Thank you for taking the time to write to us at Charlton Athletic. We will try and answer your questions as best as possible.
Both statements were prepared by senior executives at the club, but the second reflected more the thoughts and concerns of Mr Duchâtelet.
During his visit in February, Mr Duchâtelet met a group of fans who are partners in the club and who have an excellent knowledge of the club. There was a full exchange of views on issues like recruitment, communication, supporter relations, finance and the importance of the club to community.
We don’t think it’s been an intention to alienate fans, although we appreciate that some supporters are extremely unhappy with the running of the club. Certainly the staff here know the important role that our fans have played in its history and also the emotional connection they and their families have with Charlton Athletic.
We also know that there is a huge task ahead of us to rebuild the eroded trust, but know this is an important job to undertake and we will try our very best.
Best regards The Supporter Relations Team
That bit about the staff at the Club knowing the important role that that the fans have played in it's history and the emotional connection that they and their families have with Charlton Athletic.
Excuse me..............?
Fine words but almost meaningless if the person who represents the day-to-day driving force behind how the Club operates doesn't believe them!
CEO Katrien Meire - on the history of the club...quote: 'I don't care about the history of the club'
CEO Katrien Meire - on the fans emotional attachment to the club...quote: 'The fans don't see themselves as customers' (and thereby by implication have an emotional attachment to the club which is unhealthy in her eyes).
The various fans relations teams are now churning out material totally at odds with what the CEO believes
It is a measure of her isolation that she allows this either because she reluctantly sees the need to pour oil on some troubled waters or, she has lost control completely and doesn't get to see what is going out.
Any person with even an iota of self-awareness regarding their lack of ability to implement the responsibilities attached to the post of CEO would have done the decent thing by now and resigned.
Just got this email from them... very bizarre i thought. Hello Jonny,
Thank you for your email.
We will be keeping the fans sofa as many of our fans enjoy the initiative.
Also, Roland has no intentions of selling the club.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Kind Regards
The Supporters Relations Team
Charlton Athletic Football Club
Charlton Athletic Supporter Relations Charlton Athletic Football Club | The Valley | Floyd Road | London | SE7 8BL ______________________________________________________________________
Are they the same ones who like the live action on the big screen instead of the team lists?
Thank you for taking the time to write to us at Charlton Athletic. We will try and answer your questions as best as possible.
Both statements were prepared by senior executives at the club, but the second reflected more the thoughts and concerns of Mr Duchâtelet.
During his visit in February, Mr Duchâtelet met a group of fans who are partners in the club and who have an excellent knowledge of the club. There was a full exchange of views on issues like recruitment, communication, supporter relations, finance and the importance of the club to community.
We don’t think it’s been an intention to alienate fans, although we appreciate that some supporters are extremely unhappy with the running of the club. Certainly the staff here know the important role that our fans have played in its history and also the emotional connection they and their families have with Charlton Athletic.
We also know that there is a huge task ahead of us to rebuild the eroded trust, but know this is an important job to undertake and we will try our very best.
Best regards The Supporter Relations Team
Do we know who these mysterious fans are? I take it it wasn't CAST, so I can only presume it is Target20K - if so it would've been nice of them to have acknowledged the fact that they had met Duchatelet.
Just got this email from them... very bizarre i thought. Hello Jonny, Thank you for your email. We will be keeping the fans sofa as many of our fans enjoy the initiative. Also, Roland has no intentions of selling the club. Thank you for your ongoing support.
Just got this email from them... very bizarre i thought. Hello Jonny, Thank you for your email. We will be keeping the fans sofa as many of our fans enjoy the initiative. Also, Roland has no intentions of selling the club. Thank you for your ongoing support.
They're not even listening to the group they set up designed to improve the matchday experience. F'king idiots.
Perhaps Target20K needs to be informed of that responsw then? Their support for the Regime appeared to be wavering after The Statement, this may be another little nudge in the right direction.
Just got this email from them... very bizarre i thought. Hello Jonny,
Thank you for your email.
We will be keeping the fans sofa as many of our fans enjoy the initiative.
Also, Roland has no intentions of selling the club.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Kind Regards
The Supporters Relations Team
Charlton Athletic Football Club
Charlton Athletic Supporter Relations Charlton Athletic Football Club | The Valley | Floyd Road | London | SE7 8BL ______________________________________________________________________
Are they the same ones who like the live action on the big screen instead of the team lists?
Both statements were prepared by senior executives at the club, but the second reflected more the thoughts and concerns of Mr Duchâtelet.
During his visit in February, Mr Duchâtelet met a group of fans who are partners in the club and who have an excellent knowledge of the club. There was a full exchange of views on issues like recruitment, communication, supporter relations, finance and the importance of the club to community.
Interesting the earlier replies indicated it was a club effort but this confirms that Roland was the author of the second message,
And inconceivable that RD met with any rank and file fans and it was not publicised or that none of them thought to mention this. He says partners of the club .. suspect that may mean a couple of big sponsors?
Just got this email from them... very bizarre i thought. Hello Jonny, Thank you for your email. We will be keeping the fans sofa as many of our fans enjoy the initiative. Also, Roland has no intentions of selling the club. Thank you for your ongoing support.
I asked what the {...} symbol meant in the statement on the website and got this response:
"The symbol {…} means that there was some text after the quote displayed in the statement.
The statement was an attempt to publicly address the concerns of Mr Duchâtelet.
Mr Duchâtelet also understands that he is a custodian of this great club and he is fully aware of the important role that supporters have played in its history. Like all of us he wants an upturn in the fortunes of the club and knows that we will have to work harder to achieve that."
I asked what the {...} symbol meant in the statement on the website and got this response:
"The symbol {…} means that there was some text after the quote displayed in the statement.
The statement was an attempt to publicly address the concerns of Mr Duchâtelet.
Mr Duchâtelet also understands that he is a custodian of this great club and he is fully aware of the important role that supporters have played in its history. Like all of us he wants an upturn in the fortunes of the club and knows that we will have to work harder to achieve that."
I'm not really any the wiser.
If it's any help, it's quite similar to a standard indicator of continuing quotations (when there's a chunk of text that is unneeded), the really unusual thing is the brackets.
So this: "Mr Duchâtelet also understands that he is... not really any the wiser", is not strange, but "Mr Duchâtelet also understands that he is {...} not really any the wiser" is weird (meaning weird).
It looks as though Target20K have yet to feedback to the club regarding the fans sofa; and they expect it will be kept there until the end of the season. (Most likely required contractually as it's technically a form of sponsorship?)
That's still not the impression I got from the email response from fans@cafc.co.uk, and I also find it a bit alarming that the club are still claiming it's been well received when I've only ever seen it mocked and ridiculed, even via the media! The club really are burying their heads up the asses.
With a Fans Forum due to be held next month I believe, I do hope someone attending will table some of the questions asked which have remained unanswered despite the official responses received which ignored them. Having read through much of this thread, there seem to be quite a few!
As I'm sure the Fans Forum will be made available for viewing, it would be interesting for all to hear the explanations.
I have been in correspondence with the club since the beginning of the season regarding the Big Screen to no effect until I contacted Mel a few weeks ago. She sent me a polite and optimistic reply and then resigned. So I thought why not try the new fans email and lo and behold got this reply ...
'This has moved on since you were last in contact with the club. The good news is that there are plans in place to revert to showing team sheets, substitutions, cautions, etc, as opposed to the live feed.
It is the case that a different software system is required as we have had to purchase it. We now have this and we are hoping to have this in place before the end of the season and make this a permanent feature next season instead of the live match feed.
Best regards The Supporter Relations Team'
So it ddoes work aand once in a while a sensible outcome results.
Here is my Original emails and the follow-up I sent to the club. I have merged the 2 emails together
One of the main problems is Katrien Meire. A woman so incompetent, she thinks that she’s doing a good job. She thinks that the people that are chanting at her during the games is a good thing. A woman who insults the fans on almost a weekly basis (Calling us customers, calling us weird, insulting our intelligence during ‘fan forums’, PowerPoint presentations, that awful sofa, 5 managers in 2 years, Karel Fraye etc). Its also the Lies. Lie after Lie after Lie. I used to kind of like Meire because of her effort to try and make Charlton great but the moment Peeters was sacked and the lies kept streaming from her face, that fondness disappeared.
The Companies house fiasco, the 'lengthy' recruitment process behind our appointments, 'Customers', Pinocchio-Gate, sex on the pitch advert, that sofa, the season ticket mess, the big screen that shows a live stream of the game you have paid to see, NABY SARR, 2%, the miss-treatment of anyone who stood up for the club. These have all happened under Meires incompetence as CEO.
The club love to talk about how they will want to communicate with the fans, but every opportunity they get, they always do the short measure. I look forward to the day that there is a Transfer fee next to a player we sign instead of the words Undisclosed.
They are so sure of themselves that they have set a Target to get the average attendance up to 20,000. They have set up a group and tried to engage fans on how to achieve this. However there is one thing they have massively overlooked. The board fail to realise that If Roland was to Sell (for an undisclosed fee obviously) or Meire was Sacked or if they actually say the word SORRY then this would be achievable. However things have been going on for too long now and the chance to rebuild has gone. Sell up and get out whilst you still have a club to sell
Then came last nights Statement. So abrupt and misguided that it was hidden away at the side. It was called just simply Statement. The quality of the statement was so poor that many Charlton fans, including myself, thought it was a prank, Maybe somehow the protests had hacked the main site, but alas, it was later confirmed that it was indeed legit and it had come from the very top itself. Whether it was Meire or Roland remains to be seen, but it was there idea of giving all the fans a stern telling off (or at least they hoped it would be) {…}
A Statement full of anger, confusion and once again lies. One of these lies helped create one of the funniest, unplanned twitter-storms of the protests with the Comment 'Roland Duchatelet has recently met with fans' #HaveYouMetRoly ?
I do have a couple of questions I would like to ask please (please is a word normal nice human beings use. Along with sorry and thank you it forms the basis of MANNERS. Please ensure Katrien Meire receives this email so she can finally see what manners are as she has none)
What can you tell me about the proposed name change your leader has submitted to the football league? What does the club hope to achieve? You have already alienated the core fan base and have cut the connection to the next couple of generations with your actions from the past few years. By changing the name all you are doing is writing your own career tombstone as none of the fans will sit back to allow it ( even those who have previously backed you). How you you like it if we change the name of something you loved and grew up with. How about we change your name without your say so? Instead Katrien Meire or Roland Duchatelet we officially re-name you Pinocchio and Geppetto. I very much doubt you would appreciate that (although I still bet you wouldn't get the joke. There's No strings on you Katrien!)
In regards to that misfire of a statement can you confirm who wrote it? Its definitely written by someone whose first language isn't English. However, unfortunately this doesn't help at all as most of the staff at the club have English as a second language. It definitely wasn't Mel Baroni, otherwise she wouldn't have resigned when you went over her head with this (she also has an expert understanding of English) . This leaves 2 suspects: Katrien Meire or Roland Duchatelet. Can you confirm which and confirm I am correct with my suspicions?
The Management deteste the fans (sorry customers) and think they are more of a hindrance. They feel that the fans want to see the club fail. As fans why would we want this? We come along to games (home and away), watch on TV or follow on twitter religiously to enjoy the failure and destruction of our once proud and great team? Does that make sense to you? I'm struggling to understand your viewpoint on this issue.
The issue is Plain and Simple:
We Don't like what Meire and Duchatelet have done in the 2 1/2 years they have been in charge (we are actually in a worse position than when they took over (right decision every time Meire of course)). The way you have missed every opportunity to meet with fans and instead of trying to bond with them you have insulted them repeatedly along every step. Please sell and Leave. You mentioned in the statement that you weren't sure how to do this so I present to you (as I mentioned in below email too, along with a few tweets):
1) Engage with someone who is interesting in investing/purchasing the club (Peter Varney and his Friends for example) 2) Actually meet up with these people and don;t let your puppet and your puppets puppet unprofessionally shove them off 3) Listen to offer, and Accept N.B. If you sell a Championship club you have more chance of getting your money back, If you sell a League 1 club, then you will have to lower your price.
Hopefully that's simple enough that even you can understand and cannot misinterpret.
8 Days Later i received this response:
Subject: In regards to how Our club is being run and Last nights statement
Hello Will
Thank you for writing to Charlton Athletic, and apologies it has taken us longer than hoped in replying. The team are working through quite a few emails and we are currently replying to them in date order from when we received them. The Club Charter states that fans will receive acknowledgement of receipt of their email within 48 hours and then a reply, if appropriate, within 10 working days.
We will try and answer your mail(s) as much as possible.
We’ll start with the rumour about the name change. For the avoidance of doubt, we are not changing the name of Charlton Athletic. This is not something we have applied to do with the Football League or any other football body. It’s not true.
Regards the statement, it was put together by senior executives at the club, including Mr Duchatelet, who wanted to make public his concerns.
All of the staff here, many of whom are long serving, know the emotional attachment our fans have to this great club and the important role they have played in its history.
We appreciate there are fans like yourself who don’t like the executive and we respect that viewpoint. It is the case however that Mr Duchatelet has indicated that, at present, his does not wish the sell the club. Regards your points on our CEO, as you can appreciate we also cannot discuss internal HR practices externally.
We know also that we have a major task ahead of us all at Charlton to rebuild trust with supporters like yourself, but we will try.
Best regards The Supporter Relations Team
So there you have it Black and white confirmation that:
- there will be no Name Change (only time will tell) - Roland wasn't the only one who wrote the 'Delia' statement (i call bullshit on this one) - and apparently Meire is well known to the HR department
I sent another email to them, hopefully they will get back sooner
The fact that they are now trying to respond within 10 days as per club charter, whereas before they ignored everything ...have they received a warning regarding this from the League?
The fact that they are now trying to respond within 10 days as per club charter, whereas before they ignored everything ...have they received a warning regarding this from the League?
They blanked my email to info@ - tha's 12 days ago. No holding response or anything.
Anyway, here's my latest attempt to get some answers.
Good Morning
Apologies for bothering you with this matter but my earlier attempt to get an answer from the info@ email address failed to elicit a response of any kind.
I'm not really surprised by this as, having read the recent joint Club/Police statement, I can tell that the Club has been busy attempting to get Beachballs reclassified as Weapons of Mass Destruction: classy bit of PR that!
Now, this, in itself, raises another matter. Having read the Football (Offences) Act 1991, it is clear that it could be an offence for a supporter to return the football being used in the game onto the field of play. A defence is for the offender to prove that he has lawful authority to do this. I wonder, therefore, whether the Club would be prepared to provide written permission to all its supporters to return said ball? Or would it be safer to just leave it where it landed?
Anyway, below, for your consideration is my request for information concerning use of the West Stand car park. I should be extremely grateful if you could give me a definitive response together with reasons as to why my original email was ignored.
Is this insinuating Roland wrote it because I'm certain he did not.
Hey @Dazzler21 what makes you certain it was not written by him? As other posters have said, there's good evidence that it was, so it would be interesting to know why you suggest he didn't. Do you have some inside knowledge to spill?
I am certain it was written by Meire, probably with Roland's approval. It reads exactly as she speaks.
I do not think he would be going over and over the 'weird' point.
Thank you for taking the time to write to us at Charlton Athletic. We will try and answer your questions as best as possible.
Both statements were prepared by senior executives at the club, but the second reflected more the thoughts and concerns of Mr Duchâtelet.
During his visit in February, Mr Duchâtelet met a group of fans who are partners in the club and who have an excellent knowledge of the club. There was a full exchange of views on issues like recruitment, communication, supporter relations, finance and the importance of the club to community.
We don’t think it’s been an intention to alienate fans, although we appreciate that some supporters are extremely unhappy with the running of the club. Certainly the staff here know the important role that our fans have played in its history and also the emotional connection they and their families have with Charlton Athletic.
We also know that there is a huge task ahead of us to rebuild the eroded trust, but know this is an important job to undertake and we will try our very best.
Apologies it took a while getting back to you we have quite a few emails in our new fans email address.
We understand your concerns and Mr Duchatelet along with the rest of the team accept we have a large amount of work to do to upturn the fortunes of the club. We value fans like yourself and we want to ensure that you continue to remain a long standing fan.
Mr Duchatelet met with some partners back in February when he was over here.
He also currently has no plans to sell the club and we are disappointed that you are unlikely to return; however we are all working together to hopefully retain loyal fans like yourself at The Valley.
Thank you for your support.
Kind Regards The Supporter Relations Team
Afraid to say , seems we're back to the pre-made stock responses
"We are disappointed to hear you are not renewing your season ticket after such a long time with us. However, we are aware that we have a large job to bring fans like yourself back to The Valley so we are trying our upmost [sic] to do this."
"We are disappointed to hear you are not renewing your season ticket after such a long time with us. However, we are aware that we have a large job to bring fans like yourself back to The Valley so we are trying our upmost [sic] to do this."
Oh well - bye, then.
Good response but I'd love to know WHAT they are doing to bring fans back.
Comments
46 years of hurt (someone could write a song about that.....).
Seriously @Stig they the only replies I had.
At least I got a reply which wasn't automated.
Hey, got 2 season tickets this season (think it's something like 42/46 years).
No more.
Think I'll start supporting STTV, Saturday nights, lovely, friendly bar opposite.....
Oh, and apparently RD lives local.......
Excuse me..............?
Fine words but almost meaningless if the person who represents the day-to-day driving force behind how the Club operates doesn't believe them!
CEO Katrien Meire - on the history of the club...quote: 'I don't care about the history of the club'
CEO Katrien Meire - on the fans emotional attachment to the club...quote: 'The fans don't see themselves as customers' (and thereby by implication have an emotional attachment to the club which is unhealthy in her eyes).
The various fans relations teams are now churning out material totally at odds with what the CEO believes
It is a measure of her isolation that she allows this either because she reluctantly sees the need to pour oil on some troubled waters or, she has lost control completely and doesn't get to see what is going out.
Any person with even an iota of self-awareness regarding their lack of ability to implement the responsibilities attached to the post of CEO would have done the decent thing by now and resigned.
But they may as well use the flowery terminology as sung by the Bee Gees/Boyzone....
" You think that I don't even mean
A single word I say
It's only words
And words are all I have
To take your club away "
Tragedy, when the feelings gone and I can't go on its Tragedy.
They're not even listening to the group they set up designed to improve the matchday experience. F'king idiots.
And inconceivable that RD met with any rank and file fans and it was not publicised or that none of them thought to mention this. He says partners of the club .. suspect that may mean a couple of big sponsors?
"The symbol {…} means that there was some text after the quote displayed in the statement.
The statement was an attempt to publicly address the concerns of Mr Duchâtelet.
Mr Duchâtelet also understands that he is a custodian of this great club and he is fully aware of the important role that supporters have played in its history. Like all of us he wants an upturn in the fortunes of the club and knows that we will have to work harder to achieve that."
I'm not really any the wiser.
So this: "Mr Duchâtelet also understands that he is... not really any the wiser", is not strange, but "Mr Duchâtelet also understands that he is {...} not really any the wiser" is weird (meaning weird).
That's still not the impression I got from the email response from fans@cafc.co.uk, and I also find it a bit alarming that the club are still claiming it's been well received when I've only ever seen it mocked and ridiculed, even via the media! The club really are burying their heads up the asses.
As I'm sure the Fans Forum will be made available for viewing, it would be interesting for all to hear the explanations.
'This has moved on since you were last in contact with the club. The good news is that there are plans in place to revert to showing team sheets, substitutions, cautions, etc, as opposed to the live feed.
It is the case that a different software system is required as we have had to purchase it. We now have this and we are hoping to have this in place before the end of the season and make this a permanent feature next season instead of the live match feed.
Best regards
The Supporter Relations Team'
So it ddoes work aand once in a while a sensible outcome results.
One of the main problems is Katrien Meire. A woman so incompetent, she thinks that she’s doing a good job. She thinks that the people that are chanting at her during the games is a good thing. A woman who insults the fans on almost a weekly basis (Calling us customers, calling us weird, insulting our intelligence during ‘fan forums’, PowerPoint presentations, that awful sofa, 5 managers in 2 years, Karel Fraye etc). Its also the Lies. Lie after Lie after Lie. I used to kind of like Meire because of her effort to try and make Charlton great but the moment Peeters was sacked and the lies kept streaming from her face, that fondness disappeared.
The Companies house fiasco, the 'lengthy' recruitment process behind our appointments, 'Customers', Pinocchio-Gate, sex on the pitch advert, that sofa, the season ticket mess, the big screen that shows a live stream of the game you have paid to see, NABY SARR, 2%, the miss-treatment of anyone who stood up for the club. These have all happened under Meires incompetence as CEO.
The club love to talk about how they will want to communicate with the fans, but every opportunity they get, they always do the short measure. I look forward to the day that there is a Transfer fee next to a player we sign instead of the words Undisclosed.
They are so sure of themselves that they have set a Target to get the average attendance up to 20,000. They have set up a group and tried to engage fans on how to achieve this. However there is one thing they have massively overlooked. The board fail to realise that If Roland was to Sell (for an undisclosed fee obviously) or Meire was Sacked or if they actually say the word SORRY then this would be achievable. However things have been going on for too long now and the chance to rebuild has gone. Sell up and get out whilst you still have a club to sell
Then came last nights Statement. So abrupt and misguided that it was hidden away at the side. It was called just simply Statement. The quality of the statement was so poor that many Charlton fans, including myself, thought it was a prank, Maybe somehow the protests had hacked the main site, but alas, it was later confirmed that it was indeed legit and it had come from the very top itself. Whether it was Meire or Roland remains to be seen, but it was there idea of giving all the fans a stern telling off (or at least they hoped it would be) {…}
A Statement full of anger, confusion and once again lies. One of these lies helped create one of the funniest, unplanned twitter-storms of the protests with the Comment 'Roland Duchatelet has recently met with fans' #HaveYouMetRoly ?
I do have a couple of questions I would like to ask please (please is a word normal nice human beings use. Along with sorry and thank you it forms the basis of MANNERS. Please ensure Katrien Meire receives this email so she can finally see what manners are as she has none)
What can you tell me about the proposed name change your leader has submitted to the football league? What does the club hope to achieve? You have already alienated the core fan base and have cut the connection to the next couple of generations with your actions from the past few years. By changing the name all you are doing is writing your own career tombstone as none of the fans will sit back to allow it ( even those who have previously backed you). How you you like it if we change the name of something you loved and grew up with. How about we change your name without your say so? Instead Katrien Meire or Roland Duchatelet we officially re-name you Pinocchio and Geppetto. I very much doubt you would appreciate that (although I still bet you wouldn't get the joke. There's No strings on you Katrien!)
In regards to that misfire of a statement can you confirm who wrote it? Its definitely written by someone whose first language isn't English. However, unfortunately this doesn't help at all as most of the staff at the club have English as a second language. It definitely wasn't Mel Baroni, otherwise she wouldn't have resigned when you went over her head with this (she also has an expert understanding of English) . This leaves 2 suspects: Katrien Meire or Roland Duchatelet. Can you confirm which and confirm I am correct with my suspicions?
The Management deteste the fans (sorry customers) and think they are more of a hindrance. They feel that the fans want to see the club fail. As fans why would we want this? We come along to games (home and away), watch on TV or follow on twitter religiously to enjoy the failure and destruction of our once proud and great team? Does that make sense to you? I'm struggling to understand your viewpoint on this issue.
The issue is Plain and Simple:
We Don't like what Meire and Duchatelet have done in the 2 1/2 years they have been in charge (we are actually in a worse position than when they took over (right decision every time Meire of course)). The way you have missed every opportunity to meet with fans and instead of trying to bond with them you have insulted them repeatedly along every step. Please sell and Leave. You mentioned in the statement that you weren't sure how to do this so I present to you (as I mentioned in below email too, along with a few tweets):
1) Engage with someone who is interesting in investing/purchasing the club (Peter Varney and his Friends for example)
2) Actually meet up with these people and don;t let your puppet and your puppets puppet unprofessionally shove them off
3) Listen to offer, and Accept
N.B. If you sell a Championship club you have more chance of getting your money back, If you sell a League 1 club, then you will have to lower your price.
Hopefully that's simple enough that even you can understand and cannot misinterpret.
8 Days Later i received this response:
Subject: In regards to how Our club is being run and Last nights statement
Hello Will
Thank you for writing to Charlton Athletic, and apologies it has taken us longer than hoped in replying. The team are working through quite a few emails and we are currently replying to them in date order from when we received them. The Club Charter states that fans will receive acknowledgement of receipt of their email within 48 hours and then a reply, if appropriate, within 10 working days.
We will try and answer your mail(s) as much as possible.
We’ll start with the rumour about the name change. For the avoidance of doubt, we are not changing the name of Charlton Athletic. This is not something we have applied to do with the Football League or any other football body. It’s not true.
Regards the statement, it was put together by senior executives at the club, including Mr Duchatelet, who wanted to make public his concerns.
All of the staff here, many of whom are long serving, know the emotional attachment our fans have to this great club and the important role they have played in its history.
We appreciate there are fans like yourself who don’t like the executive and we respect that viewpoint. It is the case however that Mr Duchatelet has indicated that, at present, his does not wish the sell the club. Regards your points on our CEO, as you can appreciate we also cannot discuss internal HR practices externally.
We know also that we have a major task ahead of us all at Charlton to rebuild trust with supporters like yourself, but we will try.
Best regards
The Supporter Relations Team
So there you have it Black and white confirmation that:
- there will be no Name Change (only time will tell)
- Roland wasn't the only one who wrote the 'Delia' statement (i call bullshit on this one)
- and apparently Meire is well known to the HR department
I sent another email to them, hopefully they will get back sooner
Will Bollen
@willbollcafc
Anyway, here's my latest attempt to get some answers.
Good Morning
Apologies for bothering you with this matter but my earlier attempt to get an answer from the info@ email address failed to elicit a response of any kind.
I'm not really surprised by this as, having read the recent joint Club/Police statement, I can tell that the Club has been busy attempting to get Beachballs reclassified as Weapons of Mass Destruction: classy bit of PR that!
Now, this, in itself, raises another matter. Having read the Football (Offences) Act 1991, it is clear that it could be an offence for a supporter to return the football being used in the game onto the field of play. A defence is for the offender to prove that he has lawful authority to do this. I wonder, therefore, whether the Club would be prepared to provide written permission to all its supporters to return said ball? Or would it be safer to just leave it where it landed?
Anyway, below, for your consideration is my request for information concerning use of the West Stand car park. I should be extremely grateful if you could give me a definitive response together with reasons as to why my original email was ignored.
Kind Regards
cafcfan
They confirmed, as others have been told, that Roland has no plans to sell the club.
More drivel...
Hello Sam,
Thank you for contacting Charlton Athletic FC.
Apologies it took a while getting back to you we have quite a few emails in our new fans email address.
We understand your concerns and Mr Duchatelet along with the rest of the team accept we have a large amount of work to do to upturn the fortunes of the club. We value fans like yourself and we want to ensure that you continue to remain a long standing fan.
Mr Duchatelet met with some partners back in February when he was over here.
He also currently has no plans to sell the club and we are disappointed that you are unlikely to return; however we are all working together to hopefully retain loyal fans like yourself at The Valley.
Thank you for your support.
Kind Regards
The Supporter Relations Team
Afraid to say , seems we're back to the pre-made stock responses
"We are disappointed to hear you are not renewing your season ticket after such a long time with us. However, we are aware that we have a large job to bring fans like yourself back to The Valley so we are trying our upmost [sic] to do this."
Oh well - bye, then.