I've been waiting for this latest FOSB "bombshell" to come out, and now it's dropped I think it's time for a few facts.
1 - The club have had to prove to OCC that the licence ends in 2026, with no right of renewal, as a condition of the lease for The Triangle, and they have done this. This is irrefutable. Does anybody really think that OCC would merely take the club's word for it?
2 - The club did not re-negotiate away their existing rights to stay after 2026, that licence was revoked by Kassam under the Force Majeure laws relating to the Covid epidemic. He served notice to evict the club, and the current agreement was the only way of staying at the current ground until the new stadium was ready. It is not some cosy agreement cooked up by the club.
3 - Anybody relying on a few words from Fiord Kassam as a central plank of their strategy will end up being severely disappointed. History has taught us that. The man cannot be believed, nor trusted.
4 - The article has no substance, nor context. It does not paraphrase the actual question that was allegedly asked of Kassam. That question could be "can the club stay fro an extra 3 months if The Triangle is not ready?" or it could have been "can the club stay on for another 100 years?" Without that detail it is a pointless statement, from a man who loves the role of pantomime villain.
What pisses me off the most about this is that once again our local paper has published yet another "story" from FOSB as fact, without any investigative journalism whatsoever, with no context, no balance, and nothing from OUFC (not even a "we asked OUFC for their response, but they declined to comment"). All this proves, if we didn't already know, is that the Oxford Mail has now sunk below the standards of even The Sun or Daily Star. Gutter press.