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18th June 2007
Dear Mr Andronikou,
It is with some concern that we note your recent remarks published in the Swindon Advertiser where you have once again chosen to criticise fans of Swindon Town Football Club. Not only are these remarks unnecessary and unprofessional, they are also inaccurate. TrustSTFC has almost 1,000 members all of whom are loyal supporters of the club, and many are also numbered among the creditors you are supposed to represent. To dismiss these people as “20 or 30 busybodies” is unhelpful to say the least. It is difficult to see how publicly insulting the loyal customers of a business fits with your remit of protecting the interests of creditors.
Rather than making snide comments and vague references to mysterious and unnamed investors, it would be more helpful if you produced some firm evidence of the club's ability to honour the promises you made to creditors in the CVA proposal in 2002, or firm evidence of the willingness of major creditors to allow the club more time. As recently as last Monday, when asked about this very matter at the council’s scrutiny committee, the council’s lead member for resources and finance, Cllr Nick Martin, reiterated the council’s position that it would be wholly opposed to any attempt to renegotiate either the terms or the length of the CVA, as the money owed is council tax payers’ money. Which is one of many reasons why Swindon Town fans do have a legitimate interest in the imminent deadline for the bullet payment.
Your apparent wish for fans to ignore the politics and concentrate on the football is all well and good but Swindon Town fans know from bitter experience that the politics can all too easily spill over into the football, leaving the fans to bear the brunt of the consequences. Football League rule 12.3.1 makes it clear that the League have the power, should they choose to use it, to impose a ten point deduction if a club enters a CVA and it is far from clear that this would not apply if the CVA were to be extended, or its terms varied.
People may be more inclined to accept your assurances at face value were it not for the fact that you have already presided over one failed CVA at this football club. The CVA which was agreed in 2000 and collapsed less than two years later. Looking at the reasons for the failure of that arrangement, as stated in the 2002 proposal, it is difficult to see how the conduct of the present CVA has been substantially different, something which does not reflect well on your performance as supervisor.
Fans' legitimate fears about the survival of their football club will not be allayed by vague promises. We would suggest that rather than dishing out gratuitous insults to the loyal fans of Swindon Town in the local media, you confine yourself to the job you were appointed to do – protecting the interests of the creditors. In the meantime, I trust that having had the weekend to reflect on your intemperate outburst, you will recognise that if you wish to salvage any professional credibility you must apologise to all Swindon Town fans forthwith as publicly as you insulted them.
Yours Sincerely
Paul Davis
Chair
TrustSTFC
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