FOULMouth 4
Once again we have to apologise for the length of time since the last edition of FOULMouth, but, as ever, so much has been happening so quickly that it has been very difficult to find time to draw breath and let everybody know what was going on. This combined with the close season has meant we've had to wait until now to give the supporters a full update on the goings on since last April/May.
Many of you will already have heard the excellent news that the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) has decided not to intervene in the club's planning application to build a multiplex cinema leisure development at Minchery Farm. This was a major step nearer securing the long term future of Oxford United. The money raised by this development will enable the new stadium to be completed and this in turn will allow the Manor ground to be sold for development in order to clear the many years and many millions of pounds of debts secured on it.
Great news indeed and a big success for all the members of FOUL who have been working towards this for many months. Anybody who joined FOUL, attended a FOUL or public meeting, wrote to their MPs, lobbied their local councillors or helped out with fund-raising or any other FOUL activity can be proud of the part they played in achieving this result.
The week the decision was made public also saw the U's win the first two away games of the season at Stoke and Southend in the cup. Even the loss of Phil Gilchrist to Leicester seemed of little importance in the light of this news. Having said that FOUL shares the concerns of many supporters about his low valuation and hopes that what money was made will be available to Shotton to strengthen the squad.
Perhaps we should have known that all this positive news was just too good to be true because just 7 days later we were all brought crashing back down to earth with the news that there could now be even further delays and the whole stadium project was being called into question again.
The reason for this dramatic downturn was the decision by a development company (Pentith Development Ltd.) to challenge the legality of the City Council's decision to award planning permission and the decision of the DETR not to intervene. We were informed of their plans to seek a Judicial Review of these decisions. Pentith were the development company behind the failed attempt to build a similar leisure development on the Oxpens site nearer the centre of Oxford. This application was eventually refused by the Secretary of State after a public enquiry. At the time of writing it is not known whether Pentith have been successful in gaining permission to go to judicial review. We can only hope that the judge who hears the application takes into account all of the special circumstances that apply to the club's application that did not apply in the Oxpens case. One thing should be clear to Mr Pentith though, and that is if he is successful and his actions bring about the collapse of the club he will receive anything but a warm welcome from thousands of Oxfordshire people should he seek to pursue his development plans in the city.
Congratulations to the Oxford Mail for also recognising this in their "Comment" last week which had the following to say of Pentith:
"Perhaps the directors of Pentith Ltd, the company which failed to get permission to build the Oxpens leisure complex, never intended to make any friends. By throwing the spanner into the work for the Minchery Farm multiplex, we can assure them they haven't. Unnecessary anxiety is being caused for a lot of people. There has been too much of that already. We cannot help but feel the High Court application for a judicial review into the decision is fuelled more by pique than environmental concerns. Perhaps Pentith is hoping it might be able to return again with a revised scheme to include a multiplex. If so, some excuse could be made. But not a lot. It is too much like a situation where one child is screaming because he hasn't a lollipop while another one has." Oxford Mail 21/8/99
What a summer. Last season finished with the news that we would at least be able to play at the Manor for one more season as the Football Licensing Authority had given us an extension for another year. FOUL spent a lot of time preparing the argument in favour of the multiplex planning application and after a lot of hard work, research and countless meetings prepared a 120 page report outlining our case. Right in the middle of this came the bid by David Bower and his "Gang of Four" to take over control of the club from Firoz Kassam. More on this below.
On the planning permission side of things not only did we have to lobby the Government Office of the South East (GOSE) and the DETR not to intervene, but we also had to work very hard to get our case across to Oxfordshire County Councillors whose officers seemed determined to see the application called in. Our efforts did not go un-rewarded though, and an urgent planning sub-committee meeting called at two days notice at County Hall saw a major reversal in the original very negative report from County Council Director of Environmental Services, David Young and his Chief Planning Officer, Chris Cousins. FOUL were given permission to address this meeting and put forward a strong argument as to why they should support the development.
In the days leading up to this meeting there had been a suggestion by David Young at the County Council that the Oxpens site in the centre of Oxford could be developed to fund the stadium. However this was widely dismissed as totally unworkable and was quickly forgotten. However ridiculous this proposal was it did serve as an example that we had the County Council on the run for them to come up with such an obviously flawed suggestion.
Further pressure and negotiations resulted in a very supportive resolution being passed as the final item on the agenda of the last full County Council meeting before the summer recess.
Whilst all of this was going on GOSE as representatives of John Prescott's Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, placed an Article 14 holding order on the decision which stopped Oxford City Council granting the multiplex planning permission at the Planning Committee meeting in early July. However this meeting did go ahead and despite a last minute attempt by representatives of ABC cinemas to block the application the Planning Committee resolved to grant the permission subject to the lifting of the Article 14 order from GOSE and final agreement with the County Council highways agency on traffic management and an undertaking that the cinema would not operate at peak football times.
At the end of July the Creditors Voluntary Agreement (CVA) meeting was held in London and a deal was struck which resulted in the clubs debts being dramatically reduced. More details on this below. Then as the new season began we received the biggest and best news of all. John Prescott and the DETR/GOSE had decided that they had no grounds to call in the multiplex planning application and they announced that the article 14 holding order was immediately lifted. Finally it looked like we would get our multiplex and more importantly our new stadium and a secure future for Oxford United.
Soon after the end of the season David Bower, who had been acting as managing director since the resignation of Keith Cox, left his unpaid position at the club and together with three other supporters launched a bid to take control of the club and buy out Firoz Kassam. Dubbed the Gang of Four by the Oxford Mail, Bower was joined by the ITV presenter, Jim Rosenthal and local businessmen and supporters, George Bailey and Hamish Dewar.
As many will remember at the time there was a period of accusations and claims from both sides played out in the local media and particularly on the back page of Jim Rosenthal's "old paper" The Oxford Mail. FOUL was put in the difficult position by both sides of being told that our support was crucial and without it, neither the Gang of Four or Firoz Kassam, would pursue their plans to control the club. After a number of meetings and lengthy discussions with all the individuals concerned FOUL issued the following statement:
Since the announcement of the rival bid members of the FOUL committee have spent many hours in talks with Firoz Kassam, directors and staff of Oxford United, and the consortium led by David Bower. Having gone into as much detail as time and commercial confidence would allow, FOUL see no reason to change their position, which is that of offering full support to Firoz Kassam in his efforts to safeguard the future of Oxford United F.C.
Our main aim has always been the survival of the football club and we still believe that Firoz Kassam represents the best chance of achieving this in the long run. We share the concerns of David Bower and his associates and those of many supporters about Mr Kassam providing immediate financial support to the football club, but welcome the recent announcements from Mr Kassam concerning meeting the running expenses of the club and the availability of £2M for this purpose. FOUL will continue to watch the situation and hope that this money will be made available without delay to remove the short term uncertainty and allow Malcolm Shotton to strengthen the playing staff.
For many moths now FOUL has tried to stress the importance of gaining planning permission for a multiplex cinema at Minchery Farm in order to finance the completion of the new stadium. We are more convinced than ever that this represents the only credible route to the long term survival of Oxford United. We hope the recent diversions can now be put aside and everybody involved can re- focus on doing everything possible to see that this plan succeeds.
Whilst the Gang of Four were undoubtedly true Oxford supporters FOUL felt that not only did they not have sufficient funding to safeguard the future of the club but they were also unaware of some key facts surrounding the potential rescue plans for the club. One thing that soon became apparent was the close links they had with the previous regime at the club and their desire to see, amongst others, Keith Cox paid all the money he claimed was owed to him in full.
In June with the Gang of Four no longer an issue the club pushed ahead with the Creditors Voluntary Agreement plans. Mr Kassam appointed Fenton Higgins previously a director at Barnet, to the board and brought in corporate recovery specialists Buchler Philips to carry out the CVA.
The existing board members, Geoff Coppock, Nick Harris and Maurice Evans made personal decisions to resign form the board at this time, although Maurice Evans remained with the club as an employee. FOUL was not too concerned by this move as it represented a clear break from the disastrous past of the club and it was clear from the outset of FOUL that the directors had played only very minor roles in the club's financial dealings and were not in a position to influence the club's future survival one way or the other.
Despite a two week delay due to an administrative error the Creditors Voluntary Agreement meeting of the club's unsecured creditors finally went ahead in London on Tuesday 27th July. The proposal that was put to the creditors was to pay the first £1,000 of all creditors debts. FOUL were particularly pleased to hear of this as it was something we had discussed with Firoz Kassam to make sure that the smaller local businesses who had supported the club would be paid in full. Debts beyond this amount would be paid initially at a rate of ten pence in the pound. The CVA also included a provision for half of any money remaining after the debts secured on the Manor were paid in full to be divided amongst the unsecured creditors.
Crucial to the success of the CVA was the support of Taylor Woodrow who were far and away the biggest creditor with a debt approaching £7 million. Their support was gained by granting them the first option to buy the Manor ground at market value for future residential development
The vast majority of the creditors decided to support the CVA, the alternative being to see the club go into administration or receivership. Interestingly a certain Mr Keith Cox did support the CVA but only after increasing his claimed debt from £300,000 to £600,000 because of non prompt payment. Apparently he claimed the £300,000 for his services was at a special discounted rate.
The CVA was opposed by two parties in particular that should be noted. Firstly by Robin Herd's solicitor, Rex Newman, who was planning a high court action to have the football club wound up and secondly by a Patrick Nally who claimed he was owed in excess of £2 million due to his work with Robin Herd on the original disastrous stadium funding package. Interestingly Nally was represented at the creditors meeting by Roy Pack. Roy Pack was involved in AFC Bournemouth and fought and lost a bitter battle for control of that club with the supporters Trust that eventually set up their community based and owned football club. From our contacts with other supporters groups around the country we have also heard of Roy Pack's interest in other football clubs in financial difficulty.
As mentioned above one of the unsecured creditors, Rex Newman, who was the solicitor who had acted for Robin Herd when he sold his stake in the club to Firoz Kassam, attempted to have the club wound up because of the failure to pay in full what he believed was owed to him.
It is ironic that just as the club's financial security was being rescued from the mess resulting from Robin Herd's ownership, that it should be his solicitor that attempted to have the club wound up. Although many individuals and organisations had been owed money by Oxford United, none had resorted to such a dramatic act. Thankfully because of the successful outcome of the CVA meeting on the previous day his action failed and the club survived.
Putting aside, for now, the possibility of a Judicial Review, the main obstacle still remaining to the restart of the stadium is the completion of the land deal at Minchery Farm with Oxford City Council. Time and again we have been told that a final decision on this deal was imminent only to find out there was a further delay in its approval. Whilst its true that the City Council and its leader, John Tanner, have been very supportive of the football club over the last few months, FOUL would like to suggest that they stop dragging their feet and complete the deal.
Some of the delay may well be due to the inclusion of additional conditions that ensure the stadium's completion and the long term prosperity of the football club, which are to be welcomed, but now that the multiplex planning permission is all but granted it would be wrong for them to attempt to squeeze additional money and conditions out of the club. Now is not the time to start moving the goal posts and undoing many months of hard work by the club, the council and the supporters.
FOUL have arranged a meeting for all its members at the Oxford United Social Club at 7:30 on Thursday 9th September. The FOUL committee will all be present and plan to update the members on the latest activities and news of the fight for the survival of the club which still goes on. There will be a chance to ask questions, put forward your ideas, and if individual members want to, a chance to get more directly involved in FOUL activities.
Please come along and find out what's going on in your organisation and help shape its future.
Last season FOUL organised a balloon race to raise funds for our campaign. We're happy to announce the winner as Andy Sutton from Lydney, Gloucestershire. The winning balloon was returned by Solveig Bengtsson from Osby near Kristianstad in southern Sweden. By our calculations thats a distance of some 750 miles. Andy wins a voucher for a balloon flight on his chosen date from one of a number of locations around the country.
FOUL has also joined a new organisation called COFS (Confederation of Football Supporters) which is campaigning, amongst other things, for a fairer distribution of wealth within the game. Even if United is saved there are many more clubs which need the solidarity of all football supporters if they are also to survive. Some of the battles may have been won, but the war is far from over! COFS held their launch event in London recently and FOUL lent them the famous "Scarf of Unity" that we created earlier this year.
Oxford, United will never be defeated!
