A meeting took place on Wednesday evening prior to the match against Huddersfield Town at The Valley bringing together campaigning Charlton supporters from across the generations.
It was called by supporters who formed the Valley Party in 1990 to contest the local Greenwich elections in the light of recent events, including the dismissal of Chris Powell, and in response to widespread concern about the identity and future of the club following the latest takeover.
The meeting included people who have previously been directors or senior and long-serving staff of the club, ex-Valley Party candidates and officers of the former Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Club and well-known local journalists who write about the club, as well as current representatives of Charlton Athletic Supporters’ Trust and fanzine Voice of The Valley.
This group is not intended to be exclusive. An invitation has been extended to Charlton Life, members of the Fans’ Forum and others with an Addicks internet presence and all concerned want to proceed without factionalism or internal politics. Any other supporters’ groups are welcome to participate too.
The purpose of the meeting was to try to establish a temporary umbrella group from which to seek a constructive and positive dialogue with the new owner of the club, and if that does not prove possible then to create a basis to recommend and to co-ordinate any appropriate action to respond to events.
In the first instance, the group is seeking an urgent face-to-face meeting with Roland Duchatelet or Katrien Miere in order try to get a better understanding of the owner’s intentions and report back to the wider support.
If we are unable to enter into a useful dialogue with the owner or his representative then it is our intention to call a public meeting in early April to take matters forward.
The group recognises that it cannot direct the owner, but we hope to persuade him of the merits of constructive dialogue with Charlton supporters, with particular reference to the achievements that we have all had working together with the club over the last 25 years.
In the meantime, we want to let fans know that we are all coming together for the good of the club and that however they are feeling about the current situation there are experienced and committed people working behind the scenes to improve it.
Issued on behalf of the following:
Jonathan Bangs
Steve Clarke
Peter Cordwell
Steve Dixon
Rick Everitt
Mick Gebbett
Richard Hunt
Corinna Huxley
Glynne Jones
Dominic Matthews
Kevin Nolan
Hazel Nolan
Craig Norris
David Norris
Nigel Pamment
Steve Perfect
Ken Sinyard
Sue Townsend
Ben Tegg
Jeremy Watkins
Matt Wright
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Comments
The fans ARE Charlton.
Good work .
(By the way, I am not currently a Trust member and I am a bit thick, so if anyone can point me in the direction of how to sign up, that would be great.)
Aims:
“To Preserve Charlton Athletic Football Club for This and Future Generations”.
This is broken down as follows:
•To give the fans a voice and represent their interests in the running of the Club
•To actively support Charlton Athletic Football Club in achieving success both on and off the pitch
•To assist in preserving the long term future of the Club, it’s history, culture, values and identity in our Community"
I imagine everybody who supports Charlton Athletic feels pretty much the same, I certainly do.
My understanding was that the trust was formed to create a voice for all supporters and to challenge and/or question decisions of those running the club. It was also formed to create a dialogue, and there appears to have been evidence of dialogue taking place on several topics.
This seems to be another group, incorporating members of the Trust, but with the same aims. So is this not just an extended version of the the Trust? And is it not the case that the Trust would be stronger with the people mentioned above included in it?
I doubt it very much but then again he asked a fair question in a reasonable way rather than making yet another snide remark.