club statement on official website

[Piemonte]

who are they?

how do you become one?

do we have any on here?

did mike diamandis sacrifice them to the devil?

I think they are self appointed do gooders

Oh right. Thats why Paul D got an invite  

[Whits]

why did no one on here get an invite  

[glos_robin]

I don't often post on these things apart from myonlyswindon occasionally but i'll put in my thoughts.

we need to provide the alternative..... that's why meetings such as Wednesday are so crucial, in order to 'get rid' of them we need to be able to put something else in place. I'm sure our support will contain accountants etc that could help with the accounts, marketing people to help with PR etc.
If the club could lower themselves to the average fan and talk to us without any spin then perhaps we could move forward together and put a stop to all this bickering.

Sadly on evidence so far certain individuals at the club see us purely as a consumer and not as human beings with more to offer than purely money.

If instead we could put something innovative in place where the club isn't trust run as such but has the board working together with the fans then this could be a positive and fruitful move. The likelihood of a huge investor is minimal why not instead utilise the skills of the fans. Think of all the volunteers the club could benefit from if it was done in the right way.
If we could add a working parties services to the club to help out then if the club refused this then we may have some real problems behind the scenes.

We need to offer substance and ideas and yes i'll be at wednesdays forum

[yeo]

Yes Rob T went as well

 

[yeo]

Here are Alan H's notes from the meeting from L&P site

Just got back from the supporters' group/board meeting.

Well, what you can say?

Below is a verbatim account as I wrote it down - I offer no comments (well not until the end):

- Party line, reiteration of everything in today's statement along with some amplification and clarification

- New investor lined up, one of James Will's mates (no figures, timescales or anything else offered)

- An incredibly frightening financial situation in prospect, even without BP taking his money out and the CVA being due

- Not a single peep about Mike Diamandis, apart from when asked "why isn't he a director, considering he has so much involvement with the club" the reply was "because he doesn't want to be"

- Lots of convolutions around the budget/overspend/Devlin's fault/Ince signing thing

- Bill Power has not been registered as a Director

- Bill Power "definitely" owns 33% of the shares. SSW and Jame's Wills lawyer says the shares have gone through, BP's lawyer says they have not. BP has definitely asked for his money back

- Bill Power loans of "around £120k" will be repaid anyway

- Wise does has a release clause if a Championship or Premiership side comes in for him. No offers from any club yet. Expect a statement from DW about this soon.

- Mike Sullivan and Mark Devlin "will return to their previous roles"

- "Would welcome Bill Power back with open arms"

- Accounts: 2004 now lodged, 2005 lodged but technical issues with auditors, but will be ready soon. 2006 will be on time (lodged within ten months). Will present 2004 accounts at next AGM (21st October), 2005 & 2006 accounts at subsequent AGM.

- Linda Birrel was made redundant as a cost cutting measure

- The Paul Ince signing had gone so far down the road that James WIlls had to make a donation of £65k because the club were commited to the contract. The offer had been made and signed by Mark Devlin. PI's contract was signed by Sandy Gray and Linda Birrel.

- Estimated £700k overspend this FY will be 30-40% of turnover

- An acceptable excuse for Mark Devlin will be that it was authorised by Bill Power as he and MD were looking after the footballing side of the business

- Club still losing money with 7,500 gates, would need to be at 10,000+ to break even

- Would unconditionally sell the club if an offer was made. Vague about exact figure.

- No playing budget cuts envisaged at this time, probably will loan some players out

- The playing budget is higher than last year

- The bit in the statement relating to SSW pulling the plug is because certain people have received direct physical threats

Phew. There's a bit more detail, but it's late.

So there you go. What you make of it is up to you. I'm sure Rob will comment further. The only comment I have is "incompetence and mis-management" in my humble opinion.

I suggest that you all make it to the fans' meeting on Wednesday as you should be getting a different perspective, as well as the one I have just relayed.

_________________

[pauld]

who are they?

how do you become one?

do we have any on here?

did mike diamandis sacrifice them to the devil?

I think they are self appointed do gooders

Oh right. Thats why Paul D got an invite  

That's the real reason I felt unable to go - I examined my conscience and didn't in all honesty feel I'd done enough good to qualify as a do-gooder   There, I've said it - I'm a self-appointed do-not-enough-gooder  

[RobertT]

Here we go then, Alan's summary covers most so I will delve a little deeper into some of the things said:

Devlin:

Had the finger firmly pointed in his direction for spending the clubs money in a reckless fashion.

£700k "shortfall", overspend is in fact over £1m, or so they agreed last night when I questioned it when you consider increased turnover. I confirmed this again, just to make sure and asked if they agreed that it amounted to between 30% and 40% of the total budget overspent in just 2 months. They confirmed this to be a fair reflection of the situation.

They advised that Devlin offered INce a contract without their knowledge and that Ince accepted this before the plane crash (public statement appear to be inaccurate for well on a month it would seem). Devlin is not however an allowed signature with the FL, so Wills and Gray had to conclude the deal, and the club felt they were legally bound to pay Ince regardless.

The club knew they were at 60% mark when they signed Evans because the League told us we could have him or Ince, not both. We took Evans because we'd already got a signed contract back. However, this shows the club would have been aware of a huge overspend at this point if the next point they made is also true:

I asked if the wages were only just over 60% of turnover, surely the overspend relates to non playing things. The club advised they had budgeted for closer to 50% of turnover - which would mean several signings were made after we hit this mark.

I've noticed a few people saying, well we are doing well on the pitch so lets just accept that. It becomes quite clear that much of what is being regarded as overspend by Devlin is what has helped this happen - all the things Wise asked to be changed at the club, and rightly so in my opinion.

Board asked Power about overspend 3 days before crash and asked Devlin to report back. My understanding from the meeting was that Power and Devlin were given freedom to do what was needed and the Board assumed Power would cover any costs incurred beyond budget. The Board then realised spending had escalated beyond what they felt comfortable with and so questioned them both.

Power:

No "rift" with Power, but he called the meeting and his advisor or wife immediately asked for his full withdrawl and for a return of his money. Argument over what form the investment took but if Power wins legal argument then he'll be asking for £1m back (personal opinion here, why would someone who is your friend ask for £1m back knowing full well the club could not afford it?)
Club went into the meeting with a bit of fear following the rumour of a rift. Also confirmed they have not spoken directly to Bill and little or no contact with Mark and Mike. In fact they were asked not to contact them (despite Mark clearly being well enough to talk to the press for several weeks).

I think alternative views will be provided on this at the meeting on Wednesday which does not 100% match the clubs.

Powers illness was a factor (confirmed from all sources).

Asked if the clubs lawyers won and it is shares, would that mean anyone could offer Power for them? Club confirmed yes and that person would control 30% of the football club. SSW and James Wills hold 60% in that event and 10% in smaller shareholders.

Asked if the club was for sale, confirmed any offers would be considered, certainly not expecting figures over £5m for a full buy out.

Investment:

Confirmed no investment other than Powers has come from outside entirely. Any outside money, mainly St Modwen, is secured against SSW's assets, so constitutes loans.

The board consider Diamandis to have some sort of legal responsibility in relation to the club as a "Shadow Director", need to check that legally I guess.

Linda was made redundant and given a months notice in Lieu, so we asked her to leave that day! Board believed that Wise did not really need a Secretary like previous Managers did and that the rest of her role would be taken over by the Chief Exec (although they have not asked or told Mark Devlin yet). Currently this means our acting Chief Exec is also our accountant and now also covering the club secretary role. When asked why did Wise come out then and say it was a bad decision, the Board said they were not aware of that. It was mentioned to them that Wise made the statement on Radio Swindon and could only answer "probably" when pushed on if it might have been a good thing to check with the Manager first if he needed her or not.

Overall, the impression I got, if I just listened to the information provided from this meeting I'd come to this conclusion:

Serious issues within Senior Management (Devlin) and the Board - massive overspend and potentially £1.12m to pay back to Power. £900k CVA payment is not included in the overspend or budget, so that equals £2.72m extra cash needed in the next 10 months in worst case scenario. If I believe every word said to me this still leaves me thinking serious issues exist at this club.

There is clearly a fall out with Devlin, that much was clear, even if they did say he had a job to come back to. Basically they made it very clear they believe we have stretched too far given the money we now have at the club and this was either authorised by Devlin on his own or with Powers backing.

Decision on Linda's redundancy makes no sense.

In all of it though, I didn't sense any desire to have pushed Power away and I could probably just about see that they were a bit perplexed by it.

At the end of the day, regardless of the Power reasons (and there may be info from other sources on this), I still felt my jaw dropping to the floor when I was hearing some of the stuff. After 5 years we seem to be no further forward off the field. They made it quite clear they felt this club could not make the club break even unless crowds were about 10000 (despite examples within the leagues of clubs managing this on lower attendances than us).

Finally, I would suggest attending on Wednesday if you can but most of all, full support for the team tonight at Wycombe.

[janaage]

Love it or hate it, our club is a joke.

[DribblingSissy]

So.....I for one still love it!
Wouldnt be right if we were run properly would it? been so long since it was i am not sure if it even matters any more??
Either way, we win on the pitch and do well and the finances will come round so lets leave it alone now can we and get on with supporting our team tonight?!!
 

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

hmmm so we are in shit really. and theres no extra investment apart from perhaps someone that James Wills knows. and BP wants his money back. not looking good really is it?

[RobertT]

So.....I for one still love it!
Wouldnt be right if we were run properly would it? been so long since it was i am not sure if it even matters any more??
Either way, we win on the pitch and do well and the finances will come round so lets leave it alone now can we and get on with supporting our team tonight?!!
 

I still don't see whay the two things can't be seperated.  Passionately support the team, seriously question the board.  This was simply a review of the boards own view of the matters that have occured over the past few weeks.  Mike Diamandis was not present so we don't have his take on some of the stuff and we don't have "public" statements from Devlin or Power for legal reasons.

Of course, we should still reamin positive about things on the field, although it did strike me that things might be going so well because of these things Devlin went and allowed money to spent on (if that is the claim) - such as meals at the Training Ground (to keep the players together and probably prevent them chipping off down to Walkabout)

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

speaking of Walkabout i might chip of there now  

[el duque]

"Bill Power "definitely" owns 33% of the shares. SSW and Jame's Wills lawyer says the shares have gone through, BP's lawyer says they have not. BP has definitely asked for his money back"

So, the 'great' Bill Power gets all the plaudits for what happened over the summer, and some think he can do no wrong. What he's actually been doing if this is to be believed is sending the club down the toilet financially, whilst the much maligned Wills family foot the bill (no pun intended). THEN, the bludger demands his money back... What a cheek!

[TalkTalk]

I have to say that with PD's thoughts on the Trust site - http://www.truststfc.co.uk/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=4948&s=4f8930a368a3be5fdeaaa9729e61acca , last night's meeting and other first-hand information not yet in the public domain it looks as though we have a pretty coherent picture of what has gone on.

Be there tomorrow night if you can. As Paul says, it might not be explosive but it hangs together for me.

[RobertT]

"Bill Power "definitely" owns 33% of the shares. SSW and Jame's Wills lawyer says the shares have gone through, BP's lawyer says they have not. BP has definitely asked for his money back"

So, the 'great' Bill Power gets all the plaudits for what happened over the summer, and some think he can do no wrong. What he's actually been doing if this is to be believed is sending the club down the toilet financially, whilst the much maligned Wills family foot the bill (no pun intended). THEN, the bludger demands his money back... What a cheek!

No, agreements were made that any extra spend on the playing budget would be covered by Power (club said this last night).  For a variety of reasons, he has since decided to pull the plug and ask for all his money back.  The lack of official documentation to confirm details of the funding agreements may be the problem.  If it was all written down that Power would cover X then we'd not have any problem with committed spending.