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Podcast / Fanzine All At Sea fanzine news

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With the future of the club secure we're looking to rebuild our website. I was able to do this in the summer of 2020 while furloughed but currently we have too many commitments to give enough time for a project like this.

If you've got some experience with wordpress and would like to help us get everything up and running then please get in touch! We should have all the branding & bits all ready to go.

Cheers!
 
Liam AAS said:
With the future of the club secure we're looking to rebuild our website. I was able to do this in the summer of 2020 while furloughed but currently we have too many commitments to give enough time for a project like this.

If you've got some experience with wordpress and would like to help us get everything up and running then please get in touch! We should have all the branding & bits all ready to go.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
Happy to help if need be!
 
That young Lad was at the ground again today and has taken the same pic taken this year which no doubt will pop up somewhere later.
 
Hello all, we don't normally do this (until @Napster kindly rebuilds our website) but attached is an article from our most recent issue. While everyone is understandably looking to the future, this piece examines all the things that happened at the club since October (ish) 2023.

Sale of the Century


Unsurprisingly, even by football industry standards, the sale of Southend United was beyond complicated. There were enough parties to this deal to fill a football team, and a lot of them were only really involved for their own financial gain. Here, we’ll go over some of these people/groups and examine why everything took so long, what the situation is now and what we can expect in the coming months.

Southend United
This is the business entity that is the football club, the official name of the business is Southend United Football Club Limited (The). Ticket sales, TV cash and prize money for league position count as an example of income into the business; player wages, tax and beer stock for sale on match days would be examples of operational expenditure. The club currently runs at a loss (expenditure exceeds income) rather than the general goal of a business running as a profit-making exercise. Up until very recently, the majority of the shares in the club were owned by South Eastern Leisure (the parent company). Ron Martin was the owner and sole director of Southend United and remains the only director of South Eastern Leisure UK Limited

Ron Martin
Ron Martin was the owner of Southend United and, separately, Roots Hall and Boots & Laces. He bought the club from his next door neighbour Vic Jobson in the late 1990s and proceeded to use the club as a front for a development deal that would see its town centre stadium redeveloped for profit as the club was moved to a new site. Martin was a notorious businessman, known for brinkmanship and pushing the boundaries of acceptability when it came to meeting financial obligations such as paying players & staff on time, paying due tax and paying business that supplied goods & services to Southend United.

Jack Martin
Ron’s son and business partner. Jack followed his father into the property development game and is listed as the director of Roots Hall Limited, the company that owns the freehold (land) and buildings on the site of Southend United’s home ground, as well as Thames Plaza PLC, the company that owns the freehold and buildings at Fossetts Farm (the esrtwhile proposed site of Southend United’s new stadium) and Citizen Housing, the company in negotiations to develop the site at Fossetts Farm. Jack lives in Camden.

Julie & Tom Martin
Julie Martin is Ron Martin’s wife; Tom is Ron & Julie’s son. They are both listed, along with Jack, as “persons of significant control” over Elounda LLP, the parent company of Roots Hall Ltd. In effect, Julie, Jack & Tom are ultimate legal owners of Roots Hall.

Custodians of Southend United (COSU)
COSU are the new owners of Southend United. It is a collection of business people (consortium) led by the Australian Justin Rees. The other members are Jason Brown, Tom Lawrence (Southend United’s CEO and most senior member of staff), David Kreyling, Tom Arnold, Ian Redbourne, Paul Redbourne, John Watson (ACs taxis), Gary Lockett (existing Southend United board member) and George Taylor (son of ex-MP Teddy Taylor & director of Rangers in Scotland). Rees & Brown control >75% of the shares in COSU and Rees was made chairman of the club when the takeover was completed on 19 July 2024.

Southend City Council (SCC)
The local authority is responsible for local services including education, refuse collection & holds responsibility for planning & housing in the area. The council held a meeting in September ‘23 with a motion to “secure the future of Southend United” which ultimately led to negotiations with The Martin family regarding the development of Fossetts Farm in a way that would allow Ron to relinquish control of the club. Tony Cox (Cons) was the leader of SCC when this process began but Daniel Cowan (Lab) was elected leader following the results of the local elections in May ‘24

The National League
The governing body of football at Southend United’s level. They are responsible for organising fixtures, attracting sponsorship deals and maintaining the sporting integrity of football at steps five and six of the pyramid in English football. The board of directors of the league is made up of senior staff of member clubs. The Chief Executive is Mark Ives.

CBRE
CBRE Loan Services Limited is a financial partner to the Martin Family. They have loaned money to various companies owned by Ron and Jack Martin against the value of the assets of those companies. Similar to a mortgage, if the loanee cannot repay the debt (along with any additional interest accrued), the assets are claimed by the company with the charge. CBRE’s two charges on Roots Hall are thought to be valued at ~£38m, with additional interest estimated to be around £10m. CBRE also has charges on Thames Plaza PLC, the value of those charges is unknown. As with selling a house, the lender must have sight of and agree to any proposed sale.

Merseyside Pension Fund (MPF)
The default pension scheme for public sector workers in the Liverpool City Region. The role of a pension fund is to invest savings into long-term deals that will see the value of the investment grow in time for retirees to claim their pension. MPF’s investment into the Southend United/Fossetts Farm scheme was administered by CBRE.

OK, so nearly a football team.


What happened
In October ‘23, after months of negotiations with the Martins and the club’s creditors, COSU agreed Heads of Terms (HoT) with Ron Martin to buy the club (if you were buying a car, HoT would be the point at which you shook hands and said “deal”, there would still be legal formalities to pass but it is the basic point of agreement on any & all major points of negotiation).

COSU would acquire Southend United for £1 and take on all associated debt, ownership of the new training ground (adjacent to Boots & Laces) and a lease on Roots Hall with the freehold to follow accordingly. The sale was contingent on a property deal being signed between Jack Martin’s Citizen Housing and SCC to develop the land at Fossetts Farm into a housing estate. The money generated from this property deal would see the Martin family wipe their debts and enjoy a sizeable eight-figure profit on the development. COSU would keep Southend United at Roots Hall and restore/develop/rebuild the existing ground with £20m of developer profits from the Fossetts estate as recompense for the state of disrepair the stadium was allowed to fall into. It was expected that the SCC would be able to provide enough assurances to both parties for the sale of the club to complete in November ‘23.

November came & went as SCC and the Martins entered discussions over the future of Fossetts Farm. The original concept was to allow the Martins to not build a new stadium and to merely replace that with the proposed and agreed housing that was earmarked for Roots Hall once Southend United had moved. Many things inhibited progress on negotiations such as the cost of materials and the cost of borrowing money to finance the build. Any deal that was agreed would also be subject to a due diligence (DD) process to be completed by companies appointed by SCC and paid for by the Martins. On 23 Dec ‘23 it was announced that HoT between the Martins and SCC were agreed. This allowed COSU & the Martins to exchange contracts and announce that the takeover was progressing mere minutes before Southend United would kick-off against Kidderminster. The 15 month transfer embargo that had stifled the team would later be lifted and reinforcements would see players given the rest they needed.

The deal between the Martins & SCC was complex and required several rounds of due diligence: Market/property, financial, legal & external audit. All of these processes were interdependent and performed by different organisations. All At Sea understands that part of the delay in beginning the due diligence process was finding companies that would be willing to invest resources into doing work that would be paid for (or not) by the Martins. The DD process was complicated and, arguably, rushed. The proposed development of Fossetts Farm as a Build-to-Rent estate would have been the largest that the UK had ever seen and a fairer time frame for a thorough assessment would likely have been measured in years rather than weeks. Even after all of this CBRE, the Martins’ finance partners, would still need to agree to the structure of the deal.

Ron had borrowed and borrowed against his land for years and as planning permission was granted on a plot of land, its value increased and so Ron was able to borrow again. As various schemes gained planning permission, the credit limit increased and as each scheme stalled, the debt piled up. This cycle continued for literally decades and Ron’s negotiating tactic of time wasting and seeking to always squeeze that final drop of juice out of the lemon led to a collapse in confidence in Ron as a serious player from the partners in the private sector. In the end the sense of public duty in protecting a more-than-century-old cultural asset in Southend United in conjunction with the requirement for housing in the area saw Southend City Council step up to work with the Martins in delivering the housing at Fossetts and providing a route out of the mess for the Football Club.

CBRE’s shadow loomed over everything. COSU wanted the assets but CBRE’s charge on Roots Hall Ltd prevented their transfer. The deal to develop Fossetts and the subsequent increase in value of the land at that site would allow CBRE to move their charge from Roots Hall Ltd to Thames Plaza PLC, paving the way for Roots Hall to be sold to COSU, or rather their property-holding subsidiary company POSU. CBRE were in no rush. At best they received all their money due from the Martins, at worst they took control of Roots Hall. Many people assumed that Ron held all the cards while the club was up for sale; there was some truth to that, but CBRE owned the deck he was playing with.

The Council understood the precarious nature of the club’s existence and gave an estimate of “six to eight weeks” for the completion of the DD process throughout the winter and spring. This ambiguous timeframe led to COSU continuing to fund operating costs for a business they didn’t own, paying players wages, tax and buying beer stock for sale on match days. Their agreement to fund the club did not cover the historic debts; payment plans for those had been arranged before HoT had been agreed between Ron & COSU.

One of those historic creditors was Stewarts Law LLP. Stewarts had been the legal firm defending Southend United in court from winding up petitions from HMRC in the past, but now felt that the only way to try to get some of their ~£400k was to launch their own petition to the high court. The launch of a winding up petition meant the National League reinstated the transfer embargo and other creditors joined the petition in the hopes of getting their money back too. COSU were now the de facto club owner/operators, fire-fighting with the National League, SCC and Stewarts Law while trying to give Maher’s men the resources they needed on the pitch to continue their extraordinary push for the playoffs. This was fine up to a point, there needed to be consistent positive news coming from the DD on the Fossetts deal underpinning the sale.

Due diligence continued but each stone that was turned over caused re-negotiations to take place, with the parameters narrowed each time. As one question was answered, the next part of the DD would model the agreement as well as its ability to exist within the newly renegotiated aspects. In parallel to this, amid the backdrop of disenchantment with a fourteen year Conservative government, May brought a round of local elections to Southend and Labour was returned as the largest party. Tony Cox’s position as leader was untenable and he resigned minutes before a no-confidence vote was due to be held. Labour leader Daniel Cowan took on the mantle and was thrust into arguably the Council’s most difficult project ever.

It is worth saying at this point that any negotiation with Ron is totally and utterly worthless. The Martins’ approach to negotiating was to move the goalposts on a daily basis. Council officers & elected officials would go to bed some evenings feeling that some tangible progress had been made, only to wake up the next morning to an email resembling nothing that had been agreed mere hours earlier. Rounds and rounds of negotiations and later renegotiations as necessitated by DD meant that morale sank as things dragged on. There is an apt old phrase about trying to nail jelly to the wall. COSU watched on as SCC’s delays meant that their hands were again forced into their pockets to fund the club.

Finally, it became apparent that the DD would not pass. Even if both sides would compromise enough to allow the scheme to be agreed, the final offering would be redundant as it wouldn’t ever gain planning permission and thus never be fully realised. This was an unacceptable outcome for SCC who wanted to see houses built in the area and Southend United survive, and for the Martins who needed a viable scheme to earn any money and pay off their debts, and for Southend United who faced oblivion and liquidation if a deal couldn’t be agreed. The season ended in heartache on the pitch as Maher’s heroes fell short on the final day but in the civic centre some creative thinking was required to make sure something could be delivered at Fossetts Farm to keep the deal alive.

Cowan’s SCC resumed negotiations with the Martins with a materially different Fossetts scheme. Significant numbers of flats would be replaced with high-quality low-rise housing units, reducing the overall number of dwellings delivered but altering the type or accommodation to something that would be financially sound and desirable housing for the local area. These negotiations were coming to a head as the winding up petition from Stewarts was due to have its final hearing. To put it politely, the Martins continued to play silly buggers.

In an extraordinary twist, on 24 June, the National League ordered Southend United to pay a £1m bond in order to remain in the division. The bond, essentially a deposit to confirm the clubs ability to compete in the division, was beyond anything any club had been asked to provide in the past. Ron Martin (who owns companies based in the British Virgin Islands, had continuously promised to fund the club through the takeover process and had access to the Southend United company credit card throughout this period) pleaded poverty and so it was left to COSU to defend the club. Make no mistake, the demand for a bond nearly killed the deal. The idea that, nine months and £4m in, £1m in cash would be handed over by COSU to protect a club they didn’t own was beyond ludicrous. The National League never made it clear what the consequences would be for non-compliance. A points deduction, enforced relegation or even ejection from the National League (including NL South) were options. Southend United were staring down the barrel of an application to Isthmian League Premier, the departure of COSU, liquidation. In short, extinction. A short message from Rees at the time said “Wonder if they know this is about to collapse”.

COSU would ultimately talk Stewarts down and the lawyers and other petitioners were given sufficient assurances so as to withdraw the petition. Days later, SCC announced that a revised Fossetts Farm scheme had been agreed with the Martin family and that HoT had been signed with Jack Martin’s Citizen Housing. The bond however, forced the issue of how the club was going to compete in the division next season.
 
Please read the post above first​


What is happening
‘Decoupling’ was settled on as the solution for all parties. COSU would take control of the club without any legal guarantee that Ron would get Fossetts developed and the club would no longer be used as a bargaining chip for private financial gain for the Martin family. In signing over the club Ron Martin would allow SCC sufficient time to complete a robust due diligence process on the agreed Fossetts scheme and terms of the requirement of the National League bond would be satisfied as the takeover would have been concluded “to the satisfaction of the National League and the FA”.

The bond and the club’s subsequent appeal against its imposition became a legal struggle and we hope to be able to go into more details on this in a future issue.

Southend United’s shares were sold by South Eastern Leisure to COSU on Friday 19 July. Michael Markscheffel, Frank Van Wezel and Ron Martin resigned from the board of the club and Gary Lockett was joined by COSU members John Watson, David Kreyling, Jason Brown, Tom Lawrence and Justin Rees, who was appointed as the club’s chairman. There is no longer a requirement for a bond and the transfer restrictions that had plagued the club for nearly two years have abated. Days after the takeover was announced season tickets were put up for sale, two players were signed and the kit for the 24/25 season was launched along with several commercial deals being renewed.

Southend United Football Club was saved.

What happens next?
This is the million pound question. COSU has “a 3-5 year plan and a budget”.

The club requires support. There are some incredibly capable staff in the organisation, especially on the pitch. Tom Lawrence’s business plan following his 100 day internal audit exercise can be dusted off and the building blocks can be put in place to see the club become “high performing”. On the field, the club already has a squad capable of reaching the playoffs and, with some additions of quality in key positions, could even challenge for the title. Kevin Maher and the coaching team have worked miracles in astonishing circumstances. Unshackled, the players and coaching staff will now have to deal with a new foe: expectation. Maher’s sides have seen some of the most consistent football ever at the club, both in terms of unbeaten records and winless streaks. Next season’s aim will be to score those extra goals that turn losses into draws and draws into wins.

At the new training ground, the club is currently operating from temporary buildings acting as a gym, physio and manager’s office. This summer Maher took his team to Ireland to play Ballyfermot in part to give the players a stable grass surface to play on. Ron’s dereliction of duty as owner of the club extended to many areas that will continue to be felt across the club and Fossetts Park is no exception. Care to existing pitches, establishment of all-weather surfaces and construction of crucial, permanent facilities on site will all be on COSU’s to-do list.

At Roots Hall, COSU has a long-lease on the stadium. The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 defines a long lease as one granted for a specified term of over 21 years. The term of this lease will increase to 125 years in the next few months if Merseyside Pension Fund (MPF) and CBRE can agree to the plan involving the registration of the charge: Citizen Housing and SCC will continue work on the Fossetts Farm housing estate and, when finally agreed, the scheme will be put to the planning department for approval. They will likely be called in for review by the Secretary of State in the UK Government as the newly in charge Labour Party have made planning reform a key promise in their manifesto. When planning permission is agreed, CBRE will move their charge from Roots Hall to the more valuable site at Fossetts Farm, leaving the stadium free to have its ownership transferred to COSU (through their subsidiary POSU). There is currently planning permission in place for a 21,000 seat stadium and adjacent housing estate at Fossetts; it will lapse in the winter of 2025. All At Sea understands that, should that planning permission expire before a new permission can be granted for the recently agreed scheme, the journey to delivery will be made significantly more difficult.

Planning permission is a key milestone and brings the club closer to the promised £20m for Roots Hall’s rejuvenation. From day one there was strong and vocal scepticism from Shrimpers that this amount of money would never be paid by the Martins; that doubt has already proven to be well founded. When the Fossetts ‘deal’ failed the DD and had to be reduced in scope, the developer’s profits were in turn lowered. While the amount of money being spoken about was enough to make most people in the UK blush, the Martins turned to the promised £20m in an attempt to retain their own profit margins. That amount is now likely to be a maximum of around £12m depending on the final outcome of the Fossetts Farm scheme. Lower end estimates to be around £7m if some conditions aren’t met. A sizeable proportion of this would be due on the granting of planning permission and COSU would need to make further borrowings, likely against Roots Hall to fund other redevelopment work sorely needed to bring the stadium up to code.

In the Blue Boar in December last year, Justin Rees asked All At Sea “What are you going to write about when Ron’s gone?” We’re a fanzine set up to write about Southend United edited by a trained journalist and a semi-skilled factory worker. We have every intention of continuing to follow and publicise the actions of the owner(s) of the club we love among other things related to the club. There's no agenda in doing this beyond transparency.

What are we going to write about, Justin?

You.

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