Selling out?

[morpheus]

Interesting piece in The Guardian by the ever interesting David Conn about how the Notts County supporters trust sold its soul to the devil.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/25/notts-county-qadbak-takeover

For what it's worth, I would personally never contemplate selling out and voting for the take over of Exeter City by a rich investor, no matter how much money was on offer. From now on we should remain a supporters run football club in my opinion. The satisfaction I get from knowing this is genuinely 'our' football club, far outweighs any amount of 'glory' we might achieve via the route of a rich man's pocket.

One thing I would like to see put in place is a safeguard to ensure that what has happened to Notts County could not happen to us. Ever. Something should be embedded into our constitution to ensure we can never 'sell out'. To save us from ourselves if you like.

 

[Hermann]

I think that if we were ever to challenge at the very highest level then the Trust model might not be able to sustain that. Unlikely of course but you never know. Should the right offer come in it is worth considering, the problem Notts County have is they sold out to an entity without really checking out who they were. The named people involved have somewhat suspicious pasts and nobody seems to know whoes money is behind it. There are supposed to be Arab millions, but as far as I'm aware the backer has not actually been named. As the article suggests they should have insisted on retaining a presence at boardroom level.

This issue has been discussed to death, but I don't think Notts County's mistakes should be taken as what would happen in every case of a Trust owned club selling to a private investor. Of course it should be a warning of what we should do if the situation ever arose.

 

[Holywell]

Agree with the OP 100% and was thinking the same thing as I read the article. We should be proud of what we have and not sell our soul. I realise this might mean we might not ever reach the giddy heights of the premiership but for me that is a price worth paying.

 

[007]

I think that if we were ever to challenge at the very highest level then the Trust model might not be able to sustain that. Unlikely of course but you never know. Should the right offer come in it is worth considering, the problem Notts County have is they sold out to an entity without really checking out who they were. The named people involved have somewhat suspicious pasts and nobody seems to know whoes money is behind it. There are supposed to be Arab millions, but as far as I'm aware the backer has not actually been named. As the article suggests they should have insisted on retaining a presence at boardroom level.

This issue has been discussed to death, but I don't think Notts County's mistakes should be taken as what would happen in every case of a Trust owned club selling to a private investor. Of course it should be a warning of what we should do if the situation ever arose.

well put ...

 

[Exehausted]

I agree with you Morpheus, and I guess that the Trust members at this moment in time would reject any move to "sell out". The problems would come if the club struggled for many years and were staring at going out of the League and also out of business, as Notts County were. It's very easy for David Conn and a Government Minister to attack the Notts County Trustees for selling out, but they weren't the guys who were struggling to keep the club going with a rising tide of debt during a World Wide recession. I'm sure they were worn down and no doubt worn out by it all. In that situation, when you know how bad things are (and I'm sure that they were far worse than they addmitted), would you want to be the one holding the reins of the oldest League club in the world, the one on watch when it all ended? I wouldn't, particularly if there was an offer on the table. As someone living and working in the community you'd be villified for all time.

 

[geoffwp]

Agree with the OP 100% and was thinking the same thing as I read the article. We should be proud of what we have and not sell our soul. I realise this might mean we might not ever reach the giddy heights of the premiership but for me that is a price worth paying.

I take this view as well. I would not care what the temptation was set in front of me or what promises of potential glory there was to come, I would reject any possible idea that we might cease to be a trust run club. As someone has written in on another thread, why change something when it aint broken?

oh, and rich men NEVER put their hands into their wallets for the benifit of the fans when pouring money into a club. They do it soley for their own ego.

 

[Exehausted]

Geoff, and neither would I consider it but many would. I feel though that if any set of fans could resist big bucks it would be ours. A lot of Building Societies went public in the 90's and where are they all now? Everyone has dissapeared. The only major society whose members voted no, when they could have had around £1200 each was the Nationwide and they have proved that they can compete without private money.
As someone who looks at a lot of other clubs independant web sites, I can say that without exception, there is no other site that has anywhere near as many people with a healthy sceptism like there is on here. Every site and therefore every club has a few, but these people can get isolated and picked off when vultures start to encircle a club.I'm sure that if this club came under attack there are enough of us to metaphorically bring the wagons into a circle and fight off the attackers.

 

[robchave]

I agree with you Morpheus, and I guess that the Trust members at this moment in time would reject any move to "sell out". The problems would come if the club struggled for many years and were staring at going out of the League and also out of business, as Notts County were. It's very easy for David Conn and a Government Minister to attack the Notts County Trustees for selling out, but they weren't the guys who were struggling to keep the club going with a rising tide of debt during a World Wide recession. I'm sure they were worn down and no doubt worn out by it all. In that situation, when you know how bad things are (and I'm sure that they were far worse than they addmitted), would you want to be the one holding the reins of the oldest League club in the world, the one on watch when it all ended? I wouldn't, particularly if there was an offer on the table. As someone living and working in the community you'd be villified for all time.

Good point. I think that's the only situation that I'd consider letting go of Trust ownership - in extremis, to save the club from going under. Don't give a t*ss about supporting a premership/championship side (could have done that years ago, if I'd wanted to). I support Exeter City (the club I own) and, yes, I want them to play at the highest level possible - but not by selling our collective soul and becoming some richman's plaything.

 

[Poultice]

Good point. I think that's the only situation that I'd consider letting go of Trust ownership - in extremis, to save the club from going under.

Our club should never be in that situation, The Trust owning the majority shareholding should make it impossible for renegade Directors to drive the club under.

I wonder if our little band of Trustees give you that feeling of security.

On message, I wouldn't vote for any other form of ownership under any circumstances.

 

[izzer buddy]

Sometimes though money talks and in football Im afraid big bucks buys big players. Now in league one, to compete with the big boys Leeds Charlton etc as other managers have stated in their interviews, smaller clubs like Tranmere Exeter etc will always struggle to attract the better players.