If it was ‘their’ money why was the transaction enacted in the way it was? They could choose to explain it if there was nothing to hide. Of all the things that are making me turn my back on the club in financial terms it is this issue. It will stink until it is either reversed or properly justified.
The club just can't communicate. To do it effectively you have to understand two things. 1. The product (In this case BFC) 2. The customer (in this case the fans) That's why companies bring someone in to look at both. If I was called in by the owners to communicate with the fans, I’d start by interrogating the product -aims, finances, structures, the plan etc. Like many clients I’ve dealt with, I wouldn’t get very far apart from ‘business speak’ that could be summarised as their need to make money. So, not really understanding what’s going on with the product, I’d look at the fans. Take on board their issues, their feeling and address them. In doing that I’d have to break the biggest rule businesses have. ‘Never explain, never apologise.’ It would go something like this. “I’d like to start by saying that I understand your disappointment this season. Our remarkable performance last year only makes that disappointment greater. Passions are running high and naturally, many of you feel our results have been down the way the club has been managed at all levels. We admit mistakes have been made. Some are apparent with hindsight - others should have been addressed at the time. (West stand, managers, backroom staff etc etc). We have learned from all this and are working hard to ensure success in the coming season. Many fear we are already relegated. I don’t believe that. If the team face the challenge in a way they’ve shown themselves capable of, we can retain our Championship status. I’m sure that no one will be happier than you if we succeed. Whatever league we find ourselves in, I hope to see all of you at Oakwell in next season. Buying a season ticket is your way of showing your commitment to the club. But we recognise that next year there will be financial challenges for many. That’s why we’d like recognise your commitment to BFC by announcing that the price for next year’s season ticket will be reduced by 5%/10%. In addition, we’ll be supporting our community with a £20,000 donation to grass roots football.” That should do it. Admitting mistakes and showing empathy should help the business achieve their ‘targets.’
The way in which it was transacted requires an explanation. And the fact that it has not been explained leads to certain conclusions.
Of course they know where the money came from. But they have no control over blocking the money coming. They could return it. But then they are in the position of not being paid any of the £3.5m payment. Given the Crynes have claimed they didn't seek rent through the covid closures and James took no salary (which makes the £400k exec salaries even more troubling), they've arguably done more to support the club during the last 2 years than any other board members.
once again Spectemur agendo seems so very apt for the club and it’s relationship with the supporters. It’s easy to say what you are going to do. The challenge for Khaled is delivering on it against the backdrop of financial pressure the club is under.
But. They've remained silent throughout this season. Even after it's been suggested that they've agreed for the payment from the club. They could easily have issued a statement that confirmed or denied this. Even if it was to reiterate their statement last season about which entity they were taking to court, and that the 750k transaction was done by way of majority agreement, which they couldn't block.
Very much agree. There won't be criticism from me when we have to sell numerous players to try and get back on an even keel. I'd like us to profit and get as much as we can for players, but we also have to face the reality that we'll be a league lower, the players contracts will generally have a year less, many performances this season have been far below an acceptable level and the backdrop of the pandemic fall out is still very much a live issue. There may also be contractual offsets for our players given they will commonly have a wage cut on possible relegation. All that means the prices we attain are likely to be lower, and given the large wage bill, even before a drop to league 1, we simply have to get what we can in fees while getting overall wages into line with our new revenue base.
There is a court case, and I can fully understand why they aren't making public statements, especially if it's just to repeat what is already valid, or that may potentially prejudice whatever claim is being made. It's a collective mess, but the elephant in the room doesn't have a Cryne badge on it.
Thanks for that Helen I hadn't picked it up as yet. However, it is further interesting because it comes on the back of Conway giving an ultra-rare but lengthy interview to Nancy's rough equivalent of the Yorkshire Post just last week. They clearly have something motivating them to feel the need to come out of hiding and communicate in France!! I can't post the whole of Conway's article because it's behind a paywall but here are a couple of key bits (and for background for anyone who hasn't picked up from other threads, AS Nancy are 10 points from safety in Ligue 2 with 6 games left and thus staring at relegation to France's, semi-pro, third tier for the first time in their history):- He is one of the shareholders of the Pacific Media Group which owns AS Nancy-Lorraine in Ligue 2. Paul Conway is rare in the media, but faced with the urgency of the club's sporting and extra-sporting situation, the American agreed to take stock of several hot topics in an interview with L'Est Républicain. We learn about a reorganization of the organizational chart, where President Gauthier Ganaye will always have a role to play, but different. The future of the club in case of relegation to N1 « We did not buy the club in December 2020 to leave like that at the slightest difficulty. There is no risk of the DISAPPEARANCE OF ASNL. We know what Nancy represents in French football, we came here for the history of the club and for the quality of the training center. Sell the club? That is not the plan at all. It would necessarily take longer than expected in case of relegation to N1 but we have the idea of installing ASNL in L1 over time... I still hope to stay in Ligue 2 but if we were to go down, we would give ourselves the means to quickly go up. » A reorganization of the organizational chart « Will Gauthier Ganaye still be there next season? Yes, but in a different organization, with a different functioning as well. We have a lot of progress to make in communication at all levels, internally and externally. There will be relays for Gauthier in Nancy. That's why Max Kothny (a 25-year-old German former chief executive director of Turkgucu Munich) joins us. He will be present on a daily basis with Nabil El Yaagoubi, whose role will evolve, and with Vikram Sud. Gauthier Ganaye will take care of the recruitment. » One of the long-standing key (legitimate) gripes of the AS Nancy fans is that GG is never there, spending nearly all his time at KVO Ostend. However, in trying to address this Conway has created another sh!tshow and even more angst! This is partly because of the statement about the absent Ganaye remaining in charge of recruitment and partly because Vikram Sud is the son of one of Conway's minor investors but mainly because of this Max Kothny character. Turkgucu Munich were this season in the German third division with Kothny as their CEO. I say 'were' because on 31st January 2022 the club filed for insolvency, they were expelled and their results were expunged from the records. The club were owned by one Hasan Kivran and Kothny was/is his protege. Kivran just cut and ran in mid-January leaving the club to its fate. However, Kivran, it turns out, is a business partner of Paul Conway and a minority investor in a couple of the consortia which Lee/Conway have assembled to buy their other clubs (don't know which ones). Understandably the AS Nancy fans are at a bit of a loss to understand why Conway/Lee think the best person to take forward the running of their club is a CEO fresh off bankrupting another one! However, the link between Kivran and Conway seems the key, particularly bearing in mind that Kivran previously 'scratched Conway's back' by taking the coach of FC Esbjerg (another Lee/Conway club) to Turkgucu Munich! That was the coach who at the beginning of this season, was accused of sexism and degrading remarks towards his players, resulting in 21 players from Esbjerg writing an open letter in the press to denounce the coach, supported by the players' union, in which circumstances he had to leave!
Needs nailing on the boardroom door. Like ‘This is Anfield’. Or even better, a biometric door lock, that needs you to say ‘Spectemur Agendo’ in order to get in!
Extraordinary! And just to add to your last paragraph, I believe Conway initially made a statement about the bullying (now ex) coach essentially telling the players to man up and get on with it.
By way of further background on developments at AS Nancy at the moment, there are probably three further things (in no particular order) of note:- 1) Their fan groups (of which their appear to be 4 or 5) do indeed seem to be co-ordinated and stepping up the pace. On the back of their big gathering of supporters on February 5, they sent a request for a meeting to the City of Nancy Council. The latter responded favourably and on Wednesday 30 March the presidents of the 2 biggest supporters groups met Mathieu Klein, Mayor of Nancy, and Serge Raineri, Deputy for Sports Development. The Mayor confirmed the support of the municipality and the council's worry about the sporting situation of the club. They have agreed to continue meeting and the Council may have played a part in the owner now agreeing to meet fans. 2) One group alone has raised £60,000 euros in just a few days to support it's mobilisation (forgive the rough translation):- AsnL is on the precipice! For the first time in its history, the future of asnL seems to be taking shape in National (National is France's 3rd tier but it is a much larger drop than Championship to League 1 - teams can, if the regulator decides, have their professional status revoked). In addition to the sporting choices, the explanations for this announced disaster lie in the non-existent governance of a president with absent owners and shareholders whose strategy and financial means allocated are still unknown. No one knows what the future will be for our club of heart, but what we do know is that asnl will be able to rely on its supporters. That is why, in this uncertain future, we want to mobilize each of us so that we are at the heart of the ASNL of tomorrow. Whether you are supporters, sympathizers, spectators from here or elsewhere, or if you simply believe that the ASNL is part of the heritage of the city of Nancy and Lorraine, we invite you to subscribe to our pledge of donation. We have to show how much the supporters of AS Nancy-Lorraine are behind the club and that we will never let it go! Never! We have already raised €59.388,00. 3) There is at least some visible evidence of an emerging prospective buyer - not sure how credible etc or if he's willing to pay anything like what Conway/Lee would want for it. Olivier Rouyer candidate for the acquisition of AS Nancy Lorraine (francebleu.fr) Former Nancy-based striker Olivier Rouyer revealed his candidacy to buy AS Nancy Lorraine on Friday on France Bleu Lorraine. Given the fiasco of his club of heart, currently in Ligue 2, the former iconic striker says he is working with other investors. This is a revelation that will not go unnoticed by ASNL supporters. The former emblematic striker of the Red and White Olivier Rouyer announced this Friday, April 8 on France Bleu Lorraine his candidacy to buy the club in perdition in Ligue 2. "Investors who arrived 16 months ago must leave. I started a round table a few weeks ago. For the moment, I have two Investors from Nancy, who are fans of the ASNL, ready to follow me. We are waiting for others," revealed Olivier Rouyer. This announcement on France Bleu Lorraine revives in any case the speculations around the future of the Nancy-based club, in full shipwreck on the sporting level with a very likely demotion to the third division. The shareholders have just changed the club's organizational chart. They continue to say that they are here for a long time, something that the club's most fervent supporters can no longer stand. The Saturday FC association has just demanded the rapid departure of the leaders. To give the hand to Olivier Rouyer? Answer maybe in a few months.
Yes indeed, on 29th July, responding to the players' letter, Conway was reported as saying "it's so unprofessional, I've never experienced anything like it. It can never be the players who get to decide who get to play and who is the coach." On 11 August the coach departed.
Barnsley fans haven't shown they want the owners out and I think that's because a lot don't want the owners out. We aren't like Nancy, so comparing the twos apples and oranges. Also, to Helen. I'm not sure what you are trying to do apart from trouble cause and put the club off speaking to the fans again. If you had a problem with anything that was said you could have asked him last night but didn't. He was speaking about things already said when he was speaking about the aspirations he had. The Council told him that he could get no more than 16k season ticket sales max. He wants to break boundaries which were what he talked about also before previously. He doesn't talk at you, he wants to hear what people think. It's very difficult because even in such a small group people have strongly different opinions. He can't control everything. People talk about road closures to him. He can't do anything about that. These people can't go and watch Barnsey on the road because it happens at every ground.
Across the continent Lee, Conway are sowing chaos, failure and division. But that's OK. Here we have Khaled in charge, well 99% in charge so that's OK then. Nothing to fret about, it's nothing more than that we've had a bad season.
In what way are we ‘not like Nancy’? Seems a similar story except they don’t have a £750k-type issue. Or do they?
