Championship Charlton Athletic

Leysboy

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Looking quite grim for them.


Charlton's 'billionaire' Arab takeover collapses....

In an extraordinary sequence of Tweets and a hastily put together statement on the Charlton Athletic website this evening, we have seen the majority shareholder and proposed financial backer, Sheik Tahnoon Nimer, pull out of East Street Investments and effectively end his brief association with the club.

Nimer, who has been in Romania negotiating the purchase of Dinamo Bucharest on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Business Development group, posted a poorly worded message on his Instagram page which prompted Charlton supporters to seek clarification. He then gave that in a verbal recording which said he was pulling out because of improper behaviour by Matt Southall who was wasting the club's/Nimer's money. He referenced "Range Rovers" and "Bitches" and said we should ask Matt Southall about "all the money I put in the club and it has been done for his lifestyle." It has been rumoured in the last week that four of the club's top executives, included Southall, now had new Range Rovers and there was a brand new white one in prime position outside the West Stand on Saturday. Unclear who else has similarly received one of the expensive new cars but Southall's mate Lee Amis is suspected to be one of the lucky winners - hard to understand what he has done to merit this but no doubt we will be told in due course.

Matt Southall has now signed-off on a statement on the club website that Tahnoon Nimer wrote "an incredibly damaging letter" to members of the Club's Senior Management Team earlier today in which he made allegations about Southall's conduct. He goes on to say that Nimer was unhappy with "disadvantageous contracts" that had been signed and Southall believes that must reference Bowyer's extension as it is the only contract he has authorised (presumably other than Jackson's, the loan signings and the Range Rovers?). The bombshell that follows in Southall's statement is that Nimer has yet to satisfy the EFL over proof of funds despite repeated requests to do so which Southall says limited his ability to deal in the January transfer window. Southall claims that Nimer has yet to invest "a single penny." The lawyers are now involved looking at "defamation" so it doesn't look like this is going to blow over.

In the meantime, therefore, Charlton Athletic Football Club look to be in a very difficult position. Clearly, there is no money behind ESI at this point and the club is effectively operating on incoming revenues which may enable it to see the season out. However, relegation would mean unsustainable losses without further investment, something we are far less likely to see if we go down.

The EFL will have some explaining to do as well. After weeks and weeks of waiting whilst the completed their thorough checks relating to the purchase, ensuring that these were fit and proper people to be buying one of their precious football clubs and ensuring the funds were in place to secure the operation of the club for two seasons at least, it appears they might not have actually done all that and have yet another looming disaster on their hands. Given the recent shambles involving Coventry, Blackpool and Bury, it's hard to believe this remotely possible.

Matt Southall also comes out of this very badly. As the mouthpiece for ESI we have heard a lot from him officially and even more on social media. Perhaps we shouldn't be critical of his ambition or his positivity but that has proven short-lived and he has already been forced to acknowledge that the takeover was nowhere near as complete or clean as had been intimated when they broke the news. When it later became clear they hadn't bought the Valley or Sparrows Lane, questions immediately arose as to the actual scale of the investment given that Duchatelet was on record saying that he would sell the loss-making football club for £1. That has yet to be qualified although it doesn't look to be significant if Nimer is simply walking away.

The subsequent failure to invest as anticipated in January to strengthen the playing side was a further disappointment but at no time was a shortage of funds given as an explanation, only that they did not want to pay over the odds given the inflated January window and the fact that selling clubs were trying to profiteer knowing we had Arab backers. Indeed, Southall played up the three loans we did do and told us he was satisfied with the business he had done. I can understand why the club wouldn't want to wash their dirty linen in public but the team have struggled through February and we are now in a serious battle to avoid a relegation that has looked increasingly likely since January and our failure to improve our squad is a major factor.

Southall looks like he is going to press on running the club but it's very difficult to see where the money we need medium term is going to come from. Also, as supporters we can't simply ignore what Nimer has said. He has accused Southall of wasting the club's (at some point Nimer's) money and whilst we don't know the details of Bowyer's deal (or Jackson's or the loanees) it would appear that money may have been spent on four new Range Rovers which might be hard to justify given our finances. If money is be spent unwisely, you also have to wonder if that might accelerate as the club heads towards what would effectively be Administration?

Given the history of this club over the last forty years, our supporters have been through pretty much everything. We consider ourselves uniquely unfortunate, incredibly hard-done-by and always expectant of worse. In spite of all that, how many of us could really have foreseen this though and so quickly?
 
Sorry for their supporters in this, of course.

It does strike me in general though that until there is some sort of drastic change in the structure of football in this country, this sort of thing will keep happening. The reason is simply that (the vast majority of) clubs are not self sustaining - they require injections of cash on a regular basis. So you have to keep finding someone who is willing to fork out. It might be a lottery winner or a local businessman with an affection for the club or it might be someone with no affiliation with the club either wanting a train set or hoping to somehow make money. But none of those are long term solutions. The lottery winner or businessman will eventually run out of money or find they need it for other things, the 'investor' will get bored of their toy or decide that getting to the Prem is unattainable. Then the club (and it's supporters) are up the creek, desperately hoping that another person with deep pockets (and little financial sense!) comes along - that desperation leads to all kinds of fly-by-night characters popping up and either proving completely unsuitable or completely deluded! And round and round we go, until the accumulated debt and lack of assets (which have all been sold or mortgaged by previous owners) prove fatal for the club.

So IMO football has to become more self sufficient, which is easier said than done. Not every club can build a new stadium with a shopping complex that can subsidise the club (and that's hiding the problem rather than solving it anyway). Do we have to think the unthinkable - that more clubs and players have to go semi-pro, wage caps have to be introduced, STRICT financial rules about (over) spending, limits on the amount of players in any age group that clubs can have on their books at one time, etc etc? I'm not sure anyone thinks the current situation is infinitely sustainable.
 
Ah the good old EFL "fit & proper" test going so well again............................. :rolleyes:
The EFL needs tighten that up undoubtedly.
But that also requires the clubs to agree!!
The clubs want these (dodgy??) Billionaires to come in and fund their ridiculous overspending to see them to the promised land.
The Championshop clubs are equally to blame as the EFL on this .
 
The EFL needs tighten that up undoubtedly.
But that also requires the clubs to agree!!
The clubs want these (dodgy??) Billionaires to come in and fund their ridiculous overspending to see them to the promised land.
The Championship clubs are equally to blame as the EFL on this .

Also, clubs who are already in financial problems are desperate for a saviour, will try to force any kind of deal to guarantee survival, even if the new owner is anything other than ideal.
 
Also, clubs who are already in financial problems are desperate for a saviour, will try to force any kind of deal to guarantee survival, even if the new owner is anything other than ideal.

Although they are the main victims when everything collapses, fans are sometimes at fault in this regard too.

I know the phrase is much mocked when certain individuals say it, but clubs looking to grow “sustainably” are generally on the right track.

It’s why January’s transfer policy was fine by me. The timing was less than ideal, but the bigger picture was more important.
 
The moment the "Sport" was allowed to be just about the money the writing was on the wall..You only have to look at the celebrations when finishing 4th is now deemed a great result...At the moment teams like Spurs,Manure,Arsenal could find 5th is enough and the fact they can get a slice of the Golden Pot deflects from the fact that they have had a shite season.
Further down the leagues you get the same mentality where it matters not that you can be 14pts behind a team as you can still pip them for a promotion spot via the play offs.
For clubs in the topflight outside the considered Elite it's just about staying in the League due to it being awash with money.

it stopped being a Sport a very long time ago
 
The moment the "Sport" was allowed to be just about the money the writing was on the wall..You only have to look at the celebrations when finishing 4th is now deemed a great result...At the moment teams like Spurs,Manure,Arsenal could find 5th is enough and the fact they can get a slice of the Golden Pot deflects from the fact that they have had a shite season.
Further down the leagues you get the same mentality where it matters not that you can be 14pts behind a team as you can still pip them for a promotion spot via the play offs.
For clubs in the topflight outside the considered Elite it's just about staying in the League due to it being awash with money.

it stopped being a Sport a very long time ago
About the time Rupert Murdoch got involved.
 
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