This should be the final edition of our weekly update of what is happening at our club. At last we feel confident that we are entering an era which will be exciting and ambitious but without the drama, conflict and shenanigans that we have endured since the start of the year. Therefore, we hope that there will no longer be the need constantly to update and comment on off-the-field events.
It was on March 26th that CAST produced the first "What is happening?" update when we said:
"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"
For the ensuing 27 weeks we have attempted to do this and we hope that, as we went along, we have been able to shed some light on the extraordinary events as they unfolded. In doing this we have often been very grateful to those more in the know than we were. People like Rick Everett, Rich Cawley and Marian Mihail whose insights and comments were often crucial in forming a deeper understanding and analysis. We would also like to acknowledge the amazing "aliwibble" from Charlton Life whose incredible daily "bite-sized" updates we have shamelessly plagiarised on many occasions .
As far as this week is concerned:
The Companies House website was a glory to behold as it announced the appointment of Mr Thomas Sandgaard as director of Charlton Athletic Football Company Ltd from 25th September 2020 plus the termination of the appointments of Tahnoon Nimer, Marian Mihail and Claudiu Florica. It also brought the news that the January 23rd 2020 charge over CAFC Ltd in favour of Roland Duchatelet has been released. If you want to see it with your own eyes here it is:
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/01788466/filing-history
Thomas Sandgaard was interviewed by Rich Cawley this week and spoke about his dealings with Roland Duchatelet and how close the club was to administration. He also states that “Since December or January no money has been put into the club. It was basically running with money from the EFL and some sponsorship money." However he is relatively sanguine about the effects of the Covid restrictions: “It’s not going to be that bad because the club doesn’t have that many expenses right now with the way it has been run over the last nine months. Of course we’re missing the income from the ticket sales, but I’m sure we can do better and get more on the sponsorship side."
The full interview:
Meanwhile Lee Bowyer has acknowledged that he would have had to sell a player to cover September wages if the Sandgaard takeover hadn't completed last week. He also explains in this interview that, even though the club is now financially stable and the EFL transfer embargo is lifted, it is difficult to strengthen the squad because of the salary cap.
A reminder of how the salary cap works:
https://www.efl.com/news/2020/august/squad-salary-caps-introduced-in-league-one-and-league-two/
This week's Price of Football podcast with football finance expert Kieran Maguire includes an extensive interview with CAST's Heather McKinlay. The podcast also includes interesting content about recent events at Wigan and the prospects of financial support for EFL clubs struggling without gate income.
The link below is lined up to start at the Charlton content, though the whole programme is well worth a listen: