Jim Knight MP - Friday 9th March 2007

Friday 9th March 2007

A good day in Weymouth. I had a catch up meeting with Tom Grainger, Chief Exec at the Borough Council - mostly talking about affordable housing. Then after my constituency surgery I popped into Steps Youth Club to chat to some of the young people there, mostly about bullying.

But the main event was to chair the meeting of Weymouth FC supporters with a view to forming a supporters trust. About 180 fans attended, as well as a representative from Supporters Direct ( Supporters Direct website ), someone from Saints Trust, and Steven Boswell who had organised the meeting.

With only one against the meeting agreed to set up the Trust as a means of building a stake in the ownership of the Club and trying to get better accountability for its business management to the fans. There were also 12-20 willing to do the work to get it going.

I was very pleased to have been able to help and with the outcome.

Previous owner Ian Ridley had been in touch with me and I said I would read out a statement from him to the meeting. Ian has been in touch periodically to let me know his concerns for the club, and I think he has been given a rough ride by some fans over the last couple of years. I know not everyone will agree!

However I decided that the statement would not help achieve the result the meeting was set up to achieve and so decided not to read it out. I did promise some afterwards that I would put it on my website, so here it is:

STATEMENT FROM IAN RIDLEY

I WISH THE Supporters Trust well in its attempt to win more say in the running of the club and I hope that it will be successful. I believe that once it is formed, it needs to become involved in negotiating with the club immediately as there are certain worrying things afoot.

People should be under no illusion about the problems facing the club currently, even if new owners come in. These are desperate times and I fear that Martyn Harrison may be contemplating desperate measures. His rare statements do not inspire confidence and should, I believe, be treated with scepticism, given his record. I would also hope that my own track record of having been accurate in my fears will be taken into account.

This is not scaremongering, nor is it denigrating the club. It is doing what I have always done – taking a keen interest in the club’s affairs to ensure that nothing untoward happens to it. I remain a follower, and supporter, who wants only good things for the club. I just happen to believe that sometimes the wrong people get hold of clubs without the right motives.

But it should be encouraging that Mr Harrison said a couple of months ago that he saw the Trust as the way forward. I hope he means it and does not sell out too hastily before talking to the Trust.

I understand, however, that a deal is in process and its details are shrouded in mystery. My fear is that all the secrecy and lack of information will mean that the Trust is faced with a done deal that may not be good for the club.

I understand he is close to selling to an outside consortium who will take on the club’s debt to Barclay’s Bank, around £600,000, and schedule repayments over a period of time. They are paying a reduced fee to Martyn Harrison to acquire his shares in the club because of their willingness to take on that debt.

In return, Mr Harrison may well be retaining a hold on the stadium, as collateral for the £2.5 million Hollybush Hotels says it is owed by the club. It continues to depress me that after saying for almost two years that this money was NOT a loan – and that is on record in the press and in board minutes - Mr Harrison now says, through the annual accounts, that it is. Neither does Mr Harrison have the right to dispose of the stadium, though he may secretly be trying to do so.

There is a good legal case to argue that Mr Harrison is not owed this money, given his past statements. Neither is the ground his to dispose of, as I am in possession of a document he signed agreeing that he did not own it.

First, I believe that the Trust should be seeking to establish a committee that can negotiate with the club for representation. It is important that the committee comprises people of calibre and quality who can remain free-thinking and cool-headed in such difficult times.

The Trust should then be looking to acquire two places on the board. The people elected should, I believe, have some professional experience, and remain independent of the club.

Initially, I am convinced, the Trust should have the immediate aim of ensuring that the stadium and its land remain an asset not in the hands of an owner or a consortium.

To secure that, the Trust should work closely with Supporters Direct, making use of their legal skills to draw up a covenant that the existing or new owners needs to agree to. Should they, or Mr Harrison, assert that they own the ground, the Trust should mount a legal challenge.

To get the existing or new owner to agree to this, the Trust does have a powerful tool.

The Supporters Club has always been a great friend to the club, raising considerable sums of money for it. In return it has received little tangible except for thanks.
I believe that the Supporters Club should ally itself to the Trust, allocating all its funds and revenue raised to the Trust and not the football club. In that way, the Trust can hand over the money to the football club only if it agrees to sell shares to the Trust. In that way, the Trust will over time accumulate sufficient shares to return the club, hopefully, to a wider ownership in the future rather than it being in the hands of any one concern.

Good luck to you.

Ian Ridley, former chairman, Weymouth FC"

Given what Ian says about Martyn Harrison I would of course be happy to post any statement from him or the Club in response. My only wish is to see the Club safeguarded for the fans. I