What went wrong, part 4

Producing this narrative has taken longer than I intended, but I have been afflicted by health challenges.  Indeed, the NHS came to my rescue on Saturday with prompt and decisive action, telling me that I had 'dodged a bullet'.

A persistent belief of some Charlton fans is that prospective purchasers of the club are interested in a property play, although, of course, Roland currently owns The Valley and the training ground.  The Valley is a very awkward site for development and it is in South London not North London.   Watching University Challenge last night, I was struck by how many contestants representing UCL and King's Cambridge were from North London.

Conversion or demolition of The Valley would be expensive.  However, the biggest problem is the constrained access which would make planning permission difficult to secure, plus the steep slope on part of the site.

Nevertheless, one group of owners, sometimes referred to in some quarters as 'the spivs' (shurely visionary entrepreneurs, ed) were backed by sufficient cash to contemplate building a soulless functional replacement stadium near the O2.

Read here about the secret plan to leave The Valley: https://www.votvonline.com/home/the-2017-18-blogs/22-12-how-jimenez-schemed-to-leave-the-valley/

There were furher relevations in a court case: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/feb/09/charlton-khakshouri-jimenez-cash-modern-football

In summary, 'a man called Darius Khakshouri was awarded $4m in damages at the Royal Courts of Justice. In Court 9, Mr Justice Green found in favour of Khakshouri and against Tony Jimenez and Kevin Cash after the property developer claimed he had been deceived by the pair over a loan. That loan was of £1.8m, made in the autumn of 2013, in a last-minute bid to keep Charlton Athletic in business

Cash's  business operations based offshore and split between trusts and holding companies. A similarly nebulous structure was found to lie behind Charlton’s ownership during Jimenez’s and Cash’s involvement at the club. In his ruling, Justice Green found that neither Jimenez nor Cash actually owned Charlton, another reason why their representations to Khakshouri had been deceitful.'

In 2019 the Court of Appeal ruled that Jiminez would have to reveal details of his tax affairs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47075503

Charlton does seem to be attractive to entrepreneurs who fall below the highest standards of propriety.

That went well

Offers of a copy of my Political Football book in a simple competition attracted no entries, so I gave the copy after my Sky Blues supporting neighbour cut my lawn for me.   I didn't give him two copies, but two bottles of wine instead.

The reason my father took me to a reserve match against Aldershot in September 1953 was to give me a dry run of going to The Valley at six years old.

We didn't make the 8-1 win over Middlesbrough (I remember expressing my disappointment to a friend at school) and the home game against Preston was on a Thursday (early closing day).  So my first home match was the 6-0 win over Liverpool.

Managed by Don Welsh, this was their biggest defeat since 1934.   I remember seeing a Charlton player running along the East Terrace wing skinning the opposition.

When I got to seven the following January, I could no longer go through the turnstiles with my father which I initially found scary.

New up market merch for the Nigels

Have the Nigels stolen another march over us with their new up market merch?   The Financial Times is sceptical.

Writing in the Pink 'Un Jo Ellison notes:'News that Crystal Palace have become the first football club in the Premier League to appoint a creative director was greeted by most of their fan base with a shrug. “Can he play at right back?” was among the more popular responses. 

Kenny Annan-Jonathan, a “brand architect” who founded the sports marketing agency The Mailroom in 2017, has been enlisted to oversee apparel collections and fashion brand partnerships at the south London club. He has previously worked with former Palace winger Wilfried Zaha, who recently left the club after a nine-season spell, as well as West Ham’s Michail Antonio and the sprinter Daryll Neita.

Annan-Jonathan says he will create “products that go beyond typical sports team merch and grow the team’s fan base”. His first collection will debut in September.  Would you consider wearing Crystal Palace merch if you weren’t an Eagles fan? They finished mid-table last season and are relatively unknown as an international brand. Palace haven’t enjoyed huge fashionability since Ian Wright and Mark Bright were a dazzling goalscoring partnership. But that was in the 1980s.

And notwithstanding that I am a blood relative of a season ticket-holding, diehard member of the Eagles brethren, I imagine the club will struggle to become much more than a niche interest in an arena awash with bigger, more explosive brands.'

One can easily think of merch one could devise for Millwall fans.   Perhaps Charlton could do a line in anoraks or those old fashioned sports jackets favoured by train spotters?

What went wrong, Part 3

This is really a bit of a digression, but I felt that something needed to be said about the club's involvement with New Labour when it was in the Premier League.   I am not saying that it was a right or wrong policy, something I can say with confidence as both the Labour and Conservative Governments were interested in my input.  Indeed, I still recall an event at No.10 after I had chaired a commission on elected mayors when Dave Cameron, Bozza and Hezza had a ding dong.

Charlton and Raith Rovers supporters exchange views.   It was like having an intellectual vacuum cleaner attached to you.   After this encounter I was invited to a series of seminars at No.11 during the Blair/Brown transition, but could only go to one, so I probably had a lucky escape.

The most interesting part of Charlton's engagement with New Labour may not be known until papers are released under the 30 year rule, but for now I thought I would reproduce part of an article I wrote on football for British Politics.

Charlton Athletic is taken here as an example of the politics of cooption and engagement, describing itself as ‘more than just a football club.’   As Banks notes (2002, 192), ‘The pioneers of supporter activism were undoubtedly the supporters of Charlton Athletic.’   Cooption refers to strategies to involve fans in the agenda of the club, while engagement refers to efforts to relate to contemporary government policy agendas. 

Cooption in the case of Charlton is exemplified by the device of a supporters’ director elected by season ticket holders, although after a process of screening candidates.  However, a supporters’ director is only one voice on the board and is subject to the constraints of commercial confidentiality.   At best, they can act as an ombudsperson for fans, and could be seen by management as a way of conveying their perspective on issues to supporters.

Charlton Athletic has followed what amounts to a conscious strategy of engagement with New Labour policies, although the club would no doubt prefer to describe them as government policies.  New Labour pursued ‘a desire to use mass sport as an instrument of social policy, notably as a way of combating social exclusion and promoting public health.’  (Moran, 2003, 89).   It is no accident that the phrase ‘social inclusion’ appears four times in the club’s latest annual report, along with other buzz phrases such as ‘sustainable’ and ‘successful outputs’.  (Charlton Athletic, 2005, 17-19).

 The club has pursued a multi-level governance strategy at local, regional and national political levels.   Activities such as providing football training for children in the school holidays are perceived as ‘an innovative way of meeting the Government’s social objectives and the new Respect Policy.’  (Charlton Athletic, 2005, 14).  

Gordon Brown with Curbs

For its part the government has sent the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the then Health Secretary ‘and a delegation from the Home Office to discuss how football and sport can improve community cohesion and lead to a healthier and safer environment.’  (Charlton Athletic, 2005, 17).

Unfortunately he chose Aston Viilla over Charlton

 Add in a delegation from the Belgian Government and Prince William and the club can claim:

        Such heavyweight and high profile visits have positioned the club and the

        Community Trust as a highly imaginative pathfinder contribution that can be used

        as an excellent model of best corporate social responsibility practice to roll out on a

        much wider scale in the future.   (Charlton Athletic, 2005, 13-14).

 

Interview with Holden on Alfie May

 Alfie May was, unsurprisingly, one of the EFL’s most-wanted players this summer.

The Athletic sat down with May and Charlton’s head coach Dean Holden to talk tactics, how May will adapt to Charlton’s style, and how they might achieve Storrie’s target.

“It was just a perfect fit for me and coming home, being a local lad, it’s not really sunk in yet,” May says of his summer move.

His 20 goals were the third-most non-penalty goals by any player in League One last season and accounted for 44 per cent of Cheltenham’s total. That was the highest proportion of any player for their team in the division and joint-top across all 72 EFL sides (with Andy Cook of Bradford City in League Two).

Major tactical teething problems are not anticipated, but Holden accepts that May and Charlton might need a bit of time to stylistically adjust to each other.

“There was a lot of talk before we signed him about counter-attack, that’s a big part of the way he plays,” says Holden. “This team — I came in at Christmas — this time last year were building a possession-based game.”

It is May’s speed that Holden is focused on maximising.  “I think we’re going to have to be that team (high-possession) at times, particularly at The Valley when teams come and sit in,” says the head coach. “But Alfie will probably tell you, one of the biggest things we tell him all the time is get your eyes up the pitch. When we win it, I’m not interested in a sideways or a backward pass, unless it needs to be. Can we get our eyes up and play forward?

“And that might be down the sides, it might be over the top. I think you can see, particularly with Alfie’s movement, I describe him as like a relay runner, where his movement is fantastic to come short and spin, and then he’s on his bike and he’s almost waiting for the baton. He’s waiting for one of our midfielders to get their eyes up and have the quality to play him in.”

Holden likens May’s style to that of Teemu Pukki, the Finland and former Norwich City striker, now in MLS, who built a reputation for scoring goals from through balls. “He’ll make so many runs a game that no one will even notice,” Holden says. “It’s the two or three that he lands on and scores the goal where everybody will say, ‘Look at that’.”

“I love learning, and I’m obviously 30 years old,” says May. “But I’ve come into the game late, so I still feel like I’ve got a few years ahead.”

 

Simply Massive

This review of Sheffield Wednesday's accounts on a sister site contains some comparative references to Charlton: https://footballeconomyv2.blogspot.com/2023/08/roller-coaster-ride-for-wednesday.html

What went wrong, Part 2 - the Roland Years

In order to understand the Roland years, it is necessary to think about his mentality and what he was trying to achieve.  It wasn't necessarily bonkers, it was poorly designed and executed.  Steve Sutherland thinks that the biggest mistake made by Charlton fans was antagonizing Roland.   I don't agree, but I see where he is coming from.

We need some context and I have to give some personal background.   When I queued for tickets for the Greatest Game, I had to then go to Waterloo to catch a Eurostar to Brussels.  Between the mid 1990s and the late noughties, I was back and forth on Eurostar endlessly, having attended meetings in windowless rooms in Brussels.   In those days it trundled through Kent and it was always heartening to pass somewhere known for Addicktion such as Swanley or Bromley.

In the mid 1990s I was rung up out of the blue by the Cabinet Office and asked if I would represent the UK on a minor European Commission committee.  In time the EU asked me with a few weeks notice to lead a major research project while I was seconded to a UK government department to advise on EU policy,.

I was also sent to represent the EU at a conference in a remote part of China which had more ethnic minorities than Han Chinese.  I was presented with a plate of fried wasps as a great delicacy: fortunately my driver ate them.

Imagine my surprise when I switched on the television and there was a very informative feature on how Curbs and Keith Peacock worked together!

The local television station asked to interview me.  I had a minder from the EU's Beijing office and was ready with a few platitudes about pandas.  To my surprise, they had done their homework and started questioning me about levels of air pollution in Greenwich.

What has all this got to do with Roland and football?   Before the financial crisis the Commission took a great interest in football.  The key figure here was Viviane Reding from Luxembourg who was a commissioner from 1999 to 2014, initially with responsibility for sport and ultimately as a vice-president.   Like many politicians from Luxembourg, she punched about her country's weight in the EU.  I only heard her speak once (in the Grand Duchy) and she hardly set the room alight.

Reding and the Commission had a run in with the Premier League over breaches of cartel law.   Tony Blair got involved and in the end the concessions the Premier League had to make were not that onerous.  (I have written on this elsewhere).

Above all, the Commission saw football as a potential integrating force that could help to develop a European identity.   I am not suggesting that Roland talked to the Commission, but he was 'dans le vent' and could see the way the wind was blowing.   Remember that at one time he tried to set up his own political party.   More follows in the next instalment.