ictchris

Another question I had - why are our current chairman and our former chairman both telling the media that the club has never been profitable, or has only been profitable once in the last twenty years? This is proveably untrue - the club has made profits in 2006, 2007, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Those are only the years that I can find figures for. In addition, during those years that we made losses we didn't have any debt and didn't rely on bailouts. In addition to this, when we were relegated in 2009, we 'wrote off' a year to try and get back into the top flight, gave out one year deals so if we didn't go up we would be able to rebudget.

If he's been working without pay then he'll join teh queue of creditors - he'll be quite high up it as a football creditor. I wouldn't start joining hands and singing Kumbya for the guy just yet. Personally, I think he's been a terrible manager. Even if you leave aside the on-pitch issues, he was completely silent as the club was in turmoil in teh summer, saying nothing about the Kelty move, he seems to have done nothing about the situation with Aaron Doran for example. He's not been a leader, he's defeatist and has a bad attitude. It's the opposite of what we thought we'd get from employing him. Does anyone know if we are actually confirming going into admin or are we just leaving it? Has the laptop at the stadium been sold to raise money to pay off Scott Gardiner?

Three part article in the P&J about Gardiner and his reign. Appalling details. The guy is an absolute idiot.

If people want to donate to the crowd funder then good for them. I don't see what it is actually going to achieve. Will we have one every month? At least with Hearts Foundation donations the people donating are part of the ownership of the club. I haven't read all this thread, or all of the other discussion, but as far as I can tell, the club is screwed. We owe millions to previous board members who, despite the update a month ago from Alan Savage, haven't agreed to take it on the chin because they can't afford to. The club needs to limp on until the Scottish Government offer an appeal on the battery farm, if that gets the green light then the money can go to pay off the creditors and we can start with a clean slate. If it doesn't then the club goes into admin, potentially (likely) liquidation. Even if we don't we could get demoted, we could lose our license etc. Genuinely the worse run club in Scottish football since 2015. Appalling.

Reading that statement, the club is f*cked. First point is a crowdfunder to raise £200,000 to keep us going for a couple of weeks, second is "email Panos with money making ideas". Appalling. The people they are asking for money have already put in thousands of pounds to the club over the years - they are season ticket holders, shareholders, people who buy merchandise etc. You can't just keep going back to that well, especially as the club has been so poorly run. When we got relegated I wondered if we'd make it through the summer, now I'm pretty sure we won't make it through the season.

Every update just seems to be the same - we are making massive losses, it's unsustainable, we need more funding. What's the plan for getting out from under this? You can't do a monthly crowdfnder for £200,000.

The forensic auditors reporting back on the losses

More details in the Courier today about the Portugese company. https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/portuguese-wealth-management-firm-ready-to-pump-2-5-million-359019/ Doesn't sound like it's the company referred to above. For those who can't see the article The article goes on to say that the Chinese investors had to withdraw their interest due to reglations preventing them investing in the UK. And also, to the surprise of no-one, Ketan Makwana did not provide any proof of funds to the club during his bid.

Monza were owned by the Berlusconi family, since Silvio died they sold the controlling interest to Orienta Capital Partners, who are an Italian private equity company. Orienta have a relationship with Faro Alternative Investments - https://www.faroalternativeinvestments.com/orienta-capital-partners/ - who are a Luxemberg based investment group. Faro is a city in Portugal so maybe the people behind the company are Portugese, this might be who are being refered to.

Alan Savage said in the P&J that he has put £150,000 in, presumably to meet immedate wage needs etc.

They should replace the entire board - they all signed off on the Kelty move, they all signed off on the Makwana takeover, they all signed off on a massive deal for Ferguson, they all signed off on continuing to employ Gardiner, they have all stood there as the club withers while we try and pull off strange property deals to make a quick buck.

If this is correct then I imagine as soon as it came time for Makwana to produce some money he ran in the other direction.

I posted this in a Hayes and Yeading fans Facebook group. Here's what they said If he has obtained funding for this deal from somewhere then we need to know where it got it from. The only source of money seems to be from this Jersey finance company, which given it's location is going to be a black hole of information. I had assumed that you need to offer proof of funding to purchase shares in a company, from what the H&Y fans say, he'll string us along and then not come up with anything - costing us time and effort that could have been spent finding an actual investor. I think I said on here or on P&B that our useless board of idiots would find the worst possible 'investment' partners and they may well have done it.

Post on Ketan Makwana's LInkedIn Paul Nelson - Invovled in various ventures, head of the UEFA AAA alumni organisation, runs Impact Soccer, a coaching organisation in Australia who have a partnership with Celtic, Some of the comments refer to Ketan Makwana taking part in events on football business with Thomas Hitzlesperger, who is an ex-German international who has recently been CEO of VFB Stuttgart.

As someone noted on P&B, our board consists of a bunch of retired doctors and vets, most of whom are in their 70s and they've been sweet talked / rain-made by some Web3, crypto bro. You just hope that at some point someone checks that there is money there but I don't hold out much hope.

The evidence from public records is that this company has no money. Either the guy has money in the bank from his other businesses and he has an overwhelming desire to spend it on lower league Scottish football or he has backers and partners providing the money. The other option is that he doesn't have any of it and is Lyle Lanley-ing us.

I'll call it now - these guys won't take over. They won't be able to prove funds. If they do manage to take over, we'll be in administration and probably out of existence in a few months.

Here's his LinkedIn AboutAbout With extensive career experience in IT, Electronics & Healthcare, Ketan moved into self-employment and entrepreneurship in 2009 during the economic crash. Since then Ketan has successfully launched, scaled and sold multiple ventures in the recruitment and marketing verticals; in 2011 Ketan launched Enterprise Lab - a talent and business innovation agency operating in 26 countries with a network of 250 experienced professionals delivering in their niche; in 2022, Enterprise Lab got acquired by the Innovation arm of European Central Bank In 2021 during the core of the pandemic, Ketan co-founded Seventy7 Ventures a platform that focuses on the digital and technology acceleration of the Creative Industries offering Strategic Consulting, Capital Raising and Venture Partnering services. Seventy7 Ventures was awarded the Best of British Business 2023 by The Independent for its impact on British Businesses. Ketan has served as a Special Advisor to a UK Prime Minister and a former President; he is regularly involved in economic policy shaping for several governments with a high focus on digital economy. Ketan is a renowned international speaker having delivered keynotes across 5 continents and 42 cities.

Massive red flags. The guy tried to buy Hayes and Yeading FC but not sure what came of it. He seems to be a businss speaker rather than running any actual companies. He is involved in crypto currency, which is not a reliable market.

Clyde fans on P&B suggesting that we are in for Jordan Allan, Falkirk striker.

The thing about all this is, the fans want to support the club. People want to buy tickets, they want to just support a normal club. All the board need to do is not be petulent, incompetent, puffed up small-town losers but they can't because that's what they are.

Cameron Ferguson training with us today. Jake Davidson back as well.