Its almost 2 months since the last edition of FOULMouth and to say a lot's happened since then would be the understatement of the year. We have been on the brink of issuing a new edition of FOULMouth on a number of occasions over the last few weeks but every time something new has happened that meant we decided to wait for events to unfold.
Its now time to update our members on whats been going on and where things stand now.
The big news, as everybody should already know, is that Oxford United has a new owner in the shape of Firoz Kassam. Mr Kassam completed his purchase of the club from Robin Herd on 31st March. The previouse day had seen another major milestone with Oxford City Council's Strategy and Resources Committee agreeing to Firoz Kassam's plan to restart the stadium development. FOUL very much welcomes these developments, and while there's still a lot of work to be done until the club is truely safe we believe the chances of long term survival are far better than any of us thought possible, even a few weeks ago.
Its worth mentioning that none of this would have happened without the show of strength and unity from the supporters of the club. The fantastic turnout at the two Town Hall meetings and the hundreds of people who have joined FOUL since it was formed have all played their part. Oxford City Council also needs applauding for the enlightened position they have taken in their dealings with Firoz Kassam and finding a way to do something which we were originally told was impossible.
Shortly after the last edition of FOULMouth in early February Keith Cox resigned as managing director of the club after a Sunday newspaper ran a story about him being wanted for questioning in Florida in connection with allegedly fraudulent land deals. (We have subsequently learned that all charges against Keith Cox have been dropped) Whilst FOUL had always been neutral on the issue of Keith Cox's leadership of the club it was widely recognised that he was central to any potential rescue plan for re-starting the new stadium and the club in general.
Everybody was thrown into panic for a few days until the announcement of Firoz Kassam's interest in buying the club and intention to complete the plan that Keith Cox had outlined at the meeting with FOUL a few weeks before. FOUL had known there was another potential buyer in negotiation with the current owner, Robin Herd, and the club for some time before Keith Cox's departure but there were a few tense days when nobody was sure whether an announcement would be made about his identity or whether Cox's resignation would signal the end of any deal. We held our breath.
Then at a FOUL committee meeting in the junior supporters club room at the Manor we got a message from Robin Herd that he was about to sign a heads of agreement with a potential new buyer to give him an option to buy the club. The timing was perfect as we had already arranged a second public meeting at the Town Hall for the following week where we had expected Keith Cox to be present to answer the fan's questions. John Tanner, leader of Oxford City Council had also agreed to address the fans.
The meeting went ahead despite Cox's resignation and with a fair amount of uncertainty as to who would attend on behalf of the club and whether Firoz Kassam would be there. As it turned out the meeting was a very lively and emotional event that ultimately may prove to be a major turning point in the campaign to save the club.
With Keith Cox gone and a plea from FOUL to concentrate on the future rather than raking over the past the debate centred on the plan to restart the new stadium, the council's potential role in this and the provision of leisure facilities in Oxford that formed a key part in the plans now taken over by Firoz Kassam.
FOUL had already let the City Council know what we wanted them to do and announced at the meeting that night that we would be putting up candidates in the May council elections to campaign for direct council involvement in the stadium project and to come up with a restructured fair deal on the land at Minchery Farm to allow the profits from leisure developments to fund the stadium development and thereby keep the club afloat.
Questions from the floor centred around these issues and in particular the lack of modern leisure facilities for the people of Oxford. John Tanner was asked some very pointed questions about the vast profits they planned to make under the original deal for the stadium site.
The meeting reached an emotional climax after "Attila the Stockbroker" from the Brighton supporters organisation read out a poem about their last game at the Goldstone Ground. An obviously emotional Firoz Kassam who had until then remained in the audience, was moved to come up on stage and pledge that he would work with the City Council to do everything possible to save the club.
A week or two after the Town Hall meeting came the news that the City Council were considering a deal put forward by Kassam which involved the council taking a 20% stake in the new stadium company and a deal on the adjoining land which meant it could be sold on to leisure developers in order to finance the stadium construction. Further investigations led us to believe that the council were likely to approve this at the next strategy and resources meeting. FOUL arranged to address that meeting to put the fans case across. At the same time we also learned that the football club had submitted a planning application for a commercial leisure development on one of the sites next to the new stadium. This still excluded a multiplex cinema but was seen as a good indication of the City Council's new attitude towards the club.
Unfortunately things didn't go as smoothly as anyone, the council included, had imagined. We were informed that somebody had applied to the Government Office for the South East (GOSE), which is the regional office representing central government departments, to suggest the planning application should be "called in" by central government. In other words it was suggested that the government should step in and take control of the decision out of the local planning committee's hands. Such a development would introduce a very long delay and would almost certainly call into question Kassam's involvement with the club.
We found out that GOSE had not actually called in the decision but put an Article 14 holding order on the decision which essentially meant no planning permission could be granted until GOSE had decided whether to call in the decision and refer it to John Prescott. This was likely to take 28 days.
That afternoon was spent calling people and frantic faxing of documents. We managed to track down the instigator of the application to GOSE. It turned out to be Cllr. Mike Woodin a member of OCC Planning Committee and one of four Green Party members on the council. We not only sent off a fax to GOSE expressing our concern that such a delay could be fatal for the football club but also made sure that Cllr. Woodin heard from many of us. It was explained to him in great detail what the likely result of his action was.
The following day FOUL were represented at the Planning Meeting at Oxford Town Hall to see Cllr Mike Woodin receive a severe reprimand from the Committee Chair, Maureen Christian for his actions. Not only had he gone ahead with his application to GOSE without any consultation with the committee he had also misinterpreted the planning report, believing that it included an application for a multiplex cinema. Although he apologised for the problems he had caused this was little consolation to anybody.
The planning meeting itself made a decision to effectively agree the application for planning unaltered by delegating the decision to council officers subject to the GOSE holding order being lifted - Whenever that was.
FOUL talked with Cllr Woodin both before and after the meeting to explain our concerns. He said he would be in immediate contact with GOSE to request they dealt with the matter urgently and that his original concerns were now groundless. We were sent a copy of his letter to GOSE later that day.
Then at about 6:00pm we got the news that the holding order had been lifted and the planning application had effectively been granted. As one councillor commented: "This was a totally unbelievable and unprecedented action"! Things were back on track!
With the news that the council were in negotiation with Mr Kassam and the granting of the planning application the first sign of their new positive outlook FOUL responded with the following statement which was published in the Oxford Mail:
As has already been mentioned we've come a long way over the last few months and Oxford United is far more likely to survive into next season now than looked possible even a few weeks ago, but we're not quite safe yet. There are two main hurdles to overcome yet.
Firstly the City Council has to agree to the deal with the football club for the land at Minchery Farm. This will be voted on at the full council meeting on April 19th at 4:00pm. We'd urge as many supporters as possible to turn up to that meeting to show support.
Beyond that the City Council has announced that it plans to consult the public on the stadium deal. This will take the form of a City-wide opinion survey which means FOUL needs to keep the issue alive in the local media and make sure as many people as possible are aware of the full picture and why the deal is the only way the club can survive.
In addition to the opinion survey the council plans public meetings at Littlemore and Blackbird Leys. FOUL will of course be there but for the supporters voice to be heard loud and clear its vital that we have a big turn out of supporters for these meetings. The first of these meetings will be at Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre at 7:30 on Friday 16th April. The Littlemore meeting is expected to take place the following week so look out for the date in the local press. FOUL will be carrying out its own surveys of residents in the Greater Leys area to gauge the levels of support and opposition to the stadium and leisure developments. If any FOUL members would like to help out with this then please get in touch via phone or e-mail.
The second and potentially biggest hurdle is the granting of planning permission for a multiplex cinema at Minchery Farm. Such a development is crucial to the survival of the club.
The club's plan as we understand it, is to gain planning permission for a multiplex cinema on land they will own after its transfer from Oxford City Council. This land will then be sold to a multiplex developer/operator and other potential leisure developers and the proceeds used to pay for the stadium to be built.
A multiplex as opposed to other leisure development, is required because firstly a multiplex site has a very high land value and secondly such a development will also attract other leisure facilities and provide additional income from the sale of these plots of land.
All the indications from Oxford City Council are that planning permission for a multiplex would be granted by them subject to the required public consultation however the big risk is that the decision will be called in by GOSE (see above). FOUL will be working closely with the clubs advisors and the City Council to work out how best to lobby GOSE and the relevant Government departments not to have the application called in.
For the first time since FOUL was formed we are now able to start thinking about the future. Assuming everything does go to plan and the club has a future then FOUL's single aim that we set out with - saving the football club - will have been achieved. So where does that leave FOUL? We'd like to hear from our members on how they'd like FOUL to evolve but at the moment we certainly plan to carry on as the voice of the fans. Exactly what form this will take is yet to be decided which is why we'd like to hear from our members but we believe we have shown over the last few months that Oxford United supporters can have a strong voice and with the fans united we really can make a difference. We need to build on our existing membership to make sure that in the future the fans, the true owners of the football club, have a real say in the future of Oxford United.
One of the main reasons that FOUL has been able to get the attention of the various organisations and people who control the fate of the club has been our membership. We now have over 1,000 members and this means we have to be taken seriously, but its still not enough we need more members to make sure the fans voice is heard. So if you care about the future of the club and you're not already a member then fill in the application form on the front page of this newsletter and join FOUL now. If you're already a member then ask your friends, neighbours and workmates to join FOUL. We plan to send out membership forms with this newsletter to all our existing members but you can also get forms from the club shop or by visiting FOUL's web site (see below).
FOUL now has its own web site where you can read previous copies of FOULMouth, read the latest news and find out more about FOUL. The FOUL web site can be found at: www.welcome.to/FOUL . If you've got a web site yourself then please include a link to the FOUL web site to help spread the word. The web site also includes an on line membership form and a guestbook where you can leave comments or messages of support. You can also send e-mails to the FOUL committee at [email protected].
Oxford, United will never be defeated!
