What is happening at our club? – weekly update

For those of us struggling to keep abreast of developments at Charlton Athletic we thought we would try to produce a weekly update of events. This is not an attempt to provide a comprehensive and detailed analysis of every twist and turn. It is designed for those who are looking for a broad and manageable overview:

Club Director Marian Mihail confirmed this week that

"Panorama Magic (which holds 65% of the shares in ESI) has received an offer from a third party to purchase the entirety of its shareholding, and has required Mr Southall (the holder of the remaining 35% of ESI shares) to accept the same offer in respect of his shares.

This comes from Article 15 in the ESI agreement which also requires Panorama Magic to give notice of its intention to sell to Mr. Southall. This notice has been given. The sale cannot now complete, in accordance with that article, until at least ten business days have passed since notice was given. The notice was given on Friday, May 22nd 2020, meaning that the earliest date on which the sale could complete is Monday, June 8th 2020, though it could also be later than this."

It is CAST's view that it is still possible that the third party could withdraw their offer to purchase Panorama Magic's shareholding (and therefore Southall's shareholding) at any time. The above does not necessarily represent a done deal.

Marian Mihail's full answers to supporter questions can be seen here:

https://www.castrust.org/2020/05/marian-mihail-answers-questions-about-the-changes-at-esi/

 

Meanwhile Lawrence Bassini has announced that he has withdrawn his offer to buy the club. He claims that this offer had previously been accepted, although this has always been strongly denied by Marian Mihail. Either way, given Bassini's previous history with football clubs, we imagine that few Charlton fans will be disappointed by this news.

Former Swansea Chairman Huw Jenkins confirmed this week that the exclusivity period he had been given to complete a deal for the club has expired and his bid now hangs "in the balance".

"It needs more consideration" he said. "Will Charlton be in The Championship or League One? Will supporters be let back in? You can't hide from these things. There is probably a £10m difference right there"

 

The players have returned to training ahead of a possible kick off on June 19th. Lee Bowyer says he has not altered his stance towards his players' involvement should the season restart - insisting he will not demand any of them play the remainder of the campaign.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live Sport: “No, I never relaxed my stance on it. I met the players on Saturday before we’d done our first test and I asked them all individually - it’s your choice, do you want to come back and play the remainder of the season?

"Every single player I’ve asked, and I said there’s no pressure, it’s your choice and all but three have said yeah.

"So that’s a good number for me but there’s no pressure, I understand, everyone's got different circumstances.

"Of course I’d rather everybody came back because the more players you’ve got, the bigger squad you’ve got and the more chance of winning games, but that isn’t the case and we’ll have to adapt.

"I’m sure there’s other players at other teams that have also said no."

 

On Tuesday of this week (precisely twelve months after Patrick Bauer's Wembley goal) CAST announced the OUR CLUB campaign - asking supporters to sign up to register an initial interest in a possible fan-led purchase of the club. Over 2000 signed up in the first 24 hours - mostly non CAST members.

If you haven't yet signed up or you are unaware of it, give yourself a treat and click here to watch our film:

https://www.castrust.org/2020/05/sign-up-if-you-love-charlton/

 

Over 1000 Charlton supporters have joined CAST in the last two months -  no doubt motivated by the parlous state of affairs at our club. This has pushed our total membership towards 2500 making us one of the largest supporters' trusts in the country. Together we are stronger. You can join here:

https://www.castrust.org/join/