INTRODUCTION
Paul Davis (PD) introduced the members of the TrustSTFC board and the role that they played within the Trust.
PD stated that the financial status of the Trust was healthy and that current membership stood at 875.
At the last members’ meeting in December, members decided to conduct another poll as to whether to extend the discounted annual membership price of £1 to the end of the season. The poll has been conducted and members voted overwhelmingly to extend the period until the end of the season.
PROSPECT HOSPICE / STFC SHARES
Dave Jackson, a lifelong STFC fan and current shareholder has made available 400 shares. Fans can acquire one of these shares in return for a 25.00 donation to the Prospect Hospice. It was explained that the Trust was being used as an enabling vehicle for this purpose and currently 55 shares had been allocated, raising £1375.00 to date. Mr Bowden offered to buy all the remaining shares – PD promised to pass his offer on to Dave Jackson.
CONSORTIUM
PD gave a brief précis of the consortium’s attempts to negotiate with the club and handed over to Mike Wilks to update members on the current situation.
MW stated that at the outset it was never intended to conduct negotiations in public but as events unfolded, it was determined that responses had to be made to misleading statements from the club board which had led to an unfortunate airing of statements in public. It is hoped that this can be avoided from hereon in and negotiations can be conducted properly.
The Fans’ Consortium are in touch with Trevor Watkins, the club’s/Sir Seton Wills’ legal representative and discussions were ongoing.
MW proceeded to expand on the initial offer made to Sir Seaton Wills (SSW) in November 2006. This included:
- To provide funding to meet all CVA obligations
- To provide funding to return the club to a solvent position
- To provide funding to clear any further outstanding liabilities
- To relieve the Wills family of Land Registry charges on their properties.
- The offer of a seat on the Board of STFC to Sir Seton or James Wills
- The Stratton Bank to be renamed “The Sir Seton Wills Stand”
- Reserved matchday seats in the directors box
- Repayment in part or full of any capital investment made by SSW over a designated period of time from redevelopment profits
MW stated that the offer had initially been made to Sir Seton verbally, and having met with an encouraging response, was then put in writing. After initially being encouraged by Sir Seton’s response, this seemed to change after Sir Seton went to seek advice from his advisors on the written offer. The written offer was then resubmitted to Trevor Watkins, in response to a letter from Sir Seton Wills, indicating this was his preferred conduit for conducting negotiations..
Mike Bowden said that the format of the offer letter was unacceptable and MW indicated he would speak to the legal advisors re redrafting the letter into a more acceptable format.
ORANGE
MW stated that Bill Power (BP) was fully supportive of the movement as it was non confrontational. MW reiterated that BP’s motivation for re-engaging was that he was a true football fan and that he was overwhelmed by the level of support afforded to him from STFC fans in the aftermath of the plane crash.
Mike Bowden was asked why fans were not being allowed in Winners if they were wearing orange hats – he said he was unaware of this, but that it was not something he agreed with and he would ask about it and attempt to get this ruling reversed.
MIKE BOWDEN
Mike Bowden gave some personal history in that he used to be a main board member of a FTSE 100 company, had been a corporate lawyer for 22 years and had previously acquired and sold 40-50 different companies, some of them solvent, some of them not. It was this experience he drew on in suggesting the offer from the Fans’ Consortium was not in an appropriate format, a suggestion refuted by others with similar experience.
Mike Bowden invited all present to attend a forum to be held on the morning of the Macclesfield game. He stated that all the board would attend, illness and other commitments permitting, including Mike Bowden, Mike Diamandis, Sandy Gray, Martyn Starnes and a member of the Wills family, if available. He stated that it would be an open meeting but no questions regarding the Consortium’s take over bid would be answered, as MB viewed the negotiations as a separate issue.
BILL POWER’S INVESTMENT
MW was asked what the status of Bill Power’s investment in the club was and how much it was. Mike explained that Bill Power had put in two tranches of £500k, one in Feb 2006, the next in June/July 2006. Further monies had been paid to settle Andy King’s contract and pay appearance money for the Bryan Adams concert, totallin £120k. An overall total of £1.12million.
With regards to the loan/share clarification it was stressed that discussions were ongoing but BP viewed the monies as a loan, as no share certificates were issued nor lodged at Companies House. The club dispute this and claim the money was a share purchase.
MIKE DIAMANDIS/DTI
It has recently been reported by the BBC that MD was subject to an investigation by the DTI as to whether he had breached the order disqualifying him from acting as a director, a matter Mike Diamandis alluded to in his recent interview with the Evening Advertiser. However, a more recent statement issued by the club appears to claim no such investigation is taking place.
It was stressed that even if there is such an investigation ongoing, it is only an investigation, no charges have been brought and even if/when they are, such charges would still need to be proved. Mike Diamandis is entitled to due process like anyone else and no-one should pre-judge the outcome of any such investigation.
However concern has been expressed from supporters and Trust members as regards the potential impact on the Football Club, irrespective of any such DTI investigation, as the League also have regulations regarding disqualified directors acting as directors or shadow directors. PD confirmed that advice had been sought from Supporters Direct, the government-backed Supporters’ Trusts’ national governing body, and they had advised that if it was shown that these regulations had been breached then the League could take action against the club, ranging from a fine to the toughest penalty being suspension/expulsion from the League, although the more extreme penalty was thought to be unlikely.
A member who could not be present at the meeting had asked for a motion to be proposed that MD to step aside from all activity within the club until the outcome of the investigation was known. Mike Bowden strenuously implored Trust members present not to pass such a motion and after discussion it was decided that it would be more appropriate to wait until after fans had had a chance to question Mike Diamandis at the proposed forum before discussing such a motion.
GROUND REDEVELOPMENT / J17
BP fully backs the Trust ground redevelopment proposals and has made a public pledge to provide initial funding to get the project off the ground; not to take any profits due to him but instead to plough any such profits back into the club; and to ensure that ongoing profits from the additional revenue streams created by redevelopment would be ringfenced for the club. PD explained this pledge was vital to ensure the club did not end up with a situation like the Kassam where the club do not own the ground or facilities and so do not get money made from the stadium and associated facilities.
It was emphasized that the purpose of the Trust’s ground redevelopment proposals was to act as a framework for discussion and consultation. The proposals have been drawn up after extensive consultation with community and residents’ groups, local councillors, the council cabinet, the local MP, the cricket and athletics club, and the football club. Feedback on the proposals to date has been extremely positive – the only objections have been from the club board.
MB stated that the club had its own redevelopment plans, not too dissimilar to those of the Trust’s – at which several members pointed out this was hardly suprising as the Trust had presented their proposals to the club board over the summer as part of the consultation process. He also said the club was actively seeking communications with SBC, the New Swindon Company, St Modwens etc.
Asked of the possibility of moving the club to J17, MB responded that there were 3 viable options to keep the club at its present location, however if these options did not materialize then the club would look at moving elsewhere and discussions had taken place. Whilst MB stressed that redeveloping at the County Ground was the preferred option, “morally” he had no problems with moving the club outside of the town.
When asked by the floor MB confirmed that
- No discussions had taken place with residents groups etc
- The development would include building on the “green space” at the County Ground
- That no discussions had taken place with local councilors
- He believed that the Trust’s plans were “fatally flawed” due to the residential aspect built into the stands following conversations with a senior cabinet member. PD explained that these aspects of the proposals had in fact been well received by senior councilors, and suggested perhaps Mike had mistaken opposition to the houses proposed in the club’s previous proposal to opposition to any housing on the site.
A member had suggested that the Trust encourage fans to write polite letters to St Modwen informing them that any plans to move the club away from Swindon would not be welcomed. It was pointed out that before taking this move the Trust should first take a formal vote of members as to whether they would be opposed to a move to Junction 17.
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