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An Open Letter to our CEO

Morning all, I was looking at various Facebook pages this morning regarding our club and the amount of people that are dissatisfied with the current regime. Whilst doing so I stumbled across an Open Letter written by a female supporter of our club. I have not asked her permission, but as its an open letter I thought it would be good to share on here, as personally, I think it is very well written and deserves a larger audience. I have copied it below-:


Wednesday, December 30, 2015
An Open Letter to Katrien Meire
This is an open letter to Charlton Athletic CEO Katrien Meire on the current state of Charlton Athletic Football Club.

Dear Ms. Meire,

I am writing this letter with a heavy heart.

I have been a Charlton fan all of my life, I have played football at university and I now referee at the CAFC Academy. I have seen us struggle in League One and I have seen the highs of finishing 7th in the Premier League. Throughout this time, I have never felt such discontent and personal sadness towards Charlton Athletic.

I was delighted when Roland Duchatelet took over the club to bring us back from the brink of bankruptcy. I was equally pleased when I realised a female would be taking up the position of CEO. It was brilliant, in my opinion, to see more women entering the male game.
However, my delight soon turned to questions, which soon turned to discontent, which is now turning into, like so many other fans, disinterest. Never have I seen such lack of spirit from a Charlton side, never have I seen such a lack of understanding of football from the manager, and most importantly in this case, never have I seen such a lack of respect for fans of a club anywhere in English football.

You may want to run the club like a credible business and I hope the rest of English football follows suit, but if in the process you are damaging a club so severely that they may never recover, it is a poor and misguided business decision. The cost of relegation in the Championship is huge, but the rewards for promotion are incredibly large, the gap between the two, admittedly is vast and not representative, as you recently stated in a TV interview on Irish TV. With this knowledge in mind you must surely be doing everything you can to bring Charlton back to a position where it can fight for its status in this league and hopefully, in future, fight for promotion. I find it utterly astounding that you do not seem to be doing this.

The £12 million investment into the training facility is brilliant, and as someone who referees there every week, I can see how the plans will take shape. However, if you are not going to improve our first team, and then use these facilities to train up stars of the future to sell onto Premier League Clubs, I would rather you didn’t invest at all.

I would also like to comment on your selection for the managerial position. The championship is one of the most competitive leagues in the world. To win, it takes confidence, drive, ambition but most importantly, knowledge of the game. This is something that our current manager Karel Fraeye distinctly lacks.
The only thing that matters each weekend is that the team gets 3 points. That’s the target every single game of the footballing calendar. Having a manager that worked in the Belgian Third Division, and may I add was doing fairly poorly there, will not motivate the players. Most importantly, perhaps, it shows, in my opinion, your distinct lack of desire to win games.
My advice, is to make a short term sacrifice financially in employing a manager with Championship experience. This will bring the fans slightly back on side, the players will perform more to their potential and ultimately we will begin winning games again.

In a recent interview you described our players as “not the best”. Whether they are or they are not, this provides a useful insight into the fact you do not have a clue about how football works. Would you want to work for somebody who publicly states that you are not the best?
You should get behind your players in every way, and apologise for the statements you have made in the past.

Finally, I want to question your respect for the fans. Labeling the fans “customers” was a completely misguided and unpleasant thing to do. All football fans are so much more than customers, they are often the 12th man on the pitch, they drive success and they can cause failure. These fans, including myself, have contributed hugely to making Charlton Athletic what it is today. I am more than a customer, I am a passionate and involved supporter. If you want to relate my ‘custom’ to that of a restaurant, I suggest you refund me my money over the past few years due to a lack of quality of service on your part. Or, to put it in your terms, if the fans bring in a third of your revenue, do you really want to wind them up the wrong way? Considering that we can now agree that more than 2% of fans are discontented, you’re carrying out a risky business decision if you continue to do so.

The fans played an enormous part in getting the club back home in 1992, famously contributing financially and physically to the redevelopment of The Valley. It is rightly regarded as one of the most successful attempts by an organised fan group to bring about substantial change at any club. Once again an organised fan group will emerge and bring substantial change to the club in removing you as CEO, if you do not appoint a decent manager, and apologise to the fans and players for your lack of respect over the past few years.

I would like to finish off by noting that I do not agree with any of the personal attacks that a few fans of the club have been giving you. This letter has attempted to be understanding to your situation and respectful to you as a person. I hope you can learn from this by being more understanding and respectful towards the fans and players of Charlton Athletic Football Club.

Yours Sincerely,
Bethany Archer
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Comments

  • Very good post.

    Just makes me so sad every time I think what they are doing to us.
  • A good letter if it was the start of the season. Events have proved the CEO can't learn as she knows it all, and has no understanding of, or respect for Charlton fans.
  • Very good letter. Credit to the writer. I think she has got the balance right.
  • edited December 2015
    Will it be read/digested.?
    We all know the answer.
  • Good letter.

    Hope it has been sent to KM and to the media
  • Yes, a brilliantly balanced, coherent and to the point letter indeed. In a perfect world, such an approach should help bring about positive change. As other posters have said, every small effort made adds to the larger drive taking place and gives us a chance of achieving our goal of saying goodbye to these dangerous owners.
  • Very good letter Bethany.

    I have now read dozens of these letters, blog posts over the past 12 months. This is no longer just one or two people utilising a platform to say something noticeable, this is now becoming the common, central view.
  • If KM has any sense(which is debatable) i do hope she takes the time to reply to some very good points in that letter.
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  • edited December 2015
    itsmyball said:

    Hi guys
    I sit in the directors box .
    It is beyond a joke now how km never replies . And how our club is being destroyed .
    I am happy to print that letter off and hand it to her .
    At least we will know she has a copy of it then .
    Let me know Beth if you are happy with me doing that .
    We could change your name at the bottom of the letter and put from all Charlton supporters .

    You should get out of the directors box. Leave her there alone with her two security men.
  • Nah it's a great view from there of the game .
  • edited December 2015

    Dear Bethany/Customer

    I am writing to inform you that you are now banned from refereeing at the CAFC Academy.

    Buy a season ticket.

    And make sure you take a pamphlet.

    Regards
    Katrien Meire

    And that is the most lkely response (if she actually reads it)
  • itsmyball said:

    Hi guys
    I sit in the directors box .
    It is beyond a joke now how km never replies . And how our club is being destroyed .
    I am happy to print that letter off and hand it to her .
    At least we will know she has a copy of it then .
    Let me know Beth if you are happy with me doing that .
    We could change your name at the bottom of the letter and put from all Charlton supporters .

    I think it would be wrong to do this. Not only does it have more credibility coming from Bethany it falls into the trap of suggesting it is from thousands of fans when, in reality, only a couple of dozen will know about it.
  • It's just an idea to get something to her .
  • Agree totally with KHA; the power in this letter comes from the credibility of Bethany as the author and her name only should remain in it.
  • itsmyball said:

    Hi guys
    I sit in the directors box .
    It is beyond a joke now how km never replies . And how our club is being destroyed .
    I am happy to print that letter off and hand it to her .
    At least we will know she has a copy of it then .
    Let me know Beth if you are happy with me doing that .
    We could change your name at the bottom of the letter and put from all Charlton supporters .


    Please please do this.
  • itsmyball said:

    It's just an idea to get something to her .

    As I say a better protest by you would be to stop being seen to be supporting her by getting out of the directors box and leave her and her cronies such as Murray isolated for the attacks.
  • It's my ball: maybe arrange with a photographer to catch you handing her the letter and subsequently publishing it could be used to generate some useful publicity towards strengthening our cause?!
  • itsmyball said:

    Hi guys
    I sit in the directors box .
    It is beyond a joke now how km never replies . And how our club is being destroyed .
    I am happy to print that letter off and hand it to her .
    At least we will know she has a copy of it then .
    Let me know Beth if you are happy with me doing that .
    We could change your name at the bottom of the letter and put from all Charlton supporters .


    Please please do this.
    I will go back to where I found the letter and try and contact Bethany on facebook to see if she would be ok with the idea of printing it off and handing to KM on Saturday
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  • Why would I leave a seat I have been sitting in for years with my two boys .
    I protest as much In there as I would if I did not sit in there .
    And what attacks are you planning .
    I can tell you the only one that has been visable from there was at the last home game when everyone stood up if you want them out .
    Even the leaflets that were dropped from the west upper on Monday blew past the directors box .
    I can tell you that the all the other chants are to week as its only a few in the north upper who sing them.
  • Let's capture the moment she receives the letter on film and promote it to the max. I suggest it is printed on RED paper (or at least a colour other than white) so that is symbolic and stands out.
  • meldrew66 said:

    It's my ball: maybe arrange with a photographer to catch you handing her the letter and subsequently publishing it could be used to generate some useful publicity towards strengthening our cause?!


    That's the voices next front cover sorted then!
  • I have posted a comment on the article asking Bethany if it is ok to print etc, and keep her name on it. I'll let you know when/if she comes back to me. I have given her my personal email address to reply to, or suggested she comes on here and lets us know.
  • A superb Letter by Bethany Archer but ?

    I agree with Hants Addick, that the letter needed to be aired earlier,
    Because Katrien Meire position as CEO is now untenable.
    I have given her 2 years to try to prove she had some empathy with our fan base
    and our history. When KM walked with the fans from the training ground to the Valley last season i thought she might improve ?
    But it was a false dawn, one step forward and two steps back yet again.
    She only has reverse gear now.

    I don't believe she is the devil incarnate, But KM being CEO at CAFC,
    Is similar to putting a certain Egyptian Pharaoh as head of the
    Paediatric ward ? It can only end in tears.
    Let's hope it's Katrien's and not ours !
  • Excellent letter.
  • edited December 2015
    itsmyball said:

    Why would I leave a seat I have been sitting in for years with my two boys .
    I protest as much In there as I would if I did not sit in there .
    And what attacks are you planning .
    I can tell you the only one that has been visable from there was at the last home game when everyone stood up if you want them out .
    Even the leaflets that were dropped from the west upper on Monday blew past the directors box .
    I can tell you that the all the other chants are to week as its only a few in the north upper who sing them.

    You could join in then she would hear them. ;-)
    Ps too weak
  • edited December 2015
    shirty5 said:

    itsmyball said:

    Why would I leave a seat I have been sitting in for years with my two boys .
    I protest as much In there as I would if I did not sit in there .
    And what attacks are you planning .
    I can tell you the only one that has been visable from there was at the last home game when everyone stood up if you want them out .
    Even the leaflets that were dropped from the west upper on Monday blew past the directors box .
    I can tell you that the all the other chants are to week as its only a few in the north upper who sing them.

    Directors box on Monday
    That was a fantastic idea, is anyone selling that stuff, or can we print off a template?
    I'd love to have a go.
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