I was hoping somebody could explain ESI's motives too. I am still hoping that happens.
Who knows but there are plenty of people out there whom will break into your house to steal a tenner. Duchatelets deal was, buy the club for a quid and I will leave £2M in the till...
I think I just heard a penny drop. I feel like a total mug now after trying to defend PE earlier as I couldn't work out why someone was paying the wages. All of the above makes so much sense, they dont want to go into admin they want the EFL to chuck us out of the league @! Only thing that makes sense
My last post before bed. Southall is a complete a*hole but I suspect you are right. He acted like he believed it. He played his part and thought he had landed a dream job. When he finally worked out what was happening, he was jettisoned and blamed. He is still a cnut, but I'm increasingly thinking he was a stupid cnut rather than a corrupt one. Not defending him as he has played a massive part in this mess, even if he didn't realise what was going on.
No he is the most massive of all the cnuts. It will all come out in the wash. He is chief cnut, head cnut and all sorts of other cnuts.
It is covered off more or less in each of the Nimer, Florica, and Sheikh Saeed Bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan threads. Plus the bonkers thread to a lesser extent.
I spent ages trying to argue there must be a connection back to RD. I like the idea as it's almost all too crazy for there not to be. However it's too difficult so far to confirm there is any kind of rigged deal.
Below's a graphic showing the associations as far as I've been able to capture them. I think it's an accurate reflection of names and associations -based on internet reports, a lot out of Romania- and it's no more than that. I was especially excited about Rednic having worked for RD (a few years ago) and with Florica (last year in an appraches for Dinamo), but in the end was convinced there's probably nothing in it:
Yes, there are an unbelievable collection of deluded and corrupt parties involved in this historical mess, none worse in their general ill effect than the EFL themselves. However, where we are now is with Elliot and Farnell attempting to sell on to "an investor" or Varney and Barclay. The latter would be ideal but they want to buy the training ground and stadium now and Duchelet is convinced that he can recoup his full 50 million either from a transfer in 5 tears time or by developing the freeholds or selling them to a developer. If Duchelet would negotiate at all then a solution could be found which would include paying off comparatively modest amounts: as fees for Elliot and Farnell; as a small consideration to Nimer (through ESI) and the ex-directors. The one thing that gives some slight optimism is that at long last Farnell has actually hit Southall and been aggressive in court with him. I think Duchelet is misjudging how difficult it would be to get planning, although under government direction, authorities have been more favorable to developers over thew last year or two. Duchelet should have this difficulty impressed upon him. Hw should also be told that, after Brexit, the UK government may well put restrictions on foreign ownership of freehold land, where that land has any public significance. Certainly a training ground and stadium of an historical football club would meet this criteria. He would then risk losing these for a reduced sum by way of compensation, and should accept a substantial but reduced payment NOW and be free of Charlton for good
I'm sure it was reported at the time of the takeover, that Roland made a comment to the fans along the lines of "enjoy it while you can", which struck me as odd & faintly sinister - hence why I remember it.
But I cannot now find a reference to it, and am beginning to doubt my sanity! Can anyone confirm my recollection?
If my memory is true, it would certainly fit a scenario where RD believed the club's days to be numbered.
I'm sure it was reported at the time of the takeover, that Roland made a comment to the fans along the lines of "enjoy it while you can", which struck me as odd & faintly sinister - hence why I remember it.
But I cannot now find a reference to it, and am beginning to doubt my sanity! Can anyone confirm my recollection?
If my memory is true, it would certainly fit a scenario where RD believed the club's days to be numbered.
I remember it, so he said it or someone reported that he said it.
If RD holds on to the property and sells the club to be mismanaged to extinction he frees up a lot of property for his money. A lot more than he would ever make from a football club.
@N01R4M I remember it being said too and think it probably wasn’t discussed more because we were, on the whole, all a little bit giddy at what we thought was a change of fortunes.
He loves his football property developments does Roland. Not just his St Truiden Stayen ground, Jena too, and probably back into Liege now with his zeal and experiences for these type of projects.
Stayen was his pride and joy. Now he has a plan and contracts in place for Jena' s stadium. Liege is a possible future investment for him. No surprise he's chosen to hold the Valley and Sparrows lane if he likes these types of projects. This makes me think he'll want to re-acquire CAFC eventually, but it's all speculation of course, until he makes his moves.
RD is a long standing respectable businessman. No way did he dream this up with Nimer to con someone. He had too much to lose......his reputation for one.
My theory is that both Nimer & Southall were unknowingly conning each other. How or why I have no idea.......but I don't think RD is instrumental in it.
RD is a long standing respectable businessman. No way did he dream this up with Nimer to con someone. He had too much to lose......his reputation for one.
My theory is that both Nimer & Southall were unknowingly conning each other. How or why I have no idea.......but I don't think RD is instrumental in it.
I think RD came into it with naive but honest intentions about running some sort of Corinthian football club that avoided the worst excesses of the modern game. No agents, barely any transfer fees and mangers were on a carousel. He then handed the day to day running over to idiots and it was impossible to get back. Enormous and justified protests ensued because, frankly, he fucked with the wrong club.
He then wanted to back out of the situation but get the money he invested back, that was beyond the pale for most apart from this entity called ESI who would do a deal for the club and some cryptic additional deal for the property, that obviously all suited RD and the rest is our current history.
No idea where this ends but our recent history is comedy laced with tragedy.
I think I just heard a penny drop. I feel like a total mug now after trying to defend PE earlier as I couldn't work out why someone was paying the wages. All of the above makes so much sense, they dont want to go into admin they want the EFL to chuck us out of the league @! Only thing that makes sense
This is the first I've really read into all the back story, so I'm sorry if I'm either miles behind/adding nothing/totally off the mark - but could the possible timeline be something like this?
1. Mid-Late 2019: Duchatelet, getting desperate after a couple of years trying to sell, realises he's not going to get half as much back as he's paid for the club via the traditional route, hatches a plan to sell the club to Nimer with the end game of the club going out of business so he can sell the land and make way more money when there's no club in the way to stop him flogging it all to developers
Logic:
Selling to bad owners isn't a crime and it's risk free, he's no worse off if they don't pull it off as he doesn't own any more of the debt after selling the club for £1... he's out at that point and either gets £50m for the stadium & training or gets to keep the land to sell.
He's famously frugal and he's not going to piss away £30m+ on this investment over preserving our football club
Roland has little/no goodwill toward the club or has shown zero interest in our history, so that wouldn't be a disincentive
2. Jan 2020: Nimer & ESI proceed to buy the club for silly money (inc. £50m commitment for assets) to be seen to legitimately win the sale over any other interested parties - but has no intention of spending more than the £1 put up front.
Logic:
The 'more money than sense' oil billionaire is the best cover story for the inflated price
We know Duchatalet left some money behind to pay the bills (~£2m) which could possibly be the payment to ESI for their part of the plan, I don't really know why he'd leave a load of cash in the club after the sale otherwise...
Also, we now know that Nimer never put in any money...
3. Jan 2020 Onwards: Post-sale of the club, time to slowly dismantle - Southall placates the fans whilst we're all still takeover-happy and Nimer stalls any requirement for him to put in any money or go ahead with the obligation to purchase the club's assets from Duchatelet.
Logic behind it:
The EFL, whilst useless, probably didn't lie that no proof of funds were ever given - a fairly unmissable part of the process for Nimer & co. if they were serious about passing it
Assumption that Nimer lied about the proof of funds, why? Knowledge that Southall lied about being able to buy players when he knew we were under embargo, why?
This failure to pass the fit and proper test and subsequent embargo covers the transfer window as the reason why we've spent no money, rather than them having no intention to
Indefinite 'due dilligence' covers the reason why he's not acquired any of the club's assets
The playing squad and budget remains as weak as possible, and whilst not essential - relegation would be handy in pushing us further into the red (I believe we lost nearly £12m in our promotion year)
When Bowyer looks like he might save us, they announce via the official website that he's left us after not agreeing a contract... that's until he goes on Talksport and says that it's news to him! Most managers walk there or soon after...
Counterargument:
What stopped them from selling Taylor in January and pocketing the cash from that?
4. March(?) 2020: Now we need to pick an underlying assumption about the Southall-Nimer fallout, although it probably doesn't matter too much which one you pick...
a) Southall isn't a moron but is a conman and swipes a big chunk of the £2m on bogus fees, range rovers, his flat etc. and when Nimer & co. find out via Chris Parkes they have their massive barney because Southall's stitched them up; or...
b) Southall is a moron and is strung along as the front man thinking he's won the jackpot - 25% of a club, a dream job and gets trigger happy with "ESI's" money. When he finds out there actually is no money other than what's in the club and Nimer has been stringing him along, he realises he's in trouble, publicly points the finger at Nimer and then they have their massive barney...
5.March(?) 2020: Nimer 'steps away' after the fallout having never contributed more than £1. He's had his fingers burnt so isn't going to pay the £50m agreed... Duchatalet, suspiciously, won't fight this and holds onto a stadium and training ground he theoretically has no use for.
Starts to get a bit tenouous here, but what could be next...
6: Summer 2020: Nimer's vanishing act & club goes into administration. No one will take over the crazy £50m obligation to buy the assets - leaving them with Duchatelet... and without those assets the club is essential a financially-nonviable black hole from a takeover perspective.
Logic:
Paul Elliott steps in to fill the void, but crucially it's recently been confirmed that he's not the official owner
Counterargument:
Where, and importantly why, did money come in from somewhere to keep us afloat in the last couple of months via Paul Elliott?
7: The end game/not too distant future: There is no money left, no one legitimate will take over a club projected to lose £1m a month with no assets, the club folds, Duchatalet sits back and waits until he's got the green light to sell his properties and make his money back with interest.
Counterargument:
What have Nimer and his directors actually made from this? This is probably where all the connections that Cafc43v3r mappet out come into play...
There's obviously a few gaps for this to be fully coherent... particularly with the Paul Elliott scenario, but is this what we're getting at or have I gone completely tinfoil hat?
I'm sure it was reported at the time of the takeover, that Roland made a comment to the fans along the lines of "enjoy it while you can", which struck me as odd & faintly sinister - hence why I remember it.
But I cannot now find a reference to it, and am beginning to doubt my sanity! Can anyone confirm my recollection?
If my memory is true, it would certainly fit a scenario where RD believed the club's days to be numbered.
Fairly sure Jim White phoned him around the time of the sale and a recording of the conversation was put out on Talksport
The problem is that there are massive gaps that we can't possibly know. When you are searching for the truth in a crime, which this potentially is, you have to start by looking at who has something to gain. But not knowing details shouldn't cloud the fact something dodgy certainly looks to be happening.
Then you have Bury. Dale bought them for £1 and had opportunities to move them on but obstructed his way to their demise. Farnell was at the heart of that. What if there is somebody or somebodies who have worked out a way to kill a football club due to uselessness of the EFL and release all the money from inside its rotting corpse?
Roland's desperation was well publicised and maybe the scum saw an opportunity. We can help you Mr Duchatelet. No risk to you, just pay x, sit back, and we will ensure you can maximise the money you can get from the club's assets without a club to get in the way. Then the professional club killers get to work knowing that unsuitable owners will not be accepted by the league.
The first part of that was getting somebody to front it. They had to be all the things Southall was. Somebody who would be too gullable to work out what was happening. And somebody the blame could be lumped on. We only accepted Southall because of the rich Arab sheikh behind him. His recent past was alarming and there was nothing to suggest why he was fronting this. He would have thought he had won the lottery and loved it. But the fact remains, why would you give 25% and allow somebody as useless as him to front a venture that was costing north of £50m. What happened when they fell out showed Southall was never that close to Nimer and certainly not somebody a Nimer with genuine intentions would use to front this.
This surely would also get rid of Roland's liabilities to ex directors. If they have a promise of payments when the club gets promoted to the Premier league, well a dead club is never going to get promoted. So what if Roland is shelling out some of that to pay for this scam. We are talking millions here and where there are millions, there are likely to be crooks. I think we could be running out of time and as Covered End suggested, maybe the Police should be involved.
On the other thread it has been suggested we involve the press. Maybe a good place for them to start would be a bitter ex part of the scheme, probably an unknowing one, who is being set up as part of some misdirection.
My last post before bed. Southall is a complete a*hole but I suspect you are right. He acted like he believed it. He played his part and thought he had landed a dream job. When he finally worked out what was happening, he was jettisoned and blamed. He is still a cnut, but I'm increasingly thinking he was a stupid cnut rather than a corrupt one. Not defending him as he has played a massive part in this mess, even if he didn't realise what was going on.
Not having that.
The flat, the consultancy invoices, the cars, the payments to his girlfriend. He's definitely corrupt, and far more so than Nimer who as far as i can see has gained very little/nothing out of all this.
Yes, I am sure he is corrupt, but I am saying small time corrupt. He could be the patsy. And we hate him so much, we focus too much on him whilst the club is being murdered in plain sight. He may have believed that a stupidly rich Arab Sheikh was bankrolling his excesses. Nimer has gained very little out of this from what we can see. Why would he want a liability to pay twice what the club is worth? Why would he take it on without due dilligence being completed? Why would he get an unqualified loser like Southall to front it all? These are all questions we don't have answers to, but they are pertinent questions we need answers to.
Some of the things Southall said about the issue being Nimer failing to provide the evidence the EFL required make some sense. We have every reason to despise Southall but I for one think this may be much bigger than him and if it is, we can find out more from him.
My last post before bed. Southall is a complete a*hole but I suspect you are right. He acted like he believed it. He played his part and thought he had landed a dream job. When he finally worked out what was happening, he was jettisoned and blamed. He is still a cnut, but I'm increasingly thinking he was a stupid cnut rather than a corrupt one. Not defending him as he has played a massive part in this mess, even if he didn't realise what was going on.
Not having that.
The flat, the consultancy invoices, the cars, the payments to his girlfriend. He's definitely corrupt, and far more so than Nimer who as far as i can see has gained very little/nothing out of all this.
Agreed, nimer spent £3,000 in Harrods. Southall was like a kid in a sweet shop and would still be putting in invoices if he could
It is covered off more or less in each of the Nimer, Florica, and Sheikh Saeed Bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan threads. Plus the bonkers thread to a lesser extent.
I spent ages trying to argue there must be a connection back to RD. I like the idea as it's almost all too crazy for there not to be. However it's too difficult so far to confirm there is any kind of rigged deal.
Below's a graphic showing the associations as far as I've been able to capture them. I think it's an accurate reflection of names and associations -based on internet reports, a lot out of Romania- and it's no more than that. I was especially excited about Rednic having worked for RD (a few years ago) and with Florica (last year in an appraches for Dinamo), but in the end was convinced there's probably nothing in it:
I made something similar, although with post it notes on the living room mirror. Mrs 4ever was not best pleased.
I was desperate to prove it was a "set up" but I am now 95+% certain Roland has nothing to do with it and the Romanians are irrelevant.
My last post before bed. Southall is a complete a*hole but I suspect you are right. He acted like he believed it. He played his part and thought he had landed a dream job. When he finally worked out what was happening, he was jettisoned and blamed. He is still a cnut, but I'm increasingly thinking he was a stupid cnut rather than a corrupt one. Not defending him as he has played a massive part in this mess, even if he didn't realise what was going on.
Not having that.
The flat, the consultancy invoices, the cars, the payments to his girlfriend. He's definitely corrupt, and far more so than Nimer who as far as i can see has gained very little/nothing out of all this.
Add to that his provocative Tweets and photos etc (The one of a beer on his lawn, tagging in her old man who, Southall would've known, had been winding fans up that very same day - or - the video he shared of him driving his stolen Rangy through the automated gates and upto his house obviously meant to provoke fans)
Not exactly the way an innocent, trying to clear his name would act imo
But who is saying he is innocent? He is a crook who may have thought he was taking advantage of Nimer. Something Nimer was possibly happy for him to think. Then Nimer suddenly works out what Southall is up to when Southall gets suspicious and difficult as to why the money promised isn't coming in. Even a fool like Southall would work that out and Nimer has the dirt to dish to misdirect.
Like Southall's other half let out of the bag. Why are we picking on Southall when the others were at it too? Maybe he was encouraged by a Nimer who suddenly got outraged when Southall finally sussed out something was wrong.
Not at all. I think Southall is a stupid crook. But probably too stupid to be part of the clever bits of the scam. He was milking the club alright, but it isn't unreasonable to think he might have thought he was milking Nimer and Nimer didn't care as he was rich enough to spunk over £50m on buying a club worth half that.
It would also suit the scam for Southall not to be aware. His owner act became all the more believable. It would be madness to let him in on what was really going on. And his uselessness points to him being selected for his negative qualities.
We shouldn't let our entirely justified hatred of Southall get in the way of looking beyond him and even opening dialogue with him to find out what he knows. I didn't hold this view a few days ago, but do now.
We shouldn't let our entirely justified hatred of Southall get in the way of looking beyond him and even opening dialogue with him to find out what he knows. I didn't hold this view a few days ago, but do now.
I would be suspicious, but he may have been shafted too so might be a good place to start. They say there is no honour amongst thieves. Please don't misunderstand that I am trying to defend him. He is a crook, but my concern is there may be bigger crooks at play. I doubt he knows the inner workings of any plan, if there was one, but if we actually listened he may shed some light on the early phases of it. What exactly happened with the source and sustainability detail and how he got involved in the first place?
I recall Southall suggested Nimer made no attempt to provide it. Nimer said ( I think via Farnell) when we were all piling in on Southall that Southall had it and didn't submit it. Why would he not do that? Why has the source and sustainability still not been clarified, even with a new owner? From what I can understand it isn't that difficult to provide the info to satisfy the EFL. We were understandably not too interested in what Southall had to say at the time, but maybe with the possibility of bigger crooks at play, we ought to renew our interest.
We shouldn't let our entirely justified hatred of Southall get in the way of looking beyond him and even opening dialogue with him to find out what he knows. I didn't hold this view a few days ago, but do now.
Isn't this what Dodger has been trying to do? None of us could understand why he seemed to be going easy on Southall. Maybe he was on to the same scam scenario that you've outlined with Southall as the patsy.
What happened to the docs that Smiffyboy was going to release? Have I missed something here?
Comments
If they can be brought it, can anyone instigate this?
If Duchelet would negotiate at all then a solution could be found which would include paying off comparatively modest amounts: as fees for Elliot and Farnell; as a small consideration to Nimer (through ESI) and the ex-directors. The one thing that gives some slight optimism is that at long last Farnell has actually hit Southall and been aggressive in court with him. I think Duchelet is misjudging how difficult it would be to get planning, although under government direction, authorities have been more favorable to developers over thew last year or two. Duchelet should have this difficulty impressed upon him. Hw should also be told that, after Brexit, the UK government may well put restrictions on foreign ownership of freehold land, where that land has any public significance. Certainly a training ground and stadium of an historical football club would meet this criteria. He would then risk losing these for a reduced sum by way of compensation, and should accept a substantial but reduced payment NOW and be free of Charlton for good
But I cannot now find a reference to it, and am beginning to doubt my sanity! Can anyone confirm my recollection?
If my memory is true, it would certainly fit a scenario where RD believed the club's days to be numbered.
That's where the money is.
If RD holds on to the property and sells the club to be mismanaged to extinction he frees up a lot of property for his money. A lot more than he would ever make from a football club.
Stayen was his pride and joy. Now he has a plan and contracts in place for Jena' s stadium. Liege is a possible future investment for him. No surprise he's chosen to hold the Valley and Sparrows lane if he likes these types of projects. This makes me think he'll want to re-acquire CAFC eventually, but it's all speculation of course, until he makes his moves.
Jena project
https://www.tag24.de/nachrichten/fc-carl-zeiss-jena-neubau-ernst-abbe-sportfeld-fussball-dritte-liga-roland-duchatelet-1309863
Liege possible project
https://m.hln.be/sport/voetbal/belgisch-voetbal/standard/duchatelet-overweegt-investering-in-project-venanzi-maar-ik-keer-niet-terug-naar-de-voetbalwereld~aa4aa87c/
My theory is that both Nimer & Southall were unknowingly conning each other. How or why I have no idea.......but I don't think RD is instrumental in it.
1. Mid-Late 2019: Duchatelet, getting desperate after a couple of years trying to sell, realises he's not going to get half as much back as he's paid for the club via the traditional route, hatches a plan to sell the club to Nimer with the end game of the club going out of business so he can sell the land and make way more money when there's no club in the way to stop him flogging it all to developers
Logic:
- Selling to bad owners isn't a crime and it's risk free, he's no worse off if they don't pull it off as he doesn't own any more of the debt after selling the club for £1... he's out at that point and either gets £50m for the stadium & training or gets to keep the land to sell.
- He's famously frugal and he's not going to piss away £30m+ on this investment over preserving our football club
- Roland has little/no goodwill toward the club or has shown zero interest in our history, so that wouldn't be a disincentive
2. Jan 2020: Nimer & ESI proceed to buy the club for silly money (inc. £50m commitment for assets) to be seen to legitimately win the sale over any other interested parties - but has no intention of spending more than the £1 put up front.Logic:
- The 'more money than sense' oil billionaire is the best cover story for the inflated price
- We know Duchatalet left some money behind to pay the bills (~£2m) which could possibly be the payment to ESI for their part of the plan, I don't really know why he'd leave a load of cash in the club after the sale otherwise...
- Also, we now know that Nimer never put in any money...
3. Jan 2020 Onwards: Post-sale of the club, time to slowly dismantle - Southall placates the fans whilst we're all still takeover-happy and Nimer stalls any requirement for him to put in any money or go ahead with the obligation to purchase the club's assets from Duchatelet.Logic behind it:
- The EFL, whilst useless, probably didn't lie that no proof of funds were ever given - a fairly unmissable part of the process for Nimer & co. if they were serious about passing it
- Assumption that Nimer lied about the proof of funds, why? Knowledge that Southall lied about being able to buy players when he knew we were under embargo, why?
- This failure to pass the fit and proper test and subsequent embargo covers the transfer window as the reason why we've spent no money, rather than them having no intention to
- Indefinite 'due dilligence' covers the reason why he's not acquired any of the club's assets
- The playing squad and budget remains as weak as possible, and whilst not essential - relegation would be handy in pushing us further into the red (I believe we lost nearly £12m in our promotion year)
- When Bowyer looks like he might save us, they announce via the official website that he's left us after not agreeing a contract... that's until he goes on Talksport and says that it's news to him! Most managers walk there or soon after...
Counterargument:- What stopped them from selling Taylor in January and pocketing the cash from that?
4. March(?) 2020: Now we need to pick an underlying assumption about the Southall-Nimer fallout, although it probably doesn't matter too much which one you pick...a) Southall isn't a moron but is a conman and swipes a big chunk of the £2m on bogus fees, range rovers, his flat etc. and when Nimer & co. find out via Chris Parkes they have their massive barney because Southall's stitched them up; or...
b) Southall is a moron and is strung along as the front man thinking he's won the jackpot - 25% of a club, a dream job and gets trigger happy with "ESI's" money. When he finds out there actually is no money other than what's in the club and Nimer has been stringing him along, he realises he's in trouble, publicly points the finger at Nimer and then they have their massive barney...
5. March(?) 2020: Nimer 'steps away' after the fallout having never contributed more than £1. He's had his fingers burnt so isn't going to pay the £50m agreed... Duchatalet, suspiciously, won't fight this and holds onto a stadium and training ground he theoretically has no use for.
Starts to get a bit tenouous here, but what could be next...
6: Summer 2020: Nimer's vanishing act & club goes into administration. No one will take over the crazy £50m obligation to buy the assets - leaving them with Duchatelet... and without those assets the club is essential a financially-nonviable black hole from a takeover perspective.
Logic:
- Paul Elliott steps in to fill the void, but crucially it's recently been confirmed that he's not the official owner
Counterargument:- Where, and importantly why, did money come in from somewhere to keep us afloat in the last couple of months via Paul Elliott?
7: The end game/not too distant future: There is no money left, no one legitimate will take over a club projected to lose £1m a month with no assets, the club folds, Duchatalet sits back and waits until he's got the green light to sell his properties and make his money back with interest.Counterargument:
There's obviously a few gaps for this to be fully coherent... particularly with the Paul Elliott scenario, but is this what we're getting at or have I gone completely tinfoil hat?
Then you have Bury. Dale bought them for £1 and had opportunities to move them on but obstructed his way to their demise. Farnell was at the heart of that. What if there is somebody or somebodies who have worked out a way to kill a football club due to uselessness of the EFL and release all the money from inside its rotting corpse?
Roland's desperation was well publicised and maybe the scum saw an opportunity. We can help you Mr Duchatelet. No risk to you, just pay x, sit back, and we will ensure you can maximise the money you can get from the club's assets without a club to get in the way. Then the professional club killers get to work knowing that unsuitable owners will not be accepted by the league.
The first part of that was getting somebody to front it. They had to be all the things Southall was. Somebody who would be too gullable to work out what was happening. And somebody the blame could be lumped on. We only accepted Southall because of the rich Arab sheikh behind him. His recent past was alarming and there was nothing to suggest why he was fronting this. He would have thought he had won the lottery and loved it. But the fact remains, why would you give 25% and allow somebody as useless as him to front a venture that was costing north of £50m. What happened when they fell out showed Southall was never that close to Nimer and certainly not somebody a Nimer with genuine intentions would use to front this.
This surely would also get rid of Roland's liabilities to ex directors. If they have a promise of payments when the club gets promoted to the Premier league, well a dead club is never going to get promoted. So what if Roland is shelling out some of that to pay for this scam. We are talking millions here and where there are millions, there are likely to be crooks. I think we could be running out of time and as Covered End suggested, maybe the Police should be involved.
On the other thread it has been suggested we involve the press. Maybe a good place for them to start would be a bitter ex part of the scheme, probably an unknowing one, who is being set up as part of some misdirection.
The flat, the consultancy invoices, the cars, the payments to his girlfriend. He's definitely corrupt, and far more so than Nimer who as far as i can see has gained very little/nothing out of all this.
Some of the things Southall said about the issue being Nimer failing to provide the evidence the EFL required make some sense. We have every reason to despise Southall but I for one think this may be much bigger than him and if it is, we can find out more from him.
Not exactly the way an innocent, trying to clear his name would act imo
Like Southall's other half let out of the bag. Why are we picking on Southall when the others were at it too? Maybe he was encouraged by a Nimer who suddenly got outraged when Southall finally sussed out something was wrong.
It would also suit the scam for Southall not to be aware. His owner act became all the more believable. It would be madness to let him in on what was really going on. And his uselessness points to him being selected for his negative qualities.
I recall Southall suggested Nimer made no attempt to provide it. Nimer said ( I think via Farnell) when we were all piling in on Southall that Southall had it and didn't submit it. Why would he not do that? Why has the source and sustainability still not been clarified, even with a new owner? From what I can understand it isn't that difficult to provide the info to satisfy the EFL. We were understandably not too interested in what Southall had to say at the time, but maybe with the possibility of bigger crooks at play, we ought to renew our interest.
https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/uk-sports/2019/09/03/police-open-fraud-investigation-linked-to-burys-demise/
What happened to the docs that Smiffyboy was going to release? Have I missed something here?