SeasideEssexXile
Vital Football Legend
Very well written 
Taken off the BST website:
Letter to Shaun Harvey Septemb
BST10/09/2018
Announcements
Dear Shaun,
I am sorry to find myself writing to you - yet again - about the low farce that continues to grip Blackpool Football Club, but my entire Trust Committee feel that there in no option but for me to do so.
I will not waste undue time re-hashing old history, but you are well aware that the Blackpool Supporters' Trust has tried to develop a meaningful dialogue with you over a period of well over a year. In that time we have asked you to :
•specifically consider whether the Owners & Directors Test (ODT) should be applied to the current owner of the club, in the light of ongoing dissatisfaction amongst supporters about the lack of a Premiership legacy
•take a forensic look at the internal management of the club, past and present, in the light of the damning High Court Judgement handed down by Marcus Smith on 6 November last year. We even designed a case review model for this purpose which I sent to you shortly before Christmas of last year
•during our meeting earlier this year, we repeatedly asked you to clarify what you saw as your role in enforcing high standards of governance amongst your Member clubs
•at the same meeting, we also asked you again to explain why you had been so swift to act against Mr Valeri Belokon on the basis of a very dubious conviction issued in Kyrgyzstan, but had been so dilatory in taking decisive action against the Oyston family, despite a wealth of legal evidence from the UK being available to you
We found your responses at the above meeting unconvincing to say the least, a feeling that has been reinforced by the inaction that has followed. At the time of writing, despite repeated pressing, you have :
•failed to take up our offer of a case review looking specifically at Blackpool
•shown no interest in exploring how such a model - or indeed any other model - could be used more generally to strengthen your hand in tackling failure
•offered no explanation of how the range of powers that ARE available might be used, by you, the FA or anyone else
•failed to keep the Trust informed of how the assurances you gave at our meeting - about not standing in the way of regime change at the club - might work in practice
•shown little interest or inclination to investigate the continuing, and increasingly dysfunctional manner in which the club operates. Evidence of this appears almost weekly in the regional and national press and on social media, and has done so for a long time
This situation is unsatisfactory enough in itself when you consider that the football club is now in a position where:
•it has no permanent manager
•it has a training ground which the previous manager felt unable to use
•it has an owner who seems more pre-occupied with trying to raise money to discharge his legal obligations than he does in providing strategic leadership to the club he professes to love
For a club which enjoyed a windfall from its year in the Premier League of around £87m, this is astonishing. Seen from the supporter perspective, the EFL's willingness to passively watch one of its most famous clubs sink into this kind of disrepair is unfathomable, as well as being reprehensible.
We as a Committee, are well aware that you see the EFL as being a form of trade association that operates primarily to generate revenue for its Members. But we would remind you - yet again - that you are one of the prime movers in running what is a national sporting institution. As such, your continuing unwillingness to do more than operate as a glorified shop steward for the seventy two people who happen to own the clubs who make up your Membership looks grossly inadequate.
We have in the last year or so, learned from bitter experience that the culture of your organisation is one that frowns upon swift or decisive intervention in the affairs of its Members. The lack of open communication that characterises your relationship with BST is doing grave harm not only to your reputation amongst our wider support but also your status as an organisation that we as a Trust feel able to do business with.
This is not a situation we enjoy being in, and we have felt duty bound to share with both the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) and Supporters Direct (SD) the depth of frustration that we currently feel. We want very much to see evidence that you actually care about not only OUR club, but also the concerns of ordinary football supporters up and down the country. Our sense at the moment is that such evidence is nowhere to be seen.
I am sorry to have to write in such strong terms but our club appears to be on the cusp of very profound changes that will have a huge impact upon its future prosperity. Sadly, we currently have very little confidence in the EFL as a potential ally in making sure that those changes are managed well, and with the good of the club at heart. In our view, you need to grasp this nettle, and grasp it now. I speak for everyone on my Committee when I say that if you do so you will find us an energetic and enterprising partner to work with.
I am copying this letter to the Chairman of the Football Association, to the Chair and Members of the DCMS Select Committee, all EFL Board Members, FSF, SD and will be publishing it on the BST website and in other such social media outlets as my Committee sees fit.
Yours sincerely
Christine
Christine Seddon
Chair
Blackpool Supporters' Trust
Taken off the BST website:
Letter to Shaun Harvey Septemb
BST10/09/2018
Announcements
Dear Shaun,
I am sorry to find myself writing to you - yet again - about the low farce that continues to grip Blackpool Football Club, but my entire Trust Committee feel that there in no option but for me to do so.
I will not waste undue time re-hashing old history, but you are well aware that the Blackpool Supporters' Trust has tried to develop a meaningful dialogue with you over a period of well over a year. In that time we have asked you to :
•specifically consider whether the Owners & Directors Test (ODT) should be applied to the current owner of the club, in the light of ongoing dissatisfaction amongst supporters about the lack of a Premiership legacy
•take a forensic look at the internal management of the club, past and present, in the light of the damning High Court Judgement handed down by Marcus Smith on 6 November last year. We even designed a case review model for this purpose which I sent to you shortly before Christmas of last year
•during our meeting earlier this year, we repeatedly asked you to clarify what you saw as your role in enforcing high standards of governance amongst your Member clubs
•at the same meeting, we also asked you again to explain why you had been so swift to act against Mr Valeri Belokon on the basis of a very dubious conviction issued in Kyrgyzstan, but had been so dilatory in taking decisive action against the Oyston family, despite a wealth of legal evidence from the UK being available to you
We found your responses at the above meeting unconvincing to say the least, a feeling that has been reinforced by the inaction that has followed. At the time of writing, despite repeated pressing, you have :
•failed to take up our offer of a case review looking specifically at Blackpool
•shown no interest in exploring how such a model - or indeed any other model - could be used more generally to strengthen your hand in tackling failure
•offered no explanation of how the range of powers that ARE available might be used, by you, the FA or anyone else
•failed to keep the Trust informed of how the assurances you gave at our meeting - about not standing in the way of regime change at the club - might work in practice
•shown little interest or inclination to investigate the continuing, and increasingly dysfunctional manner in which the club operates. Evidence of this appears almost weekly in the regional and national press and on social media, and has done so for a long time
This situation is unsatisfactory enough in itself when you consider that the football club is now in a position where:
•it has no permanent manager
•it has a training ground which the previous manager felt unable to use
•it has an owner who seems more pre-occupied with trying to raise money to discharge his legal obligations than he does in providing strategic leadership to the club he professes to love
For a club which enjoyed a windfall from its year in the Premier League of around £87m, this is astonishing. Seen from the supporter perspective, the EFL's willingness to passively watch one of its most famous clubs sink into this kind of disrepair is unfathomable, as well as being reprehensible.
We as a Committee, are well aware that you see the EFL as being a form of trade association that operates primarily to generate revenue for its Members. But we would remind you - yet again - that you are one of the prime movers in running what is a national sporting institution. As such, your continuing unwillingness to do more than operate as a glorified shop steward for the seventy two people who happen to own the clubs who make up your Membership looks grossly inadequate.
We have in the last year or so, learned from bitter experience that the culture of your organisation is one that frowns upon swift or decisive intervention in the affairs of its Members. The lack of open communication that characterises your relationship with BST is doing grave harm not only to your reputation amongst our wider support but also your status as an organisation that we as a Trust feel able to do business with.
This is not a situation we enjoy being in, and we have felt duty bound to share with both the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) and Supporters Direct (SD) the depth of frustration that we currently feel. We want very much to see evidence that you actually care about not only OUR club, but also the concerns of ordinary football supporters up and down the country. Our sense at the moment is that such evidence is nowhere to be seen.
I am sorry to have to write in such strong terms but our club appears to be on the cusp of very profound changes that will have a huge impact upon its future prosperity. Sadly, we currently have very little confidence in the EFL as a potential ally in making sure that those changes are managed well, and with the good of the club at heart. In our view, you need to grasp this nettle, and grasp it now. I speak for everyone on my Committee when I say that if you do so you will find us an energetic and enterprising partner to work with.
I am copying this letter to the Chairman of the Football Association, to the Chair and Members of the DCMS Select Committee, all EFL Board Members, FSF, SD and will be publishing it on the BST website and in other such social media outlets as my Committee sees fit.
Yours sincerely
Christine
Christine Seddon
Chair
Blackpool Supporters' Trust
