fact we've just been relegated (subject to the outcome of the various EFL proceedings) Charlton fans naturally have a lot of questions. Farnell seems happy to answer them, but only if you're one of the select few that has access to his locked twitter account:
Why is he answering all of these questions behind a locked twitter account when the club haven't said a wordAnd so was se9addick:That’s just how we roll now, all club business is discussed and disseminated on personal Twitter and Instagram accounts, it’s utterly ridiculous.It’s an absolute shambles. He’s buying time. The bit about starting a playing budget late last night, brilliantAlthough @Cafc43v3r queried:He is obviously buy time, but time for what? He is about as likely to fund a league 1 playing budget as I am.Part 2 to follow later on, although it's predominantly discussion and speculation, so don't wait for it with bated breath
Media Coverage:
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/charlton-boss-lee-bowyer-says-now-is-not-the-time-to-discuss-his-future-as-addicks-drop-back-into-league-one/
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/charlton-boss-lee-bowyer-we-had-a-chance-of-staying-up-and-we-never-grabbed-it/
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/charlton-athletic-defender-has-relegation-release-and-can-leave-for-nothing/
The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/07/22/charlton-relegated-league-one-champions-leeds-brush-aside/
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/23/lee-bower-boardroom-charlton-relegation-championship
The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/charlton-athletic-lee-bowyer-relegation-owners-a9634061.html2 -
Thursday 23rd July Part 2 - "...I've got the brains, you've got the looks, let's make lots of money..."There's been a flurry of posts over the last few days, and a lot of the following is speculation, so you're unlikely to miss anything of importance if you can't face wading through it, but may prove useful background later. Unfortunately due to space reasons I can't quote most of these posts in full, and the links are largely to locked posts, but it should hopefully give you a bit of a flavour if you can't access those.So What Are ESI Playing At?
With the ongoing wait for ESI to get EFL authorisation @killerandflash was confused:I still can't see why someone has come in to buy a loss making football club, which has so few assets they can exploitMy understanding is that ESIv2 have been trying to raise money, unsuccessfully, off the back of a residential scheme on The Valley, which is exactly what ESIv1 were about. It won’t fly. We give them too much credit. Their outlay from the beginning has been minimal, in my opinion they will look to recover recent spending through asset sales past and present, and when the EFL decline to accept them they will disappear overnight, leaving Mihail and Florica holding the baby.Apart from fraudulent representation, how can anyone try and sell the idea of a residential scheme at The Valley, when they only hold a lease?
Unless they are representing that RD is also agreeable?ESIv2 don’t even hold a lease, but ESI does hold a deal to buy the land, albeit at a mad price. If the scheme was deliverable that might allow them to borrow against it / attract investors. However, it’s not and that’s why they can’t borrow against it. Plus their reputation stinks.Anyone who spends 5 minutes walking around The Valley realises that even if they got permission to build on The Valley (which is very very unlikely) they wouldn't be able to recoup the £50m cost anyway
It's not a prime Central London riverside site where you can build a 50 storey glass block to flog to rich overseas investors (a market which will crash soon anyway)
Hence I'm slightly sceptical that this is ESIv2's end game, especially as being Manchester based, they know little about the London property marketAlthough one might argue that knowing little about the London property market beyond "it's bloody expensive compared to up North" is why they'd be daft enough to try this. On the other hand @Scratchingvalleycat wondered if there's another way around the ownership issue and @PeanutsMolloy reckons there's an easy way to lower the valuations, while @N01R4M went into more detail on why that might work, and @SteveKielyCambridge provided further supporting evidence, which left PeanutsMolly to conclude:...it could be that Roland’s sitting on one of least developable pieces of real estate in the Borough, barring the ObservatoryIn the mean time though, we have the issues surrounding the day to day running of the club. @Clarky raised an interesting point:As the Court said last week that esi 2 dont own the club as the sale hasnt been completed can they legally sell any of the players?How on earth the EFL aren't getting more involved is beyond the joke, by their own admission and the courts Elliot and co. Don't own the club but are happy to see them run it?!? ESIv1 have effectively left the building there's currently people with no physical interest in CAFC running the show.As @AndyG says:Whoever is paying the Bill's must be worrying how they are going to recoup that money. They will just disappear, club will go into admin, and then a buyer will enter the fray.Where Do We Go From Here?
There's been a lot of discussion about the likelihood of ESI passing the EFL tests, what happens if they don't, and the effect going in to administration would have on the agreements between ESI and Roland relating to the Valley and Sparrows Lane. @KentishAddick wondered:Am I right in thinking if they don't pass the tests by 4th August then we're potentially kicked out of the league?Would be the start of next season or a deadline set around that, I think. Club may need to go into administration in order to prise RD’s hands off the Staprix loan, but something will happen.Anyone with any level of business acumen would never agree to take on the existing liabilities. Although I never thought I would say this but I think administration is the best option for the club now as it is the only way I can see things being brought to a head and a sensible owner being able to sort a deal with RDAll that ESI admin would do will be to make any arrangement ESI have with Roland (re renting and future purchase of TV/SL) redundant. It would then be up to a new buyer to negotiate new terms if they wished to.
This could be a good thing as it will show RD he will not get his £50m back (so he has to negotiate); or a bad thing if he fails to agree a rental arrangement with new owners for TV/SL (and we have to play elsewhere); or worst option, we do not find anyone willing to buy us and fold (leaving RD with a white elephant he can't sell or develop).Ultimately, dues to HMRC (PAYE) are often the trigger for a football club being forced into administration. Can't imagine we're not in arrears already but PAYE's the likely ticking bomb here.As soon as the EFL's decision on Elliott is in (next week?), expect a quick fire-sale, cash-grab, before we are put into Administration as the scumbags try to avoid legal action from Duchatelet to recover his £50m as per their contract. No-one wants to start life in League One with minus 12 points but it may well be the only way to get clean title and honest ownership once again.I can totally see that happening, but cannot see how it is legal - you cannot sell the assets of a business, pocket them money, and then leave the creditors to suffer non-payment. That is fraud and any Insolvency Practitioner would be duty-bound to investigate.If roly hopes to get £5M back (let alone 50) out of his catastrophic London football fiasco, he'd do best to buy back CAFC for whatever tiny sum will see all the timewasting arseholes go away and then spend a week or so talking to the one bidder known to be in position to take the whole white elephant off his hands. He can only rely on ESI (v1 or 2 whatever) to drop CAFC into admin at a moment's notice and then he'll be up the creek.@Airman Brown seems to be resigned to administration:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286055617019379714
"If the club has to go into administration to rid itself of Duchatelet’s loans because he is too stupid to accept he can never collect on Nimer’s guarantee then so be it.And this is something I never thought I'd see from one of the leading lights of the Back to the Valley campaign:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286056135687110660
"I am absolutely confident that all the while the club is playing - and wherever it is playing - no planning consent on The Valley will ever be granted. So if the ground has to be left empty to force him to sell it then so be it."While it all seems pretty depressing right now, @Airman Brown also sounds a note of hope.
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286057254962241541
"It’s likely to get very messy over the next few weeks and months. However, there are people with big ambitions for #cafc ready to step in. It will take time and it will be painful but we can put this right and we will."And What About The EFL?
One common theme since full time on Wednesday night has been the failures of the EFL:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286055145999147017
"Grim evening. The @EFL have had since last November to get answers from the current owners of #cafc and now need to force them out by making clear the club cannot start next season at all under the current regime or its imaginary successors."By their lack of clarity and action the EFL might be responsible for supporters renewing season tickets, when there is a chance we might be expelled or that our current custodians will trouser the funds before departing.@RodneysMiddleName has an interesting analysis of the source of the EFL's problems, which is worth reading in full, but largely boils down to these two points:The issue is that the Championship contains many clubs who have tasted the Champagne of the top League and don't like the Tizer available to lower League teams. It's no wonder they do what they can to bend the rules to try to get promotion... The Football League is a members-club, run on behalf of the clubs and their owners, not the fans.They have left Wigan, Sheffield Wednesday and Deby fans out to dry for months and fail to communicate. If a business did this it would rightly fail or be exposed by the media and regulators for corporate governance failures. The EFL sets its own rules, succumbs to the decisions of the majority of its members who do not want governance. It should be exposed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as to what it appears to be, a unregulated cartel.Finally, on Wednesday lunchtime N01R4M pointed us towards a Politics Live segment on issues affecting lower league clubs. The video piece centring on Leyton Orient, Covid and community work starts at 35mins, while the talking head discussion starts at roughly 42mins but annoyingly gets cut off by PMQs.
Media Coverage - EFL and Associated Regulation Issues:
The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/07/22/english-football-needs-reset-say-mps-calls-salary-cap-grow-louder/
Sky Sports: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11688/12034698/championship-relegation-far-from-resolved-as-sheffield-wednesday-derby-and-wigan-await-efl-fate
The Express: https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1313414/Championship-Relegation-Wigan-Barnsley-Sheffield-Wednesday-Charlton
The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/alluring-chaos-of-championship-is-inseparable-from-its-financial-turbulence-jqgnn3xnn (paywalled)6 -
Friday 24th July - ...Now with 50% more @Airman Brown tweets...More Relegation Fallout
On Friday morning Richard Cawley tweeted out links to his latest bits of Charlton coverage. The Leeds match report linked here was more of a review of the season than of the actual game, which is probably just as well:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1286576433524019201
"Relegation to League One, feared exits of star players and doubts over Lee Bowyer's future...the nightmare shows no signs of ending for Charlton
https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/relegation-to-league-one-feared-exits-of-star-players-and-doubts-over-bowyers-future-the-nightmare-shows-no-signs-of-ending-for-charlton/"while the second one was a more detailed write up of Lee Bowyer's post game comments, and wasn't much cheerier reading:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1286578178870390784
"Lee Bowyer fears that star players will go following Charlton's Championship relegation
https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/lee-bowyer-fears-that-star-players-will-go-following-championship-relegation/"On Friday afternoon, the club finally put a statement up on the OS from our prospective owner / new benefactor / latest patsy (delete as appropriate)
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5f1ae43c40c14/a-statement-from-paul-elliottAs with most things emanating from ESI these days, it was largely treated with scepticism, as demonstrated by this comment from @Mal:Mr Elliott, give it up, you're on a hiding to nothing, however good your intentions may be, I don't trust you, we don't trust you, the "who owns us" feels like a relay baton, passed from one to another, all the while doing further untold damage to the great club we support - not forgetting what we fought for too.Meanwhile @mattinfinland was confused:How can they plan with Lee Bowyer budgets and everything when we have a transfer ban and Paul Elliot don't even own the club?but @Callumcafc reckons:They are desperate for the EFL to approve their takeover. I’m guessing the thinking behind another bland statement is that that may nudge the EFL into believing they are here for the long term.
But that all means nothing if they still can’t provide sufficiency or source of funding.If that was their aim, it may have backfired as @Airman Brown pointed out a glaring discrepancy between what it seems the EFL are being told, and what the club is telling fans.
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286766071463251968
"I mean a formal statement has been made to the @efl in response to a letter that Elliott is not in a position of influence at #CAFC, while the club is telling fans he is paying wages, considering budgets and talking to Lee about his future."Other News - More From CAST
CAST have published their weekly update:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/what-is-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update-14/ which is probably best summarised by this quote:It is clear to CAST that, had Charlton Athletic Football Club at any time this season had owners with the club’s best interests at heart, we would be playing Championship football next season.They've also tweeted out a link to the petition about the EFL Owners and Directors Test created on the Government petitions website by the Wigan Supporters Club. It's currently got 15,000 signatures, which guarantees a Government response, and if it reaches over 100,000 then that guarantees a debate in Parliament.Fun And Games With Farnell
A while ago, over on the main thread @CAFCSayer mentioned that he'd submitted a complaint to the Solicitors' Regulation Authority about Farnell, and today he had an update:For what it's worth, I reported Farnell to the SRA for a potential conflict of interest and they have said that they are actively looking into it...
https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/decision-making/guidance/investigations-decisions-investigate-concerns/Apparently the SRA has a kind of triage team, which rejects 80% of reports to them, so just making it through that threshold is a good start. As ForeverAddickted saidThere SURELY has to be a conflict of interest as didnt Farnell deny that he'd spoken with Varney when the latter made the original bid?This caused a lot of interest in the wider Charlton community when @Airman Brown tweeted about it on Friday lunchtime:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286637350035034120
"Solicitors Regulation Authority to look into complaint about Chris Farnell by #cafc supporter Daniel Sayer over his involvement with ESI/CAFC. The SRA have confirmed the complaint meets the threshold for investigation."Someone claiming to be Chris Farnell (from an account with no identifying information on it, so I can't guarantee it actually is) replied to one of the tweets in that thread:
https://twitter.com/ChrisFarnell6/status/1286707784315273221
"I did not act for Mr Nimer regarding the agreeement with Mr Elliot. Separate advise was sought , which can be evidenced. There was no conflict of interest"However, that account does misspell "advice" in the same way as in the tweet quoted by below, which may be indicative that they're the same person (or may just be a common autocorrect error)
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286715365368762370
"Now Farnell claims he wasn’t Nimer’s lawyer on negotiations over the sale of ESI, despite appearing as Nimer’s lawyer and entering into discussions over a potential sale with PV/AB as far back as April. #cafc"
The tweet thread that followed on from that one raised several interesting questions
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286716305127743494
"So who represented Nimer in drawing up the heads of terms for the aborted sale to Bassini, confirmed in Farnell’s own witness statement to the court last week?"https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286718955047067648
"If Farnell represented the buyer and not the seller in the incomplete sale to Elliott, wouldn’t he have a duty of disclosure in negotiating an NDA with Varney. What is his current locus, given Elliott doesn’t own the club?"https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286721501778018305
"So how is Farnell “Charlton’s lawyer” now if he represents someone hoping to buy ESI from the current owner? What’s he doing on @talkSPORT speaking for the club if he’s not representing the owner and his client hasn’t approved by the @efl?"A little while later, the Charlton fan grapevine (no, not @Grapevine49, Darren New I think) came through with a little pictoral evidence:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286728291152347136
"Well, this is awkward #cafc"
Although if you look closely at the document it's dated 12th March, so relates to fairly early on in the whole saga. Presumably there was some kind of contract in place between Nimer/the club and Farnell at this point, and it'd be interesting to know what the limitations/restrictions on Farnell's activities were according to that.And this final bit of snark reminds me of a Bugs Bunny cartoon
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286732589261348865
"Let’s be fair, Louis. Farnell clearly represented Nimer up until he stopped representing him in order to act as Elliott’s lawyer in the deal from Nimer, then he swapped sides of the table and went back to representing #cafc, still owned by Nimer." (with a link to this tweet from @LouisMend)Someone's Getting Worried...
All the Farnell-bashing during the afternoon seems to have got someone's attention at the club:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286739415675609088
"Wasn’t going to mention it, but I had a call from #cafc this evening politely asking me to ease off ESI on social media, at least until the @EFL decision. Had to turn them down, I’m afraid."In response to queries as to who it was:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286740660217958401
"Not someone I’d ever spoken to before but they were only the messenger anyway. No issue with them."Another of the former Charlton Comms guys Matt Wright was distinctly unimpressed:
https://twitter.com/mattjobob/status/1286748604238094336
"ESI trying to silence the #cafc 'supporter of the year' isn't exactly a good look.
Anyone would think they were scared of a bit of objective criticism/challenge. Which they clearly are" (with a link to this tweet from @airmanbrown)Final word of the day goes to ex-director Bob Whitehand:
https://twitter.com/BobWhitehand/status/1286397362638917634
"Ten years ago myself and fellow Directors David Sumners and Derek Chappell resigned and left our Loans invested interest free to stave off admin and enable those remaining to find a buyer to take the club forward , where are we today ? You tell me?"
Media Coverage:
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/relegation-to-league-one-feared-exits-of-star-players-and-doubts-over-bowyers-future-the-nightmare-shows-no-signs-of-ending-for-charlton/
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/lee-bowyer-fears-that-star-players-will-go-following-championship-relegation/
BBC Sport: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/535321846 -
Sunday 26th July - Weekend editionMore On The Farnell Fun And Games
After all the criticism on Friday of Farnell's alledged conflict of interest in the ESI sale, he responded to some of those tweeting:
https://twitter.com/ValleyFloydFred/status/1286758050850918400
"For the sake of balance. Chris Farnell's response to the image of the letter that has been posted on Twitter to dispute his claim that he did not represent Nimer when it came to the takeover."
I thought lawyers are meant to have an eye for detail, but seemingly not Farnell, as the date on the letter tweeted out was 12th March (the day of the infamous boardroom showdown with Southall and co). Perhaps he's confusing it with another letter we've not yet seen? Either way, that's not the only issue:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286808644424802304
"Can’t even get the date right, Chris. Thing is, even if we accept this account, there is still the fact that you were talking to Varney at the same time. Is it ethical for you to have let him believe you were representing Nimer, when you now say you weren’t?" (with a link to the ValleyFloydFred tweet above)https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286909648843485185
"There’s also the question of who Farnell was representing at the end of May in talks involving Huw Jenkins, another of his ex-clients, when a range of deals to buy ESI/#cafc were discussed, as well as who engaged on Nimer’s behalf with the Portuguese group."https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286928618707353600
"Curiouser and curiouser... here’s Bassini saying in March that he submitted proof of funds to Farnell, who has now told us that he doesn’t represent Nimer in the current “sale” of ESI/#cafc. So when did he stop?" (with a screenshot of this tweet from Richard Cawley)https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286937999293415425
"Farnell was also reported in the Evening Standard on March 25th to have denied Nimer was interested in selling - although he isn’t acting for him in the “sale” - yet from his witness statement Nimer had agreed heads of terms with Bassini by April 21st. #cafc"
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286938645124075524
"So, Farnell allegedly received proof of funds from Bassini in March despite Nimer having no interest in selling until April, when he entered into heads of terms. But who was advising Nimer?"For those who want to know a little more about how the SRA Code of Conduct deals with Conflicts of Interest Blucher provided a bit of information, and concluded:I do not know for whom Farnell has been acting but presumably the SRA will obtain access to his files and any engagement letter(s) should help clarify the position. His directorship of ESI is also highly relevant, given the duties which he owes to the company in that capacity.Perhaps we can reassured by the endorsement of fans of clubs he's previously been involved with? Er, no:
https://twitter.com/rhampson2018/status/1287334897112293377
"#CAFC All of us at Bury FC feel your pain and if there is anything as supporters you can do to get these names such as Farnell out of your club then you have to do it now or your heading the same way as Bury FC... #buryfcAnd Jimmy Stone has kindly provided us with a reminder of one feature of Farnell's time at Bury:
https://twitter.com/JimmyStone_/status/1287117389134471169
"Listen to @Chris_Farnell’s answer when he was asked ‘why a Brazilian multi-millionaire pastor, would be interested in saving Bury FC?’ last August and then tell me you trust him. #cafc" (plus video of Dan Roan interview with Farnell around the time Bury were in trouble)https://twitter.com/JimmyStone_/status/1287124429173129216
"Still Gustavo, the heralded saviour of Bury landed on his feet. Director of a now dissolved (obviously) Christian Football Team called 'Fire United' based in Lewisham.
I mean come on. #cafc
https://twitter.com/JimmyStone_/status/1287129128571932673
"To be clear, @Chris_Farnell was pushing this guy, a pastor and director of a tiny Christian football club based in Lewisham as the man who was going to save Bury. Because he was friends with Adriano Basso. #cafc #buryfc
Further Fan Response To The Elliott OS Statement
I forgot to put this from @i_b_b_o_r_g in Friday's bitesize (despite the fact I very much enjoyed it), riffing on the photo of Elliott attached to the statement on the OS, and his similarity to former ventriloquist Keith Harris. I do blame him for the fact that I'm now earwormed with "I Wish I Could Fly" by Orville though.
And then on Sunday morning, Matt Wright showed a similar lack of respect for our supposed new owner:
https://twitter.com/mattjobob/status/1287300471204515840
"Quick thread of people named Elliott/Eliot who care more about Charlton and/or would be more use to #cafc than the club's current sham 'owner' Paul..." (with a link to this tweet from @Airman Brown)I'm not going to copy out all of them, but some of my favourites include Our former keeper Rob, rapper Missy, Oscar winning actor Denholm, the Chuckle brothers, Robert and Paul and our former defender PaulMore On Barclay's Interest In The Club
For those of you wondering how the Barclay/Varney bid materialised, @Airman Brown had some further explanation:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286990807887642630
"For those interested parties questioning the credentials of @andrewdbarclay re #cafc, I was first introduced to him by @MarkKleinmanSky, another keen fan and also City editor of Sky News. Perhaps Mark’s objective enough for those who question my motivation?"https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286991559234387968
"I suggested to Andrew that he needed to speak to @_PeterVarney and that’s how things came together. So not the case that I am just advocating for PV. Andrew’s interest was already independently established."Mark followed up with some details of his own
https://twitter.com/MarkKleinmanSky/status/1286992486725017601
"I've been a #cafc fan for 40 years, and the immediate prospects for the club have rarely felt as bleak as they seem today; I know @andrewdbarclay well, and think he has the right approach - as well as access to sufficient funding - to provide a way out of this mess. We need it."As @Airman Brown laid out in a response to John Burke (who's definitely got something of a bee in his bonnet about an "agenda" against Elliott and Farnell), there are obvious reasons why we'd be more in favour of a Barclay/Varney bid:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1286930942406393856
"What false narrative, John? It’s a choice between the highly respected ex-CEO and lifelong fan allied with a member of one of the wealthiest families around versus a discharged bankrupt with no money and a lawyer with a dubious reputation in the game."New protests?
Now that it's been confirmed that we're relegated and there's still no sign of any stability in the ownership, there seems to be an increasing appetite for further protests:
https://twitter.com/charltonprotest/status/1287000279024631808
"Any chance of a reboot, @CharltonCARD?
Let’s rally and finish the job.
@Chris_Farnell, you’ve picked on the wrong fanbase. Sell the club to @_PeterVarney & @andrewdbarclay."
As a starter, this banner has gone up over the railway arches at Ransom Walk (although I don't know how efficient Network Rail are at taking stuff like that down, so it may not be up there for long)
https://twitter.com/RAG20191/status/1287029342745309185
"Just a kind reminder to any visitors leaving the Valley, that ESI are not wanted ! GET OUT OF OUR CLUB!!!"
In addition @N01R4M has been organising an email campaign to the EFL (inspired by an idea from @billysboots) highlighting our concerns over their governance failures in general, and in relation to Charlton in particular. The first wave of emails went out on Sunday evening, but if you missed it and still want to send your own, you can use the details in the linked post, or use the EFL Supporter Services webform.More on the EFL
On the subject of the EFL, I missed this first time round on Friday:
https://twitter.com/BenRansomSky/status/1286694417244590081
"Two days after their Great Escape Barnsley not holding back about ownership ‘issues’ in the @EFL hitting out at “blatant disregard for sporting/competitive integrity.” #wafc #cafc #dcfc #swfc"
I don't think anyone can argue with Barnsley's assessment here, although I'm not sure you can say we really benefited from the way the EFL have acted in our case.
Media Coverage:
Nothing in the papers that I can see, but some radio and podcast stuff. On Saturday afternoon, Louis Mendez tweeted out a link to a discussion on BBC Radio London about the relegation fallout, Lee Bowyer's future, Chris Farnell, and the EFL's fitness for purpose. Definitely worth a listen, and a vast improvement on your average TalkSport segment. Ex-defender Steve Brown is particularly vocal on certain points.
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1287028215660380162
"You can listen back to the @BBCLondonSport feature on Charlton, featuring @S66Brown and myself, 41 mins in on the link here #cafc
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08kcrt1"And then on Saturday night, the end of season edition of Charlton Live came out:
https://www.charltonlive.co.uk/2020/07/25/charlton-live-sunday-26th-july-2020/They were talking about the last match at Leeds, Lee Bowyer's post match interview and the likelihood of him staying, as well as the latest events in the on-going ESI saga.10 -
Monday 27th July Part 1 - "...It's just another Manic Monday..."The Impact Of The Current Uncertainty On The Squad Makeup
Late on Sunday night, the Sun's Night Sport editor Phil Cadden tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/pjcadden/status/1287513854126292995
"Told Cardiff, Fulham, Burnley, Norwich and Derby all monitoring Macauley Bonne’s situation after Charlton’s relegation to League One."
Someone obviously tweeted this to Farnell who again responded from his locked twitter account:
Meanwhile Richard Cawley had some good news and some bad news: https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1287697661886423040
"Ben Dempsey and James Vennings both staying at Charlton. Their deals had been due to expire this summer." (with a picture of Ben Dempsey. I think)https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1287767351568588802
"Charlton's desire to keep Dillon Phillips and Alfie Doughty set to tested in the next couple of weeks.
Neither will be extending their contracts as it stands.
https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/charlton-athletic-set-to-be-tested-over-desire-to-hold-on-to-dillon-phillips-and-alfie-doughty/"https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1287767356865941507
"Fulham were keen on Doughty in January + ready to pay around £2million for him. List of admirers has only increased as the campaign went on.
Going to be very interesting to see how ESI react to any bids or approaches that come in."There's a catch of course:
https://twitter.com/Samue1_Phillips/status/1287769397264879616
"Since the new consortium are not legally the owners, who would be the one to sign off on any deals? Surely it'd be illegal for PE to sell these players and pocket the cash before exiting stage left"https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1287769863222689799
"It's a very good question. I'd assume offers go to Steve Gallen but I don't know who he takes them to!"https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1287769863222689799
"Since Mr Farnell is being rather inconspicuous about who he actually works for, you'd hope Nimer hasn't given him the legal authority to authorise transfers, or this could get really bad really fast"Voice of The Valley Continues Pressure on the EFL
Mid-morning @Airman Brown tweeted out a link to the latest Voice of The Valley blog post:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1287687339263897600
"NEW FROM VOTV: "Timewasting is a tactic Charlton can't afford" - Rick Everitt calls for an immediate @EFL statement on #cafc as relegated Addicks risk expulsion from the league if new owners are not approved by September. Now at http://votvonline.com"That left @SantaClaus feeling pessimistic:What does an EFL rejection of ESI achieve? EFL have some pretty blunt sanctioning tools and it's actually in ESI's alleged property play interests to be kicked out of the league. I don't see how EFL can save us from these bastards.IMO it's the only excuse they have currently everything is "we need the EFL to make a decision" So If they do and it's a rejection then it outs them publicly and they have to make a next move.
In that case they have to either move us on and sell up or basically say no, and then its clear, again publicly that they mean the club harm as we'd be close to losing our league status.I think the one thing we don't want is for the EFL to continue to drag their feet. Whether the delay is because the EFL have doubts or because ESI2 have not provided all the required information, we as fans obviously deserve to know now given the passage of time. The willingness of the EFL to disclose anything to a wider group of stakeholders (eg fans) could be a challenge.I think the EFL are in a great big hole which they have no idea how to escape from. Our ownership is suspect, but just supposing they did penalise Derby And wed. this year, keeping us up, and then had to expel us because of the crooks in charge. What division would we be expelled from, total chaos, all of their own doing.Finally, I'm not sure if the EFL have finished wading through the emails they got sent at the weekend, but Redmidland decided to send them another one today, which concluded:You are supposed to be there to protect clubs and the integrity of the game, so far you are failing on both counts.Club "Statement" on Possible Player Sales
Then at roughly 5:30pm, the statement trailed by Farnell finally showed up on the OS:
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5f1efcab62d5c/update-on-potential-player-salesAs far as nothing statements go that's gotta be the biggest and most pointless.
"Hi, we don't own the club but thought we'd tell you we're not selling any players"Sat here for a few seconds, waiting for the rest of it to load, then realised it is literally 2 f****** sentences.I think @KentishAddick was being sarcastic, but there's no accounting for taste:I'm truly excited to see how they're gonna strengthen the squad when we're under an embargoI am not planning on selling any Charlton players and neither is my wife.And I expect we'll soon see whether @Chris_from_Sidcup and @JamesF are psychic, overly cynical or just speaking from bitter experience:"We really wanted to keep all 3 players and didn't intend to sell them but all 3 decided they wanted a transfer"JamesF said:I suppose this means that when Bonne, Phillips and Doughty are sold this week for some quick cash, it will be trotted out that they weren't 'key contracted players'.CARD, CAST, and CAFCFansForFans Gearing Up
It definitely looks like the Charlton fanbase are gearing up for a fight (metaphorical rather than literal, just in case Eltham Police are looking in). This morning CARD tweeted out a clip of a Rocky training montage at Chris Farnell and the EFL, so it'll be interesting to see what they're planning, although they may need to rename themselves slightly:
https://twitter.com/miss_scatty/status/1287872097050439680
"Time for a rebrand as Coalition Against Rogue Directors?"Some are already relishing exercising their artistic talents again:
https://twitter.com/willbollcafc/status/1287743263290646528
"Sheets and paint on standby #cafc
#backbarclayandvarney"
Which reminds me, who's got the "EFL not fit for purpose" banner these days?
Meanwhile CAST tweeted a link to their analysis of the current situation, including a comparison with the Bury situation from last year:
https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1287764572712120320
"COUNTDOWN | The clock is ticking on the very future of #cafc #EFL #notanotherbury
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/47-days-to-expulsion/"and followed up with some details about what they're currently working on, and what they and we may need to do as events progress:
https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1287771346118807565
"Multi-pronged approach needed to protect, preserve and promote #cafc for this and future generations.
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/current-crisis-what-can-we-do/"And CAFCfansforfans confirmed they will be supporting CARD:
https://twitter.com/CAFCfansforfans/status/1287810090179928064
"We may be like marmite to some fans as @CharltonCARD are to others but the goal is to remove the posion that is @Chris_Farnell . We hope the support will continue in the sterling effort we have all made so far. This is our club and its time to take it back. COYA!! "I'm going to hit the character limit in the middle of the next bit, so we're going to have to go to part 25 -
Sponsored links:
-
Monday 27th July Part 2 - Is That It?!The EFL Finally Make A Statement
At just before 8pm Richard Cawley tweeted out:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1287824619802632192
"EFL statement is coming very, very shortly on Charlton Athletic."Given the glacial pace the EFL appears to work at, no-one expected "very very shortly" to mean much:
https://twitter.com/Harriso92294752/status/1287824765076549632
"As in hours or days or weeks?"Was gonna be today, but they been snowed under with emailsAmazingly, it turned out to be a few minutes later at 8pm
https://www.efl.com/news/2020/july/efl-statement-charlton-athletic/@Airman Brown summarised briefly:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1287827491416150020
"Confirms #cafc - or rather Farnell - have still not submitted the required information, seven weeks after announcing ESI had been taken over."https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1287827491416150020
"“The club is aware of the consequences of not meeting those requirements.”
This means that #cafc will be expelled from the @EFL if ESI do not do what they have failed to do over eight months OR get out of the way for those who can."https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1287829660890550272
"To be fair to @EFL this is their way of warning the fans and media that ESI are in danger of pushing #cafc out of business. It’s up to all of us to force Farnell and his friends out of our club. @CliveEfford @mtpennycook"The nature of the proposed meeting was the source of humour:
https://twitter.com/SiTrill/status/1287827079246086145
"Let me guess - Farnell will be there representing Nimer for the first half of the meeting & Elliott for the second?"https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1287865297345552385
"We need this man to be at any EFL meeting - seeing as he's still listed as an ESI director on Companies House. Anyone seen him?"
While Redrobo had a suggestion:Let’s ask Elliott if someone from the Trust can attend.
(the lady Barrister perhaps?).Nice idea, but I can't see any of the other parties being keen on that.The bit about "frustrations and concerns" made @MattF wonder:Is this EFL statement potentially a reaction to last nights email campaign?I suspect it's more a culmination of a number of factors including the intervention of the MPs and the resolution of the league positions and next seasons start dates, but I think those involved can allow themselves a little satisfaction.It's good to have at least have it confirmed in writing that ESI (of whichever version) haven't submitted the right paperwork, as it makes it harder for Farnell and co to continue their public comments that they've done everythingWhile @Chunes noted:
Two days agoMost interesting line there is that the club is aware of the consequences of not meeting those requirements. Maybe they should share those with the fans too?and CARD are clear what they think those consequences are:
https://twitter.com/CharltonCARD/status/1287848501469229056
"This is about as clearly and publicly threatening as the @EFL gets.
ESI have had eight months to supply the information the league needs.
They must be removed before #cafc face expulsion" (with a link to this tweet from Richard Cawley)Meanwhile Andrew Barclay continues to be frustrated with the EFL https://twitter.com/andrewdbarclay/status/1287828911712239616
"Running commentary ?
How about any commentary....just one, could even be one sentence, maybe even just a quiet grunt or something
To let us know you exist @EFL"If the EFL are going to give the club as they perceive it to be a deadline, then we all ought to know what that deadline is. I don't want a bad decision to be suddenly announced without warning.Richard Cawley is a little more understanding of the EFL's position https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1287853705883193345
"I know some people frustrated at EFL statement, but clear from their side that they have to be legally watertight with anything they release on football clubs. Seems pretty clear they are ready to put deadlines in place."Although as this conversation with CatAddick shows that's of little comfort to us: https://twitter.com/CatAddick/status/1287854616982556672
"What’s frustrating is that the EFL seemingly can’t do anything against an ‘owner’ who appears to wilfully be failing their tests in order to get the club dissolved"https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1287854858612150274
"Yeah. Way it was mentioned to me is that you can't stop a business transaction - so me selling to you. Only thing EFL can do is not approve the deal and then threat is that can kick you out of their competitions.""Club" response to EFL statement
The response to the EFL statement appeared on the OS suspiciously quickly:
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5f1f28e45b1a8/statement-on-change-in-ownership-processAgain the fans were unimpressed. As @ MattF observed:That club statement is so poorly written, like reading something Chris Farnell has written on Twitter. Guess they've chosen the option of getting something out hurriedly without any sort of proof reading, suppose they need to reassure the fans who want to "give them a chance"and @Callumcafc reckoned:The statements seem contradictory but they can add up.
ESI are saying they’ve submitted paperwork, conveniently leaving out the detail that it’s not good enough to pass the tests which is what the EFL say they are still waiting for.
They can’t pass the tests, they will never pass the tests. But they have no reason to sell either since their risk is nonexistent.@Airman Brown was somewhat more trenchant
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1287834128797380609
"Thanks, Chris, but I think we’ll take the @EFL’s word over yours. Get out of #cafc before we throw you out. @CharltonCARD @CAStrust @CAFCfansforfans @CliveEfford @mtpennycook" (with a link to the club statement)And the similarities to Bury are a worry for many:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1287835018425962497
"Similatiries with Bury last summer are stark. Including the fact that Farnell is right in the middle of this mess. Red flags everywhere. #cafc" (with a link to the club's tweet about the statement)https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1287836170089619461
"Example of an “end game” statement from last year for Bury here from the EFL. Too much of a coincidence for me - feels like the club, for want of a better phrase, are working towards this as an aim
https://www.efl.com/news/2019/august/efl-statement-bury-fc/"https://twitter.com/JimmyStone_/status/1287853363632189443
"In the last 28 years, only one team has been expelled from the Football League - Bury FC.
Their ‘Club Lawyer’ was @Chris_Farnell too. #cafc"If the EFL wanted its end, it’ll facilitate a London club going out of business for no good reason, provincial Bury is sad, a ex premier league club in London going pop is an existential threat I don’t think the EFL will surviveAlthough @The Red Robin warns:Dangerous game to get into the mindset of thinking we're too big a club to go the way of Bury. We're not. It's a very real possibility.We're certainly not, but we're big enough to make more people stand up and noticeSupport From Councillors
A little later still, the 853 Blog had some words of support from the Council leader:
https://twitter.com/853london/status/1287850502458351616
"The leader of Greenwich Council has spoken out as Charlton Athletic are effectively threatened with expulsion from the league
https://853.london/2020/07/27/well-oppose-charlton-athletic-leaving-greenwich-council-leader-says-as-efl-warns-club/"The Deputy Leader of Greenwich Tories also tweeted out his support:
https://twitter.com/CDavisEltham/status/1287857598725787649
"We have, as an opposition group, consistently come out against attempts to move #CAFC out of our borough and recent ownership, and this intervention by the leader is very welcome. I am not a Charlton supporter, but our borough needs #CAFC and we will all fight for the club" (with a link to the tweet from the 853 blog above)Andrew Barclay was possibly surprisingly supportive of their stance:
https://twitter.com/andrewdbarclay/status/1287895343590449152
"Generally a believer in free market forces but when it comes to businesses and organisations that are vital to a community, intervention like this is really great news. Football goes far beyond entertainment especially in this country, it’s part of UK DNA. Protect at all costs !" (with a link to the tweet from the 853 blog above)
Media Coverage:
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/efl-want-to-schedule-meeting-with-charlton-athletic-owners-and-remind-of-consequences/
BBC Sport: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53560848
Sky Sports: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11684/12037601/charlton-athletic-efl-request-meeting-with-current-and-potential-owners-in-bid-to-resolve-takeover
The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/07/27/efl-urged-resolve-legal-charges-hanging-derby-county-sheffield/(on the points deduction issues)6 -
Tuesday 28th July - Wot no TalkSport? Are we sure it's Tuesday?Varney's Thoughts On Our Current Predicament
This morning Richard Cawley tweeted out a link to a piece based on an interview with Peter Varney:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1288024754243477504
"Peter Varney says time is running out - for ESI or any other prospective new owner - to complete a deal for Charlton Athletic and be ready for next season.
https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/peter-varney-time-running-out-for-a-new-owner-to-get-charlton-athletic-in-shape-for-next-season/"Varney then tweeted out similar sentiments from his own account
https://twitter.com/_PeterVarney/status/1288068611547045894
"(1/3) #CAFC update: Any further significant delay in the EFL decision making process will only serve to further destabilise the club. Putting together a competitive squad for next season is already a significant challenge for whoever the owner is be that ESI or not."https://twitter.com/_PeterVarney/status/1288068657906626560
"(2/3) #CAFC update: The current situation will hinder recruitment as players will be reluctant to sign with the current ongoing uncertainty. If ESI is rejected by the EFL any prospective new owner needs a period of due diligence."https://twitter.com/_PeterVarney/status/1288068718975750144
"(3/3) #CAFC update: For the sake of the club’s players, staff and the supporters it is vital that all those involved in this process come to a resolution one way or the other urgently and with video conferencing this should be readily achievable."Then tonight, what is apparently Marian Mihail's twitter account tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/MMarian_lx/status/1288185405662257153
"Totally agree with @_PeterVarney - the key in Charlton Athletic’s future is dialogue between all the involved parties. Hope a call with the EFL will happen soon. #cafc"(There is a degree of scepticism amongst fans though, as to whether this is actually him and not a fake account)
The Continuing Fallout From Yesterday
After all yesterday's excitement, @Airman Brown tweeted
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1288007291212640256
"On balance I still think the ESI game is to ransom #cafc to the highest bidder while keeping the money away from Southall. There seem to be a number of interested parties. It’s a dangerous game because the Duchatelet deal is a serious liability."https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1288007722743615488
"If they can keep the ball in play it may not matter to Farnell/Elliott if they never get @EFL approval, providing they are confident they can sell the club on before the clock runs out."https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1288014257330806784
"Also important that they have little or no skin in the game, so the risk is all ours. I expect they can recover any loan cash put in from transfer income if they don’t pull it off."https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1288015301947400193
"One man who might take a hit from #cafc going under is Duchatelet because the (unmet balance of the) £7m ex-director loans falls back on him. So he might do a deal, just not with PV/AB out of spite. But they have the money. Do others?"Meanwhile Sage had unofficial news from The Valley:I’m at The Valley this morning, won’t disclose why so please don’t ask. The word this morning is that the EFL rejected the approval of ESI completely yesterday as Farnell was here and couldn’t understand why they would reject it. Clearly an idiot.
That’s why the statement was put out last night. They either require better and more documentation or we don’t have an owner. Therefore, a sale to new people is the only way forward from this mess.
We are heading the way of Bury, and it’s now we must ramp up the pressure and force out these imbeciles before it’s too late.
More Comment From The Club Farnell
This morning, Pedro45 posted the text of an email he'd sent to Chris Farnell following the club statement on Monday night. I'm not going to repeat the whole text here, but my favourite bit was:I presume that Tahnoon Nimer is the person the EFL wish to speak with as majority shareholder of ESI, but as he is based in Abu Dhabi and unlikely to be able to travel to the UK, will you be representing him? Will you also be representing the proposed new owners (Mr Elliott's consortium), and the Club too, as the Charlton Athletic "lawyer"?At about noon, @Pedro45 then posted up the response he'd had from Farnell:Dear Pedro45,
Thank you for your email.
We had a letter from the EFL yesterday and we responded immediately providing the information they have requested and also stating that we are looking forward to having the meeting with them. At this current time we are not aware of when that meeting will take place. Clearly, this is something that is going to have to happen as a matter of urgency and priority, which is what we have informed the EFL and I would expect it would take place via conference call.
I can confirm the outstanding information has been provided by the new owners and that the Club has complied with every request and the EFL requirements. Unfortunately, I know from other sources that the EFL are running late on a number of matters.
Thank you again for your email.
Yours sincerely
Chris Farnell
Partner
IPS Law LLP (dictated not read)I note he didn't answer the question about exactly who he would be representing in that meeting though.Then at 2pm another statement went up on the club website:
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5f201e922bfe0/update-on-process-of-the-change-in-ownership-of-the-clubThere was general ambivalence about this latest announcement, although randy andy made a good point:So the EFL have asked for a meeting urgently, and now the club have done the same. There is therefore no reason it couldn't happen this week (via Zoom, etc.) unless one of the parties is lying about wanting a meeting.
Revelations About Paul Elliott's Prior Conduct
This morning there was a new Voice of The Valley blog post about Paul Elliott:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/128805112517489868
"NEW FROM VOTV: Would-be #cafc chairman Elliott closed 175-pupil private girls' school at three days' notice and was accused of asset-stripping when items donated by parents were subsequently auctioned off. Read it now.
http://www.votvonline.com/home/the-2019-20-blogs/28-7-would-be-chairman-was-accused-of-asset-stripping-school/"Later on, on here, @Airman Brown said:I want to give the credit to a Charlton fan who lives in the area, who gave me this on a plate, but he hasn't explicitly given me permission to name him.I wonder if we have any Charlton fans in the Greater Manchester area who can shed light on any of his other business activities...
Fan Action Continues
It seems there's going to be a fan meeting on Friday to discuss the situation. It was mentioned on the main thread yesterday, but only in relation to a screenshot from the account of a regular fan, so I couldn't link to it here. I though it might be arranged by @CAFCfansforfans on twitter, but there's nothing on their account either, but luckily @Scoham came through with a link I can use:
https://twitter.com/Miketyson2007/status/1287843700710801409
"Sadly I’m working but if your able to get there an open meeting for all #cafc fans to discuss the present situation is taking place this Friday night at
Elephant and Castle
18 Greens End
Woolwich
London
SE18 6JY
From 18:39 pm onwards everyone welcome"(I assume that's a typo, and it should be 18:30 rather than a weirdly specific time)Meanwhile it seems we're not the only ones making the Bury connection:https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1288136877191700480
"This is very much appreciated by supporters of #cafc. When it happened to Bury, everyone said "never again". Now here we are on a very similar path. (with a copy of the tweet below from @OfficialBuryAFC)"
https://twitter.com/OfficialBuryAFC/status/1288051718664708096
"We want to send our love to @CAFCofficial. We know how tough situations can be, and we wish you all nothing but the best. "And Finally...
I'm not sure if it was meant as a racing tip, but this morning @Covered End postedI just backed Devious Company in the 14.15 at Goodwood. (£5 free bet on PP).And later on they reported backBattleground beats Devious Company.
I'll take that as a good sign5 -
Wednesday 29th July - Slightly incoherent edition...Had a bit of a mare with this one for various reasons. May tidy up later, but for the moment, this'll have to do.Farnell's Been Busy...
... but not on sorting out the ESI mess it seems. Apparently yesterday someone posted his contact details on twitter:
Note Farnell's response is not - "You have no need to cause me harm because I am doing everything I can to help the club move forward. This is all a big misunderstanding."
No, it's: "I'm not scared of you and I'm reporting you to the police."What's he going to do?
Ban people from going to games...........Looks like Farnell is going to be busy reporting the majority of the fans to the police all day.
You would think their are more concerning matters.Not if people distract him from club matters with petty spamming.He is probably noting them all and will shortly invoice CAFC for his time in dealing with fans correspondence.One Northern fan even took a trip to the IPS Law offices:
Sent a text to Farnell telling him to take Christiano Ronaldo off of his website. Signed it Danny. He called me and left a message calling me by my name and asking why I had left a false name. Obviously He had got my details from the CAFC database.Out of curiosity (and I dont know why not) but is Chris Farnell allowed to use the CAFC Database so flippantly? - Especially if he's not a Director / Employee of the club etc.From what I remember of Data Protection Laws (not a lot been a while), the qualified people and ones who are actually GDPR compliant will be the only people allowed to access and play around with the data, he could request it from them, pretty sure just checking people out and recording said people wouldn't fall under fair use, but guess his angle would be "feeling threatened".On the data thing, the ICO would be interested, you'll need to do a Data Access request to the club, and a request on who has accessed this information.
https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/your-personal-information-concerns/If GDPR guidelines are followed, there has to be a Data Controller. There has to be a record of processing activities. It's highly unlikely Farnell would have rights of access to fan's information. He could legitimately request that information from the Data Team/Controller especially after dubious behaviour.After all that, dickad1 had an alternative explanation:Or maybe...
He got the message and thought - 'I'm going to ring this f*cker @masicat/Danny, and put him right about Ronaldo. He's gone too far with that slur. It's a quiet work day, and I haven't got anything better to do.'
Ring, ring..ring, ring - goes through to VM.
'This is Geoff, please leave a message'But another of our posters has had slightly more constructive dealings with Farnell today:
"there has been no threat of that"
EFL pretty much threatened exactly that in their statement the other day.If you do go again perhaps ask him what he understands to be the outcome the EFL meant when they said that the club are fully aware of the consequences?
And if you really feel like pushing it ask him what the next step would be if the EFL flatly refuses to give approval?
More On Varney/Barclay
https://twitter.com/maccalad10/status/1288391244805279744
"@_PeterVarney @andrewdbarclay what do you make of this? Farnell says yous ain’t contacted him for a while cos you ain’t interested in ownership 🤷🏻♂️"
Well they're not going to say anything are they because they've already said they're going to wait for the EFL to either approve / reject them
Not to mention the fact that they're apparently under an NDA so cant say anythingFarnell said to me last night there are no other interested parties and varney/barcley don’t have the moneyWhich is a straightforward lie. I know enough about what is behind their approach to discount that entirely.
What they don't have is an appetite to pay vastly over the odds and reward people who have contributed nothing, a position which they share with multiple other groups.
I have spoken to one other party and I am aware of a third.Update - Chris has told me again, Varney hasn’t made an offer and there are no other interested parties. He expects Paul to be accepted by the EFL shortly.He has not produced any evidence of what he claims to be selling. He is saying that PV/AB won’t make a blind offer. But who would?Farnell and Elliott don’t own ESI or the club, so what’s to sell?
More On The EFL
Steve Sutherland tweeted:
https://twitter.com/suthersuk/status/1288085502248329217
"There is no doubt @EFL regulations regarding ‘fit and proper persons’ need urgent attention - but re #CAFC the blame is fair & squarely at the feet of the people who purport to ‘own’ the club - they know what they had to do to comply so you have to ask yourself, why haven’t they? "Pity the EFL don't operate a triage system.
When a case is critical and possibly terminal they should throw every resource at it and make it the top priority.It is time for the EFL to step up and consider the wider group of stakeholders.
Fan Action
Heather Alderson from CAST spoke to TalkSport yesterday talking about our concerns for the club and there's a write-up of the conversation here:
https://talksport.com/football/efl/739194/afc-charlton-supporters-trust-bury/Facebook group “Save Charlton Athletic” for anyone interested, over 500 members:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1569159849991237/?ref=shareAnd for the sake of not having to do another subheading, I'll include the ex-directors as fans taking action here:
https://twitter.com/BobWhitehand/status/1288458949109460995
"I have had many direct messages about Legal Action, all I will say is we continue to do everything we can .Apart from Derek Chapple and David Sumners you will have to ask the other 4 Directors themselves what they are doing."
Media Coverage:
TalkSport: https://talksport.com/football/efl/739194/afc-charlton-supporters-trust-bury/3 -
Thursday 30th July - Radostin Kishishev's* birthday apparently* And I'm sure the choice of picture to illustrate the birthday tweet was entirely coincidental...EFL and ESI meeting update
Apparently the EFL/ESI meeting has already take place, not that the club have bothered to inform us of an important detail such as that, so it's left to Richard Cawley:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1288759674284670977
"My understanding is that the meeting between ESI and the EFL took place yesterday afternoon."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1288759675551457281
"Don't believe that Roland Duchatelet or Tahnoon Nimer were involved. RD still owns Valley and training ground but has sold Charlton to ESI. Nimer's line is that he believes he has done a deal for the football club with Paul Elliott."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1288759881407893504
"No comment from the EFL when I approached them yesterday.
Made reference to this line in Monday's statement...
“The league will not provide a running commentary on this matter but will update as appropriate.”"Fan Will Bollen surmised that the outcome of the meeting has affected Farnell's recent behaviour:
https://twitter.com/willbollcafc/status/1288761770325299200
"Least we know part of the reason why @Chris_Farnell is a bit annoyed and why he is being so aggressive towards #cafc fans when ringing them
He was told again his version of the takeover was rejected as was the previous.
#backbarclayandvarney"Although Farnell's response (in another locked tweet) contradicted that
Meanwhile everyone's favourite Sun journalist reckons:
https://twitter.com/reluctantnicko/status/1288801581987758082
"We will have to see. They have shown proof of funds. See if other stuff is passed by EFL"When another fan queried what the problem was if it wasn't proof of funds, Nixon replied:
https://twitter.com/reluctantnicko/status/1288822534419480579
"It’s about funds for the next two years. Although now you’re meant to judge that when you didn’t know what division you’re in until a week ago is another matter."Although whether we can rely on that assessment remains to be seen. As Sage commentedAlan Nixon could say it’s raining outside in a tropical storm and I would still go outside and see for myself.How many times have we been told proof of funds have been sent to the EFL?
Im shocked at just how thick they think we are that we would swallow that.
More on the EFL
With the news that the Saudi takeover of Newcastle has fallen through, Barclay commented:
https://twitter.com/andrewdbarclay/status/1288859313302310914
"So Newcastle United sake to Saudi / UK consortium (sovereign wealth fund & private UK investors, no criminal behaviour, sophisticated investors, definitely fit and proper) gets blocked for political reasons yet the lower league clubs go completely unchecked ?
What a joke"I'm not sure I'd entirely agree with his assessment of the Saudis as being fit and proper, as while they may be financially fit, the attempt to sportswash the country's human rights abuses is hardly proper, but that's a conversation for another thread. Very much agree that the checks for lower league clubs are nowhere near stringent enough though.On the subject of comparisons between us and Newcastle, TalkSport tweeted out highlights of a bit of a rant that Laura Woods from the Breakfast Show had on the subject on Wednesday morning:
https://twitter.com/talksport/status/1288850182151561221
"“Owners don’t deserve the loyalty.”
“Don’t go into it with your eyes closed to what it means to own these clubs.”
“The #NUFC & #CAFC fans have been dragged through this for months.”
Laura Woods isn’t happy with how fans are treated by owners & bidders
Well said 👏" (with attached video)There's also an audio clip of the same segment here - starts just before 24mins.Meanwhile, Varney has some ideas on how the Owners and Directors Test could be improved:
https://twitter.com/_PeterVarney/status/1288930703359520774
"(1/2) The close football season is the perfect time to revise the rules on the owners and directors test process which is clearly not working. In construction it is common practice for a contractor to have to provide a performance bond on larger value contracts.."https://twitter.com/_PeterVarney/status/1288930849107464217
"(2/2) The EFL should partner with an insurance company or bank to produce a standard form bond that all prospective owners have to provide before they can take on ownership or running of a club. The pre-agreed format this should reduce approval time. No bond...no ownership."ValleyFloydFred in conversation with a Sunderland fan on twitter reckons it's an issue the EFL can't fix alone:
https://twitter.com/ValleyFloydFred/status/1288639172354473985
"The biggest problem you have is the legal disconnect between Companies House and football clubs as an entity and EFL regulations, there's a gap which is causing these problems. I actually think it's on Government to close these gaps rather than the EFL"https://twitter.com/flaptingss/status/1288639493801676804
"Either way many clubs and lives are being failed here. It outright disgusts me and it’s something that should’ve been dealt with so long ago. Is there any reason you and many others deserve to be going through this? Not one."https://twitter.com/ValleyFloydFred/status/1288639800145321984
"Nope the system is f****d, and I actually think it will take a "big" club, a big name to go to the wall in order for Government to really take notice."https://twitter.com/ValleyFloydFred/status/1288639959482736648
"Need Football clubs to be considered special entities, and Directors can only be added to them at Companies House if they pass competition regulations. That's currently not possible, a club can change hands without the EFL able to stop it, as at end of day its a private company"Interestingly Marian Mihail retweeted the first of ValleyFloydFred tweets I quoted above with an additional comment
https://twitter.com/mmarian_lx/status/1288837977297354752
"Good point, perhaps saving #CAFC may end up in saving the entire professional football in the UK" (then quoting this tweet from ValleyFloydFred)As an aside, for those sceptical that this account is actually Marian Mihail, CAFCSayer has confirmed via his LinkedIn account that it is. Also I've just noticed that he's recently changed his twitter bio to
"Stop asking if the account is fake, it’s not - I’m not that important to be worth the trouble"@JamesSeed followed up with a question:
https://twitter.com/jamesmseed/status/1288846384272224258
"You seem like a reasonable guy, so how did you get involved in this terrible mess?"https://twitter.com/MMarian_lx/status/1288886794386276353
"Tbh, it was just “a” mess when I came. I strongly believe it can be sorted out and Charlton Athletic being able to start the league with a fighting chance for promotion. Once this will happen, I will probably share more"It'll be interesting to see what if anything more he will share.Later on he tweeted some advice for the fanbase, which went down predictably badly: https://twitter.com/mmarian_lx/status/1288885438846033926
"People at the EFL are just doing their jobs, especially those answering the phones and e-mails. Abusing them won’t serve #cafc ‘s cause. If you haven’t already, please stop. Making your voice heard if one thing, abusing and offending people is another one"although personally I think he had a point:
https://twitter.com/MMarian_lx/status/1288913022438842369
"This message is strictly about the EFL staff. Obviously, everyone is free to do what they want, was just saying that abusing their staff won’t make them feel better about the club"Another Addick on twitter agreed to some extent, while pointing out the source of the frustration and following up with a question:
https://twitter.com/_crusey/status/1288921368134856704
"Desperate people take desperate measures. Abuse to #EFL staff is unwarranted. The institution at large and our freeloaders, different story. Incidentally, do you feel comfortable as a director of ESI in view of your statutory & fiduciary duties in the current circumstances? #cafc"More Farnell Conversations
Maccn05 had a telephone conversation with Farnell on Wednesday. I'm not going to include all of it here, but one bit stuck out for me:Q. Why can't you be more open about the consortium given the anger and mistrust surely being open would help all parties
A. I agree with you that we would like to share more but if we do we could face sanctions from the EFL which could harm our case but we would like to share our plans and will do as soon as approved via a detailed statement.If you can't mention who is a part of the consortium without incurring EFL sanctions, (already under one) then it's blatantly not legitimate, people who obviously can't/ shouldn't own a club. I assume this is the hold up, trying to hide who it is, Paul Elliot isn't good enough to masquerade.What strikes me at the moment is what is not being said by the person currently acting as the club's solicitor. He alludes to plans that will be detailed after the EFL give him the green light but says he can't say more in case he gets sanctioned. But where are the usual platitudes about making sure our wonderful manager stays, or how they will be working with Lee to build a squad to get out of the League 1 wilderness again.After some suggestions from a few people on the main thread, the Lifer who'd been messaging Farnell gave it another go:
Cue the obvious joke from stackitsteve (although in fairness he wasn't the only one):Nob reason. And we all know who the nob is.while Chris_from_Sidcup wasn't convinced:Spot on Chris, the EFL just fancied issuing a threat for absolutely no reason at all.
Media Coverage:
Football League World: https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/bit-of-financial-certainty-given-at-charlton-despite-ongoing-issues/3 -
Friday 31st July - Well it's been all go today...More on Bowyer's Position
The day started with a little news on Bowyer and the squad:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1289094176815099904
"Lee Bowyer set for talks with ESI at the start of next week.
He's voiced major concerns over the lack of numbers in his Charlton squad. https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/lee-bowyer-set-for-crunch-charlton-athletic-talks-next-week-and-opens-up-over-squad-depth-fears/"https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1289094179172372481
"LB: “I’ll meet them [ESI] at the start of the week and see what we’re going to be doing moving forward as a club."The EFL Deign To Comment on Wednesday's Meeting
Richard Cawley's continued bugging of the EFL for comment paid off again:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1289178224853803008
"Received confirmation from the EFL that they have met ESI earlier this week."https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1289180191651065856
"Here it is....EFL confirm that meeting has taken place.
They describe talks as "constructive" - but again spell out that they haven't got answers to all of their questions.
https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/efl-confirm-that-constructive-talks-have-taken-place-with-esi-and-proposed-new-charlton-athletic-owners/"@LouisMend made a snarky reference to the EFL's original statement
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1289178612214534148
"Getting sick of this running commentary from the EFL, they never shut up these days"while CAST are still chasing up for the meeting they've been promised:
https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1289188192382582784
"We instigated a brief phone chat yesterday with @EFL. Posed some Qs. We await a response. They are aware we have been requesting a meeting since mid March. #cafc"
Letter from Chris Parkes
On Friday afternoon, the official site published a letter from Chris Parkes:
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5f241e1881d32/a-letter-from-club-secretary-chris-parkeswhich largely resulted in further scepticism: https://twitter.com/4everAddickted/status/1289202789663547393
"ESI saw how we rallied round Chris when Southall suspended him so have wheeled him out as a spokesman in an attempt to try and play things down basically"That letter reads like an internal communication to other Charlton staff, not an address to fans in an attempt to put our minds at rest. References to line managers and "...you are all getting texts, emails and calls from Charlton supporters..." but no mention of us needing to buy season tickets to get behind Bowyer and the boys or some such nonsense. Why exactly was that shared on social media by the club?And in her follow up to the club tweet, @KBslittlesis raised a good point:
https://twitter.com/KBslittlesis/status/1289214705337118725
"Why are you sharing an internal piece of correspondence between staff members within the club on your main website?
That’s not particularly professional.
Did Chris know that you intended to share his personal message to all and sundry?"One specific bit of the post caused particular comment:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1289210279851507712
"I texted my boss about my concerns with Charlton but she literally didn’t give a monkeys. #cafc"
Just raised my concerns with my line manager who told me to stop reading Charlton Life and get back to work!@SporadicAddick did a detailed breakdown of the letter, which began:Working on the assumption that Chris Parkes' letter is an internal reassurance to staff worried about their jobs, the note is fairly typical of the type of comms sent out internally when companies are in severe difficulty.Farnell PR statement
Then just before 6pm, a PR firm called Onside PR released a statement on behalf of Chris Farnell:
https://www.onsidepr.com/ips-law-statement-re-charlton-athletic/which caused a fair amount of pointing and laughing to be honest:
MattF made a pertinent comparison:Rolands {...} got to the point so much quicker, and at least had the full stops in the right places.Farnell's statement is one written by a man who has red mist in his eyes as he writes. It is a rant rather than a statement so perhaps I will forgive the appalling structure, grammar, missing words and punctuation. It should of course have been proofed and edited by the so-called PR agency to take out the emotion before being uploaded to the IPS site.How much did that piss poor attempt at reputation laundering cost?Even if it was free he's been done. Makes him look rattled, and at the very least they could have sorted out the spelling and grammatical errors.Two conclusions:-
IPS Law aren't very good at law
Onside PR aren't very good at PRThe thing about the solicitor's rant is that it's the first time he's been bothered to state the full facts as he sees them. If he'd done this a while back it would have saved him an awful lot of grief.although some of the "facts" in the statement appear not to tally with events recorded at the time:
https://twitter.com/ab54666/status/1289273036248506373
"Maybe he @chris_farnell can also tell us why he was live on Talksport purporting to be Nimer's Lawyer a day before he says he was appointed? Seemed to know quite a bit that was going on as well considering he no ways he hadn't been appointed at that point 🧐"More on the EFL
And then this evening the EFL announced they would be deducting 12 points from Sheffield Wednesday... but not until next season.
https://www.efl.com/news/2020/july/efl-statement-sheffield-wednesday-verdict/Unsurprisingly this attracted lots of negative comment from those with an affiliation to Charlton:
https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1289268312610705408
"So Sheffield Wednesday cheat this season but don't get punished till next season? Massive injustice. If only #cafc had a decent lawyer to do something about it, eh?
"
https://twitter.com/justinallen1976/status/1289260573516017664
"Right, what do we all think on #SheffWed getting their 12 points deduction next season? Should #Charlton #CAFC sue here? Sorry but this is all a mess. #Wigan get theirs taken this season, #SWFC next season. #EFL"And even from those that don't:
https://twitter.com/mrdanwalker/status/1289306421956186112
"Struggling to get me head around the Sheffield Wednesday decision - points to be deducted next season.
I smell a legal challenge from Charlton or Wigan... possibly both."The club twitter feed soon obliged on that point
https://twitter.com/CAFCofficial/status/1289282683466637312
"The club is considering a legal challenge following the news that Sheffield Wednesday will receive a sporting sanction that will take effect in the 2020/21 season
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5f246dd981505/club-statement-sheffield-wednesday"and I'm not sure if Marian Mihail wrote this in an official capacity, or is starting to develop an attachment to the club:
https://twitter.com/MMarian_lx/status/1289286257978138624
"Not being a sore loser, just don’t think this is fair" (quoting this tweet from CafcOfficial)Fan Activity
CAST have published their weekly update:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/what-is-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update-15/This one ends with what they describe as "a brief as possible summary of where we are", which is probably worth pointing people to if they've not been following this saga as closely as we have. There's also a statement supporting the Varney/Barclay bid:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/07/43-days-to-expulsion-we-back-barclay-varney/And there was this rallying call for the meeting in Woolwich:
https://twitter.com/CafcFacts/status/1289109748105785344
"30 years ago we took on Greenwich Council to get back home to the Valley.
30 years on we will fight and win to get our club back in safe hands.
Never underestimate fans of Charlton Athletic. We never go away!! #cafc
6:30 tonight: Elephant & Castle pub, Woolwich"I'm sure more will emerge from the meeting over time, but meanwhile you can enjoy this video on youtube celebrating Charlton fans' history of protest (even if it is disappointingly short of flying pig footage):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixrv5Vwmn6Y
Definitely worth a few minutes of your timeI'm going to do the links to the newspapers separately as I'm close to hitting the character limit7 -
Friday 31st July - Media Coverage extra
On Bowyer:
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/lee-bowyer-set-for-crunch-charlton-athletic-talks-next-week-and-opens-up-over-squad-depth-fears/
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/lee-bowyer-crunch-charlton-talks-casting-doubt-future-a4513186.html
On The EFL Talks:
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/efl-confirm-that-constructive-talks-have-taken-place-with-esi-and-proposed-new-charlton-athletic-owners/
BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53615557
On The Sheffield Wednesday Reaction:
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/charlton-athletic-consider-legal-action-as-sheffield-wednesdays-12-point-penalty-enforced-next-season/
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/charlton-consider-legal-challenge-sheffield-wednesday-points-deduction-next-season-a4514091.html
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/31/sheffield-wednesday-hit-with-12-point-deduction-for-next-season
The Mirror: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/charlton-legal-action-efl-wednesday-22451499
The Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/12284298/charlton-legal-action-sheffield-wednesday/
The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/charlton-athletic-sheffield-wednesday-points-deduction-championship-news-a9649141.html
The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/07/31/sheffield-wednesday-handed-12-point-deduction-beginning-next/ (paywalled) or (local copy )
The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/fury-at-delay-to-sheffield-wednesday-points-penalty-9mwc22dxs (paywalled) or (shareToken version )4 -
Wednesday 5th August - A bit of a catch-upMore On The Fallout From The Sheffield Wednesday Decision
Over the weekend there was further commentary from our fans on the fairness of the delay to the Sheffield Wednesday points deduction:
https://twitter.com/CAStrust/status/1289467729271955456
"Sorry to advise @BrentfordFC, @FulhamFC and @SkySports but according to @EFL in the pronouncement regarding @swfc wrongdoing, the season is already finished. #Eflplayoffs #cancelled #cafc"https://twitter.com/_PeterVarney/status/1289623564253974528
"The EFL decision to defer the 12 point penalty on Sheffield Wednesday until next season is based on the fact the current season‘s fixture programme has concluded. Fulham and Brentford haven’t played the play-off final, so therefore this season’s fixture programme hasn’t concluded"Not everyone was sure this was the best approach though
https://twitter.com/MickPCollins/status/1289885447829635074
"Devil’s advocate, but the Play Offs aren’t a league, are they? They’re a knock out, qualified for at the culmination of a league. You don’t get points for a win, extra time is used to settle draws etc. They don’t even impact that season’s league table. 1/2"https://twitter.com/MickPCollins/status/1289886202728865792
"Your other problem, I suppose, is that in the only footballing contest of compatible strucure, the World Cup, the knock out section’s so separate from the league, they even wipe out earlier disciplinary offences, don’t they? It feels a shabby ruling, but I can see the reasons..."but as @rikofold pointed out:
https://twitter.com/rikofold/status/1289892448420761601
"It's pretty obvious even so that the decision was put off so they had an excuse to delay it. The offence was before Wigan's, why should the punishment be after?"There was also some scepticism that the club's response would be effective:
https://twitter.com/mattjobob/status/1289476729380261888
"Charlton "writing to the EFL to get an explanation". On past evidence that will need over 8 months to resolve then...
More seriously, the lack of anyone substantial (Meire?!) in a senior role at #cafc for the last 6 years means club's influence in league issues is non-existent"(quoting this tweet from @CafcOfficial)https://twitter.com/mattjobob/status/1289477586049933315
"A proper Charlton chief executive - what's one of those?! - would have been fighting #cafc's cause for months, pressuring the league, lobbying other clubs, forming coalitions, devising tactics, in case this happened.
We've had... nothing. But hey, we can write a letter!"On the subject of letters, @Coyotejohn1947 wrote to Rick Parry about the Sheffield Wednesday decision, and had a surprisingly quick reply:The response effectively asks us to await the reasons provided by the IDC for the decisions reached (i.e. the reason for the level of points deduction and the timing of the imposition of the sanction.
I have e-mailed back requesting as to when we might expect to see the decision reasons.More On Our Issues With The EFL
On Saturday afternoon Matt Pennycook, the MP for Charlton's constituency tweeted:
https://twitter.com/mtpennycook/status/1289517954212667392
"I have never been so concerned about the future of @CAFCofficial. ESI have had months to supply the information required. The time for discussions, however "constructive", has passed. The @EFL needs to promptly determine ESI’s application for approval #cafc"while on Sunday Marian Mihail was hopeful, but it's not clear if this was based on any inside knowledge:
https://twitter.com/MMarian_lx/status/1289981610327265283
"Hope this “Schrödinger’s ownership”of #ESI at #CAFC will end this week. Fingers crossed, at this moment any outcome is better than no outcome."Not The EFL Continue Their Campaign
The @NotThe EFL twitter account have continued their campaign to pressurise the EFL's sponsors with some twists on their brands:
https://twitter.com/NotTheEFL/status/1289309400130183168
"
Did somebody say Just Cheat?
Visit: http://theefl.co.uk
#cafc #wafc #BuryFC
"
https://twitter.com/NotTheEFL/status/1289617149435101186
"Hey @Screwfix 👋
We’re not very happy about The @EFL screwing over football clubs.
Don’t let the EFL damage your brand. #cafc #wafc #buryfc
"
And they've set up a link so you can tweet ther EFLhttps://twitter.com/NotTheEFL/status/1289303026369359872
"Save the photo and click here to tell the @EFL's sponsors exactly what you think: https://bit.ly/TweetEFLSponsors
"
Meanwhile Scoham got in touch with Miles Jacobson, the director of Football Manager, as he has a prior relationship with the company. You can see his response here, and I've included a segment of it below:Your best bet is to work with your supporters’ organisation and the Football Supporters Association to get any points across – but sending emails to personal email addresses of bosses of companies that you deem “sponsors” of the league (we’re not a sponsor, we have an EFL license) isn’t going to help even if you don’t mention the club name in them, particularly with some of the claims being made in there being potentially libellous.Although as N01R4M points out:It sounds as though Miles has swallowed hook, line & sinker EFL's lie line that they liaise with Supporters' Groups. I did challenge this in my email, which focused on customer relations.
If only the EFL did liaise with CAST they would have saved themselves and their sponsors EFL licencees the job of responding to an unusually high volume of incoming mail - and we fans would be saved the effort of trying to communicate with them individually if supporters' organisations & the FSA were kept informed and were able to pass on basic information.More From Varney
Jack Burton (the fan who made the "ESI you've picked the wrong fans" video from the previous post) has done an audio interview with Peter Varney, discussing his history with the club, Slater & Jimenez, Duchatelet, and the issues surrounding a possible takeover by Andrew Barclay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1vg7iBAShM
Varney's also done another article on the Integral Sports Management website, regarding the EFL's Profit and Sustainability rules:
http://www.integralsportsmanagement.co.uk/unfair-play/
Media Coverage:
i Paper: https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/charlton-athletic-takeover-paul-elliott-chris-farnell-esi-bury-efl-expulsion-570712
BBC Sport: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53637173
The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/charlton-get-backing-of-rivals-over-sheffield-wednesday-points-penalty-delay-5sv8hq089 (or local version)
Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8589607/MARTIN-SAMUEL-ticket-Championship-like-chopper-leaving-Saigon.html2 -
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0 -
Friday 7th August Part 1 - A busy day for the EFLSUMMARY FOR THOSE WITH SHORT ATTENTION SPANS:
- The EFL have blocked the signings of Washington & Gilbey, and it appears we're under a proper transfer embargo now
- The EFL announced they've declined 3 individuals' applications under the Owners and Directors Test due to a disqualifying condition, but they have 14 days to appeal. Rumour has it they were Andrei Mihail, Chris Farnell and Paul Elliott
- A group of (mostly?) Northern based fans paid a visit to Farnell's office and interrupted a meeting he was having with ex Southampton manager Dave Jones
- Club apparently held an emergency Senior Management Team meeting over Zoom this afternoon, with Lieven De Turck rumoured to be in attendance
- Club tweeted out that it is filing an appeal on behalf of two individuals in relation to the ODT (which would presumably mean they're not bothered about Andrei Mihail)
More On The Transfer Embargo
This morning, Richard Cawley hinted that developments might be about to occur:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1291641694593732608
"Got a feeling that today might not be much of a day off...we'll see!"While we were waiting to find out what that meant, @Mal asked:why is the club suddenly buying players when they supposedly need EFL approval because of the embargo, they didn't try that along with the loans earlier, so why now!Farnell and Elliot may be trying to force the EFL to make a decision
or
Gallen and Bowyer are just getting on with their job and working under the embargo rules of we can only pay what we paid before.The proposed salary cap for Leagues 1 and 2 added another dimension to the discussion, as @MattF wondered:Anyone ITK know what our current wage budget is under the embargo? If it's more than 2.5 million and the cap is brought in that voids our transfer embargo surelyWell, the football budget was rumoured to £6m or £6.5m. So if you assume half of that has left, we’re still over that figure before we start.By lunch time Cawley had been proved right, although not in the way we might have hoped:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1291720547555053568
"My understanding is that EFL have rejected the Washington and Gilbey deals."Some weren't that surprised:
https://twitter.com/ColinPep1/status/1291722762621517824
"Really?! It's almost as if #cafc are under a transfer embargo, because the owners who paid £1 for the club have no money at all and cannot prove otherwise."while others were impatient for a different kind of update:
https://twitter.com/TelMc1/status/1291720724726652928
"Could they not just put us out of our misery and reject the bloody ESI deal as well!!!!
"I suspect this tweet may be a bit of snark at Alan Nixon, rather than an attempt to suggest this is actually some kind of consolation:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1291725391275720704
"At least Charlton got a deal done for Matthew Dench from Joondalup.
He's 16. But in the current scenario he could be a first-team squad regular in 2020-21."
The EFL Gets Off The Fence About The ODT
The bad news about the signings being rejected was quickly followed by another update:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1291721133167968257
"EFL statement as well now - and it is not good."As is often the way with the EFL, the statement prompted just as many questions as it answered. Many of us were asking the same as @killerandflash:So who are the 3 rejected individuals? Farnell, Elliott and ?and as @Cafc43v3r noted:Read the last line, how many are there??!to which @LargeAddick jokingly replied:three rejected, further 397 under consideration ...There was a fair amount of commentary about how difficult it seems to be to fail the Owners and Directors Test:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1291725566832410624
"Quite a low bar to get over to be approved by the @EFL . However this is absolutely no surprise to those who have followed the ESI story at #cafc. Now get out of our club for good."although I think former Charlton Fans Director Ben Hayes was being self-deprecating here:
https://twitter.com/BenHayes77/status/1291822995011522560
"Such a low bar even I passed it!
Must be really dodgy to not pass the @EFL test. #cafc"and this is a pretty good point:
https://twitter.com/TelMc1/status/1291748995006595072
"Absolutely staggering that #Farnell whose whole business is based on his expertise in the world of football, looked after #Ronaldo #Swansea #Silva At the heart of @OfficialBuryAFC farce. And yet, after months of faffing around...he manages to fail the owners test! #FarnellFiasco"So, what is a Disqualifying Condition? A post from @fmaddick helpfully listed them, but they're far too long to quote in full here. @Leeds_Addick thought this one might be relevant:Disciplinary matters:
(c) being subject to a suspension or ban or other form of disqualification:
(i) from involvement in the administration of a sport by a Sports Governing Body; or
(ii) by a professional body (including, by way of example and without limitation, The Law Society, Bar Council or the Institute of Chartered Accountants, equivalent bodies in any other jurisdiction,
Could he have failed because of the SRA investigation?although I'd be surprised if the SRA investigation has led to him being suspended that quickly. We shall just have to wait for further updates from @CAFCsayer on that.So where does this leave us? Richard Cawley was not optimistic:
https://twitter.com/RichCawleySLP/status/1291721422876938242
"ESI are in major, major trouble now. And - the real bad news - is that so are Charlton Athletic and the fans. Horrible."Former CAFC Comms guy Jimmy Stone was not quite so gloomy, but acknowledged the uncertainty of our situation:
https://twitter.com/JimmyStone_/status/1291724851804241920
"Fair play to @EFL this took some courage. We’re now in uncharted waters though. Feels like the next few weeks are going to be some of the most important in the club’s history. #cafc" (quoting this tweet from @EFL_Comms)while Peter Varney waited for further clarification:
https://twitter.com/_PeterVarney/status/1291733340396097539
"Just seen this statement and also received a lot of messages surrounding it. We need clarification before further comment." (quoting this tweet from @EFL_Comms)
Unofficial Confirmation Of The ODT Failures' Identities
Of course, it would be too much to hope for that the EFL would tell us who had had their ODT application rejected, but the information seems to have made its way out anyway:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1291733877631922178
"Would-be #cafc chairman Paul Ellliott and lawyer Chris Farnell are two of the three people rejected by the EFL, I am reliably informed."https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1291779723182387200
"Next question is, why was Farnell up for the owners’ and directors’ test in the first place when he said in his bonkers statement that he would withdraw from ESI once the takeover was approved. Withdraw from ESI and join the #cafc board?"https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1291789204167569409
"So Andrei Mihail was the third one rejected. Not sure he has much significance, but makes sense that he was put forward alongside Farnell as an ESI director since March. I don’t take Elliott seriously, so the question now is who else are the @EFL considering?"You do have to wonder though, if Andrei Mihail has been a director since March, why have the EFL only just rejected him, nearly 5 months on?Meanwhile the Lifer who's been messaging Farnell had this exchange with him:
which led @i_b_b_o_r_g to query:Why is "The Club" appealing on behalf of the new owners? The Club and it's current owners should be sitting tight and waiting for the new owners to prove themselves to the EFL, no?A little later @Airman Brown revealed:We also heard that the EFL had decided to reject ESI a fortnight ago but they didn’t follow through for legal reasons. I think developments since gave the lawyers sufficient comfort for them to move forward.which lead @MattF to conclude:Doesn't sound like some technical issue that Farnell would have us believe then(The comment about it being a technical issue relates to a quote from Farnell in this piece from BBC Sport)
Club Response To The ODT Failure Announcement
Eventually the club twitter feed posted a brief statement:
https://twitter.com/CAFCofficial/status/1291804449405571075
"
The club has filed appeals on behalf of two individuals against a decision from the EFL Board to decline to approve their Owners’ and Directors’ Test applications.
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5f2d89fbe730f/update-following-efl-statement" This led the spoof Farnell account to tweet this:
https://twitter.com/FarnellMorris/status/1291809886842560515
"Guys don't worry I will appeal the decision. Not because I stand a chance of winning but because I have no morales or the ability to try and ruin your club. Paul won't get back his 300k loan return money and I am a very expensive lawyer who has been charging cafc for 16 weeks."And I'm not sure whether our Farnell correspondent had just missed the club statement due to its "blink and you'll miss it" brevity, discounted it as not really saying anything of value, or is just on a wind-up by this point:
Finally (for this part at any rate), it seems that today's events have led to an emergency meeting at the club:
https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1291771484625678344
"VOTV has learned that an emergency senior management meeting was called at #cafc this afternoon to discuss developments. A source has suggested that Roland Duchatelet’s point man Lieven De Turck was involved in it, but this is not confirmed."https://twitter.com/airmanbrown/status/1291793152190361602
"Was a Zoom meeting. Others now suggesting LDT may have been involved. Ties up with the claim that the @efl wrote to Duchatelet about the embargo, although that remains very odd."(The comment about the EFL writing to Duchatelet relates to this piece from The Sun)7 -
Friday 7th August Part 2 - It's all kicked off, in more ways than oneFarnell Gets A Visit
As all the excitement around the EFL's announcement about the ODT failures was going on, the spoof Farnell twitter account posted this:
https://twitter.com/FarnellMorris/status/1291727964305076224
"Rotten bastards the efl turned me down and some charlton fans stormed my office today. What an unpleasant visit from these thugs. I think charlton have ruined me." (with a snippet of video of the confrontation)https://twitter.com/FarnellMorris/status/1291728173898629120
(with further video of the confrontation)@LouisMend explained in a little more detail what had gone on:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1291753421301854209
"Seems the #cafc fans tricked their way into Farnell’s building to confront him, and they were joined by some Bury and Man U fans as well. Former Wolves boss Dave Jones was in there as well."https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1291754490455089152
"A lady who was involved turned up with flowers for a member of staff and then when the door was opened they piled in by the sounds of it. " (quoting this tweet asking how they tricked their way in)On hearing this @RodneyCharltonTrotta quipped:Charlton's famous Interflora Firm.Later on, a Lifer who took part in the visit to Farnell's office gave a first hand account of the afternoon's events which is too long to quote in full here, but this should give you a flavour of it:...A female CAFC fan approached the door to Farnell's office to present flowers to somebody in the firm... The lady with the flowers went inside and we rushed up to to the door, hoping to get in, but it was locked. At this point there was a bit of panic, thinking we might be spotted. However, the door opened, she came out and we rushed in... we entered Farnell's office, where he was in a meeting with Dave Jones... several others posed pertinent questions to Farnell, which he refused to answer, repeating the mantra, " you are not invited into my office, so please leave"... The police were fine, non threatening, doing their job, and warned everyone if we came back within the hour we would be arrested...The reaction to this stunt from Charlton fans was largely positive as far as I can tell:
https://twitter.com/JimmyStone_/status/1291846064644018178
"Well done to the #cafc fans who travelled to Hale and confronted Chris Farnell today.
People might find it uncomfortable, but Charlton Athletic are now 36 days away from expulsion from the EFL because the same men who destroyed Bury are destroying us." (with the video clip from this tweet from @FarnellMorris)My personal favourite post on here was this bit of excellent/atrocious (delete as preferred) punning from @creepyaddick:Great work Gentlemen
All Hail the Hale stormers
What Was Dave Jones Doing With Farnell?
The detail about former Southampton manager Dave Jones being in the meeting with Farnell was a puzzling one, and @LouisMend added some additional context:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1291731196670554115
"Someone sent me this yesterday and I’ll admit I didn’t take it very seriously. But now Jones is in Farnell’s office? Strange. #cafc"
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1291731393467359237
"Steve Gallen hasn't been sacked though btw. It's just the Jones bit that stands out. #cafc"Further digging yielded this:
https://twitter.com/LouisMend/status/1291731789451534336
"Wikipedia - "Jones began working as a consultant at Bury in July 2019.""From the back page of the Sun on August 5th last year
Personally I could do without seeing all these Bury parallels right now
More From CAST and CARD
The chair of CAST has written to Paul Elliott, asking him to explain his continuing failure to gain EFL approval and urging him to consider making way for other interested parties:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/08/dear-mr-elliott-please-come-clean/They've also issued their weekly update, which was dominated by the various EFL related events:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/08/what-is-happening-at-our-club-weekly-update-16/Meanwhile CARD issued a statement responding to the days events:
https://twitter.com/CharltonCARD/status/1291775715470344197
"STATEMENT: CARD responds to @EFL rejection of three individuals in latest ESI takeover and #cafc fans who invaded Chris Farnell’s offices today"
Media Coverage:
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/efl-charlton-athletic-have-three-individuals-fail-owners-and-directors-test/
SLP: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/card-issue-statement-on-efl-ruling-on-charlton-athletic-verdict-and-are-seeking-removal-of-esi/
Evening Standard: https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/charlton-left-in-limbo-as-efl-reject-three-prospective-new-owners-a4519491.html
BBC Sport: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53698266
Sky Sports: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12044517/prospective-charlton-owners-fail-efl-test-to-leave-club-facing-uncertain-future
TalkSport: https://talksport.com/football/efl/743108/charlton-future-in-doubt-as-three-individuals-from-east-street-investments-fail-efls-directors-and-owners-test/
Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/charlton-takeover-efl-owners-directors-test-latest-news-a9659696.html
The Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/charlton-fans-confront-club-lawyer-as-buyers-fail-to-meet-efl-requirements-dkcp89bvm (paywalled) (or local copy)
The Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/12341516/charlton-takeover-efl-owners-directors-test/ (or webarchive version)10
This discussion has been closed.