Tonight, Phil has dropped a bomb-shell and a half with his latest piece.
Following on from an article on a Sevco site the other day which alleges that Club 1872 has taken out a loan to enable them to make a “full contribution” to Dave King’s share issue moonbeam, the man from Donegal did some digging and spoke to some sources and essentially confirmed it.
Now, if this is true it’s a major story and one that the media will be sorry they missed out on. Club 1872 is a membership organisation; even if it’s in keeping with their constitution, it would be astonishing if they had done such a thing without informing their members first.
It would be deadly serious.
It might even be financially ruinous.
Club 1872 clearly has the financial muscle to seek, and obtain, a commercial loan. They have a steady income, for one, and at last count they had almost £1 million in the bank. It’s unclear whether they have anything to offer as security, but there’s cash coming in and plenty of it. And as long as that’s the case they have the means to repay any loan they get. But the caveat here is obvious; if the direct debits stop coming they are done.
Club 1872 may sometimes appear to be run for the benefit of Sevco’s tax cheat chairman, but it’s still an organisation wholly dependent on the goodwill of its membership. And if the board has gone to a commercial bank and obtained a loan without consultation and the agreement of the members – which I do not believe they would ever give – then that’s serious.
Because what’s to stop those members deciding no longer to give them money?
And if they no longer do that then Club 1872 is essentially done for, and facing crippling bills they can’t possibly pay.
The fan organisation that was set up to acquire a stake in the club would effectively find itself with a winding up order. Unless it sold its 10% shareholding, to a willing buyer. Then it could probably get itself out of the hole … but at a staggering cost to its members, who would be facing a total loss on what they’ve put in.
Of course, Phil’s source could have this wrong. Club 1872 may have done no such thing. There may be no intention of them doing so. If that’s the case then I trust they’ll let their members know that. They must be grievously concerned about all this.