New beginnings - 25% Truth, 80% Bollocks

[DV]

Well actually, yes it might.

The more people who speak up about this unacceptable situation, the more likely it is to gather momentum. Clem was everywhere in the honeymoon period but barely anywhere to be seen these days. Keep calling out the bullshit, keep striving for better and eventually he'll get bored of his toy and sell us for a profit. Which I assume was his end goal all along but the earlier the better.

Also, nobody is asking for a multi billionaire. Just somebody who can scrape together a top 7 budget would be a wonderful start. So we can be taken somewhat seriously.

P.S can you imagine how in the shit we'd be if we were budgeted for 6k gates like under Lee Power. We don't have a pot to piss in even with our best support in decades. It's laughable really. It's taken for granted sadly.

Shout as loud as you want but it won’t make someone with more money magically appear.

I get your point about calling things out and I’m not for one second suggesting we should just accept everything & question nothing. Far from it.

We can ask questions we can get massively unsatisfactory answers but that will not help get more money into the club either from Clem or a new investor.

[Mooneyraker]

6 weeks since Clem agreed "to allow a representative from the Trust Board to review the financial records and accounts of the Club, something which goes above that previously agreed and probably unheard of at other Clubs."

[Audrey]

Unless they have seen them and are waiting for Halloween!

[Mooneyraker]

Unless they have seen them and are waiting for Halloween!

They'll sneak them out the day WW3 starts.

[Audrey]

Not long, then!

[Batch]

6 weeks since Clem agreed "to allow a representative from the Trust Board to review the financial records and accounts of the Club, something which goes above that previously agreed and probably unheard of at other Clubs."

I read it as they had already looked at them as part of the sharegate fallout.

Did I misread it/Did the trust say they would report on it?

[Costanza]

Where do you propose Clem finds the money to invest and / or someone else willing to invest the desired amount into the football club?

I get the impression that the 'who would be willing?' rhetoric is a little dated now (although completely accurate historically).

People who know a lot more about the business than I do tell me that this is a very good time for consortiums to invest in/purchase EFL football clubs for various financial reasons and that prospective buyers are always around reviewing the books for multiple clubs to see which one works for them, if any. It's just done away from the public eye, and rightly so.

[Bob1978]

I get the impression that the 'who would be willing?' rhetoric is a little dated now (although completely accurate historically).

People who know a lot more about the business than I do tell me that this is a very good time for consortiums to invest in/purchase EFL football clubs for various financial reasons and that prospective buyers are always around reviewing the books for multiple clubs to see which one works for them, if any. It's just done away from the public eye, and rightly so.

I’m pretty sure the club will be a much better investment prospect when Clem leaves to when Clem took over. But there are 72 clubs in the EFL …. how many good investors are there knocking around?

[Bob's Orange]

I'd imagine that the (almost seemingly never ending) upcoming court cases are likely to put off almost every investor looking to get involved in football. To be fair to him Clem did get on board, even with knowing how much of a mess the club was in behind the scenes.

As Batch said, even with 5k season tickets and gates regularly between 8.5-10k we're losing money each year. The state of the ground can't be helping, I'd imagine a fair chuck of money has to go into it just to make it 'healthy and safe'.

Personally I can't see a lot changing until the court cases are done, and a lot of and low hanging fruit debt has gone.

[Bogus Dave]

Didn’t the CEO essentially come out and say that we’re losing money because of debt repayment to clem? In the interview he did with the adver. Rather than it all being interest free loans that clem wasn’t going to call in unless he sold the club (as I’m sure has been said before)

“ It is a perfectly fair point [that Swindon have larger attendances than most League Two clubs], however Clem [Morfuni] inherited seven million pounds worth of debt when he bought the football club.

To work through that debt and become sustainable, we have to keep working the way that we are.”

[Bennett]

I haven't seen that quote, I just watched the "welcome our new CEO" video and it didn't seem to be mentioned there. Have there been other interviews with Mr Hall?

This is a point I've tried to make in this thread - whilst we ought to be thankful that Clem has stabilised the club, the debt has not been eradicated - It's been shifted to an interest free loan from Clem and he is a creditor to the club. So if Clem does sell, he'll presumably value the club at greater than £6m to recoup his funding OR it'll turn into a longer term debenture.

I am absolutely not saying that's shady or untoward or uncommon. Just highlighting this fact

https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/siteassets/2023-24/advisory-board-minutes/advisory-board-meeting-minutes-oct-2023.pdf
Note: Chairman Clem Morfuni has to-date injected c£6m into Swindon Town, to help stabilise
the club finances. The accounts will reflect that this is owed back to him, however no interest will be due, and there is no timeframe for repayment.

Adver writeup https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/23820797.swindon-town-ceo-says-financial-sustainability-key/
yootoobs interview https://www.swindontownfc.co.uk/news/2023/september/watch-anthony-hall-speaks-for-the-first-time-as-ceo-of-swindon-town/

[Bob1978]

I'd imagine that the (almost seemingly never ending) upcoming court cases are likely to put off almost every investor looking to get involved in football. To be fair to him Clem did get on board, even with knowing how much of a mess the club was in behind the scenes.

As Batch said, even with 5k season tickets and gates regularly between 8.5-10k we're losing money each year. The state of the ground can't be helping, I'd imagine a fair chuck of money has to go into it just to make it 'healthy and safe'.

Personally I can't see a lot changing until the court cases are done, and a lot of and low hanging fruit debt has gone.

Agreed. I’m sure that’s Clems thinking too. He’s invested in good legals to clean up the shit which is a good thing.

[Bob1978]

Agreed. I’m sure that’s Clems thinking too. He’s invested in good legals to clean up the shit which is a good thing.

Put it this way, he’ll have a plan and won’t sell the club because we lost to Gillingham on Tuesday.

[Mooneyraker]

Agreed. I’m sure that’s Clems thinking too. He’s invested in good legals to clean up the shit which is a good thing.

Who’s that? Standing’s lawyer? Who now part owns the club?

[ThreeDrawsMentality]

Think one of the most telling things I found from the recent interviews was when Clem was going through the legal process to acquire the club from Power, he believed the debt position to only be high six figures, rather than the inevitable £6+ million. He may have had more capital to take us forward if that had been the case, but the final debt position probably put that to bed. Only way it will get cleared I feel is if a new owner/consortium cleared it out right in the purchase. Otherwise that will continue to hover over us.