Open letter to OUFC board

Re-reading the notes, this really sets the bell clanging for me.

HMRC sent the club a tax bill. The club didn’t pay it.
HMRC got a winding up petition. The club still didn’t pay.
HMRC published the petition causing the club’s accounts to be frozen. The bill finally gets paid (or at least that’s what we’ve been told!)

Where is the mystery in this? How is this not down to the club’s negligence?

The only way this can be laid at the door of “outside factors” is if there were some other bills which swallowed up all the money before they got round to the tax bill. Which rather shines a spotlight on the claim that OUFC is being run as a sustainable football club...

“I wish I could tell you about my cash flow issues but I can’t as it would be enterprise suicide “
 
Sorry but as an OXVOX member I have to say they need to stop holding hands under the table with the club's custodians and be a little bit more aggressive!
 
Tiger’s program notes for upcoming Blackpool match.

Good afternoon and welcome back for another important game against Blackpool. Like ourselves Blackpool have a great tradition. They are currently sitting in 8th position and will have ambitions to make it into the playoffs. The tangerines have won 4 out of their last 5 league games, so we will have to be at our best to secure the 3 points. With that in mind may I ask our wonderful supporters to get behind, like you always do and roar us to victory.

Off the field Blackpool have had well documented problems, but I don’t want to dwell on that, just to say let’s show everyone what a United club we are on and off the field.

On the field we achieved a very credible draw at highflying Peterborough. What an exciting finish it was to the match wasn’t it! Our supporters were superb as always. We really do have the best fans in the league and I would like to thank each and everyone of you for travelling in such large numbers. Our club really is United.

Our U18s also go from strength to strength. On Tuesday evening the youngsters secured a penalty shootout victory against Premier League opponents. It was a great all round effort from all involved, the players, management, staff and everyone who works so hard behind the scenes to make this club proud and United.

May I take this opportunity to remind supporters that we have some very exciting games coming up over the Festive period. On Boxing Day we entertain Southend United and on Saturday 29th December welcome Bristol Rovers to Grenoble Road. Both matches should prove to be entertaining encounters, so please encourage friends and family to come along and support the Yellows. I know the players really appreciate your amazing support especially at Christmas time.

After Christmas comes the New Year and as usual we will be holding our annual sale in the Club shop, on special offer will be our “Oxford - a United Football Club” t-shirt at just £9.99; come along and grab a bargain!

Also in January the transfer window reopens which is a very busy and exciting time for all involved at any football club. I know Karl, Shaun, and Derek have been working tirelessly, putting the miles in up and down the country looking at exciting, potential new signings. I can promise you that the board will do all it can to support Karl as we look to strengthen the squad.

As usual a lot is going on behind the scenes. The board is working extremely hard to make Oxford United a club we can all be proud of. I know our amazing supporters will understand that there will always be sensitive or confidential information that we have to keep in-house. However it won’t be too long before we have some very exciting news to tell you!

Enjoy the match
Tiger.


I notice the original draft was tweaked, but not by much!;)
 
‘We have come through a situation that none of us could have foreseen..?’

What was that? Surely not Kassam related, the lease / license must be an obvious part of due diligence. So has the previous owner left a couple of skeletons??
 
This is the interesting sentence “Oxford United is run as a sustainable football club and run by people with experience”

The club loses £millions each season and it’s now being run as a sustainable club, the question is how? Are we looking at players sales in January, ticket price hike in the summer and what type of player can we afford? A lot of guess work is going on.
 
It's a terrible 'reply'. And once more he has made himself a hostage to fortune - IF there actually is something big brewing, fine. If nothing happens then he will be exposed as being incompetent. But surely there was something more he could have said anyway? An improved relationship with the landlord? A list of the mythical 5 sites (yeah, right!)? Details of who is on the board and what they are actually on there for? The real reason they didn't pay the tax bill?

January will be an interesting month.
 
This is the interesting sentence “Oxford United is run as a sustainable football club and run by people with experience”

The club loses £millions each season and it’s now being run as a sustainable club, the question is how?

Well, in the mind of a fantasist, anything is possible.

I would imagine these winding up orders genuinely do suprise Tiger: it would seem that in his mind, income is sufficient to cover the financial outgoings and he's assembled a competent team to handle the day-to-day administration. No wonder he's experienced "such a frustrating month"!

Begs the question, just who the hell is in control here?
 
'We have money to match our ambitions.'

That's what worries me!

Given that we haven't been provided with any information about what those ambitions are, then this statement means nothing.

The bit that I found cringeworthy was:

'But we will all work hard on your behalf to bring success here. This is my club now, one I love, but more importantly it is your club and will be for many years after I am gone. All I can do is promise to look after it as best I can.'

I'm sorry - 'This is my club now, one I love'. The 'one I love' is condescending. WE ALL LOVE OUR CLUB which is why we travelled to Ebbsfleet, Grays, St. Albans etc. in the dark days and didn't flit around to other clubs while times were tough even though the Conference experience was unpleasant. Wasn't Tiger at Reading around that time, did he love us then or did he love Reading?? I remember when I was about to move to Amersham 20 years ago and a relative said 'oh that's nice, you can support Watford because they're nearby' - showed their total lack of understanding of what following a football club means.

'It is your club and will be for many years after I am gone' - Hold on, by Tiger's own admission he loves OUFC, so are we in fact just a quick knee-trembler rather than a marriage?

Others have commented on the complete lack of substance in the statement and so I shan't repeat that in any detail but OXVOX really should now be demanding clear and unequivocal answers to the sensible questions that they posed. We have no detail on:

- Tiger's ambitions for the club
- Tiger's reasons for being here
- The role of the Board members and whether they are investing their time/money or both and to what degree
- Plans for the stadium
 
All I can do is promise to look after it as best I can.'

The last four words to the sentence - if he felt they were really necessary- only add to a slightly uncomfortable tone as well..
 
All I can do is promise to look after it as best I can.'

The last four words to the sentence - if he felt they were really necessary- only add to a slightly uncomfortable tone as well..

Those words were probably meant to show he intends to perform well but the problem is that in a vacuum of any real information, we all start to analyse statements to the nth degree. Clearer communications from the club including some tangible facts would help to mitigate this.....
 
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