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Welcome to the
final edition of FOULMouth, the irregular newsletter of FOUL (Fighting for
Oxford United’s Life). Since FOUL
was formed almost 3 years ago in early November 1998 we’ve tried to keep the
fans up to date on our fight to keep Oxford United alive and move to a new
stadium. Now that the new stadium
is at last a reality and the club’s survival is not threatened FOUL’s work
has just about come to an end.
In this final
FOULMouth there’s a look back at some of the more interesting (and a few not
so interesting) events of the last 3 years and a look forward to some
possibilities for a supporters organisation for the future and how fans can get
involved in this. We’ve also
included a summary of a question and answer session FOUL had with Firoz Kassam a
few weeks back, where we tried to raise some of the concerns and questions of
supporters that we’d collected since the move to Minchery Farm.
It’s been
something of a roller-coaster ride over the last 3 years. Whilst the club’s on the field downward spiral has been all
too plain for everybody to see, there have been many highs and lows in the
campaign to save our club.
Back in November
of ’98 the future looked extremely bleak and survival until even the end of
the month seemed to be something of a long shot.
At that time the owner and ex-chairman Robin Herd had handed overall
control of the club to Managing Director, Keith Cox whilst he looked for a buyer
for the club. Work on the new
stadium project had stopped over 18 months earlier, players and club staff’s
wages were unpaid and the club had stacked up debts of over £13 million.
A mystery
consortium under the name of Grenoble Investments, which was supposed to take
over the club and restart the stadium at Minchery Farm, had just collapsed.
Despite Keith Cox continuing to tell the fans that something could be
rescued from the deal, it was obvious that unless something was done pretty soon
the whole shaky pack of cards that Oxford United now was would come tumbling
down.
FOUL’s first
task was to get publicity for the club’s plight. This led us to do some fairly
strange things in the early days, such as balloon races, and to assemble what is
(probably) the world’s longest football scarf, which was paraded round a
number of grounds and venues. There
was also the bid to vote Malcolm Shotton as BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
We did actually manage to get enough votes for a mention on Grandstand
and a follow up feature on Football Focus, but with hindsight it’s probably
just as well that we weren’t successful.
Whether the
publicity actually made any difference in finding a new owner is open to debate
but a new owner was found in the shape of Firoz Kassam.
One thing’s sure though, FOUL got plenty of publicity locally which not
only focused the minds of the City Council and its
leader at the time, John Tanner,
but also meant we had a very strong membership very quickly.
It was this large membership that gave us the credibility to go and talk
to politicians and others. So if
all you did was sign up as a member of FOUL then you played a valuable part in
the fight to save your club.
It’s impossible
here to go into every detail of the FOUL campaign, although hopefully one day
the full story will be told. If the FOUL committee members who put their hands
up to volunteer in the old Manor Social Club, or the Dark n’ Dingy as our
second home came to be known, had known what they were letting themselves in for
they not only wouldn’t have believed it but probably would have kept quiet.
The Sunday paper
“exposé” claiming Keith Cox’s involvement in multi-million dollar land
fraud in Florida, resulting in his resignation as Managing Director, marked the
start of many bizarre and unbelievable episodes.
Collectively we’ve had private meetings in pubs and hotels all over
Oxfordshire, with for example directors of local breweries intent on extracting
money out of a football club already on its knees, and with ex-directors and
would-be owners of the club with unbelievable stories and even more unbelievable
rescue plans. Conversations with executives from Thames Water, greedy property
developers, greedy landowners, aspiring stadium constructors, and even Rugby
club chairmen.
We’ve met with
just about every senior City and County Councillor and officer you could care to
mention and most local MPs, made seemingly countless trips to the High Court in
London and attended definitely countless council meetings in Oxford (even more
boring).
We encountered an
ex-Oxford Utd player, who not only believed a famous high street bank were
behind a conspiracy to bring the club to its knees, but also had a plan to sue
Oxford City Council for millions of pounds to finance the stadium using his
“financial forensic techniques” supposedly learnt whilst playing for Arsenal
in the 1960’s!
In the midst of
all this came a bid from the “Gang of Four” (as dubbed by The Oxford Mail)
to take control of the club which involved a supposedly confidential meeting
with FOUL being announced on ITV’s Central News bulletin, just days after one
of the main “gangsters” launched his bid for the club on a live ITV link
from the Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona.
Was it all worth
it? Of course it was, because for
the first time in 40 years Oxford United has a secure home in a modern stadium
with a new owner and can at last begin to look forward to a future unburdened by
crippling debt and high court legal challenges. We know everything isn’t perfect and there’s still plenty
of work to be done in our new home, and we hope that supporters can play an
important part in that work, but Oxford United is still very much alive and
kicking.
A summary of the
highlights of the FOUL campaign wouldn’t be complete without a big thank you
to all the people who bought sweatshirts, donated money and helped out in so
many ways such as knocking on doors to carry out residents surveys, letters to
MP’s and handing out leaflets and Without
their support FOUL would never have been able to do anything.
The FOUL committee met with Firoz
Kassam on 13th September and put a series of questions to him.
We concentrated on issues relating to the new stadium and the financial
position of the club as well as following up on a number of things that FOUL was
involved in leading up to the move to the new stadium.
We deliberately did not (formally) ask any football specific questions as
we have always said this is outside the main aim of FOUL – The survival of
Oxford United FC.
Here are the questions and answers in no particular order:
What are your
thoughts on an Independent Supporters Association or a Supporters’ Trust?
Would you be prepared to meet regularly with such an organisation?
I would have no problem with such an
organisation so long as it is constructive and sensible.
Yes, I would be prepared to meet regularly with it and to provide meeting
space.
When will the North Stand be opened to home supporters?
We had a safety meeting today and netting is on
order, we would expect it to take 2 to 3 weeks to be installed and then the
stand can be reopened. (Since the
meeting it has been announced that this will be at the home game against York
City)
What additional car parking options are being explored?
The Science Park currently don’t want to allow
us access to their parking facilities. We
will approach them again. Oxford
Bus Company is looking at the possibility of providing shuttle buses from the
Unipart car park but we are in their hands as to whether they have sufficient
vehicles. These options will be
explored first.
Can the barriers obstructing views from some seats in the South stand upper tier be removed or modified?
No, the barriers are a safety requirement.
However we will ask about possible alternative designs.
How many executive boxes are occupied?
So far 10 boxes have been sold so the uptake is
disappointing.
What is being done to improve the commercial activity at the club? Will the ideas generated at earlier meetings be explored?
It’s no secret that commercial activity has
been less than hoped. The current
Commercial Manager has left the club and we are actively recruiting a
replacement. We will then pick up
on these ideas.
How are conference centre bookings going?
We have not been actively pushing the conference
centre until the builders are out. There is still a lot of dust around and it
creates a bad impression. However we are taking advance bookings.
Is here any intention to develop other stands?
We’re considering developing the East Stand,
for example to incorporate a club shop. But we really haven’t had time to
think about it yet.
Is there any truth in the rumour that the old country club next to the Priory is to be refurbished for match days?
Yes we are planning to do so because the Priory
is inadequate particularly once the weather gets colder.
Some redevelopment may be undertaken at the Priory as well but is not
planned just yet.
Are there any plans for a supporters’ club facility?
This hasn’t been considered seriously as yet.
Will a rugby club be ground sharing in 2002?
There is no news to report on ground sharing
with a rugby club and no proposals as yet. I am considering buying one though.
What are the terms of the lease on the stadium?
OUFC has security of tenure for 25 years. The
club is charged a sum of the same order as the Manor running costs – from
memory it is of the order of £200k per annum.
Where do the various revenues go?
Revenue from tickets, advertising, programmes
and TV rights go to the club. Catering
revenues go to the stadium company.
Do you now own all the shares in the Stadium Company?
Yes I have purchased them from the City Council and will have to make
the payment for this as soon as the stadium is officially completed and Birse
hand over the site fully.
When will the hotel be started and finished?
The contract for building the hotel has not yet
been placed. A soil survey was done
last week. We don’t expect builders to be on site during the next few weeks.
Summer 2002 is a target date for opening.
What will be the relationship between the hotel and conference centre?
They will be separate companies. The Hotel will
have its own snack bar facilities but will not have a restaurant.
Restaurant and catering for hotel guests will be in the conference
centre. The hotel is important to
make the conference centre business more viable.
When will the leisure development be started and finished?
The leisure development will not be started in
the short term because of market conditions. The multiplex market is difficult
at the present time and companies are asking for reverse premiums to locate
their new cinemas here. The cinema is the basic requirement because other
developers will follow once it is in place.
What are the plans for the land purchased from Les Wells?
None at present.
Have you heard anything form Les Wells, Roy Pack Tim Midgley etc?
No. Les came and
cleared his building materials away from the Minchery Farm site but that’s it.
Have you heard anything from the “Gang of Four”?
George Bailey and Hamish Dewer still come to matches.
I invited Jim Rosenthal and David Bower to the opening game as my guests
to show there was no bad feeling on my part but they didn’t reply.
What is the expected financial position for OUFC this season?
We are still looking to bring in one or two
players but our wage bill of something like £1.6m is one of the highest in the
division. We have a number of high
earners. Budgeted on an average
gate of 6,200 we expect the loss this season to be around £750k.
What are your long term financial expectations for OUFC?
I expect the club to lose between £500k and £1
million per season. Hopefully this
can be balanced by revenues from the Conference Centre, Stadium catering etc.
What are your expectations for the season?
I think we now have a good manager and Mark
Wright and I have a good working relationship.
All of the new signings have been OK.
Sometimes Mark has decided players are not the ones he wants although the
money has been available. Joe
Kinnear’s promise about Harrods has almost put me off buying further players
to strengthen the team!
Do you intend to continue your ‘hands on’ role at the club? Some quite minor decisions seem to get referred to you?
Yes it's true that a lot of decisions are
referred to me. But I am on site a lot and it shouldn't be a problem. I have
taken on a commitment to the club and I will see it through.
I have no idea how long it will take but I will not hand the running over
to others until it is running as I would like it.
This may take 6-12 months.
As we wrote at the start of this FOULMouth, FOUL as an organisation is now no more. We were only ever a single-issue group and with the club’s survival and move to the new stadium completed, that aim is achieved.
Oxford United fans do, however, need a voice to represent their views on the running of the club to the board and the owner. There are many issues on which the fans should have the opportunity to put forward their views and a supporters organisation which can speak for fans as a whole is much more likely to be taken seriously than fans approaching the club as individuals.
However, there is no way such an organisation could emerge from FOUL. The FOUL committee were unelected and it was simply not practical or affordable to consult the 1000-plus FOUL members on every legal issue and the twists and turns along the way.
So what we propose is this. We have organised an open fans’ meeting at which everyone can express their views about the way forward. To provide information about the options followed by fans of other clubs, we have arranged for speakers to tell us briefly about different approaches, particularly Independent Supporters Associations (ISAs) and Trusts.
It will be entirely up to the fans to decide for themselves what type of organisation emerges, or none at all, and what issues it should address. So if you have concerns about the club, and want to do something positive, come to the meeting, hear what it’s about, and get involved.
See below for details.
FOUL
Invites
Oxford United Fans
to a meeting to decide the future of an independent supporters
organisation.
at
The
Kassam Stadium
on
Thursday 15th November
at 7:00pm -
8:30pm
Who were we....
FOUL
was an independent supporters organisation dedicated to publicising the real
danger of closure that was facing Oxford United Football Club and working to
ensure the survival of the football club. It
was formed by a meeting of supporters on 10th November 1998 at Oxford Utd.
Supporters Club. The
FOUL Committee was:
Paul Beasley
Martin Brodetsky
Rob Collier
John Evans
Frank Farrant
Steve Hanks
Rob Hedges
Helen Joslin
Trevor Lambert
Mark Mallinson
David Pryor
Michele Rodriguez
James Schall
