The Non - League thread

[Royalist]

They do normally. This should cheer them up even if it does seem too good to be true!

[Christof]

Many Slough fans (myself included) have reservations about the relationship due to their past with Ebbsfleet, however the STFC Chairman has made it abundantly clear that ownership or part-ownership is not part of the deal, nor will it be in future. I take him at his word and will continue to do so.

Moaning - everyone wants investment, but also they want clarity, hence the apprehension.

[Royalist]

I don't get what is in it for the people that are putting money in. I kind of get the original concept even if it didn't work at all but paying for some club in a local league's away shirt sponsorship? Do they have the funds upfront?! If they do i'd snap their hand of but if they don't....

[Royal Rother]

Open letter to the supporters of Slough Town from http://Myfootballclub.co.uk about the sponsorship deal announced today between Myfootballclub.co.uk and Slough Town

The current proposal is for http://Myfootballclub.co.uk to engage in a two year sponsorship arrangement with Slough Town. MyFC engaged in a discussions with ten clubs ranging from Step 2 of Non-League pyramid down to a Sunday League club. Many more clubs approached MyFC with proposals. There was an intense debate within MyFC over its future direction and what it would expect from any relationship with a club.

To put things into context -

http://Myfootballclub.co.uk purchased a controlling 75% share in Ebbsfleet in Feb 2008. The purchase included clearing debts of approximately £750,000 that the club had. In effect, without MyFC purchasing the club, EUFC would have at the very least suffered major cutbacks in expenditure if not collapsing completely. The club was losing about £30,000-£40,000 per month when MyFC completed the purchase. Over the following 5 years MyFC invested a total of more than £1.5million. At the time of the takeover of EUFC, MyFC had a membership of 32,000. By the time of the sale of EUFC a few weeks ago the membership had dropped to about 1,000. Unfortunately the club continued to lose significant sums of money right up to the time of the sale of the club and for a variety of reasons MyFC were unable to gain any real control over the club’s finances. In the end MyFC concluded an agreement with KEH a Middle Eastern consortium (led in the UK by ex-Charlton CEO Peter Varney) that hopefully will see EUFC flourish and develop.

http://Myfootballclub.co.uk made a lot of mistakes during its five year ownership of EUFC. The membership of MyFC are only too well aware of all the difficulties that existed, all the mistakes it made – and is determined not to make any of the same mistakes again.

So – what’s the deal.

To address the motivations of the membership of http://Myfootballclub.co.uk in its future direction. This sponsorship deal is not a normal commercial sponsorship where companies are looking to market their name or product. MyFC have different priorities that the Management Committee of Slough Town have negotiated around these in a positive manner. The relationship so far has been based on mutual respect and interest.

1. http://Myfootballclub.co.uk is made up of a whole number of different types of members – we have fans of Premiership teams who are disgusted with the way money has ruined the game – we have people who have no team to support for a variety of reasons (mainly overseas members) – we have overseas members who want to follow English football as well as football in their own country – we even have some supporters of EUFC who have remained with MyFC because they agree with the current philosophy that MyFC is trying to adopt. At the end of the day – all of members of MyFC have an overriding interest in helping the development of grassroots, community based football and feel that collectively they can have a much bigger impact than they can individually.

2. http://Myfootballclub.co.uk has no interest in taking any ownership control of any football club (and this is all but unanimous among the membership) – it’s a case of – been there and done that – we know the problems and the pitfalls and we know that MyFC is not capable of running any football club remotely in an online environment.

3. http://Myfootballclub.co.uk would like to develop a long-term partnership arrangement with Slough Town. However, that would only be a viable option if the club, the fans and the local community were supportive of the idea. This is the reason for the initial two-year sponsorship deal. It’s a case of learning to walk before you run. Hopefully, over the next two years MyFC will be able to develop a positive relationship with the club, the fans and the local community in such a way that all parties will view a continued relationship as beneficial for everyone. If that does not happen – MyFC and the club will part ways.

4. All future involvement with Slough Town will be based on when and if the club, the fans and the local community want to develop and extend the relationship. http://Myfootballclub.co.uk recognises that it has to earn the trust of the club, the fans and the local community if there is going to be a long-term relationship between MyFC and Slough Town. MyFC feels it can contribute positively to the future of Slough Town and will do its best to make its contribution as positive as possible for everyone. There is no hidden agendas etc.

There will undoubtedly be some apprehension about these ‘outsiders’ becoming involved with your club. That is only to be expected. The membership of http://Myfootballclub.co.uk is only too well aware of issues that local fans can have with such a development. MyFC is hoping that over time fans will see the positives of MyFC’s involvement with Slough Town and that any negatives can be minimised and corrected. Members of MyFC from all over the world visited Stonebridge Road to see EUFC play over the past five years. Many UK members were regular attendees at EUFC games – both home and away. In the vast majority of cases the personal interaction between EUFC fans and MyFC members was very positive. Hopefully this will continue now with Slough Town.

We hope this will help to allay some of the apprehension surrounding this sponsorship deal and put http://Myfootballclub.co.uk ’s new arrangement with Slough Town into context

[Royal Rother]

They do normally. This should cheer them up even if it does seem too good to be true!

Actually, I was a day out of date - a fair bit of moaning now. And justifiably. The future looks somewhat uncertain. The amount of bad vibe coming from Ebbsfleet people and dire warnings about what MyFC do, and not to believe a word of anything they say is causing much unrest amongst the Rebels.

As has this statement by Slough FC's Chairman which was unearthed on the MyFC website, not previously made public knowledge to Slough fans.

It is my intention to re-structure the ownership of the club within the next year to a community owned club. I am familiar with the MYFC model of one person one vote (also functioning at Lewes I believe), and this would be the preferred model. In the near future I will be contacting and engaging with Supporters Direct to explore and establish the best and easiest way to implement community ownership.

[Hoop Blah]

Reading Town have new owners. Sounds very positive for the club.

http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/readingto ... 84878.html

Battersea and Wandsworth Trade Union Council Trading (BWTUC Trading) are pleased to announce the purchase of the majority shareholding of Reading Town Football Club.

etc, etc, etc

What possible reason could Battersea and Wandsworth TUC have to purchase a football club completely outside the region of their council? How very bizarre. You'd have thought that they'd have purchased Wandsworth Town or Battersea Terriers...

Apparently it's all to do with the running of the bars at the Festival and keeping Reading Town going, and at Scours Lane, protects their interest in those bars.

Interesting to see Millard back involved though as he basically left previously because they were skint.

[Royalist]

community owned club is fine when the people who own the club CARE deeply about the club! Not when they are not in the community! If i was a Slough fan i would be very very worried. They don't need a change of ownership whilst still looking for a ground or is that on the back burner now and part of the reason he's looking for an out? Slough fans should fight tooth and nail to not let MYFC get their foot in the door!

[Royal Rother]

This message is from Steve Easterbrook, in an attempt to provide supporters with some assurance:

I have read with interest all the comments that have been made today. Can I once again assure everyone that there is no hidden agenda, if MyFC wanted to own a club they would have gone and bought a club. They have said they do not want to own or run a club. I really don’t know what more I, the committee or MyFC can say.

With regard to community ownership I thought most fans up and down the UK wanted their clubs to be community owned, infact many are jumping up and down and insisting! I am confident that protections can be put place to ensure that a ‘consortium’ does not buy up enough shares to have a majority. However if this was MyFC’s intentions they could have done it to any one of the community owned clubs in the UK (but why would they buy shares in a club that they are not welcome at?). Also someone has said that only 200/300 would buy shares in a community club – Slough has a population of over 120,000 and I am more than confident that many would want to be part owner in STFC (other clubs have seen issued shares in the community running to tens of thousands – and the club has benefited massively not only financially but also in home game support). BUT this really is something for future discussions and I did not anticipate it as being seen as a bad thing?

However I feel people are getting paranoid about this. MyFc do not own the club and the decision making process of the club does not change. Can we at least allow the relationship to commence and get bedded in as it is only then that we can all make a judgement.

It's a fascinating thing evolving there on the Slough Forum.

[Royalist]

My god. It gets worse.

I wonder how many of the demographic call slough 'Home' i don't just mean people from aboard but young people from Windsor who cannot afford to live in Windsor or people who just moved to somewhere commutable distance from London Would they feel any affinity to a club that only 250 odd people go see and that hasn't played in slough for 10 years?! I highly highly doubt 20,000 people in the town even know where Slough play or what league they are in and of the ones that do even smaller amount would put any money into it!

I might have to create an account now i'm very intrigued!!

[Christof]

It could be an interesting evening at the STFC Fans' Forum tonight, that's for sure...

[Christof]

Local news round-up:-

Windsor had a break-in on Saturday...
http://www.windsorexpress.co.uk/News/Ar ... 072013.htm

Burnham had to cancel their Wycombe friendly due to the state of the pitch...
http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/ ... 072013.htm

Slough's fans forum seemed to go off okay, and the noise has died down around MyFC for the moment. Pre-season results have gone from winning 12-0 (Sandhurst), 9-0 (Holyport), and 3-0 (Binfield) to losing 3-1 at Hayes & Yeading (on a 4G pitch behind a mesh screen) and then losing 6-0 to Wealdstone on Wednesday - not the best way to see most of the players for the first time. Still, onwards to Biggleswade tomorrow...

[Four Of Clubs]

..for those of you not splashing your hard-earned at the Madstad for the visit of the 'Jacks' this PM - here's some local NL Pre-season fare:

Saturday 27th August
Abingdon Town v Dorchester (that's the N.Berks outfit NOT the Conference side)
Abingdon United v Bishops Cleeve
14:00 AFC Aldermaston v Woodley Town
Alton Town v Reading Town
14:00 Ascot United v Beaconsfield SYCOB @ Cantley Park
Bedfont Sports v Chertsey
Binfield v Windsor
Burnham v AFC Hayes
Clanfield FC (Oxon) (Jim Newman Memorial Cup Quarter Finals)
13:00 North Leigh v Headington Amateurs
16:15 Fairford Town v Milton United
Didcot Town v Bedworth United
14:00 Eton Wick v Burnham Res
12:00 Finchampstead v Reading YMCA
Hanworth Villa v Chalfont St Peter (Reserves match at 13:00 vs Rayners La.)
Hartley Wintney v Henley Town
Letcombe v Compton
Maidenhead United v Wingate & Finchley
13:00 & 15:00 Marlborough Town v Wootton Bassett Tn - double header incl Reserves match
New College v Highworth Town @ Supermarine RFC
North Leigh v Sholing
Penn & Tylers Green v Flackwell Heath
14:30 Shrivenham v Pewsey Vale
Winchester City (Community) FC v Fleet Town
14:00 Wokingham & Emmbrook v Bracknell Town @ Cantley Park - there are a few pitches available hence the AUFC v SYCOB above

... haven't needed to unfurl my Anorak yet - but have notched four PSFs so far: including RTFC at the YMCA ground in Henley (vs Reading YMCA) in unbearable heat - left at 0-2 - - they were playing 3 x 30' 'thirds' we left at 2/3rds time and missed 6 goals!
- caught two more games down in Zummerset whilst on holiday and nipped over to Marlow last Tuesday for a good tussle against Maidenhead Utd. Difficult to judge the comparative strengths - lots of subs 2nd half - but the Magpies were forced to defend for long periods before Marlow ran out of puff and ideas - finally ended 0-3.

[Royal Rother]

In pre-season Windsor have been very impressive.

4 new confirmed signings all look class, and a definite step up from areas where we were a little weak last season. The passing, movement and ball retention against teams in higher leagues has been good and as we won't come up against teams as good as Hayes & Yeading and Hampton & Richmond (or anywhere near them) in the CCL, I have to say I go into the season feeling extremely confident.

When Ben Harris gets fit (September we are told) then we will be damn near unbeatable in that League.

But then again, having used 92 players last season (albeit some exceptional circumstances contributed to that) we know how quickly a squad can change. Windsor don't pay the players but once other clubs come sniffing around, with a promise of £50+ per game, the rotating door might just get busy again. And then you never know....

But if the squad stays together we will win the league. (Big IF I appreciate.)

Can't wait to get started.

[Four Of Clubs]

In pre-season Windsor have been very impressive.

......

Can't wait to get started.

...so then RR - you off to Stubbs Lane this PM? (aka Hill Farm summat or other)

- they've upgraded the bar area - though the bar itself is still the same size - very nice couple that run it at Binfield - indeed the whole club are decidedly pleasant off the field - definitely have the best gate-man around - lovely ol' fellah; meets and greets everyone that drives in and asks where they've come from etc etc.

If my mate opts to go into 'Lord Lucan' mode this PM as is his wont - then I may well end up there meself!

[Royal Rother]

Yep, I'm off there shortly.

Look out for the bald guy in the loud orange and white shirt. Mind you, TB might out-do me on the shirt front if last week's effort is anything to go by!

[Four Of Clubs]

Yep, I'm off there shortly.

Look out for the bald guy in the loud orange and white shirt. Mind you, TB might out-do me on the shirt front if last week's effort is anything to go by!

...and don't call me 'sho...' ..... etc etc

.. no word from the elusive one and young-un won't be peeled off the couch - I'm still undecided - though I usually do Binfield several times a season so maybe not this PM

... regards to TB - enjoy the game.

[Royal Rother]

TB didn't make it either.

Binfield won 1-0, poor game really. Windsor missing a few but not a great way to finish pre season.

[Four Of Clubs]

... soz I didn't join you - eventually decided against the hordes flocking to 'Moles' vs 'Royalers/Staggers/Dodgy Wirers' or whatever your 'new clubs' nickname might be and dipped south of jn11 for a 'dust up' twixt Tadley and Highmoor/Ibis.

Was played on the outside pitch at Barlows Park - they didn't have an outside pitch when I last went, shortly after the ground opened back in '07 I think? Then again they didn't have a bar until quite recently either.

Shane S-K's boys were considerably sharper and eased to a 2-1 win - doubt if they'll challenge for honours in the Premier but would expect possibly somewhere close to the top 6.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

This message is from Steve Easterbrook, in an attempt to provide supporters with some assurance:

I have read with interest all the comments that have been made today. Can I once again assure everyone that there is no hidden agenda, if MyFC wanted to own a club they would have gone and bought a club. They have said they do not want to own or run a club. I really don’t know what more I, the committee or MyFC can say.

With regard to community ownership I thought most fans up and down the UK wanted their clubs to be community owned, infact many are jumping up and down and insisting! I am confident that protections can be put place to ensure that a ‘consortium’ does not buy up enough shares to have a majority. However if this was MyFC’s intentions they could have done it to any one of the community owned clubs in the UK (but why would they buy shares in a club that they are not welcome at?). Also someone has said that only 200/300 would buy shares in a community club – Slough has a population of over 120,000 and I am more than confident that many would want to be part owner in STFC (other clubs have seen issued shares in the community running to tens of thousands – and the club has benefited massively not only financially but also in home game support). BUT this really is something for future discussions and I did not anticipate it as being seen as a bad thing?

However I feel people are getting paranoid about this. MyFc do not own the club and the decision making process of the club does not change. Can we at least allow the relationship to commence and get bedded in as it is only then that we can all make a judgement.

It's a fascinating thing evolving there on the Slough Forum.

I know I'm coming to this late, but the key message of this is patently rubbish! To say " .... ensure that a ‘consortium’ does not buy up enough shares to have a majority. However if this was MyFC’s intentions they could have done it to any one of the community owned clubs in the UK " is nonsense - the whole point of any "community club", one which is owned by a Supporters' Trust as an Industrial & Provident Society simply cannot be taken over just by the buying up of shares. The IPS constitution is specifically design to stop that happening.

[AthleticoSpizz]

...for the descerning yet typically thick 'nobber, can you abridge all of this?