Post by QPR Report on Sept 2, 2009 6:12:59 GMT
David Conn/The Guardian
Notts County's revolution has one outstanding debt
Middle Eastern money has transformed the League Two club but its earlier saviours should not be forgotten
Notts County's first stumble on the path to global brand status came on Saturday at Underhill, where Sven-Goran Eriksson's new, suddenly minted club lost 1-0 to Barnet, watched by a crowd of 2,858. Despite that defeat, Meadow Lane remains a field of sunny euphoria after the summer takeover by Qadbak Investments, although one or two clouds are hovering over this bright new future.
Peter Trembling, now the chief executive, who previously specialised in "affinity" credit cards for football clubs and had a brief stint as Everton's commercial director, still brims with the merits which prompted his backers to choose County.
"The club was at the foot of League Two," he explained, "but it has a Championship-quality ground, a very loyal if dormant fanbase – and is the world's oldest professional club. That is a wonderful strapline, which we can market to football's global audience. What excites me is the commerciality of football."
Notts' 145-year longevity is indeed record-breaking, and includes the famous, turn-of-the-century loan of the black and white kit to an Italian outfit named Juventus, but the oldest-club history stands as a testament more to bloody-minded survival than the seductions of sporting glory.
Notts did just miss becoming a founder member of the Premier League by being relegated from the old First Division in 1992 after one season, but a fall down the leagues culminated in a horrible 18 months, from June 2002 to December 2003, spent in administration.
The club was finally dragged out of insolvency helped by a dedicated supporters' trust, which accumulated £170,000 from ordinary fans via tireless fundraising and bucket-rattling. Three local businessmen put substantial loans in too, and rescue would have been impossible without an unassuming, middle-aged season ticket holder, Haydn Green, who turned out to be a millionaire.
Green bought a 49% stake in Notts, and bought the Meadow Lane lease from the administrator, for just over £3m. He then allowed the club to play there for the same fee he had to pay the local council, which owns the freehold.
County struggled on after that, and the trust had its rifts, but it maintained core principles: for the club to be financially self-sufficient, however meagre its income, and for it to be open in the way it was run. That explains the unease among a minority that nearly three months on, very little is known about Qadbak.
Football League rules require that directors and controllers of 30% or more of any club be passed as "fit and proper" people, which requires disclosure of their identities to the league at least. Fans have so far been told only that Qadbak manages funds from unnamed Middle East investors, and is run by representatives in Switzerland, also unnamed.
Trembling said the league is "happy with everything" and there is "no issue" over its ownership, but that is not the league's position. A Football League spokesman said: "We have received fit-and-proper-person declarations in respect of the club directors and some other individuals, but discussions regarding the club's ownership structure are ongoing."
Sources close to the deal, however, say Qadbak, which used Munto Finance as a vehicle, is no mirage, and confirm what Notts' then chairman, John Armstrong-Holmes, said in June, that Munto had "substantial funds" to invest.
For some, though, the fact that Notts' new owners do wield massive wealth casts a shabby light on the way the takeover was structured, particularly in relation to Haydn Green. In January 2007, Green sold his 49% stake to the other shareholders, which made the supporters' trust the club's majority owner, with more than 60% of the shares. The trust had no money to pay him, so Green, himself a trust member, made a generous arrangement. He gave the trust his shares, and agreed the trust would have to pay him the £75,000 value only if they subsequently sold any shares on.
Green died just four months later, aged 59, a modest saviour of the world's oldest professional football club.
When Qadbak arrived, Armstrong-Holmes, who was also the trust's chairman, told members the fund wanted to put its money in directly, not "embark on heavy expenditure to acquire the club".
He proposed that the trust should hand its shares to Munto for free, as well as write off its hard-raised £170,000 loan. Armstrong-Holmes stated that as the shares were to be "gifted" to Munto, the trust would not have to pay Green's estate, because under the agreement, the £75,000 was due only if the shares were sold.
Some members objected, asking if it would not be "the honourable thing" for Green's family to be paid for the shares. Armstrong-Holmes included an enigmatic assurance: "Haydn Green's position in the club's history is acknowledged and will be honoured by Munto."
The proposal was passed by 93% of trust members, and an overwhelming majority of Notts fans are beside themselves with excitement at all that has followed, headlined by the recruitment of Eriksson and Sol Campbell on salaries beyond galactic for League Two. It is, though, understood that Haydn Green's estate has not been paid the £75,000.
Munto's original statement promised the "investment group" would "work closely with local sport", as well as local authorities, school and hospitals, "to integrate the club more fully into the lifeblood of the community".
Grand plans are being developed, but that pledge has jarred with Munto's rapid attempt to evict Nottingham Rugby Club from Meadow Lane. The club has shared the ground since 2006 after selling its old home, and the two clubs helped each other through bouts of financial crisis.
The rugby club has a contract to play at Meadow Lane this season, yet was forced to go to court to enforce it. Then on 9 August, Trembling asked the rugby club to vacate the old bar it had been using for offices, and the locks were changed.
Trembling said, with regard to the rugby club: "We abide by the court decision", but would not discuss the takeover, including whether the Green estate has been paid. It is not known whether the other former shareholders have had their loans repaid.
"It would be disrespectful to talk about the takeover," he said. "Our plan is to breathe new life into this club; we are investing in the infrastructure as well as the playing side. There have been too many false dawns here, but we know how real this is."
David Hindley, a former trust director, admits to concerns: "After years of underachievement, most fans want to enjoy the ride while it lasts and relish the opportunity to 'live the dream'," he said. "But there is a right and wrong way to do things, and some of the principles promoted by the supporters' trust movement – of openness, and fostering links between the club and its community – appear to be being lost."
In the rush to capitalise on Notts County's fabled heritage, the club's new owners must take care to pay due respect to those who played vital parts in the club's real, recent story of hand-to-mouth survival
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2009/sep/02/notts-county-takeover
Notts County's revolution has one outstanding debt
Middle Eastern money has transformed the League Two club but its earlier saviours should not be forgotten
Notts County's first stumble on the path to global brand status came on Saturday at Underhill, where Sven-Goran Eriksson's new, suddenly minted club lost 1-0 to Barnet, watched by a crowd of 2,858. Despite that defeat, Meadow Lane remains a field of sunny euphoria after the summer takeover by Qadbak Investments, although one or two clouds are hovering over this bright new future.
Peter Trembling, now the chief executive, who previously specialised in "affinity" credit cards for football clubs and had a brief stint as Everton's commercial director, still brims with the merits which prompted his backers to choose County.
"The club was at the foot of League Two," he explained, "but it has a Championship-quality ground, a very loyal if dormant fanbase – and is the world's oldest professional club. That is a wonderful strapline, which we can market to football's global audience. What excites me is the commerciality of football."
Notts' 145-year longevity is indeed record-breaking, and includes the famous, turn-of-the-century loan of the black and white kit to an Italian outfit named Juventus, but the oldest-club history stands as a testament more to bloody-minded survival than the seductions of sporting glory.
Notts did just miss becoming a founder member of the Premier League by being relegated from the old First Division in 1992 after one season, but a fall down the leagues culminated in a horrible 18 months, from June 2002 to December 2003, spent in administration.
The club was finally dragged out of insolvency helped by a dedicated supporters' trust, which accumulated £170,000 from ordinary fans via tireless fundraising and bucket-rattling. Three local businessmen put substantial loans in too, and rescue would have been impossible without an unassuming, middle-aged season ticket holder, Haydn Green, who turned out to be a millionaire.
Green bought a 49% stake in Notts, and bought the Meadow Lane lease from the administrator, for just over £3m. He then allowed the club to play there for the same fee he had to pay the local council, which owns the freehold.
County struggled on after that, and the trust had its rifts, but it maintained core principles: for the club to be financially self-sufficient, however meagre its income, and for it to be open in the way it was run. That explains the unease among a minority that nearly three months on, very little is known about Qadbak.
Football League rules require that directors and controllers of 30% or more of any club be passed as "fit and proper" people, which requires disclosure of their identities to the league at least. Fans have so far been told only that Qadbak manages funds from unnamed Middle East investors, and is run by representatives in Switzerland, also unnamed.
Trembling said the league is "happy with everything" and there is "no issue" over its ownership, but that is not the league's position. A Football League spokesman said: "We have received fit-and-proper-person declarations in respect of the club directors and some other individuals, but discussions regarding the club's ownership structure are ongoing."
Sources close to the deal, however, say Qadbak, which used Munto Finance as a vehicle, is no mirage, and confirm what Notts' then chairman, John Armstrong-Holmes, said in June, that Munto had "substantial funds" to invest.
For some, though, the fact that Notts' new owners do wield massive wealth casts a shabby light on the way the takeover was structured, particularly in relation to Haydn Green. In January 2007, Green sold his 49% stake to the other shareholders, which made the supporters' trust the club's majority owner, with more than 60% of the shares. The trust had no money to pay him, so Green, himself a trust member, made a generous arrangement. He gave the trust his shares, and agreed the trust would have to pay him the £75,000 value only if they subsequently sold any shares on.
Green died just four months later, aged 59, a modest saviour of the world's oldest professional football club.
When Qadbak arrived, Armstrong-Holmes, who was also the trust's chairman, told members the fund wanted to put its money in directly, not "embark on heavy expenditure to acquire the club".
He proposed that the trust should hand its shares to Munto for free, as well as write off its hard-raised £170,000 loan. Armstrong-Holmes stated that as the shares were to be "gifted" to Munto, the trust would not have to pay Green's estate, because under the agreement, the £75,000 was due only if the shares were sold.
Some members objected, asking if it would not be "the honourable thing" for Green's family to be paid for the shares. Armstrong-Holmes included an enigmatic assurance: "Haydn Green's position in the club's history is acknowledged and will be honoured by Munto."
The proposal was passed by 93% of trust members, and an overwhelming majority of Notts fans are beside themselves with excitement at all that has followed, headlined by the recruitment of Eriksson and Sol Campbell on salaries beyond galactic for League Two. It is, though, understood that Haydn Green's estate has not been paid the £75,000.
Munto's original statement promised the "investment group" would "work closely with local sport", as well as local authorities, school and hospitals, "to integrate the club more fully into the lifeblood of the community".
Grand plans are being developed, but that pledge has jarred with Munto's rapid attempt to evict Nottingham Rugby Club from Meadow Lane. The club has shared the ground since 2006 after selling its old home, and the two clubs helped each other through bouts of financial crisis.
The rugby club has a contract to play at Meadow Lane this season, yet was forced to go to court to enforce it. Then on 9 August, Trembling asked the rugby club to vacate the old bar it had been using for offices, and the locks were changed.
Trembling said, with regard to the rugby club: "We abide by the court decision", but would not discuss the takeover, including whether the Green estate has been paid. It is not known whether the other former shareholders have had their loans repaid.
"It would be disrespectful to talk about the takeover," he said. "Our plan is to breathe new life into this club; we are investing in the infrastructure as well as the playing side. There have been too many false dawns here, but we know how real this is."
David Hindley, a former trust director, admits to concerns: "After years of underachievement, most fans want to enjoy the ride while it lasts and relish the opportunity to 'live the dream'," he said. "But there is a right and wrong way to do things, and some of the principles promoted by the supporters' trust movement – of openness, and fostering links between the club and its community – appear to be being lost."
In the rush to capitalise on Notts County's fabled heritage, the club's new owners must take care to pay due respect to those who played vital parts in the club's real, recent story of hand-to-mouth survival
www.guardian.co.uk/sport/david-conn-inside-sport-blog/2009/sep/02/notts-county-takeover
