Well To Do, Gulls To Ponder

Motherwell have made the move into fan ownership with a 76% holding in the club now resting with the supporters trust, the Well Society, four years after the plan was put into place.

The £1 purchase from current owner Les Hutchison came after the Trust was conceived in 2012 to take over the club from previous owner John Boyle. Losses at the Fir Park club ran at around £500,000 a season since 2012, leading to Barbados-based Hutchison having to rescue the club in 2015 from the threat of Administration before the Trust were ready.

Hutchison will now see his loans repaid via extraordinary income - transfer fees, basically - over the next three years before a fixed payment schedule kicks in. For their part, the Well Society are fully aware of the scale of the task to hand, with a statement noting:

"Our ongoing responsibility as fans, through the Well Society, will be to generate additional income for the running of the football club through monthly direct debit payments of £10 or more. The income generated by our fans via the Well Society will be crucial to our financial stability over the coming years."

While Joint Chairman Douglas Dickie added: "Fan ownership has responsibilities and we all need to realise that continued and growing financial support from all fans will be required."

Meanwhile, at Torquay United, their Supporters Trust is on standby to avert the club's looming collapse. Club Chairman David Phillips has acknowledged that the financial implosion could happen in January with financial forecasts proving grim reading.

"When Wrexham went bust, their Supporters' Trust were able to step in because they already had £400,000 in reserve." Said Phillips to the local press,

"Our Trust haven't got themselves into that situation. They are fans of the club, like we are, and we all want what is best for the club. But you would be talking about significant amounts of money needed to run the club and take it forward, not just this year, but next year and the year after.

"It would be a mammoth task. It's a very tight schedule, but TUST have insisted that, if it did come to Community Ownership, they would need that sort of time to set things in motion. Hopefully, by the end of Monday we will give them some sort of decision."

A Fans Forum is currently set for Wednesday.

Cat And Mouse

Another round of HMRC induced winding-up petitions have hit football, with clubs again appearing to be using the taxman as a lender of last resort.

League Two side Notts County had their fourth petition of Ray Trew's ownership withdrawn at the last minute earlier in the week. Trew, who rescued the club out of the Munto Finance fiasco, has been looking to sell the club for most of 2016 after stepping down as Chairman in February after six years as owner.

Trew blamed 'foul, mindless abuse' for his withdrawal, but he subsequently returned to the helm in September before apparently offering the club to local businessman Alan Hardy, who had seen Trew reject two offers for the club in the last few months, in the past weeks.

Another club in trouble is National South side Gosport Borough. They will face HMRC for a third time in the High Court in 2016, having already staved off petitions in February and August. New investors are said to be interested in the club, but Chairman Mark Hook - also the leader of the local Council - denied there was a crisis in February having seen several of their squad leave having been unpaid for several weeks.

A promotion chasing squad has been dismantled slowly from March onwards, leaving the club as mid-table also-rans this season having battled a transfer embargo into the summer.

In League One there is an even more concerning story at Bury.

A statement last week from the club wearily admitted a winding-up petition had been lodged, accusing the taxman of being intent on winding-up a club. Back in January, the unpaid bill that saw a previous petition was £156,000 - hardly a trifling amount. Owner Stewart Day accused HMRC of being 'trigger-happy', admitting the payment was a week late due to cashflow issues surrounding a postponed Boxing Day match.

The latest petition is the club's fourth of 2016 from HMRC to the club owned by a property developer. Day plans to move the club from their home of 130 years, Gigg Lane, to a new stadium. The project is currently advertised on a crowdfunding loans site to source investment from small investors at high interest rates, and has already taken out five separate mortgages on the stadium with total accumulated losses for the club nearing £11million.

Supporters have questioned the financial position of the club, with a near £3million loss in the 14/15 season set to be followed with a £2.5million loss for 15/16 - all for a mid-table League One placing. Responses have been vague, with Day telling the press he has put £7million into the club and that a string of County Court Judgements - in addition to the winding-up petitions - were being challenged.

The Disinterested Owner

We've all seen it in football. The millionaire owner gets bored, loses interest, and drifts away leaving the club in the mire.

AFC Telford United have a new take on the situation, with the 'millionaire' being the wealth of their combined Trust membership, and the drift away being the level of membership.

Just 123 people chose to have a say in last night's vote - a tenth of their average attendance this season. Membership to have a vote was just £5, so there was little reason for people to stop having a say.

They simply lost interest.

It's the same at a lot of clubs. Time breeds discontent within a handful of supporters. That discontent is run through the megaphone of the message boards and it suddenly seems like the world is against the club even though it is only a handful of people.

The people that do the work at the club walk away, replaced inevitably over time by less able people.

Then the project fails.

A string of good people were turned away from their voluntary work at Telford due to criticism from people on message boards that wouldn't lift a finger themselves to help. They struggled for replacements and took what came forward. Those that were prepared to put themselves into an increasingly bitter firing line simply to put bodies in places they were needed.

This wasn't a failure over the past year. This was a failure from several years of worthy people being denigrated to the point that they simply walked away, their character tarnished by a set of faceless keyboard tappers that would often barely make a game let alone be the dedicated supporters they claimed to be.

Telford's last home opponents, FC United of Manchester, have a similar problem. Wholesale changes on their Board over the summer left them barely able to function through pre-season. Speaking to a few of the now former Board members this summer, who had visited Edgar Street last summer, it was clear that they had been worn down by the relentless criticism and abuse.

To run a business there needs to be a plan. If your plan is to get rid of this person or that person, with no thought as to what or who comes next, maybe you shouldn't be a business owner.

King Of The Hill

Rochdale's Keith Hill went on a bizarre rant this week.

The club faced a Tuesday night match at Swindon. Just over 3 hours down the motorway without traffic. However Hill wasn't happy, telling the BBC: "Something really needs to be done. We need a bit of help because the hotel, the cost that we go through - it's something you shouldn't have to do."

"We stayed all day in a hotel, and it's just not conducive to the type of energy that we want - it can get you really lethargic. There's too much coffee being drunk, too much idle time, too much time sleeping, and it's not the ideal preparation, but we can't trust the traffic to actually come down on the day."

Dear Keith, sod off.

You went overnight on Monday for a game you could have left Rochdale for on Tuesday at 2pm and still made kick off with 2 hours of delays? And that's unacceptable? If Swindon is an overnighter for the Spotland outfit on a Tuesday then so is half of the division.

A manager that cut his teeth as player and manager at the same Rochdale that bummed around the wrong end of League Two is now so soft he demands an overnight stop for a three hour journey?

We thought it was just the players, but managers thesedays are far too pampered.

Members Only

Dagenham and Redbridge, one of the last 'member owned' clubs in the professional game, is set to finally go private after members voted in favour of a takeover proposal on Monday night.

The Daggers had been a Members club for decades, but had to become a Limited Company in 2007 to comply with Football League rules for promotion. Now it is set to move a step further by agreeing to that company changing from one limited by guarantee, and run by the members, to one limited by shares and run by shareholders.

Those shareholders are currently likely to largely be a consortium led by local businessman Glenn Tamplin which includes manager John Still and the club's Managing Director, Steve Thompson. Tamplin, who is reported to be involved in the steel industry, is claimed to be worth £45million and has offered £1.225million for an 73.5% stake in the club, with the existing membership - comprising about 70 members, of which 49 voted - taking the remainder.

The offer comes out of some desperation for the club, who are second in the National League table after losing their Football League place in the summer. Former manager Wayne Burnett still had to be paid off in stages following his December sacking, and attendances have dropped by a third from last season, sinking as low as 1,100 for the win over North Ferriby that put the club temporarily top of the league.

At the meeting, it is reported that Thompson told the room that the club wouldn't see out the season without investment, with Tamplin previously telling the DiggerDagger site in September it would be curtains in just two months, but Thompson apparently refused to offer any more detailed information before the vote.

That just 37 of the 70+ members voted in favour of the proposal puts into doubt the second stage of the transformation. The club needs a 75% majority to pass a second resolution, likely to come in two months once paperwork is in place, to allow the outside investment at actually happen.

Whether they will get that majority is open to strong debate among supporters. Many are questioning the lack of financial detail offered to support the takeover proposals. Financial figures have not been offered, and key questions about the investment have been brushed aside.

A handful of long standing supporters are actively protesting against the takeover proposals, largely due to the lack of clarity on what is being offered. It is hoped they get the clarity they need before the club heads to what could be a vote to save its life.

Bucks Stop Here

Telford United Supporters Trust have announced they will hold a vote to surrender their ownership of AFC Telford United after 12 years in charge of the club.

The Club had been seeking outside investment for the past year, with the Trust willing at the time to part with a minority stake in the club in exchange of a six-figure investment. However no party was keen on the deal and rumours of financial issues have swirled around the club ever since.

Last Saturday the Bucks' players took cars for their away trip to Bradford Park Avenue, a 220 mile round trip, with the club unable to fund a coach. That was the latest in a string of visible cuts at the club. Stewarding numbers at matches have been reduced, and the club even attempted to vastly reduce the number of turnstiles open at one game - leading to queues and hundreds missing kick off.

The club, in a statement, says it is not in a 'terminal state' but it does need funding with cashflow 'extremely difficult' and a 'reducing ability' to pay trade creditors. £25,000 by the end of October and the same again by the end of November, the statement says they are looking for.

Attendances have fallen dramatically with the club's on-pitch performances, somewhere more starkly than some clubs, from an average of 1,800 to barely 1,000 at some matches. A disastrous managerial appointment has seen the club slip from a mid-table National League position to being at the wrong end of the National North table, and current bosses Rob Smith and Larry Chambers have seen their efforts to revamp the squad largely hog-tied by financial restraints and having a string of higher earners on contracts they cannot dispense with.

It's the classic case of one mistake compounded by another. The wrong manager, backed by the Board that hired him, signing too many of the wrong players to the wrong deals. When it goes wrong, there is no room for manoeuvre and panic sets in.

Having been one of the early adopters in the brave new world of fan ownership, Telford will now seek to revert to a more common form, with their statement hinting at the 'limitations' of the model.

Those 'limitations' are more than likely due to the clubs they are surrounded by. Clubs that aren't fan owned, that have a backer, that can call on a somebody to bail them out. Until that changes in football, the model will remain limited.

The TUST Board have announced the vote will take place in the near future, after an initial call for this coming Monday was deemed to be legally unsuitable. They also acknowledge an 'apparent decline in people willing to get involved' and 'a record level of apathy felt towards the organisation'. They also noted that they have a 'record number of vacancies' to fill on their Board. There is a long list of good people that have quit their volunteer roles due to criticism from dark corners.

The club host FC United this coming Saturday, then Salford City on the 29th. The level of attendance for those fixtures may determine their future.

Running On Empty

Sometimes you can tell a club has run out of ideas.

York City dived out of League Two last season with just one win in their final sixteen games. Manager Russ Wilcox, who managed less than a 25% win rate, was replaced by Jackie McNamara in November, and lost his first seven matches in charge, including a 5-1 home defeat to Accrington.

11 months later, McNamara is still - just about - in charge. Last week, following a 6-1 thumping by previously winless Guiseley, McNamara told the press he would resign if the result in their next match was not 'positive'. A 1-1 draw with relegation strugglers Braintree was followed by three days of deliberations before a statement admitted he would leave the club - but only when the position had a new incumbent.

It's a bizarre decision. No moving the assistant manager or goalkeeper coach in to take temporary charge. No committee of senior players to hold the fort. The manager that has already admitted failure will remain to 'motivate' with the club facing a potentially lucrative FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round tie at home to Curzon Ashton, who sit in roughly the same place in the table as the Minstermen, only a division lower.

Chairman Jason McGill, 16 years on the board since a Supporters Trust takeover of the then ailing club, and ten as owner after a second financial wobble required another cash injection, admitted following relegation that the club would be financially troubled until their new stadium was ready.

His company had propped up the club over the past five years but he told the local press it "cannot keep funding York City year-on-year just to survive" as his company's funds were pulled out in the summer.

The long term future potentially looks bright, but the 'Community Stadium' that the club hopes to move to in 2018 has been delayed four years from its initial opening date already and has been in the works for more than ten. A series of planning and legal challenges - along with the occasional financial woes of the Minstermen and their planned co-tenants at York City Knights Rugby League side - have led to ongoing delays that have threatened the existence of both clubs and the entire project.

The latest roadblock comes in the form of a judicial review from a rival cinema chain over the size of the planned multiplex on the site. You almost couldn't make it up.

The York City supporters are prepared to wave goodbye to Bootham Crescent after more than 80 years sooner or later, but they are now drudging along until either they finally find their salvation in the new stadium, or the club hits the buffers once again.

The Smell Of Trump

In the US election, the choice of the next president is between two candidates that have been in the public spotlight for so many years that their every mistake and indiscretion is highlighted by one biased media outlet or another at awkward times.

On one side Hillary Clinton, former First Lady, former Secretary of State, former Senator, former scorned wife. Anyone having spent the best part of 40 years in public life is likely to be some skeletons to draw out of an assortment of closets from the offices they have held. There is no doubt that Clinton has made mistakes along the lengthy road.

On the other side, Donald Trump. Real estate entrepreneur, reality TV star, and a man that does love to stick his name on things - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_things_named_after_Donald_Trump - which includes steaks, mortgages, fragrances, a board game, and a series of buildings and golf courses. For every mark in the win column on his record, there's at least one in the loss. You don't make omelettes without breaking eggs.

Both Clinton and Trump have their passionate supporters and passionate detractors in equal measure. Never has a campaign been so bitter and negative as the current one, fought by two candidates who will either become the oldest or second oldest - behind Ronald Reagan - President to be sworn in to the role.

While Wikileaks publish details of Clinton's Wall Street speeches, pushing further Trump's slur that she's deeply embedded in the establishment, footage comes around of Trump demeaning women yet again. This time, in the company of one of the lesser known members of the Bush family. His defence of the comments includes claims that Bill Clinton used to say similar things on the golf course. If playing golf with a Clinton and touring in a bus with a Bush didn't make you part of the establishment he so claims to not be part of...

Trump continues to refuse to release his financial records, as Presidential candidates have done voluntarily for decades. However his did release his medical records and a statement from his Doctor, which sounded more like a script from an as yet unreleased Bill&Ted film, when Clinton looked a little wobbly. Leaked financial records suggest massive losses in years past, leading to allegations that Trump's tax paying history isn't quite as upright as it could be. "That makes me smart" is Trump's response to not paying taxes, in an indirect answer to the question.

With Republican bigwigs now, finally, distancing themselves from their candidate after the latest revelation, there are even calls for the little known Mike Pence to take over the lead as nominee. Pence, who declares himself 'a born again evangelical Catholic' is a former Indiana governor that progressed laws limiting abortions, LGBT rights, and sex education, and campaigned against gambling, immigration, and lax drug laws.

With no-one really knowing what a late withdrawal would actually mean for either candidate or party - especially considering that voting has already started for non-resident citizens - a departure at this stage could throw the whole country into confusion.

Whereas, if either of these two are elected, that could becomes a would.

Trump has already made claims that the election will be rigged against him - almost laying the path for his split from the Republicans in the event of a Clinton victory, and the death of the two party system in US politics.

But if Trump won, would Republicans actually back him? It's a bigger, more flamboyant version of the Labour Party. The masses want Candidate A, the politicians want Candidate B, and never the twain shall meet.

There is one thing that may be motivating Trump - money.

Aside from $700million the two campaigns have amassed in funding for their respective challenges, there is over $1billion in 'SuperPAC' money available from super-wealthy people - who have 30 times the financial clout that Trump even claims to have - to pour into, or often alongside, campaigns to get political sway and votes in their candidates favour.

There is a $1.7billion pie out there that is ripe for a small, orange, finger to be stuck into. And it swings by every four years too.

Do you smell what Trump smells?

TalkTalk "Security So Poor"

I was once rang, in about 2012, at my home by a cold caller from TalkTalk.

"Hello, I'm ringing from TalkTalk, one of the largest phone and broadband internet companies in the UK."

"Yes, I know your work. Can you thank them for me?"

"Eh?"

"Can you thank them. For being so awful. You've made me a lot of money."

"Sorry?"

"By being so bad. I run a repair firm. I've done well from your company."

Click. Which was either them ending the call, getting the point. Or both.

It comes as no surprise to me that TalkTalk have been fined £400,000 by the regulator for their data breach in October 2015. Nor did it come as a surprise that they had been hacked.

I managed to circumvent their call centre security many times. It didn't take much. "Are you not the account holder? Are they there?"

"Yes, I'll put them on."

"Can you authorise the person to speak on your behalf?"

"Yes."

They had no idea who had said yes, who I was, or that there was even a fault. I was merely after my call out fee and to go home having left my customer with a working connection.

For many years, Tiscali, whom TalkTalk took over and the firm whose original system got hacked, would routinely change passwords to "12345". The call centre defaulted to it after only very basic checks.

The bigger problem out there is that TalkTalk aren't the only one with lax security. Other, smaller, ISPs are vulnerable across the board due to inherent faults in their overly familiar systems. Some are so small that their customer service staff number less than five and their customers are known almost personally. But they're vulnerable.

And, if you need a way into the internet, there it is.

Until the rest of the industry catches up, the holes will remain and the internet will still fit the 'Wild West' tag it earned.

And, until then, circle your wagons and be prepared to be threatened by those that want your valuables.

One Song After Another

While they had to scrap the UKIP Calypso pretty quickly, the party currently known as No Direction continue to play the hokey cokey with some aplomb.

So, just 18 days after election, Diane James shuffles out the door. The old dance master Nigel Farage remains the 'official' leader until the next one is appointed, having spent a sum total of three weeks - and two resignation speeches - out of the job in six years.

Farage is like an old warrior king. Once he shuffles off the princes beneath him squabble over the leadership and can't form a strong, uniting, force. Cue a 'surprising' resurrection of the king, and peace is restored to the land.

At least he managed 18 days 'dead' this time. But what have they got to replace him with?

James was a County Councillor until a loss to her former Tory colleagues less than 18 months ago. Her rise in the party from unseated local councillor to leader has been meteoric, and probably underlines the vacuum of talent in the party generally. Suzanne Evans has been a victim of the infighting that has left the party floundering for a viable candidate, while Stephen Woolfe, who earned the backing of millionaire Aaron Banks, seems to be terrible at deadlines.

Woolfe is an interesting pick as immigration spokesman for a party that is often branded racist. With a mixed background encompassing Irish, Black, and Jewish roots, Woolfe is an unlikely frontman for a party that saw Farage dismiss as 'pub banter' a call from the party secretary for it to welcome bigots.

Well spoken, comfortable in front of the cameras, and well educated, Woolfe is probably the only person that can provide a leadership that - while it might not unite the party - would at least try and turn it away from the screaming lunatic it is dangerously close to becoming.

But, having allowed his membership to lapse and filing his application to be leader late, he was excluded from the previous leadership election. However, when the other serious candidates are former Tory MPs with little backing within the party or country, Woolfe may be the man to - at least - attempt to keep Farage deceased for a while longer.