Statement from Mike D

The Statement

The following is a statement from Mike Diamandis and provides a brief history of his direct involvement with Swindon Town Football Club:

”I have been involved with the Club for more than 15 years as a supplier, however I became seriously involved about 5 years’ ago when Sir Seton Wills and Cliff Puffett asked me to help when things had gone seriously wrong. I supplied the management and financial support on a day-to-day basis with backing of the Wills family. At that time some of my advice was not heeded and control of the Club was handed to a consortium which you all know about.

It is well documented that a new consortium made up of Willy Carson, James Wills, Cliff Puffett and myself (represented by Bob Holt) was formed. This consortium fought for about a year to remove the incumbent consortium, which is also well documented. Upon taking control of the club we discovered that the club’s balance sheet had now deteriorated to minus £14 million.

The club was within two hours of going into liquidation. With the help of Hacker Young we were able to rescue the club by raising £1.5 million through the Wills family and a further £1.5 million through St Modwen.

At about that time you would have read in the Adver that at the time the Club had a debenture over it and without it’s removal the Club would have been destroyed. With the help of the Wills family and St. Modwen we were able to remove this threat.

I found myself in the unenviable position of being responsible for putting the necessary resources together to ensure the club’s survival. The Wills family would not have continued to support the Club had I not been involved. Since then every year through one method or another, I have been able to raise approximately £750,000 a year to keep the Club going. During this period before Bill Power joined, more than £5.5 million was raised through my leadership, through my own company, with the dynamic share coming from the Wills’ family and St. Modwen.

Through successful negotiation we have been able to negotiate with all the creditors so that for the first time in the next month or so our balance sheet will go from a minus to a plus £3-4 million and, with Bill Powers total monies raised will top £6.5 million. The Club will still however require the average gate to rise for it to be safe and in the long term we do require a new stadium to ensure the future stability of the Club.

In 2000 Swindon Town FC employed 98 staff and was loosing over £2m a year. I brought in a professional manager, Bob Holt, who then carried out the cost cutting plan I had developed with the then Finance Director, reducing the staff on the payroll from 98 people to 61, and eventually to the 48 it is today. At this time brought in Mike Sullivan as Marketing Manager (someone who had worked for me in the past). I knew of Mark Devlin as a customer of my company; he was a Commercial Manager at QPR. Mark Devlin then joined us as Chief Executive and as a result of his football knowledge and his media skills we were able to steer the Club successfully for the period that he was with us.

When the opportunity came for him to return to QPR as Chief Executive as you all know he left STFC. Last autumn as soon as I heard that he had left QPR I telephoned him and asked him to return as we all know we had dropped the ball when it came to PR.

After his return we eventually had a discussion that lead to me meeting Bill Power.
I believed that with Bill Power’s football knowledge and Mark Devlin skills, they would create a great management team for our Club and after further negotiations it was agreed that Bill Power would invest in the club and join the Board. That investment is still to be completed. We are hoping it will be complete in the next few days.

Recently many discussions took place amongst the Board regarding the club’s manager. Mark Devlin had the idea that Dennis Wise would be an excellent candidate. I had met Dennis Wise recently at Chelsea when I was a guest of a mutual friend, who is also Dennis Wise’s agent. I met with Dennis Wise again in a London hotel the following day and we struck a deal. I am absolutely delighted that he is joining us with Gus and his team and so is Mark Devlin and Bill Power. For those of you who did listen to the press conference you would have heard Dennis Wise confirm that he was persuaded by a nice man, called Michael, who had talked him into joining. That Michael was me!

During my working life I have employed many people and unfortunately once or twice these relationships have failed. Certain people who have been associated with me in the past are using your forum which is for the specific purpose of discussing football matters as a method of attacking me. I cannot say I am too pleased about all these attacks.

I have now reached a point whether these personal attacks just have to stop to protect myself and my family. For those of you that are interested I am married with a young child and have two grown up children. I have been an employer for more than 25 years and within my various companies there are over 200 employees whose welfare is replied upon and obtained on my ability to move amongst the business community in an open manner.

I have known the Wills family for the last five years and I have come to think of the family and of Willie Carson as my friends. I have worked previously with the ex-board, in particular Cliff Puffett and Mike Spearman, to improve the Club’s position. All of the current Board, and everyone involved with the Club knows me, speaks with me and deals with me in normal manner. I speak to Bill Power everyday and we are all looking forward to the footballing future of our club.

I am often persuaded to take a more public role. However, I am not the best public speaker, in-fact I get tongue tied the minute a microphone gets thrust in my face, and although I have tried to overcome this I am not a natural, and I have always felt that there are other people who are better spokesmen for the club than me. My preferred choice is that on a Saturday I go to the game with my family, sit in the seats that I’ve always sat in, and watch a game of football. I am not interested in a high profile life and I hope you all enjoy Mark Devlin as the public face and spearhead of our Football Club.

The Adver has removed various posts because they have been of a libellous and non-proven nature. My lawyers have written to the Adver and explained how we understand the legal position with regards to chat rooms. Once the Adver have been notified by the person who is being libelled they have no alternative but to respond and remove the postings otherwise they will be knowingly publishing a libel.

This is the only statement I am ever going to make on this subject, thank you for taking the time to read it."

Mike Diamandis

26.5.06