The Chairman spells thing out

Football Committee Chair Liam Hickey had his usual column in last night's programme. Here is what he had to say:

Good evening everybody and welcome to Champion Hill. I would like to especially welcome our good friends from Harrow Borough who join us this evening.

Whilst disappointing to use our long unbeaten run at Harlow on Saturday, that defeat is the least of the issues that have faced the club over the last few weeks.

These are certainly uncertain times at the club. Although we have always believed that the situation we now face may occur should Meadow Residential fail with their plans, I am extremely disappointed with the way matters have been portrayed by their representatives.

Firstly, I have had to put up with Kevin Rye’s statements regarding the budget and its affordability. In his reply, he has advised the world that I was in a meeting and persuaded the funders, along with our Manager and the Committee, to keep the budget the same. Now, this is just so untrue that I consider it libellous to us all. At no time have I, or any of my Committee, been in meetings with the funders discussing the playing budget or been asked our opinion.

In fact, until the start of this season we were entirely unaware of any of the club’s financial information and certainly unaware of both the playing budget and the individual player salaries. The budget was set by the funders and spent accordingly by Gavin Rose.
The job of the Committee has always been to maintain the administration of the club and raise sponsorship income. This has been its objective since I first joined and is something that it has done extremely efficiently.

The same individual acting for Meadow Residential has also openly commented on both the Trust and some of the Committee being in possession of financial information long before they decided to walk away. Let me set the record straight here. The information was requested many months ago to enable everybody to plan for fan ownership; that is why the figures also included a projection based on the new stadium.

The information was not provided with the purpose of dumping all responsibility on to two groups, Committee & Trust Board, that are run by fans of the club.

The myriad of information, having received nothing previously, was mind-boggling even to finance professionals and it has raised far more questions than answers. We still have some unanswered points raised and much of the information is difficult to cross-reference. I have worked in sanctioning finance requests for many years and if it had been presented to me in my professional capacity then I would have returned it and asked for it to be presented very differently.

However, irrespective of anything, I must reiterate it was not provided as a preamble to immediately assuming control.

Following Southwark Council reclaiming the lease to Greendale, we were given an ultimatum of taking over the club’s finances with just 6 days’ notice. However, we are not the Directors of Dulwich Hamlet Football Club Limited and, in fact, our shares in it make us as a very small minority. The major shareholder, Nick McCormack, who gave a share option to Meadow Residential owns some 98% of the company and so it is for him to make decisions and appoint people rather than it being dumped at the door of supporters.
Finally, although asked to take control of finances, we were then advised of the parameters of our control. We are to receive gate income and bar profits on a match day, but we have no control over:
• Bar Operations and improving the efficiency and income
• The level of staff employed on a matchday
As a result, we are unable to plan or control our costs and so any control of our business model is an illusion. These parameters make it impossible to plan properly for the eventualities that may occur, especially without any access to the club’s bank account or knowledge of the outgoings over many months (or even years).
Now, we are working with Mr McCormack to move matters forward but know that with the lack of home games we need to maximise income quickly to make sure we meet immediate obligations to our playing staff and management. That is why we have launched the appeals through our 12th man Scheme and we thank you for the magnificent support so far.

I would also like to thank Hendon FC who have been magnificent in their public support. They have offered us direct financial support through their own gate income when we visit them next Tuesday. Please help us, and help them, by being there. For every paying adult over the number attracted to last season’s game, Hendon will donate 50% of the income to our 12th Man Scheme, as well as 50% of their 50/50 proceeds. This truly shows who our friends in football are and I thank Simon and his team for their fantastic gesture.
I would also like to publicly thank Al Crane at the Supporters’ Trust for all his support to date and, of course, Tom Cullen who has planned and co-ordinated our social media activities.

Finally, keep the faith and I am sure we will come back bigger and better than ever. Also, look out for some income raising ideas that will be launched within the next few days.
Thank you for all your support.
Liam

Liam Hickey
Chair of the Football Committee