Will Duchatelet’s ears be pricking up.🤔

Please don't disturb Airman, he's fighting another good cause atm. I was working away with LBC on last week and he was in the process of undermining Farage with some unpaid or OTT event costs or similar  - 'Richard Everitt, described by Reform as a digruntled ex council employee' - water off a ducks back i'm sure.    

It’s about stripping Sport England of its statutory right to be consulted about planning applications on sports fields, not about major stadiums 

Richard J said:

DOUCHER said:

Please don't disturb Airman, he's fighting another good cause atm. I was working away with LBC on last week and he was in the process of undermining Farage with some unpaid or OTT event costs or similar  - 'Richard Everitt, described by Reform as a digruntled ex council employee' - water off a ducks back i'm sure.    

Think that is a namesake and not Airman 

Somehow I don't think he would ever have supported Farage as this ' disgruntled' gentleman had previously done 

he wasn't supporting Farage - the opposite 

shirty5 said:

SoundAsa£ said:

I didn’t catch the whole of the piece on BBC news this morning but there was some mention of new legislation regarding freeing up playing fields and sports grounds for housing development.
I wonder will this in any way affect Sparrows Lane. 🫣
Airman/Prague one for you guys to ponder on maybe?

Unless Greenwich Council want to once again be the biggest bunch of arseholes they was over 35 years ago then there is nothing to worry about 

The Labour run council could not be that stupid could they 

I wonder if they’ll still be in charge after May, but don’t want to think of anyone else who might think alienating our fanbase - again - would be a good idea.

SoundAsa£ said:

TelMc32 said:

shirty5 said:

SoundAsa£ said:

I didn’t catch the whole of the piece on BBC news this morning but there was some mention of new legislation regarding freeing up playing fields and sports grounds for housing development.
I wonder will this in any way affect Sparrows Lane. 🫣
Airman/Prague one for you guys to ponder on maybe?

Unless Greenwich Council want to once again be the biggest bunch of arseholes they was over 35 years ago then there is nothing to worry about 

The Labour run council could not be that stupid could they 

I wonder if they’ll still be in charge after May, but don’t want to think of anyone else who might think alienating our fanbase - again - would be a good idea.

Well yes and no.
Surely it depends on what the legislation says…..it may openly allow sales of private sports grounds which were previously protected in one way or another.
I have no idea…..maybe I am worrying about nothing.🫤

It’s got nothing to do with the Valley, it’s a change to who gets consulted and Sport Englands ability to veto development 

But it’s in active use, the changes are
there to speed up development on dead sites which have no opportunity of coming back. Sport England would go, it was once and could again, so no to the development 

stoneroses19 said:

Haven't seen it, but presumably they weren't talking about professional sports grounds, and rather amateur/local venues. 

There's no way there's legislation coming in which will allow owners to sell land/knock down professional sports grounds for development purposes. 

BBC Report:

JustFloydRoad said:

stoneroses19 said:

Haven't seen it, but presumably they weren't talking about professional sports grounds, and rather amateur/local venues. 

There's no way there's legislation coming in which will allow owners to sell land/knock down professional sports grounds for development purposes. 

BBC Report:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/l0057sgh/housebuilding-reforms-could-threaten-playing-fields

The Guardian Article

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/22/stars-urge-uk-government-not-to-scrap-sport-england-brake-on-playing-field-selloff

That's such a misguided proposal:

To remove the need for consultation on whether to build on sports fields from the one body whose purpose is to fight for sports fields!

Aren't there enough brownfield sites, underused carparks, derelict shopping centres, underused offices, etc on which to build more housing?

Greenwich lost a battle years ago about building on the old GAA sports ground off Avery Hill Road - that's now a development called Holland Gardens after a planning inspector overruled its objections. 

There's currently a plan in to build on the STC sports ground in New Eltham, across the other side of Footscray Road: https://benews.co.uk/sigma-submits-plans-for-new-eltham-homes/

TelMc32 said:

shirty5 said:

SoundAsa£ said:

I didn’t catch the whole of the piece on BBC news this morning but there was some mention of new legislation regarding freeing up playing fields and sports grounds for housing development.
I wonder will this in any way affect Sparrows Lane. 🫣
Airman/Prague one for you guys to ponder on maybe?

Unless Greenwich Council want to once again be the biggest bunch of arseholes they was over 35 years ago then there is nothing to worry about 

The Labour run council could not be that stupid could they 

I wonder if they’ll still be in charge after May, but don’t want to think of anyone else who might think alienating our fanbase - again - would be a good idea.

Of course they will be in charge as any election which looks like ending in defeat will be cancelled for 3 years.

SoundAsa£ said:

Sword65pf said:

SoundAsa£ said:

Rothko said:

SoundAsa£ said:

TelMc32 said:

shirty5 said:

SoundAsa£ said:

I didn’t catch the whole of the piece on BBC news this morning but there was some mention of new legislation regarding freeing up playing fields and sports grounds for housing development.
I wonder will this in any way affect Sparrows Lane. 🫣
Airman/Prague one for you guys to ponder on maybe?

Unless Greenwich Council want to once again be the biggest bunch of arseholes they was over 35 years ago then there is nothing to worry about 

The Labour run council could not be that stupid could they 

I wonder if they’ll still be in charge after May, but don’t want to think of anyone else who might think alienating our fanbase - again - would be a good idea.

Well yes and no.
Surely it depends on what the legislation says…..it may openly allow sales of private sports grounds which were previously protected in one way or another.
I have no idea…..maybe I am worrying about nothing.🫤

It’s got nothing to do with the Valley, it’s a change to who gets consulted and Sport Englands ability to veto development 

I’m reffering to Sparrows Lane, not The Valley.

If there was the slightest chance of losing sparrows lane to the property market they wouldn’t bother improving the current facility , so I’d say the legal side of things are pretty clued up on all of this. These people at the club aren’t for pissing money up the wall. 

Ermmmm……..that work was carried out sometime back when there was no suggestion that Sparrows Lane could ever be sold for housing development.
So, sorry to say, your comment is somewhat irrelevant.

So they’re hasn’t been any improvements recently?, if you are so in the know maybe enlighten people instead of the condescending comment, I’m happy to be corrected if wrong.

TootingRedArmy said:

Charlton Athletic: proof that you can be handed eight different grounds, a conveyor belt of rubbish owners, and still have our supporters turn up every Saturday. However, we’ll only truly get our Charlton back when Roland Duchâtelet finally sods off back into his Belgian bunker, never to meddle again.  One club. One ground. One training base. One ownership that actually gives a toss. It’s not revolutionary, it’s just football. This is one time, I wish I was a German and as fans we could have a fighting chance of owning our club like majority do in The Bungasleague. I simply don't trust any owner(s) to get "Charlton" and run our club successfully and return us back to the top division. It hurts to see Brentford, Fulham, Palace as established Prem clubs, these clubs historically weren't in same 'league" as us, so you can only look at our historic rubbish owners, as to why we spent a  decade in League One & struggling to re-establish ourselves not as Prem club but as a middle table championship club! In Nathan we have faith but he needs proper backing now & these Yanks I'm on the fence till i see them spend $$$$ & get the ownership of  Valley and Sparrows Lane out of Rolands mitts. 

Historically, we’ve been dealt a rotten hand, but the one constant has always been our fans. Through adversity, chaos and outright farce, we showed fight and resilience, dragged Charlton back to The Valley, and stared down the “Ratty Belgian” with humour, banners, and the kind of creativity only Charlton supporters can muster. Protest done properly and even a political party to give Greenwich a boot to get us back from Upton Park + Selhurst park. No one can describe supporting the Addicks as boring ! 

If only the Gliksteins had shown a shred of foresight way back in the mists of time, who knows? A massive London club. Bigger than Arsenal? Why not? . Instead, we’ve endured chancers, crooks, and conmen, with just a glorious few years under Lennie in Div 1 & Curbs Premier League blips to remind us what could be.

Great club. Great supporters. Consistently let down from above.
Do I have faith in the current Yankie owners? Honestly… not really. But hope is kind of our thing.

COYA's

The fact that the owners are looking for financing for 20 million quid signals to me that they are not actively looking to purchase the Valley and SL. It seems they do not want to dip into their own pockets any further and are looking to recoup some of their costs. We will see if they do get the financing whether it will be invested in the squad.