Protest NOW!!!

[si1268]

Here's an Idea. It's not well thought through or totally original.

We're all pretty much agreed that WCFC is going to hell in a hand cart somewhere between now and the next 2 years if the present situation remains the same. Its time to act.

Why doesn't the trust organise protests on match days (home games only of course) whereby you go to the lane but you don't go through the turnstiles. I reckon 2-300 people doing that per game would really force the issue within 3 games. If you really cared about the club you could hand over your match fee to the trust who would reimburse it to the club when a new board is assembled.

It's going to be a crap season so what have you lost?

If there is not enough will to do this then you will not be too bothered when the club goes tits up.

[ctod1959]

Aug 28, 2008 12:38:57 GMT si1268 said:

Here's an Idea. It's not well thought through or totally original.

We're all pretty much agreed that WCFC is going to hell in a hand cart somewhere between now and the next 2 years if the present situation remains the same. Its time to act.

Why doesn't the trust organise protests on match days (home games only of course) whereby you go to the lane but you don't go through the turnstiles. I reckon 2-300 people doing that per game would really force the issue within 3 games. If you really cared about the club you could hand over your match fee to the trust who would reimburse it to the club when a new board is assembled.

It's going to be a crap season so what have you lost?

If there is not enough will to do this then you will not be too bothered when the club goes tits up.

Certainly not well thought through. The players and management need the supporters to get behind the team. A protest of this sort will be counter productive. Forget it.

[Tony is not to despondent now.]

What about the season ticket holders?

[niels]

Aug 28, 2008 13:06:33 GMT @ctod1959 said:

Certainly not well thought through. The players and management need the supporters to get behind the team. A protest of this sort will be counter productive. Forget it.

And therein lies the dilemma.

People don't want to protest because they think it may affect the teams performance.

But if we don't protest then we may not (and in my opinion will not) have a team to support in the future.

Sorry but there is only one choice for me. That is to get this problem sorted out, and if protesting helps (along with other avenues) then job done. Shutting your eyes and hoping that the problems will sort themselves out is a crime against the club we all love and actually is not going to happen with the present make-up of the board.

I, as much as the next man, woman and child, want to go to the Lane with the sole intention of supporting my team, without having to worry about anything else. I don't like being depressed when I leave, sometimes it's by the football but mainly by what I know is going on behind the closed doors of the boardroom. Watching the City has always been like a bit of a pressure release valve for me, with the week's frustrations being cleared in an hour and a half. That is not the case at present and the cat feels so got at that he has left home.

We have to protest, in whatever way, because the majority of the present board of directors have no idea how to take this club forward. They have been relying on the holy grail of the new ground so whole heartily that they forgot that they had to run the club in a business like manner in the meantime. There was always an extension to the overdraft or a bank loan to make the situation seem normal to the outside. Everything that they have done lately has either been forced on them or is a reaction to pressure from such groups as the Supporters Trust, the Supporters Club and the Shareholders Action Group.

Well now they have let slip the numbers and surprise surprise they don't add up, just like was revealed at the Trust re-launch at the Cricket ground back in the spring. Yet the board still say that the aim is a stadium like Burton's (which cost £7.2 million by the way and St George's Lane sold for £7 million). We'll be lucky to end up with a ground like Malvern Town's IF we get that far.

Those same directors have claimed on numerous occassions that they would be happy to step down if someone could be found to replace them. Former chairman and present director Doc Sorensen took them to their word and came up with a compromise deal which would give the club some hope of long term survival. This compromise was welcomed by all who were party to the details (I know the details and believe me it was as good as we are going to get at the present time) except for four long standing members of the board, two of which have financial incentives to keep the status quo. Several are also so arrogant that they genuinely believe that there is no one capable of taking over from them as they are so good at their jobs that they are irreplacable.

So I believe that anyone who cares about the future of this club has a duty to find out what the real situation is and then set about trying to do something about it. Whether that is joining the Trust (who have been doing just that for the last 6 months), asking hard questions of the present board by letter, email or in person, protesting during (or after) games or boycotting the club until the original compromise is accepted or they resign on mass.

These are all valid methods. Silence is not.

[Deleted]

I'm sorry but the people who need to get behind the team and the management are the Board of Directors - Is it really supportive to expect your manager to front a meeting like the one at the Whitehouse and the Board to hide behind him and hope he takes the heat out of the meeting? You may not realise it, but it was calls by members of the Shareholder Group to the manager personally, to advise him of what he was being led into that stopped him attending.

By attending games you are not supporting the team, you are supporting the football club. Your money doesn't go into the team, it goes to the various "experts" who are helping the club with their pipedream of a football ground. It goes towards paying the massive debt that the Board have built up over the years with no plans to change the situation. It goes towards the salary of an ineffectectual employee and director to stand behind an empty bar in an empty Social Club ( a place Legends would be ashamed of!!)
It goes towards payment for kit from a company which has had a certain David Boddy operating as a Director of, and has benefitted from in a anticompetitive trading arrangement.
What it doesn't do is go towards the players or management. The Board of Directors would prefer to pay for consultants than pay for basic training equipment for the players and management. If you don't believe this, then ask the manager or the players, or the Supporters Club, or the Supporters Trust.

By paying your money at the gate (which is more than any of the "I do it for free" Directors do) you aren't supporting the team financially, you're simply propping up the bankrupt regime that is killing the club. By paying at the gate and giving that money to the Supporters Trust, then the ST can make sure that money goes directly to the players and the management if needed, and NOT towards the likes of Alan Williams consultancy fees.

The hardest decision for supporters of a football team to make is to boycott the club they love, but anyone who wants to see a long term plan for WCFC has really got to consider it - or they'll just carry on paying their bit of money, and turn up one day to find the gates lost, and say "what happened???"

I doubt you'd find a more committed supporter than niels, we may have had our little differences, however, no-one can question his support for the football club, or his ability to spot an offside from behind the goal!! If niels believes this is the case, you've got to at least consider listening.

If the club goes under, what will you have done to help save them? The Supporters Trust is actually the only kind of body which is recognised by the FA, the Football League, the Banks and Companies House, as the kind of company able to step in automatically to keep the club afloat and in the league. With no Trust, the club simply goes into liquidation and an immediate 2 league drop at best. Then it'll take a lot of £5 gatemoney to get the club back to where they are now - and the present Manager and players will be long gone!!

[cogg]

I'm a bit concerned that this 'Johnny' Icelander is seen as a representative of our 'St George's' club....

I'll get my coat... ;-)

Seriously, I agree with Niels AND Brooksider for once. When the Trust launched 4 years ago, no one wanted to know. The club was in 'safe' hands and needed no help. This year the re-launch has been instrumental ( as well as other groups) in forcing the Dircetor's to at least face the fact that change is needed. That's not enough. Everyone has to realise that without a sea change in the Boardroom we won't have a club.

It's a very English way not to complain in public. When the waiter bings the bil we always say everything was fine, but then spend the next weeks telling all our friends how the service was s***, the food cold etc

Stand up and protest NOW before it's too late.....

[tim]

I've been having my own silent protest so far this season, haven't been to a home game, but will be giving my £11 to the trust each game from now on.

[Deleted]

The problem with just staying away (and it's sad when it's loyal fans like TJ) is that their motives will be misread and it will be assumed their absence is due to what's happening on the pitch rather than off it. Once again the board will be able to side step the blame.

[dave]

A boycott is all well and good, but it has become all too apparent that only a small minority of those that go down the lane each home game, actually have a full appreciation of the Clubs current predicament, and some regard the Supporters Trust and Shareholder Action Group as no more than troublemakers. They do not read this message board, they ignore the flyers that the get handed out and the Worcester News refuse to report or ask questions about anything that I know they read on here.

This is the desperately sad thing, as long as spineless journalists help keep the majority of fans heads in the sand over the Clubs finances and precarious future, they will not act and for that reason I feel a boycott will only involve a small number of people and make little difference.

[ctod1959]

Aug 29, 2008 10:43:06 GMT @dave said:

only a small minority of those that go down the lane each home game, actually have a full appreciation of the Clubs current predicament, and some regard the Supporters Trust and Shareholder Action Group as no more than troublemakers.

Well, you are 'troublemakers' - very well intentioned ones, I'm sure, desperately doing what you think is best for WCFC, but don't be surprised if not everyone agrees with your ways of doing things. And, the people who disagree with you are not necessarily ostriches either.

[dave]

Ctod1959, how do you think someone like me should be doing things? I am a supporter and shareholder of Worcester City FC and I am seeing evidence all around me that the Club is in big trouble.

The facts (as announced by the Board of Directors) are not in dispute. We have only £3.5m to build a stadium at Nunnery Way, less than half of what it cost to build the Pirelli 4 years ago.

We also have not submitted accounts for 2006/07 which were due on 31 March this year.

Should I just keep writing to the chairman on the off chance that he might give me the courtesy of a reply at last, or perhaps just sit politely and wait for the Club to fold and then say "I told you so."

I am not sure how else we are going to save this Club other than highlighting the very big problems we are facing and calling for change at the very top. If you have a better idea of how I should be acting then I would be interested to hear it.

[Deleted]

Is the egm going to happen?

[dave]

I understand that the S.H.A.G are nominating people for the Board of Directors at the AGM which has been promised for September.

They are putting in forms every 6 days to ensure that they are not refused on a technicality by the Company Secretary in the same way the EGM requests have been.

If the AGM is not announced soon though, I am sure the EGM plans will have to be revisited. With at least 21 days notice needed to call an AGM I am expecting to hear something in the next week or so from the Club.

[gobby cow]

Well I wouldnt hold your breath, young man.

I doubt the AGM will happen in September, the way the present board drag their feet and twist and turn, it will be called in December, probably the 24th. in the hope noone comes!

[si1268]

Aug 29, 2008 11:43:32 GMT @ctod1959 said:

Aug 29, 2008 10:43:06 GMT @dave said:

only a small minority of those that go down the lane each home game, actually have a full appreciation of the Clubs current predicament, and some regard the Supporters Trust and Shareholder Action Group as no more than troublemakers.

Well, you are 'troublemakers' - very well intentioned ones, I'm sure, desperately doing what you think is best for WCFC, but don't be surprised if not everyone agrees with your ways of doing things. And, the people who disagree with you are not necessarily ostriches either.

So whats your way of doing things? I'd love to here it. I'm guessing it will be along the lines of "support the club and the team and hope a miracle occurs."

NEWS FLASH: Richard Dryden is not the mesiah...

Oh and season ticket holders could do what they want as can anybody. I would hope they would simply boycott the game and stand with everyone else.

[ctod1959]

Aug 29, 2008 13:10:04 GMT si1268 said:

Aug 29, 2008 11:43:32 GMT @ctod1959 said:

So whats your way of doing things? I'd love to here it. I'm guessing it will be along the lines of "support the club and the team and hope a miracle occurs."



.

I would continue to seek change through an AGM/EGM.

I can't see what match day protests are going to achieve apart from alienating you from a large number of supporters, affecting the team and making the current powers that be dig their heels in further.

[suv]

Unfortunatley "si1268" I think your rallying call of "protest now" on this message board will fall on deaf ears.
The comments from "ctod 1959" were generally the type of comments I received when handing out Trust Membership cards (note not Red Cards) before the Hayes & Yeading match a few weeks ago.
Fans seem to believe that "they've watched the City for 20/30/40 years and they always will" or that the Supporters Trust is in fact "ripping the club apart".
The majority of frequent users of this "banterboard" are mostly Supporters Trust members who know the issue's effecting the club and not all of them would hold up Red Cards on the last (hastily arranged) "protest day".
I selfishly look forward to the day (in the next couple of months) it all goes "tits up" just so that I can say or post "told you so, ha ha" to all the people who don't or won't believe a word of it.

[dave]

The only problem with that approach ctod, is that the Board can keep rejecting EGM requests and delay calling the AGM, in the same way they have delayed submitting the 2006/07 accounts. I really hope this approach works, but I have serious doubts.

The Board need to be kept under pressure to force them to be open, honest and transparent about the Clubs financial position.

I have tried writing to the Worcester News, but they are not willing it appears to report anything about the late accounts and the lack of funds to build a proper stadium at Nunnery Way. In order to raise public awareness of the Club's plight beyond the few who read all about it on this forum, a matchday protest may become necessary. I agree that it is not going to help the team in the short term, but it could be that without protest, there wont be a team to worry about upsetting before long and RD will be out of a job.

It is the hardest decision as a football fan to boycott matches, but it may turn out to be the only way to get the Board to take this matter seriously.

[ctod1959]

You make your point very well, Dave. I just hope that the approach mentioned in your second paragraph will bring about change.

As for suv, your last sentence shows you in your true colours - and they're not the blue and white of Worcester City.

[suv]

Aug 29, 2008 13:49:30 GMT @dave said:

I have tried writing to the Worcester News, but they are not willing it appears to report anything about the late accounts and the lack of funds to build a proper stadium at Nunnery Way. In order to raise public awareness of the Club's plight beyond the few who read all about it on this forum, a matchday protest may become necessary.
.

The Worcester News weren't willing to publish a statement from the Supporters Trust regarding the "Trust's" support for the current Boards proposed compromise agreement two weeks ago.
Maybe we should try and hi-jack the "most commented" part of the electronic version of the newspaper as a form of "protest"

[dave]

ctod, I think that is unfair to suv. I know he is a very dedicated supporter, and is probably just frustrated at the majority of supporters who do not realise the magnitude of the problems the Club is facing.

[suv]

Aug 29, 2008 13:59:28 GMT @ctod1959 said:

As for suv, your last sentence shows you in your true colours - and they're not the blue and white of Worcester City.

Back to the "Molineux" for me then !!!!

[Tony is not to despondent now.]

Hello, ctod, the position of the club is dire. If no action is taken then it will fold as sure as eggs are eggs.

[richwidd]

Aug 29, 2008 13:38:52 GMT @ctod1959 said:

Aug 29, 2008 13:10:04 GMT si1268 said:

Aug 29, 2008 11:43:32 GMT @ctod1959 said:

So whats your way of doing things? I'd love to here it. I'm guessing it will be along the lines of "support the club and the team and hope a miracle occurs."



.

I would continue to seek change through an AGM/EGM.

I can't see what match day protests are going to achieve apart from alienating you from a large number of supporters, affecting the team and making the current powers that be dig their heels in further.[/quote

Chairman Boddy publicly promised an AGM in September. With it now being the 29th, they have 10 days left to call it, for it to be held in late September. If he was so keen on sorting the Club out why is he taking so long? They are putting in two years of accounts, it is Worcester City FC - a small time football Club not Fu**ing Microsoft!!

The AGM could have been held next week and all of this could have been cleared up, once and for all, allowing the Club to move forward in whichever direction the shareholders chose, with the action groups blessing if it went against our views.

Neither he nor the Company Secretary has contacted me or any of the other 7 people who have had their names put forward to stand at the AGM. He has been specifically asked if the nominations are going to be accepted or rejected. That was last Thursday.

I can clarify that a very simple proposal and second form for 8 people has been lodged with the Company Secretary. If he goes with his usual tactic, where he doesn't tell anyone when the AGM is going to be called, we have to keep sending proposal forms in every week until he does. It is the only way we can be sure of having our forms in on time. Even then we don't know if he will find a reason not to accept them.

It is a game the Board likes to play to stop anyone else spoiling their soon to be bust club.

Having said that I'm sure he won't be in too much of a hurry on letting anyone else see the financial mess the club is in, so it could well drag on until December!!

We are not going to back down until an official AGM or EGM.

[si1268]

Ctod1959 you have to admit the present board are disasterous at running a football club but they are damn good at holding on to one. I can't see AGMs EGMs whatever shifting this lot. Direct action will have to be taken at some time if you want the club to survive, maybe the times not yet right a bit like the story of the supporters trust. There's too many gutless supporters.

Your comment about suv is pretty poor and fairly typical of someone who doesn't want to listen to the truth.

[tim]

Aug 29, 2008 8:44:09 GMT @ealing said:

The problem with just staying away (and it's sad when it's loyal fans like TJ) is that their motives will be misread and it will be assumed their absence is due to what's happening on the pitch rather than off it. Once again the board will be able to side step the blame.

This is the trouble, though I doubt that anyone will notice that one person or indeed a small number of people have stopped going. I couldn't make the St.Albans or Hayes games as I was in London, but deliberately ignored the Bath game, preferring to do the garden instead.

Possibly the six points at the start of the season was a little bit of a false dawn, we were outplayed at Bognor for much of the game and were very lucky (or inspired at key moments) to nick it, from what I heard on the radio St Albans was rather similar. Since then the luck hasn't gone our way on the pitch, but that's all part and parcel of football. I wish the team every success, RD has put together a squad with some potential (when they play to their strengths, which is probably another story), but frankly the powers that be don't deserve to have a manager and team that are striving against the odds. It beggars belief, and concerns me greatly, that the ostrich mentality can continue behind the scenes - are they that naive that they believe they can tough it through the unrest, or that incompetent, or is it something more sinister?

[creaner]

Aug 29, 2008 14:06:47 GMT suv said:

Aug 29, 2008 13:59:28 GMT @ctod1959 said:

As for suv, your last sentence shows you in your true colours - and they're not the blue and white of Worcester City.

Back to the "Molineux" for me then !!!!

Steady on Suv! Things can't be THAT bad!

[dorothy]

I can honestly say that if things haven't changed by the end of September my season ticket and lads Georgie Dragon card will be returned to the club and I'll watch the club sink leaving Archdales as the senior football club in the City of Worcester.

[BDS]

Democracy for me. Although I cant bring myself to go to a home game or pay a penny to the current regime whilst we do not have it.

If the legitimate requests of members are ignored then it is perfectly legal to call and hold an EGM with or without the existing Board members - they are just shareholders after all and to act on the results of that EGM. The proof of legitimacy will be in the vote and provided it is done properly with appropriate notice to all shareholders then there is no defence.

The Register of Members must be open to inspection at the Club registered office at reasonable times and thus an up to date list of members can be obtained. There is, of course, the cost of doing this and that is not inconsiderable.

[si1268]

What's happening with EGMs AGMs etc? Is there any hope on the horizon?