The takeover debate

The case against by Paul May

I am not happy about what is happening to English football and now it's happening to Charlton. Foreign geezers coming in and taking over our clubs. No wonder the English team is in such a mess, our own lads don't get a chance.

If I wanted to support a London club that was going to get silverware regularly, I could support Arsenal as a lot of people do in South-East London. But I have stuck with Charlton thick and thin. Because it's my club.

And then we hear that the prospective buyers are Nigerian or Russian. Both dodgy countries if you ask me. How many of you have had E mail scams from Nigeria? And the country has a terrible reputation for corruption. And Russia isn't much better from what I hear.

I think these geezers are only in it for the money. They'll build houses on Sparrers Lane if they can get the permission and then they'll sell off The Valley. And we'll be ground sharing with Millwall.

And what's going to happen to our free season ticket offer if we got promoted? (Not that that looks likely at the moment). I bet these blokes won't stand by it.

I reckon we are going to lose supporters over this. A lot of people I know have said they will walk away. And where's that going to leave us? People will start watching non-league instead.

Anyway I reckon it's all going to go pear shaped in English football. TV audiences will fall, Sky will walk away and the foreign owners will disappear leaving the clubs with no money.

If we do have to have new owners, let's hope for someone who is British.

The case for by Wyn Grant

My starting point is that economic globalisation is a reality. Football has become a business and that is not entirely a bad thing. Indeed, Simon Kuper makes a persuasive case in the Financial Times for football becoming more businesslike. Amateur management by small businessmen was not a golden age.

I think that Richard Murray and the board consider that they have taken the club as far as they can with their resources and that there is also a need for new thinking. After all, the board did lose the plot last season and the consequences are still with us. Charlton fans were tolerant about this because of the great things that the current board have achieved. But the board themselves may realise that a new chapter in the club's history needs to begin.

There are Charlton owners I have been far from happy with. But that hasn't changed my allegiance to the club. Players come and go, managers come and go even owners. But Charlton remains Charlton. It is the collective identity of the fans that ultimately matters.

I would have quite liked Chinese owners myself because I think the 21st century is China's century. But I am less worried about where they come from rather than their own personal track record and what they can commit in terms of funding (they should also commit to the free season ticket offer). I am confident that the board and their advisers would not sell to the wrong person and attach appropriate conditions.

I don't know Sparrows Lane well enough to know whether we need all of it and whether some of it could be sold for housing. Or whether we can sell it off and relocate. I think that in the present climate of government thinking on housing, permission could be given for developments that would not have been given in the past.

But I do not think thar we should see the new owners as potential asset strippers. What a lot of foreign owners want is prestige and an enjoyable hobby from owning a football club. In the case of Russians it is also an insurance policy against getting locked up at home.

As for losing supporters, aggregate attendance figures conceal a great more churn in the support base than is often realised. There is also a difference between what people say and what they do.

I doubt whether the television product is going to collapse. People like to see some of the best players in the world compete. And I haven't seen a great jump in non-league attendances. I go to non-league matches because they do offer something different. But they don't offer football quality.

Of course, all this may come to nothing. Or there may simply be an injection of capital from someone who took a stake in the company, perhaps with a view to a later takeover. But if we want Charlton be anything more than a yo-yo club at best, we are going to need more resources. And I would like to see the Addicks get some real success at last.