Walsall Supporters’
Trust report on WFC AGM, 07/11/05
Board
members attending Roy Whalley, R
Tisdale, and C Welch with auditors BDO.
J W Bonser
sent his apologies.
Shareholders
attending: 8.
Meeting
started 9.00am.
No matters arising from previous minutes.
The
following resolutions: to accept the statement of accounts and Directors
report, the re-appointment of auditors and their remuneration, and the election
of J W Bonser were all passed unanimously. The Trust abstained.
At the
election of Mr Bonser, RW thanked the shareholders for their vote of confidence
in Bonser and expressed the amount of hard work he put in, and how the club had
improved. He noted that as we move forward JWB will continue with the same
level of commitment
AOB
Geoff
Altman asked: “is there an FA ruling that both teams have to take to the pitch
together?”
RW replied:
“ there is a ruling which comes under crowd safety imposed by the FA.”
Geoff
Altman then asked: “could the Dam Buster theme tune be played as the teams run
out?”
Whalley
replied that a lot of debate had been done about the music and the club had
received good feedback about the present music “Pirates of the Caribbean”,
“Smile” and “One step beyond”. He said it was a generation thing but the
younger people and the players preferred the modernistic approach and that you
never get 100% approval.
WST questions
At this
moment in time the WST representative received a glare from Whalley before he
read from a prepared statement. The representative, Phil Sturgess, tried to get
as much down as possible but still expected to receive a reply in writing at
the end. Unlike last year, this didn’t come, so our apologies if we have missed
some information.
1. With
regard to the Sporting Khalsa/ Kick racism out of football question.
Whalley:
“very disappointed that the Trust should raise this issue with all that the
club do with regard their community work.” He accused us of not reading the
programme /media and the club website to see the good publicity they receive,
disappointed that we were not aware of the multi faith 6-a-side competion they
held (we were aware), that they work closely with Walsall MBC and been praised
by the Mayor.
Note: this is irrelevant as we asked what
strategies were in-place and how they would measure success (e.g. attendances
up). We have previously congratulated them on their community work. The
question was dodged.
RW stated
that “This may have something to do with the Leader of them being in university
education of Teeside ( Stressed) and not close to the workings of the club”.
Note: Richard Hall does not live or work
in the north-east. Whilst six of the seven Trustees live within 15 minutes
drive of the club, information is available in the print and on-line media. The
point raised here is petty innuendo.
RW noted
that WFC run after-school clubs, stadium tours and courses for ethnic groups
and he was disappointed with the Trust’s Knowledge.
Note: the Trust question congratulated
them on this work and asked how they would measure its success. RW didn’t
answer this question.
2. Ron
Atkinson
RW read out
the question then went back to the sentence that contained the word propagate.
He said that was a very serious inference as propagate was “to encourage” and he was not aware that RA had done that.
He then
said “ RA had paid a heavy penalty for what had happened, no criminal offence
had occurred, and it had not gone to court, and that as a manager he had been a
pioneer in employing ethnic players like Brendan Batson etc, and we are
concerned by the discriminatory tone of the question.”
Note: please see our letter in response
to this point.
He had been
invited because he had enjoyed along and fascinating career in football, the
first night had been sold out so great was the demand, and another night was expected
to be sold out soon The club couldn’t put him in the stadium suite as Paul
Gascoigne was in there. RW then asked “what about him he is a wife beater”
noting that if the club has to research everyone who comes we will be left with
very few to choose from.
Note: please see our letter in response
to this point.
RW noted
that the Club do not take kindly to questions about its commitment to Equal
Opportunities and this question doesn’t reflect the club’s approach. Indeed
this is not the type of question for the AGM it is more for the Focus group of
which there is one tonight.
Note: please see our letter in response
to this point. Also note that we believe the dissemination of information about
the focus group was poor.
3. With
regard to net liabilities
Whalley
said that the directors pledge their support for the next 12 months and beyond.
They have 2 options: Administration or managing the club to profitability and
the Trust should reflect on how fortunate the club us to have a board as
supportive as it is.
Note: in 2002 after the collapse of ITV Digital Bonser stated: “"Any
well-run business will always have contingency plans in hand, just in case a
major sponsor pulls out or it hits a difficult trading situation”. He went on
to add that “our prudent housekeeping in recent years has enabled us to manage
the unfavourable financial circumstances. And it is my intention that the club
will return to profitability during the 2003-04 financial year.’’ In 2003 he
stated that “The measures taken have restricted the loss during the year to £1m
and we will make big inroads into that during the current 12 months”. He also
stated: “The policy of undertaking such ventures as the Sunday market has paid
dividends because when you see so-called well run clubs like Ipswich going into
administration then you know there will be many more in the future. I am sure
we haven’t seen the end of the problems because a lot of clubs are really in
trouble. They will rue the day they didn’t heed the warning signs”
Issue: other than Directors loans there
seems to be little keeping us from administration. How does this square with
the pronouncements made by Bonser about contingency plans and heeding warning
signs? How will the fact that the club does not own the land it plays on affect
its ability to attract investment? Without investment how can higher league
football and therefore raised turnover be attained and maintained? How is this
financial strategy sustainable?
4. Cash
Flow
Whalley:
The board work to maintain its cash flow targets but when things like Loan
players , injuries etc can affect the cash flow, but they were determined to
move the club to profit.
5. Plans to
become self sufficient
RW: The
Club has suffered because of the ITV digital collapse it had put players on
contracts to reflect the three year deal but these contracts were now at an
end. Even though we have not had to sell any of our younger players if we
received an offer at the correct price we would consider it.
6. He then
made a statement to tell the meeting that written responses would be include in
next years AGM.
Meeting
closed at 9.26am.
When Phil
asked Whalley why he would not give me a written response he replied “ that’s
the way it is”.
Phil
advised the Board that the whole meeting was a farce and that as shareholders
of the club, but more importantly as customers, they ought to treat us with
more respect. It should be noted that RW had greeted everyone in the room prior
to the meeting with a “good morning” etc except him. Coupled with the lack of
written responses this highlights the pettiness of the whole board.