What is happening at our club? – weekly update – Sandgaard interviews & media spotlight
A lot has happened this week - with CAFC high on the sports news agenda.
Last week concluded with the dramatic emergence of Thomas Sandgaard - a US based, Danish born entrepreneur - expressing his interest in buying CAFC.
Sandgaard is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Zynex Inc, based in Colorado, which produces medical devices. We were grateful at the start of the week to Rick Everitt, for putting Sandgaard's bid into a broader context:
On Monday Peter Varney made a statement via Twitter that the bid by Andrew Barclay which he had been backing was now being withdrawn. Barclay has always been clear that he was only interested in buying the club together with the stadium and training ground. Varney confirmed that "Sadly, Roland Duchatelet has made it clear by his lack of response to any correspondence to his lawyers and through Andrew's discussions with his representatives that he has no interest in discussing a sale of the two main assets." He concludes: "If others can negotiate a deal with Roland and Panorama / ESI as they claim then the right thing to do is to step aside and allow that to happen."
The full statement can be seen here:
https://twitter.com/_petervarney/status/1295365472209248256?s=21
In an interview with Richard Cawley on Monday Sandgaard sounded a bullish note: “Talks are progressing really positively. It looks like in theory everything could be done before the end of the week. The reality is often that you get surprises along the way."
On Tuesday evening CAST board member Heather McKinlay was on national radio speaking to Colin Murray about the situation at Charlton. The programme on BBC Radio Five Live also featured a member of Wigan Supporters Trust. The segment of the programme dealing with football finance begins after 35 minutes and Heather's contribution starts at 44 minutes. Her contribution was a timely reminder that, while we wait for our "knight in shining armour", the club is still in acute danger of expulsion from the EFL.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lvhm
Meanwhile, club director Marian Mihail told Richard Cawley that there were no financial problems for the club this month and that he was confident that September and October costs could be met - "without outside money". He was also reassuring that there need be no fire sale of players: “The final decision on selling players belongs in conjunction with Steve, Lee and us. We don’t micro-manage them.” It also became clear that Elliott and Farnell are progressing an appeal regarding failing the EFL's Owners and Directors' Test and that the club is not blocking this. As it stands, the disqualification would prevent them from being involved across any EFL affiliated clubs, not just CAFC.
During the week Thomas Sandgaard was in constant contact with a whole variety of Charlton supporters via social media. CAST spoke to him at 6.30am (Colorado time) on Wednesday and we were immediately struck by his enthusiasm, openness and honesty. He said that things were going well and that he was aiming to gain agreement in principle with all parties within days, although he reiterated that there might be "surprises" along the way. He said he would be interested to talk more fully to the CAST board, perhaps when agreement in principle was achieved.
Sky's Ben Ransom conducted an interview with Sandgaard on Wednesday in which the prospective new owner sounded positive but realistic. It is well worth listening to:
https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/12052679/sandgaard-closes-on-charlton-deal
He was also on TalkSport on Thursday when it emerged that:
Nimer has agreed not to officially sell ESI / CAFC for two weeks (probably while ESI1 and ESI2 put together their cases on the injunction / negotiate a settlement).
Farnell has told Jim White that Elliott owns the shares now, but Sandgaard's lawyers believe different.
Stop press - Rick Everitt has just reported that 1 September has been set as the date for the injunction hearing, though of course this may change.
BBC journalist Simon Stone also interviewed Sandgaard: "It is probably going to take a couple of years to bring stability and trust from the fanbase."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53837348
And, finally, it was announced that it may be possible for Charlton to admit between 500-1000 spectators for a home fixture in September
And, really finally, it appears that Tom Lockyer is still training with The Addicks and might be with us next season after all.
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/