The Evertonians for Change Letter Campaign
Posted on August 2, 2011 by Dave
In association with The Blue Union, Evertonians for Change urge all concerned supporters to be a part of our letter campaign. The aim of the campaign is simple, we aim to get The Liverpool Echo to report on the true story of the goings on at Everton FC. Simply cut and paste the following letter into the body of an email and send it to the following addresses…
sport@liverpool.com
letters@liverpoolecho.co.uk
To whom it may concern,
I am writing to you as a worried and concerned Evertonian. Since our foundation in 1878, Everton have been one of the most successful institutions in English football. We have a 130 year history which takes us back to the very beginnings of English league football and we remain the fourth most successful team in the country. Whilst it’s true that over the past 25 years we have lived in the shadow of some of our closest rivals and neighbours, we are still one of the founders of the Premier League and we have only been out of the Top Flight of English Football for four years in our illustrious history.
Since Bill Kenwright and True Blue Holdings took over Everton in 1999, the media image of Everton has been that of a team of “plucky underachievers” with a Chairman who is an Evertonian who wants nothing but the best for the Club. In reality, Mr Kenwright and the board of directors have overseen two failed stadium moves (Kings Dock and Kirkby), the NTL and FSF fiasco’s, as well as the on-going 11 year promise to find investment to take the Club to the next level (while we currently stagnate). Evertonians have become increasingly frustrated at the lack of communication between fans and the Club, or the inaccuracies and misinformation coming out of the Club (see the recent debacle with regards to the Park End development).
We fully understand that the blame does not solely lie on the shoulders of one man. We understand and sympathise with the financial restrictions that Mr Kenwright has to operate under. What we don’t understand is the murky relationship between Mr Kenwright and a certain Philip Green, who if rumours are to be believed, operates as a “Shadow Director” at Goodison Park (see the sacking of ex-CEO Keith Wyness). We don’t understand how a close personal friend of Mr Green, Robert Earl, has become the second largest shareholder in Everton, yet has not invested a single penny into the Club, and has publically stated that he won’t do so until Everton move to a new stadium. We don’t understand how, under the current regime at Everton, we have stripped every available asset that the Club has had over the past 10 years including both old and new training grounds at Bellefield and Finch Farm, as well as outsourcing two of our main streams of income including merchandise and hospitality to companies such as Kitbag and Sodexo, respectively. The only real assets Everton FC has left at our disposal are those that you see playing on the pitch week in, week out.
Mr Kenwright has stated on a number of occasions publically that he doesn’t have the financial capacity to take the Club forward. Why then, when we’re led to believe that the search is conducted on a “24/7″ basis, has it taken 11 years and counting to find suitable investment and or sell the Club, despite a number of our Premier League rivals all managing to achieve this aim (some more than once)?
There is a massive groundswell of Evertonians that are now unhappy with the stagnation of the Club, not a minority number that some at the Club would have you believe. Some of these fans are calling for the board to step down and be replaced with an interim board whose sole purpose is to find a suitable buyer for the Everton. Others are of the opinion that even if Mr Kenwright and the rest of the board stepped down tomorrow, our problems would not magically disappear over night. Whatever our opinion may be, we’re all agreed that the ambition shown by the Club currently is not tune with our illustrious history. Many at the Club would have you believe that selling Everton or finding suitable investment is being hampered by Goodison Park. During the Destination Kirby debacle, our CEO at the time Keith Wyness very famously stated, that for Everton “There is no Plan B”. It has been over 20 months since the Public Enquiry, and Everton have done nothing to change this (except to make a very large hole in the wall along Walton Lane). Evertonians don’t want a Russian Ogliarch or an Arab Prince to bank roll us for the next 10-15 years. We merely want plans in place to make us a self sustaining Football Club, a Football Club with the ability to back the manager off the pitch. A Football Club with the ambition to draw in future generations of Evertonians. A Football Club whose ambitions for the future are as Grand as our History.
My aim and objective in sending this to you is to prove that I am part of a groundswell of Evertonians who aren’t happy with the current stagnation of the Club. We are all unhappy that the true goings on at the Club are not being accurately reported. Our neighbours over the park were lucky in that the mismanagement by Hicks and Gillet was widely reported by numerous media outlets. We respectfully request that you take on board our worries and discontent and truthfully, and in an unbiased manner, report on the true story of the goings on at Everton FC. We implore that you allow correspondents who truly have the Clubs best interests at heart, who are True Blues, such as Greg O’Keefe to report on these stories, without having to worry about whether the Club will ban your reporters from Finch Farm or the Goodison press box.
As a supporter of the campaign groups Evertonians for Change, The Peoples Group and KEIOC I am sure they would be happy to talk to you and furnish you with any further information you might require.
Regards
A concerned Evertonian
