Long Term Planning

AFC Telford United have abandoned their 20% ownership limit on private shareholders just weeks after surrendering 100% fan ownership.

Just 32% of the total available shares have been sold in the first round of sales, with the club noting that more than one potential investor had been put off by the 20% limit - a safeguard put in to stop the situation the old club found itself in with then owner Andy Shaw's business collapse causing catastrophe for the club.

The Bucks now expect the remaining shares to be back on sale by the end of March as they try to refinance a club that has had a poor couple of years on and off the pitch. They recently recorded their lowest ever attendance since reformation for a Saturday game at the New Bucks Head and have seen gates drop 25% over the past 2 years.

Elsewhere, Swindon's Supporters Trust is considering a bid to buy the club's County Ground home to protect it from potential redevelopment.

Following discussions with the local Council the ageing ground is available to buy for £1.1million. The site is said to be covenanted to solely be for recreational use, and the Council are now amenable to the sale which would allow the Trust to seek further investment into the ground on a community basis.

Meanwhile, over at Portsmouth, the Club and their Trust owners are now facing the prospect of a takeover approach. Billionaire former Disney chief Michael Eisner is rumoured to be a suitor for the club, with a club statement merely noting a 'robust process' in place to handle any such offers.

Final approval for any takeover would lay with their shareholders, with the Trust now the minority shareholder after being unable to keep up with the funding requirements of the veteran Fratton Park home the club retains.

The Trust's response to a potential approach from Eisner is to acknowledge they have to listen to what is on offer, and that a retention of some stake of ownership and a Director on any new Board would be their minimum requirements. The seriousness of the takeover approach has been downplayed in some quarters, but the Trust have gone as far as stopping new members from voting on any potential proposals until further notice.

Both the club's Board and the Trust seem to accept that the club is bigger than both of them, and that - in the world of billionaire investors holding the keys to most of the Premier League and Championship - the club may have a need to go down that route to return to former glories.

Stay Behind After School

Leyton Orient have been handed a ten week stay of execution to clear debts after owner Francesco Becchetti paid off the HMRC debt but left a string of other debts unsettled.

£35,000 to the local Council, £18,000 to the club's stewarding contractor, and £6,000 to the club's own photographer are among the debts now added to the winding up petition heard on Monday, with the club now given until June 12th to satisfy the petition.

Bechetti's representatives handed a letter to the Court saying the Italian would put £1million into the club but the Supporters Trust has already doubted the claim, still describing the club as being in 'mortal danger'.

Among the club's bills is the rent due on the Matchroom Stadium. The ground, now in the hands of one of the Matchroom pension funds having been separated during the sale to Becchetti, costs the club £180,000 a year.

Matchroom chief Barry Hearn is understood to be willing to waive the £3,500 a week bill if the Supporters Trust takes over, for the first year at least.

Meanwhile, Bolton Wanderers' ownership battle has been resolved with Ken Anderson taking over Dean Holdsworth's stake in the club on undisclosed terms.

Holdsworth will remain an ambassador for the club, leaving Anderson to push on with investing into, and overhauling, what appears to be a sprawling mess at present. One of the first things to go is a free school housed at their Macron Stadium home.

The school owes the best part of £500,000 in Government loans, lent during its set-up against the projected number of pupils for the school that opened in September 2014. That money is likely to be written off after the early intake of pupils was less than a quarter of its capacity, and less than half the projected number.

The school was rated 'inadequate' in all areas in the latest Ofsted report, with its head telling the Government it was in no position to pay back the loans, and will close when the school year ends.

Second Grade

A number of clubs are facing deadlines to get their grounds ready in time for the FA's deadlines for eligibility for next season.

In National South, Poole Town's play-off campaign threatens to be derailed by the ground not even coming up to standard for their current league, let alone the one above. The current Southern Premier champions moved into what was basically a school field in 2000 while playing in Step 6 and have gradually improved it to comply with regulations as they moved up the pyramid.

Now, in Step 2, they still need to raise £25,000 of a £70,000 bill to upgrade the ground to the required standard for next season - with a further £50,000 needing to be spent later on - with terracing and floodlight work top of the agenda. Vice Chairman Chris Poole admitted at the weekend it would be 'hearts in mouth' until the ground grading visit in just eight days time.

Failure would see them not only miss out on the play-offs regardless of league position, but also see them relegated back into the Southern League.

Further north, Barrow face tighter guidelines as they look to a return to the Football League some 45 years after leaving.

The Holker Street side have been given until April 6th to provide detailed plans for a potential upgrade to Football League standard, including increasing capacity from the current 4,400 to 5,000.

In previous years clubs only needed outline plans, but are now required to provide full calculations, stamped by a qualified engineer and approved by the Council, to be eligible for promotion. Barrow's complaint is that they have only just been told of this change,

“They are closing the door a little bit tighter, because other clubs may have gone up and not carried out work they said they would.” said Chief Executive Austin Straker. In 2009, Accrington went down the industrial route and bolted seats to existing terracing to comply with regulations, while Crawley's 2,000 capacity East Stand remains the 'temporary' structure that was built in early 2012 to take the capacity to over 5,000.

Meanwhile, in the Southern Premier, Basingstoke Town say they don't know where they will play next season. The mid-table side have seen plans for a new ground turned down by the local Council, having deemed their current home to be too expensive to upgrade.

Their problems are compounded by bankrolling chairman Rafi Razzak pulling out at the end of the season with the club already admitting that it was 'no longer economically or practicably feasible' to stay at their current The Camrose home for even next season.

Attempts to move into a site occupied by the Hampshire FA have failed, and the club are likely to now seek a ground share for the coming season and may yet consider a lower grade of football to tick the economic boxes with the plan to develop The Camrose for retail also hoped to clear club debt.

"Perilous Financial Situation"

That was the description of the club's finances by the Leyton Orient Supporters Trust yesterday.

The Trust are calling on creditors to come forward so that an accurate picture on finances can be secured, with the Trust claiming that there is a 'significant level of unpaid bills to creditors' and also hinting that employees of the club are also owed money in a lengthy statement.

Former Orient owner Barry Hearn has taken to the press to slam current owner Francesco Becchetti, the man Hearn not only sold the club to but the man Hearn trusted to take the club on safely.

Former owners of football clubs should be just as guilty as the current owners when things go wrong so swiftly after the transfer of ownership. So many these days talk about being custodians rather than owners, responsible for a small part of the history of an institution rather than it being theirs to do with what they wish.

Yet so many former owners sell clubs to unsuitable people.

While the FA take flak for 'not doing anything' the man that pocketed £4million has to accept his share of the blame, whether he is a lifelong fan or not, of selecting the wrong person. It's the same at Morecambe, and was the same at Salisbury City, Hereford United, Notts County, and a host of other clubs that found themselves in inappropriate hands at some point in their past.

But... do owners sell out of necessity or greed?

Hearn is 68, suffered a heart attack in 2002, and probably should be retired than continuing to run a sporting conglomerate that has already seen parts hived off to his family.

However Hearn is a businessman, there's no doubt about that. He's built a successful empire. Twice. A flirtation with near bankruptcy in the early 1990s shows that not all his decisions are right. He pocketed the millions selling to Becchetti, a 'waste management magnate', but retained the land that is the Brisbane Road stadium site.

Hearn states clearly he knew who he was selling to:

“I knew exactly what I was selling to: big ego, sparkling personality, loads of money, and he wanted to make the club into a big club, which is everything I and the supporters wanted to hear at that time. 

“Had we all known how it was going to go, we wouldn’t have done the deal – no question.”

Hearn says he will help the Trust form a new club, presumably at the Brisbane Road ground that he admits he has transferred ownership of to a pension fund meaning, he says, he cannot interfere with the rent levels that a new club could be charged.

But he will have to have a long hard look in the mirror if the club does ultimately fail.