It maybe worthwhile somebody at the Shrimpers Trust contacting Exeter City’s Vice Chairman and Sporting Director, Julian Tagg. I know from commercial contacts with Julian that he is very approachable and his experience of successfully dealing with football clubs in administration is unrivalled. Indeed, I believe he is the advisor to clubs in the Conference who enter or are near to entering administration.
Julian was the prime mover in the Exeter Trust taking over ownership of their club in 2003 (the previous Chairman and Vice Chairman stole the clubs money for which they eventually did time) and turning it into a community club, with 2 trust directors representing the trust on the ECFC Board and other professional directors appointed by the trust.
The trust took over with ECFC having been relegated from league 2, facing debts of 4million pounds, a ten point deduction from the Conference, hostility from HMRC and a ground that was falling to bits.
Today, they are in league1, have no debts of significance, have plans and funding in place to re-develop their ramshackle ground to a 15,000 capacity and are still owned by the Trust, who have directly contributed over 1 million pounds to the club, including a current average payment which I understand directly funds the wages of a couple of players. In fact, in the early days it was only the Trust’s involvement that prevented the club from lurching into insolvency.
Personally, I think Ron Martin has been very unlucky to have had his ambitious development plans caught up in the banking and credit crisis. Although I have always harboured serious doubts about the allocation of planning expenditure to the clubs books, rather than those of Martin Dawn, and the lack of ownership by the club of the proposed new stadium, at any other time in the last 15-20 years Ron would probably have pulled it off, to his certain benefit and possibly to the advantage of SUFC.
However, even allowing for essential business considerations and necessary commercial secrecy on the detail, it is unforgivable that supporters have been kept in the dark like a bunch of mushrooms and fed a diet of manure rather than be given the broad outline, at an early stage, of the difficulties the club found itself in.
It is also almost incomprehensible that the club has used payments due to HMRC (I’m unclear as to whether these are VAT or National Insurance contributions or both) for cash flow purposes. Either way, it appears that HMRC’s money has been collected and then not passed on, used to prop up cash flow and gambled against the vagaries of Southend Council’s Planning Committee. If I learned one thing at an early age, it was if your going to knock anyone in business, then screw your rivals, your suppliers or even your customers and friends but don’t mess with the Revenue. Even Jobson, with whom I had several dealings didn’t, as far as I’m aware, try that one.
As a Blues supporter for just over 50 years, and a sponsor during the John Main era, it breaks my heart to see the club in this mess. The Club is owned by Ron Martin but it belongs fairly and squarely to the people of Southend, both current residents and long departed exiles like myself who can only get to a handful of games each year.
Even at this late stage, I pray Ron can pull a rabbit out of the hat. But if he can’t or won’t then supporters, through the Shrimpers Trust, should be ready to step in and save the Club. The only way to do that is to be informed and to be organised and a call to Julian Tagg at ECFC is a damn good starting point.
