Remarks by Charlton non-executive director Leo Rifkind have gone like a lead balloon with fans.
Rifkind tweeted, ‘Financial sustainability in football means
money going out = money going in. This means that the club is its own guardian
and is ultimately not dependent on ownership funding. We, the fans, as
supporting a club in buying tickets effectively own the decision making of a
club.’
VOTV editor Rick Everitt retorted, ‘In what sense are you a
fan and who are you to tell us about Charlton? You’re just hired help and you
know nothing about what works or doesn’t work at this club. If you had any
understanding you’d tell Thomas Sandgaard his pricing is absurd, as fans all
know.’
Legal eagle Lauren Kreamer commented: ‘The first is that
it's staggeringly ill-timed, coming after a bang-average draw to Forest Green
on a rainy Tuesday night with the Valley about 1/3 full (if that), where our
lack of summer investment was all too apparent.
The idea that fans not buying tickets is the problem would
be laughable if it weren't so insulting. People are lying awake at night
wondering how they're going to pay their energy bills this winter, and tickets
are over £30. There are a multitude of factors at play.
If fans "effectively owned the decision-making",
we would have spent some of the Pope + Burstow millions on a striker this
summer, we wouldn't have touched the Robots with a bargepole, and the proper
Charlton people who have been "made redundant" would still be at the
club.
Anyone who believes that ticket sales alone could ever give
financial sustainability is deluded. On Duchâtelet's (admittedly daft)
valuation of the Valley, we would have to sell it out at £30 a ticket (with
zero other expenditure) over 60 times to buy it back. See the problem?
The idea that fans are to blame for what we're seeing is
deeply concerning. It's out of a playbook we thought had been thrown out. If
you can ask us with a straight face "how we are prepared to support our
club", you have clearly learned nothing in your short time at our club.
It's 30 years
since our fans founded a political party, dug weeds with their bare hands, did
everything in their power to get us home. I was six months old. 28 years later,
I did what little I could to keep our club safe, like so many have done before
me. It's what we do.
Supporter groups have tried time and again to share our
combined centuries of knowledge about the club we love. We've mostly been
ignored. If you genuinely want to hear our thoughts and learn from our
expertise, you know where we are.’
A response from CAS Trust is here: https://www.castrust.org/2022/09/leo-rifkind-blames-the-fans/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=leo-rifkind-blames-the-fans
