Keep Calm and Carry On

After 10-15 years of ownership shenanigans, it is hardly surprising that this report in The Guardian caused a high degree of concern and alarm among Addicks:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/aug/03/charlton-athletic-for-sale-the-valley-stadium

Alongside many fans, we urged the club for a swift response. Chairman Gavin Carter has since put out a message, initially on his personal X, then shared via the club website:

https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/update-gavin-carter

He has also spoken at length to Rich Cawley. The overall message is that the ownership are indeed seeking additional investment and have been open to this for many months now. He did not categorically rule out a complete sale as “every asset has its price”. He nevertheless reassured Addicks that preparations for this season continue according to the agreed plan.

CAST recognises that the club is reliant on significant ongoing investment and goodwill from wealthy individuals. That’s the situation now for most clubs across the English professional game. Under Global Football Partners the trajectory has been positive both on and off the pitch.

We are nevertheless realistic that even the most committed of investors is unlikely to have the will or the wealth to incur substantial losses year after year and this will naturally lead to changes in investors and possibly changes in ownership. The horizons and timescales for investors will of course be different from those of fans. In the investment world, ‘long-term’ might mean 5-10 years. For fans, 'long-term' means a lifetime of support.

Charlton’s bi-annual Meet the Directors TV show is set to take place on Thursday 13 August. Gavin Carter has invited fans to use it as an opportunity to put questions and concerns directly to him and we encourage you to do so. If you wish CAST to put a question on your behalf, please email secretary@castrust.org.

While the search for greater investment into Charlton is ongoing, and whether that investment is ultimately partial or wholesale, let’s rally together behind both men’s and women’s teams as we always do. We are indeed in the best position on the pitch in the past 20 years. So get down The Valley, bring your friends and family, and make some noise.

Report on meeting between CAST & Gavin Carter

CAST board members met with Gavin Carter a week prior to the story published in The Guardian. The content of the meeting reported below provides some additional insight into the financial challenges and the ownership’s approach.

The club’s chairman began by stressing Charlton’s continuing aim to build in a “fiscally sustainable” fashion, with eyes open to the scale of the losses. Last season was one of achievement – the men retaining their Championship place and the women securing promotion to the WSL. In both cases they overachieved significantly versus peers. The men’s squad wages were in the fourth quartile of The Championship – the second or third lowest in the division. The aim for the new season is to move to the third quartile, or at least to the top of the fourth quartile. In the longer term - within the five-year plan - the aim is to reach the second quartile.

He commented that rumours about the size of the available transfer budget were usually widely off target and that fans should not give too much credence to rumoured transfer fees reported on social media. He explained that standard practice was for men’s transfer fees to be paid in three instalments over three years but the 5% levy to the EFL and the VAT had to be paid immediately on the full amount.

With men’s contracts tending to be for a number of years, building the squad may feel like a relatively slow process, but that’s the nature of the beast and a consequence of success. Incoming deals for this season are still in the making and there will also be outgoings to achieve a balance in the squad size – ideally the men’s squad will be 27.

He confirmed that CAFC had voted against the new EFL Squad Cost Ratio rules (cap of 85% of income on player costs and maximum of £33m owner equity injection over three years with no more than £15m in a single year) largely because it allowed established Championship clubs to have a “clean slate” on losses, whatever their losses had been over the previous years. He also expressed concern that the rules for League One will make life very precarious for relegated clubs. (50% of income allowed on wages of players, manager and coaching staff, with 65% allowed for relegated clubs for one season. Owners’ equity injections in League One must now be included in the 50%/65%.) He said that the club would be “active” in discussions with the EFL about this and expressed the view that a much more progressive, longer-term formula needs to be agreed. Ideally there was a need for “long-term uniformity on cost control between the leagues”.

He recognised that the second season in The Championship was like “the difficult second album” with fan expectations raised and the momentum from promotion lost. He encouraged all supporters to do their best to ensure that the attendance and the atmosphere for the Derby game would rival that of Watford last season.

We commented that from our experience most Charlton supporters are fully in support of the need for fiscal sustainability and would be alarmed by owners and directors acting recklessly.

We discussed the issue of fan engagement and he agreed with us that the term was confusing as it covered both fan experience (matchday service and satisfaction, atmosphere etc) and fan consultation (on strategy, ticketing, heritage items etc.) which are very different things.

The club were aware that the 26/27 Fan Engagement Plan needed to be submitted to the EFL by the end of July. Until a Chief Executive is appointed Gavin will be the person who will sign it off. He acknowledged the input that CAST had made supporting the staff in the preparation of the plan. He said that ideally the club would have two fan engagement staff reporting to Chris Samson (Head of Marketing).

Gavin expressed his commitment to the principle of the Independent Football Regulator (IFR). He regrets that the IFR might not have enough authority over cost control and, without that, some clubs will continue to gamble with their futures.

He said that the club’s IFR supervisor has been appointed and that first impressions have been very positive. However, there is still much clarity needed on the details of the licensing process and the club are awaiting feedback. The club is considering employing a compliance officer, given the additional regulatory overheads.

We raised that in the eyes of the IFR Charlton may face a specific challenge as the stadium is not owned by the club. Gavin assured us that the lease terms are sensible and that the club has a good ongoing relationship with Roland Duchatelet’s team.

Gavin recognised that it was no secret that the women’s team faced a mammoth task to survive in the WSL. Women’s contracts are usually shorter at one or two seasons. So, this helps with rebuilding the squad.

He stressed that, although Global Football Partners were the ultimate funders of both the men’s and women’s teams, they are two separate legal entities and they both need losses to be covered by the owners. He acknowledged that GFP must make decisions regarding the extent they are prepared to subsidise both entities but that it was not helpful to pitch one against the other. He reminded us of the owners’ high level of interest in and commitment to the women’s team.

He said that the club could look for different investors to cover the women’s team’s losses. He recognised that there was overlap in support for both men’s and women’s teams, while the women’s team attracts many local people who don’t come to watch the men’s team - hopefully they will develop into fans of both teams. He agreed that, as the original community club, it is important that CAFC reflects and represents the whole local community. We asked Gavin to consider ways in which fans could feel tangibly involved in supporting the women’s team beyond purely attending matches.

We informed Gavin of the motion that CAST proposed (and which was passed unanimously) at the Football Supporters’ Association conference that the FSA should resolve to seek agreement from Competition Organisers that they will direct their clubs to consult fans prior to votes on changes to the structure of the season and the mechanisms for promotion and relegation (eg change to play-offs).

We raised the issue of away ticket pricing and the advantages for fans of a price cap and reciprocal pricing between clubs. Gavin agreed that it would be good to have a fuller debate about this.

Particularly in the light of the number of midweek evening games in the upcoming season, plus the need to grow support for CAWFC, we stressed our willingness to work with the club via the Advisory Board on building and maintaining attendances, making use of relevant staff time and available data. We also brought his attention to CAST plans to raise the visibility of the club in the local area.

We informed Gavin that CAST is currently arranging a meeting with local RB Greenwich councillors to discuss the feedback we offered during the consultation process on the borough’s Local Development Plan. We invited the club to be present at the meeting and Gavin agreed to follow this up internally.

We all concluded that togetherness and all “singing from the same hymn sheet” was vital. We agreed that everyone wanted success and that it didn’t matter who was responsible for or gained credit for success as long as it was achieved.

 

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