Thetownend.com

TOWN'S new chairman designate was formally unveiled at a press conference this afternoon and promised that his firm's investment in the club is a long-term measure.

Jim Little is the "face" of Best Holdings, a pool of investment partners that have arrived at the County Ground.

Little confirmed that the £900,000 CVA bill would be settled, along with any other non day-to-day debts.
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He said: "We are in it for the long haul. This club deserves that. In this year you can expect a lot of great things from this club."

It seems some money will also be made available to Paul Sturrock to finance the playing budget - but not at an extent that would put the club back into the financial mire.

Little added: "I'm sure we will be looking at new players and what mix of players we need to go as far up the table as possible.

"If that brings success quickly then I would love to be as far up the table as quickly as possible.

"Spending lots of money is not necessarily the solution, we need to spend our money wisely."

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/display.var.1627424.0..php

There's nothing to moan about with regard to this press release.

He could've at least alluded to asset stripping, or moving the club to Didcot.

Notice on the official site though that it was Bob Holt who "delivered" the news - is that clown still here???

Good news other than that though!  :D

we have come to plough endless amounts of cash into stfc just because we want to!

whats their other agenda though?
we need some answers to the many questions fans have.

Nothing of concern there.  All seems fairly sensible, and we should at least be glad that (a) the CVA payment will be dealt with and (b) some sense of financial stability will be restored.

Lost of questions still to answer though.

Hopefully they will over the next couple of weeks, but it's certainly looking brighter, and he's making the right noises

 :soapy tit wank:

That's all pretty positive. However following STFC's financial plight through recent years has left me bitter, untrusting and soulless. Meaning that I won't trust this until I know what all the long-term goals are. Especially with relation to ground redevelopment.

Wahoo, they're all leaving!

Agreed.

We shouldn't give anyone the benefit of the doubt.

We should remain mistrusting and sceptical.

Just like we would've done if Bill Power had got control.................

Ben I'm worried about you.

Shouldn't you be talking about sea cows, getting stoned, or pizza?

would he have said anything other than positive stuff though?
he was hardly going to say anything negative in his first interview.

MORE STUFF
http://www.swindontownfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Interview/0,,10341~1094571,00.html

Can tell he is a yank...calling the club a  "organization" BUT INTERESTING.,....


They said...
Quote
Any money that is made in football, I think if the people have the right intentions, it should be put back into the club...
Quote
STFC Chairman Designate, Jim Little

Clearly been taking heed of our concerns with the 'money back in for the clubv/community' etc - but that doesn't tally whatsoever with the principle of private equity.

We need to kow property and relocation plans, but it is fantastic news to have the CVA off our backs. By 'other non-day-to-day' debts, perhaps they're referring to BP's money.

Quite optimistic by his spiel... But we shall see.

I like him

http://www.swindontownfc.premiumtv.co.uk/javaImages/62/5e/0,,10341~3366498,00.jpg

Nice face.

He talks a good game but is it just all talk? We shall find out i suppose. Like the sound of that though.

Yeah can he walk the walk? Or is he in a wheel chair. I'd probably take Rolling the Roll over the current lot though.

Heh! heh!





Nice face 8)

I like what I have heard. That said though it is only talk.
But we are used to hearing one thing and getting another.Maybe these guys can really make things work out.If things are done properly they can make what they need money wise and we get the team we all want. The big worry for most people is we were going to be shipped down the M4 by the previous board ( can we call them that yet ? ) to make themselves money. With new ideas this could be achieved here.C'mon lets all have a group hug ! :beers:
Even as I am writing this doubt is entering my head.Old habits are hard things to change.

He takes a good game, but so did Brady and co.

Genuine question, but when he said the debts have been included and will be paid does this include st modwen

if St Mowdem is a debt then we will have to assume it is.

if so it is all very promising at STFC for a change.

it would be even better if the new guys talk to the fans consortium and get them involved in some way.

Wouldn't surprise me that in about 5-6 weeks they have Q & A session in the Winners for fans. Just let PS have a few chats with them, let them got over the horror's of the real debt that needs to be paid off so they have some answers.
Dont think we will ever find out who is funding this though. Just seems he will front the business side with us and them with Rufus  being the football face for them.

OK....a face and some imformation, that's got to be a good thing....but Jim seems to be a front man, who is he representing?

The 1.2m loan with St Modwen is in one of the Holding companies (can't remember which one, as I've lost track of all the holding co's.)

And what role is brevett to play - no mention of him so far ?

right back ? no seriously been stated somewhere i think that he just wants to get his badges and do some scouting

http://www.swindontownfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10341~1070872,00.html


No reason to beleive that has changes, bizarre as it is.

£2.6m and rising at the last set of accounts.

It's all good stuff so far I have to say, but all I fucking really want is a straight forward public statement like this:

"We are not adverse to SSW getting some money back but we've told Diamandis that the M4 is a fairly safe place to play hide and seek with a blindfold on".

ok, maybe add in

"and we won't be moving outside of Swindon, ever, even if we ar here to make some dosh on a property deal"

If they could say that then I'll pop to Tesco and buy myself some beer.

I am going to call him Little Jim it sounds nicer

Im going to call him Spin Jim ...  :wink:

Jim Bob

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Quote of the day !!

How about ... Jimmy Krankie !!

Jim Jam ?

Go get some beer anyway, it will make you feel better regardless :beers:  :mrgreen:

Not least this one.....Could the club still be punished for missing tha cva deadline even though it is now going to be paid?

Im still a tad worried that we could still be fucked over on this :shock:

Nah I don't think so Millom  - we don't pay bills unless they are 3 months over date!!!   SBC - standard business practise

According to the Trust who had a meeting with Jim Little last night, the CVA will be paid within 20 days.

Or, more accurately, according to Jim Little it will be paid as soon as the deal is finally complete which he expects to be within 20 days, hopefully sooner

I couldnt make the trust meeting unfortunately. Next time and all that.
Still concerned that we could be smacked in the goolies over missing the cva deadline though.
Great result yesterday....And if the takeover IS the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, i'll be a happy bunny.(note to little jim.....cva cheque is a priority)
But nowt is ever straight forward  with town is it!!!!

All of this puts a new spin on the Trust's "Jim fixed it for me" teeshirts :D

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

I really don't buy this we have no ulterior motive spin. Jim little has apparently avoided most questions about their intentions etc.
The CVA is being touted as having been paid, which it hasn't, & won't be until the deal is completed.
The takeover deal is being touted as having been done, & it hasn't. No cheques have been handed over yet.
When it does go through, St Modwen will be paid off too.
The current board will remain "Including Mike Diadamdis".
No plans for a stadium redevelopment/ relocation. So why is Bowden still about.
Any sizeable transfers will be sanctioned by the unknown investors, & any profits will go back to them, fair enough, but doesn't virtually every club in the world look to make money from transfers ?
Another thing, I understand that they have agreed to buy a majority of the football club, from the holding company. The same holding company that either owes bill P 1.2 million, or he has a 30 % stake in.  IF the Holding company is 30% owned by Bill as they have kept saying, he should get 30% of the money should he not ?
Finally, why the delay of 20 days, even when buying a house you pay a deposit on exchange of contracts, which is usually avoided, if not available, by completing on the same day.
I'm sorry, but the cynic inside me says that something doesn't add up. This has Diadamdis written all over it!

Definately has Diamandis written all over it !!

they may be saying the Wills are out - but it doesn't stop them from lumping a wedge in Little Jims investment caboodle (much more secret)
Whatever the scenario - it looks like a different business model for a footy club to me.

 It is indeed a tangled web.....and as such may take some time to unpick.

    As more info emerges though, it must provide someone with an opportunity to establish what the fuck is going on.

if Bill P owns 30%, perhaps the new lot have 70% making him basically a silent investor with no say in things at all

No, that's not how the purchase has been done. Best Holdings have bought a majority stake in the football club from the old holding co, leaving the old holding co with a minority stake in the football club (most likely 10-15%). The Holding Co has/had a 70% stake in the football club, and it's out of that stake that Best Holdings have bought a majority shareholding

Cheers Paul, this is starting to confuse me

Check your email Ash - we sent a summary of the meeting we had with Jim Little on Friday to all Trust members, a lot of this kind of stuff is covered in there.

I didnt get this email :(

Me neither.

I did, it does not mention bill power though

were any questions asked about the £1.2 million

Yeah I got it, meant to comment what a good email that was, im just lost in all of this! I might just go back to being a wannabe plastic holigan, much less confusing

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:  what you

PM me with your email addresses - I'll check against what we've got in our database. Also may be worth checking your spam filters, we've had a few people report either their ISPs or mail client spam filters getting a bit OTT on Trust emails. If it is the latter that's causing the problem, usually the mail will have been dumped into a spam folder rather than just deleted so it may be worth wading thru the 100s of viagra ads, ultra-confidential offers from ex-Nigerian oil ministers etc. All our mails usually start with TrustSTFC: in the subject line so that should help find it, if that's what's happened

Who's genius idea was that :D

hence the wannabe bit, your just bitter cos you got caught

So....not having got the e-mail (not complaining as I didn't give my number) can someonre confirm that the Trust have ben told that the Board now has Diamond Mike, Samdy and Holt still on it?

Yes.

And we'll never know who 'Best Holdings' consists of.

  Right....so our worst fears have been confirmed..... :omg2:

Why would Holt not be on the board? it's what the true fans want.

 Which presumably explains why they wouldn't deal with the FC as they'd have been driven out....I suppose if the CVA is finally paid then we can be grateful for that.....

So is the retention of Gray, Holt, Diamandis and co a permanant thing or a temporary measure to ensure some form of contiuety whilst the new mob decide who gets sacked and who doesn't?

If Diamandis gets a seat on the board and Starnes is being retained as CEO then who runs the show?  Is it really Jim Little?  If so, what is the point of Starnes?   :?

   Sounds permanant to me....if they wanted rid, then surely no better time to have done it, than now.

  Presumably Smarmes deals with paperclip shuffling, and Little deals with Portugeezers and the bigger picture.

the information was that the Board resign en masse on completion of the deal and then the new owners appoint a new board.  That will be pretty much the same as the current one, although they included Mike D in the list but forgot to mention J Wills, M Bowden and W Carson.  No timescale given other than that.

What actually happens though is going to be a matter for pure specyulation, as I presume they'd hardly come out now and say you're all gonners, which is what would normally happen over the course of the first year in charge.

They did state that should they need to they would use their controlling stake to make decisions.

Said we'd probably never get information on the list of investors within Best Holdings.

Brevett to be Director of Football and be the link man with foreign investors who pinpoint potential players.  Sturrock not to be under him, both report direct to the Board/owners.

from my understanding of Best holdings... its not really a company, more of an investment fund where many people invest amounts and can take their amount out at any time. There could be 1000s of people investing in it. Still not liking the situation myself.

  I thought the deal had been done  :shrug:    so I wonder why the secrecy over Best Holdings.....what are they trying to hide?

see above. Probably cant give a definitive answer to it as it could change daily.

Though it may not necessarily be so, the deal smells fishier than Captain Birdseye.

The deal is yet to 'complete' as such, but when it does what do they lose by coming clean? The current board spent years shutting out the fans and  feeding us hald truths and BS. I was hoping the new lot would try and build bridges.

  I don't think that's possible as long as Diamond Mike and co have anything to do with the club.

  The key in this is Sturrock.....if he can work within the structure then an open mind is possible,  if he's forced out or does a runner as one e-mailer to RS suggested on Sat, then we're in trouble my red bredren.

If this lot are investing other peoples money, there is an endless list of lower risk higher yield propositions than an insolvent third division football club. I wouldn't want my investment to be ploughed into the black hole that is a Diamandis inspired STFC.

I would presume we are a low risk, based on the size of investment.  The pay off could be success as a club meaning we later become worth something, more likely is the ability to use the fact they own a football club as a tool for getting people interested in the fund.

I don't buy the Arkaga Fund/multiple investor line.

If that was the case then there wouldn't need to be another holding company, Arkaga could do it directly as it appears that they have done with Cork.

Best Holdings looks as though it has been set up as a vehicle especially for this. Either Arkaga have a stake in it or they have been hired to run and manage it for Best.

Therefore I tend to think that there is a small number of investors behind it and they don't want to be made public. Agreed, it is very suspicious.

But there is obviously big players in this investment company, probably with other people putting small amounts in, why can't they say who they are ? (we all assume it is the portugeezers)

But what get's me, now maybe I'm wrong, is how can they say people put money in and take it out all the time, how will they know if there will ever be enough money in there to cover transfers for example if that is viewed over and above the initial investment and for the CG tarting up excercise he talks about.  I wonder how long before they expect to start seeing a return on their investment, let's face it nobody put's money in not expecting to get anything in return even if it is over x amount of years.

The problem is with stfc you cannot help but be suspicious, we have had years of being treated like idiots and mere turnstile fodder.

If they told us we would probably just shrug our sholders and say oh ok then that's fine we understand how it works now.

Spot on.  Given the reported sums of money involved I don’t buy for one minute the story that Best Holdings cannot produce a definitive list of shareholders as there's a constant fluctuating number of investors adding and removing their stake.

Depending on which media source you read someone has invested a significant amount of money up to the tune of 10 million.  Can anyone honestly believe that that sort of money has been funded by a large list of Portuguese stakeholders that are so diverse and varying that their identities cannot definitively be revealed?  

Something doesn’t sit right here and as you mention the only certainty is that the owners wish to remain anonymous.  

Is there a company business check that can be run on Portuguese companies?

With Little suggesting people are taking money out and putting money into Best Holdings all the time, it seems to me that we've just become Swindon Town Football Club (Really Badly) Managed Fund.

I wouldn't invest in it. I wonder how Standard & Poor rate us?  :D

Probably poor :mrgreen:

I reckon the original line, of 3 main investors being diadamdis, Wills & the other investor has more than a grain of truth in it!
Lets face it Diadamdis loves holding companies etc.

ZZZ- at the moment although it  could get worse (if we use the chinese alphabet)

If Little is claiming that people are constantly putting money into Best Holdings, and others are taking money out, on an adhoc basis, he's talking out of his arse.

An investment fund relies on the growth of it's invested capital over varying fixed periods of time. For obvious reasons, you can't run an investment fund where contributing investors can just take their money back whenever it suits them.

Once again, we seem to be being taken for a bunch of country bumpkin cunts who'll believe whatever shit is fed to us.  A plastic septic is now lording it over us, he wont say who his paymasters are or what they want with OUR club, and he wants Dia-fucking-mandis to have a seat on the new board??   :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

This is a wind-up, right?

  Sadly it seems not......

Unless you're talking about money laundering!

Why do you mention 'money laundering' ?? :?

Coz Mr Flemming is a crime writer :mrgreen:

And buried in Sevenhampton church yard,

Now it's a ghost story and a crime thriller  :shock:. Makes a change from being a badly written farce I suppose

As Mr Little would be the fund manager I would be more interested in Jim Little's Citywire ratings.

There's an interesting piece in today's Adver by a Morris Owen accountant about the "liquid" funding.

It still doesn't sit right with me. Either it is a shareholding or not. If it is then what are these fluid investors doing? Do Best run a mini stock exchange?

Is it by A Barlow?

No, Rob something I think.

Where is it in the Adver, please? Or can you post a link? TVM

OK ... found it. http://www.thisisswindontownfc.co.uk/display.var.1630811.0.fans_need_a_little_bit_of_clarity.php

Bag of white marching powder please....
Were those portuegeezers colombians in disguise??

After reading's Fred's bit in 442 mag, I reado the article on Leeds and wonder whether there is any parallels with Swan Management who were an offshore trust that noone could find out investor names.  The local MP also asked the Serious Crime squad to investigate whether money laundering had gone on, so maybe MrFleming is referring to that?

Who is it that lives on the isle of mann whos a town fan?
He will know the answers re:off shore stuff.

News travels far, I just had a meeting with a Swedish client who said this whole palava made the Swedish nationals in the last few days.

That would be Dazza and I mate.

Must say, had a great day out on Saturday watching the town, even if it did cost me £600 to do it!!!!!!

As for the offshore holding company side of things, it would depend on all sorts of varying things.  What sort of structure is in place etc.  There are lots of ways to make sure that the true Ultimate Beneficial Owers can remain confidential.

I work for a CSP over here (Corporate Service Provider, to those who aren't in the know), and we do this sort of thing all the time for people throughout the world.  And yes, we do have a lot of Portugese clients, but I have already checked to see if we operate Best Holdings on behalf of anyone, but we don't so I can't give you any info on them unfortunately

Not sure if it's been posted but there's an interesting thread here on the Cork site....

http://www.ccfcforum.com/forum/Jim-Little-involved-in-Swindon-takeover-t20037.html#

EDit: I see Batch and a few other have already found it!  :D

Hmm page doesn't open - what did it say?

Loads of info but far to much to post, try...

http://www.ccfcforum.com/forum/Off-The-Field-f22.html

Or cut & paste the linkage into your browser.

Dazzza, it's not the link that's the prob, the site just doesn't seem to be responding ... says it's offline. Boo hiss.

Opens easy as for me. Come to Russia and try .... or try now?

Their hosting is a bit flaky.

It regularly goes off line for hours on end or overnight.

What a pain in the arse. It just won't open for me. Fuckers.

Just been sent this from a mate but as with other sauces I'd take it with a pinch of salt and vinegar.  It could be a completely separate company but this was the closest and only match he could find for registered companies in Portugal.

This appeared in the Cork Echo today:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y210/iwoto/eecho080821a.jpg

"Due diligence is paramount because you don't want to find any skeletons in the closet".

 :?

Little Jim says he's going to invest his own 'blood sweat and tears'. That will help with the CVA :?

Over to Reg for some musical reminiscenses 8)

Well the blood ans sweat account has been in deficit recently so it will be a welcome top-up.  We can offer some O negative puches for Easter, see how it goes.

Surfs up dudes. They seem to be as in the dark about their club and owners as we are about ours.

After reading that I want to buy a Cork Shirt and wear it by the executive area!!!

Cork City - my new Irish team!

Cork City are my new Irish team too :mrgreen:

Where you watching the game tonight Jan?

 They never did much for me...........

  On the occasion of playing the villainous, jack booted Hun, in  aso called friendly I prefer to recall this blood sweat and tears speech by Winston....

 " I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.

You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs - Victory in spite of all terrors - Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.

Let that be realized. No survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge, the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward toward his goal.

I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, "Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength."

   :england:

Outstanding.

http://worldroots.com/brigitte/gifs/churchill.jpg

They don't make 'em like that any more 8)

Ill get my rifle.
 :soapy tit wank:

Not sure, i s'pose most, if not all, of the pub round here will be showing the angles/gerry match.  Ireland are playing as well aren't they so even the tap and barrel's not an option.

westside innit

Reading CCFC Forum, makes me shiver. We are being screwed like they have been. We have jumped from a bad board to a worse board. How can that be?  :fu:

What pisses me off about those cork fans is when they say they got £750k  for a player but have not spent any money on any new players.

Seriously how much can you spend to sign a player in the irish fucking league.

The irish league is the equvilent of the blue square for fucksake so i would imagine its hard to get players to play over there

As for saying that the new board wont be investing any cash am i not right in thinking they are clearing our debts :?

   :shrug:  who knows.

Does anyone know anything more about the possibility that the board are trying to fob creditors off with only 10% of what they are owed under the CVA? IE: instead of paying people 15p in the pound they are trying to get them to accept 1.5p?

I may have got this arse about tit but that seems to be what some people (I suspect creditors) are suggesting on the Adver forum. Surely this won't fly...

It would also, of course, be a clear indication of the direction this club is heading in under its 'new' ownership.

HMRC will tell them to fuck off and then issue a W.U.P.

(if that is the case)