When I ended the last article on Club 1872 I said that if this didn’t wake up the Sevco fans to the scam being run on them then nothing would. Well you know what? A lot of them have swallowed the thing, bait, hook, line, the lot. Getting them into the net is another story of course – some of these people have done no more than commend the organisation on what they see as “the right move” but won’t pledge money. Others have no cash to pledge.
But they have bought into the narrative that this is all about the club, the club, the club. They aren’t seeing the big picture. They aren’t getting the message.
On Twitter last night, a Celtic shareholder reminded me that the value of our own shares has been diluted in the past. He’s correct. But I asked him, did he buy those shares for influence, for profit, or so he could say that he owned part of his club? That’s the reason most people did it, for that emotional connection, for that spiritual link.
Club 1872 was specifically created for purpose of buying influence. Their role was to amass as large a shareholding as possible, in terms of voting power, so that they might hold the board of directors at the club itself to account. They already compromised themselves by allowing James Blair to perform dual roles as a director and member of the club’s own board. But this is a bigger issue by far. This actually shatters their reason for being in the first place.
Sevco is telling them that it was all for nothing.
That the work and the effort and the money the members invested to get them to the 10% point was wasted. Their influence is no greater than it was before. The club does not value their commitment, unless they commit more. They could have been given preference shares, not subject to dilution, and real clout … they’ve been grafted instead.
Even if they raise the additional £350,000 to hit the £1 million objective for this particular cycle, the circular makes it clear that every subsequent share issue will further hit them … their chance to accumulate a significant voting block actually reduces as time goes by.
Sevco’s fans will never get a representative on the board; the club could at least be honest with them about that. The whole concept is window dressing. I’ve already stated my belief that the Chris Graham appointment was deliberately sabotaged so that this idea would be allowed to die a death. They set the guy up so they could take this issue off the table for years to come. There is no appetite on that board for real scrutiny and especially by an inquisitive fan.
And if Club 1872 is no longer a vehicle for amassing a shareholding and holding the club to account, then what is it? It’s nothing but a cash cow. It’s nothing but a scam, and I use that word deliberately because if it’s no longer for the stated purpose of assuring genuine supporter representation then it is raising money under false pretences.
Look, there are a lot of people who’ve put their money into Club 1872 who do support the idea that it’s going to the club and who don’t necessarily want anything back. There are people in there who would gladly set up a direct debit and give over their hard earned cash to meet Sevco’s running costs.
If the club set up a fund for that purpose I would mock it mercilessly and those who signed up to it, but I would not call it a con job because it would be transparent and open about its intent. But this is quite the opposite, and Sevco fans who aren’t getting that are either too thick to be trusted with their own cheque books or simply lying to themselves about what this is.
The intent behind this could not be more clear. King is taking them for mugs and those who’ve pledged to do their bit for the organisation on the back of his meeting with them, which led to the sending out of this letter, are proving that some of them are.
I get the herd mentality over there. I get that the opposition to this move which exists on some of the forums is not as welcome on some of the others, and in that company it really must seem like opponents are being asked to break ranks and say that the emperor has no clothes but they have to be brave enough to recognise they are protected by truth … this is a complete subversion of what Club 1872 was supposed to be for.
I get that they all want to Follow Follow … you know what? According to the legend, the children of Hamelin follow followed too.
And we don’t even know what happened to those poor sods.
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