What is happening at our club? Weekly update – #SaveCAFC and news of a new bidder

The week began with official confirmation that two directorships of East Street Investments had been terminated.

Andrei Mihail (The brother of Marian Mihail) was only appointed as a director to boost numbers on the board in support of Tahnoon Nimer against Matt Southall back in March. Marian Mihail confirmed at the weekend that, due to an oversight, no application to the EFL was made on behalf of Andrei at the time and that is why the EFL judged him to be disqualified.

Chris Farnell's directorship was also terminated. It is possible that his disqualification by the EFL was for the same reason.

Peter Varney commented in a tweet following the announcement of the EFL's decision to disqualify Elliott, A Mihail and Farnell:

"Just seen the statement and also received a lot of messages surrounding it. We need clarification before further comment"

When Chris Farnell's office was visited on Friday for a friendly chat by a number of Charlton fans they were surprised to see former Wolves and Hartlepool manager Dave Jones sitting there. It subsequently came to light that the Paul Elliott consortium were keen to appoint Jones in some sort of Director of Football role. Given that the consortium don't seem to own the club and haven't yet passed the EFL owners and Directors Test this was a controversial move to say the least and one that wasn't welcomed by Lee Bowyer, Steve Gallen and 99% of Charlton fans who took part in an on-line survey.

On Tuesday Rich Cawley reported that the club directors took the same view:

https://www.castrust.org/2020/08/cafc-board-dont-want-dave-jones/

On Wednesday morning the news emerged that Farnell had been dismissed as club lawyer by the club directors and that the club was not going to appeal the EFL decision to disqualify Elliott, Farnell and Andrei Mihail. Ben Ransom of SkySports confirmed in a Tweet:

"Individuals cannot appeal against the OADT decisions, only the member (ie Charlton Athletic). I'm told Marian Mihail has informed the EFL that the club will not be proceeding with the Elliott takeover, so that appears to end that."

Confused?

Probably the clearest explanation of the current situation was that given by Rick Everitt and we are grateful to him (as ever) for his cogent analysis:

http://www.votvonline.com/home/the-2019-20-blogs/11-8-farnell-ousted-as-esi2-takeover-appears-over/

 

Charlton has been the subject of intense media interest in the past few days, driven by the #SaveCAFC Twitter campaign - which was trending at number one in the UK for two evenings in a row. Instigated by former stadium announcer Dave Lockwood, all and sundry have been joining in, including former Charlton players, current captain Jason Pearce, director Marian Mihail and many across the wider football world. Gary Lineker ReTweeted CAST's Our Club push, commenting: "Good luck with this. Another of our great football clubs being messed with. #SaveCAFC." 

The Twitter storm has undoubtedly raised awareness of the shenanigans at the club and CAST have been fielding numerous media enquiries. Heather McKinlay was invited on to TalkSPORT yesterday, with Max Rushden sitting in for Jim White and giving good airtime to the situation.

https://www.castrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Heather-McKinlay-TalkSPORT-130820.mp3

Meanwhile, to general surprise, we signed two new players- Alex Gilbey from AFC Wimbledon and Conor Washington from Hearts. The signings followed extensive lobbying of the EFL by the directors and Chris Parkes to be flexible in terms of the registration embargo placed on the club.

On Thursday, Richard Cawley announced details of a potential new buyer for the club in the shape of Thomas Sandgaard:

https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/exclusive-super-wealthy-danish-businessman-thomas-sandgaard-wants-to-buy-charlton-athletic/

 

What will next week bring?

 

Over 1250 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 over 2600 making us one of the largest supporters' trusts in the country. Together we are stronger. You can join here for just £5 adult, free for U16s:

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

If you are concerned about the future of our club sign up to the OUR CLUB campaign here. At the moment, we aren't asking for money, just your details, though we may need to fund-raise soon:

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