This shareholders association is going about this completely the wrong way. They should be trying to join forces with Bill Kenwright and the "others" to try and form a proper allegiance and help them in the 24 hour a day quest for investment and running the CLub better. At least if they get the board on their side it will give them more clout to say Rob Elstone is useless and to get rid of him etc
I dont think it is going to do the Club any good whatsoever and tell me if I am wrong but this is going to be one of the first occasions that Martinez meets the fans and what is he going to see there? A load of "fans" from the shareholders association ripping BK a new one. I am not at all BKs biggest fan I just personally feel the Shareholders Association could do more harm than good.
What an absolute load of rubbish. How are the Shareholders going about this the wrong way? For the last 5 years they have politely, repeatedly requested an AGM with the club so that they could 'get onside' with the club and discuss their concerns. The club point-blank refused. The EGM was the only legal option left to the shareholders. Why should the shareholders help the club find new investors? That's not their job - thats the club's job to employ the same financial professionals that helped to sell Chelsea and Man City and other clubs, that's also the club's responsibility to attach a correct pricetag to the majority shareholding of the club to attract a willing buyer.
How dare anyone even think of slating the Shareholders Association. They've been more than patient. They've kept quiet for 5 years whilst others have publicly agitated. The club is not being done 'any good' by the current board's actions:
- plotting against the fans, we've had two consecutive 'director of communications' leave the club under a cloud in the past 2 years alone;
- the badge fiasco that 23000+ protested against by signing a petition against it;
- the continued sell-to-buy policy of key players;
- the collapse of the Kirkby stadium project and the Everton Place building plans;
- the departure of the club's manager and the club's inability to tie him down to a contract extension so that we at least got compensation for him;
- the complete absence of the 2nd largest majority shareholder in the club, from attending any Everton games and showing any interest in the club;
- the clubs inability to purchase their own training ground, and inability to take out a 25 year, £12m loan to pay for it (but a cash strapped city council can);
- the continued lack of investors found;
- the management of the club's debt of £44m;
- the complete lack of a plan for the way foward.
All of these are just things that have happened in the last 5 years since the last AGM was held.
Martinez won't be at the meeting, he's working for ESPN. But if he was, it would be a blessing as he would see our full problems for what they are - not some fake homogenised image of the club that everything is fine. It isn't. We're £44m in debt, with no assets bar the playing staff left and running out of assets to sell to maintain our position.
I suggest people learn a lot more about the Everton Shareholders Association before they start slating them for calling an EGM.
http://www.efcsa.org/category/news-articles/
One such article from May 7th this year:
Imminent Action on Everton FC EGM
As our members will know, the Everton FC Shareholders’ Association have been seeking the re-introduction of the Company Annual General Meetings at the club for some time. Our members, all of them both supporters and shareholders, have instructed the Executive Committee to pursue this matter on their behalf at each of the last two Association AGMs.
Following the democratically expressed wishes of our members, we have pursued this matter with the Board of Directors and Chief Executive of Everton. During the last two years we have taken a twin track approach as it has always been our preferred option that the Directors recognise the strong feeling of their shareholders on this matter and take the initiative to re-instate the AGM.
Consequently we have repeatedly put forth the argument that doing so would increase transparency at the club, offer the Board of Directors the opportunity to demonstrate their effective management of the company, and provide an opportunity for constructive engagement and exchange of ideas between the Directors and management on one side and the clubs shareholders and fans on the other.
However, in the event that the Directors remained unwilling to engage in this minimal show of transparency and good corporate governance, our only other option was to ask for the backing of enough shareholders to force the Directors to call an Extraordinary General Meeting against their will. So in concert with our appeals to the Board, and without ever giving up hope they would bow to the wishes of their shareholders, we took the steps to prepare such a petition and seek the support of our fellow shareholders.
We are therefore very disappointed to announce that we have failed to convince the Board of Directors to voluntarily convene a General Meeting and will soon notify the Company Secretary of the Everton Football Club Company Limited that we have secured the necessary mandate from the shareholders and require that the Club proceed forthwith to convene a General Meeting.
That says it all. They gave the club every chance and desperately want to work with them. And the club simply didn't want to know.
