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Port Vale go into Administration now.

King Jela

By King Jela
in General Football & Sport

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doha

doha 1

Posted
Posted

Alright lads, Vale fan here

Ta for the support.

As for administration, it'll go through on Friday.

As for Vale, it's basically a long and twisted story full of lying bastards decieving the fans and shareholders. We're in the position we are, not because we've been mismanaging money, or living beyond our means etc.., it's because for the last nine years we've been ran by incompetent liars who engrained themselves into the boardroom with clauses in the Constitutional articles of association and downright lying to people. It's been a depressing 9 nine years and the last year and a bit have been awful. From the chairman bringing in his STOKE SUPPORTING MATE to speak for 15 minutes at the AGM to wind down the time the available for questions from the floor, to one of the directors (who has previously served time for drug offences) visiting elderly shareholders and 'persuading' them to change their minds, it's been the worst footballing nightmare imaginable.

This is the basic (yes I know but it is) rundown, copied from getoutofportvale.co.uk -

In 2003 Vale were bought out of Administration by the Valiant 2001 group. Part of the costs of purchasing the club were paid by shareholder investment but the bulk of the cash came via a loan from two Manchester businessmen. From the very beginning of their time in office, V2001 was mired in debt. Because they had saved the club, however, fans gave them full support and the directors involved in the buy out became heroes. The remit of the directors was to seek new investment and sell the club on to folk who could be trusted with its future. V2001 was meant to be a temporary vehicle until investment was found. This has never happened.

In 2006 the club secured a loan of £2.25 million from Stoke-on-Trent City Council which was used to pay off the original, high-interest loan and give the club some working capital. Some of this was used to complete a Children’s Centre in the unfinished Lorne Street Stand, which was rented back to the Council at a peppercorn rent. A Business Enterprise centre was also built in the stand. The units have never been completed fully. The stand is half finished.

A number of investors showed an interest in the club. All were rejected – some quite rightly I suspect – and it became increasingly obvious to supporters that those entrenched in the Board Room had no intention of giving up their positions. In June 2010 a local man domiciled in the USA, Mike Newton, made an offer to invest which was supported by a number of fans. He seemed to tick all the right boxes but Chairman Bill Bratt persuaded the Board to reject his bid on somewhat spurious grounds. The fans became increasingly frustrated. Regular losses in the annual accounts of six figure sums made it obvious that the club was being run in an inefficient and, many said, unprofessional manner.

The final straw came in late 2010 when local multi-millionaire businessman Mo Chaudry attempted to gain a 51% holding in the club by buying unissued shares at par value putting £1.2 million into the club. A few people locally had issues with Mr Chaudry because he had been involved in the selling of pensions to miners in the 1980s when the financial services industry was completely unregulated. The chairman, Bill Bratt, was a former miner and seems to have personal issues with Chaudry although the latter claims not to have had any dealings with him at all. Bratt and the rest of the directors also hid behind the Articles of Association which do not allow any individual to purchase more than 24.9% of the issued shares. (The history of how and when this clause was inserted in the Articles is quite interesting but I won’t bore you with that now!) Interestingly, Bratt himself was actually found guilty of mis-selling car insurance in April 2006 and was told by the judge that he was not a reliable witness!

Following the failure of the Board of Directors to engage in any meaningful way with Chaudry, other than to announce on the official website that they would have nothing to do with him, the club’s supporters took matters into their own hands. The Black and Gold Until it’s Sold group (idea pinched from Man United supporters) set up a website* to educate fans about the problems at the club and encouraged fans to buy black and gold scarves as a sign of opposition to the Board. Over 1,000 scarves were sold in about three weeks and post match protests began in mid January. These continued throughout the season, culminating in a Black and Gold march through Burslem before the final home game of the season attended by over 1,500 fans. Highlight of the march was the coffin, which was carried at its head and into which everyone was invited to throw their season ticket books if they had no intention of renewing for this season.

Another group of supporters, the North London Valiants, went down the legal route and organised an EGM which was held at the club on 1 June. Fans were optimistic that the old guard would be removed and an interim board put in place to oversee the sale of the club, especially as the Supporters Club had obtained the proxy for Robbie Williams’ significant shareholding. A considerable amount of time and effort was expended by NLV in canvassing support from the shareholders, both large and small. Mo Chaudry had done a deal with a major shareholder, Robert Lee, to purchase his £50,000 worth of shares if the EGM was successful and he was able to gain control of the club. He couldn’t buy them before the EGM because the Board had to ratify any share transfers and would simply have refused to do so in this case. The day before the EGM the directors cut a deal with Lee and bought his shares immediately. This was crucial. Two of the five Board members were still ejected but three remained, albeit as a result of their own shareholdings without which they would all have lost the votes to remove them.

The club was now in limbo. The Articles stated that the Board needed four directors to be quorate and only three of the old guard had been re-elected. Mark Sims, a wealthy local businessman and supporter of Chaudry, had also been elected but was clearly loathe to join a Board of Directors whom he did not trust and take on financial guarantees. To get round this problem, one of the ejected directors used his shareholding to sponsor manager Micky Adams onto the Board by a postal resolution. Adams was warned by a number of fans that he was being used as a pawn in the game but he said he simply wanted to make the Board quorate so he could sign players.

We now come to the American artificial turf companies saga! In the week prior to the EGM Bill Bratt announced that he had done a deal with a company called Ameriturf Global Systems which would see £1.6 million invested into the club. Many were sceptical about this. As part of the “deal” Vale went over to the USA for a pre-season tour in Washington State. While the team were in the States, Mike Lloyd (vice-chairman) and Perry Deakin (CEO) went out to meet the investors. Upon their return it was announced that Bratt would resign as chairman and Lloyd would take over as “Acting” chairman.

A couple of weeks later, Lloyd and Deakin announced that they had secured a fantastic deal whilst in America. Fans assumed this was the AGS deal re-packaged but it turned out to be another artificial turf company called Blue Sky International. Lloyd announced that the deal was worth £8 million with £5 million coming into the club in the next 12 months. Some were taken in by this and got excited. Many fans simply didn’t believe it. Next it was announced that Perry Deakin, CEO, had bought £100,000 of shares and would be seeking election to the Board via a postal resolution. It was announced that BSI were making an initial £150,000 investment in shares. A few days after Deakin’s election was confirmed, a further new investor named Peter Miller arrived on the scene saying he was to invest £250,000 and seek a seat on the Board. It took 10 minutes to find that Miller had no resources of his own and it was clearly suspected that his shares, along with Deakin’s, were being funded by BSI in order to get more bodies in the Board Room. Sadly, the £250,000 was enough to persuade shareholders to vote him on to the Board. Within a few days of Miller’s election it was announced that he was taking over as Chairman!

A number of people were digging for info on Miller and BSI. Details began to emerge pretty quickly that all was not as it appeared. A new SH01 filed at Companies House in late November confirmed for certain that £500,000 worth of nil paid shares had been issued. In other words, Miller, Deakin and BSI had been issued with shares for which they hadn’t paid and had been used to elect Miller and Deakin to the Board of Directors! Contact was made with Hank Julicher, the owner of BSI, who confirmed that the BSI deal was dead in the water and made numerous accusations against Miller. This story took up pages 1, 2 and 3 in the local “Sentinel” newspaper at the beginning of December and caused absolute fury amongst the supporters. Miller and Deakin claimed that since the SH01 had been filed they had in fact paid for their shares but no one believed a word of it. They kept saying they were going to bring in an independent person to look at the club’s books to confirm the money had gone in. We are still waiting for that!

The “diggers” were then provided with a copy of a letter which had been sent to Miller by Deakin in early September outlining the financial package he would receive when he took over as chairman! This included: a three year contract; £100,000 pa to be paid monthly on presentation of invoice; eight business class return flights to the USA per year; a car; accommodation, and reasonable living expenses whilst in the UK. If you have seen the size of Mr Miller, this last one was not insignificant!!

On Christmas Eve another document filed at Companies House came to light thanks to those who had registered for email alerts on the company. It showed that a mortgage had been taken out on Vale Park with a company in Gibraltar which seemed to have no web presence at all. Further investigation revealed that the loan was for close to £300,000. Once this became public the club announced that the loan was to cover running costs due to the lack of home games in December. Those of a more suspicious nature thought it may have been a loan to show the money had gone in for the “free” shares which would then be paid back. The club then announced that Mr Miller had been relieved of his duties as chairman but would remain on the Board. It also said that he would no longer be paid because his contract had only been for three months after all. Miller disappeared to the USA a week before Christmas and has not been seen since. Mike Lloyd claimed that he knew nothing about the loan and that Miller had done it all himself without telling anyone else. Deakin resigned as CEO but said he would stay until the end of the season!

Micky Adams has added fuel to the flames with his recent public statements. He was told by Miller that he would have funds for the January transfer window and to draw up his wish list. Adams did his homework, identified his targets and has now been told there is no money. He has even had to send back the loan players we had in December whom he now can’t afford to keep.

As a result of all this, the Supporters’ Club and a group of shareholders have taken legal advice and have issued solicitor’s letters to all four directors. The letter asks for specific information regarding the running of the club to which shareholders are entitled. The directors have also been warned that this may be a prelude to legal action in which they may be cited for dereliction of their fiduciary duties.

And that is where we are at the moment! We have a Board of four directors, two of whom hold £350,000 worth of shares between them for which the club has not received a single penny. One of the others, Mike Lloyd, has developed a nasty habit of claiming ignorance whenever anything dodgy is made public. The fourth, Glenn Oliver, who is the only director from the original V2001 Board remaining, was telling people 10 days before Christmas that Peter Miller was the best thing to have happened to Vale and he would perform miracles at the club. The AGM, which is usually in December was deferred until February. The Accounts for year ending June 2011 have still not been issued to shareholders – they have never been this late before. There is evidence that the debts have reached approximately £4 million and fans are desperately concerned that this is only going one way – Administration.

Unity through adversity and all that jazz. Hope you pull through.

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DietofWorms

DietofWorms 2,063

Posted
Posted

Alright lads, Vale fan here

Ta for the support.

As for administration, it'll go through on Friday.

As for Vale, it's basically a long and twisted story full of lying bastards decieving the fans and shareholders. We're in the position we are, not because we've been mismanaging money, or living beyond our means etc.., it's because for the last nine years we've been ran by incompetent liars who engrained themselves into the boardroom with clauses in the Constitutional articles of association and downright lying to people. It's been a depressing 9 nine years and the last year and a bit have been awful. From the chairman bringing in his STOKE SUPPORTING MATE to speak for 15 minutes at the AGM to wind down the time the available for questions from the floor, to one of the directors (who has previously served time for drug offences) visiting elderly shareholders and 'persuading' them to change their minds, it's been the worst footballing nightmare imaginable.

This is the basic (yes I know but it is) rundown, copied from getoutofportvale.co.uk -

In 2003 Vale were bought out of Administration by the Valiant 2001 group. Part of the costs of purchasing the club were paid by shareholder investment but the bulk of the cash came via a loan from two Manchester businessmen. From the very beginning of their time in office, V2001 was mired in debt. Because they had saved the club, however, fans gave them full support and the directors involved in the buy out became heroes. The remit of the directors was to seek new investment and sell the club on to folk who could be trusted with its future. V2001 was meant to be a temporary vehicle until investment was found. This has never happened.

In 2006 the club secured a loan of £2.25 million from Stoke-on-Trent City Council which was used to pay off the original, high-interest loan and give the club some working capital. Some of this was used to complete a Children’s Centre in the unfinished Lorne Street Stand, which was rented back to the Council at a peppercorn rent. A Business Enterprise centre was also built in the stand. The units have never been completed fully. The stand is half finished.

A number of investors showed an interest in the club. All were rejected – some quite rightly I suspect – and it became increasingly obvious to supporters that those entrenched in the Board Room had no intention of giving up their positions. In June 2010 a local man domiciled in the USA, Mike Newton, made an offer to invest which was supported by a number of fans. He seemed to tick all the right boxes but Chairman Bill Bratt persuaded the Board to reject his bid on somewhat spurious grounds. The fans became increasingly frustrated. Regular losses in the annual accounts of six figure sums made it obvious that the club was being run in an inefficient and, many said, unprofessional manner.

The final straw came in late 2010 when local multi-millionaire businessman Mo Chaudry attempted to gain a 51% holding in the club by buying unissued shares at par value putting £1.2 million into the club. A few people locally had issues with Mr Chaudry because he had been involved in the selling of pensions to miners in the 1980s when the financial services industry was completely unregulated. The chairman, Bill Bratt, was a former miner and seems to have personal issues with Chaudry although the latter claims not to have had any dealings with him at all. Bratt and the rest of the directors also hid behind the Articles of Association which do not allow any individual to purchase more than 24.9% of the issued shares. (The history of how and when this clause was inserted in the Articles is quite interesting but I won’t bore you with that now!) Interestingly, Bratt himself was actually found guilty of mis-selling car insurance in April 2006 and was told by the judge that he was not a reliable witness!

Following the failure of the Board of Directors to engage in any meaningful way with Chaudry, other than to announce on the official website that they would have nothing to do with him, the club’s supporters took matters into their own hands. The Black and Gold Until it’s Sold group (idea pinched from Man United supporters) set up a website* to educate fans about the problems at the club and encouraged fans to buy black and gold scarves as a sign of opposition to the Board. Over 1,000 scarves were sold in about three weeks and post match protests began in mid January. These continued throughout the season, culminating in a Black and Gold march through Burslem before the final home game of the season attended by over 1,500 fans. Highlight of the march was the coffin, which was carried at its head and into which everyone was invited to throw their season ticket books if they had no intention of renewing for this season.

Another group of supporters, the North London Valiants, went down the legal route and organised an EGM which was held at the club on 1 June. Fans were optimistic that the old guard would be removed and an interim board put in place to oversee the sale of the club, especially as the Supporters Club had obtained the proxy for Robbie Williams’ significant shareholding. A considerable amount of time and effort was expended by NLV in canvassing support from the shareholders, both large and small. Mo Chaudry had done a deal with a major shareholder, Robert Lee, to purchase his £50,000 worth of shares if the EGM was successful and he was able to gain control of the club. He couldn’t buy them before the EGM because the Board had to ratify any share transfers and would simply have refused to do so in this case. The day before the EGM the directors cut a deal with Lee and bought his shares immediately. This was crucial. Two of the five Board members were still ejected but three remained, albeit as a result of their own shareholdings without which they would all have lost the votes to remove them.

The club was now in limbo. The Articles stated that the Board needed four directors to be quorate and only three of the old guard had been re-elected. Mark Sims, a wealthy local businessman and supporter of Chaudry, had also been elected but was clearly loathe to join a Board of Directors whom he did not trust and take on financial guarantees. To get round this problem, one of the ejected directors used his shareholding to sponsor manager Micky Adams onto the Board by a postal resolution. Adams was warned by a number of fans that he was being used as a pawn in the game but he said he simply wanted to make the Board quorate so he could sign players.

We now come to the American artificial turf companies saga! In the week prior to the EGM Bill Bratt announced that he had done a deal with a company called Ameriturf Global Systems which would see £1.6 million invested into the club. Many were sceptical about this. As part of the “deal” Vale went over to the USA for a pre-season tour in Washington State. While the team were in the States, Mike Lloyd (vice-chairman) and Perry Deakin (CEO) went out to meet the investors. Upon their return it was announced that Bratt would resign as chairman and Lloyd would take over as “Acting” chairman.

A couple of weeks later, Lloyd and Deakin announced that they had secured a fantastic deal whilst in America. Fans assumed this was the AGS deal re-packaged but it turned out to be another artificial turf company called Blue Sky International. Lloyd announced that the deal was worth £8 million with £5 million coming into the club in the next 12 months. Some were taken in by this and got excited. Many fans simply didn’t believe it. Next it was announced that Perry Deakin, CEO, had bought £100,000 of shares and would be seeking election to the Board via a postal resolution. It was announced that BSI were making an initial £150,000 investment in shares. A few days after Deakin’s election was confirmed, a further new investor named Peter Miller arrived on the scene saying he was to invest £250,000 and seek a seat on the Board. It took 10 minutes to find that Miller had no resources of his own and it was clearly suspected that his shares, along with Deakin’s, were being funded by BSI in order to get more bodies in the Board Room. Sadly, the £250,000 was enough to persuade shareholders to vote him on to the Board. Within a few days of Miller’s election it was announced that he was taking over as Chairman!

A number of people were digging for info on Miller and BSI. Details began to emerge pretty quickly that all was not as it appeared. A new SH01 filed at Companies House in late November confirmed for certain that £500,000 worth of nil paid shares had been issued. In other words, Miller, Deakin and BSI had been issued with shares for which they hadn’t paid and had been used to elect Miller and Deakin to the Board of Directors! Contact was made with Hank Julicher, the owner of BSI, who confirmed that the BSI deal was dead in the water and made numerous accusations against Miller. This story took up pages 1, 2 and 3 in the local “Sentinel” newspaper at the beginning of December and caused absolute fury amongst the supporters. Miller and Deakin claimed that since the SH01 had been filed they had in fact paid for their shares but no one believed a word of it. They kept saying they were going to bring in an independent person to look at the club’s books to confirm the money had gone in. We are still waiting for that!

The “diggers” were then provided with a copy of a letter which had been sent to Miller by Deakin in early September outlining the financial package he would receive when he took over as chairman! This included: a three year contract; £100,000 pa to be paid monthly on presentation of invoice; eight business class return flights to the USA per year; a car; accommodation, and reasonable living expenses whilst in the UK. If you have seen the size of Mr Miller, this last one was not insignificant!!

On Christmas Eve another document filed at Companies House came to light thanks to those who had registered for email alerts on the company. It showed that a mortgage had been taken out on Vale Park with a company in Gibraltar which seemed to have no web presence at all. Further investigation revealed that the loan was for close to £300,000. Once this became public the club announced that the loan was to cover running costs due to the lack of home games in December. Those of a more suspicious nature thought it may have been a loan to show the money had gone in for the “free” shares which would then be paid back. The club then announced that Mr Miller had been relieved of his duties as chairman but would remain on the Board. It also said that he would no longer be paid because his contract had only been for three months after all. Miller disappeared to the USA a week before Christmas and has not been seen since. Mike Lloyd claimed that he knew nothing about the loan and that Miller had done it all himself without telling anyone else. Deakin resigned as CEO but said he would stay until the end of the season!

Micky Adams has added fuel to the flames with his recent public statements. He was told by Miller that he would have funds for the January transfer window and to draw up his wish list. Adams did his homework, identified his targets and has now been told there is no money. He has even had to send back the loan players we had in December whom he now can’t afford to keep.

As a result of all this, the Supporters’ Club and a group of shareholders have taken legal advice and have issued solicitor’s letters to all four directors. The letter asks for specific information regarding the running of the club to which shareholders are entitled. The directors have also been warned that this may be a prelude to legal action in which they may be cited for dereliction of their fiduciary duties.

And that is where we are at the moment! We have a Board of four directors, two of whom hold £350,000 worth of shares between them for which the club has not received a single penny. One of the others, Mike Lloyd, has developed a nasty habit of claiming ignorance whenever anything dodgy is made public. The fourth, Glenn Oliver, who is the only director from the original V2001 Board remaining, was telling people 10 days before Christmas that Peter Miller was the best thing to have happened to Vale and he would perform miracles at the club. The AGM, which is usually in December was deferred until February. The Accounts for year ending June 2011 have still not been issued to shareholders – they have never been this late before. There is evidence that the debts have reached approximately £4 million and fans are desperately concerned that this is only going one way – Administration.

Unity through adversity and all that jazz. Hope you pull through.

That's a fucking nightmare mate...All the best to Port Vale for the future.

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