After a lot of pressure from CAST, our local politicians and many many individual fans the EFL bowed this week and finally issued a statement on Monday:
"The EFL has today written to Charlton Athletic requesting further information and a meeting with the Club, the current majority owner of ESI and also the proposed new owners, as it seeks to clarify the ongoing ownership issues at the Club in the context of the EFL Regulations.
The League is aware of the frustrations and concerns the current situation is having on all those associated with the Club, including staff, players and supporters, particularly in recent weeks whilst it has attempted to try and work through the various and complex challenges out of the public eye.
Extensive correspondence has been exchanged with the Club in respect of outstanding information that is still required to be submitted to the EFL and the League will continue to work with the Club.
However, it remains the responsibility of the Club and any prospective owner(s) to demonstrate that the requirements of the EFL Regulations are met. The Club is aware of the consequences of not meeting those requirements.
The League will not provide a running commentary on this matter but will update as appropriate."
The club then issued the following two statements:
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5f1f28e45b1a8/statement-on-change-in-ownership-process
A meeting was held between the EFL and the club on Wednesday and an announcement was forthcoming today:
We note “Further information is now awaited and it remains the responsibility of the club to meet these requirements." We assume that the problem still lies with proving the sufficiency of funds for next season.
Much of the focus this week has been on lawyer Chris Farnell of IPSLaw and, in particular, his exact role in the current situation whereby he appears to act simultaneously for the club, Tahnoon Nimer and the potential new owner of ESI - Paul Elliott plus his previous involvement with "troubled" clubs such as Bury (this time last year) and Salisbury City. His conduct has been the subject of a formal complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) by Charlton supporter Daniel Sayer and the SRA have acknowledged that the complaint meets their threshold (which 80% 0f complaints don't). CAST are assisting Daniel in the process.
Meanwhile CAST made a formal request on July 9th (under the Companies Act) to view the ESI Register of Members and Register of People with Significant Control over the company in order to shed some light on the current ownership. Although an e mail from Chris Farnell was received acknowledging this request there has been no further communication about compliance by arranging access. We have now referred the matter to The Registrar of Companies.
CAST has continued to liaise closely with our local MPS Matt Pennycook and Clive Efford. Matt Pennycook informs us that he has been told expect a response today (Friday) to his recent letter to the EFL and "a public statement to follow". Clive Efford raised the matter of Charlton in Parliament this week during a statement about the governance of football in which he urged the government to fulfill their manifesto promise of a fan-led review." Some dubious characters have got involved with the club separating off the ownership of the ground and the training ground...... and really undermining the future of the club".
We continue to liaise with RB Greenwich and we were delighted to see this comment from Council Leader Danny Thorpe:
“The stadium and training ground sites are designated for specific uses and we would not be interested in any proposals that involved a change of use. Charlton Athletic belongs in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and we will oppose anything that could lead to them being moved out of the borough.”
A fuller report (including Clive Efford's speech) can be found here:
Trust board member Heather Alderson spoke to TalkSport this week.
“The most important thing at the moment, is that all fans are pulling together. CARD [the Coalition Against Roland Duchatelet, a Charlton protest group] has resurrected to really focus on what needs to happen. CAST is part of that coalition, there are other fan groups and everybody together needs to play to their strengths and do what we can.”
https://talksport.com/football/efl/739194/afc-charlton-supporters-trust-bury/
Finally, for those who would welcome it, here is our as brief as possible summary of where we are:
CAFC Ltd is owned by East Street Investments (ESI) whose shareholders remain Tahnoon Nimer (65%) and Matthew Southall (35%). Other directors of ESI are Chris Farnell, Jonathan Heller, Claudiu Florica, Marian Mihail and Andrei Mihail. The directors of CAFC Ltd are Tahnoon Nimer, Marian Mihail and Claudiu Florica.
We were informed via the CAFC website in early June that East Street Investments had been taken over by a consortium led by businessman Paul Elliott, but this was not the case. It subsequently emerged that the take over was contingent on Elliott and his partners gaining EFL approval. As that has not yet been granted the records at Companies House make no mention of Mr Elliott nor the only member of the consortium that he has named - Mohammed El Khashasy.
The EFL are still waiting for the owners of the club to prove they have sufficient funds to run it for next season. If Paul Elliott can prove this then they will approve his consortium and the formal takeover of ESI can complete. Until this happens the owners of the club are East Street Investments under Nimer and Southall who failed to provide proof of sufficient funds from January to June.
East Street Investments only own the football club - not The Valley and the Sparrows Lane training ground which are retained by Roland Duchatelet and leased to the club. Andrew Barclay and Peter Varney are only interested in buying the club plus the freeholds. This will require negotiation with Duchatelet about his inflated valuation which they are not prepared to meet. Negotiation will not be easy as it seems that he is convinced that he will receive his valuation (in the region of £50m) from ESI, personally guaranteed (we believe) by Tahnoon Nimer or that he can ultimately recoup his money through developing the sites.
There is the further complication of the £7m former directors loans which are payable in the event of Charlton reaching the Premier League.
Over 1200 Charlton supporters have joined CAST in the last three months - no doubt motivated by the parlous state of affairs at our club. This has pushed our total membership to almost 2600 making us one of the largest supporters' trusts in the country. Together we are stronger. You can join here:
https://www.castrust.org/join/
If you are concerned about the future of our club sign up to the OUR CLUB campaign here:
https://www.castrust.org/2020/05/sign-up-if-you-love-charlton/