Pre-Match Thread HMRC v SUFC - FINAL hearing on 1st March. DISMISSED

[basilrobbie]

Completely agree. RM isn't stupid

He, is, however, making playing chicken with HMRC part of his modus operandi, which in my view is neither sensible nor clever.


Moving to a slightly different question : assume for a moment that the bridging loan is secured and the immediate crisis averted. Does anyone know how quickly that would have to be repaid? I know it is an extremely expensive device, but I am wondering how the club will meet repayments as it heads into the close season. If the intention is to use ST sales to plug the gap, I'd be more than a bit worried.

 

[WestStandBlue]

I suggest we all chill out. Sure we love our club and sure it's a big part of our lives. I've been a fan for over sixty years so it means a lot to me as it does to everyone else on SZ. But some posters are going over the top. At the end of the day it's a football club, a source of entertainment. It shouldn't be affecting people's mental health, creating excessive stress and turning us into keyboard warriors. A sense of proportion seems to have been lost.

For six months we have been hosting a Ukrainian refugee couple in their sixties who fled with just a suitcase of possessions. Their country has been invaded, their town is near the front line and people are dying as Russian missiles crash into homes in their town. People they knew. Two months ago they were told that their home had been destroyed.

They came 2,000 miles across a continent to live with us in our house under the government's Homes for Ukraine scheme and we can offer peace and safety and show that we care. But their only son is in the Ukrainian Army serving in a mortar detachment in the front line trenches. Every morning our guests wake and check their mobile phones. Every morning their son texts them with the simple phrase "I'm OK". Every morning they fear the worst as they start up their phones.

That is stress. That is damaging to mental health.

It puts the problems facing my club in perspective for me.

Lovely bit of common sense for once again.

A few posters on this forum seen well too attached to the club and football in general, maybe if we fold (which we won’t be.) you can go and find a few other things in life you enjoy, perhaps do that anyway.

 

[Grayson]

That is the thing though isn't it. There are 2 camps. those that believe and those that don't, hence the huge split in the fanbase which brings about 2 very opposite views.

There will be this until we actually know what is going on and i feel it will only get worse as the clock ticks by.

One thing for sure though is that we all love the club and whatever camp people are in emotions are running very high.

Yeah the tribalism of one side is a problem. When someone brings about a fresh perspective, it's nice to talk/read about it properly rather than have the same repeated argument back at it.

Nobody is pro-Ron, many of us want to learn about what could happen in the next 29 days. The responses about Macclesfield were fresh and interesting. We don't learn anything new from getting another variation of 'you fans are a joke, nobody lends to Ron, the club is dying' posts. Anybody posting a view of how we might get out of this mess just gets that response back.

The real twist in the tale here is the 'Ron out' thread dominators are far more likely to get what they want because of the **** finally hitting the fan. As TJC says, something will give soon, and all routes lead to Ron's exit.

 

[fbm]

I'm pretty sure this year will decide our fate; good or bad. I cannot see this situation lasting another 11 months without either
A) Ron finally striking gold
B) A buyout/partnership actually happens
C) We are purely a figment of history books

Yeah, I agree with that. At the moment the prospect of this for another 11 days is depressing enough!

 

[dusterman]

Lovely bit of common sense for once again.

A few posters on this forum seen well too attached to the club and football in general, maybe if we fold (which we won’t be.) you can go and find a few other things in life you enjoy, perhaps do that anyway.

Perhaps a how to be more condescending training course?

 

[Medway Blue]

He, is, however, making playing chicken with HMRC part of his modus operandi, which in my view is neither sensible nor clever.


Moving to a slightly different question : assume for a moment that the bridging loan is secured and the immediate crisis averted. Does anyone know how quickly that would have to be repaid? I know it is an extremely expensive device, but I am wondering how the club will meet repayments as it heads into the close season. If the intention is to use ST sales to plug the gap, I'd be more than a bit worried.

From what I understand, it would be repayable within 12-24 months and with pretty unfavourable interest rates. I imagine the high interest rates will be more than covered by the huge sum of money that will supposedly be unlocked by the stadium build beginning sometime in Q1.

 

[sufc4life21]

I'm pretty sure this year will decide our fate; good or bad. I cannot see this situation lasting another 11 months without either
A) Ron finally striking gold
B) A buyout/partnership actually happens
C) We are purely a figment of history books

Doubt A will happen anytime soon, he been trying to do that for last 20 odd years with no success. He now needs to accept he can't go alone anymore and accept outside help! Whether he will or not is anyone guess.

 

[Strykr]

He, is, however, making playing chicken with HMRC part of his modus operandi, which in my view is neither sensible nor clever.


Moving to a slightly different question : assume for a moment that the bridging loan is secured and the immediate crisis averted. Does anyone know how quickly that would have to be repaid? I know it is an extremely expensive device, but I am wondering how the club will meet repayments as it heads into the close season. If the intention is to use ST sales to plug the gap, I'd be more than a bit worried.

Id say at least a million of what he intends to borrow will be to make repayments on the loan for the forseeable future. Which sounds nuts, but if your due 100 mill, whats a mill?

Absolutely ludicrous.

 

[Grayson]

From what I understand, it would be repayable within 12-24 months and with pretty unfavourable interest rates. I imagine the high interest rates will be more than covered by the huge sum of money that will supposedly be unlocked by the stadium build beginning sometime in Q1.

This is the sort of thing where we do, as a fanbase, need to keep RM accountable if he stays until FF is done. Ultimately, the bridging loan is getting him out of a giant hole as much as SUFC. I'd expect any interest repaying this loan to come out of his final stadium pot and not the club.

 

[Rob1920]

There's a few things coming in to my mind as I read these pages. Firstly there are a lot of people much closer than me to the inner workings of SUFC, I mean people like Tom Lawrence, for example. I can't believe he wouldn't know if the end was truly coming. But he's still there. That gives me hope, because I can't believe he would be if he knew it was all over. He's not the only one either. You'd think they'd all be deserting the sinking ship, but as far as I know that isn't happening.

Secondly, on the flip side, if it does all finish here, much as I agree with Barling Magna about perspectives, its you people who give up every weekend to be at the games, home and away, that I feel for. I don't get to more than a handful of games a season so it won't be a massive change to my weekends. But for those of you who do, the loss will be massive and could easily affect your mental health. In that scenario we can only hope there are enough die-hard fans to start a pheonix club to get behind. It can be done succesfully. Look at Wimbledon, Macc are on their way back, Darlington, and others.

Personally, and not deliberately, I find myself going into a sort of self-preservation mode whereby I start to disengage emotionally. I'm still here every day as I'll always care, but if the end comes I can't let it affect me too much as there are still a lot of things in life to enjoy and look forward to. As for football I'd probably follow Spurs more closely as I was a fan as a kid before I even knew there was a Southend United, although it would never be the same. I'd also probably get down to Billericay Town occasionally for a lower league fix. or hopefully there'll be a 'Southend City FC' or similar to follow before too long.

Anyway I'll cling on to the hope all will be ok until we know otherwise & paragraphs 2 & 3 will become redundant.

 

[hlane17]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1619982869077843968

I think we should be taking notes.

 

[Exiled Shrimper]

I’m not an expert in Macc’s history of dealing with HMRC, but I seem to recall Macclesfield trying - in vain - to show the judge that there were funds coming to them on there “final” court appearance, but the ruling went something along the lines of them not meeting the deadline.

If that was the case (my memory is hazy), then one of two things went through the judges mind to come to his conclusion to liquidate the club:

1) Don’t care, it’s too late

2) The proposal pushed under his nose didn’t cut the mustard, for whatever reason.

They did; the owner shoved a screenshot of his bank balance to show he had £1.1m ready to go to pay creditors according to reports. The judge probably wondered why he was requesting an eight-week adjournment if that was the case…

But, for all the parallels with our own situation over the years, each case is different. Macclesfield were on their 12th hearing for the same winding-up petition over a 21-month period; as much as we’ve been regulars in the High Court over the years (and that may count against us), other petitions have been dismissed (which goes in our favour) and this particular petition has been adjourned three times previously (I think) and certainly not 12.

All that said, I don’t get the impression that there’s a specific amount of money or tally of appearances that triggers the judge’s decision, and I don’t particularly want to find out whether final really means final in a legal sense on 1st March.

 

[palexander]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1619982869077843968

I think we should be taking notes.

Be lucky to get 8.

My overriding feeling is that the "horse has bolted". As a fan base, we should have been protesting years and years ago. It really feels too late now to affect any change.

Protestors shouting "RON OUT" are wasting their breath.

Honestly, I keep coming back to the point that most of us sensibly realise the situation we are in and as a "baying mob" should perhaps be going to the club in unison and saying "what can we do to help" rather than being on the outside screaming in. Bit like @StanCollymore has done.

We all are worried if we are going to have a club. Ron isnt going to leave - can we protest/force him into taking outside money? Maybe... probably not... he's not stupid, he'll be doing stuff like that I'm sure if the worst came to it

So what else can we do as a fan base to keep our club alive. Wouldnt it be amazing that instead of turning on each other, abusing Stan, gathering outside Rons house and generally being very negative that we used the experience and skills we had to keep the club ticking over until Ron hopefully sorts this **** out?

Wont happen though. Its easier to just shout at the clouds.

 

[TrueBlue]

Question… is Ron really stupid enough to lose it all before accepting outside help? Surly not

The fact he is not talking in some way makes me think he knows he can get the bridging loan in time. Then again who knows?!

 

[Ricey]

Question… is Ron really stupid enough to lose it all before accepting outside help? Surly not

The fact he is not talking in some way makes me think he knows he can get the bridging loan in time. Then again who knows?!

That’s why I think he will wait until the 11th hour to ask for help. Let’s just hope that’s not too late if it gets to that stage.

 

[palexander]

Yea and I think ... ergh... legitimately as much as I hate to say it, waiting for the 11th hour. It makes sense to exhaust every avenue.

Maybe he even has a cast iron guarantee lined up if all other avenues fail that we arent/cant be privy too.

Really is the crux of it, the lack of communications just leaves fans to come up with half heard rumours or just absolute nonsense spread as fact and fuels a very angry fire.

At the same time, I imagine a lot of what goes on is sensitive stuff or NDA'd so cant be a constant stream of updates from the club.

Its just a horrible time to be a Southend fan.

 

[AustScullyPriorPowell]

Question… is Ron really stupid enough to lose it all before accepting outside help? Surly not

The fact he is not talking in some way makes me think he knows he can get the bridging loan in time. Then again who knows?!

The interest will be massive, he’ll hit the submit button as late as possible

No players have gone (yet) that could be a positive

He’s not that stupid, he’s a master of lastminute.com and he has too much to lose

I agree Scott, I think there is a way out but it’s all about ‘timing’

 

[Hadleigh-shrimper]

Lovely bit of common sense for once again.

A few posters on this forum seen well too attached to the club and football in general, maybe if we fold (which we won’t be.) you can go and find a few other things in life you enjoy, perhaps do that anyway.

Find this utterly disrespectful to the point I’m biting my tounge . Maybe some of us don’t get out much , some have mental health issues .Others only time meet up with there family why would we want to find other things . Personally nothing I could find would replace sufc

 

[overseas shrimper]

Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. If it's ok with everyone, I'll choose to stay optimistic and rely on the information I've been given and will just keep it to myself in future rather than "giving people false hope where there is none."

Or you can relate what you've heard and ignore comments to the contrary. Some people might appreciate another POV.

 

[8]

What I cannot understand or have seen is how this loan will help in the long term. It will get us through until money is released for the next stage of IT achieving his goal. Is not this money for the construction? Can it be used for day to day running? How does it help the club? £5,000,000 will not see us through to when? we move to FF. Anyone know?